This Is a Message to Persons Unknown
Description
Flesh and blood are what we are, flesh and blood are who we are, our cover is blown …
This Is a Message to Persons Unknown is the first full history of the legendary band Poison Girls. From their first gigs in Brighton in 1977 to years of DIY tours across Britain and Europe, the band forged a radical path through music, politics, and art.
Fronted by the uncompromising Vi Subversa—a singular lyricist, songwriter, and voice—Poison Girls challenged punk’s Year Zero myth, weaving ferocity with wit, emotional depth, and inventive sound. Just as formative to anarcho-punk as Crass, yet defiantly their own, Poison Girls confronted misogyny, ageism, and authoritarianism with a passion and clarity that still resonates today.
Drawing on exclusive interviews, zines, contemporary accounts, and the personal archives of band members, this richly illustrated history documents Poison Girls’ unforgettable songs, striking graphics, and fierce campaigns of resistance.
More than just a band biography, This Is a Message to Persons Unknown tells the story of a group of dissident artists who turned punk into both a protest and a possibility—an experiment in living, creating, and fighting for something new.
More details
Persons
Rich Cross is a researcher and writer on British and European protest movements and counter cultural resistance, particularly from the anarchist and libertarian traditions, Cross has published and presented extensively about the UK’s original anarcho-punk scene. He has edited the The Hippies Now Wear Black website for well over a decade, documenting both the history and the continuing creative dissidence of that scene's most resilient troublemakers.
Content
1. ‘Staring through a hole in the wall’ - Pre and Proto
2. ‘We are having piano lessons’ - Punk Beginnings
3. ‘This way, that way - jump mamma jump’ - Hex
4. ‘Survival in silence isn’t good enough no more’ - Persons Unknown
5. ‘State control and rock-and-roll are run by clever men’ - Chappaquiddick Bridge
6. ‘The tension between what you can and you can’t do’ - From Crass to Total Exposure
7. ‘We’re so liberated, so sophisticated, but love is never free’ - Where’s the Pleasure
8. ‘Are you happy now? Did you get what you wanted?’ - The Search for One Good Reason
9. ‘There’s a riot in my mind - but the streets are quiet’ - Songs of Praise
10. ‘I’ve done it all before - but not with you’ - Endgame and After
Appendix:
The Impossible Dream
Introduction
‘You’re so other’ - Issue 1 (1979)
‘All systems go - ready?’ - Issue 2 (1980)
‘Positions of privilege’ - Issue 3 (1983)
‘Let them eat vinyl’ - Issue 4 (1986)
Spotlight interviews
Sue Cooper
Richard Famous
Heather Joyce
Bernhardt Rebours
Gemma Sansom
Select bibliography
Discography
Acknowledgements
Index