PENNY RIMBAUD: INTERVIEWS by V. Vale of Re/search Publications

Penny Rimbaud is probably most famous as the drummer, songwriter and philosopher-founder of the proto-Punk band CRASS (1976-1984), which in a pioneering D-I-Y spirit produced their own vinyl LPs which included dazzling poster-size artworks by Gee Vaucher (plus lyrics, essays) hand-inserted into plastic sleeves. The listener had a lot to look at while hearing the record! After-CRASS, Penny has written poetry, journals, prose, produced drawings, lectured, read poems aloud and done musical performances (with Japanther, jazz musicians) in Europe, London and at City Lights Bookstore and Emerald Tablet in San Francisco. Also notable is the CRASS promulgation of vegetarian diet, which caused thousands of Punk “anarchists” to identify with vegetarianism. For nearly fifty years, the CRASS experiment with collective living on a farm producing regular crops of vegetables, still exists as “Dial House.” Penny is an amazing improvisatory cook as well as a baker of hearty home-made bread. “Performe