Anja Huwe Republica Da Musica Lisbon 31st May 2025

 

I have posted a few Xmal Deutschland gigs on Aural Sculptors in the past but this is the first post of solo material from Anja Huwe (although I have plugged her recent album 'Codes' a couple of times). Anja has only recently started touring again and her set is a mixture of material from 'Codes' and Xmal Deutschland songs. 

I was trying to fathom what is is that draws me to Anja and Xmal and I came to the conclusion that what she/they do represents a hybrid of punk/post punk and electronic music that sits quite neatly in the midst of my musical preferences, although primarily, then and now their conventional band set up is augmented by keyboards, rather than them being an electronic band as such.

I also like the fact that Xmal material and much of Codes is sung in German. Songs sound better in the language that they were written in I think, more often than not, something gets lost in translation and the songs suffer as a result. I have all of Kraftwerk's albums in English and German but by preference listen to the German language versions. And the thing is I don't even speak German (despite having a half German wife).

I must get to see Anja Huwe somewhere soon. 

This one is from Chatts, so many thanks as always for the share! Please note that this is a 24 bit version so will need to be converted to 16 bit if you want to burn it.

Anja Huwe

Republica Da Musica, Lisbon 31st May 2025

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Zvahtu8eq1

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-i8H3XBADTY

Flamin' Groovies/Ramones/The Stranglers Roundhouse London 4th July 1976 Review (New Musical Express 10th July 1976)

CORRECTION: 

It has rightly been pointed out the Battle of Dingwalls could not have occurred post gig on 4th July since the Clash playing the Black Swan in Sheffield that night. A little more digging reveals that the incident took place in Monday 5th July when Ramones headlined Dingwalls. This date is confirmed in the gigography included in Monte Melnick's book 'On The Road With The Ramones' and in George Gimarc's 'Punk Diary 1970-1979'.

The appearance of Ramones at Dingwall's may have been a last minute arrangement as NME's gig listing's for that week do not include an entry for Dingwalls, a venue that was routinely included in the newspaper's weekly listings.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of punk which means that the 250th anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence. 50 years ago London marked the bicentenary (the maths here is quite simple) with a gig at the Roundhouse in Camden.

It was an odd billing that 4th July. According to the article below the headliners (Flamin' Groovies) had not played in the UK since 1972. In support were Ramones (playing their first UK gig that night) and a belligerent 'London pub band' called The Stranglers - not yet known for their anti-American sentiments at that stage (one can only assume!).

Below is a review of the gig that appeared in the 10th July 1976 issue of New Musical Express. It was the summer of '76, the year of a heatwave that is scorched into the memory of anyone who remembers it. Unbearable heat is the impression that reviewer Max Bell is looking to convey in the opening remarks of his piece. Rather than being off putting, the idea of seeing The Stranglers at an early prestige gig like this (and an infamous one to boot) in an atmosphere described as 'a malignantly swampy sweat box' is appealing beyond imagination!

The Stranglers have according to the writer improved tremendously and as such the writer views the band favourably, although the memory of threatened violence may also have come into play somewhat in this different view. Still, compared to his view of the Ramones, The Stranglers come across as virtuoso musicians.

It is funny to think that whatever their musical shortcomings in the summer of 1976, by the end of 1977 both The Stranglers and Ramones would have sold out headline shows at the Roundhouse.

As I transcribed this review I took an opportunity to listen to the Flamin' Groovies, the 'legendary' headliners on the night. Previously, I had knowingly only heard 'Shake Some Action' and guided also by the fact that the review stated that most of the material played that night was lifted from their 1976 album of the same name that's what I picked. It's very pedestrian in my view (but I like the Ramones so what do I know!!)... The Beatles tamed by the California sun. Max Bell loved them but interestingly made reference to The Beatles and The Byrds.... very much to my point.

As mentioned earlier, this was the UK debut of the much vaunted Ramones. Mark P had raved about their album in Sniffin' Glue, so it was only natural that all of the players in the nascent British punk scene were in attendance on the night in order to check out the Stateside competition.

After the gig, band members from both stage and audience decamped to Dingwalls, a club a few hundred meters away at Camden Lock. Born from a misunderstanding, JJ Burnel punched Clash bass player Paul Simonon in a fight that spilled out into the clubs courtyard. By all accounts it escalated too into something resembling a Western brawl as the simmering rivalries within a small London scene boiled over into fisticuffs. Accounts of the incident also have it that, whilst drinking together and looking down upon the fracas, Joe Strummer said to Hugh Cornwell 'looks like my bass player and your bass player are not getting on too well' or words to that effect. This was also the moment when Dave Greenfield was said to have John Lydon pinned up against the side of a van, the idea of which is very gratifying!

