The Fall - Entrevista no fanzine Grim Humour #4, de "June / July" de 1984

 

The Fall interview

Background informations: The late John Peel’s favorites, The Fall, were one of several groups (alongside The Residents, Wire and Whitehouse) that newcomer to the magazine Andy Pearson (or, simply, Andy P. as he soon became known) forever got excited about to the point of often inflicting their countless records on me as a birthday and Xmas presents. With the benefit of hindsight, of course, he was doing me a huge favor, but I can’t claim to have been to fond of The Fall at the time. All the same, never wishing to appear completely ungrateful for anything, the very least I could do in return was succumb to Andy’s offer of an interview with Mark E. Smith and his then wife Brix for Grim Humour, thus heralding his triumphant debut into the publishing world. Of course, anybody still retaining an ear glued to such matters will be fully aware of the fact The Fall continued to remain a going concern for Smith until his untimely death in late January 2018. Until this sad news interrupted proceedings it was quite probable that the group would have kept going until he finally alumped over his doubtlessly battered typewriter with his chemical-drenched muse gasping as it witnessed the last word spewing across a sheet of A4, such was the determination afoot. And, think whatever you like about The Fall, their place in the music history has been long secured and seized upon as a huge source of inspiration for countless others, particularly former runners in the US and NZ underground such as Sonic Youth, Pavement, The Dead C. and various others prone to pontificating over slovenly instrumentation and all manner of musical imperfections most would do their utmost to iron out in their inevitable quest to sound more ‘professional’ as time goes on. UK duo Sleaford Mods have often been compared to The Fall, too, and whilst there are certain similarities in their approach, at least on a surface level, they’re far more coincidental than anything else. All the same, this once again illustrates just how great a stamp The Fall made on the public consciousness.

 

Original interview:

 

Since forming in Manchester in 1977, The Fall have continued to produce a succession of progressive and highly individual records which, although usually totally ignored by trendy ‘experimentalists’, have produced a sound as far from Culture Club, and Duran Duran drivel as is possible without losing the factor of ‘entertainment’. The following interview took place just before their December gig at the Electric Ballroom, which coincided with the release of their latest LP, Perverted by Language. Group members present were Mark E. Smith and his wife Brix, who plays guitar and adds backing vocals.

 

GH You’ve been playing material from your new album live for some time now. Do you prefer playing unrecorded material?

MARK We’ve been doing it for about nine months… we just wrote the songs. It’s a natural process to play ‘em. It’s not out of any sort of principle. Especially with record companies being as they are, you have to wait so long if you only want to do stuff you’ve recorded.

 

GH You tend not to do old songs, though…

MARK Sometimes we do… you’d be surprised. Brix helps me a lot with the set, ‘cos what I was finding I was doing was sort of a quest for the perfect set, so I was spending all me bleeding time, sort of two hours before we went on, scribbling on bits of paper, trying to get a proper order. It’s good to have another viewpoint sometimes.

 

GH Your live shows are much more effective than your recorded work. Do you see this as a drawback?

MARK Well, they are two different worlds altogether. We have come to terms with recording. A lot of the time, we don’t like recording, but we’re going to spend a lot more time on it in the future… we throw a lot of studio time away, in fact, by doing new songs, y’know. By the time we get into the studio, we’re usually fed up with what we were going to do, so we’ll do something different, which will take longer.

 

GH A recent review of one of your gigs criticized people dancing. Do you prefer people to dance or just to listen?

BRIX I would say dance…

MARK It doesn’t do any harm… as long as they think the music’s good enough…

 

GH Your stage show has often been criticized, but at your recent Brixton Ace gig a lavishly costumed character came on stage during ‘Tempo House’ to read out press reports. What was he doing?

MARK That was Allan Pellay, who just, like, hangs around when we come to London. The song finishes with no guitar or vocals. I thought it would be a good idea to have a report journal of how we’re supposed to be getting on.

 

GH What happened to the single version of ‘Marquis Cha-Cha’?

MARK Err, well, we were in Australia and the record company we were on (Kamara) did, like, a dirty on us and pressed ‘em up wrong. As we were away, the record company, which was only two blokes anyway, handed it over to some bloke from The Face (NB: The Face was another monthly magazine devoted to music and culture, albeit the more stylized end of it, generally, with fashion playing as prominent a role within its pages as everything else. Very occasionally, it featured somebody interesting, but its core interest appeared to be in priming its readers to be ‘hip’ and possess whatever ‘street credibility’ may have been necessary in order to get along in the art colleges, boutiques, clothes shops and hip bars they all doubtlessly hung around at. On the, ho hum, ‘face’ of it, it wasn’t an especially great magazine but, rather, a generally pathetic ‘style bible’ – Ed.) or summat, and he did the cover too, which he fucked up… It’s out again now, ‘cos the company went bankrupt and sold, like, 500 copies to pay the bills. If you look at it, it’s got ‘Papal Visit’ as the B-side, and it’s really “Room to Live’, which is, like, a complete fuck up… it wasn’t that funny at the time, but he didn’t press that many up as we (weren’t) into the idea. So it was out, then we went away, and when we got back it justn’t wasn’t mentioned.

