OK, TO START OFF WITH, THE OBLIGATORY HISTORY LESSON ABOUT EBOLA, CURRENT MEMBERS, LINE-UP CHANGES, ETC...(you recently had a new drummer join, one of the two members in Active Minds, right?)

Micky) As all this who did what when and where shit is so tedious I'm just going to copy the biography stuff off our web site which is at http://www.gibboncore.demon.co.uk
"Ebola are five people who live hundreds of miles apart from each other trying to keep together the idea of a band friendship in the face of adversity. We all work full time, and we all have other time consuming commitments in addition to that.
Ebola came into being some time in the summer of 1995 and played two gigs in Belgium under the name of Spite after which we decided to change our name to avoid confusion with the other band of the same name!
As were sure most of you are aware there is an Ebola in Berlin, andapparently one in Australia and the USA. Also there is supposedly an Oi band in France called Ebola! Never mind!!!
We chose the name for no other reason than it sounded apocalyptic and we wanted to have a name which would reflect the type of music we were trying to play.
Ebola is a heamoragic fever which broke out in the equatorial rainforests of Africa. If you want to find out more about the disease just type the name into any search engine and you should be presented with thousands of siteson the subject.
We recorded our first, and only, LP for Flat Earth in December 1995 which was released in March 1996. In May 1996 we did a small European tour and got to meet and play with the German Ebola in Leipzig, after this tour we parted company with our singer Jonathan and drafted Nick into the band on shouting duties. Jonathon now plays guitar in the mighty Minute Manifesto.
In October 1996 we did a short tour of England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland with Los Crudos.
In February 1997 we recorded the Imprecation 7" which was also released on Flat Earth.
We did another European tour in September 1997 and subsequently parted company with our drummer Chrissy who still plays drums in Sawn Off.
We then spent a long time trying to find a suitable person to replace him and eventually settled upon Skater who stayed with us long enough to do another European tour and record some material for a split 7" on Clean Plate which will be out very soon.
We have now found a permanent drummer, Set from Active Minds, and are currently working on stuff for a split 7" with Red Monkey and a full length 7". Hopefully we'll get the chance to play some gigs before the end of the year and get back into the studio to record these songs which are burning a hole in our pockets!"
Set has really fitted in with the band he's a great drummer and his sense of humour and outlook on life is similar to our own. We have discovered over the years that this is important!

Nick) I'm sure someone else will have answered this one-but yeah SET/ACTIVE MINDS is our new drummer and he's hairy and is the owner of the ugliest shirts known to humankind and the proud new owner of a yellow drumkit….

COULD YOU TALK A LITTLE ABOUT HOW YOU GOT INTO PUNK IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND HOW YOU HAVE SEEN THE SCENE CHANGE OVER THE YEARS, FOR THE BETTER OR WORSE? (POLITICAL, SOCIAL, ETC).  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THOSE WHO 'GROW UP' AND LEAVE PUNK FOR A MORE TRADITIONAL LIFESTYLE (ie. SPOUSE, KIDS, CAR, HOUSE)?

M) I got into punk when I was thirteen which was a fuck of a long time ago!
The reason why I got into it was because I was just getting into music and I’d just been bought my first record player. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to copy, and my friends were just discovering punk as well so it wasn’t as if I was copying off them either. I suppose it was what we became aware of first. So I don’t have a dodgy collection of collection of heavy metal LP’s to be embarrassed by or be proud of.
The first two records I ever bought were “Hong Kong Garden” by Siouxsie and the Banshees and “The Day The World Turned Dayglow” by X-Ray Spex. Pretty cool eh? Well it might have been cool had I managed to buy both records with a picture cover and the X-Ray Spex one in coloured vinyl!!! Still after that I caught on pretty quick to prerequisites of record collecting.
When I got into punk it was pretty easy to do so as you didn’t really have to look that far to find things going on. There were plenty of places to hang out and plenty of people to hang out with. Now at thirty five (old git) there’s no where to hang out (in Newcastle that is...there’s plenty of other cool places elsewhere in the world) and very few people who I actually want to hang out with. What Keeps me going these days is my punk and hardcore friends in other places and the few remaining people in Newcastle who are decent (not all Punks) and the cool places I get to visit through being in a band .

To be honest I don't think punk and hardcore really has changed much over the years. If more people hung around for longer then perhaps we might have a more educated scene, but most people only last a few years...
The only real change that I can see is that there are generally less and less people involved every year and that I am getting older in comparison to those people. I'm thirty five in two months time and I often wonder why most people my age have had the sense to get out and get on with there lives! I don't mean that really, but I certainly wouldn't criticise anyone who hadn't managed to stick the course.
Most of my best friends are people I met through being involved in punk, and not all of them are still involved. They think it's great that I still am and support me in my endeavors and that's good enough for me. Some of them have ceased to be involved as they have work or family commitments. I wouldn't criticise anybody for getting bored with the music as so much of it today is uninspiring. However I would criticise some people who over the years have adopted a holier than thou attitude and have since become complete reactionaries.
To a certain extent this is because people often set themselves unrealistic standards of behavior to adhere to. "Scream Inside" from our first 7" was about this more than being an anti drugs song. In fact when I wrote lyrics and the explanation the overall feel I thought I was putting across was against excessiveness and obsessiveness in all things. It was saying that you have to choose your own path, not one prescribed by your peers, the state, organised religious groups etc.
I was really surprised that so many people just picked up on the drink and drugs side of things. I suppose people just take what they want from things. If it can offer a crumb of comfort to some one then that's fine by me even if they see something different in it than I intended.
We come back to that same idea  of choosing your own achievable moral code with one of our most recent lyrics "Fuck You Both" which is about two people who really did think that they were on a higher moral political and intellectual level than you or I. They are no longer involved in any thing I would care to support and needless to say the old quotation about the most earnest revolutionaries making the most ardent reactionaries certainly rings true in their case.

