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Stone The Crowz were a London-based anarcho punk band active in the ‘80s. They produced a couple of demo tracks which subsequently found homes on a few influential compilations before the band broke up.

Stone the Crowz

Biography

Formed in 1982 by Trevor Speed and Trevor Delasalle, Stone the Crowz took their name from the lyrics of the Crass track Death Church: “Stone The Crows and fuck the pigs and pass the ammunition…”

Using a Z to replace the S at the end of Crowz was not just a case of “punk-rock spelling”, it was a deliberate ploy to ensure they were not mistaken for the Glaswegian Blues Rock band of the same name.

Formed in East London / Essex, a mutual love of Crass and all things anarcho first brought Speed and Delasalle together, and after several false starts with different musicians they finally found what they were looking for in Steve Beatty (drums)and Matthew Sheath (bass). Very quickly they had a set and made their live debut supporting The Subhumans. A baptism of fire, they admit they were mostly awful, but they had a ball.

In just under a year they were in the studio and recording their first 6-track demo in 1985 covering all the anarcho subjects. But with three vegetarians and one vegan in the band, their real passion was animal rights.

They played venues in London and the Home Counties with Liberty and Exit-Stance and an Endangered Music tour with The Fiend, Criminal Justice and HDQ.

A second demo soon followed with a much angrier feel. This time the words were backed up with members of the band being involved in hunt sabbing and other forms of direct action. Tracks from both demos ended up on vinyl: Mortarhates’ We Won’t Be Your Fucking Poor, Endangered Music’s Relying On Us EP and Punk Lives, Let’s Slam released by Slam Records.

Nevertheless, the band disbanded soon after due to “musical differences”, but Beatty went on to release the seminal ‘Out From The Void’ EP by Anti-Sect which helped kick start a whole new genre of punk metal/crust which in turn inspired Delasalle and Sheath to form Axegrinder.

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