 

GH Kamara didn’t do the Room to Live LP right as well, did they?

MARK Yeah, it wasn’t mean to be an LP, in fact. There are only seven songs on it, and two of them are short. It’s only, like, ten minutes a side. It was meant to be a big single and sell for £2.00 odd.

 

GH Going on to your more recent stuff, one of the verses in ‘Ludd Gang’ goes on about Shakin’ Stevens. What’s the song about, cheap nostalgia?

BRIX It’s anti-Shakin’ Stevens! We hate him!

MARK Yeah, all that sort of stuff… like, where I live in Manchester, the houses and all that crap. The Luddites were from where I’m from; they used to smash machines and stuff. I don’t know whether it’s nostalgia. I just thought that would be good ‘cos, like, ‘Blue Christmas’ by Elvis Presley was a really beautiful record, and to hear that bastard (Shakin’ Stevens) do it really pissed me off. In fact, the cover to that was also fucked up, ‘cos the cover I did for ‘Ludd Ganf’ was really good, weren’t it?

BRIX Oh, err, yeah – sorry, I’ve forgotten the tape recorder can’t see me nod my head!

 

GH Why was the cover of ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded” so different to any of your previous artwork?

MARK Well, I wrote the song on a home computer, hahaha! That’s why the computer lines are all across it. That’s just a joke! But, seriously, the way they do covers now has changed. You seem to be able to get more colours. They’re no so bothered with expense.

 

GH Why did you choose to sell ‘Kicker Conspiracy’ as a double pack, including the older tracks?

MARK Well, it was part of Rough Trade’s smart ideas, which usually fall flat on their faces, but it appealed to me in the way that it was a bit disorientated; it sorta fits in with ‘Wings’, which is about time and stuff. It was something no-one would expect us to do. I was surprised to find out how different those tracks were as well… people did actually want ‘em.

 

GH ‘Kicker Conspiracy’ is about football hooliganism. Do you enjoy writing about controversial subjects?

MARK Yeah, well, if you’re going to do a single it’s got to be either a dance tune or very interesting, and the idea of, like, writing a song about football hooliganism appealed to me… like, inn a rock song, it made me laugh. The idea behind it was to question whether it’s so bad anyway, y’know… question why everyone gets so worked up about it. I don’t see the point. If you send English people abroad, it’s obvious they’re going to fight. It’s talking about England, in a way. I think it’s good to put stuff like that in a song, y’know… it’s not like people like ABC, who think that getting serious is talking about fucking egg on toast and stuff. That sort of thing really makes me sick.

 

GH Do you get annoyed that a a lot of people don’t recognize the humour in your lyrics?

MARK I think that’s a lot of fun. I mean, anyone who says they’re not funny, the jokes on them. I think it’s good that people can share in it, like, without it having to be fucking shoved forward in an advertisement, like, “WE ARE FUNNY”, ‘cos then there’s not much point in it.

 

GH Do you enjoy doing narratives, such as ‘Wings’, ‘Spectre vs. Rector’ and ‘New Face in Hell’?

MARK I’ve gotta admit I like doing ‘em, but a lot of people won’t get ‘em, especially in one night… but the challenge of them interests me, and I think the weirdness of ‘em is good.

 

GH What’s the ‘Haxan’ thing that crops up a lot in your lyrics?

MARK Haxan is a German word for a group of witches around a cauldron. There’s no such word as ‘enduction, though I could have sworn I’d seen it after I wrote ir down…

 

GH Why don’t you ever include lyric sheets with your records?

MARK Err, we just thought we’d take the fun out of it, really. It’s a boring job saying, like, “I’m very important, look at me. I’m writing lyrics on the back of records.”

 

GH Then why do you include vague notes on the covers?

MARK That is just to confuse a lot of the time, hahaha, but also to give an insight to the songs.

 

GH How did you get on The Tube, and why did you do two unreleased tracks?

BRIX Well, one is on the album (Smile), and it was on a Peel session…

MARK It didn’t strike me to do any of our old stuff.

BRIX They’d expect you to do something like ‘Kicker’ so, y’know, why do it?

MARK It was good actually as they didn’t want us on, like John Peel wanted us on. We were shoved on really early. It was great. I thought ‘cos we had a load of shit to put up with. It was funny. They wanted to put dry ice on the stage, drum elevations, stuff like that.

 

GH I read recently that you were going to be on a Cherry Red compilation cassette along with groups such as Virgin Prunes and Throbbing Gristle. What happened to this?

MARK I’ve no idea. I believe the bloke who was getting it together has left now. All it was was a live version of ‘Slates’ from Berlin or somewhere. It was some sorts double cassette with so many acts on it. It would have been good.