As far as people having a car, a partner and a house go I have all of these things already and I'm not about to apologies to anyone for that. I haven't any kids at the moment but when I do that will be as the result of a decision made by my partner and not based on the considerations of what is cool and acceptable within the punk and hardcore scene.

Andy)Boredom with hip hop that I was listening to as a young teenager and the discovery of bands like Napalm Death and Dead Kennedy's at a time when hip hop started going more in a Nation of Islam direction, thus finding people that I felt I had more in common with on an ideological level, the fact that the music was absolutely raging helped me getting into punk and hardcore too.
How have I seen the scene change? In all honesty I don't think it has, it's a pretty transient scene and people and bands come and go all the time, but it remains essentially the same. It's easy to become cynical about it all when you're at a big gig and you don't recognise many people, but you just have to accept that. There are always 'good' (however you choose to define that) people involved, sometimes you have to look harder for them though, and likewise there are always going to be idiots involved too, you just have to know how to avoid them.
With regards to people leaving the scene, well, I really don't care, my involvement in the scene is one of the smaller facets of my life just now and I'm sure most people have more important things going on in their life than punk rock, it's about prioritising, and sometimes a family takes precedent, I have no place to criticise.

(Karin) Got into punk about 12 years ago 'cos I never felt that I fitted in with mainstream kids and dreams, a friend of a friend introduced me to stuff like Heresy, Ripcord and Larm and I immediately loved the music, spirit, lyrics and the individuality. I pretty soon after started going to gigs and will always remember seeing Larm very early on in my time, I only realised afterwards how great that gig was. Anyway, since I was very young I knew I wanted to be a singer in a band, so after a while listening to punk and coming across Pink Turds In Space I knew that's what I wanted to do, and say something useful at the same time. As for the scene changing, I think it changes al the time because people come and go all the time, I think that's good 'cos new people sometimes means new idea's, I also think that we have all changed over time, I am now a lot more sceptical and ironic, HC and Punk music is only a small part of my life but what is more important is that Punk and HC makes me think about stuff and makes me life my life the way I want )most of the time...)

N) route into punk: skateboarding, thrasher, friend was in Heresy. I think we've all seen the scene change a whole lot-where I live IM involved with the 1in12 Club, which is a self run, self managed members club  that exists legally in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Its a venue, a cafe, a bar/pub, a meeting place, a practice room and many more things to each individual member. Over the years the scene has expanded and contracted-at the moment its seems to be on a down period, the "community" here hasn’t had any new "blood" in a year or so and friends are leaving. Any change in numbers here in Bradford does affect the way things are at the Club. But the bigger picture is that this always happens, every year threes a crisis and we somehow manage to pull out the stops once again as everyone mucks in and gets stuff done. IM writing this in August 99 and things are always shit in August, people are away on holiday!. In the autumn we have a ton of great gigs/shows coming up which'll make things all "rosy" once again. (ahem.). If people wanna grow up and move on to kids, house & car type of living then good luck to em. I think its fair to say that not everyone will hang around punk forever-some will because they usually have greeter staying power (but you could also argue they have no life, and are scared of moving on...). I have friends who have done exactly the above, and yes I've lost a great deal of contact with them because of the punk circles I mix in and they’re stuck in work/family mode. I personally have no "beef" with this-its their choice and if they’re happy then so be it. Life doesn’t always work out how we try and plan it, and people leave, to be (hopefully)replaced by a new group of people and the cycle continues. If people get something out of punk its better than nothing, and I feel that that is at least realistic rather than optimistic. People change, and sometimes punk & punks are very fucking tough on anyone who does indeed change or differ to themselves when "life" itself dictates the change. for me, all I can do is shrug my shoulders, breath a sigh (maybe??!) and just get on with it. If someone sold out then fine, fuck em-lets not waste (too much!) time being miserable about it...

SO FAR EBOLA HAS RELEASED AN LP AND A 7".  I'M SURE YOU'VE HEARD COMMENTS BEFORE ABOUT THE TWO SOUNDING DIFFERENT, THE 7" SOUNDS MUCH MORE HARSH. DOES THIS JUST INDICATE THAT THE BAND HAS GOTTEN MORE AND MORE PISSED OFF ABOUT THINGS, OR ARE THERE OTHER REASONS FOR THE MUSICAL CHANGE?

M) I've answered this question so many times before and to be honest it just comes down to the fact that we couldn't really write songs the way we wanted when we first started out. We wanted to be extreme and we wanted to be diverse...I think we managed diversity on the first record but it certainly wasn't extreme. By the second record we'd sussed out how to achieve what we wanted to do and I think we managed to do it quite well!
The Clean Plate thing is different again. More extreme and possibly slightly less diverse. I think it reflects pretty well the frustration we were experiencing with life, and in particular with finding people to play in the band and stay in the band! It's a pretty brutal record, but it reminds me of the bad old days so I'm not sure how we'll all feel about it when it finally sees the light of day.
The stuff we are writing now is different again. I suppose we are always changing musically because we all listen to lots of different kinds of music and are always searching for new things to excite our jaded musical palates. I think this comes across in our music...maybe not? I don't know as obviously what I hear is going to be completely different from how other people perceive it.

A)People need to realise that the LP was originally intended to be a 7" and a few splits and that all the songs on it were written in a two or three month period after we started as a band. As you go along you learn more about each others style and start writing songs more collaboratively, rather than one person writing one song and another writing another song. There's been no masterplan.

