The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks


The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks is an album by the English anarcho-punk band Flux of Pink Indians. It was released as a double album on the band's own Spiderleg Records in 1984.
The album's lyrical content concerned violence between men and women, based on the experiences of a band member who had been sexually assaulted. The title was a Dada-style ploy to get attention for this social message.
The album featured artwork by Crass guitarist Andy Palmer.
A 2016 primer on Anarcho Punk in The Wire magazine noted the influence of Art Ensemble of Chicago and Whitehouse and described the album as:
The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks reached number two on the UK Indie Chart, spending fifteen weeks on the chart in total. Music Week listed the album in its Indie Album Chart as "The F.......................................".

Obscenity controversy

When reissued in 1986 on band member Derek Birkett's own One Little Indian label, the album was banned by several major retailers including HMV and Our Price due to its sexually explicit title and cover art.
In September 1987, Greater Manchester Police raided independent record shop Eastern Bloc following an alleged complaint by a member of the public. Copies of the album were seized and one of the owners, Martin Price, was warned that he could face prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act for "indecent display" as the album had been promoted in the shop's window. The Director of Public Prosecutions determined that prosecution was not viable. Under the direction of Chief Constable James Anderton the shop was charged with displaying "Obscene Articles For Publication For Gain". Martin Price represented the shop in court The case was eventually dropped by the police after several adjournments, due to costs. Price felt that this meant that morality could be bought, as he had been prepared to go to court to defend his, but the police had put a price on theirs.
The band, its two record labels, and its publishing company, Second Wind, were also charged under the Obscene Publications Act. Charges against One Little Indian were dropped in March 1988.

Reception

Shortly after the album was released, the band stated in a fanzine interview:
Singer Colin Latter would subsequently describe the album as "...rubbish. A total waste of time."
A review in Maximum Rocknroll stated:
The New Musical Express review of the album included: "This heroically ugly double LP has very little to do with 'punk'. It's a vast dog-eared canvas of sounds and visions in revolt, Thatcher's Britain force fed into a swollen stomach and the resultant vomit recorded on vinyl."
The 1992 book The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music described the album as "little short of a directionless cacophony".
In 2013, Uncut magazine suggested that the album was "seemingly rejecting music as a bourgeois conceit".
The 2016 The Wire magazine primer stated that:
Also in 2016, writer and academic Nigel Ball reflected on how the release had influenced him as a teenager:

Legacy

The title of the album appears as a piece of grafitti in David Peace's 2002 novel Nineteen Eighty Three: Book Four of the Red Riding Quartet. It is also used in dialogue in Julian Gough's 2011 novel Jude In London.
English post-punk band Bilge Pump released a 10" EP titled The Fucking Cunts Still Treat Us Like Pricks on Gringo Records in 2010.
In 2019, comedian Stewart Lee ironically claimed that "80s anarcho-punks Flux of Pink Indians were privately dismayed by the Countryside Alliance's misappropriation of their album The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks to soundtrack its campaign against rural post-office closures." at the conclusion of an extended routine about right wing individuals adopting left-wing songs.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Punk"
  2. "Mind Fuckers Fucking Minds"
  3. "Hard Sell"
  4. "Love Song"
  5. "Mickey on Tuneoil"

Side two

  1. "Desire"
  2. "Blood Lust Rite"
  3. "The Falklands War"

Side three

  1. "Punk"
  2. "Life We Make"
  3. "Trouble at the Heart"
  4. "The Sun "
  5. "Shadow of Abuse"
  6. "Very Funny"

Side four

  1. "Cure for the Coprolite"