Fascists threatened us but we always took them on': the anarchic Bradford club still fighting after 45 years

"Things were getting grim, says Gary Cavanagh, reflecting on Bradford in the early 1980s. There was a hell of a lot of unemployment, and people were thrown on the scrap heap. Cavanagh was working for Bradford's claimants union in 1981, helping the city's poor and unemployed get benefits, when a government report stated that one in 12 dole recipients were defrauding the state. So he and some friends reclaimed this statistic which they thought was ludicrous as an identity."

"We became the 1 in 12 Club, he says. Initially it was a nomadic club, putting on gigs and leftwing political meetings in the upstairs rooms of pubs. Unemployed people could see bands such as New Model Army cheaply, form camaraderie and support the club's anarchist principles of self-management, co-operation and mutual aid. The club was built around the words liberty, equality and solidarity, and 45 years on, they remain painted on a mural on the building it has called home since 1988 a space that took two years of voluntary work to convert."

"As part of Bradford's year as the 2025 UK City of Culture, and in collaboration with cultural history organisation Home of Metal, a new book and three-part podcast tell 1 in 12's story, with contributions from members and bands including Lankum, Chumbawamba, Therapy? and Neurosis. Some gigs were so hot and ridiculous, with eight of us on that tiny stage, Chumbawamba's Alice Nutter tells me. You'd have sweaty black water dripping on you but the atmosphere was great."

Bradford in the early 1980s experienced severe unemployment that pushed many people onto the scrap heap. Claimants formed a cooperative response, reclaiming a government figure that labelled one in 12 dole recipients as fraudsters and naming themselves the 1 in 12 Club. The collective hosted nomadic gigs and leftwing meetings in pub rooms, offering affordable concerts and mutual support. The club emphasized anarchist principles of self-management, co-operation and mutual aid, and adopted liberty, equality and solidarity as guiding words. In 1988 the club settled into a converted building completed after two years of voluntary work and continues to host music and community activity.

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