Make The Connection / Trapped In A Scene / Network Of Friends
1986 was a good year for cranking up the speed for punk bands over the U.K.
The U.K. Hardcore scene following on from Discharge and Disorder in the very early 1980’s, getting inspired further by ‘newly discovered’ Thrash music from the U.S. Japan and Scandinavia via tape trading circles etc.
This new breed of band with a new sound appeared to shake the punk scene up a bit. This is not to say that all the bands started off sounding this fast! The Instigators from Leeds for example started off as a respected ‘Anarcho’ band, increasing the speed and the pairs of converse trainers as the years went on.
Bands like Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Electro Hippies and Heresy led the way, and got great reactions where ever they appeared. Even countless John Peel sessions were aired with these bands, to the immense enjoyment of Peely himself.
One point to note was not many of these bands on the first wave of the U.K. Hardcore scene were from London, which made a slight change. Cities all over the country had little scenes going on, which would create a fine network of fanzines, gig venues etc. Just what the Anarcho scene used to have, but had died down a little by the mid 1980’s, this new scene started to keep it alive quite successfully for several more years.
I saw these band’s countless times and out of the bands mentioned above I enjoyed the music and adrenalin filled live performances of Heresy the most. The vocalist was jumping about all over the place, the bassist with his dreadlocks risked whiplash every time the band performed. The drummer and guitarist were well tight, keeping it all together.
This record on a German label was limited to 500 copies only and is on beautiful blue vinyl and was released when Heresy were at their most popular in 1987.
Nic
April 29, 2008 at 7:51 amAh, Heresy were great…
I saw Heresy’s first gig in Nottingham in 1985 (which was also the first gig by Extreme Noise Terror outside of Ipswich which was an absolute headcrusher), and saw them live many more times in 1986 (as well as sharing the bill with them on probably 10 + occasions)…
They really were intense at this time – total Thrash mayhem, and a total bloody doss…
When the ‘Never Healed’ flexi came out in 1985, people went ga-ga!
I actually prefer the earlier 3 piece line-up to this later period (as represented on the EP), as the earlier period was more of a blend of Discharge / Metal, whereas when John (ex-Concrete Sox drummer) joined on vocals, they went for more of an American hardcore sound…
Bass player Kalv had been into global thrash and hardcore since the start of the 1980’s: back in 1982, he used to record us tapes of all the American / Dutch / Finnish / Italian Thrash bands and really helped us 12/13 year olds get the wider picture…We used to see him up at the gigs in Nottingham by people like Antisect, Discharge, Rudimentary peni and The Wretched (he was at Napalm Death’s 3rd and 5th gigs), and he also (back then) had the largest spiked hair I think I’ve ever seen…
🙂
Back in 1982, the Thrash / Hardcore sound was very much the topography of a disparate collection of individuals spread over the whole of the UK: it really didn’t catch on until later (with the arrival of people like The Stupids and AYS – although it turned out they were fully paid up fascists with intimate links to the BNP which we didn’t know at the time), as most of the ‘punks’ wanted a more melodic sound…
And you’re really right, Penguin: the whole UK thrash scene developed almost totally outside of London: to most people, London was a complete irrelevance – the real action was in Nottingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Birmingham and so on…
Most of the people in the Thrash scene had been in the ‘anarcho’ scene, but found the music a little dull and gravitated towards heavier sounds…
A couple of years ago, someone put out an ep of a practice demo from 1984 by the pre-Heresy group Plasmid: you could pretty much count the Thrash / Hardcore bands in the UK on one hand back then…
johng
May 1, 2008 at 5:22 pm“The Stupids and AYS – although it turned out they were fully paid up fascists with intimate links to the BNP which we didn’t know at the time”
W.T.F ? had no idea these bands were into the bnp ,how intimate was/is intimate?
Penguin • Post Author •
May 1, 2008 at 6:33 pmSaw Tommy Stupid the other day at work in his Klute persona. He is cool as I thought the other orig members were. I think AYS had some dodgy mates. The vocalist esp. He hates everything and everyone!
johng
May 2, 2008 at 7:38 amwerent a.y.s. really close to conflict at the time,especially colin?just cant imagine colin hanging out/gigging with nazi knobheads all that time……god i really liked ays now i wonder if i should remove the ep i uploaded to me blog or folk might start to make assumptions of me that would not be correct.
Nic
May 3, 2008 at 8:21 amI didn’t mean The Stupids!!!