 

GH You’re releasing a video soon. Could you give some details about this?

MARK Err, we thought we’d do it ‘cos Factory Records have now got, like, a video part called Ikon, run by a good mate of mine, the video DJ at The Hacienda, and he said there would be a lot of interest. It’s like a hotchpotch of stuff… there’s some live stuff, ‘Kicker Conspiracy’ filmed at a football ground… I don’t really like watching rock videos, so I was trying to make a laugh out of it. It’s pretty funny when we mime and stuff. It’s come out really good. It should cost about £12.00.

 

GH Now that you are married, are we ever likely to hear you singing love songs?

MARK I don’t know… hahaha… I was thinking about it in the other day. Surely, if you’ve been married, you’ve been in love, so that’s it, you don’t need to write about it. Hahaha! It’s not as you if you’re homosexual like Marc Almond and you, like, want to put it into a song… hahaha!

BRIX We don’t do love songs, but we sing duets on things like ‘Creep’…

MARK Yeah, but… I’ve never wanted to write one. I’ve never seen the appeal in ‘em… I like some (though).

BRIX They’re sloppy and embarrassing. It’s like showing your underpants in public. I’d feel embarrassed if he wrotes one. I wouldn’t want him to sing it. I’d feel, like, “Oh god, everyone knows it’s about me, fucking hell…”

 

GH What do you think of bands like The Birthday Party, The Nightingales and The Smiths, who claimed to have been ‘inspired’ by your musical style?

MARK Enough said… hahaha. No, The Birthday Party have always been alright by me…

BRIX Shall I say… The Nightingales, never heard of ‘em… The Smiths, no comment, NO FUCKING COMMENT!

MARK I do like several of The Nightingales’ singles, I must admit. They used to play with us a lot. I was a big fan of The Perfects…

 

GH To end with, do you ever think The Fall will ever become superstars and appear on Top Of The Pops?

MARK I think there’s an outside chance… hahaha… I don’t see why not… when the others catch up with us!

 

The Fall: Selected Discography

 

NB: The Fall possibly rank as the most prolific group to have emerged from post-punk. As all the other discographies noted, we are just focusing on several releases especially liked or lauded here. Most of The Fall’s official output is worth getting, anyway. Of course, you can find the complete discography online, but here’s a selection from some of the records personally owned, at least. Nearly all the early albums have been released on either CD or vinyl via different labels.

 

‘It’s the New Thing’ 7” (Step-Forward, 1978)

‘Bingo-Master’s Break Out’ 7” (Step-Forward, 1978)

Live at the Witch Trials LP (Step-Forward, 1979)

Dragnet LP (Step-Forward, 1979)

‘How I Wrote Elastic Man’ 7” (Rough Trade, 1980)

Hex Enduction Hour LP (Camera, 1982)

Perverted By Language LP (Rough Trade, 1983)

The Wonderful and Frightening World Of… (Beggars Banquet, 1984)

This Nation’s Saving Grace LP (Beggars Banquet, 1985)

The Frenz Experiment LP + 7” (Beggars Banquet, 1988)

Extricate LP (Cog Sinister, 1990)

Code: Selfish LP (Cog Sinister, 1992)

Cerebral Caustic LP (Cog Sinister, 1995)

Levitate LP (Artful, 1997)

Are You Are Missing Winner LP (Cog Sinister, 2001)

Fall Heads Roll LP (Slogan, 2005)

Reformation Post TLC  2LP (Slogan, 2007)

Your Future Our Clutter CD (Domino, 2010)

Re-Mit LP/CD (Cherry Red, 2013)

Sub-Lingual Tablet LP (Cherry Red, 2015)

New Facts Emerge CD/2x10” (Cherry Red, 2017)

Mark’s Personal Holiday Tony Tapes LP (Dandelion Records, 2019)

Coil - Entrevista no fanzine Grim Humour #10, de "Late Springtime" de 1987

 

COIL

Background information: A small contribution from Gary Levermore written under his Alex Bastedo guise. Like so many other features in this particular edition, it was printed with a second layer in red behind it, hence its being impossible to reproduce here, unfortunately. Gary might well have been one of the major links we had to such music initially, but I certainly also picked up the first two Coil albums around this period and had equally been picking up Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV records here and there. Andy P. was perhaps more into PTV, however, as was our friend Kerry, who was still working in Herne Bay’s record shop at this point and continuing to get decent records in that were often sold in the bargain bin a couple of months later. We’d developed an interest in electronic music long by this point, what with records by The Residents, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, Whitehouse and Nocturnal Emissions having been picked up, but it still seemed to remain largely overlooked by us at this point. At least this piece helped to redress the balance. It also helped fan the flames of an interest that only grew in me over the following years. The group just got better and better until their untimely demise due to the death of Geoff Rushton, a.k.a. Jhon Balance, in November 2004. Only Whitehouse compared with respect to improving and developing their sound and concept, but that’s another story for another time.

