Bourbonese Qualk – Stop The City / Sunset Sex / Invocation – The Legendary Pink Dots – Jungle
Vinyl release on a mainly cassette format label, four chunks of dark-wave from some of the top obscure bands of the time.
Attrition and Furious Apples, both from Coventry starting off proceedings. Andy Martin’s fave ravers Bourbonese Qualk and Legendary Pink Dots bringing up the rear. Attrition, I am hoping that Nic Bullen will enlighten us more on in comments. The Furious Apples have a distinct Wasted Youth / Only Ones sound, which is not altogether unpleasant.
Again I am sure Nic knows more about this band than I do.
Bourbonese Qualk played at Recession Club in Hackney, London. One of the club’s that Andy Martin from The Apostles had a hand in running. Also played shows at The Ambulance Station squat, south of the river in bandit country.
All great tracks by this band on this compilation, nice touch calling the first composition ‘Stop The City’!
Legendary Pink Dots, an Anglo-Dutch band that never stop releasing material, only one long track by this outfit on this record though.
Anyone remember The Ambulance Station? Photo: Stewart
Nic Bullen comes to the rescue…
Adventures in Reality was a fanzine put out in Coventry by a guy called Alan Rider. He was a friend of Martin Bowes (of Alternative Sounds fanzine and Attrition), and intially started doing live visuals for Attrition…
He then went on to start the label and released some interesting material such as his first cassette compilation (which also featured Attrition and 86 Mix (who appeared on the ‘New Criminals’ compilation with Sinyx, Subhumans and Flux of Pink Indians), the Attrition flexi-disc (which came as a freebie with an issue of his fanzine), the ‘Last Supper’ compilation tape (which featured SPK, Test Department and Muslimgauze), and this LP…
He was also in a duo called Stress with Phil Clarke (who was the editor of the fanzine Damn Latin – if I remember correctly?) who played synth-based songs…
He moved to London in 1984 and that was the last I heard of him…
Attrition were a dark synth-based band who started in Coventry in the early 1980’s by Martin Bowes (editor of Alternative Sounds fanzine). Over the years they have garnered a reputation with elements of the ‘Industrial’ and ‘Goth’ scenes, and still continue to make music…
http://www.attrition.co.uk/
The Furious Apples were a very popular local indie band from Coventry who released 1 single (very hard to come by, as curious knows: Phoenix Hairpins has been a great blog, by the way!) and appeared on a couple of compilations including the ‘What a Nice Way to Turn 17 – No.3’ compilation (on the Swell Maps label Rather Records), and this here comp…
The song ‘Girl on Fire’ is about Edie Sedgwick…
One of their managers (who went on to manage The Primitives and Birdland) was responsible for the ‘Adolf Hitler European Tour’ T-Shirt that appeared in the mid-1980’s…
One of their members used to DJ deep dub at a late-night spot in Coventry…
Thank you Nic!
Chris
March 7, 2008 at 11:31 pmyea, i went to something there, had totally forgotten about that place. fuck knows what it was. think i went along with larry peterson so probably some band he had something to do with.
i’ve still got that attrition flexi that came with adventures in reality. think they played a year or two ago, supporting Tuxedo Moon at Electrowerks but I was away.
john
March 7, 2008 at 11:40 pmsaw poison girls with omega tribe there,old kent road,the size of some of the tower blocks on the way there always amazed me,coming from small town uk.
Curious Guy
March 8, 2008 at 12:34 pmAnyone out there who has the impossible to find Furious Apples 7″?
Nuzz
March 8, 2008 at 3:12 pmSaw the Television Personalities there.
luggy
March 8, 2008 at 7:06 pmWent to loads of gigs at the Ambulance Station. Enjoyed most of them but it was a bit of a hassle getting home from, seemed a pretty weird area at night.
I liked The Looking Glass, a 60’s style psychedelic band who played there a few times. Alvin (an 80’s Peter Noone lookalike!) from them used to live there.