The incident in part put an end to any fraternal feeling that may have existed in the scene up to that point.... and it was only July 1976!

Bands in Town (4th July 1976)

(r-l: Johnny Ramone, Johnny Rotten, Dee Dee Ramone and the soon to be clumped Paul Simonon)

New Musical Express 10th July 1976

Maybe it was no accident that the hottest, steamiest, dirtiest night of the year was reserved for July 4. It’s not every day that we get to see one bona fide legendary band, and a squad of recherché New York punksters gunning for similar status, and a home grown outfit who exhibit enough moody madness to take them somewhere close to the pinnacle of nasty infamy, all playing on the same bill in one of the seediest halls in London.

The Roundhouse on Sunday came neat to being a malignantly swampy sweat box as any auditorium I have ever set foot in. The general consensus was that it was too damn hot to rock, let alone roll, so all credit to the performers and audience who stood it out to the finish. In between times the atmosphere congealed into globules of body-stained condensation, the chic were forcibly unrobed, and the young female worthies were seen bearing their ample chests for the cause.

Personally I hadn’t had so much fun in ages, though bending an ear to the post-soiree in-talk revealed that everybody was of that opinion. Still, if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. It doesn’t do to be over critical on a night when anyone with an ounce of common would have been soaking in the freezer, and certainly not rocking in the sprawl and stench of fifteen hundred human incinerators fusing to one solid liquid mass.

First to set out into the sauna were London pub band The Stranglers, who I’ve been rather scathing about in the past. What with them threatening to employ sundry kinds of physical violence about my person, and the fact that they’ve improved tremendously of late, they did their thing with a vengeance. Rotating ideas around a sub-Doors vibration, they rattled through “Down In The Sewer”, “Grip” (possibly a single for Arista soon), “Walk On By”, and my own fave “School Ma’am”, where guitarist Hugh Cornwell simulates a distressingly convincing auto strangulation, and bass player Jean Jacques Burnel turns into a lunatic.

They received a much more polite response than that at the recent Patti Smith gigs, where the crowd were plain rude in their impatience to see them off and back in the changing room. If they keep on driving the same levels of monotony, and pulling off the choice gigs that they’ve acquired of late they should get the deserved break.

Armpits lay soggy on the slippery floor and the buzz settled into a hum of expectancy for the band we’ve all heard a deal of recently, Manhattan’s own Ramones, who were…  absolutely hilarious. I reckon they’re closer to a comedy routine than a rock group.

They succeeded in dividing opinion into believers and open ridicule. The guys on the mixer hated them and The Ramones hated the guys on the mixer back. I laughed solidly for half an hour particularly when on taking the stage , bass player Dee Dee Ramone’s mike farted into silence before a note had been mangled.

“More fuckin’ power!” he yelled. “Piss off!” yelled the knob twiddlers.

“Dese tings shoulda been woiked oit before” retoted Dee Dee petulantly.

The Ramones left huffily to a barrage of slow hand claps and jeering, only to return five minutes later with their problems far from resolved. I don’t think Dee Dee noticed. He is possibly the most half-witted specimenI’ve ever seen hulk over the golden boards. Him and guitarist Johnny side swipped their rented Marshalls like the fourth and fifth sleepers while singer Joey flapped around centre in a fair impersonation of Batroc. When he stood sideways I couldn’t see him at all. 

Thing is about The Ramones is you either take them in the intended spirit, or you go home. The appeal is purely negative, based on their not being able to lay a shit or give a shit. The thinking process involved in evaluating their performance is non-existent; it’s first step moronorock strung across a selection of imbecilic adolescent ditties whose sole variation lies in the shuffling of three chords into some semblance of order . They were still oodles more exciting than the majority of bands who usually throw up our collective amusement, even if the songs are indistinguishable. “Blitzkrieg Bop” became “Loudmouth” became “53rd & 3rd. Durrrgh.

Thirty minutes was enough to get across cos, like Nick Kent said, they could be too heavy for even the hardest punk fan. Their singer is closer to a stick of well salivated chewing gum than a human being, though he was the only one man enough to keep his leather jacket on ‘til the bitter end.

And finally the raison d’etre for melting four hours! The Flamin’ Groovies, as much San Francisco as The Ramones are peeled off the streets of Noo Yoik, and they were terrific.

