All photos kindly donated by FITD guitarist Dev – click for bigger pics

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Turn on, tune in, come dancing

Despite not spewing out all the regulation fuck the system cliches, Flowers were always a band made up of pretty politically committed people.

Within that framework, I’d like to invite you to visit the below website and, if you ca, please lend your support:

http://www.justiceforgarycritchley.org

This was his favourite song

It started with a text message from a 3am editor: “Rumours that McLaren has died”.

What?

It was shocking, jaw-dropping news. Took a long time to transfer the words to their meaning. Unlike the ears nearer to the ground, I didn’t even know he was ill. A man who seemed to have barely aged over the last 30 years, a Peter Pan of the sixties who smuggled his raging individuality and political anger into the seventies and…

And now he’s gone. Cancer. Fuck.

The man who gave us the most legendary shop in Britain – 430 Kings Rd – which in turn brought together the kids who would – quite rightly – be the icons of a generation. Spewing forth great clothes, great phrases (Only Anarchists are Pretty! Never Trust A Hippy!) and of course a little band called the Sex Pistols.

Not content with that, he went on to give us the massively underrated glory that was Bow Wow Wow and a string of sometimes visionary and often ground-breaking solo musical outings (special shouts out to Buffalo Gals and Paris).

But you know all this, don’t you? You know because McLaren’s main contributions to the joys of our youth were ideas. Because whilst he sat on the outside, his ideas and visions were strong enough to penetrate right across the bored. Massive, rarely equalled. Love him or hate him, you’d always listen to him.

Whilst it is now fashionable to laud the Filth And The Fury as the true film record of the Pistols, the McLaren-inspired Great Rock N Roll Swindle was enough of a classic of it’s time to have us (as in the punk rockers) scuttling back to the cinema on several occasions to enjoy it’s comedy. The crowds around us in those cinemas – be they punks, mods, skinheads or straights – lapped up the insolence like the home crowd they knew they were.

Interviewer: You’re sick on stage, you spit at the audience, how can this be a good example for chidren?

MM: People are sick everywhere, people are sick and fed of of this country telling them what to do…

Of course Malcolm was far too opinionated and mischievous to have been liked by everyone, but I’m sure you’ll read reams about that elsewhere. Personally, at a distance, he inspired me to be far braver than I would have otherwise been in my youth or indeed my life – his courage to stand outside convention was an inspiration up there with Rotten. Between them, they may well have saved my life.

His contribution to the achievements of those times is almost guaranteed to be understated. But Malcolm McLaren really did change the world. In these times of ever more suffocating homogenity, where maverick behaviour and thoughts cause increasing social ostrasication, and stepping out of line is increasingly difficult and frowned upon, Malcolm McLaren was an inspiration.

As such, the world is a far poorer and more boring place without him.

The album is taking a bit longer than I’d imagined, mainly because earning money is intruding more than I’d hoped. But there are plenty of tracks in varying states of completion, and I’m hoping we can do something called an enhanced CD, which should have space for videos, text etc…

I’ve spoken variously to Penny Rimbaud (Crass), Nic Bullen (Napalm Death) and Jeremy Cunningham (Levellers) about them making contributions, all of which could be interesting.

All the album is being recorded lo-fi on my laptop and sessions have so far taken place in London,  Brighton,  Paris and Lodz .

So anyway, here’s the track listing as it stands:

I Love The Sunshine
Happy, poppy, beautiful day song!

International Anthem
Named after Gee Vaucher’s old magazine, this is all African beats and gestures of defiance

Pagan Uprising
Punky state of the nation number – fuzzy guitars like you’ve never heard on a FITD song

Wild At Heart
Love lost grows cynical and sad, Van Morrison style

2.2
…kids and a mortgage to pay / so you better go and work very hard today. Pure punk rock c/o Steve Steroid

Normals On The Rampage
More punk rock, this time c/o Chas

Porton Down
One of the earliest FITD songs, when it was just me & Chas in a bedroom. About a place that the shame of Britain (Google it)

Abort The System
Old Poison Girls lyric with new tune – it’s on this site if you do a search

Egypt
In defence of the tombs and against the raiders who see everything simply as theirs to plunder

It’s So Easy For You
Old Flowers song where the self-pity flows like sick

Paris You & Me
Written especially for my wedding (next week as I write!), where it will be premiered.

Jimmy Newman
Anti-war song. Tom Paxton cover.

Fellow Traveller
Song of respect to an old friend, born under a wanderin’ star

Claire’s Poem
Lots of old Flowers contribute to this spoken word poem.

I Hate Punk
Avant-garde adventure in weirdness

You Can’t Eat Money
Celtic folk instrumental

Lots Of Love
It’s a love song baby!

Something Special Perhaps, Kevin
“Mortgaged up families looked at first too mundane / but it’s funny how with help all the lucky ones changed / some of them couldn’t, there had to be more / music, i dunno, films, something special perhaps” – Kevin Rowland. My tribute to these fine words.

Goodbye Rock N Roll
FITD go to the disco, again

Farmer Karma
Urban alliance techno anthem

Anarchy Panky
The live version

Ex-Vegetarian
Self-explanatory!

She Knows Her Dreams Have Died
Bitter reflections on an ex

Gare Du Nord Passport Cafe
Ambient weirdness recorded at the title

Flying Tonight
More ambient weirdness recorded on a plane!

More news to follow.

“We are not here in this world to serve the ways of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered & crippled than ourselves.

If you ask me about those problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative I would answer ‘To hell with them’…the to…p is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves.”

Michael Foot, 1983