DO THEY OWE US A LIVING?
How could punk band fool MI6, shake up Margaret Thatcher and almost trigger WW3?
Crass partook in a number of protests during the late 70's and early 80's - The most successful of which being in 1982 when they recorded a spoof conversation between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan which resulted in M16 having to tell Thatcher that they may have found a new Soviet propaganda campaign.
The band merged recordings of Regan and Thatcher together to make it seem as though they were arguing over the Falklands War, as well as discussing the possibility of launching nuclear weapons in Germany. The election was looming and they wanted to seriously dent Thatcher's reputation.
They went on to send the tapes to a number of Europe's major newspapers- most simply tossed the tapes aside and forgot about them, Thatcher was re-elected and then the US State Department got hold of them and branded it as Soviet propaganda. M16, the CIA and the US State Department were in contact regarding the tape for over two years.
Thatcher was ever worried about a recording that the band had pieced together and planned to appear on panorama.
Crass were finally exposed by The Observer after extensive phone calls and interview attempts in 1984, prompting a visit from the police at their Essex HQ.
Punk.