Pete Stennett, owner of
Small Wonder Records, heard a demo that the band had recorded. Impressed by all of the material, he decided to package the entire set as an 18-track 12" EP. However, workers at the Irish pressing plant contracted to manufacture the record refused to process it because of the offensively
blasphemous content of the track "Asylum". The record was eventually released with the track removed and replaced by two minutes of silence, retitled "The Sound of Free Speech". This incident also prompted Crass to establish their own record label in order to retain full editorial control over their material, and "Asylum" was issued shortly afterward in a rerecorded and extended form as a 7" single under the title "Reality Asylum". A later repress of
The Feeding of The 5000 (subtitled
The Second Sitting), released by Crass Records in 1980, restored the missing track. "They've Got a Bomb" contains an extended period of silence, inspired by
John Cage's "
4'33"". The band have acknowledged the influence of Cage and said that the idea of the space in the song, when performed live, was to suddenly stop the energy, dancing and noise and allow the audience to momentarily "confront themselves" and consider the reality of
nuclear war. In December 2019, the band, in cooperation with
One Little Indian Records, released the entire unedited 16-track master tape of the album for fans to remix, with selected results to be included on a compilation album with the working title "Normal Never Was". It was announced that the proceeds from the album would be given to the anti-
domestic abuse charity Refuge. On 2 October 2020, the
Crassical Collection version was reissued, with the bonus tracks moved to a second CD. ==Track listing==