Political Asylum (band)
| Political Asylum | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Stirling, Scotland |
| Genres | Anarcho-punk |
| Years active | 1982–1993 |
| Associated acts | The Apostles, Oi Polloi, Seeing Red, Nectar 3, Zapruder, Folk This!, The Assassenachs |
| Website | facebook |
| Past members | See below |
Political Asylum were a Scottish anarcho-punk band formed in Stirling in 1982 and active until 1993.
The band was formed in early 1982 by 15-year-old Stirling High School students Ramsey Kanaan (vocals & bass) and Stephen "Cheesy" Brown (guitar). Originally named Distraught, they tried out several potential drummers before settling on schoolmate Chris "Spike" Low, two years their junior. Changing their name to Political Asylum, they organised gigs around the Stirling area, and in early 1983 booked a studio for two days to record their first release, the 15-track cassette Fresh Hate. Self-released, it eventually sold over 6000 copies. Kanaan soon decided to concentrate solely on vocals and a number of bass players came and went before the arrival of classmate Norman Thomson in late 1983. Low left the band the following year, going on to play for The Apostles and Oi Polloi, while Kanaan, Brown and Thomson relocated to Edinburgh to go to university, also the home of their new drummer, Tam Francis. Here they recorded their second cassette release, Valium For The Masses, which displayed an increasingly hard rock-influenced guitar style, and set a precedent for releases which mixed studio and live recordings. By now they were playing gigs further afield, including a trip to Belfast to support Subhumans and Conflict, where they were spotted by Tim Bennett of the Bristol-based Children Of The Revolution label. This led to their first vinyl release, the 7-inch EP Winter, which featured new versions of three Fresh Hate songs and a 5-piece lineup which added Francis' friend Pete Barnett on rhythm guitar. All 3000 copies were sold within a year of its release. Despite this success and a couple of short UK tours, personality clashes led to the departure of both Francis and Barnett in the autumn of 1985.
Reverting to a 4-piece, the band recruited drummer Keith Burns, a university friend of Brown's from Buckhaven, Fife, and recorded the five studio tracks featured on the Walls Have Ears cassette, four of which were new songs. They continued to gig constantly, but Thomson decided to leave in the spring of 1986 to move back to Stirling and was replaced on bass by Ewan Hunt, a school friend of Burns from Leven, Fife. This lineup played all over the UK and recorded the Someday mini-LP for the Edinburgh label Big Noise Records, run by Paddy O'Connell. It featured two new songs, along with re-recordings of three tracks from Walls and two from Valium and was co-released by the German punk label We Bite. Following its release, the band played their first European tour in the summer of 1987, the German leg of which was named the 'Seeing Red Tour' by its organisers and co-headliners, the Lübeck-based band Pissed Boys. However, musical differences, which had been brewing for a while, led to Brown's departure after the tour, and he went on to form a hard rock band, also named Seeing Red. He was replaced by Edinburgh guitarist Stevie Dewar, formerly of Sad Society. This new lineup gigged extensively, including a second, much longer, European tour in the summer of 1988, sharing bills with the likes of NOFX and Christ on Parade, and a lengthy UK tour in early 1989 with Thatcher On Acid and Chumbawamba's Danbert Nobacon. All of the money raised on the latter went to help local anti-Poll Tax groups. A live recording made on this tour formed the basis of the Window On The World LP, which also featured studio re-workings of the Someday material with Dewar on guitar. However, running out of steam, the band split up following a short American tour that summer and Dewar moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands, while Kanaan concentrated on his nascent radical publishing house, AK Press, and Burns switched to guitar to form the alternative rock trio Nectar 3.
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