Blam #2 by Al Symers

no.2

\-,/t

30t)

FI?ENZII )

MEL0N

moclern engllsh

JOSEF

^friix

c# t

rt frttrt{^

s.a l )

blaml Jrisb s-i.x or L:fve:,'j wi;e ?E; la.rer ti.:a.n l)rc,r;ised, :terets iire Ereconi:l'issue c:'illa:.,1 " I won ri 'rore .you rvit,r e:.lcuries I j ke havin; to Lcot f :;r' new nrinters, trying tc arl'ange interviev;s, ansirrerin;i fsn nail.! r ?il(i ive.tchir.g teLe (esp.c ia1'.y Coronation Stree t ) . ALso the

orice has had to'. go uo to .tOp, bul whatts an extra 5ir nornradays.. If wetd had this printed at Sett,er Ba,iges (wlio've now stopned crinting fanzines\ it would probably have had to gone up anyway. Tfll try and keep .it et lOo for as long as possible though. Anyway itrs worth waiting for rcos it's nuch better than ihe first issue, well I think so. Talking of which there's stiLl some cooies left so if you missed out (o" you want another one) and want to r"ead about Young Marble Giants, )ogma Cats, Waxwork Dunuries,rdahlr anrl loads more send 15p inc. rrLp and I'11 send. you one. Thanks to everXrone who r,rroie and if you want to-egntri"bute ete. just send me your articl-e. Perhaps thererll be a l-etters page next time( '-', ' No. J will be out whenever itrs done and might feature Cabaret Voltaire, Oran€e Juic€r SJpasmodic Caressr or it rnight not. Tiia.nlis also tc anyone else whots helped in any way. '

.?eter i{al1.

,rr'rite to'l

ield Lane, rl ing,

Gakf

Ch e lmsford ,

I},{TTREST I].{G i\iEhIIJ I

liynchromesh has finished after ihree issues es phil ha s becorne d is il Lus ioned with it. La ck of money and loca} reaction being the main reasons. I dcntt know if' therets any left but.,no.2 is

excellent. t le ave s l{ew Cr ine s frcm li outhend , and this 't.,t the only tzines in llssex tha,t I know of . ]lha-:" jus

iiogma Cats/

isure Sounds

news:

_ Ersatz have split up but a. new gr3oup, tThe Barrier t !'ades has been formert vrith 2 of llrsatz and. Ed and liteve from Do6l,ra Cats (who are stil1 going). Cherry i.ed are interested in tne banri a.nd Tre Outputs cassette should be out soon and will have Rough Tr:ade Distribution.

Jpeeia-l l)uties have oeenri)T wer€ rlue to,.;or in the stu-':iios to record. a single for a laber in ,lalstearl (a. recorci label in i{alsteadJ) J don't know wLral sonls wili ne on it though, but I hope one of trem is rI tlrilk of .lor-r"t.

ti'r,.,rets old songs like tjYonogomyt and s |uff l ike that which we haven t t put on because bi's ical ly once you rve been nlaying a song for a, year, to' go into a studio and record it, there ts not a lot of enthusiasrn there. Itts much betfer to go in with the new stuff which you tve never heard recorded befor€r it rs much more

exciting to get into a,nd that kind of t hing.

Sack in liay the iru Fairs were in Colchester

to nlay a gig at the university so off I went with t ape re ecrd,er to se e t he gig and i o t ry and get a^Il int erv iew . ?he inter"yiew was Cone in ;) stages, with Paul then Le s ley j o ined" in ancl Jane . Pe t e rda.S havin;1 e. b a,th . LTnf ortunat l"y , hard ly a-nything that Lesley said caine cut. i'he gig was excellertt' one cf the best Itve; seer]. Desrrite cornini'+ cn ver'r la te , ttlere .,,reS A V€t1r laf:',e

Ci,Olri(] (jane

Seic' tifat

rirey nl-a.yed here last year cut of ierin and i;n1$ 2A pecpic turn eC ii,D) . i,ive tkie nand i:j..Tt i-n theil elenent, -|,e$l-e:f anrj i'aul ChaI.Ee a.rOUniJ the Stat,:,e r .ja.ne keeps tc the ba.ck "f trn Shy yOU S€e.tft bUt 'OlayS SCine Suner-i' bass, Petefs strong d,i'umrning; and best of the best all Lesle;rrs vcice, shets orle of tnear play singers Itve Lrea'rc' lhel" tUbvi-ousI Jchnro tCome h!.e-int r 'l'.ono€;c:llrtr and f o l}ow i cris ijta,.,,e invas li,i loacls ncre . Keith) , encores Ea.lore Iveryone gces ina,C- leven the stuclents?) The L.i; wh:-ch f t./e iiad a- few weeks i-sntt es t got the s ail'ie) ;;;o od" aS they are l ive , hasn t t)ea"r Jower but is still good r especj-a,lly I I t John , Re pit ion and- e long ve rS i on of t rjbvious I , t Love lJ cng t and the o ld ie , I

Corne

fs tRepetitiont, the Bowie song on it? FAUL: Yeah r w€ rve rlone a. comnletely d if f erent vers ion of t ha,t . f t turned out really we 11 . '',/e just got up and jarnmed one night. We wanted to do something different so we just sort of got uD and r,:essed around and that was one of the ta.kes we did. Itrs just a one tane thingr w€ just d id i t straight off, there t s no overdubs cr anything. ftts quite r:nlike any other stuff we usuall-y Co, it just gives another nerspective of what we can do, Therets r;uite . jct o-f qr.rite di.rerse .materj"al on the eibu,;: uiiich I think is rather gocC.

Again I .

,ita,rt off with obvious questioi'. '.'lhen I s the L.P cominf"; out ? PAUII ldext ii'riday hopefully, itay i'/hat s orlgs

l-ra

ve Y ou t'ot

PiiUL : It de rend s how lon,:"; tf s r what we c la,s s as new .

15ti1 '

it , any new cne ago lrou last

saw

Itts ntt al1 f'ast thent ){outve.Sot sor:.rte lower son€is . PAUL: ldell therets l slowish songs out of 1C but basically rnretre a fast band. i,Jetve put those 2 slow tracks together on the one s icle s o that Deop le ca,n put on a counle of s lower tra.cks if they tre just cra.shin;:; out to hed". The 1a,st ? tracks, fSepetitj"ont and tHeadache for }iichelleI nre cuite laiC ba.ckr s

;ut a year a.go. | PA Ut : 0h yea,h r w€ ve sot a"b out 5 new one s saw us. you last from when Ab

You rtidntt just get rid of the old ones on the L.P and start fr:esh again? IIAUL: l,lo we just droo tem when we get bored wrth theii; . ido, the Songs wetve ilut on the album are like the ones we were out

nlaying in the set at that tirne. I

mean

dhy rJid you have sucn a big i p between ingiles , it was about a year wasn I t it?

