Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Anti-Nowhere League: Logo #16

Created by Nick "Animal" Kulmer in 1980, it...well, let's just let Nick crystallize this one eloquently, shall we? "I designed it, mate - and it first appeared on my arm (as a tattoo) in 1980...eazy...". I LIKE that. Just...easy. It subsequently became the cover star of the 1981 "Streets of London" LP; the logo for NWOBHM band Streetfighter is somewhat similar but it appeared in 1982 and since when do heavy metal bands rip off their punk brethren and/ or sestren? Hovering somewhere between Jack Kirby and Jack Chick in its level of folk art panache, it's a symbol of a punk rock band that delivers, in its grooves, what the mace and fist promise physically. Indeed, after their first live action in Tunbridge Wells, the local press called it a "cacophony of noise" - no mean feat in the wake of melody's faded dream, spit up and reversed by noise and nihilism as it was in 1981. Anti-Nowhere League drummer Michael Bettell (February 26, 1962 - September 9, 2003) is now fêted with the annual Drumming Up Hope event, which raises money for local Essex hospitals. No word on how many people are treated each year for mace wounds, though.

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