What no one seems to realise is that The Groovies, despite their mythic status, are not a live force in the States. This was the first gig they’d played since ’72, when on climaxing their poorly handled trip (also at the Roundhouse) things were so grievous that the roadies employed for the occasion refused to give them their guitars or set up the equipment. Despite their magnificence, the Groovies didn’t quite satiate the audience. The reason for this were two-fold.

Firstly, unlike The Ramones, they can play properly. With the excessive heat this necessitated tuning up after nearly every number, because guitars aren’t made of tissue paper and need to sound just right if you’re unleashing a set as tightly constructed as their new material requires. Some people lost patience with this, and the Groovies’ not looking ‘heavy’.

They wear sixties suits and Annello and Davide Cuban healed Beatle Boots instead which is professional, smart and cute. It fits.

Secondly, they didn’t play their older material and a lot of folk wanted “Teenage Head” stuff. Understandable: I did myself, but then very few people bought those records when they came out (four hundred copies of “Married Woman”?) and they don’t owe their previous landlords anything by way of a plug. So they did mostly “Shake Some Action” tunes, perfectly, and those are lighter, in a Byrds, Lennon and McCartney vein, rather than greased lightening rockers.

I still don’t think it was necessary to make allowances for the change. Cyril Jordan remains unsurpassed as an exponent of the Wes Montgomery, James Burton and Sun style of pickers. He is a technician with a feel for electric guitar that is virtually unequalled. His solos on the numbers that took the roof off – the Pretty Things classic “Big City” or Paul Revere and the Raiders “Ups And Downs” – were magic. The band assault on “Please Please Me”, “I Can’t Hide” and “Miss Amanda Jones” were characterised by a type of controlled ferocity that only evolves after years of practise and a genuine understanding of the whole ball game. The Groovies are working within a vacuum because they, along with Earth Quake and Loose Gravel represent the last of a dying breed, remaining criminally unrewarded for services over and beyond the typical delineations of rock ‘n’ roll (more on that same in interview next week).

But this is no time for getting dewy-eyed. They came, played, and conquered in the grand manner, with a panache that supererogates either nostalgia or progressive deliberation. Chris Wilson sings different to Roy A. Lonely, bassist George Alexander is brick solid as ever, and James Farrell’s 1940’s National cuts another bag of ice to Tim Lynch’s lead of old, so it’s another band. Drummer David Wright is crisper and less demonic than his predecessor, Danny Mihm.

You don’t need to have any specialised input into the machinery of the animal to notice that “Shake Some Action” had a fire and spontaneity missing from the average practitioners’, or that “House Of Blue Lights”, and the encores “Married Woman” and “Under My Thumb” reminded one of the days when rock was special all across the board.

When Jordan reached for his microphone, dripping beneath the lights, and said “I recall momma saying to poppa – “Let that boy rock ‘n’ roll” he’d hit upon the core. The Groovies are doused in the stuff.

Postscript:

The Ramones set is here on Youtube. Clearly there are some technical issues but the band sound OK, they sound like.... well The Ramones!

The Damned BBC 6 Music Session 26th January 2026

 

So, keeping on a theme of '60s cover versions here is a BBC 6 Music radio session that The Damned did for the Marc Reilly and Gideon Coe show in Salford last month enroute to their 'covers' gig at the Albert Hall in Manchester. I have said it on these pages before that I love a radio session. They are a snapshot of where a band is at at a given moment and the songs, as live performances, are the perfect partners to their studio counterparts. Moreover, it is often the case, for both bands and fans alike, for session versions be be superior to their studio versions... being more spontaneous, edgy, quirky, whatever.

The interviews, whilst interesting, do not offer anything of note that any  moderate fan of the band would not already know (apart perhaps for the influence of Mrs Mills over the band!). The four songs featured all appear on 'Not Like Everybody Else' and they sound good here. I always have a bit of an issue with 'Summer In The City' as I have yet to hear a version that comes anywhere close to the Lovin' Spoonful original. That said, The Damned's version  is streets ahead of The Stranglers version, but then again even Tik and Tok's version betters that one (go on look them up).

