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barry_x's review
4.0
'Armed With Anger' is the fourth book in the trilogy of UK punk history from Ian Glasper. His first three books all focused on the 1980's with this additional book focussing on the 1990's. In many ways. this was the book I was most interested in reading seeing as for much of the 1990's I considered myself a part of the UK punk scene and I was looking forward to looking back a couple of decades at a time I remember fondly.
As per the other books, and Glasper's thrash metal book, 'Armed With Anger' is effectively a series of scene reports with every geographical region of the United Kingdom covered with interviews from bands. Unlike the three 1980's books, which were extremely thorough in capturing the scene 'Armed With Anger' is more selective. To be honest, to cover all the bands that were releasing things in the 90's and not featured in the earlier books you'd need at least double the size. Therefore, this book is selective but largely does a very good job of at least capturing the diversity and variation in the scene. I think anyone who was about then is going to raise eyebrows along the lines of, 'why weren't this band included, they released these great records' and roll their eyes at the inclusion of bands they didn't like, hadn't heard of, or considered 'not punk'. Even assuming Glasper could get hold of half of the 'missing' pulling a project of this scope together is going to be a thankless task in many respects but as someone who didn't pigeonhole themselves to a specific kind of punk back then I feel all the scenes are really well represented.
Following on from this, despite what we said at the time, and despite what was coming from the tail end of the 80's this book shows that unity by the end of the decade was largely forgotten. I may be looking at this through rose-tinted glasses but I recall the early to mid 90's and all the festivals, all-dayers and punx picnics and you'd have pop-punk, ska, 77 style, street punk, power violence, hardcore, emo etc. more or less on the same bill. Towards the end of the 90's certain elements of the scene were so keen to divorce themselves from their shared heritage (whilst shouting about unity) and it got laughable towards the end of the decade that a small network of friends was splitting into much smaller networks of friends and some bands being very picky about who they would play with.
One of the things about the 90's is that hardcore punk was not as popular as it was in the past but it did seem very quickly that everyone could get involved and get to know people. Reading this book felt like a love letter to the past at times as there are loads of bands and people in here I may have written to, met at a gig, played with, bought a record or tape off. Some of the people may have been little more than a friendly hello at gigs, but there are folk in here I wrote to for a few years and it's nice seeing those names in print and remembering those days I felt part of something.
It's funny reading the interviews with the bands and thinking, 'I remember that gig' or reflecting on what people said about themselves. Obviously, it's shitty to get into name calling 20 years on but I was smiling about bands talking how amazing they were live when they really weren't! I feel a bit embarrassed at some of the band rivalry and jealously which is alluded to occasionally. Obviously I was never part of that but I recall snark I had about people which is really undeserved and petty as fuck (even if I wouldn't have thought that about myself, it's true). There's people in here who had a terrible reputation which wasn't true when you met them / wrote to them, and a few who perhaps would still be filed under 'bit of a dick'.
What's also abundantly obvious in the book is it is really easy to play 'guess the rockstar'. I ended the 1990's at the age of 24 so I was definitely a youthful man with hopes and dreams that this scene, this movement could change the world. The punk scene was a big part of the reason I went vegan, how I discovered anarchism, how I learnt about the climate, gender politics and many other things. I used to adore those records which had massive booklets in them about all kinds of things - and of course it was all DIY. It's really powerful as a young person that you can do things yourself - you can release a record, write a zine, and if bands don't come to your town you can put on a gig. So, I think my eventual disillusionment with the scene was that over time it became clear that for many it really was about the music and nothing else.
There is a certain irony that there are a number of bands in here who talk about DIY and ethics yet I distinctly remember 'rockstar' behaviour that definitely wasn't in the spirit of DIY or supporting a network of friends. Indeed, you could typically identify in a lot of bands who was in it 'just' to play music and had little to say. Even if some bands don't identify themselves as such in the book, it's clear as day who used the scene as a stepping stone and who would have given the chance. I know that sounds bitchy, but looking back 20 years some stuff I may have thought then was bollocks, but a lot of it definitely isn't!
