Autumn Poison were an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 anarcho-punk

Anarcho-punk

Anarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...

 band from Southend on Sea, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, between 1980 and 1985. A number of musicians in the Southend area passed through the group, including Julian Ware Lane and Chris Kemp of 86 Mix, Kevin Hickling, Steve Palmer, James Perry and Wayne Avrilli, though the 'core members' were Graham Burnett (previously of Stripey Zebras

Stripey Zebras

Stripey Zebras were a post punk band from Southend on Sea in Essex, UK. The group formed in 1980 with a line-up consisting of*Martin Fulton - Vocals*Graham Burnett - Drums*Martin Hardy - Guitar*Stephen Dobson - Bass/Vocals*...

), Sheena Fulton and Paul Brown. The band played a number of gigs in the Southend area, often in conjunction with the like-minded Kronstadt Uprising

Kronstadt Uprising (band)

This article is about the band Kronstadt Uprising. For information about the historical event see Kronstadt UprisingKrondstadt Uprising were an anarcho-punk band from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK during the 1980s.-History:...

, many of which were benefits

Benefit concert

A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...

 for organisations such as Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

 and local animal rights

Animal rights

Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...

 groups.

Autumn Poison were part of the cassette culture

Cassette culture

Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...

 movement, releasing two cassette albums for New Crimes fanzine

Fanzine

A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...

, although did not release any vinyl until 1994, when Brown and Burnett reformed the group to record a track for the Bullshit Detector

Bullshit Detector

Bullshit Detector was the name of a series of compilation LPs put together by the anarcho-punk band Crass and released on their Crass Records label. Three editions were released between 1980 and 1984, consisting of demo tapes, rough recordings and artwork that had been sent to the band...

 Volume 4 compilation put together by Resistance Productions.

Brown and Burnett also occasionally collaborated under the name of Love Over Law after Autumn Poison disbanded.

Autumn Poison releases

• Songs of Anger, Songs of Hope (cassette album, New Crimes Tapes, 1982)
• Kitchen Sink Politics (cassette album, New Crimes Tapes, 1984)
• "Utopia, A New World In Our Hearts", track on Bullshit Detector Volume 4, (Resistance Productions, 1994 (includes a sample of Crass
  Crass
  Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
  
   drummer Penny Rimbaud
  Penny Rimbaud
  Jeremy John Ratter , better known under his pseudonym of Penny Rimbaud, is a drummer, writer, poet, former member of performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and co-founder of the anarchist punk band Crass with Steve Ignorant in 1977.-Biography:Rimbaud Jeremy John Ratter (born 8 June 1943,...
  
  ))

Love Over Law releases

• This World We Must Leave (cassette album and booklet, 1988)
• We Were Interested In Ideas, Not Rock and Roll (cassette album, Vegan Policeman tapes, 1994, compilation of live tracks by Autumn Poison and miscellaneous Love Over Law recordings that had appeared elsewhere) Re-released and distributed by Front Cover Records.
• "A Message to All Rulers, Leaders and Other Mass Murderers", track on Screams from the Silence volume 3, (Loony Tunes Records, 1993)

External links

• Autumn Poison page from the 'Southend Punk History' website