twenty odd years now

[DIY in LONDON UK - This is the unedited verison not as short as the one in the mag]

This is less of a scene report, more of a snapshot of lots of disparate stuff that’s happening across the city and just outside, brought together, temporarily I fear, under my contradictory and happily subjective umbrella of personal taste. Come on, humour me, at least it’s dry under here. The cohesion and dare I say it unity required for all these bands to exist in one single scene isn’t present in London, UK, and there are many and varied reasons for that. The principle one is that sky-high expectations about any kind of subversive cultural production in this nation’s capital persist over thirty years after Johnny ‘Countrylife*’ Rotten did a rude word on telly.

This means that a merciless spotlight is angled constantly and full beam on the youth, and I can let you imagine what the kinds of bands that run towards that spotlight sound like. Invariably, they end up singed (if not signed) wilted and smelling like plastic. It can be hard to pick the wheat from the chaff, the amps are on but there’s nobody home, you see, there is no shortage of ‘bands’ in London just like there is no shortage of ‘actors’ in LA. If you catch my drift. So watch out for that nasty smell, its the primary editing mechanism I used for the list. Some nights it might seem like this complacence has filtered its way down to the punks, the hardcore kids, and the artists. But there’s always something happening in someone’s flat that’s a little less overlooked, a little more potent.

I present to you what I believe to be the full gamut of exciting DIY things happening in and around (I’ve limited the definition of ‘around’ strictly to a twenty minute train ride beyond the major stations!) London as far as I am concerned, and all strictly without the aid of an ad campaign. We’re running rings around those journo chumps and they don’t even know it.

(*Countrylife is the brand of butter than the mole-faced public image is currently promoting in full page ads in all the National newspapers in the UK. Don’t turn over too quickly in disgust, Iggy pop’s mangled caramel torso has found a new trade in car insurance on the next page. No really. Media Blitz.)

I’m going to start with Paco, whose opinions have featured in this here zine and who is one of the city’s most prolific punk ‘doers’. He has run LA VIDA ES UN MUS from his Hackney, East London homestead or wherever he happens to be, helping out friends and his label’s bands when they pass through Europe with shows under the name XEROX MUSIK (this is also a Mus sub-label that puts out weirdo noise like BILLY BAO 7”.) The shows usually happen at The Grosvenor, a pub in Stockwell that would be a lot closer to legendary with a calmer landlord. Most recently those have been: CRIMINAL DAMAGE, LIMP WRIST and GOVERNMENT WARNING. He is also booking the SEX/VID tour here in the Autumn and helping out SURRENDER with shows. So basically much of the good punk rock that is available in London is thanks to this man. The Label is probably one of the more high profile beyond our borders, cuz of its international scope. Most recent releases are:
MUS28 LIMP WRIST – Incluye Want Us Dead LP
MUS30 SURRENDER – There Is No War” EP 7”
MUS32 DESTINO FINAL – Atrapados 12”
MUS33 GOVERNMENT WARNING – Paranoid mess LP
MUS31 THE SHITTY LIMITS – Beware the Limits LP

Paco works at Rough Trade records with Sean from HARD SKIN, whose London centric comedy Oi should surely be in your collection. These two brilliants run another label called DEMO TAPES RECORDS along with Clint, but he’s gone away. Next releases:

TAPE005 BLYTH POWER – A little touch of Harry in the night Demo LP
TAPE006 PASSION KILLERS – Lion Studios 20/9/83 Demo LP

The only one of these bands who could at a push fit into London scene reportage is THE SHITTY LIMITS. They’re actually based in Reading, High-Wycombe and the leafier surrounds a little west and north west of the capital, but with a frenzied motown punk style that is kinda ANGRY SAMOANS fronted by Johnathan Richman, they’ve got that hipshaking garage thing with hardcore fury that stops it being in any way trite. Probably the most prolific punk band du jour in the UK. Contact Paco for that record won’t you – www.lavidaesunmus.com. Next up, and I stuff my hands into my own mouth with this guilty segue, but mentioning THE SCEPTRES in the same breath because that’s two limits plus Ralph and me and I do at least actually live in London. I have a shrill voice and Ralph has very well-strung guitar, people say TYRADES meets WIPERS. Out of that comes DIRE RECORDS is our small 7” label venture – with a focus on the mono (chrome and phonic) we just put out a split 7” THE SCEPTRES/FACEL VEGA (from Wales, not even I can pretend that’s London) and repressed the first 7” of the now-quasi legendary HYGIENE.

With a deeply “English”-oriented proposition, despite their singer being a nasal Canadian by the name of Mr. Weiner, HYGIENE play a stripped down, cool and evocative post-punk-with-big-choruses that crosses the naivety of TELEVISION PERSONALITIES with something altogether darker, CRISIS meets CRIME. The best description I’ve read of them is ‘Bingo Master’s Breakout”-era FALL, and COCKNEY REJECTS. Music for when you’re fighting in the streets of Southwark with the psycho mafia outside the town hall you never wanted anyway.” (http://www.myspace.com/hygieneldn) That prosaic summation came from Luke Younger, a noise dude with lovely hair and a love of punk that means he gets in the door without anyone spitting on his snakeskin noise-dude brogues, plus we all wanna see his band SPIN SPIN THE DOGS. Stringing post-punk guitars with melodic fuzz and a wild-eyed unpredictability that is genuinely unsettling, they’re honestly a thing all of their own – LP out on Gringo Records from Nottingham.

