Good bad Music for bad, bad Times!

We stood behind the customs desk at the small airport of Basel-Mulhouse. A line of passengers that just had left the flight from London Gatwick got thinner and thinner and we got worried more and more, as thinner as this line got. Where are they? They were at the very end of the queue. A group of long-haired rockers, all dressed in black leather jackets and two of them carrying guitars – AMEBIX. I remember very well how intimidated I was and how young I felt, when I looked at these guys – they all seemed so old in the dirty and ripped cloth.

AMEBIX tore the place apart. I can’t remember whether there has been an opening band or not but it doesn’t matter at all. People were literally shocked that night. What I also do remember is a hot day in June and how we hung around with the band all day long in the city of Basel, getting searched by cops more than once. And I remember how I thought that the place of the gig, the “Hirscheneck” in Basel, looked cheap and hippiesque and how Rob from AMEBIX responded that it looked like a very expensive and clean place.
From the many, many gigs I’ve seen in my days, from AC/DC to ZERO BOYS and everything in between, I have never been so much impressed. Located in the small basement of the said “alternative” restaurant (DAYGLOW ABORTIONS would play there 10 years later and many other bands, few good, most crap), barely full with about 30 people, the evening was something between inferno and family reunion. The band was extremely energetic, the sound was very good and dry, the audience was divided into two groups and we, namely Tschösi of MESSIAH, later FEAR OF GOD, and I, were freaking out like I no longer would allow myself to let go of selfcontrol. There was a small group of “punks” who used to give us dirty looks but was very shy and polite when we looked back. The other day, when checking out the recordings I made with my sterophonic recording-walkman, I realised that these wankers from a local punk band were yelling “fuck off, rockers” into the microphones. Sure, it pisses me off to hear that on the recording, now, 20 years later. On the other hand, it illustrates rather nicely why we hated punkers back then. And why I still hate them little pricks with mohawks.

A year later, we tripped through the UK. We’ve met lots of people, saw great concerts, were right there when something happened that we could interprete only years later. It was the changing of the guards maybe. Punk had vanished, had been sucked up by such tasteless formulas as New Wave or Powerpop. On the edge of Metal and Punk, on a new territory with new people and an incredible amount of energy, something new was about to happen. EXTREME NOISE TERROR, HERESY, CONCRETE SOX, NAPALM DEATH, RIPCORD, HELLBASTARD, ELECTRO HIPPIES, STUPIDS, GENERIC, DEVIATED INSTINCT and all the other were there and they RIPPED SHIT UP! Little did we care about BIG BLACK who would play the same night, when there was Holland’s LÄRM and NAPALM DEATH giggin’ (20 years later, I can’t help but think I might have made the wrong decision that night, haha). And above all of them, literally overshadowing all these bands, was AMEBIX. Everybody respected them, everybody envied them.
We stayed at AMEBIX’ place for a few days, slept in the bunk-beds of Rob’s infants, saw them practice in the the same place FLUX OF PINK INDIANS practiced. I’ve forgotten most of what happened 20 years ago, but these memories sank down deep in my mind. Of all the gigs and rehearsal sessions I’ve seen in my life – these two were the most impressive ones. AMEBIX live in Basel in 1986 and practicing in the summer of 1987, immediately before the band folded.
I will eventually post some of the rehearsal too, maybe an unreleased song even. Let’s see. Drink and be merry, Rob, Stig, Spider.

“Axeman” live in Basel 1986, including some wankers yelling

This is the first time ever this recording is made public. Enjoy! Those who have never heard AMEBIX before, please check out “Monolith” and “Arise!” first; both should be available on CD. And don’t get mislead by the regrettable fact that there’s an AMEBIX patch on every dirty vegan denim jacket, worn by people who love their dogs more than their boy- or girlfriends, allright?