Ignorant back after 34 years
PUNK icon Steve Ignorant, who performed at a legendary Miners’ Strike benefit, is returning to the Cynon Valley after 34 years. The benefit gig was the last performed by Crass.
A SINGER who performed at a legendary Miners’ Strike benefit is returning to the Cynon Valley 34 years later.
Steve Ignorant’s Slice of Life are coming to Jacs Music Venue in Aberdare later this month, decades after Steve’s former band Crass played at the Coliseum in Trecynon.
Steve O’Gorman, a member of the Jacs entertainment team, said: “July 1984 was the last gig Crass played together, and it’s still a talking point for those of us who were there that evening.”
On July 11, 1984, the controversial anarchopunk band played a benefit concert for the strikers and their families.
Organised by the NUM lodges at Tower and Maerdy collieries, the gig was announced in the music paper Sounds. A single paragraph said they would be appearing at “Trycanon Coliseum, near Cardiff”.
Punks flocked from as far afield as Ipswich, Manchester and the West Country; a few made the journey from Scotland.
They were joined in the audience by local punk fans, some curious firsttimers, and a handful of bemused NUM officials. Nobody in Aberdare had experienced anything like it before.
The foyer was full of leaflets for CND and other campaign groups. However, on the way back to London, Crass’ guitarist NA Palmer told his friends that he didn’t want to continue in the band.
The Coliseum gig was the last time the full Crass line-up shared a stage together.
Now, the band’s frontman Steve Ignorant is returning to Aberdare on August 11, 34 years after his previous visit with his new project. Support will be provided by local rockers Fatal Blow and North Wales post-punk band Red or Dead, with a DJ set from Kevin “Scottie” Hunt.
Steve added: “It’s going to be an emotional night for everyone who remembers the summer of 1984.”
Tickets cost £10 from seetickets.com/tour/steve-ignorant