Tom Hodgkinson remembers Straight Edge, the early eighties punk movement that embraced asceticism

One of the stranger youth cults of America, and one to which I briefly aligned myself, was called Straight Edge. It was an eighties thing. Its adherents were fans of heavy hardcore punk music, bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains. They followed a monkish set of rules and were almost Quaker-like in their moral code. They didn’t drink, smoke or take drugs. Some became celibate. Many were vegetarian or vegan. And for kicks they leapt around in mosh pits to aggressive music.

They felt that their ascetic or “straight” lifestyle gave them a special focus or edge, the better to resist “the man”, hence the name.

Their symbol was a black cross which they applied to their hands with a magic marker. This was a reference to the black cross drawn on the hands of under-21s at punk shows, to signal to the bar that they could not be served drinks.

The term comes from Minor Threat’s 1981 song of the same name where singer Ian Mackaye proclaimed: “I’ve got better things to do, Than sit around and fuck my head, Hang out with the living dead, Snort white shit up my nose”. The song was an anti-indulgent 46 seconds long.

As an undergraduate, in 1987, my friend James Parker (now a columnist on The Atlantic) and I started our own hardcore punk band which we called Chopper. And we had our own straight edge song, with lyrics by James. It was called “Thrash and Coke Party” and went like this: “Thrash and Coke party, it’s a blast, the drink is fizzy, and the music’s fast, you can get high, but we can jump higher, cos Chopper will set your ears on fire.”

I now see Coca-Cola as a useless and possibly harmful product of corporate America, but then we felt it was a wholesome alternative to alcohol. I remember a few occasions when I sat in the college bar, primly nursing a Coca-Cola while the other students sank their pints.

The phase didn’t last, needless to say, as my merry England roots got the better of me and I embraced drinking and, later, other stimulants (in moderation, of course).

However, Ian Mackaye’s influence lingered. I was impressed by the way he ran his own record company, Dischord. He had seized the means of production and for him, being a small entrepreneur meant freedom. Take a look here. Henry Rollins of Black Flag was another impressive American punk character who published his own books and put out his own records (and still does). Their DIY ethic certainly informed the Idler.

Anyone else out there remember Straight Edge? Send me your stories.

PS The Idler Festival is almost upon us – Friday 11  t0 Sunday 13 July in the glorious surrounds of Hampstead’s Fenton House & Gardens. Book tickets here.

Subscribers may comment. Please add your idle thoughts using the box below.

SELECTED COMMENTS

These comments were mailed to us after an earlier version of this piece was sent out as a newsletter. We like to publish a selection and reserve the right to edit them for clarity. Please add your thoughts in the box below.

Sir: Thanks for your latest post. Interesting. Had no idea that you’d been involved with sXe at any point. A few notes:
• Bad Brains had their own thing going. They never identified as Straight Edge and certainly smoked (ganja).
• Coke seems far beyond “possibly” harmful – not only to people’s health (especially children), but to union workers, eco-systems (Coke is the worst plastic polluter in the world), and water depletion that harms local communities almost wherever their plants are located. Since their product clearly harms human health and contributes to obesity even in children, instead of making a healthy product, Coke merely pumps money into the pockets of pediatricians and dieticians. Writing that Coke is a “possibly harmful product” is like writing that “Pol Pot may have caused some harm to some people during his time in office.” (As an aside, Coke even stayed in South Africa—along with Shell—during apartheid when all other companies had left. And Fanta? That’s the drink Coke made during WWII so they could sell to Nazi Germany. If anything, their current atrocities which include poisoning the planet with plastic
• You seemed to know that Henry Rollins was never Straight Edge but included him anyway as a DIY punk. Did he ever release his own music? Maybe—not that I know of and not on the website you linked to. If I were picking out non-Straight Edge people to add to your post about Straight Edge, I think I’d have mentioned either Jello Biafra, as his label Alternative Tentacles had a huge impact on DIY punk, or Penny Rimbaud, Steve Ignorant, and the Crass collective which basically epitomized the DIY punk ethic alongside vegetarian/vegan ethics.
• It doesn’t seem like you were aware but you wrote your post right after Positive Force (a straight edge collective who, for a period, even lived together in a commune …monastery?) just celebrated their 40th anniversary less than 2 weeks ago. Wondering what made you decide to write about it right now… Maybe it was in the air?
Phriendly Phoenix

Sir: Ah, Straight Edge punk. One of our twin sons embraced the movement, but at times would cave and drink a beer. Do you remember that they hailed one another and posed for photos with their arms x’d across their chests? (“Xing Out”). When E. would break down with a pint, we would suggest he present only one arm x’d. His brother said, Do one arm x’d and the other making a Queenly wave. Yes, we were merciless parents who broke into the “It’s only teenage wasteland” lyrics from “Baba O’Reilly” whenever it was all too much. His twin took all the party drugs his brother refused. Nearly 25 years later, they still go to punk shows.
Katleen, Montréal, Canada

Sir: We’re they celibate or chaste?
Nick McArdle

Our July 2025 issue is available in Waitrose, Waterstones, Smiths Travel outlets, select Smiths high street branches and around 100 indie stores. Click here for your nearest stockist.