I’m sure they are very nice boys…
I was referring to A.Y.S…
The singer of AYS – John Cato – was a known (and active) member of far right parties in Britain…
In many circles, he is viewed as one of the ‘ideologues’ behind the creation of Combat 18, acting as a ‘teacher’ for the Sargeant brothers…
He published the magazine The Oak which promoted far right ideologies and contained Holocaust denial material (see Searchlight 1994)…
In 1993 he was the target of a campaign to drive him out of Gravesend by left wing activists…
Have a look at the back cover of the A.Y.S. ep on Mortarhate and notice the similarity between symbols on there and the B.M. ‘cross in a circle’…
As far as I know, Jerwood shared a flat with Cato in the early 80’s…
I played at 2 gigs on the same bill as this band, and knew nothing about their real views at the time…
johng
May 3, 2008 at 7:55 pmthanks for the info,how very strange,in a totally fucked way.
someonelse showed me the ‘day the country died’ book chapter about ays,think the lad may have some mental issues he really needs to deal with.
will search out the searchlight 94 article ,hope they were succesfull in driving him out,
fuck,really liked their musical style now i wont be able to really listen to em again without thinking -you cunt cato!
johng
May 8, 2008 at 9:30 pmpost 86 section sometimes makes me think of the book secret garden,its like an undisturbed chill out corner
Penguin • Post Author •
May 8, 2008 at 10:51 pmIt does get quiet in here…
johng
May 9, 2008 at 9:02 ammet kalvin before he was in heresey at/after a poison girls gig at the boardwalk in manchester,spent a few hours in a wimpy bar talking with him and his mate,we offered to put em up for the night but we lived about 15 miles outside of the city so they decided to find a carpark to sleep instead,i remember his enormous spiked hair.
last time i saw them was around 88? at an all dayer in nottingham,think disorder were meant to play but didnt show due to someone being nicked poss?think skumdribblers played didnt they do the really non pc lyrics like titles such as ‘she’s on the rag’.
was the last time i saw monty bad breath who had just got a wee pup called bagpipes.
Nic
May 9, 2008 at 10:48 amPerhaps you’re thinking of Sic Boy Federation (featuring Hendrix Dead Boy – ex of Seats of Piss) with the ‘She’s on the rag’? It was their kind of ‘humour’…
johng
May 9, 2008 at 10:29 pmthanks for the memory jog, twas sic boy federation,had totally forgotten the name and the seats of piss,that is the only song title i could remember…no doubt there was quite a few others in a similar vein that you probabley remember better than myself nic………..?
johng
May 9, 2008 at 10:58 pmforgot to say,after that all day gig in nottingham me and a mate ended up staying at les sox’s house on some estate down there,i remember him telling his mum to fuck off to bed and feeling a tad uncomfortable.
johng
May 10, 2008 at 10:06 amles also had a ‘whitey’ due to us giving him a few spliffs on top of all the alcohol he had downed that day…funny guy wonder what he is up to nowadays?
Nic
May 10, 2008 at 10:56 amLast I heard of Les Sox (which was – admittedly – some years ago), he was having some troubles with the drink…
I always liked him when I met him, although he was quite a troubled soul…
I’m curious about this all-dayer, John, as I may have been there too (we used to go up to Notts a lot)…
Where was the venue?
Can you remember who else was on?
johng
May 11, 2008 at 11:15 amonly been to notts twice, last time was to the marcus garvey centre but the venue of the all dayer escapes me. some kind of community centre that i do remember having a lot of trouble finding until we bumped into some folk on the way down to it.
we went really to see disorder but they never made it due to one of them being nicked i think.
sure sick boy federation played, a few others that i dont remember, sure extreme noise terror ended up headlining. this was some 20 odd years ago so the old memorey aint to good these days.
i used to write to a woman in notts called paula who was les sox girlfriend, thats how we ended up staying at his gaff.
i saw les about a year later when c.sox played the 1 in 12 in bradford and he told me paula had turned her back on ‘the scene’ to become a hairdresser.
best thing about the 1 in 12 club was they sold bottles of merrydown 🙂
Nic
May 12, 2008 at 8:27 amThe gig was at Queens Walk Community Centre in 1985 (sometime in early December) and featured Disorder (no show), Extreme Noise Terror, Heresy, Varukers, Generic, Concrete Sox, Eyes on You, Seats of Piss (which featured Hendrix – he must have temporarily stopped the Sic Boy Federation at this time), and Lord Crucifier…
It was promoted by Digby (later of Earache Records) and John (Concrete Sox, later vocalist of Heresy), and was a benefit for Hunt Sabs and Animal Aid…
I had a great time at that one! About 20 Brummies came up and we loved it…First time I saw ENT – what a doss! 🙂
I was up at the 1 in 12 a few months ago: they’ve got some damn strong drinks available at that bar…
🙂
johng
May 12, 2008 at 6:56 pmfuck how did you manage to remember all that nic?
