Penny Rimbaud
Encyclopedia
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.
, the 'Penny' being a pun on the phrase "arfer (half a) penny", referring to the long discontinued British Ha'penny coin) was expelled from two public schools, Brentwood School and Lindisfarne College
, and went on to study philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford
, before quickly realising that, in his own words, 'Oxford wasn't about learning, but about a peculiarly unpleasant form of class indoctrination'. From there he worked briefly in the rag-trade at Warner & Sons of Berners Street, purveyors of fine furnishing fabrics, from which he was sacked for 'liberating' a length of silk brocade out of which his girlfriend had fashioned a ball gown. After a period of bohemian
wandering in Spain he enrolled at the South East Essex Technical College and School of Art in the early 1960s, where he met his life-long creative partner Gee Vaucher
. While there, he exhibited a talent for tailoring, and quick to realise the potential within the then fledgling Pop Art
movement, he scored considerable success as an innovator.
It is widely believed that Rimbaud (aka Jeremy) was the model for John Lennon
's 1965 song "Nowhere Man". In 1964 he appeared on Granada TV's Ready Steady Go!
to receive a prize from Lennon for winning a competition to produce a piece of artwork depicting The Beatles
' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". His prize was a copy of Mingus by Charlie Mingus and Dmitri Shostakovich
's Cello Concerto, to which Lennon, clearly discomfited, remarked 'Rocker!', adding as an aside, 'That's nowhere, man. I'll get you for that'.
In 1962, while travelling around the Costa Brava
Rimbaud and his friend Mick Smee (also known as "the Pope") made up a dance called Le Twiddle as a riposte to both the Twist
and to a lesser extent Johnny Hallyday
's Le Madison
. Le Twiddle was particularly licentious and became popular with young men in bars and nightclubs leading to outraged reports in the Spanish press ("English Claim Pope Invented New Dance"), which in turn attracted the attention of Franco's Fascist Guardia who banned it, making several arrests to prove their point. Rimbaud and Smee managed to escape unscathed.
Inspired by the film Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Rimbaud set up the anarchist/pacifist
Dial House community in 1967 with Gee Vaucher
, and, together with his friend Phil Russell (aka Wally Hope
), helped to instigate the free festival
movement at Windsor
and later Stonehenge
during the early 1970s.
As documented in Rimbaud's essay Last of the Hippies and his autobiography Shibboleth, Russell was arrested and incarcerated in a mental institution after having been found in possession of a small amount of LSD
. He was later released, but appeared to have been seriously mentally damaged by his experiences, especially the side effects of prescription drug
s that he had been administered, and subsequently died. The official verdict is that Russell committed suicide
, although Rimbaud claims that he uncovered strong evidence that he was murdered. Rimbaud has claimed that it was his anger over unanswered questions surrounding his friend's death that fueled and inspired him to form Crass.
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Although Crass disbanded in 1984, Rimbaud continued to write and perform both as a solo artist and as a part of the Crass Collective alongside other ex members of the band such as Eve Libertine
, Gee Vaucher
and Steve Ignorant, as well as other artists and musicians.
His works include the originally self-published
Reality Asylum, a vitriolic attack on Christianity
which has appeared as a 2 minute track on Crass' 1978 debut album The Feeding of the 5000
, as a longer single and as a 45 minute spoken word monologue.
He also wrote Rocky Eyed, an extended poem attacking then prime minister
Margaret Thatcher
and her government following the 1982 Falklands War
which was recorded as the Crass album Yes Sir, I Will
, The Death of Imagination (a 'musical drama in 4 parts'), The Diamond Signature (published by AK Press
) and Oh America, a response to the events of September 11, 2001 and America's subsequent War on Terror
which includes the line Give us justice which is not the searing spite of revenge, peace which is not the product of war nor dependent upon it.
