{"id":2161,"date":"2019-05-06T05:53:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T11:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2025-08-09T00:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T06:02:27","slug":"vaneigem-and-bubblegum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaneigem and Bubblegum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Last week, when I was uninspired whilst reviewing my running list of blog topics, YouTube operated as a sort of Oblique Strategies, the deck of cards initially developed by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt independently in the late 1960s and early \u201970s. (Eno included four of Schmidt\u2019s prints in his 1977 album <i>Before and After Science<\/i>.) The cards\u2019 suggestions and comments can act as disinterested\u2014oblique\u2014prods for artists when they encounter roadblocks during the creative process. And so YouTube essentially did the same for me, but not obliquely\u2014rather, evidently, based on my past searches and pointing-and-clicking. \u201cRecommended for you\u201d last week was an obscure track from <i>The Zulu Compilation<\/i>&nbsp;(1984), an album I happen to have in my collection. Zulu Records was formed by Jayne Casey and Ambrose Reynolds (both of whom also worked in the band Pink Industry, which issued lovely minimalist and melancholic music in the \u201980s). The compilation is perhaps most collectible for its inclusion of a pre-Trevor Horn version of \u201cLove Has Got a Gun\u201d by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"S.T.F.O.T.P.A- The Kremlin in Flame\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_IAcCjC85Dw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I hadn\u2019t listened to that compilation LP in years and had completely forgotten the track YouTube selected for me: \u201cThe Kremlin in Flame [<i>sic<\/i>]&#8221; by S.T.F.O.T.P.A. It sounds like something from the 1976 Art &amp; Language-Red Crayola collaboration,&nbsp;<i>Corrected Slogans<\/i>&nbsp;(discussed in my post&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/16\/gang-of-four-pt-2\/\">I Found That Essence Rare<\/a>). After some searching I found the identity of the track\u2019s creators in a 2010 interview by Arthur McDonald of The Royal Family and the Poor fame. Except that I\u2019d never heard of the band. Or, rather, when coming across their LPs, two of which were issued by Factory Records, I\u2019d passed them by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metamute.org\/editorial\/articles\/royal-family-poor-interview-arthur-mcdonald\">interview<\/a>&nbsp;(at <em>Mute<\/em> magazine), and its &#8220;intrudiction&#8221; by writer Flint Michigan, speak for themselves. Yet several things interest me enough to comment here. Michigan calls The Royal Family and the Poor &#8220;the only explicitly situationist band on the Factory label&#8221; even as &#8220;Factory records was one of the foremost popularisers of the Situationist International.&#8221; But Liverpudlians Arthur McDonald and Mike Keane, who would collaborate on the band&#8217;s &#8220;stringent proto-punk-funk tracks,&#8221; initially met by way of Guru Maharaj Ji&#8217;s Divine Light Mission, perhaps an unlikely venue.&nbsp;Or was it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"divine_light\"><\/a>Divine Light and Dark and Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1981, three years before The Royal Family and the Poor would release its first LP, a group from Nottingham, Medium Medium, issued <em>The Glitterhouse<\/em>, including the track &#8220;Guru Maharaj Ji,&#8221; which can be read as either a snide putdown, or a pedestrian description, of the teacher-student dynamic. The <em>New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Robert Palmer writes that the song &#8220;manages to be understanding and wryly humorous.&#8221;<span id='easy-footnote-1-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-2161' title='&amp;#8220;Psychedelia and Originality From a New White-Funk Group,&amp;#8221; &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;\/em&gt;, 02 Dec 1981, C26.'><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0And it references &#8220;divine light.&#8221; Sonically the song (and the LP) were called to mind this week when listening to The Royal Family and the Poor&#8217;s debut album <em>The Project Phase 1: The Temple of the 13th Tribe<\/em>. There are echoes of Medium Medium&#8217;s funk and especially their sax. That sax sound was in the air at the time, having been employed by The Pop Group on <em>Y<\/em> in 1979. And Adrian Sherwood, who produced Medium Medium&#8217;s &#8220;Hungry, So Angry&#8221; from <em>Glitterhouse<\/em>, would go on to work with Pop Group&#8217;s Mark Stewart in several incarnations.