Always different, always the same

 

"Over the years, THE FALL have given me more pleasure than any other band and, when people ask me why, I always say, 'they are always different, they are always the same' and 'The Fall, a band by which, in our house all others are judged"

(JOHN PEEL)

I remember taping some of John Peel's sessions of The Fall from Radio One when I lived in Barons Keep in Barons Court in London in 1990. This was 34 years ago! At one point he replayed all of them during several weeks - and I got to tape half of them (and missed the other half, silly me).

Of course, now I don't need to pull out the old cassette tapes (still got 'em, though) as I have the complete cd box set. 

Other bands would be asked to record the one, maybe two sessions. The Fall recorded twenty-four session from 1978-2004. The set contains them all. And ONE bonus track: The Fall recorded a happy tune (just kidding) for his birthday in 2004 (a couple of months before John passed away).

I played disc 1 today, which contains the first four sessions. You can't do them all in one go so I reckon I'll do a disk a day, six days. There's also a spiffy booklet of info about the various recordings. I have no idea if this set is still in print. But great stuff.

Remembering JEFFREY LEE PIERCE - 27. June 1958 - 31. March 1996

L-R: Kid Congo Powers & Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
Photo by Richard Dumas

Here's a great photo of JEFFREY LEE PIERCE and KID CONGO POWERS of THE GUN CLUB (posted on facebook by Powers who was also in another awesome band, THE CRAMPS). Jeffrey Lee died today in 1996.

I got to see The Gun Club at the Town and Country Club in London in 1990 when they had reformed. Jeffrey was probably a tortured soul but his records are great. I bought my first Gun Club records in 1987 (both on the same day and incidentally their best and their worst!). Gone too soon.

THE CRAMPS interview (Moshable zine, Denmark, 1998)

 

I bought every issue of Moshable when it ran from 1987 thru to 2000. 20 issues out of which 19 were in English and one (#1) was in Danish. In the early days the zine was totally punk rock but later they discovered garage rock and punk 'n' roll. Needless to say they also discovered THE CRAMPS and Crypt Records (and a ton of Crypt bands). One of the editors is now running Bad Afro Records. I've scanned this in 300 dpi. 

Yet ANOTHER blog on trashy FILIPINO cinema from Andrew Leavold!

In complete contradiction to yours truly Andrew Leavold is staying on course ALL THE TIME, EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY ALL THE TIME!!!!! 

That course of course being the TRASHY FORGOTTEN IGNORED MISTREATED FILIPINO FILMS COURSE, needless to say. Hahaha. 

And he keeps putting up new blogs about these films. Here's his latest: THE BAMBOO GODS PROJECT. I've just now discovered this so you're on your own finding out the ins and outs. I'm confident it's gonna be super cool and interesting. That man is a walking Filipino film encyclopedia!

Go here: THE BAMBOO GODS PROJECT blog

Robin Bougie is back in the gutter!

 

Issue #3 of Robin Bougie's zine Gutter Hunter is out now. I received my copy yesterday all the way from Canada. Fortunately, I didn't get slapped with a hefty VAT and post office fee this time! 

100 pages about (mainly) north American underground comics. Get the new issue here. 

I posted about issue No. 1 and 2 here. 

BRIGADE DES MOEURS aka DEATH SQUEAD on Blu-ray and 4K from Mondo Macabro!!!

 

Yep, the good people at Mondo Macabro, Jared Auner and Pete Tombs, are going to release Max Pécas' insane film BRIGADE DES MOEURS (1985) on Blu-ray and 4K in the US soon! 

I've known about this for quite some time and now it's finally happening. The above picture is obviously not from the upcoming release but from my old Danish vhs tape (fully uncut and in French with Danish subs. One of the VERY few uncut released until very recently). I own the German blu-ray that came out 1-2 years ago, and I probably don't need this new release (not least since I haven't upgraded to 4K). But the rest of you should certainly get this if you're into violent exploitation cinema! 

Apparently there's also a new French blu-ray/4K coming out (in December) but online info states it's not English friendly. 

My old review of the Danish vhs (in Danish)

The new promotion trailer:

Deep Red #3 (Vol. 4) is finally out

The new issue of the relaunched Deep Red zine has finally come out! Well, actually it was a couple of months back. I ordered a copy from Amazon USA something like 6 weeks ago, but the courier fucked up and gave my magazine to somebody who lives a 100 k's from where I'm at. I hope they liked the new issue. I got my money back from Amazon but the wait was annoying and the fact that I still can't actually read the damn thing is even more annoying as I had been looking forward to it. 

