ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1980s the post-punk scene of guitar-based bands in the UK had dwindled to a shadow of its former self. Anarcho-punk would continue to thrive in certain locations, such as Bradford Club and squat venues all over Europe, but has never since regained the kind of critical mass it commanded in the early 1980s. Doubtless, some listeners have felt themselves to have uncovered a certain justice through an encounter with Crass and anarcho-punk in the period since the 1980s, perhaps indeed, in this encounter, a certain micromatic event has arrived. The 1990s indie scene, then, although it principally grew from the late 1980s cutie scene, was something of a betrayal of the punk underground which, earlier in the 1980s, had been so politically charged by the anarcho-punk scene. A critical punk underground persevered in the margins of the 1990s, nevertheless; it continues to suggest that anyone can do it today.