 

Original interview:

With their self-produced second album, Horse Rotorvator, now out, and possible live action beckoning, ex-PTV boys Coil look set for another spell in the upper echelons of the independent chart.

I put it to Jhon Balance of the group that the new album is a better realized conception than their Scatology debut of 1985.

“We prefer to think of it as the second in a series of continuous steps. We like working with recurring themes that can be linked together from record to record.”

With Horse Rotorvator they have chosen to hone in on mankind’s death trip and lead us on a morbid metaphysical journey down history’s cruel staircase of despair, in a search for whatever it is that lurks in the cellar.

“The working title of the LP was Catastrophe Theories, which is taken from the thoughts put forward many years ago by Rene Thom, who studied the possibilities of random or chance events actually being part of a chain of linked events. In some way we are trying to imply certain ideas from that, linked together in a historical context.”

The cover of the record depicts Hyde Park at twilight. Quite pretty until you are told that it refers to IRA bombing of the bandstand tehere.

“It ties in with what I’ve just been saying. The idea of the ‘horse rotorvator’ for me is the machinery of violent chance, as a gauging of events.”

From a celtic wake to traditional Christian mourning to carnival time in New Orleans there are many ways of treating the subject of death in real life. Coil give us the (largely) musical equivalent.

“There is also in fact an emotional equation at work on the record, the idea of sex=death, of which AIDS can be seen as a very small part. The next album, The Dark Age of Love, will explore this in more detail and display the more psychotic side of the ideas behind Horse Rotorvator.”

As you can probably tell, there isn’t a lot of fun to be head in listening to Coil, but then the films of Ingmar Bergman are not much fun either. Like Bergman, Coil at least manage to supply creative values to balance the dark fears their powerful images set loose.

In these days of the third (or is the fourth?) coming of austere industrialism, only The Anti Group, among the current crop of pretenders, have their attitude and aims as well thought out as Coil’s. It comes as no surprise then to learn that the two plan to work together at some point in the future.

“It has surprised me how much our ideas have meshed, especially just recently. It seems to me we are both moving towards the same ends; the nihilistic truth at the centre of the cosmic hall, or whatever.”

Coil as angels searching out their own heart of darkness? Listen and decide for yourself.

 

NOTE: Obviously, Coil’s third album in their own right, from 1987, was actually titled Gold Is The Metal (With The Broadest Shoulders) in the end. Interesting to see the provisional one noted here, though. Likewise, the collaboration mooted with Adi Newton’s post-Clock DVA group, The Anti Group/TAGC, never actually amounted to anything beyond an idea only Balance himself actually had. Given how the later collaborative sessions between Coil and Nine Inch Nails ended up, maybe this was a blessing.

 

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

‘How To Destroy Angels’ 12” (L.A.Y.L.A.H., Belgium, 1984)

Scatology LP (Force & Form/K.422, 1984)

‘Panic’ 12” (Force & Form, 1985)

Horse Rotorvator LP (Force & Form/K.422, 1986)

‘The Anal Staircase’ 12” (Force & Form/K.422, 1986)

Gold Is The Metal (With The Broadest Shoulders) LP (Threshold House, 1987)

‘The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser’ 10” (Solar Lodge, 1987)

‘Wrong Eye’ 7” (Shock, 1990)

Love’s Secret Domain LP/CD (Torso, 1991)

Stolen And Contaminated Songs LP/CD (Threshold House, 1992)

‘Themes for Derek Jarman’s Blue’ 7” (Threshold House, 1993)

The Angelic Conversation LP/CD (Threshold House, 1994)

ELpH vs. Coil Worship The Glitch LP/CD (Eskaton, 1995)

Coil Presents Black Light District – A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room LP/CD (Eskaton, 1996)

Musick To Play In The Dark Cd (Chalice, 1999)

Astral Disaster LP/CD (Prescription/Threshold House, 1999)

Musick To Play In The Dark 2 LP/CD (Chalice, 2000)

The Remote Viewer CD (Threshold House, 2002)

Black Antlers CD (Threshold House, 2004)

ANS 3CD (Threshold House, 2004)

The Ape Of Naples CD (Threshold House, 2005)

And The Ambulance Died In His Arms CD (Threshold House, 2005)

 

NB: There are numerous Coil (and related) releases, but this serves as a good enough overview of the group’s discography whilst they were still active. Since the death of both Balance in 2004 and then Peter Christopherson in 2010, many posthumous Coil releases have appeared that might never have done so otherwise. A few are interesting, such as the reissued collaborations with Zos Kia from 1984 (on Cold Spring in 2017), but most seem to be only designed to capitalize on the rabid collector mindset many a fan of the group is unfortunately afflicted with. Controversy still reigns where the archives are concerned, unfortunately. When Jhon Balance sang of paying one’s respect to the vultures on ‘The Last Amethyst Deceiver’ (on The Ape of Naples) I’m not sure he had this in mind.