IJL,: l1o Irron€X. r{e d id the f irsi s in'gl-e r w€ raised the mone)r ourselves, borowed it off f rienCs and- parents , the second s ingle we thought wetd better ,lut out oretty or-iick t cos it had been a year. A year went by really quickn so we got itough Trade I to put ul:' the mcne-v f or that although it diCn t come out on Itough Trade in the end , they he lpe d us out, While that was coming out r w€ got this deal together with l{urnan and theyrve of f ered. us a one a.lburn deal with a.n opt ion on the secondr w€ didntt want a. five year c ontract or anything 1 ik e tha, t ' i]A

Youtre not signed to anlr co itract at all? Ad.ain and the Ants and Tcyah beat it PAUL: lic, I can't see the point, like if you s ign e cont ra.ct f or e l ot of noney r like which is something" They nut a lot of that you have to s ign f or 1 lrears n Personally work into it, a.nd it sold over 10, CCrJ so we f re really ptreased with that. Anri that rneans that you are t ieC down legally you they t re put t lng quit e & cons iderab 1e p}lt k up ne xt wee ancl s o if the b and s whateve1n join arnount or of money b eh ind us in that Stcnes the Rolling want tc theytre paying' for the alburn and the you couldn tt promot ion . Being a srna.ll company they JANE: We I re int ere st ed in be ing an really need to get that back so they tre ind e pendent band in that we don t t really really go ing t o work f or you. want t o get snarled up with some large TESLEY: Also we only signed to them record, company deal and get tied down for 1a"b e ls f or one album with an oution on others 4 or 5 years . As f or the inde pend.ent (ttrat 's the only b it Lesley says that there t s no reason why you shouldn t t get in I rnore I can make out ) the chart s . I th ink it s gre at that FAUI; Bas ical ly you ma.ke an s.1-bum, ind e pend,ent lab e ls are in the chart s . It ' s firstly, for yourself , secondly for good b e cause it give s the b ig c om'parly s a your pull ir the f ans and third ly f or the mus ic t o have t hey b it of a icn rck and ....we11no you don rt make it for the socks uF. mus ic pre s s . ff they pick ij n on it great if they don 't we 11. if the I{UI,IAN REC OR}$ people like it (LJo) and you like it fA UL: Like with Hurnan r w€ I ve b een rea,ll"y that t s the rnain th j"ng, ft t s got to pleased like with r0bvicust, it was the 4th be otherwise you d on t 1 ca.rrXr ofi,. hii.;hest selling independ,ent record in the first quarter of this Year. TCP Oiil TiiE pOm PAUI: I think it 's inportant f or bands l ike us to t cn Top 0f Th e Fo ps ra.ther tha. n .:lhcw&ddywad Cy or t he o.:,'e

i{olans

I)o you a.gree v;ith the Clash who say they won t t So on tc os it t s n o good.? PAUL: Well- Ll ,;,;. f re$nect a,nd understand wh_rr'[]rey sa;r that but we just want to us* .i.ifferent ta,ctics. I mean that goes out tr: 1A rnjllion peop-l-e" If y ou carr {.;e t 1/ ilur nus i c ove r 1 ike tha.t it just sav#s .l-ike 3 )/eelis j., a transit van zooning' cff to places l ike llcunthorne , il c> Tn orougfu ancl

Colchester.... ii, , i"rean like us vletve one a lot of i g;1 i nq a.nd it wor: lrJ b e ni ce now . il e c a us e e, prosranme l ike that pashe r, 't our sa les u.n nhenorrr* e na I 1:o and we irt t o ge t our rnu s ic rl

''.ora

crcss to ;i,s irjij,ilr1.people as possible.

hthat ab out The Beat t our then, go ing i

how

JANEI Yeah that rs right. That was the interview we did with Paul Morley. I was quite as tounded when he said that |cos f tm not. Well I am Ln certain case s it depends on the men invo lve d . mean a lot of men are quite shitty "

s that

FAUL: That's going really uellr it's just rea lly go od" fun . I mean they rve got an emaz,ing audience r very young aud.ience actual ly , It t s real Iy good b e caus e the 'ma j ority of pe ople that come t o s ee us jus

to the fact that we mainly play univers it ies and clubs are over 1 B because of bars, But werve been getting through to a lot of 12/14 year olds which is really I go od. b e caus e they I re the future and they re what we tve got to get . f mean if you want i o get the people thinking in dif f erent lrays or just expose thern to a few different id.e&s r which is what we warrt to do, then it t s go od that they can l ist en t o barrd s l ike Lr.s . JANE: ftts a bit of a challenge for Ll,s. Als o maybe only a couple of pe ople go out and think we t 11 see them again but if y ou t re only got through t o a couple of people who wouldn I t have seen you it I s quiie good,. They tre very nice people and the road crew etc. it ts just great. d

ovne

fnterest ing s pace f i1ler. lid you know that the Beat used to support the Au Pairs? doing this gig j:n }land sworth in Birrningham and these 4 b lokes came up after we I d played and said can we borrow your instruments and have a jam and we said yeah sure and that was the f irs t we saw of the Beat. They, played f Tears of a Clown t and we thought this band f s really good. they t 11 go placs$. liAUI",: lJe were

PI.A,YING WITH

A DIFFEREI\IT

SEX

fn inte rviews with the band you s ee m t o b e put acros s as be ing ant i men espec ial ly in

an N.M .E ' interview

You can t t really be are in the band.

Pet

e and Paul

JANEI Well dunrb thing

precisely, it was such a for him to say really. I think it t s irnportant f or the sexes to work tog'ether, f don I t see ary point in be ing s eperat ist . If we were heavy f eminists we wouldn I t consider working with 2 men anyway, I can see why sorne women want to be seperatist but for me personally f wouldntt. TII-A S OI-*{GS .Doe

Le s

ley writ e al 1 the

ongs ?

PAUII Erm yea.h " 3ecff.tti*e pecple seem to make a. big deal ab cut what she I s say ing about wornen? PAIJ I I h'e 11 rlo . I me an none of thern a.re fen'rinist in that they apply to women on ly , t |: eS apply t o men an d women . This is a greet rnisconcept ion, most peo ple tirat ever talk to u.s say we t re a f eminist band. but i,re can t t be t cos there t s trolc rnen . f nean rde t re sulpportive, f cai: tt be e feminist. f can be sril) nortive but it t s a phys ical imnossibility for ne to be a. feminist.

lJut if Le s ley writ e s al 1 thc songs theytre obvicusly written frorn a hlorrans noint of viei^r so they concern wornen?

points we tve got over here and if hey don f t vra,nt t o do tha t then it t s up to us to go and look anC s ign with a4yb ody . ijut f f m sure they t l l co,ne up with sornething, they seem tc have been pretty goori s o far. t

finally: You,ve been together about 2 years haven tt you? PAUL: Tur o and a half year$ . Are y ou glad y ou di cJn t t d"o an l.P. e arlier? PAULI 0h Christ yeah. I dread to tkrink. . r f I ve got tape s of earl ie r s onEs r qu ite int ere s t ing to 1 is te n t c nolr an cl again. We tve sloweC down a bit believe it or not. ljome of the earlier stuff was just... f just lilce to think that we keep playing dance music. If you can rt dance tc j.t. i " o I I And.

r iiut sire doe sn I t just sa;,- this is the s on€: f | li s in6; it , You d iscus s it arrcl change ti:ern oc cas ionally to llut in our po int of vieur. Itts just tliat shers tire rnost talentedand art iculat e in tiro s e are B,s . JAI\TE I What we d o is Les ley writ es most of the words, although we tre not confrontecl with a set of words r w€ change them. We usually get the mus ic to6;ether by jarnmiog. ft t s not the sort of s ituat ion where eveqrthing is worked. out and you tre told what to play r w€ just work it out as we go along. PAUI,

FUTU}TE PI"AI.IS

PAUI: ',{e fve $ot pretty much the rest of the year planned out. After the tour r,ve tre record-ing a new single (tfr"onveniencet), then we tre going to Uuro.pe for a couple of weeks. ','/e f re going to play a couple of open air festivals, therers a lio Nukes thing in Leeds and sornething in Brixtorl r Then in August/ $eptember we t re going to America, I think. !/e went over there and. did. a srnall tour at Christmas/t"'lew Year r w€ d id 1 d.at€s r 2 in lTew York and 1 in B ost on. The album won t t be release d over there t i] 1 much later in the year so therets no point in doing a big tour r.rntil it cornes out. We t re going t o do 5 or 6 dates on the East Coast to let people know wetre still alive and well.