WAV: https://we.tl/t-1wAUVbp2oH

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-PxaUs6bYwo

Purple Helmets Salle De La Cite Rennes 10th December 1986

 

The recent post of The Damned's covers gig in Manchester, promoting their tribute to Brian James, 'Not Like Everybody Else', put me in mind of 'Naz Nomad and the Nightmares', which in turn got me thinking about the Purple Helmets. To be honest, I don't think about the Helmets a great deal. It's not that I don't like them at all, for sure, they introduced me to some sixties material that I have always considered to be brilliant and perhaps if it were not for this side-project of JJ and Dave's I may not have been exposed to, certainly not as the 19  year old as I was at the time. The timing of their emergence was perfect since The Stranglers were taking it slow at the time in the run up to extensive '10' activity. The great thing for a number of us who met at the time was that this was our first opportunity to see these musical heroes (i.e. JJ and Dave) at close quarters, as opposed to in cavernous venues such as the Hammersmith Odeon and Brighton Centre in my case.

The band were active between 1986 and 1989 but most of their activity was concentrated in 1988. This short career was kicked off in France, down Brittany way with a gig in the city of Rennes. By 1988 they had nailed down their set which was aligned with the track list of the debut album 'Rise Again', but this late 1986 set contains some songs that didn't get recorded (to the best of my knowledge). In there are 'Fire', 'The Beat Goes On', 'Never Knew' and 'Worried About You'. 'Fire' is the Crazy World of Arthur Brown classic and 'The Beat Goes On' is a Sonny Bono composition recorded by Sonny and Cher. As to 'Never Knew' and 'Worried About You' in a brief hunt I have not been able to pin them down. Any ideas?

For some reason there are a couple of tracks of a second or two and I have not edited them out but they do not impact on the recording, just the track numbering.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-nGWpI2VoPj

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-lpYHs3VlsE

Punk In The Park 2026 Cancelled!!

 

As I was writing the last post, this update popped up. Punk In The Park 2026 has been cancelled. 

Good to know that there are still some consequences for those who choose to sup with the Devil!

Dead Kennedys Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel Providence R.I. 18th April 1985

 

2026 and there seems to be some discord within the US punk fraternity. The cause... Donald Trump. The now annual 'Punk in the Park' Festival, a travelling festival that features many of the luminaries of the early '80s hardcore scene has run into controversy. It would appear that the owner of the festival organisers Brew Ha Ha, one Cameron Collins had made financial contributions to Trumps presidential campaign. The Dead Kennedy's,on the bill when the storm broke, have stated that they will play whilst other bands, notably Ipswich ex-pats, The Adicts have pulled out.

Ex-lead singer, Jello Biafra has been trading insults with his former bandmates since an obscenity trial in 1986 resulted in the band splitting. He offered another sideswipe at Klaus Fluoride and East Bay Ray in the San Francisco Chronical this earlier this week over their decision to play.

Jello Biafra

Dead Kennedys, the incendiary San Francisco punk band that once made a career out of skewering American power, are facing blowback from their former frontman after deciding to play a music festival tied to a major donor to President Donald Trump.

This week, the band confirmed it would honor previously scheduled appearances at the 2026 Punk In the Park festivals in Pittsburgh on April 18 and Vallejo on May 23, despite learning that the festival’s promoter, Cameron Collins of Brew Ha Ha Productions, contributed to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. 

“We’ve become aware that the owner of Brew Ha Ha Productions, the company behind Punk In The Park, made financial contributions in support of the Trump administration,” the band wrote in a statement posted Tuesday, Feb. 24. “Our first reaction was to cancel our upcoming appearances. However, we do not feel it would be fair to our supporters who have already purchased tickets & made plans to attend these shows.”

The band added, “Dead Kennedys have always stood firmly against authoritarianism, racism, and fascism. That has not changed. After these scheduled appearances, we will not be participating in future Punk In The Park events.”

The decision did not sit well with Jello Biafra, the band’s original singer and lyricist, who left the group in 1986.

“They’re taking the money $$$, and THEN pulling out? The real Dead Kennedys would never have let this happen in the first place,” Biafra said in a statement to Stereogum. “One more sordid reason I don’t ever want to play with them again.”

The comments highlight long-simmering tensions within one of punk’s most politically outspoken acts.

Formed in San Francisco in 1978, the Dead Kennedys built a national following with blistering critiques of American conservatism, including the 1980 single “Holiday in Cambodia.” The current touring lineup is led by original members East Bay Ray and Klaus Flouride. Ron “Skip” Greer has served as lead singer since 2008.

Collins’ political donations first drew scrutiny last year, prompting several bands to withdraw from Punk In the Park dates. 

The Dropkick Murphys announced in 2025 that they would no longer participate in the festival, writing, “Punk Rock and Donald Trump just don’t belong together.” 

Other acts, including 8 Kalacas and Naked Aggression, have also dropped off select 2026 bills.

