Part 1 – Buffalo Bar – London – 29/08/13 – Silent Scream

Part 1 – The Buffalo Bar, Highbury, London, N1 – 29/08/13

August 2013 – The month of much practising and some considerable movement for the newly resurrected band from, ahem, many many moons past, Part 1.

Both apprentices in the dark arts, Mark Ferelli and Jake Baker had the idea of resurrecting the band and therefore the bands legendary dark FX sound sometime earlier in 2013. Part 1’s original bassist Chris Pascoe was somehow removed from the coffin he was in at the time and agreed to be involved. Needing a drummer the band enlisted the help of the ever capable and much in demand Chris Low who has an impressive list of band membership under his belt spanning over three decades.

In August 2013, nine moons in, the band headed up to Blackpool to perform the afternoon ‘graveyard shift’ at the Rebellion Festival.

Prior to the performance and for reasons unknown to me (or forgotten about if I was ever told the story) Chris Pascoe placed his bass guitar back into the guitar case and wandered west (not literally west as he would have wandered into the sea surrounding Blackpool) to settle once more into the coffin he had been exhumed from just weeks previously. Possibly my memory is being unfair to me and it might be entirely possible that Chris Pascoe did not even make the journey north but either way his absence left the now three piece Part 1 performing, I assume, a treble heavy set in a large hall to the supporters that happened to turn up for the event.

I was not in attendance so can not comment further, although I am sure I would have been told of some of the, ahem, feedback heavy highlights of the event. I have probably just forgotten due to worms eating away at my brain.

A low key London performance had been organised at the Buffalo Bar around the time that whispers of the reformation performance due shortly at Rebellion were going around the much darker version of the ‘sowing circle’ within that scene.

The band apres Rebellion were in need of a bassist.

Chris Low via some form of black magick infected the idea of his flat mate David Barnett’s worthy abilities on a bass guitar, directly into the skulls of Mark and Jake.

David’s ancient parchment of a C.V regarding band membership and being in and around the music business was also mightily impressive.

I can only assume due to the urgency of the situation with suddenly becoming bass light extremely recently, and with a London performance placed into the collective diaries coming up very soon, that both skulls were happy to give David a chance.

Part 1 practised and then practised once more. After practising hard just twice, and with no doubt some form of blood sacrifice, Part 1 suddenly became a force to be reckoned with again with the addition of David. ‘Tomb’ was the only Part 1 track that David was unable to master due to the time limitations.

Eighteen moons after the Rebellion afternoon ‘graveyard shift’ performance, Part 1 turned up at the Buffalo Bar, a small subterranean cellar dungeon of sorts with a low ceiling and pillars that get in the way pretty much all the time. Part 1’s kind of place.

Darkness had descended and some old faces showed up from many many moons past. This humble scribe included. As the small subterranean cellar dungeon filled up a little, the support band came onto the stage.

“Hang on” this humble scribe ponders. “Why is Part 1’s head ghoul Mark Ferrelli plugging leads into his effects pedals?”

“What sort of madness is this?” I mutter to myself. I had literally just got a first pint of cider from the bar, already wide eyed and grinning with anticipation and it is barely 8.45pm. Chris Low gets behind the drums and a bassist and a vocalist appear as if by magick.

I ponder for a while why gigs are not like they used to be. I start to believe that if the ghost trains are running on time I should be back in my crypt by 10.15pm.

Thirty minutes of Part 1 were the perfect support for the main act who clambered onto stage after a short interval. The small subterranean cellar dungeon had been filling up a little more with younger supporters of Part 1, some from areas far from Highbury, some from countries far from England.

The main act on the night, Part 1 finished the night with an absolutely glorious noise. The dark Lords protecting the band from harm were finally appeased after thirty years of deafening silence from their apprentices.

Was this jape two sets for the price of one? More likely the jape was a practise run through of the Part 1 set early doors, to give the band the confidence to really push forward the second Part 1 set in a slightly altered order.

A great night out and this humble scribe finally escaped the madness and got back into my crypt around midnight, the witching hour. That’s better.

Part 1 has always held a special place in my heart, some cynics would state that maybe it was because I used to have several copies of the début 7″ single ‘Funeral Parade’ released in 1982 that has rose in price month by month during these last few years.

I did have three extra copies of this small sacred relic but I gave them away, so that kills that rumour stone dead.

It must have been something else?

Some cynics would state that maybe it was because Southern was carrying the Pusmort label and Southern Record Distributors (and therefore myself) handled the many boxes full of Part 1 mini L.P’s ‘Pictures Of Pain’ released in 1985 that has rose in price month by month during these last few years.

I did have two extra copies of this larger sacred relic but yet again I gave them away, so that kills that rumour stone dead.

Maybe it was just the dark sounds held within the grooves of those two slabs of vinyl. And the fact that at the time of those sacred relics being placed on this earth by dark forces beyond my comprehension, no other band sounded quite like Part 1, then or since.

Is this the reason why Part 1 has always held a special place in my heart?

Yes it is, Just that.

Mickey ‘Penguin’

Part 1 since the resurrection have performed several times, this humble scribe being in attendance on several occasions. Part 1 performed in Paris earlier this year, and will be performing in Finland on the third moon of October as special guests of Silent Scream.

Details are below on the flyer and also on the website link in the Silent Scream section.

We have here uploaded on KYPP tonight a recording of the second set performed at the Buffalo Bar, courtesy of Chris Low. Many dark praises to Chris for sorting out the audio and to the original recording duo in the small subterranean cellar dungeon, Carla Boregas and Laura Del Vecchio from the Brazilian psychedelic gothic band Rakta.