Will Hurnan release the L. P. over there? FAU l: We 11 we haven t t act uaIly s igne d a d ea.l with them for America but because they rve got a very good distribut ion network arrd one of the guys that runs it, Chris, he ts worked. witl: a 1ot of the rnajor com"'panie's and he knows his stuff and in thre contract they rve Eot 6 months to get us a contract over there on the sarie

I I,' oF t'F Prhrn,

REAPER

@ @ ^Not

J*t* v \

THAI{KS

Crinrinals tape (see review) all of which a,re very goocl The three tracks were taken from a six track tape the.r did iast year. The other sonrs ("our best ones') are available on their ?.lP 'Neu ;jmell' on the Craljs labet. 5 tracks for just 70p. tsest track on the EF

rTube

Disasterf a wonderfu] 100mph thrash which is still very catchyl rSick Butchers is slower, nut sti11 powerful, and j.s about eating meat a.nd buying lea,ther gocds but is written from a cows point of view.'Background I of llalfunctionr is a,bout mans (supposecl) supremec..y' over anirnals . 'Neu Sme11 ancl 'Poem' are b oth very short spoken pieces. Neu ;mel-l i:'about nuclear waste and comes complete with birds singing and cows rnooing. Poem is, surorise surprise, a poe:n recited over some eerie synthesiser. Very inpressive and itts good to s-oe that theyrre trying different kinr,rs of songs i.e. s1ow, fast, using poetry.; Hopefully they wonft get stuck in a rut like so many groups do, The cover is alnost as good as the record. It contains lyricsr which are reafly good they nake you think but donft preach, ohotos taken in a sla,ughter house and some interesting writing about vegetarianism, nuclear porer/'uaste and violence. I wrote t'c the band a, few weeks a,f,o (U*fore f 'd heard/seen the EP so t he ques t ions are a b it b oring) u o here rs what they tve Sot to s&f, r Ilow long have you been t ogether? As Flux of Pink InCians about a year and a halfr but me and the bassist and occasionally our guitarist used to be in the Epileptics who had been going nearly two years until Flux of Pink fndians came along.

your curren"t line uP? one vocalist, one drummer and one bass ist . We di d. have two guitar.One guitari$t, i st s a wh j- le ago r now we I re only one and we I re goin4 to be seerch inq f or a !'/hat t s

second one s oon.

i{ow rneny gigs ha.ve you done ? A

s Flux ab out t hirty up

and down

the country

i:ow d id t he Cras s dea ] c ome ab out i" */efve known Crass for quite a. few yearsr and when the Flpileptics were still going the:,r offered to release a single by rsr then the Epile pt, ic s b:roke up but the offer st il 1 rema ined . It just to ok a. long t ime t o come off Cue to some of us beiniq tieri down to previous contracts.

! ICK

BUTCI{ERS

I USED TO GRA,dH] T].{ A FIEI,D USE} TO BREATHE I USE. TO B}' ALTVA } T1) C}MW T}IF] G:iA $S IN TJ{E F rEI-,D C OUI} SAg A}.iD iilIAi? T}ITI WORTD AiIOUND }M SIJE AN} FEAR r}TE I{AIV AJ?OUND iW HA} A VTRGIN SKTN ts UT I{OW S OtD r}i SUHTR}4ARK]IT$

o yoli ag;re e /be l ieve w it h Cra,s s ' on anarchy? hlot re a.lly . We t re not int o anarchy s imply b e cause it se e ms t o have 5001 d ifferent meanings , some good , s ome bad. We just be lieve in freedom and doing what lrou want as long as it 'doesntt put other De onle out , ll

v iews

}IOW STUDDE} SIANKaTS

USED TO }iJili j? T}IT] .B rRnS Al'\n TIIH CARS GOIIVG tsy /i ND TI{E FnI OPId C OrNG BY T I{EY l,'/ERE lvly DEST INy

THEY WERd I,]Y NIJASON }TY PURPOSE rJ.,I TH rS Ir ft] F

0R Tllcl Iii PIATES

Are .you Soing to release a record on your own afte"r: the Neu Sime 11 EP

rR C OtI B CD IidS T i]E rR CAR SI]AT C O'\TNJrS MY S Oui li Oit Youil 5 CLn S 0F T}II]

YOIJ ]ynY

YOU l-'Ay

IIKU Lfi{E

l{OHs

.IviY ?AS?E

IvlY ',{AR},:}}i

rT PIAY say rl',i ?tiii B lltLE ,itliA l you BUi I )ONIT r/Al.{T T0 }fE YOu TitY Tc $rRcI(E I,:Iir il',r A FrErD TIIU}I G0 liOl'[t A]'i] IIAT l'ffi A;S Y''JR C.

HX-U PITEFT

ICS

YWZ

IKS

cA rr,:

t{'Al

iIrL L

r,'ft1

Probab ly . We have got our own labe1 going (Spider Leg Recorrls wh ich i s run b:.r me a nd t he F lux ba.ssist) but wetve rio far: only re leased " 1 97A r s'r by t he Epile ptics and a live EP b:r the Ilpileptics, soon wer11 be relessing an EP by the Sub-humans so probab ly in lJepternbe r we t 11 start work on another single but we rre not certain what labe l it t 11 be on.

What woulC you

Iike to achieve with Flux of Pink Ind ians ? ile want to gig a lot more oftâ&#x201A;Źilr b e in a pos it ion t o re lease records now anrl again with tracks etc. that we want to do, anC like all other b a,nd s ha,ve l ot s of f o11owe rs t rue ly b e l iev ing in our part of the world and future and

fully one day a new race of existentialist

h ope

become pe

ople

OlriK Ti{H TE RR IB LE PI}ER LEG }IAADS

FTUX OF PINK TN}IANS

mo ern dhgllsh Nostalgia time pop fans, let,ts go back in time. rt's Hay tT9 and werre in Chelmsfordrs wonderfuli Chancellor llal1. Five locaI g"olpu are being for an L.P to be released by Limp Records. ft never was. After seeingrecorded the Lost; Anorexiar some awful Heavy i{etal band. and. a cabaret type band on came the last band, liodern English from Colchester. The stage is-i'ull of proos, a chair, table with lamp and,, television, strange. The sinpler sings sitting' dowl facing the audi-ence, sitting at the tab1e, with his baek to the aurjience They play er.. moriern music which is quite good, easily the best ' shocking! group that night. Modern nnsrish a;; ;;;i;*. rn *the tw. w.,? Ehp",a H1....,::t_i:,!:).''lu"g tu6 r, ;; iJi;;i u "i* ii"fi :: iil. i,lir ;"r::fli 3i?1 :: lr": ?;:_s il-;"i;" the brilliant Gatherint mst, traa a track on L,4.l.r.D conpiiuiior, and lasttv released a marvelio,r" r.p., ilomg(awful) Mesh and i4,;;","il;#;,j|, ,n*,,c_ubbish . on that later) andIil"iiiooi3ll: ;|iil,::lT.';l;{yl*.,:**;::::;ir:'::e_ . theytre worth more than

that.

IIow long have you b een t ogethe r! I{fCKl We tve been together as Modern English for about two years when Steve joi.ned-

(n*f ore that they were called The Lepers and were r so I f ve been told t pretty awful. Oops , there gogs my chance of scrounging some freebies . )

c ome ab

out ?

HICK: Do you remember when we played at the ' Chancellor Hall in Chelmsford? Yes.

l'jICKl Well the promoter was called l{ike I{arsh and he managed a band called Deep Throats. He started to kind of I manage us and he jus t put us int o the studio to record tDrowning Ma,nI for Limp R e c ords and the re were ab out 1000 c opies is sued, . did you get onto 4.A .D? MICKI We sent them a tape ages ago before lviike I'rarsh got interested r before Lirnp Re c ords came ab out and there was this guy called Peter Kent who worked for Seggars Banquet and he really liked lls. 4.A,D hadntt started t he n. Af t er t Drown ing Man t came out , Mike l4arsh went to America so we s igned to 4.A.D then while i{ike l{a,rsh , was away. With LimP Records it was a b it of a. o r o . not ongoing s ituat i on . Nothing was happening after the first s ingle. I{ow

I -.lr

_i."-

.t,

t::

I-'a

, Did you move up to London then, when you signed to 4.A.I? l'lICK: We released Swans on Glass I the f irst s ingle f or 4 .A .I then we recorded tHome t on that 12 inch t Presages t then we moved up just before we,Cid tGathering Iust | " Are you glad that you moved up? ltlICK I 0h yeah r wâ&#x201A;Ź ve d.one quit e a f

lot since we moved up. Werve with Was t ed Youth,

t oured

r record,ed an L.P and tve just reccrded a new s ingle I Sniles a,nd Iaughter t .