In a prior statement posted to Instagram, Collins said his political views “don’t neatly fit into a single box or party affiliation” and emphasized that the festival does not donate proceeds to political parties. 

He added that he has “never censored or restricted a band’s message or voice.”

The Vallejo festival in May 23, at the Solano County Fairgrounds, is also set to feature the Adicts, the Exploited, Nekromantix, Manic Hispanic, Codefendants, N8NOFACE and Sissyfit.

I have to say that I am with Jello on this one. I think any self-respecting fan of the Kennedys would take the cancellation on the chin, if not I would suggest that they haven't taken on board anything that the band have said in the past 48 years!

Anyway, here is a late recording from a more unified period of time, for the Dead Kennedys that is, which is a brilliant set recorded in Rhode Island that features material from all of their studio albums up to that date. Never a duff record was made.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ZhnpyrNul2

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-j0A9Bx9xId

Capitol Theatre Aberdeen 23rd October 1986

 

The Stranglers in the Granite City in October 1986 with a typical 'Dreamtime' tour set. As is to be expected when north of the boarder Hugh both baits and berates the Scottish audience, first on a linguistic matter in his dreadful Scottish accent and then pulling up someone for spitting at the band. After all this is 1986 not 1976 and there is a new danger very much in people's minds (maybe with the exception of the gobbing Aberdonian!).... Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome or A.I.D.S.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uhtsf6SvAE

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-ai9immRUXf

The Alarm Palais D'Hiver, Lyon 7th June 1984 (TFTLTYTD#23)

 

Keeping up some manner of connection today, no matter how tenuous, here are The Alarm with a great sounding gig in Lyon from their early days. The late Mike Peters was of course a friend of The Stranglers and shared the stage with them on quite a few occasions. I never met the man (if I am honest, I did not like The Alarm) but he was by all accounts a thoroughly decent man.

To my ears The Alarm sounded like an Americanised version of The Clash (some may say that The Clash themselves sounded very Americanised... once they had conquered their boredom of the USA!). Moreover, back in the day I used to struggle to make a distinction between The Alarm and U2... a band that turn me off more than The Alarm ever could!

Nevertheless, for all my lack of enthusiasm for The Alarm, I did see them, or rather a version of them (with Mike Peters) when they played a warm up gig with The Damned and Henry Cluney (which was perhaps his first solo outing) in 2009. I think that I remember The Alarm playing '45 RPM' a Top 30 hit for the band recording undercover as 'The Poppy Fields'. The hoax was intended to draw attention to the difficulty that older bands had to achieve a hit.

Mike Peters died after a prolonged battle with cancer in 2025.

Thanks to the original Dime uploader (TheCommish).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-prfGYTMlgl

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-IMEb5F6Lv3

That Petrol Emotion Alexandra Palace London 11th August 1990

 

This recording links to the earlier Undertones post of this morning and introduces a Stranglers connection. 11th August 1990, a calamitous date for many fans of the band as up there on a hill in north London, Hugh Cornwell eeked out his final hours as a Strangler. As most will recall this trio of events occurring over that August weekend was to mark the 5th anniversary of the Town & Country Club (these days the O2 Forum in Kentish Town). I wonder to this day why the organisers saw fit to host the birthday celebrations for a large London venue in another, even larger, London venue!?

It pains me to say that I was not there to see Hugh Strangler bow out. I was several hundred miles away in Whitehaven at my brother-in-law's wedding. Don't worry though, I have long since come to terms with this fact and acceptance was helped by the knowledge that sadly The Stranglers on the day were lacklustre at best.

As far as That Petrol Emotion was concerned I would liked to have seen them too. I did have a second opportunity to see them when they were due to play the Christmas Ball at Brunel University in 1990... however the poor December weather intervened and TPE got stuck enroute from Wales. On the night Captain Sensible and The Family Butcher saved the day and agreed to play a second set for the princely fee of an ounce of dope and a case of beer! Incidentally, the Captain's first set is on here. I asked the tour manager for the tape from the mixing desk.... and he sent it to me. That recording is excellent and has been in circulation since early 1991. 

Back to That Petrol Emotion, by the time that the Ally Pally gig came around the band were promoting their fourth studio album, Chemicrazy. At this time the Undertones connection had been diminished by 50% with the departure of John O'Neill.

Thanks to Sewer Rat for the recording.

