96-04-27 Scum Of Toytown – Doom – Virtual Reality – Pink Flamingos – Counter-Attack – Y – Up In Arms

“Don’t mention the war!”… No problem here: Germans and Brits getting along just fine…

‘Scum Of Toytown’ (from Stevenage) played fresh and very danceable but political ska/reggae/dub/punk with female vocals: Craig (drums/vocals), Ni(c)k Hooper (guitar/vocals), Jo(h)n Thurlow (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Chron Gen’), ‘Toad’ (bass/vocals) and Lea (vocals & keyboards). Jon wrote me shortly after this gig that Lea (who wanted to concentrate on other things) was replaced by Georgia ‘G’ Howson. I’d gotten to know them via their 7” Destruction Of Both Houses Of Parliament By Fire that Karl of Words Of Warning (who’s stuff I was distributing) put out in 1993. I recall the 1994 LP Strike (also on Words Of Warning) sold very well via Tilt! distro. The enchanting/empowering anti-fascist anthem Jackboot Crusade gave a lot of people (including me) goosebumps and motivation… The band is still performing! (check www.toytown.org.uk)

‘Scum Of Toytown’ – Nick , Craig, John, Toad & Lea

‘Virtual Reality’ (Bradford) was a project/band that played ‘Black Sabbath’ influenced stuff featuring Brian Talbot (guitarist of ‘Doom’; here on bass). He’d teamed up with Steve Butler (guitar) and Darron ‘Bill’ Ward (vocals), both of ‘The Next World’ (see 90-05-01). The years before they still used a drum-machine but I think they had a real drummer here. They’d done a split-7” with ‘Neuthrone’ on Genet recs in 1994 and released the LP Dreamstate (Genet recs & Flat Earth recs, 1995) – “groovy beats and heavy riffs to techno-based tracks”. This was their 3^rd time here (see: 94-03-19 & 94-05-08).

During ‘Doom’s tour in Scandinavia (Sep. ’95) Scoot had to leave (Tom Croft had already dropped out before). In ’96 the band did their LP (Rush Hour Of The Gods) for Sned’s label Flat Earth with Wayne Southworth (R.I.P.) on vocals, Brian Talbot on guitar, Denis ‘The Deuce’ Boardman also on guitar, Chris ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne (ex ‘Health Hazard’, ‘Suffer’) on bass and Anthony ‘Stick’ Dickens on drums. The Monarchy Zoo 7” was recorded with Denis on bass (Sep. ’95). Michael Kopijn put a video on-line Doom – Live In Europe 1996; but no footage of this show here…

‘Doom’ (photgraphed by Wim De Leersnijder)

Brian Talbot & Chris Gascoigne (‘Doom’); pics by Sascha May

‘Pink Flamingos’ (Berlin) played powerviolence; Thought Crime ‘marketed’ them as “highspeed ultraviolence glamrock heroes”. Carsten Kissler (drummer; also ‘Cold War’, ex ‘SM-70’; he’d been at the V.V. when he organised the ‘M.V.D.’/‘Suffer’ tour – see 95-04-29), Jens Walter (bass; ex ‘SM-70’), Stefan Hinsch (guitar) and Lars (guitar/vocals, ex ‘SM-70’). A Slovenian tape-label released a split-tape with recordings of them and ‘Hiatus’ live in Zorro, Leipzig (95-11-18 ‘Pink Flamingos’, 96-03-21 ‘Hiatus’). The years before they did some 7”s (including splits with ‘M.V.D.’ and ‘Man Is The Bastard’) on the Hannover label Farewell recs; and Thought Crime recs (Thomas Franke/Jens Walter) did the Poppin’ Eye Effect 7” in ’96. Their last release was the split-7” Germania Meets Britannica with ‘Substandard’ (UK) in ’97 (on Wicked Witch recs). A lot of all that was on their discography (Crippled Silence).

‘Y’ was a grindcore band from Berlin: Tino Schulz (vocals; replaced ‘Froesi’ Hendrik Froese), Hartmut Barsch (guitar), ‘Keule’ Matthias Franke (drums) & ‘Spremme’ Thomas Franke (bass; Thought Crime recs). First there was their Überall Ist Kotze demo (’94). They also had a split-7” (with ‘Discript’) out on Anomie recs (from Bochum) and just recorded for a 7” (Feb. ‘96). Later had several releases on labels such as Thought Crime recs, Sound Pollution recs, Flowerviolence recs, etc.

‘Y’ (pic from Sascha May’s zine Evilspeak #3)

‘Y’ (courtesy of Thomas Franke)

‘Counter-Attack’ (originally from Alken in Limburg but gradually ‘embedded’ in the anarchist/squat scene in Gent) played anarcho-punk influenced by ‘Crass’, ‘Flux Of Pink Indians’ & ‘Dirt’. ‘Groovy’ Jochen (vocals; replaced the original female singer), Stef ‘Irritant’ Heeren (guitar/vocals), Wim ‘Simsallabim’ De Neve (bass), Jeroen (drums; later replaced by Yvan Meers of ‘Visons Of War’). Stef sent me a letter and their demo (Demonstrate Or Demolition) around that time asking to help/support them with gigs. This was their first time performing at the V.V. They came back 97-02-28 & 98-03-29.

‘Up In Arms’ (from Leipzig) consisted of peolpe who used to be in ‘D.M.B.’, ‘L’Attentat’, ‘Der Schwarze Kanal’: Stefan ‘Schnö’ Beckmann (bass), Thomas ‘Reudnitz’ Henschel (guitar), Jens ‘Jose’ Schossee (drums); Thomas ‘Tommi’ Schliephake (guitar) & ‘York’ (vocals). The Czech label Day After recs released their Up In Arms ‎EP (‘93) and in ’95 they had an LP out entitled Rotation. Their music was described as hardcore/emo and references were made to ‘Quicksand’, ‘Neurosis’ & ‘Prong’.

Brob

I can’t remember this gig but we did that in Greece too. I went over with ‘V.R.’ and then ‘Stick’, ‘Scoot’ & Tom were supposed to fly over and meet me there; except: only ‘Stick’ & ‘Scoot’ made it as Tom couldn’t find his passport (an excuse I think). So we got Gordy (ex ‘Psycho Flowers’) to sing for the Greek gigs as he was just on holiday with ‘V.R.’!

The one & only drummer in ‘V.R.’ was Duncan. He used to drum in ‘Crash’, an old punk band from Hebden Bridge (They did a a split ep with ‘Crux’: Keep On Running). We did a recording too (in Leicester while Darron was at college there). I lost my copy but it sounded dead good.

Brian Talbot

Belgium was definitely the best place to play for ‘V.R.’ Don’t think we ever went down very well though, not many of the regulars were into our style of music (the audience seemed to be more into the noisier bands) but we always were looked after well there and enjoyed it in Ieper.

Darron Ward

Don’t remember much only that it was a good show and I liked the other bands and felt pretty floored to play this. I think I might have a few pics…maybe that will trigger some memories (if I find them)…

It´s a bit hard to recall details now, also because at the time we did experiment with alcohol quite a bit. Especially when ‘Pink Flamingos’ were also part of the action things usually ended with a horrible hangover but also some good stories. I do remember that I felt a bit overwelmed playing with ‘Pink Flamingos’ and ‘Doom’, something that two years before would have been a wet dream at best. Also looking at that picture I must say that we were some good looking brats at the time, looking at us now makes it hard to believe it´s even the same individuals, haha.. It definitely was a very special show to me.

Thomas Franke, ‘Y’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…