<span id='easy-footnote-2-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-2-2161' title='New Age Steppers, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, and Stewart&amp;#8217;s solo releases.'><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Guru Maharaji\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iCrBGwWBRDg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In early 1984, Normil Hawaiians released its second LP, <em>What&#8217;s Going On?<\/em>, the cover of which features band member James Lusted meditating in front of a verdant hillside in Powys, Wales, two jets-and-contrails in the sky. The album jacket&#8217;s verso includes the very recognizable Om symbol <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2184\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/356px-Om_symbol-white.png?resize=18%2C19&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Om Symbol\" width=\"18\" height=\"19\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/356px-Om_symbol-white.png?resize=291%2C300&amp;ssl=1 291w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/356px-Om_symbol-white.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/356px-Om_symbol-white.png?resize=100%2C100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/356px-Om_symbol-white.png?w=356&amp;ssl=1 356w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 18px) 100vw, 18px\" \/>,&nbsp;and its B-side diptych, &#8220;Going Down\/Market Place,&#8221; includes a sequence that sounds like a <em>bhajan<\/em>, a devotional song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NORMIL HAWAIIANS - Going Down and Market Place\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vOag2fn6xZY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Both these albums, by Medium Medium and Normil Hawaiians, were recorded at Foel Studio, in Powys, site of Tony Harrison&#8217;s photographs for <em>What&#8217;s Going On?<\/em> and they both feature the participation of engineer, producer, and bassist Dave Anderson, who also worked with The Pop Group.<span id='easy-footnote-3-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-3-2161' title='Anderson coproduced The Pop Group&amp;#8217;s single &amp;#8220;Where There&amp;#8217;s a Will There&amp;#8217;s a Way&amp;#8221; (1980).'><sup>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I heard echoes of Normil Hawaiians when listening to The Royal Family and the Poor&#8217;s first LP, particularly in the reading of a text atop a rhythm track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Louise Michel\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0yJPFyPUThY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s not forget that Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex and Lora Logic of Essential Logic both were initiated into the Hare Krishna fold in 1983, having spent time at Bhaktivedanta Manor, the estate donated by George Harrison. And several academics have studied the intersection between pop music and Hinduism, including James Andrew &#8220;Jimi&#8221; Wilson&#8217;s 2008 MFA dissertation by the (short) title of &#8220;Punk Rock Puja.&#8221;<span id='easy-footnote-4-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-4-2161' title='Wilson. 2008. Punk rock puja : (mis)appropriation, (re)interpretation, and dissemination of Hindu religious traditions in the North American and European underground music scene(s) (MFA diss., University of Florida). See also the list of papers related to Wilson&amp;#8217;s at &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/347470\/Punk_rock_puja_mis_appropriation_re_interpretation_and_dissemination_of_Hindu_religious_traditions_in_the_North_American_and_European_underground_music_scene_s_&quot;&gt;Academia.edu&lt;\/a&gt;.'><sup>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"nervous_gender\"><\/a>I should mention that in 1981 I met and worked briefly with Edward Stapleton and his band Nervous Gender.<span id='easy-footnote-5-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-5-2161' title='In 1981 I invited Nervous Gender to participate in a music and performance series at Traction Gallery in Los Angeles&amp;#8217; Little Tokyo district. They responded by creating an opera, abbreviated only by the limitations of time. Backing tracks were recorded on my reel-to-reel in my bedroom. The results are memorialized on the B(eelelzebub Youth)-side of their LP &lt;em&gt;Music From Hell&lt;\/em&gt; (1981, Subterranean Records; 2023, Dark Entries Records &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.darkentriesrecords.com\/?s=%22music+from+hell%22&quot;&gt;reissue&lt;\/a&gt;).'