Escapism Is Not Freedom / The Imperfect Race / The Silence / A Hammer / Burn The Witch / 1980’s
Andy Martin, Dave Fanning and Martin Smith appear on this tape courtesy of Chris Low ditto the photos. How much obscure Apostle’s material is out there exactly? And how much of it is stuck away in Chris’s shoebox?
The Apostles are no stranger to this site, and quite a lot of material has already been uploaded and hopefully appreciated, because they were a great band that never quite sounded like any other bands around at the time (or since actually).
The history of the band from the (pre Andy Martin and Dave Fanning) Apostles, Black Cross, Innocent Bystander and Libertarian Youth is too complicated to write up, with many swings and turns along the way, so will not try to attempt it here on this post.
Nic
August 3, 2008 at 12:21 pmChris’ shoebox is pretty substantial…
‘Escapism is not Freedom’ – a re-working of ‘Stoke Newington 8’…
‘The Imperfect Race’ – a re-working of ‘Hello Black Flag’…
‘Burn the Witch’ – a version of a song by Libertarian Youth…
‘1980s’ – a version of a song by Flack…
Martin C
August 4, 2008 at 1:32 pmCongratulations on getting the music back on the site! Maybe this calls for a celebration – like perhaps sticking up “Factory Man” by Total Chaos?
Jim V
August 5, 2008 at 1:26 pmcheers both chris and penguin…the Wiki entry for The Apostles seems to be informative and is regularly updated…
crow
August 7, 2008 at 10:26 pmbet you dont have apostles live at the weaver arms (circa 81?) with moi on drums (&guitar) and ann g zoff on bass….or maybe its already out there…
crow
August 7, 2008 at 10:27 pmor was it black cross?
Nic
August 8, 2008 at 8:24 amGet it to Penguin, Crow…
😉
(Was that the live recording which was the first release on Scum tapes, with Black Cross on one side and The Apostles on the other?)
Chris
August 8, 2008 at 11:34 pmnot sure, Nic, but I checked the list of gigs the Apostles played and there’s no mention of one at the Weaver Arms so may well have been.
Penguin • Post Author •
August 8, 2008 at 11:39 pmAnother band that only performed a few times! We should write up a list of obscure performing bands, Snipers winning right now (7), second Peni (12), third Apostles (25 or so). Any advance on 7 gigs? The Astronauts, oh no sorry, they played everywhere 😉
Graham Burnett
August 9, 2008 at 4:07 amAutumn Poison (previously Enola Death – see New Criminals post earlier) only did about 6 or 7 gigs during our 3 or 4 year career…
Nic
August 9, 2008 at 10:27 amI’m thinking it must be a Black Cross gig, Chris, particularly with Ann G Zoff involved…
Napalm Death (‘original’ period – from end of 1981 to end of 1983): 6 gigs…
I bet The bloomin’ Heretics will come back and win this one…
😉
How many did the Stripey Zebras do, Graham?
(PS On a Southend tip, I dloaded the demo by The Icons the other day…)
Nic
August 9, 2008 at 10:27 amHow many did Terminal Disaster do?
Or The Snails?
Nic
August 9, 2008 at 10:28 amOr Flack, for that matter?
Penguin • Post Author •
August 9, 2008 at 10:50 amHeretics, yes…forgot about them – undisputed winner of the catagory ‘lowest number of performances by punk band’ with a total, I think, of zilch.
The’re a garage band, they come from garage land.
Right, what band claims second place?
andus
August 9, 2008 at 4:45 pmFor those who do not know, Andy Martin former Apostles is now part of a band called UNIT. they have released 9 cds, We are your gods. Sons of the dragon, Untied and United, Dare to be different, Rock in opposition 1, Rock in opposition 2, Rock in opposition 3, Rock in opposition 4. Fire and Ice.
Dave fanning also appears on these cds, but has since left.
UNIT P O BOX 45885 LONDON E11 1UW, OR http://WWW.UNIT-UNITED@YAHOO.COM OR http://WWW.UNIT-UNITED.CO.UK.
These cds are also available on ebay, for between £3 and £10
andy martin
August 9, 2008 at 6:53 pmFirst: thanks ever so much for the shameless advertisement! Let’s see who responds, if anyone does – more likely they’ll simply moan that UNIT can’t possibly be as ‘good’ (sic) as The Apostles because UNIT aren’t a punk band and didn’t record their music back in 1983.
