ANARCHY FOR SALE

When i was looking or a picture for the deeply informative article i did below about FLUX OF PINK INDIANS i came across the photo of the album of theirs that has a large anarchy symbol taking up the font cover (pictured below left), "nothing unusual about that" you say "after all they were an 'anarcho' band" you say.

Well, that got me scratching my bald spot i can tell you, because it was only last week (or the week before) that i was slobbing about at home looking through some old fanzines, and in one called 'BACK ISSUE' (number 3-1980, just in case anyone wants to know) there is an interview with 'COLIN' the FLUX singer, in the interview he is asked the question "do you believe in anarchy?" to which he answers "i do not believe in anarchy...." and although he says that he "would like to go and live in a field or wood or something" he is definite that he is not a believer in anarchy, so why then does he allow an album appear that has a large anarchist symbol on the cover? I wonder.

Another band connected to the 'anarcho punk' scene (i hate that 'anarcho' word) who made use of the rebellious symbol in order to market a record even though they claimed they were not anarchist were OMEGA TRIBE, despite their denials they released an album which had on its inner sleeve an anarchy symbol in plain sight.

The two bands above are not the only ones to make money from anarchy of course, MALCOLM MCLAREN did a great job of selling the SEX PISTOLS to the general public all wrapped up in a nice anarchistic package (bottle of 'anarky-ora' anyone?) for example, and they sold well enough to fool old hippies like PENNY RIMBAUD (do you think he made that name up?), and then there is the band (who shall remain nameless) who made liberal use of the anarchy symbol but who's members in reality were racist bread heads always hungry for money and who's singer lusted after a flash sports car.

The bands mentioned above make up the tip of the iceberg, many bands, labels and publications have used it in the past and I'm sure there are bands about now who are using the symbol to sell themselves.

For a list of bands who have falsely used the anarchy symbol look elsewhere because i cannot be bothered.

Hows that for investigative journalism!