And yet for all the people who paid lip service to the ethics of punk, the vast majority of people in it were amazing warm people who would help anyone out. I'd go to a gig in another town, not being sure if I would know anyone and feel comfortable you'd meet someone you know or make a new friend and have a place to crash. There was something special about reminiscing about new friends crashing in your flat and the habit of always cooking a little bit more in case anyone stopped by. In the pre-internet era, connecting with people in other towns and cities and other countries felt really special, and although a lot of my wage / giro went on postage, every day the thunk of the letter box brought something new.
I also reflect on, how it seemed quite hard to not do 'anything' in the scene. It seemed like very few people were just consumers. It felt like most people were either in a band, doing a distro, a label or a zine. Maybe they put gigs on, or maybe they were engaged in other social justice movements. Quite often people did all of them, and I wonder if 'scene burnout' is a factor here - it was for me to an extent, that someone takes to much on.
One of the thing I like about this book are the appendices on zines and labels. Along with distros and gig promoters they were the true heart of the scene. Indeed, a couple of bands in the book annoyed me a little with their moaning about promoters and labels - to a large extent the scene put in a lot of effort for bands who in some cases come across a little ungrateful that they kind of deserved something they weren't prepared to give. It's perhaps a slight criticism of the book that it is so focussed on bands and music, rather than the wider subculture. You could probably fill a book with the history of zines, the benefit gigs and comps which tried to make a difference in the community rather than write a few songs and bemoan not getting signed. Indeed, I was far more likely to buy a zine than a 7" at a gig - the music was the reason to get together but not the purpose of the scene in my view.
As for the structure of the book, each band is interviewed and basically gives an introduction of how the band formed, their history and background to their recordings. There are of course the obligatory funny tour stories. It is remarkable how many people are amazed at how brilliant the European squat scene was and how well people were treated, and also how seemingly every van in the 90's was knackered and not road worthy. I laugh at it, because whenever I talked about my brief musical involvement in the scene I have too traded stories of knackered vans and the amazing European squat scene - so many of us have the same stories obviously! There is the discussion of the revolving door of members, general studio and label disappointments and eventual splitting up and what members did next. It is formulaic of course and one's interest largely depends on how familiar you are with the scene. I suspect if you're reading about people you may have known, or bands you heard or saw it's pretty interesting - if you've never heard of the band then it depends on what they say. I found for a few bands I wasn't familiar with, they really had little of interest to say.
I guess another thing I noted was that compared to the late 80's book and the anarcho punk book the bands were often engaged in tons of other things that made their sections interesting. There are some of bands in here who never referred to anything other than playing and recording music.
One thing I did love about the book was it led me on an online discovery of a lot of these old favourites. It's not that easy to find things online sadly. There isn't the reissue demand like there is for a lot of the 80's stuff and so much of this amazing music was put out by DIY labels - indeed I suspect there were as many labels as bands featured in the book, often only releasing a handful of records. Bandcamp has a lot of stuff (noticed all the Flat Earth and Ruptured Ambitions stuff is on there), there are bits and pieces on Spotify of 'bigger bands', but youtube and blogspots are good sources. Not having a record player or tape player but still having all my old music in the attic has had me poking about reading inserts of records and zines whilst listening to stuff on my phone. That's perhaps a sad downside, so much of this scene isn't easily archived as it existed pre-internet. In the month I have spent with this book, every day has been a soundtrack of old hardcore punk.
In terms of bands, a lot of them sound amazing looking back, but I guess some of it hasn't stood the test of time. I guess this will impact one's enjoyment of the book. If you were there and in any way part of anything you'll love lots of this book. If you want a history of the 90's scene and weren't about I am not sure you'd think you missed out on much, which isn't how I feel about the 80's.
Glasper does a great job capturing the diversity of the scene, and by letting the bands speak in their own words, the reader can make their own judgements about the decade. I also think the variation in the ethics, sounds and subcultures of the scene portrayed evidence the fragmentation of the scene towards the end of the decade. Sure it may be a bit samey in places but I have loved the opportunity to reminisce about lovely people and all the letter writing, the activism that punk gave me a doorway into and revisit some great music.
