Scritti Politti

After witnessing a show by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and The Heartbreakers in 1976, Green Gartside felt as if he had been “given permission” to form a band. Scritti Politti was the result, a Camden-based, squat-dwelling collective who produced what he describes as “scratchy-collapsy” music, all tumbling drums, stumbling reggae basslines and tinny guitars. After releasing a clutch of singles and the debut album 'Songs to Remember', the band underwent a tectonic shift, inspired by black American R&B pop of the early 1980s. “Just fantastic, liberating music… A sort of epiphany,” Green remembers. Geoff Travis at Rough Trade introduced him to keyboard wizard David Gamson and drummer Fred Maher, and this new con...