The Apostles / Primal Chaos / Black Flag / The Heretics
Man about town, obscure punk enthusiast and general good guy, Chris Low late of Political Asylum, The Apostles, Oi Polloi, in the 1980’s and The Parkinsons in 1990’s, handed this tape to me on his birthday along with a load of others. I have uploaded this late because it is unfortunately been dubbed / copied onto tape by horrid mono means, i.e it only comes out of one speaker…bummer! Two other tapes Conflict at Brixton Ace 1982 supplied by Mark ‘Vegas’ Palmer starts off stereo then clicks into mono. Sadly to say Lugworm supplied a cassette tape recorded from Spaceward Studios of The Mobs LP recorded there. Not interested in The Mob LP as such but there is an alternative mix of ‘Stay’ which I was absolutely interested in. This track also plays on one speaker. Point of fact – nothing wrong with my cassette playback system!
Any how, I do not like putting up faulty or mono cassettes onto this site, but this has to be an exception because of the rarity value. The Apostles, Primal Chaos, Black Flag, and The Heretics all for the price of…well nothing. Not sure of the history of the tape, no doubt Chris will comment on it. Not sure of the line up, track listing or anything else. Again I hope Chris or his chum Nic will comment. On the B-Side of the tape is a Flux live gig and a Napalm Death practice. All I the info I got what was written on the tape itself, just band names basically. I actually have not heard this tape yet cos wifey needed me to do something so I just let it play…hope Bucks Fizz does not come on half way through the recordings!
Info from Nic:
The Apostles:
Pete The Plectrum (later formed part of ‘The Hunt’ on the first LP)
Some Men Are Born To Rule (the first song the group ever wrote)
Antichrist
? (This isn’t from this time period if I remember correctly – it features the drum machine: is it ‘The Island’, Chris?)
Solidaridad Proletaria (This is the original title at the time of recording: it was later changed to ‘A New World In Our Hearts’ and was re-recorded on both tape and vinyl)
Killing for Peace
Proletarian Autonomy (later re-recorded on tape and vinyl)
Time Bomb
Stoke Newington 8 (later re-recorded on tape and vinyl)
Primal Chaos – Rehearsal 1982:
Systems Slave (This isn’t part of their ‘Fighting for a Future’ rehearsal tape)
Black Flag – Rehearsal 1981:
The Master Race (Earliest version of this song that I heard)
Waiting for the All Clear (later recorded by The Apostles, but this version features Matt Mcleod on vocals
The Heretics – Rehearsal 1980:
No Character
Jake from Heretics on stage with Iggs of Crass 1979
The Heretics
Jah Pork Pie
June 1, 2008 at 3:53 pmDirk and Big Daddy, that I would have paid money to see! I remember Grant was a really nice guy, always had a smile on his face. Didn’t he have a haircut like Cory’s for a while, the little “lightning bolt” thing?
And on the subject of Cory, do you remember how his song: “I Believe In Bugs” went?
I only remember:
“I believe in bugs,
I truly believe in bugs…”
…performed with a little “bug-like” dance, ‘en point’!
Jah Pork Pie
June 1, 2008 at 4:39 pmThe reason I ask about Eric Hysteric is that when we were at 66a Leigh was playing in the Hysterics and I think Sam, Jake and Wank (Sam at least) were doing some music with Eric too.
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 4:39 pmHi Pork, just seen Cory today out of the bus window I was on.
He sells the big issue up by the Nags Head.
Think he’s had a hard few years and has found it difficult to fit in or find a place since all our lifestyle freedoms became more restrictive. He’s had loads of homelessness but he’s a tuff old bird.
Grant always looked cool. I think he was a hairdresser at some point.
And lisa did have a fling with Dirk for a while.
Shall I say hi to Cory from you if see him? Im sure he would be chuffed to hear you had remembered the bug song.
Jah Pork Pie
June 1, 2008 at 4:56 pmYeah, I agree that our supposedly free life these days is dependent on a lot: money and the desire to step on people or turn them over to make more of it. We can now look like anything we want and say anything we want, as long as we fit into the moneymaking machine. That’s something I’ve had trouble with over the years myself I think.
I remember that Cory had a fantastic mohair jumper at the time of the Bug Song, too! Definitely say hi to him for me and tell him I’m thinking of him.
Surprised that Lisa had a fling with Dirk… I only ever remember her declaring herself completely asexual (though maybe that was just to avoid the hassle of many many people on drugs trying to shag her 🙂 )
I’m up in London for the weekend every 2 or 3 weeks (I come up to see my mum) so perhaps all meet up for a drink (soft drinks in my case these days!) It’d be good to see ya.