Death In June - Entrevista no fanzine Grim Humour #2, de Setembro de 1983

 Conforme prometido no post anterior, aqui fica a entrevista dom os Death In June:

Death In June Interview

Grim Humour # 2 Sept.’83 30p

Background information: Although they only performed live occasionally, a healthy fixture on the London live circuit at the time was this group comprising former members of Crisis; a band most of those involved with the ‘zine also held aloft’s as one of the better ones to have arisen from punk. Formed in 1980 and still going now, Death in June were seen by us on many occasions around this period and made an equally large impression at a time when all those bands being deemed ‘Positive Punk’ left mostly (wry pun alert) nada by comparison. Kerry White, boyfriend of Karen Willoughby and in charge of Herne Bay’s Gower’s & Jones record shop and keeping it stocked whit a large array of independent releases (at a time when the term actually meant far more than a type of ‘alternative rock’ aimed at bedwetters going through pangs of acne-induced angst), had forged a friendship with Douglas Pearce due to the letter also working at the Rough Trade distribution warehouse in London and, well, the interview seemed inevitable. Just a shame it was conducted via the post, really. This method of interviewing bands was often employed by fanzines due to time and budget restraints, unfortunately. Whilst convenient and, indeed, vaguely comparable to those now conducted via email, they always lacked the spontaneity of a life interview. Nonetheless, they could be interesting still despite this, plus at least afforded both parties to actually articulate whatever they wanted to say in a more coherent manner. The interview was done around the time of their debut mini-album being released.

--------------------------

Original interview:

Death In June rose from the ashes of Crisis in late ’81. Their first venture onto vinyl was the 12” ‘Heaven Street’, which got some good reviews. However, they seem to have stayed very much an underground band, gigging rarely and generally keeping quite a low profile.

 

GH – Death In June have been together for quite a while yet it was only recently that you caught the attention of the music press and received critical acclaim for the mini-album, etc. Why do you think this is?

DOUG   The third release for any group is always important. We knew this and made an effort to make encroachments into the national music press. These were easily achieved and successful. It was a case of knowing that we were good, trying to make things happen and make other people know that we were good. The problem with us is that we are all quite shy, private people and don’t frequent the ‘rock and roll’ world like a lot of other bands, so we don’t get to meet and butter up a lot of journalists, etc. However, that’s the world we choose to live or, rather, operate in so we don’t have to make any adjustments. We haven’t done too badly up until now.

GH   What do you think of the music press?

DOUG   It’s there to be used. But, like anything, the vast majority of its contents are there by courtesy of major companies, professional hypers, etc. So, what’s new?

GH   Are you pleased with the album?

DOUG   Yes, it’s the most complete thing I’ve been associated with. Even though there is a lot of room for improvement and some half-realised ideas, it’s the most satisfying record I’ve ever been on. It stands head and shoulders above a lot of contemporary music.

GH   How well is the album selling?

DOUG   Far better than the previous two releases. A little bit more of an effort and we could be on (the same) level as Crisis were; which would be very satisfying as the past still haunts us in a lot of ways. I’d like this group to do a lot better than what it’s doing.

GH   Does running your own label help you to present your music better than being signed to a larger label? (Have you roused other label’s interests?) Will you use New European Recordings to promote other bands?

DOUG   As far as I know, no other labels have been interested in us. Then again, we are hardly interested in them. The idea of hawking a tape around a lot of businesses seems degrading and repulsive to us. If they are interested and they want to give us some money, then let them come to us. The drag about running your own label is the financial restriction. We could be doing so much more if we had the resources… As for promoting other bands, we have already. NER put out the first LP by The Legendary Pink Dots, Brighter Now, and provided gigs for a group called Iron In Flesh, who will hopefully soon have a 12” out. We are always looking for something to put out but there seems to be little of value.

GH   Do you like playing live? Would you say Death In June are a live band or a (studio) band?

DOUG    We dislike performing live because it places restrictions on us as people and ‘artists’. We are happier in the studio where we have more control. But, having said that, there are plans to do some more public appearances but, really, that’s all going against the grain a bit so I don’t like really know what the outcome of those will be.

GH   Did you enjoy the support to Sex Gang Children at The Marquee? Surely this could have held drawbacks, such as being tagged with the ridiculous ‘Positive Punk’ banner and (merely) gaining 0’cult status’, etc.?

DOUG   No. It was everything we expected: badly organized, no decent soundcheck, no room – the usual, in fact. As for the ‘drawbacks’ – only a fool would lump us in the ‘Positive Punk’ bracket and cult status is something we already have. That in itself is no problem. It’s only if you can’t build on it that it becomes one.

GH   Would you say that their music scene is healthier than your own, i.e. gig-wise?