Europâ&#x201A;Ź we

Good ?

ItfCK: It I s exce llent . STEVE: It t s lhe best thing dong

',..":.',,.

wef ve

writes the songs? MfCK: We all write them. Rob writes al l the lyrics . What normal ly happens is we all go to the studio to rehearse and a song just comes through jammitrg. We get the song actually out , the mus ie , then Rob take s a tape of it home. Somet imes he | 11 have lyrics written before the song. ft I s always z}li, of eve ryb ody . STEVET At one time we used to write the lyrics together but it just t ook too long. You I d get

What

Who

out all the V ire/ Joy

Divis ion eomparisons you I re always gett ing compared. to them. How do you feel about that ?

IvIrcK: we don I t mind. that

much. . .

!,le

used to really like wire about two years ago and we used. t o c opy them but now we d on r t. We a 11 really l ike Wire that r s ab out the only group that we all really listen to and like. you

get a bit

a,nnoyed when

e\refft::e l ike Wire and. .ioy Division because basically

b ody

says

I cantt see it.

a I ine and everyb ody would have to agree to it before it was accented and then we I d do another line, it was taking I

ageg.

Are you happy with the I, . P? MfCK; The s ongs on ' it are good but I think we could have had a

lt rnore t ine t cos we only did it in two weeks. $TEl[A: It sounds a long time buto . . r MfCKt It y"* a brand new studio and a mixer we rd never met before so things were a blt slow to get s tart ed. It turned out 0 . K but it I s not b ril l- iant . b

Do you know how many copl,es

STEYEI

o1d?

Getting on for 101000. Quite good. It surprised us r

f d on I t think you sound. anything like either of them. MrcK: Good , but other pe ople kinrl of immediate ly say t hat . fn the L.P, râ&#x201A;Źview in the lI .lvT.E. t hey ke pt c ompa.r: in# you w i th J oy Divis ion all the way through. IqrCK r They tre good. bancls but I think it a b it point 1e s s go ing out of your 'sway copying someone fike that TE1IE : rt aian ' t worry us really. hle thought b e ing c ornpared t o two of the b es t bands tha i; have come out of England. in the last few years was pretty good going but it dicl get a bit.'. I{rcK r rt just ge t s a b it annly ing. rf some one reads it and then they say that this band. is a total rip off of Joy Divis ion it makes you think that other people might think ' oh they rre so unoriginal ! . r think we rre more original than those bands. rt rs like private. Ly we a 11 l ist en t o different music. Rob listens to discor st eve l ist ens t o the Doors , Garr listens to the Doors and Dick likes Pink Floydl I ft 's just a kind of comb inat ion of lot s of different bands. ROB : r really like sheena Easton actually, I just think she 's a really good . s inge r . And r l ike De pe che l{od.e . o

They were on Top

last week. ROB : Really. They tre

ROF

I4ICK

of the

great

pops

Would you go on Top of the pops? rf would se11 more records.

Youtd like to sell ri-iore records? (

i",f

0K:

c]*f te

Yea.h

st quest ion ever a.sk-J I

yâ&#x201A;Źa,h . ,'

You don't want to srick wrth the indepenCent charts ? i"'rcK: lf o, j-t ts alraost e b it of e waste of t ime . rt ts a b it of a, riraE; if every

$THVE:

Our kice take our stuf f .

i'lrc fi : Yeah I know but the:r don't take many independent singles or stuff.

riith a major distribution W.tr{.S, or lworth t s ord er the s ingle immedtately anC theytre the ones that get t he s inEl e s int o the cha,rt s .

'iJco

single.r,..

(ca,ntt hear the rest) :

l{ould you l ike to te t int o the t real t charts'l' S'I'EVEI Well we wouldntt say no to it. IulrcK: rtd like to get into the charts, es i,eciall.y with L.p.' s,

lo you think you c ould on 4 . A. D? r\ot really t cos to get into the charts itrs a,ll about chart return shoDs . ,:ho i:s l ike Our price anC '',',/.I-i...iTiithts and all that lot.

you like to sign to a major'? I'iIClt; n/el1 not real-l y. I prefer l.A.) tcos yourve $ot the total freedom to do whatever :fou want. i'/e just present t-nen. " There coulC be major }a,bels like 4.A.0 that let you do an){thing you wani . .^/oulci

When t s

the

ingl e c om ing out ? i4fOii: ',{e11 we recorCeci it about a week ago but it hasn t t been cut yet so I t d say ab out lat e July . ne

r,r

l'lodern English play,a. short but exciting set to a pretty small crowd. They start off with '15 Days! and then go straight into rGathering Dust'. 'The Token lranr follows then rlt{esh and lace' which is so good, t3lack Housest, 'llove in Lightt, rDance of Devotionr tta real love songtt (r dontt rsmiles and laughter'. think so thoirgh) "ndrA viabl-e commerclal'and the best l.p track, the But they donrt play mournful but beautiful rGrief r. An encore, f forgot which. f thj.nk that theyrre better on record though and. the rMesh and Lacet L.P

is their best record, at the rnoment until they release their new single, tsrniles and Laughter' which is good, very good even, but rMesh and Lacer is fantastic. It was the best track on their Peel session, and

f expectrsdit t o be on the L.P., but theytve done a complet ly d ifferent vers ion and itrs even better. If you ignore this, or Modern English r you must be mad.

A CERTATN RATIO T

(racronv

TO EACii'

)

bit of a disapointment this, not ba.d but f thought it would have been much better. Nowhere near as good as their singles, great dance records, and the messy but exciting rGraveyard and Ballroomt ca.ssette. Most of the instrurnents sound. so quiet and safe, the vocals are terribly weak. A lot is the opening of the l.P seems to lack the guts of their other rel-eases. Best.track tl'V tFl-etcht which is very danceable and features some great brass. Spiritr and one, tForced Laughr are pretty brdinary, the latter features some dream like vocals from Shets vetXr good. rCholrr is one of their Ti1ly who seems to be the sixth member now. fBack to tlte Startr Just drags on. best songs, and this version is great, but tThe f,oxi, which opens sid.e two is a let dov;n. The version of it on the Ameriean 12'l brassy, but this is more subdued. Good song though. is fantastic, rea11y bold and rlosst is slow and gloomy. fOceanst is another dreamy nUmber. is more or less The l-ast track, 'Winter Hitt-t goes on for ages, about 11 minutes andrs just r:oine very good" d.rurnning with a few noises chucked in. A pity it not rta bit shorter but play it very loud and wear your carpet out dancing. And f didn mention

funk

once.l

T}18 B TRT}IDAY

SWELL

F,:"RTY

PRAYFfiS ON

F I}TFI

.A.})

This L.P is a real sur,prisâ&#x201A;Źr j.trs really wilcl , frighteningr er{cit ingr llnner"vitgt mad... .