><sup>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Edward, Irish by birth, had received Maharaj Ji&#8217;s &#8220;knowledge&#8221; in 1971 at age 15 while still living in England, plugging into the guru&#8217;s network when he and his family relocated to Los Angeles. But he found that culture confining. (Years later I would attend Maharaj Ji&#8217;s videotaped talks and one live appearance.) Nervous Gender&#8217;s music is as challenging as The Royal Family and the Poor. It is scathing, but I think it also can be called &#8220;wryly humorous.&#8221; (Let&#8217;s just say I had rather, mm, catholic tastes.<span id='easy-footnote-6-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-6-2161' title='This past February I recalled Nervous Gender&amp;#8217;s song &amp;#8220;Cardinal Newman&amp;#8221; (issued on &lt;em&gt;Music From Hell&lt;\/em&gt;) after reading an &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2019\/02\/09\/i-was-groped-by-a-man-called-mary-the-world-changes-but-not-the-catholic-church\/&quot;&gt;article&lt;\/a&gt; on Salon.com titled &amp;#8220;I Was Groped by a Man Called &amp;#8216;Mary&amp;#8217;: The World Changes But Not the Catholic Church&amp;#8221; by Lucian K. Truscott IV. By chance, Truscott, on 27 Jun 1969, then a recent graduate of West Point on summer leave, had witnessed the Stonewall Inn riot and so &amp;#8220;covered&amp;#8221; the pivotal incident for &lt;em&gt;The Village Voice&lt;\/em&gt;. See, e.g., his &amp;#8220;&lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/26\/opinion\/26truscott.html&quot;&gt;The Real Mob at Stonewall&lt;\/a&gt;,&amp;#8221;\u00a0&lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;\/em&gt;, 26 Jun 2009, A25. He explains how gay bars could not obtain liquor licenses and thus were beholden to organized crime and its arrangement with NYPD. Thank Goddess those days are done\u2026'><sup>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cardinal Newman\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UqELJa-4cWs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Edward shares my interest in Kali. I&#8217;d been introduced to her charms by my friend and musical collaborator Rob Berg. These days Kali strikes me more and more as Destroyer of Illusions, in particular the blindness engendered by white privilege, mine included. Who can countenance her without being stirred?&nbsp;My primary impression is that Kali Ma, as mother, is both creator and destroyer: each mother brings into the world a being who, at whatever point, will perish. And so she compares with Mary, Mother of God, who must have realized she was doing the same. Who can countenance God on a cross (or a gurney for that matter) without being stirred?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To wit\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">[prologue to Kali]<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">On a corpse<br \/>dread<br \/>laughing<br \/>four arms<br \/>a sword<br \/>a severed head<br \/>removing fear<br \/>giving<br \/>wearing skulls<br \/>black<br \/>naked<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\u2014 Gary Snyder, 1968<span id='easy-footnote-7-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-7-2161' title='his is the prologue to the Kali section of Snyder&amp;#8217;s &lt;em&gt;The Back Country&lt;\/em&gt;. New York: New Directions, 1968, 71.'><sup>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The Mother of God<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare<br \/>Through the hollow of an ear;<br \/>Wings beating about the room;<br \/>The terror of all terrors that I bore<br \/>The Heavens in my womb.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Had I not found content among the shows<br \/>Every common woman knows,<br \/>Chimney corner, garden walk,<br \/>Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes<br \/>And gather all the talk?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,<br \/>This fallen star my milk sustains,<br \/>This love that makes my heart&#8217;s blood stop<br \/>Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones<br \/>And bids my hair stand up?