Second: bizarre photograph of me – I mean, why am I wearing Daves’ jumper?
Third: who the hell is Crow? I’ve never been in a band with someone called Crow. Come to that, who the hell is Angie Zoff? I think they must be talking about some other band here that was nothing to do with me – The Apostles did play a strange concert in front of 5 skinheads, 2 elderly men and a chap called Sniper who used to play drums for The Heretics who are mentioned earlier in the responses. This concert was performed at a pub called The Weavers Almshouse in Stoke Newington (circa 1983).
Fourth: The Heretics apparently played just 1 concert, somewhere in North London, according to Sniper.
Fifth: this chap who says they should make Factory Man by Total Chaos available is quite correct – actually Total Chaos (Newcastle, Gateshead) were in some respects a far better band than The Apostles although I suspect some of my lyrics were technically more accomplished than most of theirs. However, what of that? Hundreds of people liked The Apostles but thousands of people liked Total Chaos!
Penguin • Post Author •
August 9, 2008 at 10:18 pmHi Andy M, hope you are well, have not seen you for a few months, should get together again soon. Loads of new stuff happening to me right now to bore you with.
Have not seen UNIT since Housmans, before that W1 somewhere, before that Chats P. Let me know if you are performing again soon, with or without Dave F.
Crow is Scarecrow (Richard G) who I think you would know pretty well from those times. Angie, would that be Angie W from Newcastle or somewhere up the North East who lived with Blood And Roses members? Did not know she was in a band, but the name, the place, the time all seem to fit.
All the Heretics members (less Sniper who passed on) have all posted comments (about 500 of the buggers out of I think over 650 in total – under the names Siii, Sam and Rich Kid / Baron Von Zubb) on the post entitled Chris Low Obscure Punk Band post, plus the band themselves and Jake (Rich Kid / Baron Von Zubb) the vocalist have seperate posts under Heretics and Baron Von Zubb. One post of a practice tape and one post of literature written by Jake respectively.
Total Chaos I have not got, if Nic, Mike, or Chris can help out with that bands material I will upload it for the public.
Thanks for the comment Andy. See you around soon I hope, after the fourth test finishes no doubt! Let me know if you want any UNIT stuff uploaded. I have about 10 CD’s to choose from.
Nic
August 10, 2008 at 10:35 amAndus – get in touch: I haven’t seen you for quite a while, and wanted to speak to you about a couple of things…
I can’t help on the Total Chaos, Pengy – I sold their records years ago…
The first EP is up on a couple of blogs on the nookienet (but not ‘Factory Man’ which was on the 2nd EP)…
If I remember rightly, some of the members used to do a fanzine called No Comment…
Was Ann G Zoff in a band called The Witches?
crow
August 10, 2008 at 10:29 pmoh dear, what have i started…yeah angie was bob’s girlfiend (sorry girlfriend) and yeah she was in a band with min called the witches…some of you might like to know i bumped into angie recently and she looked great , i also told her about this site so maybe she’ll check in….
Penguin • Post Author •
August 10, 2008 at 11:36 pmLou was in the Witches as well, is that right Crow? Would love to get tapes of this band. Need to see if Lou has any, she has got a whole lot of stuff on tape for me to upload, including some recordings Lou completed with Andy Martin himself…not heard the tracks yet though, will have to pester her some more! Can you ask Angie if she has anything relevent to put up on the site, flyers, photos, tapes etc please Crow next time you hear from her.
crow
August 11, 2008 at 12:32 amwas lou in the band? i think so, cant quite remember if I ever saw them live, which means i probably didnt… i dont think they played much at that time but i seem to remember they rehearsed quite alot – so tapes must exist, i think martin (sunday the 7th) might have rehearsed with them (drums?) but i could be wrong….i think he had a tape of them, as we were all living together first at yoakley rd and then bayston road you have to remember i arrived on the N16 “scene” late summer ’81…. by the way yoakley rd and bayston road were never squats, they were part of april housing co-op (but you couldnt really tell that from the insides) … but there was a squat directly across the road from 44 Bayston road …which i recall may well have been king lugg’s work
Nic
August 11, 2008 at 3:25 pmI believe that Lou was also in the band, and I do remember Andy Martin including The Witches as one of the bands he had been in some writings…
According to the concert sheet that Chris mentions, the first 2 gigs by The Apostles were with The Witches (and the first was also with Black Cross)…
Phil R
August 11, 2008 at 7:39 pmHi Andy M its Phil Ritchie . Great to see you here. Big hug.Be great to see you somtime. The Gay teenage
group seems along time ago now init? Maybe you could put a post up here next time UNIT plays. Didnt they help defeat the Darleks ?
