AS the leader of radical band Crass, Steve Ignorant was at the forefront of the anarchist punk movement.

During their seven years on the road, the band gave away thousands of pounds to causes ranging from CND to striking miners.

Rejecting major labels, they could, at their height, shift 20,000 singles in a week with no advertising and no airplay.

Combining shock value, black humour and distinctive graphic style, Crass found it easy to get their message across.

When Crass disappeared from view, however, Ignorant performed with a host of other bands, including Conflict, before the tide of life took an altogether different turn.

Having moved to the sleepy Norfolk village of Sea Palling, he joined the crew of the village’s independent lifeboat service, where he still serves.

“People ask me is there any similarity between playing in Crass and getting called out on a lifeboat, and funnily enough there is,” said Ignorant who will talk about his remarkable life at this weekend’s Louder Than Words Literary Festival in Manchester.

“It is incredibly humbling when people, some with tears in their eyes, say to me: ‘Steve, thank you for saving my life, or changing my life – Crass really did that.’

“That might sound a bit dramatic, but I see the lifeboat as an extension of that.

“I’ve spent 40 years screaming down a microphone, but when I’m on the lifeboat I’m not Steve Ignorant – I’m just crew number nine.

“There are no airs and graces, you just do it.”

He added: “It is a very scary experience going out in a North Sea storm, and dipping in and out of giant, foaming waves.

“I still get the trembles, start talking like a madman, just like I used to use before I went on stage with Crass.

“There’s many people who were into Crass or punk who all still doing incredibly worthwhile things with their lives

“I’ve met journalists, nurses, doctors, librarians, joiners and farmers, all putting something back into life.

“Sometimes I do wish I could sit on the sofa and watch old episodes of On The Buses or Minder, but I can’t.”

Crass, with their unbending revolutionary message, always lived on the musical fringes with early LP’s Feeding of the 5,000 and Stations of the Crass.

Their fans, and there were many, saw them as punk idealists, the band and some of their followers living in an Essex commune.

“We were amateurs when we started Crass, we had nothing to lose,” said Steve.

“We were fighting for our survival at gigs, and in life too.

“I can still the taste the fear and tension, waiting for the violence to happen, people trying to hurt us because of what we represented.

“But it seemed to inspire folk, and Crass sort of became an information bureau.

“A lot of people listening to the records were 16-year-olds who’d never heard of Anarchism, Ban The Bomb or CND.

“But if Crass formed today would it have the same relevance?

“I’m not sure. If I wrote a song about anarchism people would say, ‘I Googled it last night.”

Ignorant, who now performs with his band Slice of Life, added: “We wrote about a time and a place, but it still has a deep resonance today.

“He we are – in the 21st century – and there’s soup kitchens, food banks, and record numbers of people living on the streets – and that’s a disgrace.”

Steve Ignorant, Louder Than War Literary Festival, Manchester, Saturday, November 14.