Gig-wise, Hygiene have thus far sat on the boundary between the straight-up punk and the merky but sometimes very rewarding territory wherein you’ll find the more garagey/psych/breakout/fuzz pop feedback set of bands. These bands are breeding rapidly, but awesome projects like SHABEEN SCENE TAPES help to sort the shit from the ‘holy shit!’ as does Eric who does funtime dancing opportunity CORN ROCKET CLUB. The most recent output of SHABEEN SCENE TAPES is a split between BLACK MAMBA BEAT! and WORK THAT SKIRT. This is the ribald, meat and potatoes garage section by the way. I’ll mention BLACK TIME here, on IN THE RED RECORDS in the US and overlooked by London comparatively. I’ll also mention KING SALAMI AND THE CUMBERLAND 3, THE CHINESE LUNGS and THEE VICARS (DIRE RECORDS alumni.)

Bands like COREY ORBISON, ROSEANNE BARR (drum/bass thrashy punk) and HUSBANDS (keyboardy queercore) fit here too, kinda covering the whole gambit of a more frenetic messtheticsesque sound, these bands are outsider punx to the nth degree. HUSBANDS have a split 7″ with DRUNK GRANNY on local kid, a forthcoming split with HUMOUSEXUAL on IRRK and full length LP on LOCAL KID and self released cd-r’s and tapes on homo-tones.co.uk. I’m going to mention METHODIST CENTRE here even though thus far I’ve not seen them live, jangly and highly Oinergy camp power queer vibes from East London on Invisible Spies records.

Many of these bands are put on by DIY tour-booking artist/music behemoth UPSET THE RHYTHM. A loosely formed collective with Chris and Claire at the helm, they are incredibly prolific with fingers in more pies than even I would care to eat. UTR began with booking THE EX and a then little known band called DEERHOOF to play in the UK in 2003, and has since then expanded into a wonderful carousel of shows and records that keep strictly DIY principles whilst having the bandwidth to actually be able to afford stuff, allowing all kinds of wild an crazy freakout genre-benders to play in places and with people they wouldn’t otherwise, both through consistently dreamy ambitious two day fests in abandoned car showrooms (this kind of thing NEVER happens in the UK – It was called YES WAY and it ruled) and through things like co-promotions with Frieze (a big UK Arts organisation) and David Shrigley (doodle-monger) always self-funded and refreshingly egoless. It’s become a kind of scene it itself, innovative, open, with a refreshingly high ratio of lady musicians too. They’ve put on quite literally hundreds of great bands, I want to mention PLUG (two piece lady delta 5ness) TRASH KIT (London raucous girlpunk) Next releases are GENTLE FRIENDLY, TRASH KIT (London lady rabble punk) and FOOT VILLAGE from LA. Http://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk

Continuing with the theme of people who’ve taken DIY principles learnt in hardcore and put them to use in other contexts, REAL GOLD is the umbrella name for an initiative by Deano Jo to produce “things with a bit of permanence and weight to them – whether its records, books, magazines, putting extra thought and effort in to make that object special.” REAL GOLD is synonymous for many with ridiculous warehouse parties that attract off-duty hipperati, but we still go when they happen because people like to fraternise, plus nights like that which aren’t sponsored by corporate youth marketing schemes are few and far between. As well as the continued success of a (colour!) zine called FUN, REAL GOLD has put out records by THE TRAIN CHRONICLES (Boozy Banjo-driven hyperspeed Blues.) http://www.wearerealgold.com

RICOCHET! RICOCHET! Is Patrick from HUSBANDS and Colette’s awesome zine distro, stocking a plethora of xerox propaganda from these very fringes, and showing up everywhere. (http://www.myspace.com/ricochetricochet) They’re also involved in the zine archive at 56a Infoshop (56a.org.uk) which is a diy social centre with zine archive, bike workshop and food collective. Zinewise, London is comparatively rich in self-publishing, and those guys have their own channels, including several symposiums and socials and what nots, so as far as straight up music zines go I just want to mention NICHE HOMO (two isssues out) which is poisonously sardonic and has a nice clarity in its tone of voice that is sort of like being sat on someones knee and read to, such is the level of muso knowledge mixed with lighthearted shitter chatter (the zine’s tagline is ‘Superior Toilet Literature’- http://nichehomo.blogspot.com) Then there’s QUALITY CONTROL is a straight-edge fanzine out of West London with interesting theorising on hardcore. MODERN HATE VIBE three zlso is out now with interviews from the Stupids, Brian Walsby (Double Negative) and Chris Bickel (in/Humanity.) Next Issue has interviews with Gang of Four and Citizen’s Arrest, and will include the source material I got sent for this report, so if you want to know more about all this stuff you could pick that up! (bryony.beynon@gmail.com)

