Ignorant skims across the Crass years with lightning speed, rarely pausing long enough to discuss any of the details, let only the characters, drama, or issues that characterized the band’s history. For that, go check out George Berger’s excellent and exhaustive The Story of Crass. This is definitely not a history of Crass. Steve Ignorant divides up his autobiography into three sections (Before Crass, During Crass, and After Crass) and, quite tellingly, the Crass section is by far the skimpiest. If you didn’t and are wondering what all the fuss is about Crass, this book isn’t going to help you much. There is a really good chance you knew all of that already. Neither band was as successful as Crass, but Ignorant eventually came to peace with always living under the enormous shadow of Crass, and all the baggage-good and bad-that came with that legacy. He briefly joined Conflict, another anarcho-punk band, albeit a less ideologically rigorous one, as well as Schwartzeneggar.
After Crass collapsed under its own weight, Steve was left rudderless, questioning who he was and what he wanted from life. In so doing, they virtually invented the template for anarcho-punk and gained a worldwide following, but also created an oppressively stifling situation that was unsustainable for members of the band. The band rigorously stuck to their anarchist ideology, DIY ethos, and personal principles. He changed his name to Steve Ignorant, enlisted the help of drummer Penny Rimbaud and a few other liked-minded people, and called themselves Crass. After that, he decided he wanted to be the singer of a punk band. He was mostly raised by his grandparents, hated the oppression of school, and drifted more-or-less aimlessly until he saw The Clash play live in 1976. Here are the basic elements of his story: Stephen Williams was born in 1957 to a broken, working class home. This is Steve Ignorant’s autobiography his attempt to add his voice to those writing the history of Crass.
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