Since 2003 he has worked as part of Crass Agenda (latterly Last Amendment
), performing live and releasing material in CD format including Savage Utopia, a collaboration with Coldcut
's Matt Black
and other jazz musicians, and How?, a reworking of Allen Ginsberg
's beat
poem Howl
, recorded live at the Vortex Jazz Club
.
During 2005 Rimbaud completed a philosophical
work "This Crippled Flesh" (first and second editions published by Bracketpress, 2010), as well as appearing in Dominic Thackray's short film Girlfriend in a Kimono
.
He has written introductions to books including the controversial The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World
and Graham Burnett's 'Earth Writings' and is currently (as of 2007) working on a "Jazz Requiem" with saxophonist Ed Jones. He is also a regular columnist for the Stoke Newington based magazine "N16".
He contributed several spoken word tracks to the 2008 Japanther
album Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt. Rimbaud also features on the 2010 album by The Charlatans (UK band) Who We Touch. Most recently (September/October/November 2010), he has been studying with Dr Matthew W Griffiths, Professor of Physics at the University of New Haven
. They are currently co-authoring a book - Tricking the Impossible: An Investigation into Modern Alchemic Thought - about which Rimbaud asserts on Street Carnage that 'quantum is the new poetry of the soul'.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Penny Rimbaud, is a drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, former member of performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
groups EXIT
EXIT (performance art group)
EXIT were a performance art group during the mid 1970s. EXIT members Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher later founded anarchist punk rock band Crass, adopting many of EXIT's experimental/multi media techniques into Crass' presentation....
and Ceres Confusion, and co-founder of the anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band 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...
with Steve Ignorant
Steve Ignorant
Steve Ignorant is a singer and artist. He co-founded the anarcho-punk band Crass with Penny Rimbaud in 1977. After Crass stopped performing in 1984, he has worked with other groups including Conflict, Schwartzeneggar, The Stratford Mercenaries, Current 93 , US punk band Thought Crime, as well as...
in 1977.
Biography
Rimbaud (so named as a tribute to poet Arthur RimbaudArthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, the 'Penny' being a pun on the phrase "arfer (half a) penny", referring to the long discontinued British Ha'penny coin) was expelled from two public schools, Brentwood School and Lindisfarne College
Lindisfarne College
Lindisfarne College was a private school or independent school. It was founded in 1891 in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, England. In 1940 Lindisfarne College moved from Westcliff to nearby Creeksea Place, but during World War II the building was requisitioned by the military and the school transferred...
, and went on to study philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, before quickly realising that, in his own words, 'Oxford wasn't about learning, but about a peculiarly unpleasant form of class indoctrination'. From there he worked briefly in the rag-trade at Warner & Sons of Berners Street, purveyors of fine furnishing fabrics, from which he was sacked for 'liberating' a length of silk brocade out of which his girlfriend had fashioned a ball gown. After a period of bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
wandering in Spain he enrolled at the South East Essex Technical College and School of Art in the early 1960s, where he met his life-long creative partner Gee Vaucher
Gee Vaucher
Gee Vaucher is a visual artist who was born in 1945 in Dagenham, East London.Her work with Anarcho-punk band Crass was seminal to the 'protest art' of the 1980s. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change. In her collection of early works Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist...
. While there, he exhibited a talent for tailoring, and quick to realise the potential within the then fledgling Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
movement, he scored considerable success as an innovator.
It is widely believed that Rimbaud (aka Jeremy) was the model for John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's 1965 song "Nowhere Man". In 1964 he appeared on Granada TV's Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...
to receive a prize from Lennon for winning a competition to produce a piece of artwork depicting The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". His prize was a copy of Mingus by Charlie Mingus and Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's Cello Concerto, to which Lennon, clearly discomfited, remarked 'Rocker!', adding as an aside, 'That's nowhere, man. I'll get you for that'.
In 1962, while travelling around the Costa Brava
Costa Brava
The Costa Brava is a coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, Spain, in the comarques of Alt Empordà, Baix Empordà and Selva, in the province of Girona. Costa is the Catalan and Spanish word for 'coast', and Brava means 'rugged' or 'wild'...
