Powdered Lover

Until The Fear

Mates of Sex Gang Children, Danse Society and Skeletal Family, this bunch could certainly out-funk most of the goths, unfortunately it left the band with a slight identity crisis, the public not knowing wether to dance to the percussion led beat, a la Adam And The Ants, or to stand around poseing. Dormannu had several line up changes, and after a 12″ and LP they disappeared and some members put the effort into Lets Wreck Mother, who were a Batcave Club (at Gossips W1) regular band. Maybe I will whack that 12″ up soon.

I seem to remember Simeon looked pretty cool though, a bit Ian Astbury during S.D.C era crossed with Mark Mob. I have just found out after following links in the comments (thanks Nuzz) that Simeon is living a life of a traveller and doing celtic tinged music – Have a look at his myspace site here

I put these tracks on at this time because it is new years eve and I am getting a little too  old to ‘traditionally’ enjoy this night (first side of the single may give a clue) so I decided to stay in with the wife and be sensible!

Richard North Interview

Erics Detachables / Some Men Are Born To Rule / Killing For Peace / Solidaridad Proletaria / New Crimes / Unknown / Proletarian Autonomy / The New Subhumans / Hyde Park / Time Bomb / Indian Thing / Drop The Bomb / No Clear Future

Absolution Of Guilt / Anti-Christ / Pete The Plectrum /Hyde Park / A Social Disease / The Stock Newington Eight / N.W.3 / Unknown / The Uniform / God Is Dead

The first line up of The Apostles, that actually got to record anything on tape, included Andy Martin, Pete Bynghall, Julian Portinari and Dan MacKintyre.

There was an earlier version of The Apostles with the members above, but they had a guy called Matt MacLeod instead of Andy Martin. This line up had been around for a little under a year or so.

Around the same point in time late 1980, the band Black Cross featured Andy Martin, The Innocent Bystander featured Dave Fanning, and Libertarian Youth featured both John Soares and Martin Smith. Eventually all these individuals from these bands would converge to make a most excellent version of The Apostles sometime in mid to late 1982. This line up recorded  the very good ‘Libertarian Propaganda’ cassette uploaded somewhere else on this site.

The first demo cassette was recorded by the band in a bedroom and released via the fanzine network and sold at the odd live performance by the band. It is not a studio release and should be treated as ‘historical’ interest only.

The sound is raw, sometimes muddy Punk Rock, recorded at different levels, sometimes through one speaker (at least on my cassette – maybe I have had a dud all these years?). There are some decent attempts of songs like ’Drop The Bomb’ and ‘Stoke Newington Eight’ but most of the cassette is pretty rough stuff to listen to.

Would suggest this tape is for ‘experienced’ Apostles audiophiles only…If this is your first Apostles experience then turn it off and listen to ‘Libertarian Propaganda’ or ‘Punk Orbituary’ instead (somewhere else on this site) absorb these releases mentioned and play them over and over and then later, much later, return to this release!

Official Apostles Site

To be broadcast on Channel 4 on Saturday 5th January 2008 at 7:30pm

Recovering from festive flu, but spotted this ’Must Watch’  doc coming up on Channel  4 . To find out more about the day we nearly died google on ‘Operation Able Archer 83’. This ran from 2 to 11 November 1983. It was an ultra -realistic NATO  war game. So realistic it convinced the Soviets it was a cover for an actual first strike… so they went to maximum alert – inter-continental ballistic missiles armed, nuclear bombers lined up on the runway etc etc.

To understand the  KYPP/ anarcho-goth-punk era you have to remember that we really  were   living under the shadow of the bomb, with Reagan and Thatcher trying to out-gun the  ‘Evil Empire’ of the USSR.

The sixties generation got a wake up call with the Cuba Missile Crisis – but we nearly had the real thing , but at the time no-one outside of the CIA/ KGB knew how close we got to a nuclear holocaust.

Here is some detail on the film.

1983 – THE BRINK OF APOCALYPSE

“This was more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis” declares an interviewee in Flashback’s dramatic new Cold War drama-doc airing on Discovery Times on September 19th.

