Steve Ignorant

Calais

Me and Spot having breakfast on the road in Calais.  Spot (aka Steve Pottinger) helped me write my book "The Rest Is Propaganda", and he joined us as our driver and merch person in Europe.  It is really great to work with him again.  Over the last two years we've had many a meal together.

Belgium? Maybe.

Technology in the van.  Allison working as usual, and Beki always texting home to her family.

Edinburgh. Thanks to Dod for the photo.

For the last nine days I have been trying to write a blog and putting into words how I felt when I performed the Crass songs again at The Last Supper in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

I am overwhelmed by the support and positivity of everyone that was there. The atmosphere was fantastic, the songs still powerful. It was truly an amazing experience and the band and I really enjoyed it.

I would like to thank you all for coming to the gigs, taking part, spreading the word and above all joining in the celebration of Crass.

I also would like to thank Beki, Bob, Gizz and Spike for all their hard work and their dedication. Thank you to Nathan and Helga for working non-stop doing the merch. Thank you to John and Jon for promoting it and looking after us so well. Thank you to Jona for always being there in the background and last but not least a special thank you to Allison, for believing in me, listening to my ideas about The Last Supper and making it a reality.

Available to order from Southern

The book I wrote with Steve Pottinger is now available to order from Southern's mail order department.  It's shipping on 18th October and you can pre-order it now.  We'll also be selling it at all the gigs of course.

Link:
http://bit.ly/igsbook

Thanks to everyone who has already bought it, I'm really overwhelmed by all the good feedback.  It really means a lot to me.

Steve.

Hi all, This is Damon from Southern Records. Thanks to our good friend Tony who did some dogsitting for us, I was able to go to The Last Supper at Birmingham and take these photos. I hope you like them!

Sorry you have to click twice to get to the large web images. I'm looking into fixing that.

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.