All the Madmen Records is now taking pre-orders on the 35th anniversary re-release of Poison Girls’ celebrated Persons Unknown track, backed with the equally lauded Statement (in its Wargasm incarnation).
All the Madmen are also recreating the forty eight Persons Unknown one-inch badge set, originally released at in parallel with the single in 1980, which will be available to buy in six grouped part-sets and a complete collection (plus black crow and yin-yang badges).
Poison Girls – Persons Unknown / Statement (Orchestral)
Release date: Late November / early December 2015 (subject to manufacture)
12” Heavyweight Vinyl in full colour sleeve with insert and folded A2 posterPoison Girls’ legendary, brooding call to action for the radical and dispossessed gets a 35-year anniversary, deluxe vinyl edition on The Mob’s All The Madmen Records, backed with the sublime orchestral version of Statement. Continuing Poison Girls’ ongoing vinyl re-release series. In full collaboration with Poison Girls, coordinated by Pete Fender with artwork design and layout by Bernhardt Rebours.
Now on 12″ vinyl in their full durations of over 7 minutes and 5 minutes respectively, both tracks are given space to breathe and be heard in their best vinyl form. The 180g heavyweight vinyl presents as a more deluxe, durable medium and a two-sided insert details the background, lyrics and ongoing relevance of the songs.
An enclosed A2 sized (42.0 x 59.4cm), folded poster graphically reproduces the set of forty eight 1-inch button/pin badges that Poison Girls produced and distributed in 1980 to promote and reinforce the Persons Unknown declaration. Using words from the song, each badge identifies a social (mis)fit – joined lyrically as one in the full set. The badges have been carefully recreated and are made available in hand-pressed sets, via All The Madmen Records.
Poison Girls – Persons Unknown
Inspired by the 1979 UK High Court trial (and subsequent acquittal) of members of the Anarchist Black Cross group for “conspiring with persons unknown at places unknown to cause explosions and overthrow society”. There were no explosions. Some of that group set about forming an Anarchist Centre and in a joint release with Crass’ Bloody Revolutions, Persons Unknown financed the opening in 1980 of Londons Wapping Wharf Autonomy Centre.
Just as the Anarchist Black Cross were synonymous with the campaign for political freedom throughout the 20th Century, the split 7″ release became a cornerstone of the anarchist punk counterculture. The rhetoric of Persons Unknown remains a commentary valid as ever today with continued use of Joint Enterprise doctrine in “guilty by association” trials of those remotely associated with insurrection. See the recently attempted prosecution of social segregation “poor doors” and anti-gentrification “cereal killers” protestors in London.
Poison Girls – Statement
First released in its original form as a flexi-disc with the Chappaquiddick Bridge album and here reworked for Pax Records’ 1982 anti-war compilation Wargasm; featuring the National Youth Orchestra and Jason Osborn adding their classical staccato to underpin Vi Subversa’s impassioned curse to the system and its warlords.
The Hippies Now Wear Black 