Do You Remember The First Time?

I have just been sent the above photograph. It is a picture of E.S.P. Disk-rd live at The Punch & Judy Bar, Newark Palace Theatre, December 7 1980.
The chap with a certain savoir faire and the dress sense of Mark E. Smith playing the bass guitar is me. I find this very hard to believe....I never wore jeans!
This was my first gig. I thought I remembered it well but if you told me that I was wearing jeans as first trouse of choice I would have called you a liar! I always wore corduroy! It was also the time where we had the decency to leave our drinks at the side of the stage. if it had been a gig now the table with the synth keyboard would also act as the "drinks table".
We played as part of the "1980: Waking Up Newark" festival organised by local musician John Bingham and the man behind the Newark & Southwell fanzine "Cautious Talk Seduces Young Children" fanzine; Tim Bop. (Not real name). We got the gig by mailing a demo tape to "Cautious Talk" or "Catsick" as it was known back then...thinking back, they must've been short of bands. I also recommended Lincoln band The Void and they got the headline spot on the night. Apart from ourselves and The Void, there was D+7 (John Bingham's band), Passive Resistance and Subway Razor. Later (in the 1980's) members of the latter two became O Yuki Conjugate. I think the only reason The Void got the headline spot was because they could do the longest set. Ours was 10 minutes. 3 songs = 10 minutes. We were booked as, and billed as "So Commercial", but between booking and performing we had changed our name to E.S.P. Disk-rd.
It was our first and last gig with Rosemary on synth keyboard, she later went onto join The Void for a few gigs. We were asked to play the "1981: Waking Up Nottingham" festival at The Ad Lib Club a few months later but we declined.

I love the picture. It is so 1970's (although it is 1980)! Brown curtains, old beer glasses, nicotine stained ceiling tiles. Beautiful.
I wish I had a recording from the gig. 10 years ago I met John Bingham again. he was working as a barman in a pub near the theatre. He didn't say much. Infact he seemed a little freaked by Dave and I hassling him for memories and recordings...poor bloke, he's probably left the country by now!

Picture: E.S.P. Disk-rd Live. (L-R: Steve Cammack - Bass. Dave Uden - Drums. Rosemary Ingleton - Synthesizer).

The Cortinas

The word went out a couple of weeks ago. There was to be, for the first time ever, a compact disc of The Cortinas singles, album and Peel Session release. Hard to believe that no-one had thought to put all the recordings on to one CD before, but there y'go. Excitement reigned...well me and Steve Underwood were happy. And the 29th of November saw the official release. I found a copy on the internet for £4.50.
As a youth I loved The Cortinas. Never saw them live, never had the first LP but the first two singles are classics. They are here on the CD, tracks 1-4. Classics. My favourite being "Defiant Pose". Teenage anthem for 1978. I remember buying it on 12" format from a great record shop in St. Austell in 1978 whilst holidaying in Cornwall. I've always remembered where and when I bought the classics.
As a youth I "suppose" I liked "punk rock", although I was never a fan of the "biggies" like Sex Pistols or The Clash or Buzzcocks. I liked The Damned for a couple of LP's and The Jam had a few good hard chord songs, above all I liked The Stranglers up until and including their "Black And White" LP. I went more for the independent single, the stuff John Peel was playing the most and was 10p cheaper in the singles bin on Sanctuary Records (Lincoln) counter. Stuff like The Cortinas, Eater, Cyanide, The DP's, Menace, Outsiders etc along with steadfast labels like Rough Trade and Factory and Fast Product - that was my stuff.
After the single tracks comes the Peel Session. Quite weak apart from the two tracks that were the single "A" sides. The album follows. I hadn't heard the LP since 1980. I never owned a copy. A friend (Mark Collins) bought it and on first listen we declared it crap! Listening to it now 30 years later (and thirty years older) it still sounds pretty crap. Very weak and the songs have not stood the test of time. Unlike, say, The DP's "If You Know What I Mean" LP or Eater "The Album". I think the problem with The Cortinas is that they only had 5 and a half good songs and an album that only featured one and a half of them.
The booklet notes are a good read and really it is about time some person took it upon themsleves to write a book about the Bristol Music Scene in the late 1970's, early 1980's akin to the Sheffield tome "Beats Working For A Living", there were some great innovative groups / labels around then. (It has a "Where Are They Now" section (which I love) and Nick Sheppard is a DJ in Perth, Australia. Tim..hunt the man down)!! The booklet kind of alludes to the band running out of steam when they signed to CBS, but the songs on the LP are really bad. What it reminds me of is......there must have been an interim when The Leyton Buzzards became Modern Romance. They must have had some tracks/songs and thought...these don't really work as high energy punk tunes, why don't we try and add a salsa or rhumba beat and lighten the guitars, and then thought sod it - let's change our name and go all out pop. Well, The Cortinas LP is like The Leyton Buzzards in their interim period!