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\u2014 William Butler Yeats, 1932<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Royal Family and the Poor&#8217;s interest in such things would eventually be revealed explicitly in song titles on <em>The Genetic Terrorists<\/em> cassette in 1986 (&#8220;Kali #1&#8221; and &#8220;Kali #2&#8221;) and its 2001 reworking of those songs for <em>Children of Baphomet<\/em> (&#8220;Hymn to Kali,&#8221; &#8220;Hymn to the Goddess,&#8221; and &#8220;Govinda&#8221;). And there&#8217;s &#8220;Dark and Light&#8221; from the debut LP with its chorus, &#8220;I&#8217;ve seen the light,&#8221; which can be read both polemically and, well, divinely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dark And Light\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ksMkgJEzl3Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Factory&#8217;s House Band vs. Gang of Four Bubblegum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Royal Family and the Poor formed in 1978. Two years later Factory Records released six tracks by the band on the double LP <em>A Factory Quartet<\/em> (with The Durutti Column, Kevin Hewick, and Blurt). The songs consist of three percussion pieces titled &#8220;Dirge&#8221; interspersed with three text-and-music tracks. The first of the latter tracks is what caught the ear of Factory founder Tony Wilson: &#8220;Vaneigem Mix,&#8221; a reading by Arthur McDonald of writing by Raoul Veneigem,<span id='easy-footnote-8-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-8-2161' title='Discogs &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/Various-A-Factory-Quartet\/release\/418113&quot;&gt;notes&lt;\/a&gt; that &lt;em&gt;two&lt;\/em&gt; texts are read: Vaneigem&amp;#8217;s &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/library.nothingness.org\/articles\/all\/all\/pub_contents\/5&quot;&gt;The Revolution of Everyday Life&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/em&gt; and also\u00a0&lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/www.bopsecrets.org\/PS\/trouble.htm#Some%20Clarifications&quot;&gt;Some Clarifications&lt;\/a&gt;, a section from Trouble Is My Business (&lt;em&gt;Bureau of Public Secrets&lt;\/em&gt;\u00a0No. 1 [January 1976]), by Ken Knabb, editor of the famous &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/www.bopsecrets.org\/SI\/&quot;&gt;Situationist International Anthology&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/em&gt; (1981, 2006). I should mention that the first action Knabb memorializes on his website is his 1970 &lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/www.bopsecrets.org\/PS\/snyder.htm&quot;&gt;rebuke&lt;\/a&gt;\u00a0of poet Gary Snyder, whom I quote above, for his part in the &amp;#8220;prevailing social spectacle.&amp;#8221;'><sup>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> an important figure in the Situationist International, over a brisk drums-and-bass backed by treble, circular guitar reminiscent of Keith Levene&#8217;s work with Public Image Ltd and Vicki Aspinall&#8217;s violin on Vivien Goldman&#8217;s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=vivien+goldman+dirty+washing\">Dirty Washing<\/a><\/em> EP.<span id='easy-footnote-9-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-9-2161' title='Levene also contributed to Goldman&amp;#8217;s EP.'><sup>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Royal Family and The Poor - Vaneigem Mix\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4iEATJaRUSI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lest I were to associate this track, too, with Art &amp; Language&#8217;s <em>Corrected Slogans<\/em> album, McDonald states in the <em>Mute<\/em> interview that &#8220;Art &amp; Language had an aversion to anything Situationist International and the other conceptual artists and their curator\/art journalist friends gave the situationists little credit.&#8221; And so it&#8217;s curious that The Royal Family and the Poor, by contrast, did not eschew Art &amp; Language&#8217;s format of reading texts over rock music tracks, as they did on the <em>Factory Quartet<\/em> D-side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A second &#8220;Dirge&#8221; is followed by &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FnSVxQHipTc\">Death Factory<\/a>&#8221; (a title appropriated from Throbbing Gristle, whose members included Genesis P-Orridge), which features McDonald&#8217;s diatribe regarding consumerism and work.<span id='easy-footnote-10-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-10-2161' title='Discogs &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/Various-A-Factory-Quartet\/release\/418113&quot;&gt;notes&lt;\/a&gt; that this track also features guitar by Ambrose Reynolds, of Zulu Records, who appeared on other Royal Family and the Poor tracks over the years as well.'