Mike
June 1, 2008 at 5:19 pmPork:comment made by a friend other day as we sat having a pint in a Fulham boozer whilst having to suffer the babble of assorted yuppie-types ask each other how much their flats/shoeboxes were ‘worth’ (this is a chat-up line round here,apparently): “I feel as if I’m living in an occupied city”.Whether by aliens or an army I dunno,but I understand the sentiment….
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 5:23 pmPork, Yeah esp around the end of my travelling days I did start to get quite freeked out by how repressive the state had become.
I swear we were dealing with some type of new robo cops.
Everythings just fine now as long as you conform.
Everyone so busy fighting for equality they forgot about freedom.
Yeah would be great to see you to.
I dont drink now. Gave up because of hep c and now its just habit
Jah Pork Pie
June 1, 2008 at 5:41 pm@Mike-> it used to be US doing the occupying, didn’t it? I remember walking along Cheyne Walk and the posh bits of Notting Hill and The Barbican and thinking that all of it belonged to us, that we could go wherever we wanted, do anything we wanted and there wasn’t a blind thing the rest of them could do to us… that’s just the naivete of youth I suppose. They were letting us have the freedom of the City on a 4 year lease until we were 20. And the price wasn’t cheap, as a lot of the posts above tell.
And as for the yuppies, I know it’s Schadenfreude and probably bad karma but I’d like to think that there will be a few of the property developing types who bought the sorts of places that we used to squat in (depriving us and a lot of others a building we actually wanted to LIVE in) so that they could do them up and sell them on for an obscene profit who will now have so much negative equity that they will end up squatting somewhere and getting hassled and thrown out on THEIR arses. Life can be beautifully circular sometimes!
@Phil-> People seem to have forgotten that part of equality is the right to be different. Equal and similar is tedious, and down that road lies totalitarianism. Equal, different and respected is the route for me. And the day I saw the Labour Party use the Terrorism Act to throw an old man out of their conference because he didn’t agree with the party line was the day freedom went for good, I think.
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 5:43 pmI should’nt be all doom and gloom cos alot of things that were thought radical even 10 years ago are now becoming mainstream.
But I feel it is make or break for the planet and we really have to get our shit in order.
Mike
June 1, 2008 at 5:59 pm@Pork:yes,it would be nice to see some of that karma.I’m looking forward to even more estate agents out on their arses too.”You want to LIVE in this flat do you? How quaint”.We were utterly naive as you say,seeing London as this big playground which we could use/abuse without (as our elders would say) having the least bit of responsibility etc.Funny story,when Dave Fergusson had his stall outside Rough Trade at weekends an old mate of his once known as Vulture turned up.What are you up to these days? someone asked.A Property Developer,he replied.Dunno if he was joking but it was horribly apt.I guess the moral of untamed free market capitalism is that it will eventually devour even it’s fiercest advocates.
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 6:38 pmMy fav demo chant of all time has to be “Bigger cages longer chains”.
“Bigger cages longer chains”
Jah Pork Pie
June 1, 2008 at 6:59 pm@Mike-> I don’t think it’s too hippyish to have wanted a degree of empathy in with the freedom we were asking for – that’s the check and balance that free-market capitalism needs. There were so many of us who had next to fuck all but shared everything (I remember the working girls at Campbell Buildings buying us a bag of chips out of their hard-earned money and us doing the same for them when the dole cheques turned up) that I just can’t believe it when I hear that an ex-punk has got their nose in the trough and is gorging for all they’re worth. You’d have thought they’d have learned a lesson. Still, that’s the absurd idealist in me coming out. It’s all still a big playground to me. A ragged-trousered philanthropist, as someone clever once said.
There’s nothing nicer, as you say, than seeing some smug bastard in a Foxton’s Mini Cooper crying into his last glass of Nuit-St-Georges that the property market has gone down the crapper and he’s gonna have to sell the BMW and the suits and downsize himself.
@Phil-> Love that chant! But,on your other post, sadly I think the reason that things that were radical only 10 years ago are becoming mainstream is that someone has managed to persuade the government to deregulate them (or usually to license them) because they’ve found a way to make lots of money out of them, and the government says “yes, please” because they’ll make loadsa tax dosh.
Jah Pork Pie
June 1, 2008 at 7:06 pmJust a quickie: I’m surprised that on those BBC2 trailers when TV personalities/journalists are asked “what is culture” that nobody has come up with the answer: “It’s the only stuff you can’t sell people because they’ve already got it”.
Still, with file-sharing and people organising themselves into groups for various cultural pursuits (and huge tube-train pissups), the internet may come to our rescue at some point. Fingers crossed.