lee23
March 8, 2008 at 9:31 pmthe first UK butthole surfers show was at the ambulance station trivia fans
Nic
March 10, 2008 at 11:04 amAdventures in Reality was a fanzine put out in Coventry by a guy called Alan Rider. He was a friend of Martin Bowes (of Alternative Sounds fanzine and Attrition), and intially started doing live visuals for Attrition…
He then went on to start the label and released some interesting material such as his first cassette compilation (which also featured Attrition and 86 Mix (who appeared on the ‘New Criminals’ compilation with Sinyx, Subhumans and Flux of Pink Indians), the Attrition flexi-disc (which came as a freebie with an issue of his fanzine), the ‘Last Supper’ compilation tape (which featured SPK, Test Department and Muslimgauze), and this LP…
He was also in a duo called Stress with Phil Clarke (who was the editor of the fanzine Damn Latin – if I remember correctly?) who played synth-based songs…
He moved to London in 1984 and that was the last I heard of him…
Attrition were a dark synth-based band who started in Coventry in the early 1980’s by Martin Bowes (editor of Alternative Sounds fanzine). Over the years they have garnered a reputation with elements of the ‘Industrial’ and ‘Goth’ scenes, and still continue to make music…
http://www.attrition.co.uk/
The Furious Apples were a very popular local indie band from Coventry who released 1 single (very hard to come by, as curious knows: Phoenix Hairpins has been a great blog, by the way!) and appeared on a couple of compilations including the ‘What a Nice Way to Turn 17 – No.3’ compilation (on the Swell Maps label Rather Records), and this here comp…
The song ‘Girl on Fire’ is about Edie Sedgwick…
One of their managers (who went on to manage The Primitives and Birdland) was responsible for the ‘Adolf Hitler European Tour’ T-Shirt that appeared in the mid-1980’s…
One of their members used to DJ deep dub at a late-night spot in Coventry…
Tim
March 10, 2008 at 12:44 pmI thought it was a fire station..shows I’m getting old. The building is still there, it’s a (large!) antique shop now.
The only gig I remember there was KUKL but I’m sure there were many others.
Jim Mutantsounds
March 17, 2008 at 12:04 pmHi there
you are doing a wonderful work!Wonder if you can post the Furious Apples 7″(Engineering/Belladona)
Thanks!
dan i
April 27, 2008 at 5:09 pmGoing to the Ambulance station always seemed to involve getting lost. Pretty sure i saw Conflict there
Alan Rider
October 5, 2008 at 6:47 pmHi
All that Nic says about me is correct, but he didn’t mention I also lived briefly at the Ambulance station when I first moved to London and didn’t have anywhere to stay. It was a dangerous area for a scrawny industrial fan like me. I remember petrol being poured through the letterbox one night. There was a fully working guillotine in one of the rooms too. I saw a few bands there. Attrition of course (I was still doing slides & visuals for them then), Biyrbonese Qualk, Test Dept (I think) and King Kurt.
Incidentally, I’m sure I have a copy of the Furious Apples 7″ somewhere. I’ve also a box of attrition flexis sitting in the cupboard. If anyone wants one just let me know.
Theres a lot more history to Adventures in Reality too, but thats another story….
Nic
October 6, 2008 at 4:30 pmHello Alan,
Hope all is well with you…
I wanted to say ‘Thanks’ for the inspiration (and for putting up with Miles and I!) back then: it was very nice of you…
How about an A.I.R. website?
Nic
Alan Rider
October 6, 2008 at 8:33 pmHi Nic
I remember you and Miles quite clearly (and Napalm Death, both the zine and band of course). I also recall risking arrest by buying you both pints of cider at the Belgrade Venue when we were watching bands. As you were 13 at the time I guess I must have been a bad influence. Thats a good thing really isn’t it?
I have considered setting up an Adventures in Reality website, but felt it smacked a bit of misty eyed nostalgia. However nostalgia seems ok these days with everyone banging on about how great the 80’s were and how brill it must have been to see Coil in a railway arch, or go to Throbbing Gristle’s Death Factory HQ, or have SPK cook you spagetti (all of which I can recount) so maybe I should? I’d need someone clever to advise how to get MP3 clips of Adventures in Reality Recordings releases to be playable though. I thought of doing a booklet on Coventry fanzines of the time too, as there are bound to be enough crusty old ex fanzine editors around to be able sell a few copies to them!
Alan
Graham Burnett
October 6, 2008 at 8:56 pmHello Alan, nice to see you are still around – I used to do New Crimes back in the day maybe you remember that we used to exchange zines and tapes quite often.
Visited The Ambulance Station in the Old Kent Road for gigs a few times, I particularly remember seeing Karma Sutra from Luton playing with No Defences, who were sort of Anarcho-punk meets prog rock. Their unreleased album on Crass records would be an upload treat by the way! Also KUKL supporting Flux of Pink Inians whoI think were doing ‘Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks’ at the time.
Alan Rider
October 6, 2008 at 10:22 pmHi Graham
Yeah, sure I remember New Crimes and swopping zines and tapes with you. New Crimes was a really good zine. It sounds impossible now, but for a short while back then I used to survive entirely from selling cassette releases through The Cartel. Hard to believe really.
