The Heretics – Private Tape – 1980

Stepping Stone / Nazi Born And Bred / Mania / Napalm Babies / Death Or Glory

Indebted to Chris Low for lend of this tape, in turn indebted to Sii from The Heretics for taping it for Chris and sending him photos in the first place.

As you can imagine, the master tape of this bedroom / practice / live session, after almost 30 years is a little knackered, but still shows signs of some kind of musical (in)ability now and again!

This band I know very little about apart from the name, which has hovered in my conscience for decades. In fact apart from the Toxic Grafity piece which will be uploaded shortly (when Chris finds his copy in all the shoe boxes he seems to keep this kind of stuff in), most of the info I have cobbled together in my mind recently, is from reading Rich Kids (Jake, the growler on these tracks), Sams and Sii’s numerous comments on another post (The Chris Low Obscure Punk Tape Post HERE ) mixed up with stories from Andy Martin of The Apostles told to me decades ago.

Could this band be as legendary as The Turdburglars, another band that people know the name of, but who never released anything or know little of…?

I hope someone will enlighten me more on this band via the comments.

Toxic Grafity interview below.

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92 comments
  1. Nic
    Nic
    April 29, 2008 at 8:11 am

    Nice one Sii, Chris and Penguin….
    ‘Mania’ has the same riff as ‘Ha Ha Ha’ by Flipper (not intentional, I’d imagine)…
    (Would Chris’ shoeboxes be Prada?)

    The interview is a CLASSIC! It’s put a smile on my face for the rest of the day…
    Top quality quotes:

    Sgt. H: “I wanna cut me ‘head off”…

    Sgt.H: “By being myself, I’m anti-everything”…

    Sgt.H: “They should wander about, see what’s going on, then go back to their poxy offices and work it out for about 10,000 years and by then they’ll all be dead, and that’ll be good”…

    Jake: “I’m a personal anarchist. I couldn’t give a shit about the world. The world could blow up as far as I’m concerned: I don’t give a fuck”…

    Sam: “I don’t believe in anything unless I’m speeding, then I just believe in enjoying myself”…

    Jake: “The Heretics are a bunch of…I don’t know, I’m fuckin’ knackered”…

    (Very important information: “Tape fault, about 12 mins”…thanks for that)

    Absolute genius…
    🙂

  2. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    April 30, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    Great efforts all round.
    Hilarious
    cheers .

  3. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    April 30, 2008 at 5:24 pm

    4 Skins getting an early name drop…! Before even Bushell maybe?
    If you can navigate this site old man Rich Kid, there is the debut release by the
    4 Skins uploaded somewhere near…

  4. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    April 30, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    Er Bushell, he was a bandwaggoner.The 4 Skins were great , they just hung around with the wrong crowd…
    I gotta say that moment in Southall at the Hanbororgh Tavern was THE moment that the NF got defeated.

  5. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    April 30, 2008 at 7:57 pm

    Couple of stories of that gig in Southall. Supposedly the sound guy chained his backine up to avoid any boneheads nicking the stuff. He regretted that decision when he failed to get most of it out when the pub went up in flames. Also, supposedly the manager of the 4 Skins at that time also hassled the pub landlord for payment for the band’s performance for that night, whilst the landlord’s pub burned around him. Suppose a contract is a contract!

  6. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    April 30, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    OK rerecorded this with dolby off, sounds a little better now. Anyone who downloaded it should delete the old download and download it again, well worth it.

  7. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    May 1, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    Hot News: Jake cutest of The Heretics (the guy with the spikes anyway – TG may be wrong!) This is official from some girls at my work who looked at the pics.
    I had to let these early 20 somethings down lightly by reminding them that the photo is 30 years old. Sorry mate.
    Nice spikes by the way. From a can of hairspray, soap or glue? Prey tell us…

  8. Sam
    Sam
    May 2, 2008 at 1:51 am

    He is dreamy isn’t he?

  9. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    May 2, 2008 at 8:35 pm

    P:
    Spikes? whatever was there at the time.
    Girls at work? Give em me email…

  10. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    May 2, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    I was going to get all Steve Jones on the Grundy show with you, but forgot the quotes…think it ended up with “fuckin rotter” and had some “diiirrrty old man” thrown in, anyway will pass the message on…you gonna be able to handle them? Both there ages together get to about 41!!!

    Keep smiling Jake, I am enjoying these posts, it is nice to get old comrades back together again.
    Tony D will be chuffed. His absence on this site is down to working 16 hour days this week. It will ease up for him by the weekend, and hopefully have more time to get involved on these threads…

    Hows about commenting on some of the other music downloads put on by myself, or essays written by Al or Bob. They are good reads. Check them out in squatting section and anarcho punk section or just plain AL section.
    All top right of page written in blue below the C60 cassette tape.

  11. rich kid
    rich kid
    May 3, 2008 at 11:42 am

    Will do mate when I got a minute.Or like in my case the hours I needs to find all the various bits of this site.
    Also been engaged in a historical disccusion with Chinese ‘Netizens’ on the ‘Tibet issue’ till quite recently.so me heads full of it all…
    But in the meantime i found this.

    http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=26404638

    They need to be told…

  12. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    May 3, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Hey they are pretty good! No just kidding, they should be told…

  13. Sam
    Sam
    May 3, 2008 at 7:35 pm

    What is the phantom voice in Nazi B + B saying ‘Samantha’ in a posh voice?

