Indebted to Mick Slaughter, late of Orbituary fanzine from 1982, for sending in this cassette of a concert by Flux Of Pink Indians that he promoted and recorded on a hand held cassette recorder. Mick has also kindly given a little insight on the concert which is written out in the text below. Flux performed two sets (the reason as described in Mick’s text below) and the recording quality on both sets is quite lo-fi, but an interesting listen never the less. Many many more live Flux performances on this site if you care to use the search function.
Photo of Flux banners courtesy of Martin Flux, photo of Ruth Hagar from Ruth’s collection. All other photos and flyers coutesy of Mick Slaughter.
Most of my gigs that I attended, involved taking a train up to London, it was either that or a train down to the Gravesend Red Lion. There was nothing in-between although there was a large catchment area, so with my involvement with bands through my fanzine Obituary, I decided to try and improve the local scene and organise some gigs in the area. My first gig at the Dartford YMCA was for Sinyx and The Apostles, but this was disastrous as unbeknown to me at the time, the more popular Rubella Ballet had organised a gig just a few miles away in Plumsted. Apart from gigs in Gravesend, two gigs in the same area in a year were a rarity let alone the same night!
As Flux were my favourite band at the time, I was very pleased to have had already organised one for them too, a fortnight later on May 22nd 1982 and they added System to the bill, and because they always liked to have a local band playing to, Naked from Gillingham also supported.
My fear of another repeat of their being more band members than fans were ruled out as soon as I appeared at the venue as a queue had already formed. Unfortunately because the YMCA had no bar, the pub next door was doing a roaring trade and trying to get people out of the pub was a problem. Because of this, Flux played an early short set and word soon got around that it was time to come into the venue. As soon as it filled up, Flux walked off and The System played their set.
As with many gigs in those days, the night was visited by skinheads who started to sieg heil during the full Flux set which you can clearly hear during the recording and as the crowd were dealing with the individuals (with the help of Colin Jerwood allegedly!) Flux began playing “Fight war not wars”. With the idiots slung out, the gig continued and the tape remains one of my favourite sets, it was Flux at their very peak.
The Skinheads later returned and smashed one of the windows and I was told the next day that I had to either pay for the damage or I could never organise gigs there again. As I was still cringing with embarrassment from the Sinyx gig, I hadn’t planed to organise any more so I accepted the latter.
Obituary fanzine was inspired by FACK fanzine and covered all the usual anarcho bands at that time, with big interviews with Conflict, DIRT, Hagar The Womb and Anthrax amongst others. I always tried to get something new and exclusive from bands in terms of artwork, photo’s or news and I think that was one of the reasons why it peaked at selling 1000 copies during it’s run of twelve issues.
Mick Slaughter
Kindest regards and best wishes go to Ruth ex warbler of Hagar The Womb whose birthday it is today. Hoping you had a nice relaxing time on your special day. All the best from all the KYPP online crew and from your old mucker Mick Slaughter.
Nic
November 25, 2010 at 9:49 amAnother nice post…Flux were certainly one of my favourite groups within the ‘Anarcho’ bracket, particularly because of Side B of the ‘Neu Smell’ EP which had something of a Post Punk feel to the sound (with the contrasting guitar lines and tribal drumming)…That record inspired me to become a vegetarian (ironic really considering the later ‘revelations’)…
I believe we had a cassette of this at the time courtesy of Mick (whose fanzine was a very useful resource for contacting other bands, fanzines and individuals)…
Many Happy Returns to Ruth!
Nic
November 25, 2010 at 9:50 amI just thought: we also had a tape of The Sinyx at Dartford…Mick: did you record The Apostles set?
AL Puppy
November 25, 2010 at 10:17 amHappy birthday Ruth.
ruth hag
November 25, 2010 at 6:01 pmthanx al and penguin – and my old mucker mick who, based on recent viewing, looks nearly as fresh faced now as he did then xx
ruth hag
November 25, 2010 at 6:05 pmbtw – having a hag reunion in dec, all together for the first time in 25 years. will let you know if anything untoward emerges from it.
dave
November 25, 2010 at 10:51 pmHappy Birthday Ruth. It’s a long time since we spent part of winter in Holland in the back of the van.
Mick
November 26, 2010 at 2:50 pmNic
No sorry I didn’t record the Apostles set, I was probably outisde trying to find the missing crowd!
Mick
shammyleather
November 28, 2010 at 3:59 pmFACK, I used to get that ‘zine sent up to Newcastle, I remember seeing the two writers of the zine at a very early Conflict gig at Eltham which I travelled down too as well as otherthings at the time, I was so taken back by their ‘normal’ look, no spikey anarcho punk look for those two, what did it stand for Freedom,Anarchy,Change, oK.
Trunt
November 29, 2010 at 9:16 pmObituary one of the best fanzines of the time, which led me to interview Mick for my zine. Mick even copied lost issues of my zine a couple of years ago and for that I’m forever in debt. Mr Slaughter you are a top bloke. Happy birthday Ruth.
Mick Slaughter
December 23, 2010 at 10:26 pmThanks Trunt, kind words, you are welcome, I still hold every item I had from back in those days so happy to help replace things that people have mislaid over the years.
Mick
Garn
July 17, 2011 at 4:38 pmHey Mick, long time no hear, how ya doing these days? Just been browsing some sites and in one it says you still have copies of old zines from back in the day, don’t s’pose you have any Blind to Reality or Dismal Future zines knocking about? Will pay to get em copied due to awkward paper size. Regards Garn
Mick Slaughter
July 26, 2011 at 10:30 pmGarn
Hello there, nice blast from the past, I remember you well.
Good news, I still have Blind To Reality 1,2 and 3 and I have Dismal Future No 1. is that all of them or did I miss some?
Mick
Garn
August 11, 2011 at 10:00 pmMick, good to hear from ya. So what you up to/ listening to these days? You still got any of your old comp tapes? Loved that Daily dose of misery one, specially thosd Dead Wretched tracks. Can’t believe you still got them old zines, yeah that was all we did. Would love to see/read them again. Willing to cover any costs for printing etc. Wha d’ ya say? Garn
paul problem child
August 1, 2014 at 5:52 pmHi Mick.
If you get to read this I wil be trying to get all the old problem child zines uploaded to the internet so people can read them for free. Loved Obituary zine and the contact we had in the past. Hope your well. All the best Paul Problem Child
Mick Slaughter
October 10, 2014 at 4:07 pmOnly just read this, good to hear from you, did you ever get problem Child uploaded? I keep threatening to do that with Obituary but its probably a task for if ever I get “gardening leave”
Fond memories of us working together and meeting up
Mick
mark
January 30, 2015 at 1:06 pminteresting to read the comments here as obituary was one of my fave fanzines(along with raising hell and phoenix from the crypt)and especially when it moved more into the international HC scene around the 5th(?) issue..sadly lost all my copies now an have been outbid on any attempt to get them back! still have a mix tape from mick with his ” best of 1983″ featuring- DYS/SSD/DEEP WOUND/FREEZE/ANTIDOTE/VARUKERS DEMO.. good taste in music i think!
got the plasmid demo taped off of garn..still have that tape aswell..did plasmid ever record any other practice stuff? would love to hear
cheers
Mark nr Southampton