that is some line up for a gig though,i was forever being sent flyers for some great hardcore gigs down there but only got down to that one(i wont count the chumbawumba gig it was crap),always cursed myself for not getting down for crucifix and antisect.think it was the only tour crucifix did over here?
it was early dec cos i remember being freezing the next day at the coach station.
i think it finished sometime early evening cos can remember(just about) going down to a pub(remember them things?) in the centre of notts for drinks.
aint been to the 1 in 12 for many a year and was surprised and chuffed to hear it was still going a while back when most of the places from back then have long since gone,merrydown snakebites always warmed one’s cockles on a night in bradford!:)
Nic
May 13, 2008 at 7:50 amI don’t know how I remember it, John, I don’t know…
🙂
Thinking about it – it did finish early-ish…because we caught a train back to Brum and went on to Coventry and saw a couple of bands there as part of an all-dayer!
I’d nearly forgotten that…
We went to loads of gigs in Notts, partly because we were ‘penpals’ with Digby Pearson, Kalv and Dayve (vocalist of Verbal Warning) so thy would kindly put us up…
We saw some classics: the Flux gig that they wrote ‘Killjoys and Spitters Take Heed’ about, Flux with Antisect in 1982, Rudimentary Peni in 1982, Discharge, Wretched/Disorder/Antisystem/Dirge and 4 others at Colwick Vale, Disorder/Antisystem/Potential Threat and others, the Crucifix gig (sorry! – and yes, it was the only tour: MDC were refused entry that time), and a corker featuring Subhumans/Antisect/Amebix/Disorder/Chaos UK and the band I was in in early 1983!
I think the 1-in-12 is really going strong, as both a gig venue and studio and as a social centre…
They’re doing it…
🙂
Where were you from then, John? Yorks?
johng
May 13, 2008 at 3:34 pmback at that time i was on the outskirts of manchester (small town small mind kinda place) then moved into manchester to the crescents in Hulme where it had become full of punks squatting.ended up back here a few years back after travelling and am still here.
notts,birmingham and a few other cities outside of london did have massive hardcore scenes but manchester really not so.
we’d get a few bands now and again,c.sox,amebix,disorder antisect ,even saw deviated instinct at was once the old ‘factory 1’ here in hulme,did your band ever come to manchester? to gig?
finally got to see m.d.c. over in liverpool on the next time they toured here and were able to get in the country……well worth the wait.
1 in 12 must be around 20 years old by now?
Nic
May 13, 2008 at 3:49 pmAh right..
🙂
We used to go up to the crescents in Hulme a bit in the late 80’s/early 90’s – Charles Barry if I remember correctly?
I always think of the ‘hardcore’ scene as a things that developed in the provinces and paid little attention to London – it was quite organic and fostered by people hitching around and kipping on floors…
The band I did back then (Napalm Death) didn’t play Manchester when I was in them (1981 – end of 1986)…
I was having a drink with the old singer of Deviated Instinct on Sunday night…
🙂
Yeah, the 1 in 12 is over 20, I think…
johng
May 13, 2008 at 6:39 pmwell all those great crescents were long ago demolished(92 i think).
i thought they looked great,funny how some see beauty in what others percieve to be ugly.
funny you mention charles barry,that was the last crescent i lived on and was where all my records (and even tapes)were stolen from,a gut wrencher that was!
so did you come over for any of the picnics in hulme next to ‘the eagle’ pub?
didnt deviated instinct play at that steve ignorant gig in november?
it was a good night they played the psv (formerly factory1)……not that i remember too much 😉
Nic
May 15, 2008 at 8:20 amCharles Barry was an ‘interesting’ place to be – there always seemed to be a car set on fire when I was there…
😉
And, yes, I/we did indeed come up for the picnics – although my memory of much of that time is pretty hazy now!
Deviated Instinct did play at the Steve Ignorant thing – apparently they are doing a tour of the U.S. next…
john
May 15, 2008 at 9:09 amweird,must have been there but wouldnt have known you…….the first picnic i reckon was the best,i’d stored a whole load of ‘fungi’ from the previous year and was distributing em amongst fellow picnicers,dont know if you were one?
yeah,the local kids did like a nice automobile fire,they still do!
did you ever know natalie and mandy from newcastle,natalie went out with john from doom who is from down yer area?
Nic
May 15, 2008 at 1:25 pmNo way! I remember Natalie and Mandy very well! They were great – always had a great laugh with them…They stayed down in Brum quite a few times, sometimes at the house I lived in…My memories of them are ones full of smiles…
Didn’t Natalie go to Manchester to do a course?
I don’t really know what happened to them (as I drifted off a bit in the early 90’s): any news?
