uncarved.org blog

Part One: Jamie Reid

Reid had been at Croydon art school with Malcolm McLaren in the sixties before forming the Suburban Press in 1970.

“It started off with our own community magazine which eventually lasted for six issues. From rather naïve beginnings it very quickly settled into a shit-stirring format, with thorough research into local politics and local council corruption, mixed with my graphics and some Situationist texts. [...] We uncovered an amazing amount of information about prominent local councillors and MPs [...] there was a lot of wheeling and dealing – jobs for the boys, construction jobs for big office blocks going to companies that they were chairman of, all the usual things that have always gone on…”

He would return to many of the graphics from Suburban Press as deadlines loomed during the heady days of designing for the Sex Pistols. And loomed they did – he was only given one night to knock up the artwork for the Pretty Vacant single by McLaren. The back cover used the “Boredom” and “Nowhere” buses which Suburban Press had designed for US “pro-situ” group Black Mask/Up Against The Wall Motherfucker. The front cover was done by buying and smashing a picture frame on the way to the office the next morning…

The Pistol’s next single Holidays in the Sun used the SI’s technique of detourning existing comic strips, in this case an advert from the Belgian Travel Service. It is quite amazing that the sleeve got through Virgin’s lawyers at the time, but given the outright hostility between Reid and Branson* and the downright subversive nature of some parts of the Sex Pistols camp, perhaps full disclosure was not on the agenda!

Inevitably the Belgian Travel Service took out an injunction and Jamie had to destroy the original artwork in front of their solicitor. That sounds both overly theatrical and completely meaningless in the 21st Century – with digital media destroying “the original” is an oxymoron, and I’m sure that ad agencies would be more than happy to strike some sort of co-sponsorship deal in these post-modern times. Having said that, I’m guessing that the destruction order was as much about humiliation than ensuring no further copies were circulated.

Reid’s work before, after and during Suburban Press is detailed in Up They Rise: The Incomplete Works of Jamie Reid (Faber & Faber 1987).

*Obligatory name drop – I had a brief chat with Jamie Reid at the 1989 Festival of Plagiarism held at Transmission Gallery in Glasgow. We discussed the sudden disappearance of the “Cyber-Punk” issue of Vague Magazine from Virgin Megastores across London. I asked him if he knew anything about it, given that he’d designed the cover – which featured Richard Branson in a balaclava. (The inside cover was a flyer by persons unknown ripping the piss out of a Virgin store in Glasgow for being run by hip-capitalists).

Anyway he didn’t know anything about the mag disappearing, but was happy to confirm that he’d always hated Branson, and had never trusted him. Jamie seemed well into what was happening at the Festival of Plagiarism, though - in his element wandering around chatting to people.

Part Two will follow in due course…

Prelude: Situationist International

“It’s easy to see why these imbeciles go for the Situationist option when they’re confronted with the genealogical question. The Situationist International produced a good number of ‘difficult’ texts and so they are easy to write about. What one does is explain concepts such as ‘the spectacle’ or ‘detournement’; this fills up a lot of space with less time being put in for the money earned than that required for someone engaging in genuine analysis.”

Stewart Home: “Blood Splattered with Guitars: A demonstration of the fact that there are no direct links between PUNK ROCK, the Sex Pistols and the Situationist International” i.e. Chapter Two of the essential Cranked Up Really High: Genre Theory and Punk Rock (Codex Books, 1995).

Part One coming soon…

Just stumbled across No Sir, I Won’t, a nice site relating to Crass, with material I’ve not seen elsewhere (the main Crass site at Southern is pretty comprehensive).

Recommeded here:

“Yes, that’s right / Punk is dead”: Crass and the anarcho-punk critique, 1977-1984.

Stop the City: 1983-1984: Anarchists lay siege to the capital of British capital.

and the “handouts” section.

Inspired by Beyond the Implode’s mention of anarcho punk rock gods Conflict, I finally scanned in their statement on The Gathering of the 5000. Essentially a big old bash at the Brixton Academy, which turned into a big old bash with the Metropolitan Police afterwards - the Brixton Riot which nobody ever mentions.

I was actually going to go to this gig, which would have been an impressive night out at age 16. But despite the stupidly low admission charge, my mates bottled out and I wasn’t dumb enough to go by myself. Needless to say, my parents went mental when they read about it the next day in the Sunday Telegraph…

I did end up seeing Conflict a few times after that and they were generally pretty impressive, despite tailing off into thrashy stuff by the early 90s.

Reading the text again, it’s strange how much the ideology is so all-encompassing, and how much it seems to cause problems - organising events is hard enough but when you literally have to Do It Yourself for everything (including worrying about what food is served!) you have to wonder whether or not it’s worth prioritising, or at the very least subcontracting out some responsibility.

But that is not the way of Conflict, and that is part of their attraction, no?

An incredible, in depth interview with Tessa Pollitt of The Slits by my man Gregory Mario Whitfield.

Really excellent reminiscences, stuff on the punk/dub crossover, dark days of heroin, etc. Brilliant.

Big up ya status GMW!

I am quite fixated with those banner ads at the top of the blogspot blogs. They seem to have some sort of semi-intelligent alogrithm which scans the text for stuff to advertise.

So Simon Reynolds’ blog has ads for drum ‘n’ bass, Neil Starman has stuff on the war in Iraq, and Social Fiction has stuff on fractals. So far so good.

It therefore amused me greatly that, after about a decade of Paul Meme taking the piss out of my supposed goth tendencies, a strange truth is emerging…

So Matthew has asked me if I’d be interested in getting involved with some kind of reappraisal of crusty dub with him! Mental or what? I mean, I’ll go as far as Zion Train in soundsystem mode (and World Dom and the On-U thing) but he’s on about starting some kind of RDF/Citizen Fish revival or something.

Fucking “Back To The Planet” as well! He has clearly lost it. Lines have to be drawn, my man, and if crossing the line involves wearing smelly combat pants and drinking special brew in the park, then call me conservative, seen?