><sup>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The third and final &#8220;Dirge&#8221; precedes &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/hkwOUAfxSPs\">Rackets<\/a>,&#8221; a designation McDonald applies to all enterprises great and small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These tracks were examined in detail\u2014\u201cexactly as described\u201d according to McDonald in his\u00a0<em>Mute<\/em> interview\u2014by Howard Slater in his 1998 essay <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160131090508\/http:\/\/home.wxs.nl\/~frankbri\/slaterfac.html\">Graveyard and Ballroom: A Factory Records Scrapbook<\/a> (scroll to Vaniegem Mix 2):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">In a similar vein to the Gang of Four&#8217;s <i><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JFU_1h7io0Y\">Damaged Goods<\/a><\/i> on Fast [Records], but more communicative of disgust and a need for revolutionary violence, the Royal Family produce one of the most blistering indictment [<em>sic<\/em>] of capitalism heard during the punk and post-punk period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McDonald himself distilled this notion further in his\u00a0<em>Mute<\/em> interview:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The Buzzcocks manager, Richard Boone, described our first demo as \u2018makes the Gang of Four sound like the bubblegum band we always knew they were&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Arthur McDonald-Mike Keane team made one more record together on Factory, &#8220;Art on 45,&#8221;<span id='easy-footnote-11-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-11-2161' title='The title is a play on &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stars_on_45&quot;&gt;Stars on 45&lt;\/a&gt;, a Dutch studio group that strung together faithful tribute renditions of hit songs to the meter of a drum track. But the title also can interpreted as a response to Art &amp;amp; Language.'><sup>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> a three-track single that involved A Certain Ratio&#8217;s Donald Johnson (producing and drumming) and New Order&#8217;s Peter Hook (producing and bass-ing) as well as Factory&#8217;s ever present Tony Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Royal Family And The Poor ART ON 45\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H3iQ52UqFrQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Parting and Project<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And what of that S.T.F.O.T.P.A. track from <em>The Zulu Compilation<\/em>? As McDonald told <em>Mute<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tony [Wilson] once said something like nobody else will let you record, but Jayne Casey contradicted him, and me and Teresa and another friend recorded \u2018The Kremlin in Flames&#8217; as S.T.F.O.T.P.A. for her 1984 Zulu compilation.<span id='easy-footnote-12-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-12-2161' title='McDonald omits Teresa&amp;#8217;s surname throughout the &lt;em&gt;Mute&lt;\/em&gt; interview, identifying her as &amp;#8220;my art student girlfriend,&amp;#8221; but a Teresa Kelly collaborated with McDonald-as-RF&amp;amp;TP on two final albums, &lt;em&gt;The Pope&amp;#8217;s Daughter&lt;\/em&gt; (2010) and &lt;em&gt;Haunted&lt;\/em&gt; (2012). She appears in this post&amp;#8217;s header image, second from lower left.'><sup>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But by this time McDonald appears to have left The Royal Family and the Poor, not by choice, but because Teresa became ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We moved back to Newcastle and I mistakenly thought that Teresa would be ok in a month or two. Mike [Keane] came to see us and we agreed he could take The Royal Family &amp; The Poor on any Darwinian Survival path he saw fit. We&#8217;d sort out any problematics later; if indeed there was to be any \u2018later&#8217;!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to James Nice&#8217;s 2003 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ltmrecordings.com\/\/royal_family_and_the_poor.html\">bio of the band<\/a>, Keane remembers the split differently.<span id='easy-footnote-13-2161' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/vaneigem-and-bubblegum\/#easy-footnote-bottom-13-2161' title='In the &lt;em&gt;Mute&lt;\/em&gt; interview McDonald calls Nice&amp;#8217;s bio of RF&amp;amp;TP &amp;#8220;potted&amp;#8221; due to Nice&amp;#8217;s claim that it was Tony Wilson who came up with the band&amp;#8217;s name. Nice also is the author of &lt;em&gt;Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records&lt;\/em&gt;, Aurum Press, 2010.'