Steve Lake phoned me up one day just after the Mclibel trial had ended and the appeal campaign was launched and said he wanted to do something to help. The result was two amazing benefit gigs at Chats Palace in Hackney and this single released by Rugger Bugger and ourselves. The "A side" is an extended version of their working of This Land and Alone had never been heard before!
Zounds were an anarchist post-punk band with an altogether gloomier and more polished sound than the abrasive crash'n'bash of their mentors in Crass. Formed in 1977, Zounds was the brainchild of bassist/vocalist Steve Lake, a native of Reading who'd moved to Oxford and lived in a squatters community.
The band was part of the cassette culture movement, releasing material on the "F**k Off Records" tape label, and were also involved in the squatting and free festival scene.
The benefit single "This Land" was released in support of Dave Morris, the man sued by the McDonald's corporation for libel.
Now super rare!
This version of This Land is not on the discography, CD.
From the dirty water of the river Thames
To the rusting cranes of the tee another tyne
The land that's choking with wires and plugs
Strangles with fences and stuck with knives
Was this land made for you and me?
This town is your town and this town is my town
From the derelict slums that are dirty and grey
To the house on the hill in the private estate
The places nice kids would never go
To the places no-one else has the right to go
Was this land made for you and me?
Made for you and me
This street is your street and this street is my street
From the broken phone box where the gangs all meet
To the glass on the path that cuts your feet
To the neighboors next door who refuse to speak
??? To the cope in the hunter doing its bleak ???
Was this land made for you and me?
It's your world too you can do what you want
It's your world too, it's your world too...