MP3: https://we.tl/t-3mls01Fe8Q

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-ZNd8lOotzA

The Undertones Electric Picnic Stradbally Co. Laois 1st September 2007

 

From a festival that still seems to be thriving, unlike many which have hit financial troubles in recent years (Electric Picnic 2026 appears to be sold out), here are The Undertones from back in September 2007. This full show set was broadcast in April 2008 by RTE 2FM and as such the quality is excellent. Thanks to the  uploader on 101Guitars (orangejuilus). 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-nX5hn4X7Se

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-BYqU2SppnD

Kraftwerk Paradiso, Amsterdam 9th September 1976

Prior to hopping on to a Sealink ferry to cross the English Channel for dates in the UK including a night at London's Roundhouse, Kraftwerk played a gig in Amsterdam's legendary Paradiso. The sound on this is very good, especially when considering that the gig was played 50 years ago and recorded on the audio equipment that was available at the time.

These days Kraftwerk shows are note perfect, highly choreographed events. This is a little different, not in terms of slickness.... Kraftwerk never were a band with a reputation for cocking up! But its is great to hear these songs an a rawer, early form, not surprisingly most notably on the two 'TEE' tracks that were yet to be released.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-RkB2j7NaE3

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-wj9MHrP4PM

Kraftwerk Roundhouse, London 10th October 1976 Review (New Musical Express 16th October 1976)

 

New Musical Express (9th October 1976)

If the Sex Pistols caused a ripple of confusion through a sea of denim in the mid-70s then I am sure that the same can be said of Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider of Dusseldorf's Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk turned heads for the exact opposite reasons to Sex Pistols and their followers. As reviewer, Miles, had it below 'They are a very neat band, all dressed in suits and ties and short hair like bank managers'. By October 1976, the band in some form (always around Ralf and Florian) had been making experimental noise already for more than six years. As time had gone by that noise had come to rely increasingly on electronics and a good power supply. By October 1976, the line up had settled into what was to be the 'classic' Kraftwerk quartet of Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür. The band in this form had two classic albums under their belts, 'Autobahn' and 'Radioactivity' whilst live they were playing two tracks from what is perhaps their finest album 'Trans Europe Express' with the title track and 'Europe Endless' appearing in the set.

Unlike their contemporaries, Kraftwerk's music defies age, it is and still sounds timeless.

On 10th October they were in the UK appearing in a headline show at Camden's Roundhouse, a gig that the New Musical Express reviewed the following week.

New Musical Express (16th October 1976)

Devo Whistler Medals Plaza Whistler Canada 22nd February 2010

 

As the 2026 Winter Olympics draws to a close in Italy, it seems to be an opportune to  post this appearance at an earlier Olympiad by those flower-potted oddballs Devo. Now I love Devo and really enjoyed their 'last' UK appearance a couple of years ago. It was therefore with a raised eyebrow that I saw the announcement that they are back on these shores in the summer with the B52s, The Rezillos and Lene Lovich.... playing dates with a ticket price that raised the other eyebrow.

Whatever, it's nothing new for rock bands to announce the final tour only to reappear on a stage near you just a couple of years down the line.

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-8v8uNTxAUc

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-5oP67ovl6D

Hugh Cornwell The Horn St Albans 7th June 2005

 

And its good evening from Hugh, here playing back in June 2005 at The Horn, St. Albans. I am pretty sure that I was at this gig. It was very full and the venue suffers from an awkward L-shaped configuration which does nothing for the view and presumably the sound, although wherever the taper was on this night they seemed to have picked a good spot as the sound is pretty good.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-1Q655jn73U

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-rQP5METuYl

Xmal Deutschland Interview (New Musical Express 23rd July 1983)

 

One more time for Germany? AMRIK RAI interviews another bunch of German hopefuls who want to invade the sensibilities of the British rock public. Got your Collins' pocket dictionaries ready?

Photos: KEVIN CUMMINS.

THE SHY smiles of Xmal Deutschland are being photographed for a German magazine in gentile Richmond. They sit close to each other - shoulders touching, thought processes in habitual.synch – and indulge in playful but insular banter in sharp German accents.

Xmal Deutschland are five voices -  worriers, workers, cautious, determined and intensely private - and five faces: Anja Huwe (vocals), Fiona Sangster (synth), Manuela Rickers (guitar), Wolfgang Ellerbrock (bass) and Manuela ,Zwingman (drums).

Ostensibly, they're out to enjoy a short rest period after a shockingly brilliant performance at Brixton's Ace, but of course, it's rapidly becoming an endless stream of press, radio and photo sessions: John Peel last night, Melody Maker and Sounds tomorrow. For the Xmals, this is all something of a shock.