This major film represents 18 months extensive research into the events of November 1983 when leading figures in the Soviet Union thought they were about to come under nuclear attack from the West. And it follows the Soviets as they prepared for a full scale nuclear retaliation against an unsuspecting United States and western Europe.

“We may have been at the brink of nuclear war and not even known it,” declares Robert Gates, a key interviewee for the programme. Gates was deputy director of intelligence of the CIA at the time. The interview with him was recorded by Flashback in October 2006. In the following month Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense and is now one of the most powerful figures in the United States.

This film is a story of double agents and spies working deep undercover. It is a story of two superpowers accidentally heading towards nuclear Armageddon. It is a gripping story and the first ever telling on TV of an almost unknown Cold War incident.

It  is called 1983 – THE BRINK OF APOCALYPSE and it runs for 90 mins. It will be shown on Channel 4 in early 2008. The film includes interviews with senior US military and CIA figures of the day. It features interviews with senior KGB officers from the Soviet Union and with members of the Soviet strategic nuclear forces who were mobilised in November 1983.
Producer-Director – HENRY CHANCELLOR

Line Producer – CHERRY BREWER

Executive Producers – TAYLOR DOWNING and SAM ORGAN

1983 – THE BRINK OF APOCALYPSE is distributed by Channel 4 International.
To be broadcast on Channel 4 on Saturday 5th January 2008 at 7:30pm

Exit The Fear / Jack Smack / Shades Of Light / Son Of Man / Webcore Atman

Poison Without Trace / Captains Table / Eden Tide / The Feather Mask And This Prophet Gear

Webcore’s first offering, all the way from Cornwall, mainstays of Club Dog and many squat gigs and free festivals…

Loved the ‘Mick Karn’ bass sound on Webcore releases and live gigs.

What I can not find is too much information on the band anywhere on the internet so you will have to make do with an interview with the Webcore keyboardist Paul Chousmer on the aural-innovations.com site.

Roughly four or five years ago I was in England for both a vacation and to start collecting stock for a psychedelic mail order that I ran for a while. Most of what I bought was directly from the bands themselves or band members. This was still when you could write to an address off of a tape case or a compact disc insert and some one would respond to you. I don’t really remember how I had got Paul Chousmer’s number and address. But I did contact him before my vacation and he agreed to meet with me. He was even kind enough to drive into London so that I could buy a few items from him. It didn’t really hit me that the person I was going to meet had been there for all of the eighties U.K. Psych/Free Fest scene or that he was moving quite gracefully into the electronic and dance clubs. Musically his style has always been similar to ENO. His ability to create mind bending soundscapes is uncanny. They lift you and take you to places you’ve only dreamed of.

One of the first groups he was with was as big of a major attraction as the Ozric Tentacles. More than often they could be found playing the same gigs. Forming in 1982, Webcore’s music was more progressive then their contemporaries. Though still heavily psychedelic their sound is often mechanical and much more structured.

It was during the Webcore years that Paul developed his soundscapes. He and fellow Webcore member Dan Carpenter formed the chillout group Another Green World. Their title describes their music to a tee. They originally formed to play the early morning chillouts at a regular Ozric/Webcore venue Alice in Wonderland. This led to the all-too-common draw at Club Dog, the Deptford Crypt, and later Whirly-Gig and Return to the Source shows, one of which I attended at the Brixton Academy in 1996.

Shorty after Webcore faded in 1988 Paul focused his attention on Another Green World only taking time out to work with The Thunderdogs (the trippy house band for a traveling circus) and Spannerman (a spin off of the Thunderdogs). Then in 1993 he joined up with Phil Pickering and Mick West of Webcore to form Zuvuya. Mixing tribal and dance rhythms with the textured sound washes of Another Green World they became one of the earlier bands signed to the Delerium label. For these releases they collaborated with the psychedelic guru Terrence McKenna.

