Steve Ignorant

Hello folks - Allison here, Steve's bit busy so he asked me to put up this interview that was done live on Near FM (Dublin) last night.  Peter Jones from Paranoid Visions interviews Steve, and plays a few tunes.

Enjoy!

Steve Ignorant Near FM 2010-09-22 by Southern

My book arrived from the printer's yesterday.  Talk about just in the nick of time, eh?  We'll have copies at the gigs this weekend and next, so if you're interested you can pick one up before it's available anywhere else.  Here's the blurb from the back cover, which Allison wrote:

The day that Stephen Williams walked up the path to Dial House and found Jeremy Ratter at the end of it, sitting at a typewriter, was undoubtedly an auspicious event for both of them - not to mention for many of us.  It was 1977, and although there were fifteen years and a world of social privilege separating them, the two shared something much more important: their dissatisfaction with the life that society was offering them. Steve had recently been infected with Punk Rock at a gig by the Clash, and Jeremy had a drum kit. Together, they formed Crass.  Over the next seven years, Crass would stencil its name in indelible paint across the face of British culture. They would become the band that rattled the timbers in the Houses of Parliament, infiltrated teenage magazines, fought savage anti-establishment, pro-humanitarian battles, and challenged the music industry with a new definition of DIY.
The Rest Is Propaganda is not, however, the story of that band.  Rather, it is the story of a young boy who grew up on the streets of Dagenham, wearing Tuf shoes and holey jumpers, being railroaded to a life on the factory floor.  This is the story of a lad who learned about life on on the terraces of Upton Park, in the pubs and clubs of East London, behind the counter of Wallis's supermarket, and why he left that all behind. It is the story of how Stephen Williams became Steve Ignorant. And what he did after.

More on the book later - got to get the car packed up now.

Thanks

Steve

I'm being interviewed by Peter Jones from Paranoid Visions tonight, live on www.nearfm.ie, you can tune in on the internet I'm told (just don't ask me how to do it). Show runs from 10.30 and 11.30 tonight. Listen in if you've got the time.

Meanwhile, for no good reason at all, here's a photo of me and Beki in Peterborough, waiting in the car before the final rehearsals we did there.

Cheers

Steve.

Folks have been asking what time we're on and that so I thought I'd post all the details here.  The shows are all early, apparently venues these days put a second show on later (well, not a show, but a disco) so the live entertainment ends early.  Hope you all can get there early enough to see Goldblade or Paranoid Visions as well.  I'll be wandering about for the first hour or so after the doors open, so come up and say hello!

Friday 24th September Bristol O2 Academy

• doors 7pm
• 7:30 Goldblade
• 8:30 The Last Supper
• curfew 10pm

Saturday 25th September Birmingham O2 Academy

• doors 7pm
• 7:30 Goldblade
• 8:30 The Last Supper
• curfew 10pm

Friday 1st October Manchester O2 Academy

• doors 7pm
• 7:55 Paranoid Visions
• 9:00 The Last Supper
• curfew 10:30pm

Saturday 2nd October Ediburgh Liquid Room

• doors 7pm
• 7:30 Goldblade
• 8:30 The Last Supper
• curfew 10pm

Working on the set list with the band.

We are full of nervous excitement and really looking forward to it. Finally got round to get the photos on the computer. After our last rehearsals at Southern on the 8th September we sat down to sort out the set, while munching on veggie hotdogs. As you can see from the photos it was a real team effort and I honestly couldn't have done it on my own. Thanks Bob, Gizz, Beki and Spike for all your hard work.  We now have a great set list and are ready to go. (Though we did make some minor adjustments again when we were in Peterborough).

So bring it on.

Steve.

Lots of chin scratching going on.

Just a few days to go before The Last Supper tour starts.  Here's an interview I did with Manchester's Under The Pavement radio show.  Peter Jones from Paranoid Visions, who we are playing with in Manchester and Dublin, is also interviewed.

And a new photo of the band.  The pose might remind you of something?

Edit: just been told off for not introducing the band... sorry I did that elsewhere but it's certainly worth doing again.

Gizz Butt on guitar, Beki Straughan on vocals, me, Bob Butler on bass and Spike T. Smith on drums.