DOUG   I don’t necessarily believe it’s healthier overall. It’s that the people you deal with in many of the places are more interested in what they are actually doing than just another way of making a quick buck, although I’m sure they have their fair share of those as well. The continentals appear to approach us from a different angle than the British. All our best interviews have been with foreigners.

GH   Where does the name Death In June originate from? And what does the symbol stand for?

DOUG   Death In June came about purely by chance and then we realized the ‘significance’. It means different things to different people, including us as individuals and humanity as a whole. It does refer to a specific event when ‘man’ decided to go one way instead of another. However, the symbol is this: the skull of death and the ‘6’ equals June, the sixth month.

GH    Is there a certain fascination with history in war with Death In June, as some of the songs suggest?

DOUG   There is a certain fascination, yes. However, that is really encompassed in our interest in European history and culture. Why plagiarise other cultures when there is so much of worth in our own and it’s only misplaced feelings of guilt that stop us from using our heritage. War history does form the basis for some of our songs, but not overridingly so. ‘Heaven Street’ is probably the only one that was written with those things in mind. References crop up in other things, though.

GH   Had Crisis helped in developing your current musical style?

DOUG   Since Tony and me were the major forces behind Crisis I should think that’s inevitable, but then we were going nowhere until Pat came along. We all have equal say in the routes that we take. All three of us write material. I should think it’s been a coming together of two groups successfully. Pat was in Runners From ’84, which Tony joined for a while after Crisis split. In fact, we had a guest participant with us recently who made his debut at The Marquee, who was also in Runners. He may become a full-time member.

GH   Do you feel the ‘independent’ ethic is important to the band’s career, i.e. fanzines and tapes, etc.?

DOUG   To an extent, yes. People doing things themselves can only be admired but, then again, most of the indie market was/is absolute shit.

GH   The next 12” is going to feature acoustic guitars and kettle drums. Are you aiming at a more diverse or commercial sound?

DOUG – That piece was taken out of context (Sounds article). Acoustic guitars and kettle drums are already featured on the LP, i.e. ‘Heaven Street Mk II’. In fact the next 12” will probably not feature those instruments. However, getting back to the question, I think we are going in both directions. What will appear first to the public is another question. There is some pretty odd stuff recorded already (the film soundtrack), but how (it) will see the light of day I am not sure. There are numerous possibilities.

GH   When shall we be hearing of Death In June next?

DOUG   I can’t see any new records out until the winter sometime. There will be a track on a double tape compilation, called Pleasantly Surprised, out in about a month. The track is ‘Black Radio’. As for gigs, we will probably be playing a few in early Autumn and some more in London. Then there’s Europe…

 

DEATH IN JUNE: Selected Discography

‘Heaven Street’ 12” (New European Recordings, 1981)

‘State Laughter’ 7” (NER, 1982)

The Guilty Have No Pride MLP (NER, 1983)

Burial LP (NER, 1984)

Nada! LP (NER, 1985)

The World That Summer 2LP (NER, 1986)

Oh, How We Laughed LP (Eyas Media, 1987)

Brown Book LP (NER, 1987)

Livros sobre música que vale a pena ler - Cromo #85: Richard Johnson - "Grim Humour - Volume 1 - 1983-1987: Highlights And Lowlights From The First 10 Issues Of This Popular UK Fanzine, Back By No Demand Whatsoever"

autor: Richard Johnson

título: Grim Humour - Volume 1 - 1983-1987: Highlights And Lowlights From The First 10 Issues Of This Popular UK Fanzine, Back By No Demand Whatsoever
editora: Fourth Dimension
nº de páginas: 350
isbn: 978-83-948138-1-9
data: 2020

AS ENTREVISTAS DE DEATH IN JUNE, THE FALL E COIL SERÃO TRANSPOSTAS PARA ESTE BLOG EM POSTERIORES POSTS

GRIM HUMOUR

VOLUME 1

1983-1987

Highlights and lowlights from the first 10 issues of this popular UK fanzine, back by no demand whatsoever

 

Published by Fourth Dimension 2020

© Richard Johnson / Grim Humour / Fourth Dimension

Everything published is © the respective contributors and cannot be reproduced without permission.

Artwork and Design by puppy38 and Richard Johnson

ISBN: 978-83-948138-1-9

Fourth Dimension Records & Publishing

 