Bonus points for the editing on the ebook version - some people deserve to be written out of history.
As per the other books, and Glasper's thrash metal book, 'Armed With Anger' is effectively a series of scene reports with every geographical region of the United Kingdom covered with interviews from bands. Unlike the three 1980's books, which were extremely thorough in capturing the scene 'Armed With Anger' is more selective. To be honest, to cover all the bands that were releasing things in the 90's and not featured in the earlier books you'd need at least double the size. Therefore, this book is selective but largely does a very good job of at least capturing the diversity and variation in the scene. I think anyone who was about then is going to raise eyebrows along the lines of, 'why weren't this band included, they released these great records' and roll their eyes at the inclusion of bands they didn't like, hadn't heard of, or considered 'not punk'. Even assuming Glasper could get hold of half of the 'missing' pulling a project of this scope together is going to be a thankless task in many respects but as someone who didn't pigeonhole themselves to a specific kind of punk back then I feel all the scenes are really well represented.
Following on from this, despite what we said at the time, and despite what was coming from the tail end of the 80's this book shows that unity by the end of the decade was largely forgotten. I may be looking at this through rose-tinted glasses but I recall the early to mid 90's and all the festivals, all-dayers and punx picnics and you'd have pop-punk, ska, 77 style, street punk, power violence, hardcore, emo etc. more or less on the same bill. Towards the end of the 90's certain elements of the scene were so keen to divorce themselves from their shared heritage (whilst shouting about unity) and it got laughable towards the end of the decade that a small network of friends was splitting into much smaller networks of friends and some bands being very picky about who they would play with.
One of the things about the 90's is that hardcore punk was not as popular as it was in the past but it did seem very quickly that everyone could get involved and get to know people. Reading this book felt like a love letter to the past at times as there are loads of bands and people in here I may have written to, met at a gig, played with, bought a record or tape off. Some of the people may have been little more than a friendly hello at gigs, but there are folk in here I wrote to for a few years and it's nice seeing those names in print and remembering those days I felt part of something.
It's funny reading the interviews with the bands and thinking, 'I remember that gig' or reflecting on what people said about themselves. Obviously, it's shitty to get into name calling 20 years on but I was smiling about bands talking how amazing they were live when they really weren't! I feel a bit embarrassed at some of the band rivalry and jealously which is alluded to occasionally. Obviously I was never part of that but I recall snark I had about people which is really undeserved and petty as fuck (even if I wouldn't have thought that about myself, it's true). There's people in here who had a terrible reputation which wasn't true when you met them / wrote to them, and a few who perhaps would still be filed under 'bit of a dick'.
What's also abundantly obvious in the book is it is really easy to play 'guess the rockstar'. I ended the 1990's at the age of 24 so I was definitely a youthful man with hopes and dreams that this scene, this movement could change the world. The punk scene was a big part of the reason I went vegan, how I discovered anarchism, how I learnt about the climate, gender politics and many other things. I used to adore those records which had massive booklets in them about all kinds of things - and of course it was all DIY. It's really powerful as a young person that you can do things yourself - you can release a record, write a zine, and if bands don't come to your town you can put on a gig. So, I think my eventual disillusionment with the scene was that over time it became clear that for many it really was about the music and nothing else.
There is a certain irony that there are a number of bands in here who talk about DIY and ethics yet I distinctly remember 'rockstar' behaviour that definitely wasn't in the spirit of DIY or supporting a network of friends. Indeed, you could typically identify in a lot of bands who was in it 'just' to play music and had little to say. Even if some bands don't identify themselves as such in the book, it's clear as day who used the scene as a stepping stone and who would have given the chance. I know that sounds bitchy, but looking back 20 years some stuff I may have thought then was bollocks, but a lot of it definitely isn't!