Though Paul is no longer with Zuvuya he has continued with Another Green World. He has released various compilation tracks with the Return to the Source group, and on Club Crusty Vol 1, Shamanarchy in the U.K., and the Dubmission label. He also has a full compact disc release on the Magick Eye label. I was lucky enough this last April to be in England when Paul had a gig in Exeter. The show was held at the Phoenix. Once I made it past the metal bird above the entrance that came alive every so often to open its glowing red eyes and spread its wings I witnessed a show that blew me away. Pure electronic psych, dub, dance bliss. Joining him on stage playing guitar, another of my favourite performers, was Russ of the Oroonies (another great festy psych band which spawned Joie of the Ozrics and later Eat Static ).

Paul recently performed as Another Green World for the Return to the Sources New Years Eve celebration at the Rocket.

DS: Can you give me an idea of your history musically?

PC: Webcore has some complicated roots. I’ll try to draw a family tree.

Vane – formed in Chelmsford, Essex 1981-3. We released two singles on Island.

James Vain – Vox

Phil Pickering – Bass – Webcore/Zuvuya

Clive Roberts – Guitar – later owned Trace Elliot

Colin Woolway – Drums

Paul Chousmer – Keys

Ring of Roses – formed in 1984. Signed to RCA Records for 100,000 Pounds though never released anything.

James Vain – Vox

Richard Havis – Guitar

Chris ??? – drums – later went on to play with Zodiac Mindwarp

??? – Bass

Dan “Spannerman” Carpenter – Sax

Paul Chousmer – Keys – left after four months

Webcore – formed in Cornwall in 1984 and lasted until 1987. Released several self-released cassettes, 2 LP’s and 2 12″s through Jungle Records.

Mick West – Vox

Phil Pickering – Bass

Paul Chousmer – Keys

Clive Goodwin – Guitar – later Ozrics sound engineer

Colin Woolway – Drums

Nick Van Gelder – Drums – had played with the Ozrics earlier-went on to Jamiroquai

Dan Carpenter – Sax occasionally

Mike ??? – left to join a monastery

Jackie Hannah – backing vox

Karen Kay – backing vox

Another Green World also started in 1984 when Dan and I left Ring of Roses. And it just keeps going…

Did you know about the Thunderdogs? The band played with Circus Archaos all over Europe and Scandinavia from 1990 to 1992.

Thunderdogs

Tony “Dog” D’Amico – Vox

Gavin Griffiths – Guitar – previously with the Ozrics and Ullulators

Dan Spannerman – Sax

Jonny Ellwood – Drums

Seaweed – Keys – now with Ozrics

Gabrielli – bass

Sound engineer and occasional pianist was me. And Stuart Zehnder and Generator John were along for the ride, sometimes tecking. You can see that these bands were fairly incestuous. Dan and Jackie have a son together, Jackie’s brother is Stuart Zehnder who played bass for Spannerman and then Jamiroquai also.

DS: I’ve never heard either Vane or Ring of Roses before. What was their music like?

PC: Oh it was such a long time ago… Vane was primarily psychedelic, but remember this was the early eighties so we had just come out of the punk revolution here and were fishing about with Goth and New Romantic styles. We were very much into electric sounds and effects. So imagine if you can: we were fronted by James Vain, 6’4″ tall, skinny as a rake, loads of make-up, electric coloured hair (he was influenced a lot by Bowie’s transformations – but dissolute as Lou Reed!), low lights, big bass, electronic noises all over the place – can you picture this? Very much a precursor to what Webcore got up to. A little less danceable, but much better looking! The band got fairly well known around the seedier underground scene in London. Great fun and fond memories.

DS: What about Ring of Roses?

PC: Ring of Roses was James Vane’s attempt to ‘get commercial’ (He had already blown the deal with Island Records after releasing two dreadful singles), so the songs were still vaguely psychedelic/new romantic, but very polished with definite ‘understandable’ lyrics and structures. With the help of a typical low-life manager the band signed to RCA for 100,000 Pounds, then fell to pieces – really RCA were impressed by the band’s appearance more than anything. The A&R man who signed the band left the company shortly after the signing. Always a bad sign. So the money got frittered away and nothing was ever released! What a sad story.

DS: How would you describe Webcore?

