New books on ‘punk spaces’

Three new books look at places (in Britain) where punk and anarchism interacted.

Nick Soulsby’s written about Centro Iberico (in both incarnations as anarchist club and squatted music venue). There’s a lot of photos and scans of fliers and pieces from the anarchist press. He detours to discusses the failure of Autonomy Centre in Wapping. Money was an issue, but so was friction between critics of ‘pathetic infantile graffiti’ (103) and ‘turgid anarchist tomes’ (107). Soulsby’s sympathies are with the punks but it made me wonder how, given that cultural and ideological gulf, other places like 121 could last so long. But they did.

David Insurrection lists punk places across London. It’s a bit of blizzard ‘who squatted where’ but he pays as much attention to the politics as the music. The ill-fated benefit gig at the Conway Hall gets mentioned, which led to Crass’s ‘Bloody Revolutions, a pointed attack on the revolutionary left.’(64) Crass’s ‘punching nazis will turn you into Pol Pot’ attitude was alien to many anarchists, punk or not (as the book shows). Insurrection has talked to lots of people who give an evocative picture of life in what seems, now, like another world. It’s also bang up to date with revelations about spycops (in particular Bob Lambert, 247).

Bradford’s 1 in 12 Club has doing punk and anarchism since 1981. Not Just A Building celebrates that history and energy in the words of its members. There are loads of photos and fliers. Top line: ‘That’s not Santa Claus. That’s my dad!’ (110)

Prank Sinatra

Born of Struggle, Living in Hope: The Anarcho-Punk Lives of the Centro Iberico, 1971-1983 by Nick Soulsby 9798887441221 https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1825 

Anarcho-Punk: Music and Resistance in London 1977-1988 by David Insurrection 9781916864443
https://www.earthislandbooks.com/product-page/anarcho-punk-music-and-resistance-in-london-1977-1988-by-david-insurrection 

Not Just A Building – At The 1 in 12
https://1in12.bigcartel.com/product/not-just-a-building-at-the-1-in-12 (currently out of print but there’s a link to the podcast the quotes come from.)

[Graphic: Richard Warren from CPAR5 (1980)]