Dontt expect any easy to whistle Dop tunes , The Birthday Party 's songs are bol-d" blocks of sounC just chucked togethe:^* The best insirunent cf all is i'Jick Cave rs voicâ&#x201A;Ź r the man ts crazy , he sou"nd.s as if he t s poq sesed. by evil s pirit s . tz oo lvlusic Girl t is the best track, a wild triba 1 drum b ea.t with s ome bra.s sy brass. tCryt sound.S fairly ordinary a,oart from those voca,ls. t Capers I f eature s sorne great thomping bas s , piano and vocals that s ouncl as if be ing playe d at 1 5 r. F . rn. Shall they i "* the I go ofl r..o yeah?r well therefsrYard t t ldick the Str inrer t and sleasy , t the funky ( istr ) 'Dul l Day ' ( trre mostA Dead normal tra,ck here ) and the wild liongt... As for the lyricsr I havenft gbt a c lue what they I re ab out . 1)oe s it

T,iAPS

WHATEVER HAPPENS NEXT.

(noucH TRADE)

The last release by Swel1 Maps is

this doub le L,P retrospect ive of home recordings 1 8, John Peel session and a

I ive re c ord ing in ftaly . Although it sells for about {5' 50r it isn I t really a bargain as pract ical1y all of sides 2 & 1 is crap. TheY could have eas ily got all the good stuff onto one record. Side 1 is the best with I tracks recorded between April '75 and Fiarch tB0. A great version of fRead about Seymour I , the ir f irst single r the inst mmental tTerribly fnsect t and a very long vers ion of I Midget Submarinesr. Daftest track is (f am) the Greatest nlurnb Lng/Rad io Ten r which f eature s Enic and Fhone s play ing drurns , do ors r f l oors r rad io , plumb ing et c . S ide ?- has only got A tra.cks . The f irst ' Clearasil Record (Stuck) | sounds as if the record is finished matt er? and the s ty lus 'is s tuck in the la s t This is one of the strangest L.Pts f tve groove, itts awfulJ. BLAI'TJ J (l wonder ever heard" and one which I t d recornend to where they got that nane from") is evelxrone . Eve ryone should have a B irthd*y rnuch i:etter, more your usual Fla'os Partv. Ro on be brave, You wo-n rt re ret i thrash. tlown with Tractorsr goes on tAmphibious and on (ab out 10 mins.) and. is possibly the worst rmci-c Itve ever heard. Land ing Craftr is a short instrumental and is 0.K. iide 1, even worse. rPaul-ts Deadr more plumbing,! rsheep Dipr crao. the only decent track on this side is rHavoc all ended', & piece of pleasent piano playing courtesy of Epic. rThe Hirialayast self indulgent crap. This side is; almost a comnlete waste of vinyl. rYo.u and the i'li;rr t and the Much better things on side {, couldntt be ntuch worse. rThe Stairs:rre ifusierthe oldes{ tra,ck is just bass and piano and ie quite pleasent. tVerticalSlumt lasts about 1 min. and is much nore like an Avalanchet, awfuL. ef,fective than'10 min. dirges. That and the fast zL tracks come from their John Peel make the record session in yiay ,79 and, feature Lora l,ogic on sax on sone of then and r. worth whil-e as theyrre really good, especially tForest l'irer and rBandits Ore Five you Swell l{a.ps collection buying if want cornplete a However this is only rea11y worth otherwise yourre better ofi buying tA Trip to l'larineville r, their first (and best) t,.p.

JOSEF K Josef K are one of the best ErouDs around. at the mornent. Theyrve just released their debut L.P. rThe 0n1y ilun fn Town' r,rhich is one of the best L.-f'.'s so fa.:: this year. Yourve probably rearl in the music press bits about them and Postcard. record.s, this years/weeks.. thing, b1ah, b1ah, blah. Therets much rnore to them than a f ive minute wonder, Iheyrre nade out to be 5;1oorr1y, serious, intellectual tyces, narne taken fror,'r a tiafka novel.. fn fact their nusic is far fron gloomy itrs nuctl !-iore excitinil anC fresh than most 'pop' groul)s. iiere rs a brief history of the banri whicn is irroba.bly more interesting; than i'ne askin.J them a load of si11y questions.

T'V Art formed early in 'J8 a.nd playeri their first gig in rclinburgh in February that year. The line up a.t that time was I j)aul- iiaig: gu.itar and vocal-s I'ialcolm Ross ;,guitar itonnie Torrance: Crurns Gary luicCorrna,ck : ba.ss . Gary ffcCormack left in July a.nd they were without a bass player until i{ovember when tlavid '/e dde 1l- j o ine cl . ,

Jump to t."l) and r.v Ar-c ar.e now Josef, K and they release their first single, tChance Irieetingt/'nomancet on Absolute Recorrls which lras run by steven Daly f rom Orange Juice. 1000 copies were released all of, which have since gone.

Fe!11aW '89 - The postcard staf,f Edinburgh ""*,,{Rby Orange Juice selling copi.es of rFalling And Iaughing' (another collectors item) and they meet Josef f Jgain. They agree to d"o a single with postcard. tRadio Drill Time' was recorded at castre sound studios near Sdinburgh in just J hours, the ts side, tCra,zy To iixist' was recorded. live in the stud.io to save money. Around this time Postcard is rdiscoveredr by the music press and suddenly every paper is going on about..the laber and the tscottish scener. live iqccullough, paul Florley and a few others rave. tr'u11 page inte""I"""... fo11ow, a new toy for them to pfay witn until* they get t irer/b ore <i of it . I '11 give ii e" months ,! ."t

l I : :

The fo11ow ur sing.le rltrs Kincla f'unny'r/'tr'inal Requestr was reeorded aga.in at Cast1e Sound ancl released in i,lovember. A truly beautiful record, ancl completly

different to their previous .releases. jlow,',gent1e, quiet voca'ls, discreet syn drurns..., 'rAn endea.ring ballad"' PostcarC press release

irlso in f

:;or1T

}rovemlJer they Le.ughingt .

for

sta.rted recording il-reir.debut L.p.

in ee,rly Jariuarl; this; year Jo$tef 14- were in Brusse ls r//ith Ora.nge Juice t o :lley a 6,ii f:; whici-i hacJ been eTTanged by .l,es; Jisque s Ce lre puscule ,i o'o,"t ory *en.eluK, tnose t::endy (Uut quitc 6tood) ::elgian la.bels. i'ire;v recorrJed a sing.l.e ' :j orry f or i.aughin$ , i , -{eve lat ion t s \rtr.3i ch wa s re -l- ee s e d ol Le s Dis qrre s d.e 'Jr'epus cu le and . ii rsi stu-nni*.,,. ?he best " iosef i, t,rlcord . r3ll;,r it and find cut how fl,aod it is fcr 'ir OllfS e lve S . .l

The ba,::d were a.l ssc nleasecl with it , it v/as the soun4

i l

I I

theyrd been looking for. In fact they were so pleaseri that they decided to scrap the first L.?., which was aLmost due to be released, "because it's only as good as the l3unnymen's" (ttrat good!) and go back to Srussel-s later in the year and record a new L.ii. there, their second debut 1,.P. Gossip a:id rubbish fly arouncJ in the music press. 0n1y one tra"ck from the f irst l.!'. was released, t-EnCless Sou]', which appears on. the CB1 cassette.;i frantic rush of guitars, ouite good but not rernarkable. 'Chance fleeting'was re- recorded and released as their next single. Another great singl-e. llesitant vocaLs and guitar with some tremendous brass a"t the end. The 3 side 'Pictures' is 0.K. but not very strong,.(Aff tne Josef K singles have got terrific A sides but all the B sides seern to be weak songs or badly record"ed and messy) And the unthinkable happens.... a bad review of a Postea.rd record. Wel-l it had to happen.

to date and frve just got my copy of their L.P. 'The Only I'un In Town'which is very good. Well worth the wait. The rnusic press donrt think so though. Shitty Sounds give it just one star and Paul I'Iorley moans about it (f tnint, f cantt rea11y understa.nd his review) in the li.li.E. The only fault I can find is that ! tracks (fraff the l.P.) are ava.ilable elsewhere, albeit in very different versions. 'RacLio Drill Tirner has been drastically changed soundwise and itts title changed, itts now called fHeart 0f Song'. Also a suDer version of t}tazy To Existr, a rockierl! version of rltrs Kinda Funrqr'n Revel-ation(ttre veakest track) and a slightly different version of r$orry iror Laughingt. i'Iot forgeting the other five, 'Fun and Frenzy', tThe Angler, rForever Drone', t15 Yearsf and tOitizensr, the best of which are the aptly titled 'Fun and li'renzy'and the mournful tThe Angle'. A good buy. And itrs got a wonderful cover(which does heLp). i'lo coubt as I'n writing irris th; L.p.'s zooming up the I3ack up

,fu

tt* b," f

I-.,u^b, .t* r? ry.