PC: Webcore were often described as way ahead of their time (at the time, if you can see what I mean.) I sort of took the roll of manager as nobody else would and we played everywhere. I (and Ed ‘Ozric’ Wynne) took the same view that the best way to publicize ourselves was to play wherever we could. So we often found ourselves at the same dodgy benefit gigs. All sorts of squats, free festivals, you name it. So we got a reputation for playing together all of the time. I’ve always thought our music was completely different. I felt there was a common psychedelic thread and we were always up for a party. Then Club Dog started (by Mike Dog, who later had the Ultimate Record label with groups like Eat Static and Senser) Webcore, the Ozric Tentacles and Another Green World all became regulars. And we grew with it.

DS: I agree that Webcore’s music was ahead of its time at the time. What would you say were the musical influences of the group?

PC: Our influences at the time inevitably included ENO, but also Psychic TV, Siouxsie and the Banshees, it’s difficult to say now from this distance in time. I would say we brought lots of different things together. Mick was a poet not a singer, so that was his approach. Trying to make his words fit. My idea was to create atmospheres behind the songs. Setting the scene. We were all experimenting. Just trying out ideas and if they felt good. It’s funny now that I’m teaching I see loads of young bands coming together. They all seem to want to sound like somebody else. The A&R mentality of copying whatever the last big hit was! We didn’t think that way at all back then!

DS: Webcore’s music also seems quite different from much of the other free fest bands like the Ozrics and Psi. How do you feel that Webcore fit into this scene?

PC: You’d have to ask this one of the audience really. I find it very hard to be objective. I would say that I was always surprised that Webcore’s audience danced a lot. I didn’t think of our music as dance music. This was fairly unusual in the free fest scene. Our music was also quite structured. Not totally, there was some room for improvisation. But there were definite maps to follow. The other bands seemed to be more into long wibble solos etc…

DS: How did Spannerman fit into the fold?

PC: Spannerman came together while we were all in the circus. We were getting bored, so we became the party band. When the circus finished we carried on. We played for a summer in 1992 with an offshoot circus “Matarank” at the Avignon Theater Festival in France. Clive Goodwin came along with his PA and looked after the sound. I left the band shortly after this as I was starting a family. The band then changed with Jonny Ellwood taking over on drums etc… We used to describe Spannerman as “psychedelic-punk-jazz.”

DS: If I remember right you played with the Fields of the Nephilim for a short while.

PC: The Fields of the Nephilim link came through Jungle Records. They had put out a couple of singles through Jungle before signing to Beggars Banquet. And the Field’s manager, Steve Brown, was a partner of Jungle. I was working at London University in 1988 or ’89 when they were looking for a keyboard player. They remembered me from some gigs when Webcore supported the Fields in the early days and tracked me down. That was great fun. I played on six tours in the U.K., Germany and France and also on their live LP. I really enjoyed myself.

DS: What became of Zuvuya? PC: Dunno the answer to this. I broke off contact with these people for reasons I’d rather not discuss. I made some music with them and it was put out through Delerium.

DS: What are your feelings on the festival scene of the eighties?

PC: You have to remember there was a right wing government ruling here at the time, with that bitch Thatcher at the helm. Lots of unemployment, kids on the dole, etc… Punk had run its course. We were all getting politicized. Stonehenge free festival was banned and suppressed by the police with a heavy hand. So free festivals were often a way to protest. We were all squatting, traveling. I have fond memories of that time. People were thinking of the world around them. I look at the kids now. They have no idea about politics. Nothing to protest about I suppose. The legacy of the Thatcher years is that everyone is out for themselves. Make as much money for yourself as you can and screw everyone else. I think that Reagan and his cronies did the same sort of thing over there.

DS: Through your music as Another Green World, you as an individual have moved quite easily from the scene in the eighties right into the club scene of the nineties and on. How do you feel about the club sound and what are you writing these days?

PC: I really like the music I hear in clubs these days. But it only sounds good in the clubs! In that atmosphere and loud. Most of it doesn’t seem to work when I put it on at home. However loud! In that sense I don’t really understand how I fit in. I actively try to make music that transports you from your armchair at home to some other place, without necessarily being really loud. This is important to me. So I keep in contact with these clubs, send them what I am doing. I just do what I do and they book me if they like it. This is probably quite old-fashioned these days. Everything is high sell, throwaway.