To throw a curveball in right here and shimmy over to stylistically to about as far away from queer power pop as I could possibly go right now…here’s the bit where I talk about RUCKTION RECORDS! The kickboxing elephant in the room has been unleashed. Seriously though, this longtime label has been self-sufficient for ten years, the age of their longest standing (and now on hiatus as I understand it) group – KNUCKLEDUST. With a core of almost disconcertingly dedicated show-goers, RUCKTION singlehandedly kept London Hardcore alive when it was deeply unfashionable. Over the years that has meant some deeply questionable output, from my corner, but now that every bar hopping socialite has an integrity tshirt, these bands and this label are more important than ever. I’d check out NINEBAR, a very weighty proposition blending SHEER TERROR with later era NYHC like RAW DEAL or BREAKDOWN, pulling this off with a cheeky London-centric aplomb that is loveable and moshy as all hell. (http://www.rucktion.com)

The pretty awfully named HELLBENT DIEHARD are actually super and a bit mind expanding – technical hardcore played with gusto. RUCKTION recently released the CD version of Leeds, Yorkshire’s DEAL WITH IT’s full length ‘End Time Prophecies’ – a fully realised paean to LEEWAY and the guitar solo as a higher plain of consciousness. They’re not from London, emphatically, but are worth catching for the punkest delivery of what comes very close to a full on metal band. Another band in this whole subsection, although they’ve kind of taken it next level and play what seems like weekly sold out shows in Europe (recently toured the US with TRAPPED UNDER ICE) is the inimitable DIRTY MONEY. Not much of a progression musically from NO WARNING but with a Liverpudlian accent, and good lyrics about real dare-I-say-it ‘issues’ which are directly engaged with on stage, which in what’s generally a politically sendentary scene is a real standout. They put out records with DEAD AND GONE RECORDS from Sheffield, an institution in itself.

The guitarist from NINEBAR also puts on London’s only regular fixed date hardcore show, a first Saturday of the month type deal at the 12Bar in Soho, with increasingly mixed bills and always something interesting to see. On that note, the demise of her (and others) annual London hardcore fest known as NinjaFest and latterly RunningRiot has not stopped May from steadfastly putting on shows. Check www.londoncalling.cjb.net if you’re in town.

Straight edge as any kind of governing force has long been dead in London, a city with over 7000 pubs, and I mourn this as it makes hardcore just that little bit more ‘normal.’ So I was surprised but invigorated to see a small group of kids flying that flag and what ho, doing it really very tastefully. ABOLITION are a politically charged 90s style metallic hardcore group that sounds and kind of feels like STRUGGLE and CHOKEHOLD’s Instilled 7”. CANT RELATE share members and say they’re influenced byYD-I and NA and formed out of boredom and a desire to rage against all rubbish things like racism and working in your local chain cinema (“Stale popcorn and skin on the cheese – Your life is boring, like these movies”) It is genuine hardcore punk played by angry boys and girls and thus is really fucking exciting. http://www.myspace.com/xcantrelatex

All on NEVER HEALED RECORDS are HANG THE BASTARD who do sludgy INTEGRITY style moshism, and share a label with some more bastards – HELLO BASTARDS, South American, Polish, German and Israel ex-pat punx crusting up London, and DEATHSKULLS who sound like an extremely English “Slow-Mags” if you will. One of their members now plays in SPECTRAHAWK with Bloody Kev from such UK greats as HARD TO SWALLOW and DEAD INSIDE on vocal duty. A bit like EHG, all reverby and chaotic and not averse to a breakdown. Its all the above bands you might be the most likely to witness at any number of squat-based shows, but they are few and far between as due to draconian squatting laws here are not exactly wise from an inhabitants position, oh and houses here categorically do not have basements so that’s out too.

Perfectly segueing into husband and wife winning team Sam and Derek, who run a label, promote shows and do a and distro called PARADE OF SPECTRES (http://www.myspace.com/paradeofspectres) that puts out international heavy screamo and punk product, including BURNING TIMES, KADDISH and FURNACE. They also play in BATTLE OF WOLF 359 who have made it over to European punk fest Cry Me a River a couple of times and are great in a Sci-Fi loving UNION OF URANUSy way. On the same label are ME AND GOLIATH for more crushing emo business.

And there we have it, for now. Focussing on our city (the vast majority of DIY doers here are passing through, so ‘ours’ is as loose as it should be) was difficult because lots of the gigs I’ve enjoyed the most in the last few months has been bands from out of town, only a few hours to the north or east. I’m sad to have to exclude those bands for geographical reasons, so check out IRONCLAD and MOB RULES, and go to THE COWLEY CLUB in Brighton and THE 1 IN 12 in Bradford. Do venue names even get MRRSHOUTINGCAPStreatment? Who knows, but those two definitely deserve it and a space like that is one thing London really needs.

Ya may have thought of something I totally should have covered/boycotted, but hey, opinions are like arseholes, if you don’t have one, chances are you’re full of shit.

For more info on any of this stuff please get in touch, I didn’t want to flood it with URLS so you can use a search engine or email – bryony.beynon@gmail.com