+ rl' 4 {ilr..

a-A, otu. /artu ^dt L^n,

J"/fl **Iz f

d//rl".

J ."t

fu.ranu..

&rv, & ./-,e f.tt il ,t t

L ,& 4 {nt'*

i nc re a.s ingly s t a,l e a nd cliquey independent charts. Cne da.y a Fostcard record must get into the charts and f 'd have thcught that this c oul d have b ee n the one . nyway when the ir tour is over the b and are going int o the stucjio to start work on a new single, maybe this onâ&#x201A;Źr

,rtulrv

very goocl pocket s iz e tb a,ndz ine] which cost s 50c + s.&.â&#x201A;Ź. fron

3abs, 6l Grosrvenor itoad , London N .1 a.nC ha.s inte rviews with Orange Juice a.nd Alan Horne a,r'ici a, piece on Josef K as well a.,s some very good colour

.te .6... ^dL /,4;d".

fu-*li,Lfffi f,

Jr.r kl

If you want sorne other Josef K rea C ini; mat t er there I s a

,*rtrr./ d,

.er3

4J"^a

rr-^/- 4 .d.

phot os .

tn*

r,.t

? f*

o.?,

rhta fu"u.

Jl*d" A&" &rd b 4*-* ,fld ,^* ,& .4L, d. fi* .^.rl atc ttt 4

a^^J,

a'& ,o/F.

2t" ,tl;, f ^L.+ /* /6a/L ,f- Jr'n ,o7, ^AL, ry .6n, ry ,1*

0opyright r

fu'

Qn"l

pOliTCrlriD

It!$rt

i.UrlLI;F,Il[G

' g1

himn 8t

tluPr 0ttlt

Fl?ENZil

MELON

Frenzid l&1on come from sunny Clacton and have been together for nearly I yearst during which theyrve split up, reformed, ehanged their line up loads of times and done one gig. They are now just two in number. Ba;t Iamb: vocals/lrritar/bass/keyboards/percussiorr/a"ut urachine/recorder/harmonica. (clever ehl)

Pete Ashby: guitatfbass/vocals/keyboards/v1.oJ.in/percussior/drum machine. Theytve changed their musical- directien almost as many times as their line upt experinental, very punky, pretentious punkr punk with heavy rock riff, spontaneous nusic, roots blues. ..... .. . As well as being Frenzid I'b1on, they are now running their own label, rFalling A record.s and publlshingt, so far theyrve only released one tape, a collection of Frenzid Melon naterial which has since been deLeted due to 'rthe musical content being petty dire and technical problemstt. However, they hope to release a tape by the fnstant Peop1e and some records in the near future.

Intervlew tine: THE EARTY CASSETTES YoU DrD ('ll/ RECOR} T}[E}'I FROI{ TAPE TO TAPE?

Barry: D

Pete

'78)

HOl'/ rvrANy

c0PrEs

WERE DoNE 0R

DID YoU JIJSr

The early cas sett es were pure ly a rnatter of passing tapes around. No changed hands. We just recorded onto other peoples blank cassettes.

SELI IN THE SHOPS We rnade them to ord,er.

THEY

BY WORD OF

money

MOUTH?

Virgin records showed interest in the band in early 'JB rrespecially after hearlng we had a controversial song called rf am Godrrr, but they decided not to follow that up. wiff?

Pete: We real-ised in tine that they wouldtve exploited the shit out of us. Barry: Virgin Records never offered any contract, they were just interested in us. We didntt follow it up because we thought they were after another Sex Plstols. WHO ARE ll"U RECORDS? (VU necords offered the band a track on a compilation t.P last year r*hich they rejeeted) Barryl VU Record.s are a waste of tine. Theyrre also ]coown as False ldols Ifusic publi-shing conpany. Pete: We were going to record a track for a compilation L.P they were going to bring out, but we missed the release date. Then we r*ere told of a, second compilation L.P so wd were going to record a track for that. 3arry: We read an articl-e in a well known weekly music paper exposing them for not paying up royalties or something so we pulled out. If it wasnrt for V[I, Falling A wouldrve never started up. We just thought it r.ras the last straw in being ripped off by the so called sharks of the mus ic business.We decided to go it alone. you $TILL GOI,JG T0 RELEAsE THE TApE By ANN TI{] COI,TECTION OF OL} F.M MATEHTAL? ARE

TNSTAIvT

?EOPLE

(wrr ann

THEY tEcEiaDARY?)

: ves (Tney tre not ) No.t Barry; Wetre sti1l interested in putting out the Instant People tape if all the the musicians involved agree. The legendary bit was Phil Fastts addition to SYNCHROImsH article as he used to play bass for them. As for the Frenzid Melon tape, it will never see the light of day'even though we did. spend a whole week mixing and editing it' Pete

WI{AI DO YOU TiiINK ABOUT TIIE INDEPENDENT CASIJETTE

BOO]'1?

Barry: What do you think of the slump in recorrl sales? Pete: the independent cassette boon is a good and a bad thing. The good thing is that it has given a lot of bands a chance to release material that wouldrve otherwise been overlooked.. .o,. Barry: (interupting rudely) ffre bad thing is that anyone can make a few coppers by putting out half an hours worth of banging on the kitchen table. Pete: IvS idea of the bad thing is when you get bands like The Cure releasing extra tracks on the cassette only (refering to the cassette boom in general) HOW',u/OULD YOU TESCRIBE QrS ANg DOI}fG AT TIiE IV1C:',E}IT?

Hl-VnNfT ritARD

IT)

TilX rrrUSIC THAT FREMI)

i)ete: Have you ever heard Val Doonican singing in the Barry: I think it 's really good. Both together in perfect stereo: BIZAFIiEj LIXII ? 0 ACHIEVjj ',J fTi', i''A Llrifc A? 11 let you know that one . !'Je t re lookitg int o

WiLA.'I' i^iOLTLD

Pete I 3a.rry: A

We t

ba.th?

YCiJ

it at t he rnornent .

Yea,h .

]'T} F ]]{AL LY TI{E DRNANbID

l'e te

r.ELON

is that ring out some re cord s .

The dreadecl answer b

Any ilancls or artists }'A LL

55 i{

iluil 5'r J" Oii ?

FUTU,H.h,

we hope to get back to

ri o

ing; s ome gigs

and

etc. (anythini'i; creative) contact us at our adCress:

II!il A P,i!'COR}.$ r;i lilA iioA t)

:'JT) P1J3

LIS}:

IJ\IG

i/5i,

],I,A

IiD-

CId- SHA

hone to be active a,gain in form by ljentembâ&#x201A;Źr.

C LA,.0TOiI

ESIjEX.

CC1

5iiE

////////////////////////////////////////////////i,/////////i////////,/////

SUNROUN}E}

some

1/////////////////

BY }'[ASKS

Surrounded By }la.sks come from Ipswich and were forrned in I'larch fame).

via an ad. in the N.M.E. by Phil Fast (of Synchromesh The line up is: Viv Seeton- Synths, voice Ihil Fast- 3ass, voice Frank Harrison- Guitar, voice

Weazle- Drums A fifth rnember is likely to be ad<led soon, (probably has been) They havenrt performed live yet but hope to soon. 'rWe would like people to listen to our rmrsic and hopefully get sonething out of it. To provoke people into thought and action,

rather than just entertain them.'l They rd like to release materiaL on their ovm labe1 from the point of view of having control though it might not be financially viable. frl1 try and get some inore stuff on the 6Foup for No.J. |

C/TSSETTES T.t

-irU

A compilation tape put to6;ether by liew Crirnes fanzine from Southend" featurin5; groups

that have apoeared in it. Riiiht side one, first off are The Sinyx fron r{ayl"eigh. Their three tracks are calleC rAnimalt, rSuicide' and'f'ightr so It11 ;;ive .you a guessi a,t what sort of music they play. Yeah (reat?) cunk. Cynics woulci dismiss them straight off but rAnimalr is really good but the other two are a bit of a mess. The Subhumans are another er.. punk i.{roup and are very, very fast. After a fe,nr olays rF'arasitesr stands out althou;r-:h the other two tra.cks 'ftrs gotta get worse t and t Drugs of Youth are quite good. Sornethin6l different, 86:ivix are a bit more experimental, they remind me a bit of The Fa1 1 especially on rlescribe Yourself r. tiviy desert is a, cityt is g-reat, reggaeish bass with sorne good guitar. tThe Partyr is an i"nstrumental which sounds similar to, though much better than, Section 21. ilest grouo so far. ljide two: Stripey Zebras are a bit of a laugir, with song titles called Bilko plays PoP'r rGreta Garbo goes shoppi-ngt and ri"ionsters on T.V.' they canrt'Sgt. rea.11y be gloomy modernes. They play a sort of garage punk? , great fun especially'G.G. goes shopningt . A.P.F. Srigacle (Anarchy, Peace and Freed.om) are two guys and a clnim nachine. Their first track rThe Profesionalst is, of course, about the a,rmy ancl is very 5;oo6,, the drum ma,chine gives it a different fee1. fBan the Somb' is O.ii. but 'No Effecti is just a row. Youtve probably already read the piece on l'1ux Of Pink fndians so frll just say tha,t all- their three tracks are excell-ent, especiall;; the eerie rlife After Death'. Last, but not least, Enola Death with two tracks, rFox Huntingr and rThe Sun Saysr, recorded in a. garden shed. The music r*onrt set the world alightr just acoustic guitar, bass(which I cantt hear) and boxes and a watering can for drums, but the worrls are very good especialy 'tr'ox i{untingt: Foxes were put here for our pleasure/ffrings to ki1l during times o.f leisure and Here come the hunt sabateurs in their van./l'te'11 k111 them all if we can/w:nat right have the.'r got to stop our kill/Donrt they know it's a game of fun and skill. New

Criminals is available frorn -

lank

fl1 .25 inc. p&p. Cheques/ C50 and a S .a. e .

6 TRAC I( CASsEITTE

It costs just b

SPEC IA

DUT IES

New Crimes c/o 16O Victoria Avenue Southend on sea Essex. SS2 5NA

p.o.'s payable to G. Burnett. Or sencl a

(nuvriii''ircK

RECOEIS )

f saw Soecial.Duties in Colchester and wasnrt very impressed but this is very good. euite expensive for just 5 tracks but then again it costs Sl for a single nowadays' and the sound quality is excellent. First number is t I am the Curse t which I thought was a Waxwork Dummies sorr8r but as Stuart used to be in Special Duties f suppose it is theirs. Anyway itrs great. is full of sirens ete., iust a very good rock song with very good lyries. 'S.p.Gt tViolent Societyt is fast and angry. The next track 'f think of Your is the best. It reminds me of Buzzcocks, thatrs good enough for mer-especially the singing and the lyrics. It woul-d make a great siiele.'(Stiff tittle)Dubt is, yeah, reggae. Can white mln play reggae'r Who giv-s a toss, if the musicrs 0.K that's fine by me. And this is. track on my copy rYourre doing yourself no goodr, which is a limited Irve goi "tr-"*tra edition bonus track. Itrs very raw and energetic, remember '77? If you want a copyr itrs worth itr send S1'40 to: Rythmick Records .50 Ernest

try Parrot in Colchester.

Road

Wivenhoe Essex C07 9LQ

( G LUil

r r"' DEA )

LN,

P I,J )

Two tapes from lrn Deacl who are (i*) Keith Cha.cman nlaying bass, trrJitr,r', drum rnachine and singingn not velXr well a.t tines. The sounC quality isnrt veqJ good, probably beca.use they're recorded, fron one nachine onto anoiher, so a lot of the soni;s suffer riue to this.

rThe,{onders ol llerJical Sciencer is'uhe firsi tare by;ieith as tf'n Deadrand isnrt very good. L:n a l-ot of the tracks the sound is bad anc,r the son{ts sound very simila:r:. ,lowever a fev,' are r;uite i1oocl , no'Lairl.y 'rJiriesadCle' , ilinal llhought's(g:reat bass) and 'i'rai1 oi'an Innocent',/ictinrwhici: is very dood. It features a irrench jurlge? rarnbling on with guitar and drum over it. Very ef I'ective. lTuch better: is rTerrlrts Lefi l,brt, the sound quality is better and the songs are mucn stronger. 'l'he best tracks are rlloo 01clt, tWasteC Youth'; t,,,llhere therets a will (there h;rs got to be a relative) I ancl 'Policenanr. irve just rea.lised I h;r.ventt said vrhat the musicrs like. }Jell if you ir-nagine a guitar, bass anri drun rnachine that's itJ f can't think of any comparisons. A good t h ing?

ff;rou want either of the tapes they cost C1 or a blank C50 each + a, s.a.e. f rom: Ke ith Cha.pnnan J 1 ilall Estate ldhanger lialdon

lls sex.

Irm .Deacl J i:; nearly f inished antl vii.i l- be released und.er the title untitled' ' . 'r

GARAGElAilD You're absolutely right. No one ever sends away for those

rotten cass.ettes

therefore

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Funeral ilirectors

'r.i'i .il.

can I have all of those Cg,s you couldn't get rid of? Qlum tapes Gotdhanger, Essex. pM Don't get fresh.

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A lh e ] rns icr:d I rd seen the Funeral }irectors just bef ore Xrnas witi:',{axvrork Dunilies and thought they were good s o I was looking f orewa,rd t o see in,i' thern again . There.\rs now 5 Directors with Lawrence (Waxwork Dumnies) guesting? on guit&r. l{ith two guita,rs the;r make even more of a row than bef cre , the s ongs are almost unbearab }e . But who ca res'l , iiieytre mad" 'llhe singer stalks aroliitci, hreaks tiie star,â&#x201A;Źr Inakes a row. A'part frorn ti'* Enitar:ist, theyfre e,1:]. decked ollt in wi*rd

ccstLrites. ?he cirunner looks liqe Orr-reli a tje Ville or a, wiich, i,awrence is a t"nonk, the ba.ss nlayer is 'Cone up in ton hat and la,yers of ,1ia.ke uD p,nd ti,e sin5ler just loolrs grea.t uiitli red hair srtick"ing up like horns, norning suit and- irl-oocl s

pla t t ereri '''l cve s .

A ir.uneral ]lirectors Tecardftape would- Drobar:]y be a,\dful but live (visua,lly) they're gre&t. ,i ee them if you can r .you won I t f orget then in a hur:r1r .

