BPage 4 November 10, 1987

Blown to Smithereens

December 1986,

“THE ONLY SIGNIFIGANT BRITISH ROCK BAND OF THE EIGHTIES” signs to the huge record label EMI UK. Marr, guitarist for The Smiths called it the merging of two great “British Institutions”, and wanted to itemize the reasons for the switch from Rough Trade Records, as well as vent his spleen over the tactics Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis had, so Marr claimed, been in- stigating, . aimed specifically at the guitarist’s mental and physical stability.

Then there was the problem with Johny Marr, The Smith’s Guitarist, who left the band in April of 1986, no reason given. Morrisey (vocals and ‘god’ of The Smiths) called in Craig Gannon, former guitarist of Aztec Cameéfa~and the Bluebells as presum- ably Marrs’ replacement, although some pondered the fact that Gannon was a rhythm not bass guitar player.

Approximately four weeks later, The Smiths appeared on THE TUBE performing a couple of songs from THE QUEEN IS DEAD LP with Marr, just as mysteriously returned to the band, and Gannon on second guitar.

The time between June when THE QUEEN IS DEAD was released and November were choc-a-bloc with activity and flurry. Live dates centred around Man- chester and then a U.S. tour which further proved the band’s obsessiveness to young Americans preceded.

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The Other Press

Autumn saw them play live throughout England buoyed by the twin success of PANIC and THE QUEEN IS DEAD. The media recounted, lavishly, how they now caused ‘near-riots’ in certain provincial backwaters whilst yet another single, ASK, bulleted up the charts to number four. Meanwhile Joyce, had fallen victim to heroin. Marr had warned him before, even before The Smiths’ advent, concerned Joyce did not slip back into bad habits. ws ‘ The Smiths were asexual, vegetarian, Y anti-hooligan, _literate, thought-provoking, stoically English and steadfastly anti-drug.

Meanwhile PANIC--a song conceived on April 26 as news of the Chernoble catas- trophe was relayed to The Smiths by a Radio One disc jockey, who followed it with a spin of Wham’s I'M YOUR MAN--was released in late July. It’s a moot point whether the instigators of a pop single, the key refrain of which exhorted allcomers to "hang the dee- jay’, thus debuting the concept of ‘rock terrorism’, truly believed that the song would receive airplay. In fact, the group were in the U.S. when the single came out.

PANIC went top-ten, their first single in over two years to do so; finally restated The Smith’s as the one white. Eighties British pop-rock group to have hit a vein address- ing the dreams, drives and desires of an audience otherwise hopelessely lost, fragmented and made to feel fickle or alienated by the competition, be it a major label designer careerists or indie freak- shows.

MOOSEHEAD‘U"

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Chronicdes———

Che Disgusting Discussed

Reviewed by richard

On Hallowe’en night I contemplated what to do other than stick around at home in Pitt Meadows handing out ‘goodies’ to greedy, rude and demanding kids; ended up at The Luvafair, famous for it’s alternative music and mixed assortment of new romantics, death punks, gothic-freaks, trendies and other poseurs. After dishing out the very hefty seven buck cover charge I entered and found the place close to deserted, (it was 9 p.m. early with the Luvafair crowd). The normally gloomy, maudlin atmosphere of the club was further exaggerated by numerous fake string cobwebs, skulls, skeletons and tombstones with the inscription S.O.B. on them.

All ready for lots of gothic terror-fun, I awaited for the music to start. The DJ arr- ived, went up to the ‘booth’ and started the pre-recorded, taped music...the usual: Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, etc...then suddenly without warning we are given a treat -- the huge video screen flashes black and white dark blotches and then blood red appears on the screen - SKINNY PUPPY. Nivek Ogre twists and churns behind an opaque screen holding a nasty puppet that attacks and claws him. Then flashes the image of a slime and blood covered Nivek, a cruel, pained victim, scapegoat of this terror stricken world, buckles and collapses, wilts, falls to the blooded floor, screaming, growling into his microphone distorted by the electronic voice box. More symbolic blood and pain, he binds himself in twine and rope, twists the wire into his flesh then places a noose around his neck and tightens during an in-

- Vigorating adaption of “Assimilate”. The

crowd is fixed, hypnotized by the scene as Nivek grinds down a tin drum with an el- ectric sander sending sparks shooting out into his face and onto his arms. More blood, Nivek holds up _ mutilated, manipulated sausages, weiners and assorted meat; and pins all of it into his sacrificial ‘meat’ sculp- ture made of wood, metal and assorted pieces of animal flesh. Next during a terrible performance of “First Aid” he cradles a baby and seductively, horrifically holds it up to the adoring fans then it explodes as he cradles a mannequin’s blood smeared, severed visage, touching, smearing the blood on his chest as he flings himself into the crowd that attempt to take off his pants. Obviously there is something about blood and violence that gets the Toronto crowd all excited and going.

When the DJ thought the Luvafair bunch was getting a little numbed by all this, he muted the SP concert while keeping the im- ages on the screen and played Nitzer Ebb again. Skinny Puppy obviously can no lon- ger get Vancouverites, not even Gothic Romantics, excited or interested for a period of more than half an hour. All the preaching and arrogant ‘punk-industrial posing’ has bored us. Skinny Puppy blaims ‘‘over ex- posure’ for the serious problem...they have become old hat, the overloading of violent, graphic, horrific depictions of sacrifice, morbid death fail to get the Gothic Roman- tics aroused after three albums and two E.P.’s of endless bitching.