I’ve been very close friends with Johnny Doom for 23 years: I still see him once (sometimes twice) a week – I should be seeing him in the next day or so…we only live about a mile away from each other…
He was also the ‘Best Man’ at my wedding…
john
May 15, 2008 at 4:12 pmyes way! natalie was at the polytechnic here doing a course of some kind i remember, i went out with mandy for a time and she would take us to visit natalie in her little box like room she lived in on the campus here.
they were a right laugh the pair,mandy could drink some beer as well!
i met john just the once as far as i remember when he came down to visit nat and he came down to the eagle pub in hulme with her and mandy where we all used to drink.
haven’t seen em both since glasto 90, they went off picking fruit and veg down south for a bit.
i know mandy is back in newcastle, think she works in mental health care nowadays, i’m intouch via email with a mate from leeds who lived with her so will try and find out what natalie is up to.
ask john if he remembers his visit to the eagle in hulme, does he play in police bastard? a mate of mine put em on up here recently but alas i couldnt get there………..small world gets smaller…………………
🙂
chris
June 9, 2008 at 12:34 pmAh yes, Sic Boy Federation / Seats Of Piss. pathetic GG Allin wannabees if I remember correctly. I remember Deek of Oi Polloi telling me about some gig they played with them when the singer spent the set sticking the mike up his ass and later pissing over some guy in a wheelchair.
Nice. Still, how very ‘laissez faire’ of the HC scene to put them on.
Strange John Cato’s membership of the BM (BNP didn’t formally exist at the time AYS were going) wasn’t better known. He didn’t exactly hide it, In fact Andy Martin ‘commended’ him on this on one of the Apostles EP covers at the time this stating that however loathesome his views he had more respect for him admitting to it than the supine anarcho punk wankers who just ignored like a flatulent grandparent at a Christmas dinner.
Laissez faire, indeed 🙁
Very pleased this entire era and area of punk completely passed me by.
Vic 'Sox' Croll
June 11, 2009 at 11:11 pmmaybe i could answer some of the questions re: the scene in nottingham in the 80s as i was a part of it… we, concrete sox used to put the gigs on at queens walk community center (i’m vic, sox’s founder member/guitarist)… interesting post…
Mitch Dickinson
June 9, 2010 at 7:16 amIt has been great reading this post. Nic (Bullen) and I go back a LONG way. I first started going to the Mermaid in Birmingham in March 1986. I had met Nic and Justin (Broadrick) a couple of weeks before the gig. They approached me as I had logos of Celtic Frost and Siege on my jacket. It was a true meeting of two different camps. I was a full on Metal kid with a passion for Hardcore Punk and the meeting was quite monumental really. The two scenes really did not mix at this point, but I was so into what I was hearing on the tape trading underground. Basically, genres did not really matter. The music was the most important thing. The faster the better! They gave me a flyer for an all dayer that was headlined by Amebix. Heresy were also on the bill. It was one of the best gigs of my life. Heresy were killer. Napalm Death were ace also. Great times that have gone on to shaoe everything we now know.
Nic
July 5, 2010 at 1:37 pmWe had some maximum dosses back then, didn’t we Chinster? Always good to see / hear from you, mate…
Bené
November 23, 2010 at 8:51 amThe best days of our lives for sure. I reckon ‘the scene’ was so exciting cos we made the rules, it was the young ‘uns makin noise for themselves and having a proppa laugh at the same time. ENT at Queens was great but the alldayer at the Mermaid fuckin killed…when ENT got on it went fuckin wild..I remember mickey jumpin off some cabs into the crowd..mental. It all got too big though..Digby smelled his cash cow and the rock n roll combined with pound signs fucked over the DIY ethic that the scene was nurtured on….Daz Russell too…The Queens gig did finish early didn’t it I’m sure the gig at the Hand and Heart (fuckin loved that place) featured: Icons Of Filth and Anti-System played and maybe even the band I played in….such a long time ago and I was such a wreckhead then
Nic
December 14, 2010 at 10:20 amNice one Bene: some wild nights at the Mermaid (and the Hand and Heart)…
Great Dirge concerts as well…
baz
December 31, 2012 at 10:50 amhey nic
best band i saw you has to be motherfuckers from mars at the hand and heart,
with song titles like julies got aids and ripcord got no big cock you cant go
wrong!!! ha ha
Grant
October 4, 2013 at 1:15 pmjust came across this thread, cool read…i was that Notts all dayer too, fucking great time. My band, Desecrators, also played at The Mermaid with Motherfuckers From Mars supporting us, Mick broke my snare drum skin and i had to use the bottom skin on top with no snare underneath, haha!
I used to know John from AYS too, used to be good penpals with him but had no idea about his political views at the time. One of my other bands, The Uprising, play a couple of gigs with AYS in London. I was more friendly with the drummer, Simon “Rim” though who want on to play with another cool band, “Paradise”.