Rash Treatment

The reinvention of the Poison Girls came with the release of this transitional album from 1984.
They tied up the loose ends of their past by dedicating part one of this release to a retrospective collection of previously unreleased tracks, various single releases and a couple of previous album tracks.
Part two, in contrast, introduced their new sound, with a live performance of songs old and new recorded in Manchester in 1983.

The album begins where the band began, in 1977.
And the almost thrash-like 'Revenge' gets an airing for the first time.
Harsh, vitriolic and full to the brim with anger and energy, Richard Famous gobs the lyric right into the establishment's ears.
He really means it, man; and he did.

Richard's other great song from the early days, 'Dirty Work', is also included, but in the main Frances (Vi Subversa) leads the rallying cry.

She can be totally scary ('Reality Attack'), scathing ('Statement'), tender ('Cry No More') and downright bloody-minded, best exemplified in the venomous Dworkin-like, misandry-fuelled 'Offending Article', accusing the male of the species for all the terrible problems of the world and wonders whether a neutering programme may be of benefit.

Radical feminism meets fascism?
Maybe.
But sometimes it's quite easy to find yourself empathising with her point of view.

The new Line up included a prominent keyboard sound and the addition of an extra female voice, creating a radical change in the band's dynamic and tone.
Much of the harshness and spikiness that can be heard on their earlier material has fallen away, and softer textures are created; sounding almost progy in places.
Well it was the mid-eighties.

Their goal was to achieve a greater audience - after all, they had been preaching to the converted for years; it was time to turn some heads:

'It is now for us to take ideas that can release imagination, out of the ghetto which has raised and inspired us, into the wider world.'

For a while Poison Girls did broaden their appeal, gaining some interest from beyond the regular clique of the anarcho-punk set.
They played at Glastonbury, went down a storm, and no doubt had a boost in sales as a consequence.
They may even have got a review in Sounds.

The last time I saw them, it was just Richard and Frances, playing as a duo under another name (I can't remember if they were called Snakes and Ladders or Oranges and Lemons [!] although it could have been Apples and Pears, but it was something like that...) in the depths of Cornwall at The Elephant Fair (1986?).

They were still doing it. Richard played a mean guitar and Vi, still in wicked voice, told us how it was while pounding out the beat with a club hammer she struck against a scaffold pole.

Where they are now I don't know.
I used to know Frances' kids, Gemma and Dan, but we all lost touch years ago.
But hey; if you've Googled the Poisons, ended up here, and you're in touch with anyone from the Poisons' camp, say hello from me.

And in some way or other, I hope it's still going on, I hope they're still doing it: still banging away.

Hey, some of us will always listen.


Poison Girls - 7 Year Scratch (1984)

Part 1:

Revenge (Mono, Not Previously Released, 1977)
Reality Attack (4 Track Recording, NPR, 78)
Alienation (4 Track Recording, NPR, 78)
Piano Lessons (12" Version, 79)
I Wanted the Moon (NPR, 79)
Jump Mama Jump (From Hex, 79)
Statement (Released as Flexi with Chappaquiddick, 80)
Promenade Immortelle (7" Version, 81)
Dirty Work (7" Version, 81)
Cry No More (From Where's the Pleasure, 82)
Offending Article (NPR, 83)

Part 2:

Live Recording: Gilly's, Manchester, October, 83.

Fear of Freedom
Where's the Pleasure
Too Close for Comfort
Real Woman
Are You Happy now?
Too Proud
Tell the Children
White Cream Dream
State Control and Rock n Roll
Tension
I've Done It All Before

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs

Poison yourself with Part 1 here
Poison yourself with Part 2 here

For all the happy Poison Girls

I’m tired of crying for the underprivileged
For the blacks, the women, for even black women
For the starving children, for the Irish, I’m tired of crying
For the unemployed, the one eyed Jews, I’m tired of crying
For refugees, for amputees, I’m tired of crying
For the pain of the third world, the poor unfortunates
Of Hiroshima, Bikini, I’m tired of crying
America, America, I’m tired of crying for America.

I’m tired of crying for collecting boxes, for noble causes, for victims, more victims
Victims of violence and protection, victims of privilege, more violence, more victims
For teachers’ lies, for poisoned milk, I’m tired of crying, it changes nothing
For the abuse of sex, the endless rape, the decay, the decaying, I’m tired of crying
For the broken broken broken hopes, the broken hearts and promises
For the broken backs and the broken dreams, I’m tired of crying
It’s a savage world, a savage world, and I just want to cry for me.

Cry No More, Vi Subversa, 1982.

There is a slight sense of resignation on this album.
Disillusion with the cause?
Despair with the left and the dialectic squabbles?
Nihilism within the anracho-punk movement?
Maybe.

But there is also a sense of maturity.
Self-preservation and concerns about the individual are more noticeable here than heard in the Poison's earlier material, and Vi’s lyrics are less vitriolic, less spat.
She seems more reflective, more poetic, and her delivery benefits from the adopted mood.

The big targets are still apparent: Rio Tinto Zinc, warmongery, gender stereotyping and surveillance are all attacked in typical Poison Girls’ fashion; but the polemics are accompanied by fairly bouncy upbeat tunes.

The evident maturity is not only heard in the lyrics, but is also apparent in the musicianship: check out Richard Famous’s acoustic picking during the track ‘Mandy is having a Baby’.

And with the addition of Chris Grace’s superb fretless bass playing on many of the tracks, the Poisons get quite funky on this album; and many of the tracks are distinctly dance numbers.

The accompanying brass on several tunes really adds to the general funky flavour; but if anything, it’s a kind of post punk funk [!]; and it’s interesting that this album was released in 1982, a year before 23 Skidoo released their seminal ‘post punk funk classic’: ‘Coup’.

