densely textured polyrhythms. Seagroatt moved between the two, weaving sinuous cats-cradles of fractured melody in the liminal space where metal met jazz. Live, the group was often punishingly loud (one urban myth recounts that a Red Square set drowned out Cliff Richard who was playing at a venue half a mile away). Despite the support of mononymous music critic Miles, then writing for NME, they frequently enjoyed a combative relationship with audiences. Their enthusiasm for playing inappropriate venues (including folk clubs and pub-rock dives), and their willingness to engage forcefully with hecklers led to a number of hurried back-door exits from gigs, and presaged the arrival of punk a few years later. As well as their now legendary semi-squatted 'residency' in a vast, condemned Victorian hotel in Westcliff-on-Sea, Red Square played innumerable gigs (four in one day on one occasion), benefits and student occupations, and gigged with Henry Cow, Red Brass, David Toop & Paul Burwell and Lol Coxhill. They were also active in Music For Socialism. They released two cassette-only albums, 'Paramusic' and 'Circuitry', the latter being a live recording of a gig with Henry Cow in Southend-on-Sea. Red Square were in many respects years ahead of their time, predating the experimental work of Sonic Youth and Last Exit by a decade, and The Thing by twenty five years. Methods and sounds that they pioneered have since become common practice amongst experimental and avant-rock musicians. The group broke up in 1978 in the face of continued audience hostility to their music. Though largely forgotten for 30 years, Red Square were a key link bridging the worlds of psychedelic rock and avant-jazz. The group also had a fierce, ideological commitment to total improvisation delivered through very big speakers. There was an almost proto-punk Quixotism about their railing aural assaults on the mainstream: very few people thanked them for it, and their music was considered far too extreme for release at the time. Interregnum: 1979–2008 Jon Seagroatt and Ian Staples continued to work together after the original break-up of the group, gigging and releasing albums under the names of B So glObal, Omlo Vent and Miramar for a number of labels including Chillum, Fo Fum and Emergency Broadcast. Seagroatt formed a writing partnership with singer Bobbie Watson which led to the formation of the trip-hop band Drift, and, later, to the punk-jazz inflected Colins of Paradise, whilst Ian developed an extensive