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The (re-recorded especially for the single) track starts off with young ‘Gem Stone’, daughter of Poison Girls vocalist Vi, and future Rubella Ballet bassist, saying a prayer. “I am no feeble Christ, not me,” an adult female voice interrupts, starting the spoken word poem – a savage attack, not apparently on Christianity, but on Jesus Christ himself. If Feeding Of The Five Thousand had shocked, then ‘Reality Asylum’ took the tactics to a whole new level. If the Buzzcocks wanted a generation of kids to turn up the volume to annoy their parents, Crass made you turn it down so they couldn’t hear the blasphemy. Eve Libertine:“I felt quite nervous actually. Because I was brought up in quite a religious household. I thought it was probably quite a good thing to do. I guessed trouble was a possibility, because of them refusing to press that track.” Written by Penny Rimbaud, ‘Reality Asylum’ was an enormously brave single, risking as it did not just worldly prosecution, but eternal damnation too. Eve Libertine: “I did question it. But I think it was relevant, from a feminist angle. Christ was celibate, Mary was celibate, the whole thing of women’s sexuality . . . it was quite hard for me because I was brought up thinking Christian. So I certainly had to question it but I saw it from a different angle through the ‘Asylum’ lyrics. So I was prepared to do it.” One reason for this was the way Eve saw the record:“I do see it as an attack on religion, even though it’s seemingly attacking Christ. It’s attacking what religion took from this man – and I’m sure there were many of them – wandering the earth saying brilliant things.We probably wouldn’t have heard about him if he hadn’t been crucified. I’m not interested in all the various teachers, even though a lot of them said some wonderful things. I think Christ said some amazing things.All the basis of all the religions would be coming from the same place, but Christianity has been used so powerfully for putting down women and sexuality. That’s how I always saw Asylum – not anything to do with what I would call spirituality.” “There is something beyond all that. It’s very likely what Christ was talking about, because he said some amazing things. Straight on the point as far as I can see. As did many other spiritual teachers. So I can easily justify Asylum within myself.”
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