DS: Would you mind naming a few of the bands that you have supported or that have supported you in the past?

PC: Webcore supported on occasion:

Psychic TV

Fields of the Nephilim

Doctor and the Medics

Zodiac Mindwarp

Daevid Allen

Ozric Tentacles

Another Green World has played with:

Eat Static

Astralasia

Banco de Gaia

Cheapsuit Oroonies

DS: What are your influences?

PC: I have all sorts of influences. Holger Czukay, Erik Satie, Lee Scratch Perry, Thelonious Sphere Monk. These days I listen to a lot of early Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Albinoni and Klezmer music. Dub seems to be another common thread. I’ve taken a long time finding the nerve to play dub live. It certainly takes me to some of the places I want to go. I hope it does the same for the audience. Who knows where it will take me next.

DS: What are you teaching at University?

PC: I teach a variety of things musical at the colleges. Music Technology, Keyboard Skills, Music Theory and Music Business. All very time consuming. But it earns a living and is rewarding in other ways. It can also be very frustrating. Under-resourced equipment, unmotivated students etc…

DS: What equipment do you use live as Another Green World?

PC:Roland Jupitar 6

Korg M1

Oberheim Matrix-1000

Roland s-550 sampler

Lexicon Vortex

Yamaha SPX90

Alesis Quadraverb

Soundcraft mixer

DS: What do you feel the future holds for you musically?

PC: I’ll just polish the crystal ball!… I don’t know. I just carry on putting together music that appeals to me. And if other people like it great. I’ve never been terribly ambitious. I’ve always felt Music to be my vocation. I need to do it. And it’s nice when some money comes back from it. I have some vague ideas about getting into producing for other people or making film music. But it is high pressure work. And I prefer to work at my own (snail-like) pace. I have to have time to polish my work. I have been playing real instruments recently in a Klezmer band, with Russ and Jane of the Oroonies, and this is excellent exercise for the brain. In the very long term I suppose I will probably find myself playing piano jazz in my eighties. Though it is bound to be weirder than that!!!

Discography:

Webcore

Cassettes: Cinematography (A Real Kavoom ARK 4) 1984

The Great Unfolding (A Real Kavoom ARK 16) 1986

Consider The River (M.E.L.T. Music) 1987

12″: The Captians Table (Jungle/A Real Kavoom JUNG 30T/ARK23)

Running for the Precident (JUNG 34T/ARK25) Both 1987

Albums: Webcore (FREUD16/ARK27) 1987

WebcoreWebcore (FREUD22/ARK32) 1988

Spannerman

Cassettes: Leave it Mandy! 1992

Zuvuya

12″: Grabbing Nandi by the Horns (Nation NR026T) 1993

Shaman I Am (Delerium DELEC EP 031) 1993

Albums: Dream Matrix Telemetry (DELEC CD 021) 1993

Shamania (DELEC CD 031) 1994

Another Green World

Cassettes: My Dreams in Your Hands (AGW 001) 1984

Boondocks (AGW 002) 1988

Adjusting the Mirror (AGW 003) 1993

Albums: Invisible Landscape (Magick Eye) 1997

Video: Ambiotic State 1994

Side One

Side Two

No tracklisting on this tape.

Another Green World (named after the Eno LP), members Paul Chousmer and Dan Carpenter were also members of Webcore at the same time. Based in Cornwall, these bands were at the start of a new generation of younger individuals who were interesting in free festivals, spiritalism, magic mushrooms, piercings, wearing dreadlocks and travelling around on converted buses. This movement eventually got tagged as New Age Travellers in the press, or the Peace Convoy by the actual participants themselves.

Another Green World and Webcore were regulars at the early Club Dog nights in Wood Green and Finsbury Park in London. I also saw them a fair bit in various squats around the city, Mankind above Hackney Central station, Old Jungle Records building Islington and 121 Club / bookshop in Brixton being three of the better ones. The cassette above is their first release, and is mainly ambient and quite soothing.

