Afflicted were an English punk band formed in 1978, who originally had seven members including guitarist Steve Hall, who was the main drive of the band. The group were controversial in its early days when they attracted far right supporters to their gigs, due to the presence of band members Nicky Crane (vocalist) and Glenn Bennet (bassist) who were leaders in the neo-nazi British Movement. After news came out from the press of neo-nazi involvement, the band were banned performing gigs throughout London. Eventually Steve Hall disbanded the group in 1980 and became a one man band under the name of The Afflicted Man, who then split in 1982, resulting in Hall joining the Accursed, before in the 1990's becoming a born again Christian playing music to prisoners.
Links To Peel[]
Peel played the first single by Afflicted on his 11 December 1979 show and described how somebody complained to the BBC about the band's connection to the far right, after he announced that he will play their single Be Aware:
"...At the beginning of the programme, I said I was going to play the new single of the Afflicted and immediately somebody phoned the BBC and said this band is associated with one of these extreme right wing movements and because uhh I think it is important to find out this is the case or not. I actually phoned the mother of the member of the band and she assured me this was not so, although some people had been associated with in the past were so involved but she told me it wasn't the case now..."
On the Appendix section of Margrave Of The Marshes, Peel mentions the British Movement having a campaign in sending turds to him through the post, although on that occasion it was not linked to Afflicted members Nicky Crane or Glenn Bennet, but through Peel playing reggae music.
Shows Played[]
Afflicted Man - Be Aware
- 1979
- 11 December 1979: Be Aware (7” - I’m Afflicted) Bonk
- 1980
- 05 January 1980 (BFBS): Be Aware (7" - I'm Afflicted) Bonk AFF 1
- 21 July 1980: Anywhere-Sleeper (album - The Afflicted Man's Musical Bag) Bonk
- 13 August 1980: Hippy-Skin (LP - The Afflicted Man's Musical Bag) Bonk