I was in Toulouse in 2006 where I found a lovely little second hand vinyl shop, and I found (for 10 Euro) a copy of the "Heartache" 7". I had to buy it. B Side is their classic "Ask Mr Waverly". And if you are wondering, the half decent track is "Radio Rape" (which could have been a DP's song if you ask me).
The CD is a good document of a band with five and half decent songs who after one LP had the decency to call it a day...how many albums did The "bloody" Clash make? (whatever the number it was, it was that number too many). If seen for a fiver and you know of The Cortinas I say "buy it".

Pictures:
1: CD Sleeve.
2: The Cortinas Live in Bristol.
3: "Heartache" Sleeve. (10 Euro)!

Mark Durgan With Spoils & Relics

After witnessing the live performance of Mark Durgan with Spoils & Relics at the Lowest Form Of Music Weekend last month in London I was all questions to whether or not the set had been recorded for future release, then somebody commented that the set was better than the cassette release on Mantile. What! How did that one slip through the radar?
I managed to get in touch with Mantile MD and future sound of Plaistow Johnny Scarr through the My Space site....but it took a while...should have gone straight to the "official" Mantile site. Doh, the glory of hindsight. The cassette was with me within days. Great service,
So, is it better than the live set in London? The live set in London came straight out of leftfield. It was loud, bloody loud as sounds came out of the speakers arched around the ceiling, brought their own silence and hung there waiting to be used. Scratching sounds, irritant sounds, tense sounds. It was not worth watching the performance (they played in front of the stage and were virtually invisible) to see how these sounds/noises were created, that would have been too much of a distraction. I stood rooted at the back staring at the ceiling.
So, is it better? No. But it is a nice companion - played as memory.
I am not at all au fait with this genre of sound. Musique Concret. School of Stockhausen etc. I did see Alvin Lucier live in Exeter a few years back (strangely enough with Mark Durgan) and that too was simply amazing. I have Mark Durgan solo releases, but they don't sound like this. I have a Spoils & Relics split LP (on Harbinger Sound) but it had an empty feel....together they make a beautiful noise. Closest comparison ("music" wise)? Das Synthetische Mischgewebe on side A. Side B (there are no track titles) brought to mind 1970's Smegma and The Residents...there was something more cognitive about it all.
Johnny put in an extra Spoils & Relics cassette, saving that for the weekend.
£6.00 in the UK. Bargain. BUY!

Picture:
1: Mark Durgan With Spoils & Relics sleeve.

Antibothis

95% of what I read is "music" based whether it be autobiogs, biogs, critiques, genre based books (like Alex Ogg's "No More Heroes" or Ian Glasper's "The Day The Country Died") or simple information like the "Discography Of The New Wave" by B. George. Then there's the magazines, fanzines and small tracts. What makes up the other 5%? Well, there's always the "Radio Times" (weekly listings mag for those non UK readers) and recently some Lon Milo DuQuette, the Nocturnal Emissions "Network News" anthology and an Alan Davis (auto) biography of sorts. It was the mention of Nigel Ayers that drew my attention to "Antibothis:Occultural Anthology Volume 3" writings selected by Fernando Cerqueira.
"Antibothis" (No idea what it means) is a 138 page A5 paperback book with a memory of "Apocalypse Culture" or "Rapid Eye" books of old, but carrying more humour in the pages than any of those two publications, and a compilation CD.
Fascinating from page 1, and quite unputdownable from page 6! Chad Hensley writes about necrophiliacs in the piece "Dead Lays". The confessions of those who sleep with and fuck the dead, the ones who like to cuddle up with cold bodies, the ones who like a warm dead orifice to fuck. In America there are only a handful of States that treats necrophilia as an offence, in other Sates it is classed as "breaking and entering". Ewen Chardronnet writes about the use of drugs in warfare throughout the ages. Iona Miller has a great piece on Dr. Alexander Shuigin, the father of MDMA and his role in the Illuminati. Conspiracy theory abounds. John Zerzan on "Silence". Nigel Ayers piece "All Killer, No Filler" is random writing. Googling words at random and documenting what comes up. Reads like 21st Century cut-ups. Frank Rynne writes about his time with The Master Musicians Of Joujouka and the troubles with the opposing Musicians Of Joujouka that is operated by the Paul Bowles estate. (You see there was Mud, then there was Les Gray's Mud). The book finishes with writings by Adi + Jane Newton for TAGc.