  14. Jah Pork Pie
    Jah Pork Pie
    May 3, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    Jake’s hair was spiked with soap. I know that because my mum once refused to let him crash at her place after a gig until he had a bath. Gave him a bath robe on the doorstep.

  15. Graham Burnett
    Graham Burnett
    May 4, 2008 at 11:58 am

    And the classic “Squatting is a thing of intelligance… we’re all gonna be squaters soon…”

  16. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    May 4, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    Pork is that U?

  17. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    May 4, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    …of the plague dogs ‘pork’

  18. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    May 4, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    whatever its spiked with its bloody funny…

  19. Jah Pork Pie
    Jah Pork Pie
    May 5, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    Yep, that’s me. A bit older, slightly more bipolar and the hair doesn’t have the mohican in the middle any more.

  20. Rich Kid
    Rich Kid
    May 5, 2008 at 7:33 pm

    Blimey .Hello jah pork.
    Check the other ‘chris low rare tape’ heretic thread for long discussion between sam & me & others about those times.Talked for the first time for 25 years …

  21. Jah Pork Pie
    Jah Pork Pie
    May 5, 2008 at 11:53 pm

    Excellent – I will do mate! Chatted to Sam 4 or 5 years back but my brain was on holiday at the time! Too many of them speckled blues and the old black bombers in my youth, I reckon, plus a shedful of E in the 90s…

    Great to see the pictures and hear some of the stories. I was thinking of writing up a few of my stories, but I see Bob has already gone into print with his stuff!

  22. Jah Pork Pie
    Jah Pork Pie
    May 8, 2008 at 12:32 am

    @Jake -> What’s the site you’ve been chatting about Tibet on?

    My girlfriend (am I too old for that now? Is it “partner”?) has been quite involved with the Free Tibet movement over the years and I’m sure she’d be interested.

  23. Graham Burnett
    Graham Burnett
    May 31, 2008 at 8:41 pm

    Enjoyed the download of the elusive Heretics nearly 30 years after reading about them in Toxic Grafity! If i still did a fanzine I’d describe it as something like “So punk they make the Eratics sound like Weather Report!”

  24. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    June 3, 2008 at 1:57 pm

    Another photo of the beautiful young men of The Heretics courtesy of Phil Ritchie on this post above now. Think Phil is in this shot with a load of other characters.

  25. baron von zubb
    baron von zubb
    June 6, 2008 at 10:34 am

    Phil youre a star.
    Snipers got my jacket on as he was cold.I had to wear that poncy leather that I’d nicked from ‘Stark Naked’, Camden.
    Great pic.

  26. Chris
    Chris
    June 6, 2008 at 11:42 am

    just out of interest, where were these photos taken? top ones kinda look around Camden Road and the new one looks around the Denton estate near Chalk farm? I’m probably well wrong and it’s somewhere around Portobello or something.

  27. baron von zubb
    baron von zubb
    June 6, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    Near Archway i think

  28. Phil
    Phil
    June 6, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    Yeah its Archway. This guy took shit loads of photos that day. I googled him but didnt find anything

  29. Chris
    Chris
    June 6, 2008 at 9:05 pm

    Jesus!! You’re right! Looking at it again, I think it’s just off my bloody street in Archway and the one with loads of other folk in it looks like the ‘modern’ flats near the Hospital. By coincidence, that’s where Martin Wright’s dad lived in the seventies and is mentioned in Danny, his brother’s, book as the ‘Aladdins Cave’ of stolen gear.

    Sad to say but you just don’t seem to see the same class of finely turned out chap on the streets around here any more 😉

  30. Chris
    Chris
    June 6, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    PS: I really think it’s about time you lot started up a Heretics Myspace page!! The way this thread has been going i think you’ll have more fans than the Sex Pistols one in no time!

  31. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    June 12, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    So has anyone out there got any Plague Dogs material I can upload if any exist?

  32. Jah Pork Pie
    Jah Pork Pie
    June 12, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    Joyfully, none exists as far as I’m aware. Though I am laying myself open to Gerry Thing turning up with a shedful, I suppose.

    Though if anyone wants to try it for themselves:

    PLAGUE DOGS RECIPE (Serves 3)

    Take 15 grams of speed and whisk into a crate of Pils which has been marinated in vodka overnight. Keep agitated at all times.

    Using a pad and pen, write the first 50 words that come into your heads, then combine them as quickly as possible while trying not to let the other band members get a word in edgeways. It is important at this point that you do not allow the mixture to settle, as the idea may go off quite quickly.

    Transfer the mix to the Wellington Pub at Waterloo and marinate further. If the mixture is not sticking by this time, add liberal amounts of glue, then pour into Alaska Studios. Using a guitar with 5 strings and a fuzz pedal set to maximum to establish the room temperature, turn up the bass guitar until the PA amp simmers gently with feedback.

    Turn the heat on the guitars and PA up to maximum, encouraging your vocalist to scream like he has just vaulted a tennis net topped with razorblades. Don’t stop for breath or broken strings. Leave for 3 hours or until the studio tells you the money’s run out, and then allow yourselves to slide gently into obscurity after a mention in a ‘zine or two.

    Garnish with acne, crazy colour and a mohican… and there we have it – a perfect, tasty and nutritious Plague Dogs for 3, in the original styleee.

  33. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    June 13, 2008 at 10:12 am

    Tried this ‘receipe’ last night and all I ended up with was nausea followed by black outs, a tug by the plod, a night in the cells with a someone booting me around the floor, and then when finally released I got sectioned?
    I did however swap the Waterloo bar with my local brand in North London. Is this where I went wrong Pork?

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