Also many dark praises must go to Steph Hagar for the photograph of Part 1 on stage at the Buffalo Bar.

Finally many dark praises must go to Nick Hydra, who was ‘there’ in 1982 and is also still ‘there’ in 2014. It is Nick’s review of the Buffalo Bar performance that is written below.

The polaroid of Jake mesmerising the audience and the mugshots of just some of the great, the good, and the ghouls who were at the Buffalo Bar that dark August night last year, are from this humble scribes collection.

For more Part 1 information please check out the Facebook page HERE.

Part 1 resurrected

What’s in a name? Goth? Deathrock? Doomrock? Anarcho-punk? Post-punk? Part 1 have been called all these and more. The closest is probably Anarcho-punk, if only because they played most of their very rare gigs within that milieu.

At its vital, chaotically creative best, Anarcho-punk was a loose network of individuals following their own trajectory, like planets in orbit being pulled into each other’s gravitational fields, coming together and springing apart in a bewildering array of combinations and occasional collisions.

In the end what most people had in common was their unwillingness to fit in anywhere else. Anarcho-punk was where the malcontents and misfits found the space to be different in their own way.

Viewed in this way, Part 1 (like fellow travellers Flowers in the Dustbin, Blood & Roses, Hagar the Womb, the Mob and Amebix), by virtue of their very otherness are one of the best examples of Anarcho-punk you could hope to find. Although they are often linked with Rudimentary Peni due to a similarly off-kilter approach and the friendship between Part 1’s Mark F and Peni’s Nick Blinko, in the end they are only Part 1, alone in a field of one.

Surviving original members Mark F (Guitar) and Jake Baker (Vocals) are joined by the new rhythm section of Chris Low (drums) and David Barnett (bass) for their second gig in 30 years. Despite the band having become something of a cult in recent years, they wear this new found status lightly, and with a degree of self-depreciating humour, singer Jake referred at one point to their gigs being “like buses” (you wait ages for one, and then three come at once).

Of the two sets played tonight, the second was possibly the better, probably as a result of both the audience and band having loosened up slightly.

So, how to describe a Part 1 gig to the uninitiated? It was hypnotic; disturbing; challenging; uplifting. It was… a Part 1 gig. You can hear echoes of Metal Box era PIL, early Banshees and Killing Joke, as well a healthy dollop of UK Decay in the spiralling FX-heavy guitar, along with a whiff or Crisis and Six Minute War, especially in the bass-lines and vocal delivery, but that doesn’t really give you a flavour of the thing.

Given that they have only acquired a bass player in the last few weeks (having performed at the Rebellion festival without one) they were completely in control; creating a deft interplay between the tight rhythmic and melodic structures that weaved back and forth in an elegant symmetry, with the locked in rhythm section allowing Mark F to indulge in some serious FX pyrotechnics, sending shards of feedback shuddering and looping across the stage.

Existing as they did on the outer fringes of Anarcho-punk (itself having a problematic, fractured relationship to anything that could be considered ‘popular culture’), and belonging to no particular time frame, Part 1 have avoided the pitfall of many a re-formed band, that sense of being dated and irrelevant.

Rather like the long-buried Martian spaceship in Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass and the Pit, they have lain dormant, waiting for us to rediscover them, and trigger the primeval impulses encoded in our DNA.

Although they were not visually dynamic, staying virtually static throughout, they held the attention with ease, creating a kind of vortex in which the unwary audience were held, almost mesmerised by the sonic barrage pulsating from the stage.

Highlights? A fantastic rendition of The Black Mass, a rare outing for the ultra-obscure Claws and Jake spitting out the final line of Hymn in amended form as they left the stage at the end of the second set…

“In the shadow of the cross, we still stand defiant!”

9/10

Nick Hydra

Part 1 are to be visiting Finland on the 3rd October and will be performing alongside Silent Scream. I believe the concert has been set up by Antti from Silent Scream who has supported and been inspired by the music of Part 1 for many many years now. Please search on the Silent Scream website HERE for updated details on this special night for Part 1 and Silent Scream in Finland. The two videos and the small essay on the sometimes tragic history of Silent Scream has been respectably removed from this website and placed onto KYPP. Thanks to Antti in advance.

From Varjo to Silent Scream

Two tragic deaths within a year. Not the easiest start for a new finnish goth/post-punk band Silent Scream.

The story goes back in 1996 when Antti Lautala and Henry Waldén formed a band called Varjo (a shadow in English). Varjo was influenced by Gothic rock, post-punk and ambient but it differed from other Gothic bands by the Finnish lyrics. At the beginning of the 21st century Varjo was the most successful Gothic band with Finnish lyrics.

After the third album there were changes in line-up but also a tragedy: ex-keyboard player disappeared and after a year and a half he was found dead. After those difficult times Varjo made new songs, supported New Model Army and was ready to record the fifth album.

Two weeks before the recordings guitarist Henry Waldén died in a fire accident and that ended the story of Varjo.

Four months after the funerals the trio recorded the last album “Viimeinen näytös” and it was released in January 2010 (Stupido Records)

After the recordings Antti, Matthew and Jukka decided to continue with a new band name and new songs. It was also natural to change the language and write lyrics in English. Silent Scream will go further to the core of post-punk with influences like Killing Joke, Joy Division, Amebix and Southern Death Cult.

The first Silent Scream album “In the Cinema” (Stupido Records) was released 2010 and the second one “Public Execution” (Stupido Records) 2012.

In 2013 Silent Scream and Murnaus Playhouse released a split album “Bones from the Backyard” (Gothic Music Records)

Antti Lautala