Thanks,

Steve.

Anyone who tells you being in a band isn't hard work, send them to see me.

Me, Bob and Beki working away.

Spike, he's the drummer. Hence the drumkit.

Gizz has got the songs all worked out.

Beki, Bob and Gizz have been working really hard. We all have!

Time for a lunch break. I'm off having a fag.

The mixing desk at Southern, where all the original Crass albums were recorded.

This is the wall outside the studio at Southern, I remember sitting here while we were recording Feeding.

Thanks to Jona for the photos.

Later,

Steve

John Robb, Penny and me. Photo by Dod Morrison.

Right, I know it’s been a while as usual, but obviously as the tour gets closer everything round here starts getting really manic, so my apologies. Thanks to everyone who came to the Blackpool show, really nice to see you and have a bit of a laugh, it’s nice to have time out sometimes ain't it?

I must admit Blackpool for me was a little bit special – it’s the first time in years me and Penny have done anything like that and we both felt it went really well and hopefully has dispelled this stupid myth that was going about that me and him weren’t getting on. I think that’s partly why I was mucking about so much on stage – I was so pleased to be doing something with him again, and hopefully there’ll be more to come.

One thing that struck me was on the journey up. Jona booked the train tickets and got the cheapest deal she could, so we went Cambridge to Peterborough, changed trains to Leeds, then changed at Leeds to Blackpool. The thing was the train from Leeds went through Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Preston and places like that, following the route of many a Crass tour back in the day, and it really took me back.

Pen and me. Photo by Dod Morrison.

Arriving in Blackpool, it did look a bit run down, but it was brightened up by loads of  Punks strolling around with their kids and things, and no one taking a blind bit of notice, and no trouble going on. Bloody great. As it goes I think I was probably the worst culprit, because after me and Pen did our thing with John Robb, I settled myself in the bar upstairs and had a couple of drinks. Then Beki turned up with Steve and they bought me a beer which would have been rude to refuse, then Oddie come over and got me one, then Ben from Hard Skin come in and got me one, and I think I had a couple more, so by about six I was getting giggly and sloppy sentimental. Jona sensibly got me to leave ( I hadn’t eaten all day – nerves ) and we went back to our B&B.

Apparently I fell asleep for a couple of hours and when I woke up I insisted we go and watch the cabaret show the B&B was putting on. So we sat in this room with a group of Scottish people out for a good time and listened to this woman doing songs like Aga bloody doo doo doo and Viva Espania. But I have to admit there was something sort of heart – warming about it all – probably the beer – but something about the way people stoically insist on having a good time on a windy, rainy week – end in a run down seaside resort, and I’m not about to run that down, so I joined in as well. Just think: a pissed Ignorant singing along to ‘Your sex is on fire’. Twat.

Call outs on the lifeboat have been coming in left right and centre, so that’s been taking time up too, sixteen so far this year I think, however no fatalities (touch wood) so that’s good.

My autobiography, The Rest Is Propaganda, is now finished and on its way to the printers, so hopefully it won't be long before you can all have a laugh at my expense. Getting it done was a bit of a nightmare but now it’s all done.

We had rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday, and again next Monday and Tuesday, and it’s all going really well, the only problem being that I’ve got the Crass lyrics back in my head and they won't go away, I’m gonna be singing ‘Mother Earth’ at the kitchen sink till I’m ninety, if I last that long. And so what, who cares, fuck the system.

Me and Hot Rod Hector on Future Radio Norwich. Photo by Jona.

Last week I did an interview with a community radio show in Norwich which I really enjoyed, you can listen to it on iPod or something, anyway if you go to my Facebook  page the details are on there, and I'll stick a link at the end of this.  I haven’t listened to it yet but I remember it being a laugh. Neil, the DJ wants me to do another one in October which I’m well up for and which is really nice of him, also he’s going to come to the lifeboat and do a little programme about it, so we get to take him out and chuck him in the sea. Of course we’ll pluck him out again. I’ll let you know when it’s happening nearer the time.

Right, that’s it for now, I’m off to cut the grass, I’ll really try not to leave it for so long before I write a blog again.

Later,
Steve.

Listen to me on Hot Rod Hector's Variety Show on the Future Radio website.