The last and first time they were in England was as an obscure Hamburg cult band with two singles -'Schwarze Welt' and ‘Incubus Succubus' –out on the German independent Zick Zack label.

Having been discovered by 4AD maestro Ivo, they were Invited over to play a few selective dates with Danse Society and Cocteau Twins.

This time, however, their arrival heralds a considerably different status. Their debut album, 'Fetisch' , has been jostling for place at the top of the Indie charts - coming a close third to the pap and calculation of New Order and Aztec Camera for two solid months. And in the context of such consistently dismal charts, the Xmal effect has been all the more stunning.

The word is out, and Xmal Deutschland know they have to be seen to be involved and in control. Pop stars! They fail, they're too nervous, tense and obviously reluctant participants in let's play public figures. I try to ingratiate myself into the Xmal unit by pointing a microphone at the bassist.

Say something arty Into this, Wolfgang.

"Ja. One gin and tonic please."

A WELL spoken shock of red and black hair, Fiona Sangster comes from Glasgow, to where her mother returned after graduating from Hamburg University. At 19, she's the youngest of the Xmals and her garrulity shows an obvious delight in being able to talk lengthily in English. After a childhood spent in Jamaica, and an adolescence in the heat and heart of Glasgow punk, she eventually settled in Hamburg with her mother.

"Whereas the punk thing seemed a bit jaded back home, it was just starting out in Hamburg. It was really crazy, 'cos the whole scene involved about 30 people all clinging to each other for moral support, it was pretty scary too; my mother lives out on the outskirts so I always had a long dangerous trek back anyway… but everytime we went to a club, there'd be about 300 teds outside, just waiting to kick the shit out of us.

"That was how Xmal Deutschland began…  safety in numbers and just sheer love of music.

No, don't print that, It sounds too corny for words."

"First time out we were realty hard punks," laughs Anja as she sweeps aside an impressive platinum blond quiff. "And,we were five girls then, and although It was totally accidental, everyone used to call us a big joke, saying we were pretty and It didn't matter if we couldn't play."

But I had no intention of being this informative… and subtly sexist - by telling you in BLOCK CAPITALS that Xmal Deutschland are a NEARLY ALL-FEMALE band with a TOKEN MALE bassist. But the Xmals stress an Inclusion of sorts.

Fiona: "The Hamburg scene developed into a really ugly pathetic thing, really sexist and incestuous. It still is, they're all prats. But they're the ones we've got to thank for being here today. We just decided not to have anything to do with their sexism and their scene. We just thought, right we'll show the bastards."

And have you shown the bastards?

Wolfgang: "In some ways yes, but there are people who don't ever want to understand. We don't think in terms of boys and girls. Even when I joined, they thought it was a bloody big joke. And now everybody's amazed that we've got such a powerful drummer, just because she is a girl. Everybody can do it y'know ... this is the 20th fucking century."

The baldly physical drummer in question is ManuelaZlwingman. While Xmal were manicuring their initial punky derivative, she was studying political science in alternate spells at Hamburg and Washington DC.

"I wanted to do something sensible with my life, but after several years of studying very hard, I found I was getting more satisfaction from moving and rhythms. Xmal needed a drummer and I liked their music even though I knew a lot of people didn't."

ALTHOUGH XMAL Deutschland's presentation often has, the impact of falling masonry, their origins owe less to the dentist drill etiquette and avant garden parties of Berlin and Einsurzende Neubauten than they do to Wire's embryonic slumming at London's Roxy club.

In Brixton they drew me in and drained me out with a music that, if it wasn't a Thursday, I'd probably have dismissed as little more than a puerile pillage. Just like Wire. But there's a desperate, disarming naivety and a singularly unpretentious intimacy about Xmal Deutschland that somehow waives any rash criticism of  thoughtless eclecticism and accentuates their very obvious appeal.

Despite a seemingly endless flow of publicity and promotion, none of the other bands German bands - including DAF....... has infiltrated the British music scene much further than the all-embracing arms of our precious capital. And even then, none has been given such an unequivocal thumbs up as Xmal Deutschland. Only two months ago, Palais Schaumburg played to an audience of 20 at Manchester's Hacienda.

Why?

Fiona: "Most of them have come here with very high-minded attitudes and thought that just because they've been on the cover of NME, they have an automatic right to big crowds. Obviously, people don't take so much notice of the press in the provinces, they don't have to be too cool. The only time we've played here has been as support, and the people that are coming to see us are coming, not because they've read 'about us in NME, but because they've either bought 'Fetisch' or gone out of their way to listen to It. I don't think we're getting any casual observers.