Rimbaud and his friend Mick Smee (also known as "the Pope") made up a dance called Le Twiddle as a riposte to both the Twist
Twist (dance)
The Twist was a dance inspired by rock and roll music. It became the first worldwide dance craze in the early 1960s, enjoying immense popularity among young people and drawing fire from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed...
and to a lesser extent Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to one of the most popular French female singers: Sylvie Vartan...
's Le Madison
Madison (dance)
The Madison is a novelty dance that was popular in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. The Madison was created and first danced in Columbus, Ohio, in 1957. The local popularity of the dance and record in Baltimore, Maryland, came to the attention of the producers of The Buddy Deane Show in 1960...
. Le Twiddle was particularly licentious and became popular with young men in bars and nightclubs leading to outraged reports in the Spanish press ("English Claim Pope Invented New Dance"), which in turn attracted the attention of Franco's Fascist Guardia who banned it, making several arrests to prove their point. Rimbaud and Smee managed to escape unscathed.
Inspired by the film Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Rimbaud set up the anarchist/pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
Dial House community in 1967 with Gee Vaucher
Gee Vaucher
Gee Vaucher is a visual artist who was born in 1945 in Dagenham, East London.Her work with Anarcho-punk band Crass was seminal to the 'protest art' of the 1980s. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change. In her collection of early works Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist...
, and, together with his friend Phil Russell (aka Wally Hope
Wally Hope
Wally Hope was a name by which Phillip Russell was known.Phil was a visionary and a free-thinker, whose life has had a profound influence on many in the culture of the UK Underground and beyond...
), helped to instigate the free festival
Free festival
Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities for which, often, no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised control. The Free festival movement being the...
movement at Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
and later Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
during the early 1970s.
As documented in Rimbaud's essay Last of the Hippies and his autobiography Shibboleth, Russell was arrested and incarcerated in a mental institution after having been found in possession of a small amount of LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. He was later released, but appeared to have been seriously mentally damaged by his experiences, especially the side effects of prescription drug
Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...
s that he had been administered, and subsequently died. The official verdict is that Russell committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, although Rimbaud claims that he uncovered strong evidence that he was murdered. Rimbaud has claimed that it was his anger over unanswered questions surrounding his friend's death that fueled and inspired him to form Crass.
Eve Libertine
Eve Libertine is a British singer.She was one of the two female vocalists who worked with the influential British anarcho-punk band Crass...
, Gee Vaucher
Gee Vaucher
Gee Vaucher is a visual artist who was born in 1945 in Dagenham, East London.Her work with Anarcho-punk band Crass was seminal to the 'protest art' of the 1980s. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change. In her collection of early works Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist...
and Steve Ignorant, as well as other artists and musicians.
His works include the originally self-published
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...
Reality Asylum, a vitriolic attack on Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
which has appeared as a 2 minute track on Crass' 1978 debut album The Feeding of the 5000
The Feeding of the 5000 (album)
The Feeding of the 5000 is the first album by Crass, released in 1978. Crass never gained a large mainstream audience, but their virulently anti-establishment lyrics and anarchist politics brought the band a committed following upon the record’s release....
, as a longer single and as a 45 minute spoken word monologue.
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
and her government following the 1982 Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
which was recorded as the Crass album Yes Sir, I Will
Yes Sir, I Will
Yes Sir, I Will, released by Crass in 1983 , was the band's last 'official' album. The record consists of one continuous piece of music spread over the two sides of the original vinyl release , making it the longest punk song ever recorded, although this is intercut with two brief interludes; a...
, The Death of Imagination (a 'musical drama in 4 parts'), The Diamond Signature (published by AK Press
AK Press
AK Press is a worker-managed independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. It is collectively owned and operated.-History:...
) and Oh America, a response to the events of September 11, 2001 and America's subsequent War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
which includes the line Give us justice which is not the searing spite of revenge, peace which is not the product of war nor dependent upon it.