N) Well, the real reason is the time difference between the two recordings-it takes us a long time to record because of our geographical abodes, therefore each time we record we sound different to everybody else except ourselves. If we didn’t progress as a band then there would be no point in continuing.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DAY PUNK COMMUNITY IN THE UK?  IS THE UK EXPERIENCING THE 'PC BACKLASH' BULLSHIT WHERE PUNKS (AND BANDS) ARE SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC, ETC. THAT OTHER COUNTRIES ARE DEALING WITH?

M) Punk and Hardcore has always been a revolving door for as long as I've been involved in it. At times it's pretty cool and fairly sussed out and at other times it's positively dumb.
If PC means wanting a better world and trying to make people more aware, then yes were PC. If PC means picking up people for the slightest little deviance from "acceptable" forms of behavior and speech then no where not.
We all live and work in the real world and have to face stupidity and prejudice on a daily basis.  While we don't want to have to put up with that bullshit in the punk and hardcore scene it does at times seem as if minor indiscretions which could be dealt with by explaining things to people are instead turned into ridiculously confrontational scenes which only serve to alienate people and drive them away. That said there are some people who you can't reason with and perhaps it would be better if they did fuck off!
I think we express our sentiments on this matter quite thoroughly in "Malevolence" which is on the Clean Plate 7".
I haven't particularly noticed any more of an anti-PC backlash now than at other times. Stupidity is sadly always in fashion!

A)What does PC mean?
There are idiots everywhere and I like my time away from the dull reality of work, Glasgow and daily bullshit to be as free as possible from morons, not always possible of course, but I try.
The scene here is much the same as any scene I would imagine, right now there are a lot of new bands coming from the south of England, under the catch all term of UKHC, that, for the most part just seem to be a bunch of talentless fuckers ripping off Cro-Mags and Gorilla Biscuits badly, slapping each other on the back a lot, playing large (and decidedly un-punk) venues with big name Yank scum like Cause For Alarm (wankers) etc. It's pretty funny, you see a lot of them in mainstream metal mags like Kerrang and Terrorizer talking as if they're the be all and end all off Hardcore, but as I'm sure they'd rightfully point out, I'm just another moaning old >northern bastard that's long past his sell by date.

N) To an extent it has happened-ex vegans going the other way and eating meat/acting all macho and dumb as shit in a bid to offend the "PC/Right On punks". What it amounts to in my mind is a temper tantrum in a fucking teacup. A lot of those people are not around anymore, and the ones who do get pissed off at people who are "PC" are usually the ones who wanna act like fucking dicks, yet cry of impinging on their freedom so they can act like fucking dicks. Some of us don’t wish to put up with morons when we're in places/spaces where everyone is treated with a "modicum" of respect ( I say "modicum", because there's  still arseholes who get into gigs and cause shit/are still dicks or they just keep their chickenshit gobs shut..etc etc), therefore those people/bands who do decide to infringe on my freedom of movement/ethics will be told to either shut the fuck up or get the fuck out. I've done this in the past and IM not afraid to do so again.

WHAT SORTS OF PROBLEMS HAS EBOLA COME ACROSS BECAUSE ONE OF YOU IS FEMALE? ITS REALLY DISHEARTENING TO TO SEE THAT SO CALLED 'ENLIGHTENED' PUNKS STILL TREAT PEOPLE BADLY BECAUSE OF GENDER, RACE, ETC.  DO YOU FEEL THAT SILENCE=CONSENT?  MANY PEOPLE TEND TO IGNORE PREJUDICE AND HOPE IT'LL JUST GO AWAY, DOES EVERYONE THINK THAT ITS NECESSARY TO CONFRONT THESE BIGOTS?

(K) Well, I studied a "male" subject at university, I work in an almost 100% >male environment and I socialise in a male majority scene and I can confirm >that I've come across some pretty narrow-minded, selfish, stupid and sexist >males in my time. It happens in and out of the scene with pretty much the same intensity. Equality in the scene is something most people (males in particular) see as a "must have", "must do" fashion which is very alien to people when it comes to putting it in practice without feeling great about it afterwards. It's difficult 'cos I'm used to it and sometimes do not react to it. I've come across being called the bands "backing singer" to being asked "are you going to get your tits out for the lads" and to being completely ignored by males, despite coming across guys for years. I also think that some girls in the scene (and this is by no means a generalisation) make it worse for other girls by acting the "punk boy's girlfriend routine",  and thus only confirming some males idea's of girls in the scene. On a positive note there are some lovely and strong girls in the scene who are great and who would eat bad boys alive....I do not think silence is consent as not everyone is brave enough to stand up to bigots, I do think it's important to confront bigots and I also believe in a team approach, on a general note Ebola have always been pretty good at sticking together at idea's and opinions and have never been particularly scared to voice our opinions.

N) See above.

M) I think I've answered this in the preceding and following questions. You have to treat each case on it's merits, and confrontation is sometimes an option. However we must not forget that some people are genuinely ignorant and have not made the connection between inappropriate forms of language and behavior and the offence that it causes people. As I've also said above and below there are some people who have no excuse...to quote an old Belgian proverb "Those who do not want to know must feel"!!!

THIS QUESTION KIND OF FOLLOWS THE LAST ONE...IN THE FIRST SONG ON THE 7", YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU DISAGREE WITH THE ARGUMENT THAT PUNK BANDS JUST END UP PREACHING TO THE CONVERTED. WHAT SORTS OF EVENTS/ATTITUDES HAVE YOU COME ACROSS THAT BACK UP YOUR OPINION?

M) I think I have already answered this in a  couple of the previous questions...A while ago it became apparent to me that a lot of people coming to see the band weren't really into the same things as we were. Some of the lyrics on the Clean Plate 7" reflect that. Angry pissed of lyrics to go with the angry pissed off music. As I don't have all the lyrics at my disposal I >can't really be more specific...suffice to say there are a couple of songs on the record which look at issues which have been dealt with by other bands in the past but we felt that some people needed reminding!
I wish punks and hardcore kids were "the converted" then I probably wouldn't have to waste so much of my time arguing with dickheads at gigs!

A)Well, as I already said, punk is a transient scene and there are new people coming along all the time, no one's born a vegan class warrior. But, as you rightly pointed out above, there are idiots in this supposedly safe haven of a scene of ours, there are sexists, there are homophobes and I'm sure there are racists too, but that's a less commonly 'joked' about issue, it seems that some prejudices are more acceptable than others. It has to be said though that we need to realise the difference between preaching to the converted and preaching to the unconvertible though, some people just aren't worth the effort.

N) You can end up preaching to the converted-but it’s a jaded perspective. Everyone may look the same, seem the same or whatever, but not everyone is “converted” (whatever that means)…we exist as a scene to try and at least conduct relations with each other in a relatively egalitarian manner-that’s what drew me to HC/punk and I doubt it’ll ever lose that excitement. IM being optimistic, but sometimes I am….and if you believe in fighting ingrained mindsets then you’ll always have an axe to grind anyway…some of us are always getting into scrapes/fights or arguments with others and in reality were really nice folks, not some sort of scene police….

HOW DID YOU FIND THE USA WHEN YOU TOURED THERE?  WHAT SORTS OF DIFFERENCES DID YOU NOTICE COMPARED TO THE PUNK COMMUNITY BACK HOME?  THE EUROPEAN PUNKS SEEM TO BE A LITTLE OLDER AND MORE ORGANIZED TO ME, ALTHOUGH MAYBE THAT IS BECAUSE EUROPE SEEMS TO BE MORE LIBERAL IN CERTAIN WAYS?

M) I'm not sure if I would agree that Europe was more liberal than the USA. I've only been to the States twice and I'm by no means presenting myself as an expert on the socio-economic differences between the thee two.

I think it is fair to say that while in Europe we seem to have more in the way of social welfare provision than they do in the States, the general standard of living here is lower than in the US while the cost of living is higher. America is a very affluent country and while a minority of people live in abject poverty that can also be said of many countries in Europe.

On a musical level It seems to be comparatively more easy for people in the US to get bands together, buy instruments, find places to practice etc. This is particularly apparent when US bands tour over here. Posh equipment, different attitudes etc etc. Here everything is a fucking struggle, most of the bands don't have regular places to practice, finding places to put gigs on is a ongoing challenge (though this is not such a problem on the mainland), and audiences usually only turn out for long established bands or any old US crap that makes it over here. In the mainland things are a bit different in that the squatting movement isstill fairly strong, despite an ongoing attempt by the various European states to evict or legalise squats out of existence. Consequently because of the large number of squats and state sponsored youth centres gigs are generally a bit easier to organise .  Also the squats sometimes subsidise poorly attended gigs from bar sales, and youth centres are given money by the government to pay bands! So I suppose that is quite liberal! A lot of US bands milk this situation for all they can and the adulation the receive purely for being American often leads them to behave like rockstars. A lot of US bands have an appalling attitude when they come over here.

As far as age differences go, I suppose the one thing that stuck in my mind most about the two times I've been to the States is the fact that everyone at the gigs seems to be very young. There seems to be very few people over the age of twenty five. I thought that this may have been due to the fact that when Karin and I toured there with One By One we mainly played straight edge type shows seeing as the whole thing had been organised by Charles from the mighty Rorschach. When Karin and I came back over to California this year we noticed that the people at gigs were young wherever you went!
I suppose it may be because in Europe punk and hardcore are tied up with a greater political awareness which manifests it's self in a way of life rather than just an outburst of youthful rebellion which manifests it self in wearing funny clothes and being rude to your parents!

These are only generalisations as I've only spent three weeks of my life in the US and it takes a lot longer to get a feel for something than that.

DOES EVERYONE IN EBOLA WORK? IF SO, WHAT KINDS OF JOBS DOES EVERYONE HAVE? AND HAVE YOU FOUND IT POSSIBLE TO BRING THE DIY ETHIC, OR JUST PRINCIPLES, TO THE WORKPLACE?

M) I work as a Housing Officer, the job has quite a lot of community involvement in it. However it used to have far more community involvement; ten months ago I worked in an office where had the opportunity to work very closely with tenants groups and participate in an Estate Management Committee. The idea was that the tenants and I would try to decide ways in which we could improve the quality of life for people living on the estate. This didn’t always work too well but it was a small attempt at giving people more control over their own lives.

I have in the past been involved in projects to set up a co-operative vegancafe and a “Free School” both of which never came to fruition. I also was heavily involved in two music co-ops and a food co-op.

I think my dreams now revolve around setting up a small business and being my own boss so that I don’t have to kow-tow to any one...other perhaps the almighty customer. I think ideally I’d love to live in Belgium or Holland and run a small brewery...however I think that’s not that likely...I'm going to start a degree in Computing and Information Technology with the Open University which should hopefully increase my chances of escaping...eventually!

On a totally idealistic level a global revolution on anarcho-syndicalist lines would be pretty tremendous.

Oh yeah seeing as no one else seems to have mentioned it Set runs his own business making extremely delicious hand made chocolates!!! And NO before anyone asks that wasn't the only reason we asked him to join the band! We are putting the thumb screws on him to make some Ebola chocolate monkeys, fuck badges, patches and t-shirts!

A) I work with people who have lived most of their lives in large scale mental health institutions and I need to work by my conscience everyday with people who have been all but forgotten by the rest of the world.
Currently I'm trying to lessen the amount of time I spend at work and would like to become a sessional drug and alcohol counselor. To be sessional would mean only working when I wanted to, as opposed to having to go in every day, thus freeing me up to do more of the things I enjoy and have some time to participate in the various bands and noise projects I'm involved in.

(K) I work for a Japanese/ Canadian company as an Engineer and on and off really enjoy it. It allows me to do things I wouldn't be able to do without >a job. I've visited Japan 4 times in the last year and have made some real good friends inside and outside the Punk and HC scene in Japan. I can't really apply and DIY ideologies within my workplace but have learned to switch off. It's not ideal and I don't intend to live corporate life for a long time but until I work out what I want to do I need to stick with it and finance my part of this stupid band.

N) Well I just started work as a printer, so the extent of what I can get up I haven’t worked out yet, but yeah doing nice fucking print jobs for all future Enslaved releases will be high on the list of priorities...At present IM looking at the possibility of pushing to bring in Soya based inks and recycled papers, which at this point is all I can envisage changing…and even then I guess ill be using them the most….

JUDGING BY THE LYRICS, EBOLA HAS DEFINATE OPINIONS ON CERTAIN ISSUES... COMING FROM EUROPE, YOU PROBABLY HAVE A DIFFERENT VIEW THAN SOMEONE FROM NORTH AMERICA, SO I'D LIKE TO ASK ABOUT THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY AND THE INSTITUTION OF THE COMMON CURRENCY. IN NORTH AMERICA, WE DON'T HEAR MUCH ABOUT IT, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT IT?

M) The European Economic Community or the European Community as it is now known is a collection of states but no in the same way as the United States or Switzerland. While many people may refer to a Federal Europe that is a long way off. The EC has a parliament, bank, common currency, courts and all the other apparatus of a state except an army but that does not make it a State. Many member states, especially Britain, are reluctant to relinquish further power to the centre so at this point in time it is unlikely that there will be a further federalisation. Also you have to remember that unlike in North America there are still strong national identities. We are not as homogenised in Europe, but this is beginning to change as the tentacles of American cultural imperialism spread further into our daily lives. It is this sense of identity which people want to protect to prevent a homogenised Europe.
In some ways this can be seen as a good thing but in most other ways it manifests it self in far less pleasant forms. The murderous implications of carrier liability which we highlighted in "Fortress Europe" on the Flat Earth 7" are perhaps the worst reflection of this. Some member states have equally unpleasant national laws, such as the German laws on nationality which don't allow German nationality to people born in Germany of foreign parents. I'm not sure of the exact specifics of the situation but both of these laws illustrate quite well that not wanting to be swamped by American culture can also be twisted to other ends to prevent people of other cultures from enjoying the relative prosperity of EC countries.

The EC does some good things, such as standing up to the US over refusing to import hormone treated beef, and refusing to allow small banana growers in former European colonies to be bullied by the attempt a global control by American based multi nationals. There have also been landmark decisions in the European Court of Human Rights (not directly part of the EU apparatus) which has outlawed discrimination against people on grounds of gender or sexual preference.

In reality much of what the EU does is geared towards allowing it's members to compete as a united block in the global economy. I'm not sure from my perspective if I would go so far as to view this as a good thing, but certainly it's existence acts as a counter  balance to the economic dominance  of the US.

WHAT DOES EVERYONE THINK OF THE 'COOL BRITANNIA' CAMPAIGN AND TONY BLAIR? HA!  I READ SOMEWHERE THAT BLAIR HAS DROPPED MORE BOMBS IN HIS FEW YEARS IN CHARGE THAN THE COMBINED RULE OF THATCHER AND MAJORS.  HAS BLAIR SUCKERED THE YOUTH OF THE UK INTO BUYING INTO PATRIOT BULLSHIT?

M) Cool Britannia is being used as a smoke screen to cover the fact that the Labour party have pretty much carried on where the conservatives left off.

They are managing to dismantle Local Authorities and divest them of their functions far more effectively than Major or Thatcher despite the fact that this was there avowed aim. They are also dismantling the structure of local democracy by doing away with open debate in council chambers and instituting cabinet style local government.
Traditionally Local Authorities have been the protectors of and providers of a whole host of social and welfare services to the communities they serve. These functions will now be carried out by faceless contractors and managed by a hand picked group of councilors who will tow the national party line.

Equally worrying is the governments plan to abolish Housing Benefit (assistance with rent payment for people who are unemployed or on a low wage). People have if anything been more suckered by the claims of modernising and overhauling the welfare state, and local government than by Cool Britannia or nuveau patriotism.

I assume Your referring in the question to Britains part in the bombing of the Former Yugoslavia, and NATO's intervention in Kosovo. I don't really feel qualified to answer this question as my knowledge of the social, >political, religious and economic history of the Balkans is rather limited.
I do know that the roots of the conflict go back to the middle ages and possibly even beyond that. It is difficult to know what to suggest when a powerful group in a country is using the apparatus of the state to kill another group. I know that this may seem like a cop out answer but it is difficult to proffer a solution in a few few short lines when it will take academics, politicians and diplomats years to achieve a final cessation of the bloodshed.

A) A media scam that only the media appear to have been taken in by, no one gives a fuck anymore, people are so used to the leaders of this country treating them like shit that they don't even expect different anymore. Less than half of the people who are REGISTERED to vote bother, and that doesn't take into account those that don't register to vote.
We have bred a generation of disaffected youth in this country who feel so removed from the political process that they just give up and I am one of those people, after several years of feeling like I was bashing my head off a brick wall being involved in various marginal groups I realised that no one was going to thank me for stressing myself into an early grave.

N) Hmm. Crap! Utter shite that no one in their right mind would wanna "buy" into. Each successive politician always likes to try and use patriotism as a handy tool to "bind" the consciousness of the "people" together in times of need cue Clinton and Monica Levinsky and dropping bombs in Iraq, for immediate increase in the ratings "war". "Champagne socialism" r whatever you wanna call it is laughable to say the least and a jumped up fuckwit called Blair wooing morons such as Oasis or ex-junkie's (Alan McGee/creation records) to help him out on combating drug problems in our society is a shrewd move, but one that hasn’t worked anywhere. People just aren’t that stupid, despite what we want to believe at times…

ON THE OTHER HAND, THERE SEEMS TO BE HIGHLY POLITICALLY ACTIVE PEOPLE/GROUPS IN THE UK (FOX HUNT SABOTEURS, ALF, GREENPEACE, ETC).  WHY DO YOU THINK THE UK HAS SUCH ACTIVE GROUPS?

A) I wonder if you know the expression 'the grass is always greener on the other side'?

M) I must concur with my colleague Mr Nolan!
It's easy to spend a couple of days in a town or a country, speak to a small group of people and come away with the impression that it's a hot bed of political activity. The truth is quite often far less exciting...

N) The UK has a long history of dissent and protest its true-it goes way back to the Diggers  right up to the present where activists are ripping up Genetically Modified Crops from secret test sights in the UK. The issue of Genetically Modified foods has been exceedingly "hot" just lately, its in the news regularly, and the "crop pullers" as they are known help in this.
Id hazard a guess at the reasons why the UK has had and still does have radical direct action groups is because of a number of reasons (and this is just my opinion.,) -that when Thatcher was in "power" she single-handedly propped up one way of life, whilst destroying another, yet in doing so she had to deal with the rise of new more direct and "spiky" political groups. Spiky meaning going head on with the cops/doing damage to public property/busting into animal testing labs etc. I don’t think however that the UK is any more special or more active than any other countries-the squatting scene in Europe is more widespread than in the UK, (and that’s partly to do with the political environment & laws), but having said that-the scene as such is facing a grim future-the gentrification of most major cities with squatting communities for the millennium means mass eviction, and pitch battles with the cops…

COMMUNICATION SEEMS TO BE AN UNDERLYING THEME THAT COMES UP QUITE A BIT IN EBOLA LYRICS.  HOW BIG OF AN ISSUE DO YOU THINK COMMUNICATION IS IN THIS DAY AND AGE?  IT SEEMS MANY SO PEOPLE HAVE SHUT THEMSELVES OFF FROM FEELING AND SHARING WITH OTHERS, IS THERE ANY HOPE IN CHANGING THIS ANTI-SOCIAL ASPECT OF OUR BEHAVIOR?  HOW BIG A ROLE DOES THE SOCIETY WE LIVE IN PLAY A ROLE IN OUR COLLECTIVE LACK OF COMMUNICATION?

M) It's easy to talk about communicating with people, but actually having a meaningful dialogue is something different. I communicate with lots of people in my daily life but I don't want to share my inner feelings with them. I only really want to do that with people who I empathise with.
I wish there were more people that I empathised with!!!

I think we realise that everyone has problems articulating themselves, or broaching difficult subjects, that's part of the socialistaion process which we all undergo from the day we are born. In Britain, though perhaps not so much in other European countries, people are not encouraged to speak out, to voice there opinions or to show there emotions. While people may joke about the traditional British reserve or the British stiff upper lip, it is not the societal norm to do these things things. This would be seen as a sign of weakness. I suppose to a certain extent we are challenging this in our lyrics, and sometimes we are addressing specific situations which have arisen.

(K) I come from Belgium but have lived in the UK for the last 8 years. Communication is an important aspect of my life 'cos my home country operates on 2 languages which is crazy as Belgium is very small. There is and has been a major language war ongoing in Belgium for years which has destroyed friendships and day to day life for some.

N) Communication is vital ( and it seems ludicrous to say that)…if people don’t speak to each other then were all fucked (some would argue we already are…).Communication would appear to be a very big issue-we have the pushing by industry of e-mail and the internet for example and this in turn fosters the image of a society shut off and in boxes, glued to screens talking to people who we will never meet, this may not mean that we cannot feel or share with others but it does add to the overall image of the individual or collective societal alienation/disenfranchisement which  can be manifested in the consumption of junk food, sports clothes, cars, houses/consumer goods etc. We live in hope as there's no other way of making life possible or tolerable, if there was no hope there would be no point in doing absolutely fucking anything!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 'BIGGER' PUNK BANDS WITH A MESSAGE?  DO YOU THINK THAT COMPROMISING YOUR PRINCIPLES ABOUT MAJOR LABELS IS A NECESSARY EVIL IN ORDER TO REACH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE?  OR DOES THE MESSAGE EVENTUALLY GET WATERED DOWN?

M) I've lifted this answer whole sale from our interview in No Bar Codes Necessary as I don't really think I can improve on it!
”Of course if I was that serious about  getting my message across I’d sign to EMI and smash the state from  within. Sssshhhh! Can you hear the sound of capitalism crumbling to the sound track of a second rate punk Black Lace singing “Agadoo” for  the nineties?
Should bands stand by what they write? Well surely if it was long time  ago and they were naive enough to believe that DIY ethics were an  integral part of their Anarchist beliefs then we shouldn’t hold that against them in the white heat of Blaireite pragmatism which found  them jumping into bed as corporate whore to the demon they so vilified  on the “Revolution” 7”.

Capitulation more like."

I'll include a few subtitles for the hard of thinking. This is sarcasm.

Ebola do not support corporate rock & punk rock, if that's what you do then that's your business, but we have no more interest in your activities than we have the activities of Boyzone or 911.

A) It doesn't affect my life in the slightest, people can do what they want as long as they're not fucking with people they should have respect for. I have no interest in being another marketable commodity in a long line of other music products, but if that's what someone else wants, fair enough. I don't understand the obsession with who's sold out and who hasn't, it doesn't matter, it doesn't affect you, lead by example, not by whining all the time.
I note with interest that Chumbawamba's message of 'I am a time bomb, a ticky-ticky time bomb' (such lyrical genius!) has successfully been accepted by a wider audience and as a result workers own the means of production in this country now.

N) Not interested!

IN THE EXPLANATION TO THE SONG 'SCREAM INSIDE', YOU MENTION THAT DRUGS AND ALCOHOL ARE OFTEN USED AS AN ESCAPE, AND EVEN A SLOW WAY OF KILLING YOURSELF.  HOW DOES EACH OF YOU PERSONALLY FEEL ABOUT DRUGS AND ALCOHOL? DOES EVERYONE DRINK? OR IS ANYONE 'STRAIGHT EDGE'?

M) As I said in one of the earlier questions, when I wrote Scream inside I wasn't particularly trying put across an anti drugs or drink message more just cautioning against excessiveness and obsessiveness in all things. I was particularly trying get the point across that while people should try to live our lives in keeping with their political opinions they shouldn't set themselves a code of ethics which they can never hope to achieve. Life is about choosing compromises that you can live with, not about beating yourself up about things that you can not change.

The bands attitude to alcohol consumption is that if people want to drink, then providing their behavior when drinking doesn’t cause problems to others then that is their business.

I have every respect for people who don’t drink providing that they are open minded enough not to make value judgements on me when I drink. I hate stupid drunken people as much as any straight edger ever could. As the old proverb says “most people like a drink, but no one likes a drunk”

I really don’t like people who smoke near me and I hate playing in smoky venues as cigarette smoke really fucks up my sinuses. Read the lyrics to smoke screen from our “Imprecation” 7

I don’t think that there is anything wrong with being straight edge as long as you are not a hard-line pro-life homophobic fuck.

As far as drugs go I have no interest in them. I have seen a few friends get totally fucked up by Heroin, one is still fucking himself up now, the others are sadly dead. It's easy to pontificate about junky scum but when it affects your friends and family see how you react then.

A) I've had much needed extended periods of abstinence from drugs and alcohol, but I'm not straight edge, if you're not now you never were, as I believe the saying goes.
Alcohol and drugs are ALWAYS used as an escape, show me someone that says otherwise and I'll show you a liar.
How do I feel about drugs and alcohol? Well, Glasgow, where I live, has a massive problem with alcohol and heroin abuse and it's incredibly easy to stereotype the people you see everyday on the street, utterly wasted at 8am, or trying to recap a needle whilst walking up a busy shopping street whilst smacked up to the eyeballs, but sometimes you have to reappraise your belief and value system when people you are close to are also heroin addicts and alcoholics.
Every single heroin addict and alcoholic is to someone out there a lover, sister/ brother, best friend, son/ daughter, ex guitarist in one of Europe's most celebrated bands or whatever, just a 'real' person, not just a symptom of a wider social ill.
To despise a person because of one aspect of their life is something I just can't bring myself to do any more and sometimes it just gets too close for comfort and the desired reaction is to run away from the world and pretend this shit only ever happens to other people, but it doesn't and not one single day goes by when I wish it WAS the kind of shit you only hear about from other people and see in government sponsored health education adverts.
It's too easy to condemn when you can reduce people to convenient scapegoats, but when we live in a society that doesn't value people, that doesn't give most people a reason to get out of bed in the morning, you have to look long and hard at individual reasons for being a substance user, not to say that an individual is free from the responsibility of their own actions, they are not. It's just that it seems to me that the most disadvantaged section of society are either suffering from long term chronic mental health problems, or are opiate users. The way our health care system treats people who have problems relating to opiate (ab)use is so unethical, it's almost as if the system wants these people to die. The way we, as a society on the whole and at all levels, treat people with long term chronic mental health problems sickens me.

N)I like drinking, Micky likes making and fetishising about beer [ M) By this Nick means that I am a bit of a sad boring git ! I'm interested in discovering new and different types of beers, brewing  and brewing history. I brew my own beer using a full mash not crappy home brew kits], Set doesn’t drink, Karin likes red wine and Andy well I don’t know. SXE is fine with me, I've long gone past the tired view of drunks Vs SXE…I don’t fuck with “them”, so I expect the same in return. Drinking is a release/relaxant and to be honest I don’t drink near as half as much as I used to-my body wont take it. Yes its an escape-but at least to me it’s a “sociable” one, I got sick of  hash/hashheads, being apathetic and stupid, wrecking my house and glorifying the ‘sacred weed’. I ALSO GOT SICK OF STARING AT THE FUCKING TV and the same four walls night after night. Id argue that for me smoking became anti-social, in the sense that I couldn’t go out, talk to people because I got so fucking paranoid and unable to speak…may sound daft to hardened smokers out there, but I don’t give a shit. It’s boring. So id rather go out to the pub or a bar and talk to my friends and see whats going on rather than sit inside being a fucking stoner.
I recently wrote some lyrics about drug (heroin) use, as someone very close to me had been battling to come off, successfully did so and turned to god….

WHAT ARE THE FUTURE PLANS FOR EBOLA?  I HEARD ABOUT A SPLIT 7" WITH SERVITUDE THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE COMING OUT, BUT THAT WAS A WHILE AGO, IS IT >>STILL HAPPENING?

(K) yes, the split with Servitude will be out soon on Clean Plate. The Ebola songs kind off resemble a confused and chaotic patch in the Ebola history, it sounds fucked up 'cos we felt fucked off at the time. For the future we have been practicing a fair bit lately and have 10 songs together now. We will be playing our first gig in December with the Japanese band Hellchild and we all really look forward to it. We will be touring Europe in late May and hope to visit Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, and maybe Russia.

N) Yes that split 7" should be out any time now (August/Sept 99), and then the Imprecation 7" is being re-released by me and Sned soonish. After that were recording for a new 7" and split 7" w/Red Monkey, both to be released on the label I do (enslaved) and most likely in conjunction with a few other labels. We shall see.

M) The Clean Plate 7" should be out by the time this fanzine hits the street. It's a pretty angry sounding, mightily pissed off piece of plastic...so if you thought the "Imprecation" 7" was too noisy don't bother buying this!
We haven't played a gig for twelve months due to problems of one sort or another, and as Karin says we will be playing in December and hope to be touring in Scandinavia, Czech, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia, Poland,  Czech, Germany Holland etc.
We hope to get back into the studio before the end of the year to record the records Nick mentions, and then we'll start writing some new stuff in an effort to coax one particular band out of semi retirement!!!
Intrigued?
Tough...you'll just have to wait and see what happens!!!

ARE THERE ANY NEW BANDS FROM THE UK THAT YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO?  ANY BANDS THAT DESERVE MORE ATTENTION BUT DON'T GET IT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PUNK COMMUNITY?

A) Scalplock from Essex rule, they have a load of records coming out and have just recorded an LP for Sound Pollution and are doing a 7" on Slap a Ham next year. John Holmes are a Flat Earth super group and I guess they're pretty well known, or will be soon, outside of Europe. Canvas from Leeds do a good mix of Heavy Metal and noise electronics, a bit like Converge and Creation is Crucifixion crossed with mid period Carcass, but without the fast parts, their CD on Householdname sucks though. Red Right Hand sound like a cross between the noisier side of Swans and Grief, pretty punishing, I don't think they've recorded their LP for Contrition yet. Sawn Off, my old band, are still about with a new line up and better than ever just now, remind me of good DRI mixed with Mob 47 just now. Minute Manifesto are ex Ebola and sound like The Stupids meets Asshole Parade, they have a split out with my other band, Shank.
If anyone cares about electronic noise (which is more my thing) then I would recommend Noise/ Girl, Mlehst, Joshua Norton Cabal (me, but I'm cheap when it comes to self promotion) Jerstice and Putrifier.

N) Minute Manifesto for example. They don’t play out as much as they used to, which annoys me a hell f a lot. They did a split 7” with Shank for me, and will be doing another split 12” with Urko. We shall see what happens with them.
Also-its not like the European scene has died or anything, but only now were reading in American magazines about how great that “German metal” sound is-when its been a staple part of European HC for years! I think there is definitely a problem that Europe gets snubbed in favor of the new ‘hip thing’ in America-when the scenes over here are less populated and harder to keep together. I take a special issue with bands who do decide to drop everything to record for ‘hip’ American labels-which are fairly vacuous in their intentions. Make your own fucking records and work at what you do… records going through chain stores for £10  ain’t hip to me, sounds like the smell of compromise in the vain hope of credibility which may or may not have come by efforts on their own parts…who knows? And also why is it that I remember reading a review of one of the TOTALITAR 7”s released in America which said something along the  lines of “its great to see bands such as these now getting the attention they so deserve”…what? From American labels? After 100’s of people had been to their shows (gigs), bought their records, and released records  by themselves, were supposed to be grateful that and American label can give them the helping hand, the seal of approval, so that now they will be “big”. IM not American bashing-IM just curious about how European/Scandinavian/Japanese/Canadian/WORLD bands seem to need American approval before they’re deemed “great”. It sucks and we should be supporting our scenes and questioning such mindsets.

M) Following on from what Nick has written, karin and I were in California when this years Fiesta Grande was happening and the hype surrounding Fuck On The Beach was unbelievable...if you'd have asked most of the rest of the people there to name any other current Japanese bands they probably wouldn't have had a clue. However because Chris Dodge says they're cool everyone is falling over themselves to go and see them. This isn't the fault of Slap A Ham, Chris Dodge or FOB but is kind of symptomatic of the US's attitude to foreign punk and hardcore I.e. "if it isn't from here it's crap, unless >it's..."
I got into an argument with one guy who was insisting that Stack were the best band in Europe and that only German bands were any good! Don't get me wrong I think Stack are great, and I'm really pleased that they have reformed, but that guy had his head in his ass! There are loads of great bands in Europe of varying different styles and I really think that it's time that the great American punk and hardcore public stopped waiting to be spoon fed the latest trend by hip labels.
Before people start bombarding me with emails,  I know there are a lot of people who are passionately interested in punk and hardcore on a world wide level and who know there Asmodinas Leichenhaus from there Pangs of Remorse or Romantic Gorilla (3 fine bands).

HOW CAN PEOPLE REACH EBOLA?

M) Via our P.O. Box:
P.O. Box 54, Heaton, Newcastle on Tyne, NE6 5YW, UK
via our regularly updated and exciting web site at:
http://www.gibboncore.demon.co.uk  which features news fanzine interviews, live photo's etc,
or by email: ebola_band_mail@gibboncore.demon.co.uk

Sadly we don't have as much time as we'd like to answer letters and e-mails so you might have a long wait.

N) Micky and karin will have given you our PO BOX address, but if anyone wants to speak to me about Ebola/or enslaved or future Ebola releases, get in >touch at: enslaved@records333.freeserve.co.uk.

A) you can get me personally at simian@globalnet.co.uk or via the po box as I >don't have a stable home address just now.

THANKS FOR THE INTERVIEW!!

N) thanks very much-hope you wont regeret it!