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 7:09 pmNo Pork sorry I mean grassroots main stream. Just a lot of people you meet nowadays can see all the bullshit, but feel powerless against media, corperations govs multi nationals etc. Like there’s more awareness but more subtle control.
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 7:15 pmHey and Hi Lou Mc Grew here.
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 7:17 pmJust wanted to say how great I think it is to be back in touch with KYPP
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 7:18 pmHey hi Pork and Phil
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 7:18 pmfunny, I was invited to that tube piss up on facebook.
Baron there’s a group on facebook where you might know some people it called west country rave massive 91
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 7:19 pm@ pork anyway donno why im saying all this stuff cos you know it anyway!
Penguin • Post Author •
June 1, 2008 at 7:20 pmHello Louise dear, just come back from Southend (for the Regents Park to Southend scooter run) to find the usual 100’s of comments posted, in my inbox and on this site.
Glad to see you are joining in…x
PS ~thinks~ when can I get my hands on Lou’s cassettes for this site? Huummm.
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 7:24 pmOh hi Lou been a long time..Big hug x
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 7:33 pmHey hi everyone Big hug to thanks Phil X
Cassettes available as and when required or prn ha ha
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 8:03 pmHi Lou, Yeah isnt this great! (Cheers Tony and all) maybe at some point we will all get together.
I know the written word isnt a strong point of mine.
Anyway a friend of mine who went to that Crass gig a few months ago said he saw half the audiance in McDonalds afterwards.
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 8:06 pmHey Phil and hi.
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 8:10 pmYeah nice one Tony, Val, Micky Penguin, George B, Luggy, its a hard trek to Cyberspace for me but an enjoyable one. Whats this with McDonalds and Crass fans eh Phil?
Phil
June 1, 2008 at 8:24 pmDunno if they were fans, but they were at the gig. Guess its just one of those strange tales.
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 8:29 pmWell I guess people are strange when you’re a stranger.
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 8:31 pmThe whole Campbell Buildings thing does anyone know what became of Razor please?
Lou Mc Grew
June 1, 2008 at 9:08 pmJah Pork do you remember Pressure Group 13/6/82 or Luggy Mental Disorder I got a Dreams Live at Centro Iberico tape thanks to Luggy
baron von zubb
June 1, 2008 at 10:47 pmSo which Lou is that ? Like Lou,fairly short,dark hair, of the same yid kid/boys goysh tribe as Sam & me, in her case girls goysh? Urm liked barbs, originated from North London somewhere.I remember some mad visit to her, I dunno old boyfreind/mate /sugardaddy type in some posh flat. I had to fight the guy as she wasn’t happy with him. Why? I got no idea. Unlike Sam & Pork my detail recall is not so good.
But hey if thats the right Lou then hello Lou. Though that scottish thing points to another Lou. Or my memories askew.
Erm, my favorite memory of Cory is him in his fluffy jumper riding a kids front wheel peddle trycycle through the mirk of the courtyard at Campbell Bdgs, about 3am. Me & wank were just staring out the window and along comes this mad fluffy apperition on a trike.
Classic. Doubt whether he remembers me Phil but say hello & good luck anyway
I gotta say though that its bloody funny that all these punks reuntied stuff is happeneing ‘cos of the band that never was (I know theres others on Chris’s tape but it all seems a bit Heretics centered).
Well strange.
baron von zubb
June 1, 2008 at 10:59 pmFrom the other mini heretics thread.Graham Burnett Says:
May 31st, 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!”
What a nice man.
Stewart
June 1, 2008 at 11:07 pmPunks Reunited, lol! Just have to say I’ve never seen the Heretics or heard any of their stuff or, to be honest, even have any interest in them! Lol. Not being mean, by the way, just saying it how it is for me… 🙂
Jah Pork Pie
June 2, 2008 at 12:47 am@Lou-> Hey gorgeous!!! So good to hear from ya! Don’t remember the Pressure Group, but do remind me (my memory is damn selective these days….)
I do remember the gig in that pub in Esher, as I mentioned above. And I used to keep getting your brother and your dog’s names mixed up. Not good!
Cheers again for that time in St Monica’s when you reassured me that the reason that nobody was talking to me was that I was in fact whispering, not shouting. You made a young speed freak’s day!
Don’t know what became of Razor – he was well into the Tuinal though, wasn’t he? It doesn’t bode well.
Do you remember how Mick’s “C’est en revenge” went?
Phil
June 2, 2008 at 8:27 amLou, Im not to sure but i think Razor used to visit me, Bob Short, Lisa, Sack and two tone Steve in a squat in Stoke Newington called Batley Rd about two years after Campbell Buildings.