Youths flock to join the cult of clean living
The Observer (uk, 09-18-1999) - by burhan wazir (london)

Saturday September 18, 1999; They don't drink. They don't smoke. They don't eat meat. Few are aged over 20. Toxins are anathema to their lifestyle. Increasing numbers of British youth are joining the straight-edge movement, a teenage sub-culture until now predominantly US-based.
At London's The Garage on Friday night, an American group called Snapcase performed. The group is lauded in the US as a staple of the straight-edge scene - vehement in their calling for a society free of drugs and politics. They are the new Utopians. Their audience looks like the punks who influenced them.

In the US, members number 500,000. In the UK, the scene has yet to make a dent in the mainstream - around 1,000 is a current estimate, centred in Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford. London now has its own straight-edge record label - Household Name Records. Based in Brixton, it sells expensive US imports of hard-to-find straight-edge bands.

'The kids are interested in it partly because they're bored with everything else,' says Ian Glasper, regarded as an insider on the British strand of straight-edge. He gigs around the country in his own group, Stomping Ground. 'These are people who are bored by the mainstream - pop and politics depress them,' he says. 'Straight-edge is almost like a religion.'

The straight-edge lifestyle has been linked to cases of extreme violence in the US - home to its origins in the late Eighties. Back then, punk icons such as Ian McKaye and groups like Minor Threat, Agent Orange, The Dead Kennedys and Black Flag sounded out a toxin-free lifestyle with songs like 'Too Drunk To F**k' and 'Drink & Drive'. The sub-culture is centred mainly in California and Utah and its followers are predominantly rural, white and disillusioned teenagers. It spread like wildfire in the face of Republican-endorsed farming cuts.

Many of America's straight-edgers join the loosely organised movement before the legal drinking age. In America, those too young to be served in bars are often ink-branded with an "X" on the palm on entry. Now, "X" has become a straight-edge logo itself. And almost a decade after its conception, straight-edge has become a fashionable calling card of the young, idealistic and politically motivated in countries like Germany, France, Spain and Greece.

Professor Tina Martinez, a lecturer in Cultural studies at the University of Utah, says: 'Americans, to an extent, are almost fascistic about their lifestyles anyway. So straight-edge is just a logical progression. We've found that the teenagers are joining the gangs for a sense of belonging and, to a degree, the need for protection.'

Yet the wider unease with the straight-edge lifestyle is undeniable. Throughout the US, straight-edgers have been linked to cases of horrifying aggression in their attempts to recruit new members and out-punch those values they disagree with. Students on campuses in Boston, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and New York have all complained about pressure to join. Two years ago, a spate of straight-edge related murders in Salt Lake City provoked local authorities into calling for a curfew.

And last Thursday, three men were found innocent of plotting to blow up a fur farm in Salt Lake City. The charges related to the bombing of the Fur Breeder's Co-operative, which sustained over $1 million in damages. It provides minks to hundreds of farmers in the West. The defendants were all reportedly members of the straight-edge movement - animal liberation is one typical popular cause.

Back at The Garage on Friday night, Sean Anderson, 17, has few regrets over his choice. 'My elder brother drinks,' he says. 'And I look at him, and think it must be horrible being drunk. 'Besides, I was being bullied at school. A few of us started this gang up. Now we walk past people smoking, drinking or taking drugs. They all back away - it's like they know we're in the right.'