Flannel (band)

Flannel
Origin Brighton, United Kingdom
Genres Anarcho-punk
Years active 1990s–2005

Flannel were a 1990s band based in Brighton, England. Their style has been described as "anarcho-narco", meaning that they were influenced by anarchist politics and narcotic-using lifestyles. This should not be taken too literally; far from being simple advocates of drug culture, their music often contained serious social references and messages. It attempted to blend unadulterated good fun with more than a little bit of intelligence and conscience.

The band played some conventional venues such as pubs, but were most often to be seen at squat parties, direct action protest sites such as the Newbury bypass and Reclaim the Streets, and summer festivals. They also committed "guerilla gigs" in shopping centres, parks and other "highly inappropriate" places. In the later 1990s, they shared stages with political comedians Mark Thomas and Rob Newman.

The tune (Let's all go to a) Ketamin Party received a surprise airing on the BBC's 1998 Children in Need charity show.

During 2005 the band had technically chosen to split up but continued performing because, they announced, they were very happy with the arrangement.

In November 2005 the bass player, Bloke, died in an accident in the south of France.

Lead singer and guitarist Cosmo continues to make and perform music in the Flannel vein from his base in Cardiff.

Members

Releases (not an exhaustive list)

Collaborations and connections

Both Cosmo and Bloke's partner, Sally, were involved in a previous Brighton band, Moist.

See also

References

Much of this information is interpreted from the Flannel website; see external links, below.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, June 01, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.