Political Asylum was formed in February 82 by myself and Stephen Brown, who was in my year at Stirling High School. We called him Cheesy in those days, and still do, though he, understandably, much prefers Steve. I had just been kicked out of a new wave band for being too "punky". Cheesy had been playing along to every rock and metal record he could get his hands on in his bedroom for several years. I was 15, he was 14. We shared a love of music and we were ready to rock. We started practicing and writing songs, played a few gigs (including at the High School, where we were thrown off after 4 songs by the headmaster for inciting a "riot"), and went through just about everyone in Stirling under the age of 21 who had a bass guitar or a drum kit.

We were enthusiastic, dedicated and very amatuerish. We quite happily ripped off anyone and everyone in our songwriting exploits. The bass riff to "Trust in Me" is note for note that of the intro to Black Flag's "Six Pack", while the original version of "Apathy" lifted 8 entire bars of the guitar solo from Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing". And there are no prizes for spotting the complete bass riff and guitar part from Public Image's "Public Image" deftly inserted as a bridge in "The Responsibility".

The first name we had was not Political Asylum, but Distraught. Just think, we were a "Dis" band years before it was fashionable!

In 1986, we played a couple of gigs in the Birmingham area. Our support band was someone we had never heard before, but whom we fell about laughing when we heard soundcheck. They were called Napalm death.

Cos we started real young, none of the band had a driving licence, and virtually all of our touring was done via National Express in the early years. This meant all we could carry was our guitars and sleeping bags, so we always had to borrow other bands' equipment (usually the support bands). The only band ever to NOT let us borrow their equipment was the UK Subs. This was in 1985, and was the shitty Huntington Beach line-up, so i guess we should have expected that.

In the mid-80s, Mars (the confectionery, not the planet) came out with a great offer with National Express, where if you collected coupons from Mars wrappers you could get free bus tickets. We financed several tours this way. Coincidentally, there was a boycott being called by various animal rights groups against Mars, cos they were experimenting on monkeys' teeth or somesuch. When certain segments of the "holier than thou" animal rights obsessed punker scene found out about such traitorous actions on our part, we were abused and castigated by sections of the burgeoning fanzine scene. We thought the whole thing rather amusing. Here we were, a bunch of kids practicing DIY, and we were getting slagged by part-time rich bastards. Ironically enough, none of us actually even LIKED Mars bars. We just pulled the used wrappers out of litter bins.

If no-one would put us up after a show, in the years before we could hire a van, we would have to sleep outside. Not the most pleasant experience in a British winter. We once slept in a bus shelter in West Bromwich High Street, and the next night in Birmingham's Bullring market (which was a relative luxury as we could sleep on the market stalls). Apparently a massive gang-fight broke out that night at the market, though i blissfully slept through it all.

Practically every show we ever played was a benefit. The usual recipients were animal rights, peace and anarchist groups, with anti-poll tax groups picking up the slack in the late 80s. We never signed a contract with anyone, ever. We never had a booking agent, a manager, or even a roadie. The only major labels that ever approached us with an interest to signing us were CBS and Electra - both in 1987. Presumably after the release of the fairly listener-friendly "Someday" mini LP. We told them to fuck-off.

The main musical influences on the band were probably Husker Du, Rush, and the late Randy Rhoads. This was added to in the late 80s, when we were blown away by the Descendents "Enjoy".

We were all good union members, signed up with the Musicians Union. Perhaps the only tangible benefit we received was getting to play some bizarre shows. We played a Musicians Against Nuclear Arms benefit with a string quartet!

Etc. Etc.

Ramsey Kanaan, San Francisco, June 1997

The picture above left is the cover of the Live in Lubeck EP recorded on our 1987 European tour which we did with German band Pissed Boys. (The EP was released on "Fuck Your Brain Records" - right-on kids!) Another public transport tour, this time we all bought Inter-Rail tickets, four-week unlimited rail travel throughout Europe. So, rucksacks, guitars, pedals and drumsticks in hand we head to Belgium. The Pissed Boys would meet us at the local train station for whatever gig we had, they very kindly let us use their backline and PA, next morning drop us off at the station and they'd drive their bus and meet us at the next town. Fantastic way to gig. Only one time we almost lost Keith at Hamburg station. We'd found the train for Heidelberg, our next gig, but no Keith. Eventually we found him, sitting comfortably, waving to us from the Copenhagen train! We managed to drag him off just in time.

I left Political Asylum in 1987 after the European tour. The four of us had been attending universities in Edinburgh and while Ramsey, Keith and Ewan were returning to their studies, I had decided to take a year out to play more guitar, with  view to turning pro. I never did go back to uni, but somehow managed to scrape together a degree in chemistry, and I make a mean Tom Yum soup!

REVIVAL!!

At the end of last year a nice chap from Finland got in touch with Ramsey and i with plans to release a couple of CD compilations of our demos and vinyl, with distribution hopefully through Boss Tuneage - thank you Jallu!

Meanwhile check out the full original complete catalogue available here. Visit the shop and the SBE Records page for more info.

Steve Brown, Arisaig, January 2004