This was the last album the Poisons made before bringing in a keyboard player, which radically changed and affected their sound – not for the good, in my opinion.

So this album has a special place in my heart; as I consider it to be the last album the Poison Girls (as I knew and loved them) made; and for me, they went out with a bang.

Poison Girls – Where’s the Pleasure (1982)

Where’s the Pleasure
Lovers are they worth it
I’ve done it all before
Whisky Voice
Ménage Abattoir
Take the Toys
Soft Touch
Take the Toys (Reprise)
Velvet Launderette
Rio Disco Stink
Cry No More
Mandy is having a Baby
Fear of Freedom

Vinyl rip @ 256kbs
This album has not had a CD release.
(It has collectively as part of a Poisons' box set, but not as a single release - thanks, anon.)
There is a little surface noise occasionally on this recording - but only during the quiet bits!
It has been very, very loved.
Love it too here

Poison Girls came out to play

A classic piece of anarcho-post-punk from 1981, capturing a live performance by the greatest of the British politico bands of that period.

'Invisible people, show yourselves.

People in hiding, come out.

Say what you want. Show who you are.

Reclaim the life that is left.

Those who desire peace and freedom must create a new economy.

The economy of peace will depend on a currency of trust.

Invisible people, show yourselves.

There are more of us than you think.'

Formed in 1976, the Poisons served their apprenticeship during the classic punk years, and found their niche in the early post-punk period along with artists such as Flux of Pink Indians, Honey Bane and Crass.

Being close neighbours of Crass (literally and ideologically), the Poisons worked productively with their fellow anarchic evangelists, touring together and sharing space on single and e.p. releases.

Crass Records was initially responsible for putting out the Poisons' music, but due to a falling-out (over feminist ideology... what else are anarchists going to bicker about?) the band started their own label, Xntrix Records.

Deeply ideological lyrics, that discuss anarchy, radical feminist ideas, sexual politics, state control, pacifism and resistance, are perfectly accompanied by the angular, choppy, sometimes tribal music prevalent to the post-punk sound of the time.
This is a deeply provocative piece and in some ways still a challenging listen. But it's not a lecture; it's not like listening to Consolidated; this is music to pogo to.

The singer, Vi Subversia, had the most incredibly apt voice for expressing the band's antipathy and disgust with the state, and those who maintained the oppressive systems of the state.

With a gravelly Marianne Faithful kind of snarl, you can not miss the real venom in the delivery of the lines: 'I'm not your fucking Mother/I'm not your fucking whore/ I'm not your baby sister/ or the girl next door/ you can roll your eyes to heaven/ for a virgin to adore/ but there's someone right beside you/ who could ask for more?/ as you eye each other up/ for a fight or a fuck.'
Or shiver at the fear and paranoia encapsulated in songs such as 'S.S. Snoopers' (that's social security rather than nazis, but then again...) and 'Don't Go Home Tonight'.
These were bleak and dark times for many; crystallized here in this captured performance most effectively.

But it wasn't all nihilism and self-harm inducing; the Poison Girls' gigs I was at were among some of the best gigs I ever attended.
The anarcho-punk movement at that time was fairly small, and going to a Poisons' show was like attending a family reunion. In fact I would go as far as saying that Vi's fiftieth birthday party, which took place at London's Hammersmith Clarendon Ballroom (R.I.P.), 1985, was one of the most joyous and celebratory gigs I have ever attended.
Forget Barry Manilow concerts, here was a very sincere and genuine love offered to a brilliant artist and performer by a deeply reverant audience.

The advice given during the song 'Daughters and Sons' ('Daughters and sons/ sing your own songs/ got your own songs to sing') seems to have been heeded, as both Vi's kids (Pete Fender and Gem Stone) went off and created their own bit of anarchy with the bands Rubella Ballet and Fatal Microbes, both of whom raised a fair amount of attention and interest.

The Poison Girls' own career was mainly ignored by the music press. Having a front woman in her mid-forties spouting radical feminist ideas was probably not the most eye-catching of copy. But in the true spirit of punk, Vi merely questioned established gender roles and stereotypes, in similar ways to bands like the Slits and X Ray Spex had.
But both of those bands featured young women, of course, and their digs at patriarchy were hardly going to raise the spirit of Mary Woolstonecraft.

Whereas the Poisons were so provocative they forced listeners to delve deep into their own consciences, and many didn't really want to do that (the residual machismo that was ubiquitous to music journalists at that time wouldn't have led to the band being office favourites).

During the time the band were active they fell out with most of their genre mates, they upset the extreme left (the SWP accused the band of describing their party as bullies) and they upset the extreme right (ditto. And they meant it). But for those who connected with their philosophy and ideology, they were a deeply motivating and inspiring force.

Released on clear vinyl, on Xntrix Records. Recorded live in Edinburgh, 5/7/81.
Along with many other Poison Girls' recordings, this has not had a CD release.

I believe, they were a band that never got the recognition they truly deserved.

The Poison Girls:
Vi Subversia - voice, guitar.
Richard Famous - guitar, voice.
Lance D'Boyle - drums
Bernhardt Rebours - bass, voice.
Nil - tapes.

If there is an interest in this album, I will post more of the Poisons', now hard to get, albums in the future.
I hope you enjoy this

The Poison Girls - Total Exposure

Tracks:
Persons Unknown
State Control
Old Tart's Song
Bully Boys
Tension
Another Hero Bites
Don't Go Home Tonight
S.S. Troopers
Other
Daughters and Sons
Fucking mother
Dirty Work
Alienation

Get it here