Wolfgang: "Most of those other bands are either too German or too bloody English copies. Now, loads of people have gone really jealous of us in Germany. They wouldn't believe It when we got a contract with 4AD, they were asking us what we had to do to get it"  We just went over with a fucking rehearsal tape; anyone can do It."

Fiona: "Once we'd decided to leave Zick Zack, there was a choice of signing with a bigger German label where you have to sell more than just your soul or coming over here. Luckily them - the packaging, the music and the style and we got together to make 'Fetisch'."

FETISCH LIVES In a noisy precinct of subtopian architecture and feverish activity, a couple of streets away from The Screaming metallic collage of the Banshees and within disdainful spitting distance of The Whip-ping mystical platitudes of The Sex Gangs.

Without actually immersing themselves wholly within the punk period, Xmal tap and trigger the essential heart, filter the brilliance and surface with an icy, urgent music… a collection of wide-eyed, trembling impressions and echoes that encapsulate a stern spirit of confrontation, without even trying. It's the only way.

Wolfgang doesn't agree.

"We're echoing the Banshees? I hate 'The Scream'. If you think we're echoing that, there's something wrong."

Fiona sees the point.

"We'll never get away from those comparisons, and they're useful to an extent, it's just when someone stops at Banshee soundalikes that it gets annoying. Nothing we do is that premeditated, we don't have a concept as such, so the music that comes out is genuinely spontaneous. There's no telling what our next single's going to sound like."

Anja with relish: "It's going to be really wild."

Wolfgang with grit: "I hate all those stupid comparisons. It encourages people to expect something from us. So that if we change our music suddenly, we will lose much of our audience. That is sad, but we don't intend to stand still, we're , very selfish and we make our music first to please us. We can't go into a rehearsal room and play the same song for a year, again and again, we'd go nuts. We have new Ideas all the time and we like to work on them rather than do the same stuff."

XMAL DEUTSCHLAND are a kaleidoscopic clash of ideas, stretched In to shape by violent delight: going from A to B in a single terse but illustrative gesture and bypassing completely any facile ostentation and epic construction.

Remember Wire (again)? Xmal parade a similar intuitive amateurism that exhumes primitive passions and interns ascetic technical ,control: flesh and blood from pure pandemonium.

Wolfgang is pleased, the capricious boy.

"That's it, good. The idea is the essence. Whatever the music comes out like, whether it's like the Banshees or Black Sabbath, if you can still see the idea, that's good. For me, sometimes I'm playing very simple things on bass and I feel a bit stupid, but know it's the best way, the only way."

Wouldn't the ideas be more self-explanatory if you sung in English? Wolfgang becomes indignant

"No. It's good because you have to work a bit, it's more two-sided, you have to imagine the voice as another instrument and let the music talk to you. We're not going to start singing in English just to make it easy, y'know. If anyone wants more, all they have to do is buy a dictionary and translate."

Isn't that asking a bit much?

"Why? We have had to do it since ages in Germany with English music ... and even with a lot of German music."

Can you seriously see people bringing along their Collins' pocket Eng-Germs?

"For me, it is Important that they understand. They can do it through the music but, if not, they have to translate."

Without a dictionary I'd guess that most of your songs deal with fairly morose subjects. Are you a bunch of morbid sods?

Anja: I write about lots of sadness, but that isn't everything.

Manuela R: "When people leave one of our concerts, we want them to feel totally drained and shocked, like they have been In a whirlpool. Whatever they have come to see, whether it's positive punk or another Banshees, we want them to be disappointed ... but happy and optimistic in a different way."

If I was describing your music, those last two adjectives would be the last things in my mind.

Fiona: "You're not looking hard enough. We're not nihilists, y'know." _

Manuela Z: "The problem Is in trying to communicate the optimism. It's much easier to sing about doom and gloom, and we're not developed enough to communicate as well as we want to. People are put off by the heavy sound barrier and don't look any further.

Considering the language difficulties and your wilful wall of sound production, can you see Xmal Deutschland ever having more than a largish cult following? How about TOTP and daytime radio?

Anja: "I like to play in an underground band. I don't want to be in a too big and successful band because we've got something very special and I wantto keep that. That's just the way we are ... When we play live we want to show people how we are.

But not really how. We have to keep something to ourselves. I can't really handle being on a big stage. I like singing, but when people start singing along with me I start thinking, God! What do these people think I am? Whatever they think, it's wrong. I'm not made to be a star."

You're the only kind of star; Anja. Goodnight Wolfgang.