“Punk is where you find it”, wrote Greil Marcus.

The resistance takes many forms. I have seen it in unexpected, and so all the more inspiring, places. I saw it in Emily Lloyd baring her arse to the gossipy neighbours in “Wish You Were Here” whilst gleefully bawling “Up yer bum!”. I saw it in Marlene Dietrich’s saucy wink beneath her audacious top hat. I saw it in Muhammad Ali’s “No Vietcong ever called me nigger”. I saw it in the click of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers, in Billy Liar’s machine gun fantasies, in Rosa Parks’ bus journey, in Frida Kahlo’s eyebrow and in the rakish angle of Joe Orton’s cap. I see it in anyone who refuses to know their place and so, inspired by those, brighter and bolder than I who have gone before, I saw my place and it wasn’t for me. So imagine something different.
Imagine, for example, if Busby Berkeley choreographed a top hat and tails dance routine for Lindsay Anderson’s “If”; imagine too if Victor Jara wrote a jolly knees-up for a good-old-days British Music Hall revival; and imagine if all this was performed by a band of Glaswegian bevvy merchants with ideas hilariously far above their station, and all on a budget of buttons and washers.
Imagine all that and perhaps it would be something like this.

All together now,

“One more push!”

Biff Smith and ANI
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“History Will Be Ours” is out now from here, or there, or anywhere. Video directed by Jim Lang.

With thanks to all at the Britannia Panopticon and Joe at G81 studio.