Crass Agenda is the working title of a series of collaborations by ex-members of the anarchistpunk band Crass and others. Although Crass formally split up in 1984, Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, Eve Libertine, Steve Ignorant, Andy Palmer and Pete Wright came together in November2002 to put on a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank in opposition to the at that time proposed War on Iraq. Although they did not all appear on the stage at the same time, most of the ex-members of Crass participated in the event under the name of The Crass Collective, along with other performers such as Goldblade, the English Chamber Choir, Fun Da Mental, etc.
The Crass Collective continued to put on gigs and performances, usually of a collaborative nature, on a regular basis throughout 2003 at the Vortex Club in Stoke Newington, London. In October of that year however they changed the name of the project to Crass Agenda. Works by the collective have included Dada cabaret, an interpretation of Allan Ginsberg's poem Howl, Crass' Yes Sir I Will and an update of Dylan Thomas' play Under Milk Wood, in which property developers move into the mythical Welsh village of Llareggub.
Others that have worked as part of Crass Collective/Crass Agenda include disability rights advocate and actor Nabil Shaban, PianistDylan Bates, saxophone player Ingrid Laubrock, John Sharian and others. Recently (2004) Crass Agenda have been at the forefront of a campaign against the closure of the Vortex jazz club.
Crass were amongst the progenitors of the anarcho-pacifism that became pervasive in the punk music scene (see also anarcho-punk).
Crass countered that their uniform appearance was intended to be a statement against the "cult of the personality", so that, in contrast to the norm for many rock bands, no member would be identified as the 'leader'.
As well as their own material, Crass Records released recordings by other performers, the first of which was the 1980 single "You Can Be You" by Honey Bane, a teenage girl who was staying at Dial House whilst on the run from a children's home.
Crass were a punk rock band formed in 1977, based around Dial House, an anarchist community near Epping in England.
However Crass explained that their uniform appearance was intended to be a statement against the cult of the personality, so that, in contrast to what was the norm for many rock bands, no member would be identified as the group 'leader'.
This caused Crass to fundementally question their approach to making records, for as a group who's very reason for existing was to comment upon political issues, they felt they had been overtaken and made to appear redundant by real world events.
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