After Webcore et al faded out towards the end of the 1980′s, the travelling scene had branched out towards a more techno vibe at squats and free festivals (normally squatted industrial estates) courtesy of Spiral Tribe and Bedlam Sound Systems.

Marious Moves / Father O Brien / Stand Into Danger / Caligula / Bricklayers Arms / The Mermaid

John O Gaunt / Goodbye General To Lose / Lady Politic

Two seperate sessions from the same year, plus the infamous ‘Ixion’ plug with Josef Porta being interviewed on Radio One at the end of the first link!

Snippet of Josef Porter in 1984 playing at being Mick Jones of The Clash in the link below

Gates Of The West

Genesis P-Orridge discussing William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville.

Includes snippets of interviews with ‘Old Bill’ himself.

Indebted to Steve Corr for these tracks, another Yeovil area punker in the late 70′s, please check out (search function to the right) Steve’s band Idiot Strength somewhere else on this site. I know nothing of this festival, so I will not  write anything specific. I will paste Steve comments to me onto this post. I am hoping for a comment from someone out there to confirm date / place / who this ‘super group’ could have been…

Be warned – this is only a joke band and is not representative of The Mobs output at this time 1979 or later on in the 1980′s, the sound quality is also pretty dodgy!

Dirty Little Girls

Jailhouse Rock

Paranoid

Steve Corr comments below.

Mick,

Don’t know whether you have these or not and I’m not entirely sure where they came from. I think Paranoid, Jail House Rock and Dirty Little Girl (if that’s what it’s called) were recorded at Ham Hill Festival Somerset in 1979. The Paranoid version is totally brilliant and show what a superb drummer Graham was. I’m not sure if it’s him singing though. It may well be Steve Rudolph from the Dead Pop Stars.

Steve

Yeovil local paper article on the festival (Paul Wilson collection)

Poor Little Actress

Fools Paradise

Arcardia

My Heart Dances

Finale

Arcardia

Empty

This Cat Floyd

I’m Only Screaming

Indebted to Bob Butler for sorting these tracks for me some years ago. Bob recently was the bass plucker for the Steve Igs nights at Shepherds Bush. Bob came from the west country and knew several of the bands from these areas at the time, and I believe he also shared a place with Paul Wilson, brother of Mark Wilson from The Mob.

The Bikini Mutants were from Yeovil, Christine on the vocals and Debbie the bassist, were around at the original All The Madmen organisation when it was a fanzine before the record label took off in 1980. There is a nice picture on the Mob and All The Madmen Records myspace websites of Christine with Max in 1978 from the collection of  Paul Wilson.

The band shared the stages with all the usual suspects in and around Yeovil, and the general west country scene including The Mob and The Review.

Debbie became a founder member of My Bloody Valentine in the mid 1980′s and that band grew to be one of the most inspirational bands to a whole load of new generation of indie poppers in the UK.

The music held within this cassette is more Marine Girls (Hi Gina xxx) than The Mob, and is a lovely artifact!

Hoddesdon performance

Insight / Play The Game / Lonely / Winter Children / Listen / Never Understood / Sometimes Forever / Celebrate

Not to be confused with The City Indians from Derby who were around later on in the decade, this band included my little brother Rob, him with the longish black crimped hair, on guitar, flanger and feedback! Andy Power on vocals, slight Ian Curtis resemblance. Dean Beckworth on drums (brilliant drummer), looking at my bruv in the top photo. Russell Gaylor on bass, curly blonde bloke. They played only about a dozen gigs, then metamorphosed into Slow Burn Red, with a different bassist Simon Norris. This band played even less gigs I think!

And that as they say, was that!

There is a decent version of The Mob’s ‘Never Understood’  featured at this gig, they performed it at most of the gigs they played, I seem to remember.

Some would comment that this band had a slight UK Decay bent, which can not be a bad thing.

Broxbourne performance

Insight / Sometimes Forever / Winter Children

This was a three song set at a largish venue with a huge stage during a night of new bands being showcased.

Give it a listen, see what you think…Penguin x