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Introduction – 7

Contributors / Credits – 10

Grim Humour #1

Abbo interview – 13

UK Decay New Hope for the Dead CD review (2013) – 17

Gary Glitter / Tenpole Tudor / The Defects review – 18

Chapter 2 - Grim Humour #2

Death in June interview – 29

Virgin Prune interview – 32

Killing Joke interview – 42

Rising from the Red Sands cassette review – 50

Chapter 3 - Grim Humour #3

Crass interview – 57

Public Image Limited review – 69

Flesh For Lulu interview – 74

Chapter 4 - Grim Humour #4

In The Nursery interview – 85

Record and Tape reviews – 89

The Fall interview – 91

The Cramps review – 102

Sisters of Mercy review – 102

Xmal Deutschland review – 108

Chapter 5 - Grim Humour #5

The Damned interview – 121

And Also The Trees review – 131

Mick Mercer interview – 135

Communicate and Participate – 150

Chapter 6 - Grim Humour #6

Portion Control interview – 159

And Also The Trees interview – 167

Fool’s Dance interview – 177

Cured book review – 185

400 Blows interview – 193

Chapter 7 – Grim Humour #7

Nick Cave interview – 205

The vinyl Frontier – 209

Soundtracks – 212

Sonic Youth interview – 213

More reviews – 220

Chapter 8 – Grim Humour #8

Ausgang + Rose of Avalanche review – 229

The Cure review – 231

Record Reviews - 232

The Leather Nun interview - 236

The Ramones interview - 243

Motivation – 246

Chapter 9 – Grim Humour #9

Life Would Be Grim Without Humour – 253

Cassette and Safety In Numbers fanzine

Chapter 10 – Grim Humour #10

Head of David interview – 257

Record Reviews – 265

Venus Fly Trap – 273

New Order review – 282

Big Black interview – 287

Coil interview – 304

Alternative TV interview – 314

 

Tearing Down the Barricades – 331

(pieces on Grim Humour by Andy Pearson, Harvey Francis, Steve Snelling, Mark Stevens, Karren Ablazel, Mick Mercer, James Machin and Matthew Worley)

A Final Word, by Richo – 345

Thank You’s – 347

 

The magazine, of course, also shuffled into view at a time when the musical landscape was much different from how it is now. Cassette culture reigned in the underground, John Peel’s radio show was the thing to listen to as a teenager unable to keep up with everything (blank cassette at the ready to record anything of interest, no less), flexidiscs were sometimes produced to document, very cheaply, new artists via giveaways with publications (two even appeared with Grim Humour irself in the early editions), vinyl was truly king (long before, of course, becoming a vogue trend of limited editions mostly dominated by the majors or boutique labels), record shops were places to hang out at, live music was generally affordable, a variety of different youth factions existed and occasionally looked horns, independent music hadn’t been completely turned into yet another wholly makestable commodity nullifying its original meaning )’indie’ as such, thankfully, wasn’t around when GH started and certainly was not synonymous with lame guitar music), weekly papers existed that were devoted to music, the Thatcher/Reagan political presence fuelled an even greater sense of hopelessness which itself, it could be argued, inspired many to kick against it, low-budget horror films created a huge public furore, and certain groups entries into the charts embraced and occasionally clever, wry or even more colourful descent into a possible sense of abandonment not really seen since. Basically, it was a different world, without the instant accessibility of the download. YouTube or ‘social networking’ sites reducing everything to a level where little effort is involved in discovering exciting new worlds and which, in turn, operates at a pace now so fast that disposability looms an even larger presence than ever…

But don’t get me wrong. There’s no misty-eyed sentimentality at work here. There’s much to be said in favour of many things presently unfolding around us, plus it´s likewise interesting to note that certain artists who helped to soundtrack Grim Humour are still not only very much active but also continue to create astounding and inspiring new work. Rather, I merely want to emphasise the ways in which the parameters have shifted in more recent times. The world wasn´t completely different when GH existed… but it was different enough and this in itself created an environment perfect for certain people thus inclined to, well, do something as they foundered to get a foothold.

Grim Humour was but just one speck on a landscape where fanzines formed a significant part of a network that could be readily tapped into in order to discover more about certain areas of music and some of the ideas propelling then. Titles such as Tone Death, Vague, Panache, Kill Your Pet Puppy, Chainsaw, Artificial Life, Murder By Guitar, NMX, Ablaze!, Abstract and Rox! Constituted a mere handful of titles to be found in the early 1980s. Sometimes they ere found at gigs, sold at the Better Badges stall in London, or punted directly from a carrier bag stuffed full of them. They could also be found in decent record shops, although few could match the stock forever on sale at the Rough Trade Shop in Talbot Road (who’d also willingly take on Grim Humour’zines following some kind of deal in the shop’s backroom). Whilst there’s little use in pretending each and every fanzine scribe got on with each other or even, in many cases, the groups they covered, it cannot be denied that what

 

INTRODUCTION

Grim Humour was as underground magazine, or ‘fanzine’ – call it what you will – that existed between 1983 and 1993. It run for a total of eighteen editions during its ten-year existence and was responsible for documenting a significant number of bands largely aligned with or inspired by punk or post-punk music as well as their cousins in industrial culture, the other reaches of electronic music and so on. It also published features on writers, filmmakers and film directors, columns, editorials that often spiraled into crevices foaming with vitriol, cartoon strips, occasional artwork and a vast black tide of reviews largely scribed whilst pepped up on adrenalin, frustration and gallons of cheap beer. Throughout its lifetime it was widely recognized as one of the largest and most popular UK publications of its kind, garnered a mountain of praise, equally attracted much in the way of criticism or even downright envy, and helped pave the way for several other concerns by a few of those responsible for putting it together. Above all, it was always far more than just a mere ‘fanzine’.

