THE APOSTLES.NO SPECTATORS NEW 2xLP+EXCLUSIVE EXTRAS anarcho punk crass conflict

	£		39
	$		51

THE APOSTLES "THERE CAN BE NO SPECTATORS" DOUBLE VINYL LP ON GROW YOUR OWN RECORDS **EXCLUSIVE LIMITED EDITION BUNDLE WITH EXTRAS NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE BUT FROM ME**
This exclusive 'bundles' not available anywhere else consists of the following items:  1) The double vinyl LP with large size fold out Crass style cover featuring lyrics and photos with inner poster of the 'Working Class Strikes Back' design. 2) The 32 page compendium of all issues of Pigs For Slaughter fanzine "For the militant Anarchist punk" published in 1981-1982. 3) A facsimile of the A7 size fold out booklet Crass produced for inclusion with the 3rd Apostles EP featuring unique Gee Vaucher artwork.  4) An A5 card print of the iconic 'wolf' cartoon featured on The Apostles first EP cover.  5) Two A6 postcard sized prints of the cover images.  4) A hand sprayed and signed print of the Apostles/Angry Brigade 'Men & Women Fighting Together In Armed Struggle' gun symbol made using the stencil I designed for the album cover on thick A4 art paper.

Apostles smashed through the pacifist comfort zone of the early 1980s Anarcho-Punk scene like a brick through a police car window. 

There Can be No Spectators collects together drummer Chris Low’s original studio desk tapes of the band’s most collectable and long out of print 7” singles recorded over 1983-1984 plus previously unreleased additional tracks recorded at the respective studio sessions. All professionally remastered by Daniel Husayn and sounding incomparably better than the vinyl releases or any other versions previously available.

This long-awaited album comes as a double vinyl LP (double CD version also available) pressed on red and black vinyl with fold-out Crass-style poster cover and designed by Chris Low with immense help from Paul Davies in a graphic style true to the visual presentation of the early Apostles material. All copies come with a free 32 page compendium of the infamous Pigs For Slaughter fanzine ‘For the Militant Anarchist Punk’ produced by Ian ‘Slaughter’ Rawes, a close associate of The Apostles who went on to international acclaim as a Sound Artist for his work as the London Sound Survey.

The Apostles formed in 1979 though didn’t play their first concert until 1981, shortly after Andy Martin had joined as vocalist. Following countless personnel changes with Andy and bassist Dave Fanning remaining the only stable members the 7” singles remastered on this album were recorded over the years 1983 to 1984, during which time fourteen year old Chris Low (formerly of Political Asylum and later to play with Oi Polloi, Quango and Part One) had joined as drummer. All released were on the band’s own Scum Records apart from the 5th EP which came out on Conflict’s seminal Mortarhate label.

The Apostles are best known for being one the original, pioneering Anarcho Punk bands, co-running the London Anarchy Centres (Wapping and the Centro Iberico; funded from the proceeds of Crass’ Bloody Revolutions/Persons Unknown single) from where Anarcho-Punk got its name after the punk bands who rehearsed and played at the Anarchy centres. They maintained close links with Crass and despite declining the offer of a single release on Crass Records, collaborated with the band again in the squatting and organisation of the legendary Zig-Zag Club concert where The Apostles performed alongside a roll-call of the best known anarcho punk acts -Flux of Pink Indians, Dirt, Amebix, Poison Girls, Conflict and many more. Crass also produced a miniature booklet which was enclosed with initial copies of The Apostles 3rd EP to show that: “despite political differences (both bands) can work together in solidarity”. Industrial legends Coil’s first ever live performance was with The Apostles who organised the gig together with Larry Peterson of Cause For Concern Records at The Recession Club in Hackney.

The musical inspiration of The Apostles was drawn from from a diversity of acts including Alternative TV, Crisis, The Pack, The Adverts, Third World War, Kulture, The Pop Group, The 4-Skins, Velvet Underground and Joy Division/Warsaw. An eclectic collection of influences which only combine to give the band their incomparable and unique sound. From heavy but tuneful punk anthems such as Pigs For Slaughter and Mob Violence (and the first song after Discharge to ever feature the iconic ‘Realities of War’ D-Beat in The Stoke Newington Eight!) through to more reflective numbers like 1985 and Swimmers in The Sea of Life and their typically idiosyncratic take on pop songs (Hello You Bastard; Kings Cross Etc) They even included instrumental pieces (After The Fact; The Phoenix) in their set, highly unusual for a punk band at this time. However, this wasn’t the only way The Apostles stood out from the crowd.

The band’s politics were infamously uncompromising and were announced to the world in the chorus to the first song on their first single: Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It Till It Breaks!  As well as promoting a violently pro-direct action, class war and armed struggle brand of revolutionary Anarchism at a time the punk scene was predominantly pacifist, The Apostles were the first Anarcho act to address racism and advocate physical opposition against fascism and far right organisations with members backing-up the rhetoric by working with East London Workers Against Racism, a street-based precursor to the emergence of AFA and ANTIFA. This confrontational position is articulated in the lyrics to Blind Discrimination and Alien Asian: “NapaIm the NF, B0mb The BM/The only good Nazi is a dead one”.  Andy and Dave were also the first openly homosexual figures within the Anarcho scene (Andy had previously helped run the London Gay Youth Group in the late 1970s, covering the Sex Pistols and 1977 punk explosion in their fanzine Metro) with Apostles songs focusing on homophobia and the repression that motivates attacks on the gay community (The Curse and Fucking Queer; “Boots and Braces in 1976/Some of us carried knives, others had sticks/oppressed with guilt and fear, looking for a f*cking queer”} also contributing a track to the first JD’s Queercore compilation LP in 1990. Shortly after this the band split up with members going on to launch other projects, suffering mental issues or simply disappearing from the scene. 

In recent years considerable interest in The Apostles has been generated through American indie rock sensation Ty Segall citing them as one of his favourite bands and greatest influences in several TV appearances and most notably when profiled in Entertainment Weekly: “There’s this band called the Apostles, they’re an English band, kind of an anarcho band, friends with Crass, friends with Peni. And I’ve been pretty obsessed with that band. They’re really weird, like a combination of classic rock, stoner rock, and anarcho punk. It’s f*cking weird. This guy will be shredding, like, Blue Cheer solos over like a Crass song or something.

Chris Low, 2024 (more Apostles photos and many other Anarcho Punk images posted on my lnstagrm)

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