RIP Colin Jerwood - SE London punk legend

Colin Jerwood, lead singer with South London anarcho-punk band Conflict, has died.  At their 1980s peak they were very influential in the punk scene and famously once played a huge gig at Brixton Academy in 1987 ('The gathering of the 5000') which ended with 52 arrests and fighting with the police in the streets outside.

I believe that Colin was born in 1962 in Nettleton Road in New Cross, but was living in the Coldharbour Estate in  Eltham in the early days of the band and as an anarchist punk having to deal with violent racist skinheads. The band played out across South London and beyond - I saw them in mid-1980s at Thames Poly and at the Old Kent Road ambulance station squat - and put on a regular punk night in the crypt of St Pauls Church in Deptford. Later in the 1980s Colin was involved with putting on acid house parties at the Harp Club in New Cross, and in 1994 at the same location (now called the Venue) recorded their live album 'Conflict in the Venue'. Through their Mortarhate record label they put out stuff by other punk bands including New Cross favourites Hagar the Womb.

Conflict announce the start of 'The Centre' on Mondays at St Pauls Church SE8 (think this must have been late 1985/early 1986)

1986 gig at the Crypt with Potential Threat, Unknown Colours, Mentacide and Under the Gun

Colin played one of his last gigs with Conflict at the New Cross Inn in November 2024

According to Mark Wallis from Liberty (another SE London anarcho-punk band) "In the early days, Colin was an anarchist living on an estate in Eltham [the estate] with John and Paco, surrounded by NF skinheads

Music Monday: Anarcho punk 1984 in New Cross & Old Kent Road

'Not Just Bits of Paper', edited by Tony Bull and Mickey Penguin is 'A series of recollections, memories, imagined dreams perhaps from the collective memories of those who lived through the punk and anarcho-punk years' of the 1980s (available from Situation Books). It includes lots of flyers and other 'ephemera' and I noticed these two from the Transpontine area.

The first is from November 1984 and is for a gig at the Ambulance Station on the Old Kent Road. This famous squatted venue was in what is now the home of Blue Mantle Antiques across the road from Old Kent Road Tescos - confusingly it is generally known as the old fire station; maybe it housed both emergency services in its history (see more on the squat by the Ruinist). 

The line up for this gig looks good - Antisect were an incredibly powerful, almost heavy metal, hardcore band from Northamptonshire. 

No Defences, my favourite band from that scene, were very different - kind of mutant punk funk with mesmerising deadpan vocals. They recorded an album for Crass's label but it never got released - apparently there was too much bass for Crass to handle! Former members of the band are working on putting out some of that material now, so maybe it will finally get the appreciation it deserves 30 years later.

'No Defences' banner at the Ambulance Station-
'The worst thing imaginable is happening now'
(from Graham Burnett's anarcho-punk archive)

Karma Sutra were my friends from Luton, where I was living at the time. I travelled down with them in their van to the Ambulance Station a few times, and I know I saw them play there as well as Conflict, Chumbawamba, No Defences and State Hate, but I have no memory of seeing Antisect there,  so not sure if I was at this particular gig. Exit-Stance were from Milton Keynes and Sedition from Northampton.

The fire station in its hey day (opened 1903)

Hagar the Womb

The second flyer is for a gig at the Goldsmiths Tavern (now the New Cross House) on 12 May 1984. Headliners Hagar the Womb were originally an all-woman band which was very rare in the punk scene at that time, though later they also had male members including drummer Chris Knowles - who went on to become London acid tekno DJ/producer Chris Liberator. Hagar, once described by Billy Bragg as the new Shangri- Las, reformed a few years ago. Support act State Hate  were in the Conflict hardcore punk mode.

The picture below of Hagar the Womb was from an NME interview (11 August 1984), and was apparently taken in New Cross's Fordham Park in the rain. At least one member of the band then lived in the SE14 Nettleton  Road 1980s punk nexus (lots more about this band, and indeed the whole scene at the excellent Kill Your Pet Puppy site)

Music Monday: RIP Paco (Conflict and Inner Terrestials drummer)

Punk drummer Francisco 'Paco' Carreno died last week, at the age of 49. Paco was a key figure in the 1980s anarcho-punk scene as drummer with Conflict, and later in the New Cross music scene.

Picture of Paco from Conflict facebook page

Conflict hailed from Eltham, specifically the Coldharbour Estate. Paco started drumming at the age of 12 with a band called Strontium Dog, and was still only 15 when he joined Conflict in 1981, playing his first gig with them at the Red Lion in Gravesend and shortly after going into Crass's Southern Studios to record the band's first 'House that Man Built' EP (see 'The Day the Country Died' by Ian Glasper).

I saw Conflict many times at their mid-1980s peak, including gigs at the Ambulance Station (Old Kent Road), Thames Poly in Woolwich and the Clarendon Ballroom in Hammersmith. After Crass split up they were the biggest band in the anarcho-punk scene - not many other bands were able to translate the sense of urgency/righteous anger in that scene into a convincingly urgent/angry sound. A key part of that was Paco's skilled and powerful drumming. Of course much of this righteous anger was in the service of animal liberation and hunt sabbing, even though Paco himself wasn't vegetarian!

In the 1990s, Paco was very involved with the Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross (now the New Cross House) in its wild GMT Lager Daleks phase. He helped put on numerous gigs there, and Inner Terrestials (who Paco joined as drummer in 1996), recorded their 'Escape from New Cross' album in the pub.

Colin Jerwood from Conflict is planning to put on a memorial/benefit gig for Paco's family. Get in touch with him via Conflict on facebook.

Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible: Flux of Pink Indians in Forest Hill

 

Part of the Transpontine mission is to document the various byways of music in South London. In this spirit, and courtesy of Graham Burnett's 'Anarcho-punk archives' [site now defunct], we bring you this treasure from Forest Hill, circa 1985. The teepee belonged to Steve Ignorant of anarcho-punk legends Crass, and was in the garden of the house where members of fellow punk pacifists Flux of Pink Indians lived. Flux put out their first (and in my view best) LP, 'Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible' in 1982. I even had the  'All the arms we need' poster from this on my bedsit wall.

Derek Birkett of the band later formed One Little Indian records, putting out lots of cool stuff by Bjork, Alabama 3, Kitchens of Distinction and many others. In fact, Bjork was interviewed at  what Sounds described as 'the One Little Indian HQ, Forest Hill' for Sounds in 1987 (read it here), when she was still in the Sugarcubes.

Update March 2024

Flux of Pink Indians lead singer Colin Latter has recently discussed this photo on Insta:

 'I remember this day in 1985 so well but never knew a photo existed of when Steve Igs of Crass came over to the Flux flat in Forest Hill to set up a tipi in the garden. Steve and I are crouching down on the left, both wearing whitish t shirts (I know, not black!). I came across the photo on the South East London Blogzine 'Transpontine' and the photo was taken by Graham Burnett of the excellent New Crimes fanzine who had popped up from Southend to visit us along with some friends. First thing Steve said to me was that it will take an hour or two to set up but we'll get it looking like it's up in 15 minutes. Otherwise the other members of Flux, who were watching us from the balcony, will start ribbing us if it looks like we're struggling. 

 It was just down from the station and just off the South Circular. It was a block of four ex police flats that have since been knocked down I believe... in Westbourne Drive'

The flat in Westbourne Drive was apparently part of a housing co-op, it seems through the same co-op they moved to a house  at 3 Fransfield Gove SE26 that became the One Little Indian HQ. That is the record label address given on releases from 1985 to 1987, so presumably here that The Sugarcubes came... just a few years afer A-ha were living round the corner!