Tunbridge Wells, UK · punk · hardcore punk

Anti Nowhere League

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Deliberately obnoxious, biker-adjacent punk that got its debut single seized under UK obscenity law — 'So What' remains the filthy standard Metallica couldn't resist covering.

Anti Nowhere League came together in Tunbridge Wells in 1979, with vocalist Animal and guitarist Magoo joined by drummer Bones and bassist Chris Elvy. The group played its first gig in 1980 and soon signed to producer John Curd's WXYZ Records, moving quickly from a small local circuit into the heart of the UK's second wave of punk.

Their debut single, released in November 1981, paired a cover of Ralph McTell's "Streets of London" with the original "So What" as its B-side. It reached No. 48 on the UK Singles Chart, but the obscene lyrics of "So What" led the Metropolitan Police's Obscene Publications Squad to seize copies from a distributor, cementing the band's reputation before most people had heard a note.

The following year's debut album, We Are... The League, reached No. 24 on the UK Albums Chart, while a live record taped during a tour of Yugoslavia made a brief, lower appearance on the same chart. The band split by the late 1980s after a run of lineup changes, before "So What" found a second life when Metallica recorded their own version of it.

In 1992, Metallica invited Animal onstage at Wembley Arena to sing "So What" alongside them, a nerve-wracking reunion with a song he later admitted he could barely remember the words to. The appearance restarted the band, with a new guitarist joining that year and Anti Nowhere League returning to the small venues where they had begun.

The group continued through further changes in personnel and label through the 1990s and 2000s, releasing albums including Scum, Out of Control and Kings and Queens, and in 2006 launched an independent label of their own, Nowhere Records, to put out new material outside major distribution.

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punkhardcore punk