Is that Crow that hung out with N.Z. Anna Sheer that i married? Hi also x
andus
August 26, 2008 at 9:49 pmNic, you had better send me an email cause i have lost yours, and i will pop up some time.
I can’t help anyone with this Apostles saga, Bob, is that the Bob who used to play dungeons and dragons.
andy martin c/o andus
August 27, 2008 at 2:52 pmI have the complete works of Total Chaos on CD that I remastered and
cleaned up myself. If anyone wants copies they can send me £5 (to the UNIT box number ) together with a physical address and I’ll do the business.
Andy Martin.
Mr Martin would also like it known, that his comments were not posted by him, but me as I thought people would be interested.
Andus
Penguin • Post Author •
August 27, 2008 at 11:42 pmBit confused here! Has Andy M seen this site or not? If he has then Hi Andy, hope to meet up soon. If someone is commenting under his name then that is just plain wierd…or is it some kind of dictation type affair to someone that has access to a computer? Pray tell Andus…very decent to spread the word anyway, concerning UNIT and the Total Chaos CD’s if you are doing it on behalf of Andy M…
Nic
August 28, 2008 at 2:10 pmDon’t panic, Penguin – the first ‘Andy Martin’ post was posted here by Andus (who probably received the text in an email from Andy Martin, judging by the tone of the post)…
£5 for a Total Chaos CD?
All of their releases are out there in the ether for FREE download…
This blog has posted their 2 EPs and 12″:
http://burning-britain.blogspot.com/2008/08/total-chaos.html
This blog has posted the Italian comp EP featuring a Total Chaos cut:
http://www.goodbadmusic.com/2006/11/09/va-papi-queens-reichskanzlers-presidennti-7ep-comp-attack-punk-records-italy-1982/
You can download them and then put the recordings on a 30 pence (or thereabouts) CD yourself…
Penguin • Post Author •
August 28, 2008 at 5:56 pmRight ho Nic…never quite reached the panic stage, but did spend several hours last night pondering on this situ as you would imagine me to! 😉
andus
August 29, 2008 at 1:33 pmAlright chaps.
Andy Martin cannot access this web-site because he is on a works computer, Basically I copied and pasted this site and sent it to him, he then made those comments in an email to me, I asked if he wanted me to post them, he said being as its all about him yes, So I did, I think he’s offering everything by Total chaos for £5, ie, the cost of disks and time. postage etc.
I have looked for Factory man on a file sharer but its not available, so thanks for posting those links. sorry for confusing you penguin. You can contact Andy M, at, unitunited@yahoo.com. the other email address tends not to work
andus
August 29, 2008 at 1:43 pmAlso, I have posted him the follow-up comments, so he has received your replies,
Val
August 29, 2008 at 1:47 pmre lowest number of performances by a punk band – I think I can beat them all with The Hairdressers – a groovy beat combo that these days would be described as a ‘virtual’ band, but back then would have been called ‘made up’ – which existed only as an article and photo in Ripped & Torn. Can’t remember which issue but I expect that Tony (who wrote it) can?
Nic
August 29, 2008 at 3:57 pmAll of which raises an interesting question, Val, which is: what exactly would need to be in place to constitute a ‘band’?
I mean – I’ve known of quite a few ‘made up’ bands (and participated in a couple)…bands which only exist as graffitti campaigns, badges, fanzine articles, rubber stamps or gig listings in the back pages of defunct music weeklies…
BUT – do they actually qualify as a ‘band’ if they exist purely as the concept (in much the same way as a piece of conceptual art can exist as a concept)…
andus
August 29, 2008 at 3:59 pmAbstract played half a gig
Nic
August 29, 2008 at 4:11 pmHalf a gig is a pretty good score, Andus…
Many people have tried to stop me during a gig, but they haven’t succeeded yet!
haha!