And yet for all the people who paid lip service to the ethics of punk, the vast majority of people in it were amazing warm people who would help anyone out. I'd go to a gig in another town, not being sure if I would know anyone and feel comfortable you'd meet someone you know or make a new friend and have a place to crash. There was something special about reminiscing about new friends crashing in your flat and the habit of always cooking a little bit more in case anyone stopped by. In the pre-internet era, connecting with people in other towns and cities and other countries felt really special, and although a lot of my wage / giro went on postage, every day the thunk of the letter box brought something new.
I also reflect on, how it seemed quite hard to not do 'anything' in the scene. It seemed like very few people were just consumers. It felt like most people were either in a band, doing a distro, a label or a zine. Maybe they put gigs on, or maybe they were engaged in other social justice movements. Quite often people did all of them, and I wonder if 'scene burnout' is a factor here - it was for me to an extent, that someone takes to much on.
One of the thing I like about this book are the appendices on zines and labels. Along with distros and gig promoters they were the true heart of the scene. Indeed, a couple of bands in the book annoyed me a little with their moaning about promoters and labels - to a large extent the scene put in a lot of effort for bands who in some cases come across a little ungrateful that they kind of deserved something they weren't prepared to give. It's perhaps a slight criticism of the book that it is so focussed on bands and music, rather than the wider subculture. You could probably fill a book with the history of zines, the benefit gigs and comps which tried to make a difference in the community rather than write a few songs and bemoan not getting signed. Indeed, I was far more likely to buy a zine than a 7" at a gig - the music was the reason to get together but not the purpose of the scene in my view.
As for the structure of the book, each band is interviewed and basically gives an introduction of how the band formed, their history and background to their recordings. There are of course the obligatory funny tour stories. It is remarkable how many people are amazed at how brilliant the European squat scene was and how well people were treated, and also how seemingly every van in the 90's was knackered and not road worthy. I laugh at it, because whenever I talked about my brief musical involvement in the scene I have too traded stories of knackered vans and the amazing European squat scene - so many of us have the same stories obviously! There is the discussion of the revolving door of members, general studio and label disappointments and eventual splitting up and what members did next. It is formulaic of course and one's interest largely depends on how familiar you are with the scene. I suspect if you're reading about people you may have known, or bands you heard or saw it's pretty interesting - if you've never heard of the band then it depends on what they say. I found for a few bands I wasn't familiar with, they really had little of interest to say.
I guess another thing I noted was that compared to the late 80's book and the anarcho punk book the bands were often engaged in tons of other things that made their sections interesting. There are some of bands in here who never referred to anything other than playing and recording music.
One thing I did love about the book was it led me on an online discovery of a lot of these old favourites. It's not that easy to find things online sadly. There isn't the reissue demand like there is for a lot of the 80's stuff and so much of this amazing music was put out by DIY labels - indeed I suspect there were as many labels as bands featured in the book, often only releasing a handful of records. Bandcamp has a lot of stuff (noticed all the Flat Earth and Ruptured Ambitions stuff is on there), there are bits and pieces on Spotify of 'bigger bands', but youtube and blogspots are good sources. Not having a record player or tape player but still having all my old music in the attic has had me poking about reading inserts of records and zines whilst listening to stuff on my phone. That's perhaps a sad downside, so much of this scene isn't easily archived as it existed pre-internet. In the month I have spent with this book, every day has been a soundtrack of old hardcore punk.
In terms of bands, a lot of them sound amazing looking back, but I guess some of it hasn't stood the test of time. I guess this will impact one's enjoyment of the book. If you were there and in any way part of anything you'll love lots of this book. If you want a history of the 90's scene and weren't about I am not sure you'd think you missed out on much, which isn't how I feel about the 80's.
Glasper does a great job capturing the diversity of the scene, and by letting the bands speak in their own words, the reader can make their own judgements about the decade. I also think the variation in the ethics, sounds and subcultures of the scene portrayed evidence the fragmentation of the scene towards the end of the decade. Sure it may be a bit samey in places but I have loved the opportunity to reminisce about lovely people and all the letter writing, the activism that punk gave me a doorway into and revisit some great music.
Bonus points for the editing on the ebook version - some people deserve to be written out of history.
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