The CD is very entertaining, containing stuff I would not (as a rule) usually listen to. Lydia Lunch & Phillipe Petit, Checkpoint 303, The Master Musicians Of Joujouka, Kal Cahoone and Orbit Service to name but 5 out of 12. There is a track called "The Denizens" by The Anti Group, I am uncertain whether or not this is a new + "exclusive" piece, but certainly one for the Adi Newton collectors. The CD (overall) has a feel of one of those compilations that come free with "The Wire" magazine. Good in parts but pants in others.

The magazine comes from Portugal and cost me fifteen euro (inc P+P to the UK), and I feel I have a treasurous bargain.
Well recommended.

Pictures:
1: Slogan Sticker.
2: Book Cover.
3: CD Cover.
4: Postcard.

Sleazy RIP.

Very sad to hear the news of the passing of Lord Peter Christopherson. His art and sound has been a great inspiration from my first hearing of Throbbing Gristle and discovering his work.
I consider my self blessed to have met the man and chatted (albeit) briefly when we shared the stage at last years Equinox Festival in London.

Thank You Peter.

ACL/Schrage Musik

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the new 7" by Schrage Musik + AntiChildLeague, (ACL),
released on the Einsatz label earlier this month.
Schrage Musik (sorry, there should be an umlaut over the "a" in Schrage, but I don't know how to put it there on this computer) are a new one on me. It is the latest project from Patrick Leagas. I know Patrick was the original drummer for Death In June back in 1980, leaving in 1985...about the time DIJ went a little "pants", but I have never "followed" his output through 6th Comm and Mother Destruction. Probably because DIJ went off the boil a bit I thought Patrick's material would too....it's the way my mind works...add to that he was calling himself Patrick O'Kill (Or to give the full Irish name Patrick O'Killy Killy Killy Kill), made me give his work a miss. 2010 sees him finish with 6th Comm and start Schrage Musik (the sound of firing cannons or "obscure music" depending on which translation tool you use), and also teaming up with AntiChildLeague. "Eternity" is a good track. Very militaristic in rhythm with a vocal that is very similar to Adi Newton of Clock DVA. With a hook line of "I don't want to live for eternity" sang out over a steady beat it becaomes instantly likable + sing-a-long-able. Good stuff, I'd be tempted to hear a whole album.
Gaya Donadio and her AntiChildLeague can do no wrong. Like Nico, I just love her voice and vocal. The ACL track "III Me, Me, Me" is like a following on from last years "Big Fat Arse" 7". Self obsession is no bad thing especially when accompanied with a great synth keyboard "riff".
I saw AntiChildLeague live back in 1999 at The Red Rose in London and have followed the output of Gaya ever since, even asking her to contribute live vocals to a live performance of Dieter Muh "Stella Polaris" at the 291 Gallery in Hackney years back. I love her voice so much! (A shame that performance was never "properly" recorded..it would make a great release).
I saw AntiChildLeague live in 2008 at the Grovesnor in Stockwell, London..Excellent gig.

The 7" is limited to 300 copies and all copies are signed (don't know why)? Buy It!

Pictures:
1: ACL.
2: Schrage Musik.

Helm #2

Have just spent a pleasant week listening to Helm's 2007 cassette "Last Journey To Her Altar" on the Scottish Sick Head Tapes label. That's right, I said a week. Time at work now allows me to take in my own music (I don't mean Dieter Muh, but yes...some has been played) and blast it out and varying volume. This week I have been mainly listening to...The Pop Group, Nocturnal Emissions, Neu, Faust, Blood Axis, Borbounese Qualk, The Door And The Window and Bauhaus but always a daily play of Helm.
I recently got the Helm album "Optimism" (Trans-Dimensional Sushi Recordings 2007) and was not that taken with it, a shame after the vinyl LP "To An End". After hearing that I was desperate to get my hands and ears on the works of Luke Younger - I bought the split 7" with Family Battle Snake (Luke in his Birds Of Delay outfit) on Tome Records but that fell short of a decent listen/experience. (Problems with pressing)? So...I bought "Last Journey To Her Altar" as a kind of litmus test...if I thought it pants, then I shall leave Helm alone and wallow in one classic LP.
No need.
"Last Journey To Her Altar" is a C40. Two 20 minute journeys. Instrumention is hard to fathom. Side A brought the phrase: Keyboards assemble themselves at dawn to mind. Think TG's "Industrial Introduction" or "Damaru Sunrise" and we are along the right lines. Side A is very much an awakening, start of the journey, it builds in to this steady drone and leads us in to Side B. Whereas Side A has a begining, side B continues to build into this all consuming drone. A journey, again, what is actually being played is hard to fathom. Keyboards, synths, guitars? Sitting and listening whilst the autoclaves are burring and hissing and the distant traffic rushes along the Riviera Way this album is a beauty and has restored my "faith" in Helm/Luke Younger. When chance occurs I will buy more and encourage you to do the same.