I was at all three nights of the Recloose Org gig shown in the reproduced flyer at the top of the page. Eyeless in Gaza and Attrition were both close friends of mine and I was doing a gig with my band Stress at the Hammersmith Clarendon the next night so it was a busy week. Simon Tanza from Bourbonese Qualk also did the front sleeve artwork for the Something Stirs LP. I remember him getting a bit annoyed that we were drinking his private beer stash we found behind the bar at the gig and he went round grabbing half drunk cans out of everyones hands. Steven – if you are out there, happy to buy you a six pack to replace them!
Alan
Nic
October 13, 2008 at 8:53 amI think being a bad influence was probably the best thing you could do, Alan!
🙂
I don’t believe an A.I.R. site would necessarily be a simple exercise in nostalgia: for one thing, fanzines are an interesting source of material on social history (I was thinking of your photographs of Coventry which you would use as graphics in the fanzine – places which may have long since disappeared), and provide a form of social continuum…It needn’t just be an excuse to go “Oh, wasn’t it great back then?” (It was, but it was only as great as now)…
This site is a case in point: social history reaching into the present, and going off on tangents…
It’s pretty easy to put MP3 clips on a site – let me know if you need advice…
There were indeed some good fanzines around in Coventry: Alternative Sounds, A.I.R., Private Enterprise, Crash Course, etc…
and also those from further afield like Damn Latin, Leamington’s Love Letter, The Gordian Knot, Smart Verbal, and so on…
How did you end up at the Ambulance Station? Was it due to the Attrition connection?
By the way – have you seen the post on the ‘Sent from Coventry’ LP?
https://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/?p=656#comments
Alan Rider
October 14, 2008 at 10:04 pmHi Nic
What the hell…I’ll start collecting the material and working out how to get it all scanned in (I only have an A4 size scanner, which won’t do some of the odder print sizes I used to do). It should be easy to get the MP3s generated as I have all the originals, plus some unreleased stuff like Band of Holy Joy that never quite made it onto record before A.I.R folded. But will take a little time, so it may be a while before I come back to you for any advice on web hosting.
My fave photo of Coventry was the big sign next to the track on the way into Coventry train station that said “Welcome to Coventry, City of Skills and Opportunities”. The thing is, it sat in the middle of this blasted industrial wasteland of derilect warehouses, piles of rusting metal and tangled weeds. Classic.
I ended up at the Ambulance Station through Bourbonese Qualk actually, but was only there for a very short time. It felt too dangerous to stay in the Old Kent Road for any longer than was strictly necessary in those days! The natives were pretty restless.
Yeah, I saw the post about Sent From Coventry, but haven’t chipped in myself yet. I put a couple of posts on the UK Subs blog though.
Penguin • Post Author •
July 23, 2009 at 6:43 pmjohnn Says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 am edit
bit of info about the Ambulance Station here http://crab.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/live-series-2-the-london-ambulance-station/
[ Edit | Delete | Spam ]
Tim Higgins
March 31, 2010 at 4:18 pmI was just reminiscing about my days at the Ambulance Station, as I also squatted there in 1984, helping to set the whole thing up with a bunch of others. I was also the DJ at the gigs there, usually playing reggae & dance music between bands sets. What pisses me off is just having read the blog by the bloke from Bourbonese Qualk. It makes out that they instigated the whole scene, which is completely wrong. In fact, as I remember it, they set up a small studio there and hid away making dull music whilst others organised the gigs, the bar and the hot knives! TBH people at the Ambulance Station thought they were stuck-up and elitist. It was a great year, though, with bands such as Conflict, Poison Girls, J&MC, Crass (I think) and plenty of other noise makers. Also some of the parties at the near by Chumliegh Gardens squats were legendary!
Penguin • Post Author •
March 31, 2010 at 7:22 pmCan’t comment on the blog link above your comment Tim but here is a Marychain live performance on this site:
https://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/?p=741
and a Blood And Roses performance:
https://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/?p=375
If you are interested. Regards.
DavidM
April 2, 2010 at 4:30 pmAttritions’s Something Stirs and Pain both appear on Two Gods CD collection Something Stirs (The Beginning 1981-83). For more information visit http://www.voiceprint.co.uk/web/Release/3GODSCD/ Much of the band’s output has in recent years been reissued through said label.
Dale Marshall
February 22, 2011 at 3:31 pmHello,
I am currently researching the Ambulance Station on Old Kent Road as part of an article for my blog (http://www.guteluft.blogspot.com/) and would love some responses from anyone interested. If you have anything you think would be of interest or relevance such as stories, memories, facts/info, then please feel free to e-mail me at:
co801dm@gold.ac.uk
Thanks,
Dale