Flux of Pink Indians - Biography
By Oliver Hall
Flux of Pink Indians is one of the more creative bands from the English anarcho-punk scene of the early 1980s. Brothers Colin Latter and Derek Birkett were in a punk band called The Epileptics—originally the Epileptic Fits—who played their second gig with Crass in August 1978. In 1980, following the breakup of the Epileptics, Latter and Birkett formed Flux of Pink Indians with Rubella Ballet drummer Sid Ation and guitarists Neil “Anarchy” Puncher and Andy Smith. The band’s debut EP, Neu Smell (Crass 1981) combined two punk songs—a new version of the Epileptics’ “Tube Disasters” and “Background of Malfunction”—with two short poems advocating animal rights and backed by abstract synthesizer sounds.
Latter and Birkett played with former Discharge drummer Bambi and guitarist Simon Middlehurst between the recording of the Crass EP and the recording of the band’s first album at Southern Studios in 1982. Flux of Pink Indians’ membership became more or less stable with the addition of ex-Epileptic Kevin Hunter on guitar and Martin Wilson on drums. This lineup of the band recorded Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible (Spiderleg 1982), a classic album of the anarcho-punk genre, released on the band’s own Spiderleg label.
Flux of Pink Indians’ second album, a double LP called The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks (a/k/a The Fucking Pricks Treat Us Like Cunts, Spiderleg 1984), claims to address sexual assault, and seems to present a series of studio jams layered with electronic effects and noises and edited into one long collage; the CD release of the album (One Little Indian 1989) presents it as a single hourlong track with no breaks. The album’s title and cover art, a line drawing depicting nude female forms with erections that resemble both penises and machine guns, did not endear the band to local merchants or authorities. Retailer HMV refused to carry the album, and Manchester police seized copies, citing obscenity laws. Flux of Pink Indians also released the Taking A Liberty 7” (Spiderleg 1984).
On Uncarved Block (One Little Indian 1986), the band shortened its name to Flux and worked with dub producer Adrian Sherwood, who brought in some musicians associated with his ON-U Sound label. Uncarved Block was the first release on Derek Birkett’s new label, One Little Indian. Flux came to an end when Latter moved out of Flux’s communal house in 1986. Birkett has continued to operate One Little Indian, the label that is home to megastar Björk, who originally sang in the Crass Records band KUKL. Birkett did not cooperate with writer Ian Glasper in the writing of his book The Day The Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk 1980-1984 (Cherry Red 2006), in which Latter, Hunter and Wilson claim that Birkett tried to control the band. Author Glasper himself played bass when Flux of Pink Indians reunited to perform at Crass singer Steve Ignorant’s Feeding of the 5000 concert in 2007.