Since 2003 he has worked as part of Crass Agenda (latterly Last Amendment
Last Amendment
Last Amendment is the working title of a series of collaborations by ex-members of the anarchist punk band Crass and others...
), performing live and releasing material in CD format including Savage Utopia, a collaboration with Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
's Matt Black
Matt Black
Matt Black is a British DJ and one half of music duo Coldcut .As a college student, he was a member of a band called The Jazz Insects, whose first single was played by John Peel in his radio show...
and other jazz musicians, and How?, a reworking of Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
's beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
poem Howl
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
, recorded live at the Vortex Jazz Club
Vortex Jazz Club
The Vortex Jazz Club is a London venue that primarily features live contemporary jazz. The club's official website features book reviews and jazz CD reviews by critic Chris Parker....
.
During 2005 Rimbaud completed a philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
work "This Crippled Flesh" (first and second editions published by Bracketpress, 2010), as well as appearing in Dominic Thackray's short film Girlfriend in a Kimono
Girlfriend in a Kimono
Girlfriend in a Kimono is a short film shot in the summer of 2005, written and directed by Dominic Thackray who describes it as an anti-romance. Named after the 1987 song Girlfriend in a Coma by the Smiths, it tells the tale of autoslacker Vincent who falls for French burlesque dancer Candice, and...
.
He has written introductions to books including the controversial The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World
The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World
The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World is an anglophobic book written by Steven A. Grasse, the chief executive officer of Philadelphia marketing agency Gyro. It was first published in April 2007 by Quirk Books. In it, the author argues that many of the world's problems were...
and Graham Burnett's 'Earth Writings' and is currently (as of 2007) working on a "Jazz Requiem" with saxophonist Ed Jones. He is also a regular columnist for the Stoke Newington based magazine "N16".
He contributed several spoken word tracks to the 2008 Japanther
Japanther
Japanther is an art project, established by Matt Reilly and Ian Vanek, then students at Pratt Institute. Japanther was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 2011 Venice Biennale, and has collaborated with a diverse pool of artists such as gelitin, Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, Dan Graham,...
album Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt. Rimbaud also features on the 2010 album by The Charlatans (UK band) Who We Touch. Most recently (September/October/November 2010), he has been studying with Dr Matthew W Griffiths, Professor of Physics at the University of New Haven
University of New Haven
The University of New Haven is a private university that combines a liberal arts education with professional training. The university comprises five colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the Tagliatela College of Engineering, the Henry C...
. They are currently co-authoring a book - Tricking the Impossible: An Investigation into Modern Alchemic Thought - about which Rimbaud asserts on Street Carnage that 'quantum is the new poetry of the soul'.
Discography
(See also full Crass discography. Rimbaud plays on all albums and singles)- Christ's Reality Asylum (Crass records, 1992, spoken word cassette)
- The Death of Imagination (Red Herring Records)
- Savage Utopia (Babel LabelBabel LabelThe Babel Label is a record label was founded in 1994 by Oliver Weindling. It primarily records and releases jazz albums from UK artists. Ongoing relationships include artists such as Billy Jenkins, Christine Tobin and Huw Warren. A close relationship has been forged with a number of musicians from...
, 2004, performed by Crass Agenda) - How? (Babel Label, 2004, Rimbauds interpretation of Ginsberg's Howl)
- In the Beginning Was the WORD - Live DVD recorded at the Progress Bar, Tufnell Park, London, 18 November 2004, performed by Crass Agenda (Gallery gallery Productions @ Le Chaos Factory, 2006)
External links
- Rimbaud's website
- Southern Studio website pages on Rimbaud
- Interview with Penny Rimbaud
- The Pig's Head Controversy
- Extract from Fierce dancing by C.J.Stone, Rimbaud talking about Wally Hope
- PUNKCAST#1065 Video of Rimbaud/Elliott - Last Amendment - at Gavin Brown Passerby NYC on Nov 8 2006.
- bracketpress.co.uk Bracketpress website, publishers of Rimbaud's essays and poetry.