The Hackney Hell Crew and "The Giving Of Love Costs Nothing" EP
From the collection of Tom/General Speech.
This isn't about the dedicated followers of fashion in the Carnabetian Army or those hangers on of the Bromley Contingent. This is about London's feared and revered Hackney Hell Crew. Their legend continues to tantalize. Yet for all the wild tales, physical documents are sparse and only a single vinyl release from the 1980s featured members of the Crew. The one and only Andy Martin of The Apostles shares the story of how this release came to happen.
I met the people whom others referred to as the 'Hackney Hell Crew' quite by chance. (Note: Ollie, Alien, Martin, Monty, Napoleon et al never called themselves the Hackney Hell Crew.) I was walking up Well Street, Hackney, one morning in 1984 and saw this group of young people who looked like the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Their dog noticed me and I made a fuss of it (she was called Tina) because I've always loved dogs.
Anyway, one of this bunch—a Geordie girl called Liz Fae Peterlee—recognised me as being a member of The Apostles. We started talking and one topic led to another... which is how I discovered the grim and gruesome existence of Voïvod, Slayer, Metallica, Venom and all those other dreary heavy metal pillocks for whom I have nothing but contempt. Most of this bunch raved about these bands although Martin and Liz were not at all interested in them as I recall. Their squatted council flat was only a few yards away (the estate has long since been demolished) so they invited me inside and there I found Terry Watson, a young African punk whom I had known since 1982. Tina was his dog apparently.
When they took me to their flat in Well Street, in the living room there was this three quarter sized bass guitar with nylon strings. I'd never seen an electric bass guitar with nylon strings. I asked to whom it belonged and Ollie said it was his because He was trying to learn to play it. One of the other lads (I forget his name now - Tommy or Timmy perhaps - joked about Martin, saying he's "one of those cunts who can play anything on any instrument." Martin said his main instrument was the guitar although he could play drums provided the beat was fairly simple.
What intrigued me about this crew was that, apart from Liz, most of them had never heard of The Apostles. Although a couple of them had heard of the group, neither of them had ever heard any of our music. This pleased me immensely. Why? Honestly, I've no idea...but I derived extreme satisfaction from it. I think this is the main reason why I asked Ollie and Martin if they'd be willing to go into the studio to record some tracks with me for eventual issue as a 7" record. At the time I could not play drums or bass guitar so Ollie and Martin appeared to be ideal musical companions for the project.
My relationship with the other members of The Apostles was usually tense, tempestuous and difficult; I suspect 80% of this is due to my behaviour and attitude. I frequently had arguments with Dave Fanning and while Chris Low was mercifully at home in Stirling at this time, in fact the group very nearly ended in 1984. Well, in a fit of pique I decided we should release a record designed to expose the rampant racism, prejudice and bigotry that prevailed in the British punk scene at this time. My plan was simple (and, in retrospect, preposterous—stupid, in fact). We would release an EP that contained a couple of numbers with lyrics that would bring tears of joy to the various members of Skrewdriver. I didn't ask Dave to contribute because the pair of us were not speaking to each other (again). Besides, he'd gone to France to work on a farm for a few weeks so he was not available for comment.
As for the record itself, well, musically it is quite atrocious. We recorded it in a single day and 'mixed' it the day afterwards, more or less. There are two tracks that sound almost as if we could play our instruments ("Kill Or Cure" and "Rock Against Communism"), but insufficient rehearsals combined with a surfeit of mind altering substances resulted in a deplorable mess that ought never to have been captured on vinyl or any other medium. What a monumental waste of money, effort, energy, studio time and natural resources, namely the paper used for the cover the vinyl used for the record.
I wrote "Kill Or Cure" and "Rock Against Communism" with ease. All I had to do was list the most common comments I heard my parents spout about niggers, queers and Jews then turn them into rhyming couplets, more or less. When you listen to those two songs, you hear the voices of my mother and stepfather at their most grotesque. The problem here is that I assumed the people who knew me would know the numbers were not intended to be taken literally... ah, but what about all the people who did not know me? It didn't even occur to me. Mind you, I knew how unknown and obscure the group was so I really didn't think it would matter very much.
Another problem is the name of the record itself—"The Giving Of Love Costs Nothing"—is the title given to it by Alan Keating (one of the 'Hell Crew') which doesn't really describe the contents but is innocuous enough. However, the record also purports to be by 'The Apostles' but it is not - because two main members of The Apostles at this time (Dave Fanning and Chris Low) do not appear on the record and make not a single contribution to it. I had no right to claim the record was by The Apostles and thus it remains an anomaly in our catalogue. We should have released the record under a different name - The Cunts, maybe, or The Bastards - The Hackney Hell Crew even! When it was released, Chris Low was not happy... not happy at all. To be honest, I'm amazed he didn't erupt in a mushroom cloud laying fury. He had a perfect right to do so.
Now shortly after we recorded this grotesque record, I moved into 108 Brougham Road with Dave (we were speaking to each other again) and during the next 5 or 6 weeks, we received letters... lots of letters... from people eager to congratulate us on being brave enough to 'tell the truth' or 'tell it like it is' and so on and so forth. These were all people (or appeared to be from people) whose punk credentials remained intact. We read this onerous piffle with bewilderment as each writer fulminated vengefully against 'black bastards' here and 'Jewish bastards' there et cetera. This is one of the main reasons why I refused to perform at 'punk events'. I became convinced the majority of people in the punk scene were secret bigots whose ideal utopia would be a nation bereft of homosexuals, Jews, Pakis, Chinks, niggers and Christ knows who else.
Did these people who wrote to congratulate us not realise we had an Indian guitarist for nearly a year (in 1982)? Did they not realise I was at this time still in semi-regular and very friendly contact with Pervez, the vocalist of Pakistani pop group Alien Kulture? Did they not realise I was one of the people who provided rehearsal space and equipment in 1982 for Hagar The Womb, the group whose members included an Asian guitarist, a Jewish singer and an African bass guitarist?
I destroyed over 300 copies of the record barely a month after its release, profoundly ashamed of my stupidity. Its ghost refuses to be exorcised.
Ollie and Martin took little interest in the contents of the record—they were just glad to be able to dive into a recording studio and make a racket. They found "Kill Or Cure" and "Rock Against Communism" rather funny because they thought I had written deliberate parodies of Skrewdriver. They were more interested in the 'punk' influenced numbers ("Pig Violence," "Our Mother The Earth" and "Punk Squatters") anyway. However, neither of them should accept any blame or responsibility for "Kill Or Cure," "Rock Against Communism" or some of my bizarre comments on the record sleeve. They are innocent!