Something that probably warrants mentioning is that Grim Humour followed a tradition of underground magazines assembled as much from old cut ‘n’ paste techniques as teenage passion and a yearning to find a foothold in the world unfurling around us. It began before DTP technology was available in every home and at a time when buying glue came wedded to nefarious connotations (that’s the subtle doffing of the cap out the way to a certain early punk fanzine). With no computer programmes to assist us, we had to suffice with sheets of A3 paper, a couple of battered Smith-Corona typewriters, scissors, Pritt-stick, Letraset and a pile of comics, magazines and photocopies to cut up and crumbled as soon as we applied it, sometimes the pasted cut-outs peeled at their corners and sometimes we had to make do with a leaky black pen to help fill in the gaps. It was always enjoyable, though, and never once lost this slant even as it began to dabble with DTP technology in those final editions before it folded, took a six year break and transmogrified into the equally hap-hazard Adverse Effect (which still, after four published editions between 2000 and 2005, loosely exists today as a mainly online mag).

 

They together did made for a great source of information for those craving more than whatever was offered by the weeklies. Despite often being badly written or appearing like they’d been put together over a drunken weekend, there were countless titles clearly produced by those articulate and impassioned enough to perfectly reflect the energy of the times. Where Grim Humour fitted in with all this is up to others to decide, but there was certainly a period of several years where, helped along by national distribution courtesy of Southern Records, it at least seemed as though it resided amongst the cream.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

What follows in this compendium is brief background information to each edition of Grim Humour, reprints of several of the original pages, a significant number of re-edited highlights (interviews, features, reviews, etc.) given over to additional information and new editorial comments (in italics, as opposed to those original editorial comments that, simply, are not) where it is either necessary or simply feels right, and a perhaps slightly carefree smattering of pieces previously unpublished or even written more recently. Whilst the original pages have been reprinted exactly as first published (unless stated otherwise due to, for instance, ink colour changes), the reworked highlights (and, indeed, lowlights) have been tweaked to banish previous typos or mistakes without compromising their original form too heavily. When the ‘zine started nobody involved could, in any sense, especially ‘write’ and had no illusions otherwise. The proliferation of grammar and spelling mistakes pay testament to this in the original publications, but it is apparent that, thankfully and naturally, such matters got better with each passing edition. All the same, outside the reprinted original pages, it is impossible to attack this material without deploying the, uh, deft hand of experience. I hope readers will find this acceptable and that the (cough) ‘magic’ of the original writing will not have been compromised too heavily. Likewise, I hope you, being but one of the said readers, will notice the improvements marking every step of the way from the first edition to the tenth one, where this particular collection ends? The confidence gained throughout this course should be more than evident as the later editions here begin to galvanise a style, or even attitude, pushed even further from #11 on, but there’ll be more of that in the next volume, should I ever get to it (and I certainly hope to).

As I write, my work on a project long thought about, discussed and then inevitably buried and procrastinated over has only just commenced. I can only hope you’ll find it as enjoyable as I presently am.

Richo

 

Editor: Richard Johnson (a.k.a. ‘Richo’)

Sub-Editors: Andy Pearson, Rob Hale, Andy Jones, Jim Crosland

Original contributors: Karen Willoughby-White, Kerry White, Harvey Francis (a.k.a. ‘Havoc’), Gary Levermore, Gerald Houghton (R.I.P.), Hassni Malik, Mark Stevens (a.k.a. Anton Black), Andrea Johnson, Mick Mercer, Jan R. Bruun, Tom Vague,

Molly, Ian.

Acknowledgments for the book: Mark Stevens (invaluable proofreading/editing help and contributor), Michael Everett (a.k.a. ‘puppy38’, design), Andy Pearson (editing and contributor), Marcin Barski (initial artwork assistance), Mick Mercer, Steve Snelling, Karren Ablazel, Matthew Worley, Harvey Francis, Mark Perry, Klive Humberstone, Steven Burrows, Alex Novak, Gary Warner, Stuart Curran, Peter Gardner, Steve Spoon.

All photos credited (where known) accordingly.

Apologies if anybody has been overlooked. Please let me know if you feel you have been.

Special thank you to Iwona Palka (support and perseverance beyond the call of duty).

Thanks also to those who’ve offered help or even indirectly encouraging and motivating everything, including Darren Crawford, Mark Stevens and Wojtek Kozielski.

Please note that all of the opinions expressed within this book revert to the individuals responsible for them and not Grim Humour/Fourth Dimension or those amongst the board of editors.

All writing not otherwise credited is by Richard Johnson.