DESCRIPTION:
Indebted to David Manlove for the loan of this audience quality recording cassette tape of Brigandage performing at the Hammersmith Clarendon in 1984.

A handful of bands seem to have been connected with Kill Your Pet Puppy fanzine by forces so strong that one finds it hard to imagine one without the other.

Adam And The Antz, The Mob, Blood And Roses, Sex Gang Children, Southern Death Cult and Brigandage are examples that I can think of.

Obviously these bands would have existed without the fanzine, but a bond, I feel, did exist.

The U.K Subs, Crass or The Ruts, fine bands as they were, could not, I feel, get such a strong bond, or indeed any, with the Kill Your Pet Puppy fanzine.

I suppose it probably helped that some of these bands with that Kill Your Pet Puppy special bond had a history of sharing squatted houses, sharing drugs and gig experiences in similar venues, hairspray, magick and (maybe) even boy/girl friends within the Puppy Collective of the day.

Brigandage were one of the fine bands that I first heard on the John Peel show. The John Peel session that the band recorded in 1983 was so good that nothing (I thought at the time) could ever compare with the sonic pleasure of the three songs that were recorded specifically for John Peel.

I saw the band live and they were great, but then they split up!

The band were quickly resurrected in 1984 with the help of Richard North (who wrote and edited the excellent Kick fanzine and also did reviews, essays and interviews for the N.M.E) and two other members, joining Michelle from the original line up.

This new line up is the band that performed at the Hammersmith Clarendon captured on this cassette tape.

Step back to 1983; Richard North was already a friend of Michelle Brigandage and of the Puppy Collective, and it turned out to be a decent year to have a journo friend onside, as an article was written up on this newly named ‘Positive Punk’ movement which commanded a front page and center spread in the N.M.E.

Featured in this article were Blood And Roses and Brigandage, and for good measure several other bands were name checked throughout the article, Southern Death Cult, The Mob and so on.

Shortly after the N.M.E article, The Face magazine got involved in the rush to feature the movement, slipped effortlessly into the glossy pages of the magazine.

Even notorious speed freak Michael Moorcock, set up his TV cameras and got busy, filming both Blood And Roses and Brigandage at the Tribe Club in Leicester Square, and continuing to film footage at Puppy Mansions in Hampstead.

There were notably, interviews (and much grinding of teeth) with members of Brigandage and Blood And Roses surviving the final cut…

What happened?

Nothing…

The band’s at the forefront of this little scene had all split up by the end of 1983, as did of course, and as previously mentioned, Brigandage themselves.

There were not a lot of bands to replace the disbanded groups like The Mob, Southern Death Cult and Blood And Roses, that were of the same quality to carry this small scene on effectively, so the 'Positive Punk' movement pretty much died a sudden death there and then.

The ‘Positive Punk’ movement left in it’s wake some great live experiences, some great records and tapes, and some obscure literature in a few magazines, including of course, Kill Your Pet Puppy fanzine.

Brigandage were really great.

This 1984 performance of Brigandage rocks on with just enough 1976 punk spirit to overtake the opposition by several yards…

The visuals in this YouTube post include the pages of the booklet that accompanied the F.Y.M cassette tape which was released in 1984.