Not least had I looked forward to part two of the Michael Weldon interview which we were promised for issue two (as it is, we have now waited more than four years for part two as issue no. 1 came out in 2018!!!). Tonight I've finally re-ordered the mag, this time from Amazon Germany. Hopefully the Germans are gonna be quicker. Hopefully I'll receive the wretched thing. And hopefully it's worth the wait and the price. The steep price I might add. STEEP! The bloody thing cost me 26 Euros! (28 American!). Also, the new issue is a mere 68 pages. Issue no. 1 is a 96 page motherfucker, and no. 2 runs a staggering 120 pages! 

And finally I'd like to know what went into the debate at the editorial meeting when they decided on the cover!? "We got an awesome cover made especially for issue one, and ditto for issue two - so let's just re-use a ten year old dvd cover, how does that sound? All agree? Brilliant! That's what we'll do then."  It doesn't even look like a Deep Red cover! 

Here's the old ones. Great splatter flick covers both of them! I have a feeling old Chassie would be scratching his head if he saw the lame cover for issue #3. Or are you not allowed to write anything critical in the world of film zines anymore? I sure got some flack for criticising the editorial decision to postpone the Weldon interview (four years!!!). Anyhoo, I hope the new one is good (however, it doesn't seem to be doing all that well, at least not if one is to judge from the number of online reviews. I can't find ONE SINGLE review of the new issue. Not even on Amazon USA!). 

Reader's letter from LUX INTERIOR of The Cramps

I discovered Michael Weldon's film zine Psychotronic Video when issue #2 had just come out (spring 89). I found it at Tower Records in London and kept buying it till it folded with #41. Often I was pretty slow at getting new issues (being eternally skint and all) and I probably missed a couple of issues here and there but I've got most of them. When I published my own first zine (Banned in Britain) in 94 my first distributor paid me in back issues of PV plus the PV book!

And I discovered The Cramps (via a live recording on BBC radio) in 1990 so I might have missed the name of the author of this reader's letter from Psychotronic #2!!!

This scan is from an uploaded copy at Archive,org - you can dl the full issue there if you want. I think they're all there, and they're free.

PS: Check the photo down below: Joey Ramone presenting that exact issue of PV! (from the following issue, i.e. #3). I wish Weldon would post (online) these old pix of celebs holding issues of PV. The old printed pix are, uhh, less than great 30+ years later (newsprint, i.e. now FADED newsprint!!!).

Dead all night - at the Scala Cinema Club 30 odd years ago

Scala Cinema 1988

I lived in London from 1988 and for about three years. And I discovered the SCALA CINEMA CLUB almost right away (thanks to a brief mention in Time Out Magazine of a zombie film all-nighter).

Most of the classic cult films I hold near and dear to my heart are films which I discovered at the Scala; the Romero films, the Argento films, the EVIL DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR and HELLRAISER films, etc, are all films I first saw during the wee hours at a Scala screening (since there was a loophole in the British film regulations film clubs were allowed to screen otherwise censored films fully uncut!).

I once missed ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS one Sunday morning cos I had to go straight to work! I got Jane Gile's book when it came out in 2018 and now there's a new documentary film on its way (Jane Giles was the programmer at the Scala). I can't wait.

Here's a brand new Q&A from Independent Cinema Office:

Stephen king's World of Horror (UK VHS)

Dinner and an old dusty video tape that I've owned for years and years but never actually watched: Stephen King's World of Horror.

This is a UK vhs and it clocks in at just over 80 minutes. Apparently this was released as a two parter in the US (and user reviews on IMDb talk about a version running 270 minutes!!!). Some of the contents was later used for a video series called This is horror.

The tape was alright. If you're a King aficionado you'll probably be disappointed as there's not all that much of him in the documentary. Maybe 15-20 minutes or so taken from two different interviews. The rest is clips from films, interviews with FX people, and behind the scenes clips. I quite liked the tape, though, as it's almost a peek into the American horror/splatter movie world of the 80s. I miss that period in horror.

I don't think SK's World of Horror has been released on dvd, but at least some nice gent has been so kind as to upload it to YouTube. And now it's also embedded in this post, weeeee! (you can also find links to the three "This is Horror" tapes in the info section under the video on YouTube).

Full video off a UK vhs tape: