Micky) I’m 34 years old and I work as a Housing Officer for a local authority (local government/ council). I work in one of the poorest, most violent and crime ridden area of the North East of England. It’s not the greatest job in the world but the money I earn allows me to do the things I like to do such as be in a Punk/HC band when most people my age have long since grown up!

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 four (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 actualy 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 in a band since then.

Karin) I got into punk about twelve years ago when I heard of a Belgian band called The Dirty Scums, me and my friend went to see them and kind of liked it...my parents really hated me going to places like that so I loved it even more...punk is about partly about “resisting” right? Anyway after a while I heard of bands like Ripcord, Heresy and Infest and really got into the lyrics and “life perspective” which those bands seemed to scream about...

Nick) My name is Nick, Im one of two singers, and one of five people in Ebola. Ive been in the band since 1996. My first ever gig with ebola was supporting Los Crudos (arrgghh) in a pub in Newcastle which is now a pile of rubble. I got into punk/hardcore in approx 1986, through reading the skateboard magazine "thrasher" and in particular Pushead's regular column "the puszone", which spurred me on to track down obscure bits of vinyl from all over the place. Some of my formative "listening" experiences centered around Septic Death, Accused, Sucidal Tendencies, the "Wild Riders Of Boards" compilation (Christ On Parade, Accused, Corrosion Of Conformity..;etc) and "Cleanse The Bacteria"....thats where it all started and Im still into it, yet active (to a certain degree) in the 1in12 Club here in Bradford, putting on gigs, and running a record label & full time distribution.

M) In total I have played guitar in 6 bands. My first band was The Blood Robots (named after an LP by The Androids of Mu), Sned was the other guitarist and Dave who did the crazy drawings on our last 7” played the drums. Of the various other members we had along the way the only two I have any knowledge of, one is a police man and the other is an Lecturer in English. We released two demo tapes and a split flexi disc with another Newcastle band Reality Control.

Next came Generic (named after a Flipper LP. If I had a pound for every person who said to me “I saw your LP in a record shop the other day...” blank look from me “The one with the yellow cover with the big fish on it...” I’d never need to work again!). I see a few of the ex members around the place from time to time. As far as I know only Sned and I are still actively involved. Wizz the singer works as an ambulance driver and Terry the original bass player (and later guitarist after I left) worked as a baker. Terry Played bass in HDQ for a while but I don’t think he’s been in a band since then.
When I was in Generic we released a demo tape (part of which was later re-released as a split 10” with Pleasant Valley Children), the “For Free and Liberated South Africa” 7” and the split LP with the Electro Hippies.

After this I wasn’t in a serious band for about four years concentrating my energies on other things (see question 8).

I eventually was persuaded to form another band by one of my flat mates who played bass, we found a drummer and a violin player and formed a folk punk band called Anything But That. We weren’t that folky but the violin gave the impression that we were. After our second gig our bass player left and a nice young man called Alec came up to me after the gig and offered his services as bass player. We released our demo as a benefit tape for the Poll Tax Rioters and managed a three date UK tour before splitting up.

Alec and I wanted to play harsher and harder music and the others hadn’t the time or the energy to put into the band any more. So Alec and I got in the car and drove down to Leeds to see my old mate Sned and conned him into forming a band with us. One By One was born and so another chapter started in my life. I got to go on tour in Europe for the first time, I met Karin (my partner) who eventually became our singer, I met lots of great people and got to go places and see things which I never would have done otherwise.

One By One faded away some time in 1995 and Ebola came into being around about the same time; both bands were technically in existence at the same time.

K) I played in a band called Per Total in Belgium for a little while and then moved to the UK where I joined One By one, I was really influenced by women vocalists from bands like Pink Turds In Space and Nausea. I enjoyed One By One, met loads of really nice people during our tours but in the end musically and vocally I wanted to do something faster and more brutal... One By One kind of died out and Ebola eventually happened...

M) The songs on the 7” are really what we intended the LP to sound like, it was only our inability to play that fast and the fact that as a band our song writing hadn’t fully matured. We recorded the LP a little too early in our existence and there are some songs on it which we stopped playing live almost immediately afterwards. We originally intended to record a 7” and then when we were in the studio Sned and Alec asked us if we’d be into doing an LP instead and so we just recorded everything. There was a year long gap between recording the LP and the 7”, but we wrote a lot of the songs on the 7” quite soon after the LP. It took us a long time to get back in the studio as our first singer Johnny left after our first European tour. Our New singer Nick lived in Bradford (100 miles away from Newcastle) and then Andy moved away to Glasgow (about a 150 miles in the opposite direction) so practising became more difficult.
We have just recorded some new stuff which is faster and harder again! Some of these ‘new’ songs are now quite old as well!
We have had loads of problems with the band over the last year. We asked our old drummer Chrissy to leave the band after our second European tour as we just couldn’t put up with his behaviour any longer. After this we got a new drummer and things just didn’t work out. Instead of facing up to this we all struggled on and ended up wasting 8 months. We acquired a second guitarist in the middle of all of this (Andy Irvine who used to play guitar in Scatha) but due to a combination of circumstances (namely impending parenthood) he wasn’t able to go on tour with us.
Our new drummer (Skater who used to drum for Bloodshot and still drums in Slain) lives in Aberdeen which is right at the top of Scotland, this means that we now have to practice in Glasgow all the time as it’s the most central point for us.
We haven’t written any new songs since Skater joined about 3 months ago as we were teaching him the songs so we wouldn’t have to cancel our tour of Europe and the UK with Stack.
One day we might get round to recording some stuff which as been written more recently but even that may shock some people as our ideas and influence are constantly changing as a band. Were not really interested whether people like our music or not - we do it for our own enjoyment and if people like it then that’s a bonus.
A lot of people said that the 7” was too fast but perhaps they were expecting a faster nastier One By One rather than Ebola. I don’t see the LP as a kind of stepping stone between One By one and the real Ebola which is the stuff on the 7”. I just think that the LP came a bit too soon for us to have fully developed an “Ebola sound”. The unreleased One By One LP is a lot harder that the previous stuff and I think that if people heard that then they would see that as a stepping stone between One By One and the Ebola LP. Maybe the people that think the 7” is shit should wait and see if the second One By One LP ever comes out as they might like that instead of moaning on to us about how were too fast and noisy for their delicate little ears!

N) As far as I was concerned, when I first heard the LP, it knocked my fucking socks off...it was fast and clocked in at about 15 mins long with 12 songs...then I ended up joining the band a little while later, when some of the newer material was being written which was at that point "smoke screen & "dysphasia". My vocal "style" (ha ha), was always going to be different to Johnathans, and I was nevr into just replicating his style...I wanted to push it further.I think that the change in vocals is blatently obvious from the LP to the 7". Where as for the music, which is by and large written by Andy & Micky, we all get a chance to say what we like/dont like, and considering we all like pretty much the same fast as fuck thrash, I think it was ineveitable that those sounds/speeds would definately creep into the ebola sound. As far as blast beats go, they were on the LP.To be honest I dont care if people dont like us as much as before. Ive never been interested in playing a "trendy style" just to be hip like a lot of the so called "power violence" bands in the US. Ebola started with the intention of playing crazy time change hardcore/thrash and gradually we've progressed and taken on various styles (thats not always apparent when we play live or put out records...). If people dont like it, then they can always go and do somthing else...

M) That tour went really well in the main, there were a few problems, as there usually is but overall it was a good one. Worst gig was Kaiserslautern which was organised by Berny and Ralphy from Stack. The turn out was poor, the venue had no toilets and was covered in anti-women graffiti. Oh and the guy we stopped with was a complete wanker.
The best gigs for me were Vsetin in Czech and Vienna (Wien) in Austria with the mighty Konstruct. I really enjoyed them the most, thought the majority of the other gigs we did were great as well. It was good to get to play with Homo Militia in Lodz (Poland) as well.
We’ve just come back from a new tour, but this time we didn’t have the time to go very far east and spent most of our time in Germany. Our best gig by far on that tour was in Hamburg and the worst was Antwerp. It was the most enjoyable tour I’ve ever done with any band, even though we lost loads of money on the British gigs and I got eaten alive by the mosquitoes in Europe.
We’ve got plenty of good tour stories but I don’t want to give my secrets away here!

K) The September tour last year was really good, the gig in Vsetin was one of the two best gigs during the tour... I loved playing in Poland and your country because it seemed that people were much more into having a fun time... There were also many young people and many women at the gigs.

N) The 97 tour was by and large fucking brilliant! My first ever "euro" tour was bound to be a buzz as Id only ever been on tour in the UK. Theres so many great things that I can remember, from going to Poland and the Czech Republic (places I thought Id never go to) to playing at the legendary Zoro squat in Berlin. I guess it was almost like being in a film at times, viewing the world through a window of a van, it seemed really "cinematic". Also meeting lots of people and making contacts is always fucking great!

M) We all have different ideas about the British scene. I personally think it is very fragmented and sectarian, that people don’t even consider going to see bands that are not part of their scene even if they do enjoy the music and can relate to the ideas of the bands.
I’m not that keen on playing gigs in Britain at all especially not in Newcastle. I don’t mind playing at the 1 in 12 Club but a lot of other places are really crap. In fact the 1 in 12 Club, 120 Rats (Leeds) and the 121 Centre (London) are more like a little piece of Europe in Britain. there are some good places to play in the rest of the UK but England in particular is pretty crap. Britain may be the birthplace of punk but that really only means that there are more dodgy old punks still on the go!

I think the reason why Britain still churns out so many fast and angry bands is because there still plenty of stuff to pissed off about especially in the North and Scotland whereas Southern England seems to be dominated by pop punk pap!
Sadly a lot of people will only come out in any great numbers for US bands and old codger core like Doom or Oi Poloi. British bands are an unenthusiastic second choice and European bands have to be quite well known like Hiatus before people bother their backsides to coming along.

N) I dont think thats strictly true...Living in Bradford, and regularly attending gigs at the 1in12 club, I can safely say that SOME gigs are badly unattended, but not all. Of course, I cant speak for the whole of the UK, but most of the "brutalfastcorethrashcrustbiscuitinwhirlwindhoovesof theapocalypse" type bands do end up playing the club. So I get to see a wide range of people at all of the gigs I go to. In the case of Forca Macabra, I have to admit to being more blown away by Austria's KONSTRUKt who supported them, who totally blew my head off. I didnt know what the hell was going on and it felt like Id taken Acid. By comparison, Forca Macabra didnt cut it. Some gigs are badly attended for a number of reasons, bad publicity, work commitments, or because a band no matter what publicity is given, just isnt interesting to a lot of people. The last time I saw HIATUS, the 1in12 Club was packed! Yeh, supporting the scene, by participation at gigs (or whatever else) is vital for a scene to thrive, ANYWHERE! But on the other hand, if FORCA MACABRA had been American it may have been another story alltogether, because it does STILL seem that people still want to see American bands at the expense of european bands.

N) I think Ive answered this question in no.5!

M) I’ve already answered that to some extent...Belfast and Glasgow are perhaps the only other places Id get really excited about...and Eire as well but that’s not in the UK. I had hoped Nick would tell you more about the 1 in 12 Club seeing as he lives in Bradford!
“The Club” as most people in the know call it has been going for around about ten years now in a converted warehouse.
I first became aware of it through my involvement in the Northern Anarchist Network and the Direct Action Movement (an anarcho-syndicalist organisation) where I came into contact with people who were trying to get the club off the ground.
At the time they didn’t even have the building and were holding benefit gigs in pubs to get enough cash together to get the building. In the end I think the local council gave them the most fucked up and derelict building they could find in the hope that they’d spend so much time trying to put the building back into working order they would have the time to be politically active, also I think the council just wanted to see to see them fail! They didn’t ! and “Club” members are still politically active!Eventually after about two years spent almost completely rebuilding the place the “The Club” finally opened its doors and has managed to stay open ever since. Legally it is run as a Private Members Club but in reality it is more like a co-op and is more or less run as one.
“The Club” has a permanent display with all of this information on it in the bar, but for those people not able to pop down there for a quick pint and a bit of a read then I think my potted history is reasonably accurate.

M) I work as a Housing officer as I said in question 1 but the job has quite a lot of community involvement in it. I work very closely with tenants groups and participate in an Estate Management Committee where the tenants and I try to decide ways which we can improve the quality of life for people living on the estate. This doesn’t always work too well but it is 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 vegan cafe 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 and run a small brewery...however I think that’s not that likely...living in Belgium and Teaching English as Foreign Language might be an option but I don’t have the qualification to do that as yet!
On a totally idealistic level a global revolution on anarcho-syndicalist lines would be pretty tremendous.

K) I work as an engineer for a Japanese company... I like my job because t keeps my mind sane and active but I do not intend to work for the rest of my life.. I would like to see as much places in the world as I can during my life. Sometimes it is also hard to justify my job with my DIY and anti-capitalist ideals...

N) I dont work at all in an "official" manner. I run my record label and its subsequent distribution, which takes up all of my time. I never stop work as I work from home. I enjoy what I do, I dont get paid for it.

M) It depends what you mean by politically active...I’m not involved in any anarchist type political grouping because at the moment I feel that there are none that represent my political viewpoint. Also I don’t really have the time to do much other than educational and propaganda type work as I have a full time job.
As I work for the local government most of the action I would be taking would be against my employer, which would be a quick route to becoming unemployed! I am however a Shop Steward (work place representative) for my Trade Union, and was until very recently also the Health and Safety representative.

I would say that Ebola are a politically aware band and we see the band as propaganda vehicle to a certain extent but the band are not politically active as such. The band takes up so much of our time that even if we didn’t have jobs which prevented us being involved in overtly political activities we probably wouldn’t have the time to do anything.

After I left Generic I became far more heavily involved in anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist politics. I had been pretty involved when I was in Generic but after that I started travelling to meetings all around the country and became far more heavily involved.

I was involved in a group which produced a free anarchist newspaper (Tyneside Free News), which wasn’t really free as we paid for ourselves out of our giros and wage packets! It was around this time that I was involved ion the various co-ops I mentioned in question 7.
I was also briefly involved in the production of an anarcho-syndicalist paper called...can you guess...”The Syndicalist”.
At that time I was heavily involved in strike support work, often getting up at 3 or 4 a.m. to go and lend a hand on picket lines, and then I’d go to work after that!
Iwas also still actively hunt sabbiing at that time and quite often I was torn between conflicting demands on my time and energies.

During this period I spent a month in Spain with some friends and we managed to meet up with the local branch of the CNT who extended their hospitality to us, and we also met up with CNT veterans from the Spanish Civil War which I personally felt very empowering. I figured that if they could still be fighting for a better world in the twilight of their lives then there was no reason why I should pack in!

Eventually the Direct Action Movement decided to reinvent itself as a trade union which I thought, due to it’s size, was ludicrous. Time to leave I thought...eventually I joined Class War as the alternatives were not that inviting. They seemed to be picking up a lot of support from people involved in the punk scene and people who’d become disillusioned with so called revolutionary left wing groups.
There were about four of us in the local group and we became very involved in the national organisation. To the extent that we produced and edited (and almost wholly wrote) an issue of Class War’s theoretical magazine “The Heavy Stuff”.
Eventually I became disillusioned with the centralist tendencies of Class War and in particular became very suspicious of Tim Scargill who went on to become the National Organiser. After this I felt I had to resign or compromise my personal beliefs. I have not since then found any organisation with I would care to associate myself.

Unfortunately my distrust of Tim Scargill was proved to have been well founded as it subsequently turned out that in his youth he had been a member of either the National Front or The British National Party. I have since heard it rumoured that he was an MI5 plant, certainly he was the main influence in pushing for a more centralised power structure in Class War which ultimately led to the break up of the organisation. Perhaps Class War would have died a natural death after certain period of time in any case but I honestly think that the actions of Tim Scargill, whatever his political motivations, brought about it’s untimely demise.

K) I wrote the little piece from the EP because one day it just became clear to me that I was so lucky to be involved in something like punk and hardcore. It also made me realise how hard it is to explain to anybody outside this world what it is like inside it... I mean, I meet tons of new people every year , people write to each other just for fun or to trade things and it’s just amazing... It really made me happy realising this before it was too late, I guess people become disillusioned with the “scene” because they expect so much about it but really there are so many good and powerfull things about that make it all seem fine. The article really didn’t mean any more than... Just think about it, we are so lucky to be part of a group of people all over the world who care and who can do things without the outside world having anything to do with it.

M) Punk is like a revolving door...I realised that a lot of the people involved these days don’t share the same views as I have on vegetarianism, veganism, anti-corporatism, anti -capitalism, co-operatism and anarcho-syndicalism.

I laboured under the misapprehension that everyone who was currently involved in HC/Punk came from the same background as I...listened to Crass records as a kid, got involved in politics and animal rights activities and just happened to like fast music... I have attempted to address this in some of the lyrics on our new split 7” i.e. “Rovers Return” which is an anti hunting song from a different perspective, it’s a true story about a fox hound who is forcibly retired by the hunt with a bullet in the back of the skull.
“Death To The Shit Breed” which points out that if you still eat meat after all the health scares in recent year then you deserve all you get!
“Malevolence” draws links between male violence and the passive acceptance of macho behaviour and pornography which is beginning to creep back into the punk scene.

M) The only bands I remember happily accepting the Britcore tag were bands that went on to become commercially successful to some degree. Whether this was as a result of the publicity they received because of buying into the image or because they always intended to make it big I don’t really know.
Certainly some bands were more than happy to lap up their five minutes of fame, whether they made any money out of I don’t know. Some obviously are still making money out of it. Others had more integrity and didn’t sell their soul to Digby Pearson (the guy who owned Earache before he sold it to Sony) and are in my opinion far more credible for it.

Britcore was a crap music business tag to describe something that just happened as people became influenced by early eighties US Hardcore after listening to Crass and Discharge and decided to have a go themselves. Larm and BGK were also on the go at the same in Holland but no one from the music press decided to invent Dutchcore - yet these bands have as much influence on present day fastcore bands as shitcore ever did.

Generic played with all of these bands and we were friends with some of them.

Daz Russel who organised a couple of the first big Britcore fests at the Mermaid in Birmingham now makes his money organising commercial punk festivals where he persuades crap old punk band to reform and lots of money is made by all apparently...perhaps in years to come he’ll organise crap old Britcore festivals!

Where are they now? Good question!

Nick gives some explanations in question 15, Concrete Sox have also reformed and ENT never (sadly) went away...

N) Britcore was a load of shit, and I remember it quite well, it certainly helped labels like Earache and Peaceville to become the pieces of shit they are now.And cemented the name "Naplam Death" in the minds of teenage metallers and middle aged mums. It was a contrived exercise in a certain uk music paper to hype and make a scene happen, with which it was later destroyed and ridiculed. The funny thing is, the paper end up going broke! Also, one of the reasons why I remember "shitcore" was because it happened shortly after I got into punk and one of the main influeneces or "mentor's" on me at that time was a guy called Reevsy, who started Heresy, but had left them (under a black cloud!) before Id met him. Unfortuanetly my mum wouldnt let me go and see any of the bands at that stage as I was too young! In fact I think the first ever punk band I saw was EXIT CONDITION (who had a 7" on Pusmort) who shared a guitarist with BROKEN BONES (yuk!). I missed out on some great bands, Christ On Parade, Soulside & Government Issue to name a few.

M) Active minds are old friends... I used to love it when they used to stop at my house after gigs and Id keep them up all night arguing about politics and music until their coach home was due! In the end I think they even stopped bringing sleeping bags as they knew I wouldn’t let them get any sleep! They are two of the nicest caring and intelligent people I’ve ever met...but I don’t agree with them on a number of things...CD’s is not really one of them though.

CD’s are crap. I much prefer vinyl for punk records, classical music and jazz are better on CD, but punk music on CD is a complete waste of time. Karin and I have only just succumbed to buying a CD player within the last six months due mainly to the impossibility in Britain of getting some stuff on vinyl anymore. I think the only excuse for Punk/HC CD only releases, or Punk/HC CD releases at all, is discography CD’s. Funnily enough I hope to put out a Generic CD discography in the next twelve months and I can justify that as it wouldn’t all fit on one record...and when you think of all the more useful things you can do with a piece of plastic than make a record out of it...!!!

N) CD's? Shite. Active Minds? Shite. But of course Im only joking about the latter....I dont particularly like CD's, but at the same time they arent going to go away overnight. Its a fact that "younger" people today do have their first contact through buying/listening to music via the Cd format, and if they have a stereo system that doesnt have a record palyer (like so many do nowadays...) then they're gonna buy Cd's or tapes.
I own a CD player (6 months old) and have a few CD's but Id rather own vinyl over CD's anyday.
I also sell CD's through my distro, but always try to get the Vinyl format over CD's. Sometimes I sell both, so its accessible to all. I also try and keep the prices low on them. Good music doesnt have to be expensive music!

Active Minds are good people and definately stick by what they say and as is often the case take a lot of flack for sticking their necks on the line. But to me thats what punk is about, and Ive done a fair amount amont of that myself. And to an extent I think Ebola is considered a boring "right on/PC" band because we do voice our opinions about things that concern/affect us. Instead of just wanting to "fuck shit up in the pit" when we play. If you want that kind of thing, go to a metal gig. Or a Sick Of It All/Agnostic Front gig. I dont consider that kind of hardcore to be a part of the DIY scene or my world at all. Macho pricks=fuck off.
Anyway, gone off on a tangent there...(as per usual..), I resisted the CD "menace" (ha ha) for years, and I think we can all say we've seen the demise of the "record shop" in the UK. Theyre few and far between, and usually on the edge of bankruptcy. CD's have taken over! Record shops are now a sea of mediocrity, instead of a sea of excitement. There are a number of arguements for and against CD's, but for me, I buy them rarely (for Jazz music for example..). Theyre a symptom of something larger, its your choice to support that or not....

K) When One By One toured the USA we met so many lovely people, and really I came to the conclusion that no matter where you are there will always be the common language called “punk”, everybody understands what it stands for (apart from the stupid Exploited [exploited] drunk punks who really do not have a clue what punk stands for). People really looked after us when we were over there, the gigs were good particularly the all ages gigs. I can only say that I don’t think any different about HC and punk over there than over here, my favourite band ever comes from the states....

M) I thought I’d hate the states when we went over there, but I thought it was great. Most of the people we met were really cool, we played with some cool bands and had a great time.
It wasn’t really that much different from Europe, other than the architecture, lack of a language barrier and a common currency. It made me realise how Americanised Europe has become, and how a European Superstate will perhaps only be differentiated from the US Superpower by their wealth and the fact that we have better beer and some of us put mayonnaise on our chips!

I don’t have a problem with releasing our records on a US label as we we’ll either release it here or make sure its readily available through us and the usual DIY distro’s.

13. Yeh, its called "Enslaved", and weve done 4 7"s to date with a fifth coming out in a month or so. This is what weve put out so far: Manfat/Hard To Swallow: split 7", The End Of The Century Party: Songs Dances Drums 7", Slain/State Of Filth: split 7", Suffer/Urko: split 7" and soon the Minute Manifesto/Shank split 7". Lots of split 7"s and only one full length 7" by EOTCP...but we arent in a position to offer or afford to pay for LP's or recordings, so we have to do it as cheap as possible. This is one of the reasons why I do split label releases with other labels such as Flat Earth, Smack In The Mouth, Boy Useless & Refusenik. It makes it cheaper, and theres an element of co-operation and input from all involved which is how it should be. We say we're DIY, some might think we're not...but Ill kick anyones ass who says so! When you have to be good at 10-15 jobs to do this kind of thing, I think thats DIY. And to me, DIY is about taking back as many aspects of control into our lives as possible. And with so many bands using the DIY underground to move on to bigger and better things (as happened during "Britcore"), its up to individuals or the "scene as a whole" to take responsibility and tell those bands to fuck off.

NB at this point the fact that Andy's Answers are missing is quite apparent!!!
If you want to know what he said write to Filip!!!

M) I’m not that up on AFA these days but the Anti Nazi League have always been a recruiting arm of the Socialist Workers Party. Ironically few members of this organisation remain socialist after they’ve left college, fewer still work, and all they seem to do other than sell papers and tell people how to live there lives is to go to student party’s! A little unfair perhaps as there is a small number of decent people in the SWP and some genuine anti fascist in the ANL.

However the SWP disbanded the ANL in the early 1980’s as it said that fascism had been defeated and was no longer a threat (!?!) and that the best way to fight fascism was to join the SWP(!?!).

Predictably a few years ago as numbers in the SWP were beginning to decline and their lack of anti-fascist activity was being made more obvious by the actions of AFA, Class War and Red Action they decided it was time to reform the ANL!

M) I have never had any interest in any of these bands other than the UK Subs who I stopped liking when their guitarist threw a dead cat into the audience when they played in Newcastle.

None of these bands reformed for any reason other than for the money that people like Daz Russell are happy to pay them. Its quite obvious that Daz, or Darren as likes to be known as now, makes a nice little living from this. DIY Punk? I think not...these people are about as punk as a bank manager!

If I want to spend time with a load of anti social drunken sexist racist homophobic chaos punks who want to beat my head in, or the pathetic apologists who hang round with them and aren’t quite as overtly offensive, then I don’t need to bother travelling all the way to Nottingham. There’s more than enough idiots here in Newcastle. Not all people who go to “Punx Picnics” are like this of course but a lot are, so I’d rather spend my time doing other things than sitting in a park watching people sniff glue, drink cider, vomit and get arrested.

N) Yeh, Nottingham & the Derby Punx Picnics have been going for years. I nearly moved to Nottingham 2 years ago, but Im glad I didnt. It seems to me to be full of bloody poseurs and idiots!

The UK bands that have reformed like the Varukers? I dont really care, it doesnt affect me in the slightest, though there has been a lot of this "reforming" thing going on just lately...maybe Generic will reform when Flat Earth coughs up a huge pay check?

The Varukers were going to play with RATOS DE PORAO at the 1in12 Club, but someone told the Varukers to fuck off cus they were "capitalists" or something or other, so we all missed out on RDP!

RIPCORD have also reformed and two ex HERESY members have a new band called 666 Dead.

M) In the greater scheme of things perhaps not so much. If my memory of history lessons serves me right; Czechoslovakia existed for about 15 to twenty years prior to WW1 and then was enlarged under the Treaty of Versailles which later gave the third Reich the excused to annexe part of the country (the Sudetenland/Saar) which included the majority of mineral wealth and industry and more importantly the fixed border defences. This made things quite easy for the subsequent invasion. This is mentioned a little in “Strategically Unimportant”.

More recently I know that following the collapse of the “State Communist” system the “Velvet Revolution” brought Václav Havel (a leading playwright and dissident) to the presidency. After this the country split into Czech and Slovakia.

I know little of the economics or politics of the country.

I know a little about the football clubs of Czech.

I know from the video I have seen “Punks in Prague” that there is a growing fascist problem and that quite a lot of people who were punks became nazi skins.

I know that there is quite thriving punk scene in Czech but not so many bands playing brutal fastcore stuff other than “Mrtva Budocnost” and “Pangs of Remorse”.

I know that the Czechs were heavily involved in the development of bottom fermented (cold fermented) beers, and were the first to develop Pilsener beer which has become a much abused style in Western Europe. Is that enough?

N) That the people we met there last year were fucking brilliant. That everything there was Unbelievably cheap and that the country itself was very beautiful! I am sorry, Im a thick English wanker. Thats all I know having only been once. I know something of the political events, but Im not going to embarrass myself in trying to show you how much I dont know. Filip, why not tell us of what its like in Czech ReP?

K) Thank you for giving ebola the chance to talk, you will regret when you see how long our responses are.... hello to the lovely ladies and boys we met last year...we will hopefully come and visit you again... take care.

M) I really enjoyed playing Czech and Poland last year and I hope that we will get the opportunity to play there again. It was nice to go to places that you would never get the chance to visit if you weren't in a band. The people were a lot more enthusiastic than people in Western Europe who are far too spoilt in more ways than one. Take care, stay free, and most importantly have fun.

N) We just recorded 5 songs for a split 7" on Clean Plate with a band called SERVITUDE who feature some folks from Deformed Conscience. That should be out this year. We're also on an upcoming comp on Bad Card Records/France with lots of trendy US/Japanese "power violence" bands...And god knows what else. Thanks for the interview, take care!