FAD

GADGET

DEFEC}TE

MOD

PA I.A

SCHAU}tsERG

FURIOUS PIG

THE

TYCEUM

bright young things of London hardly turned out in force for this eventr another nlabeln night, this time a showcase for lfute Records, Daniel l{lllerrs organisation. Still, despite being about half full, the l.yceum certainly looked happier than it did for Cabaret Voltaire/Throbblng Gristle/Clock DVA earlier this'year. Feople actually seemed to be enjoying themselves, although whether this was due entirely to the music is another question - naybe the same flux of gyrating poseurs could be found in Le Kilt or Studio 21, dancing to the same music played in the intervals in the Lyceum. This time, however, the usual flow of ileaven 17 and Kraftwerk was halted by fiLn shows extolling the virtues of industrial clothing, eye visors and

The

bodybuilding. Stillr to the music. Furj-ous Pig are an acapella four-piece whose style of delivery and crude minimalism were not to everybodyrs liking. hrhaps they were not electronic enoughJ Personally, I found them interesting enough at the start of their set, although towards the end f was in agreement with the majority being quite relieved when th-y finaly left the stage. Falais Schaunberg came next. They are frorn Hamburg in Germany and were qulte excellent r sounding like a mixture of DAF, Cabaret Voltaire and PiL, but coming across as velcy original. The line-up eonsisted of drummer, rythm and tape operator, bassist, keyboards player and guitarist/vocals. Definitely a-band to watoh out for. Rather predictably, guest DJ was k,ve Archer of Stud.io 21 I leading on rrone of the best bands around at the momentrrr Depeche Mode. fn factr'they were very good indded, visually and musically. The three relentless synths of Vince Clark, Martirt Gore and Andrew Fletcher were faultlessly played, backing up David Gahants flexible voice perfectly. They encored with 'Photographicr from the rsone Bizarre Albumr and a version of Bryan Ferryrs f Priee of Lovet, and were very enthusiastically recieved.. FAD GADGEIT the trheadlinertr if there is such a thing in an event of this kindrmade a str:nni-ng entrance. Dressed in a Conmedia dell rArte character, perhaps Scara.mouche, he repeatedly hammered a drum synth whilst a steadily increasing wall of sound built upr suddenly breaking into ri{ewsreelr as the backlng rnusicians, including two percussionistsr took their places. All, f hasten to add, were dressed very sillily, ragged wombatfs suits and dunces hats amongst other things. The long set that folloned included all of the singles, including extended versions of tl'Iake Roomr and rladyshavet and most of the trFiresid.e Favourites'r lP. Fad was perhaps the most energetic perfo::ner Irve seen, at tines be.coming quite demented, klcking scenerTr aboutr climbing onto the PA, br'aining himself with a eyn-drum - you know, all the usual stuff expected of the budding'rfuturist". lncoring with 'Rickyrs Handr and. rState of the Nationr, the Fads anbled off the stage to ecstatic applause. Beeton. THE

CURE

CHETMSFORN ODEON

Trying out new ideas, The Cure decide to dispense with a support band (a good irtea as far as the Odeon and other seated venues are concerned) and treat us all to a film instead. A good idea, I thought, until I saw the film that is. Carnage Visors i" ,O minutes of crap, though no doubt itts futl of hidden meani.ngs. All ii consisted of was a black and white film of a sort of meccano figure twisting, turning and changing shape. At the side of the screen, sti11s from the film are shown, in colour, onto two smaller screens. Wow.r Even worse is the soundtrack. A long instrumental piece by the Cure, awfull. A waste of tiine. The Cure come on amidst a sea of pretty lights as soon as the film finishes and start churning out a load of new songs, all of which sound. exactly the same. Slow and boring. No one dancesr Iotr cantt, just stand and watch, cJ-ap at the end. Whatever happened. to all those jol1y pop tunes they used to'write. Oops, spoke too soon, they play some earlierr much better naterial, tKilling an Arabr, '10.15t (tneir best song), rPlay for Tcdayr, 'Fire in Cairor a-nd 'Three fmaginary Boyst, great stuff. Thii is what they ( I) want,l They finish predictably with a long version of 'A Forestr, how rlid that get in the charts and their other singles didn't ? They did a couple of encores and. left. A disappointing night.

I'HJ Al)ICTi/iiA.i:'iOlid. DUI-I{Iili/riPllCLtiI IUTrFltj/sI'ASl,ODrC

CARE:jS

iIA.J:,I ;.JIJITE,

CCLCJJI]SIER

The Colchester ifunk irestiva.l featuring four l-ocal ban<is all ol whon lrd. heard of but never seen (e-xcept idaxwork Du:nmies). l''irst on, surprisin6:.1y, l,/ere Spasmodic Caress from Cla.cton. The;r had a track on d.A.Dts tPresagesrthen, I think, split up or changed there line up. Anywayrdespite practically no crowd rea,ction they play€d a very good set. A four niece they play mod.ern music? which is very interesting(not as in self inr:lulg,ent crap) and riancea,b1e. Irve forgotten the song titles, as usual, but the best song wa.s tCornputer iJrror' (f tfrint). Irll- look forward to seeing then again. Special Duties got the crowd going a bit more but were a bit of a disapointment. After a few numbers they got a bit boring; and sta1e. They played 'I a,n the Cursel (the Waxwork lummies song), an Undertones song, the title of which I've forgotten, and rlet rs Dancer. I'Ione of the other songs really stood out and their set dragged on (and on) . Iiiuch better were Che lmsf ord' s verTf own Waxwork Durnmie s who get b ett er a 11 the t ime . I'low clown to a. three pie ce f oll owit$ t he de parture (t icking out ?) of s inger lrTould , Lar*rence take s over rnost of the vocals . They only pla.yed a short set but were the best g:roup. As I forgot to ment ion in the

last issue they play a sort of tribal punk t dontt laugh itts very good. Starting a,s usual with a sort of chant, donft know what it rs calledr they then II am the Curset a new song play tstill|, t lW Daddy is a Vampire t and a few more. Though they didnlt play rWaxworkst which is one of the ir best songs. I only hearri a few songs by: The Adicts, and then I was busy trying to flog some farsines, so it would be unfair to judge ther;r on this. They were 0. K. but nothing special.

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IOUXS

IE A}i:D T}TE BA J\j$iii]ES

I got to the Odeon at B and found that John Cooper Clarke hac! been on. Shit ,l I was looking f orward" t o se e ing h in more than I wa$ the ilanshee s . ithe:: the doors hrere openeC very early ( nie;hl.r unl ike ly ) or he d icl a verTr sirort ,set Ne xt carne a short a.nimateC f ilm called Ubu. Lrnlike The Curets filn, a counle of rnonths &:,o this one is wortii vratching, it ts hila,rious . The f ilm t s a,l1 about Ib and j!ra. Ubu. I?a decides to ki1l the king, which he cl oes, so he becomes ruler. 3uf the prirlce escaner to the nnc(rntains. Ila js e ba.ri ruler ariC the pe o 1l1e a ren t t happy . T'he prince corne s baci< and f i,i.;htli a baitle witn "ca which he wins and" g'et s the throne back . Pa ani I'ia end up lazing in a boet floatini,i on ihe ocearl . ilnd of f i1m , aa.h i 11

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By the t ime the

Sanshee s ccme on the place is pa.ck€C, a.nd ful.l of 'bouncers struttin;: arouncl kee'ning nost neople in the sea.ting area. They start off with tfsraelt wliile a, loaC of clouds floa,t by behind thern, ver1r pretty. tHallowe€ht, f ljne]lbounc f anc tAra.bian xni,'rhts t follow , a,1"1 of vrhich a,Te excellent. Arrart from ti,ose four and tlo oldies tj"U1l to bitst aric the sul)er I ]uiirap-:e t the re st of the set isnf t very s"necial . lintil the l"ast soni:::, tiianry nousef whickr I reckon is cne of'tireir oest. Just cne encore, the song which f t rl expected, a manic version of fHelter ;'lke lter t fea turin;l $icuxs ie clarn ering (,ruite a go cd gi g and a.l" 1 over the P.A nuch better than when the:r last played

here.