><sup>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We did some gigs and then [McDonald] decided he wanted The Royal Family to be the most obscure band in the world. He just said he wasn&#8217;t going to do anything else. He moved to Newcastle, I think. And I think he realised we were never going to make any money. I had really enjoyed what we had done, so I carried on with backing tapes, called myself the Legend Agency and did a tour of Britain with China Crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometime after that, Keane had his own personal crisis and left Liverpool for Winchester. While walking the\u00a0six-score-mile path\u00a0of the\u00a0Pilgrims&#8217; Way to Canterbury he decided to quit music. But upon his return to Liverpool he was tracked down by Factory and offered an album deal. The resulting LP reflects where he&#8217;d been, beginning with the title, <em>The Project<\/em>, the tag he&#8217;d used when appearing after the China Crisis tour. (The Project appears as the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xGBm9Kk0G-4\">third track<\/a> on <em>The Zulu Compilation<\/em>.)\u00a0The album&#8217;s subtitle tells more: <em>The Temple of the 13th Tribe<\/em>. According to McDonald:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">[Keane] actually met Genesis P. Orridge [<em>sic<\/em>] later and did some magic rituals with him. Very interestingly Ian Curtis [of Joy Division] was hoping to form a new band with Genesis P. So this is where the magic and occult interests are expressed. It feeds the musician in Mike so I just accept it as such. He&#8217;s become an ace musician and balladeer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That LP&#8217;s sessions employed engineer Mike Johnson, who had cut his teeth as an assistant on Joy Division&#8217;s&nbsp;<em>Closer<\/em>, and Peter Hook again was producer and bassist (whose touches can be heard). It features the most tender ballads, including a remnant of polemical work in &#8220;Power of Will,&#8221; the setting of which is not bubblegum, but definitely is not &#8220;Death Factory,&#8221; and so is subversively incisive, beguiling by beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The royal family and the poor -  power of will (1984)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NPMH59imLhk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Royal Family and the Poor would continue to release product through the 1980s, beginning again in the 2000s, but Keane and McDonald did so independently rather than collaboratively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Coda<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A curious twist to all of this is that the profile in the Zulu Records logo resembles that of&nbsp;Thomas McNeice, Gang of Four&#8217;s current bassist.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"525\" height=\"178\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/zulu_mcneice.jpg?resize=525%2C178&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Zulu Records Logo and Thomas McNeice composite\" class=\"wp-image-2241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/zulu_mcneice.jpg?w=927&amp;ssl=1 927w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/zulu_mcneice.jpg?resize=300%2C102&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/zulu_mcneice.jpg?resize=768%2C260&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Header image:<br>gatefold interior of<\/em><br>The Zulu Compilation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notes<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Royal Family and the Poor, Guru Maharaj Ji, and anti-Gang of Four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,33,265,390,188,104],"tags":[285,417,205,407,393,414,397,411,277,409,416,424,420,408,426,399,392,395,418,421,396,401,403,413,402,398,425,423,388,405,291,422,400,419,394,415,406,412,410,404],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-music","category-poetics","category-polemics","category-religion","category-white-privilege","tag-art-language","tag-arthur-mcdonald","tag-brian-eno","tag-dave-anderson","tag-divine-light-mission","tag-donald-johnson","tag-edward-stapleton","tag-factory-records","tag-gang-of-four","tag-gary-snyder","tag-genesis-p-orridge","tag-howard-slater","tag-james-nice","tag-kali","tag-ken-knabb","tag-lora-logic","tag-maharaj-ji","tag-medium-medium","tag-mike-keane","tag-mute-magazine","tag-nervous-gender","tag-normal-hawaiians","tag-oblique-strategies","tag-peter-hook","tag-peter-schmidt","tag-poly-styrene","tag-raoul-vaniegem","tag-richard-boone","tag-rob-berg","tag-s-t-o-t-p-a","tag-situationist-international","tag-teresa-kelly","tag-the-pop-group","tag-the-project","tag-the-royal-family-and-the-poor","tag-thomas-mcneice","tag-tony-harrison","tag-tony-wilson","tag-william-butler-yeats","tag-zulu-records"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/zulu_comp_inside_2100.jpg?fit=2100%2C879&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paF2cn-yR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10637,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/10637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}