|
..This is scruff (hellbastard) here. I formed the band in 1984/5 when I was fed up of traveling to London to partake in activities of the band I was in at the time (art terrorists THE APOSTLES). Those guys (Andy & Dave apostle...now UNIT) taught me a lot,....and I have never looked back since. Besides, I was in a children's home and still at school and the whole thing SUCKED. My dad had died in 1977 and my mother committed suicide in 1981,...the children's home was a place I never wanted to be,.but there was no one else to look after me,.so..I HAD to be there.
The very first HELLBASTARD line up was : Our first show was in a place called Scunthorpe,...it was awful. All I remember from this show was,.on the WAY there,.simo broke his bass in the van,.snapped the neck of it,.our "support" band "10,00 species of moss and 10,00 species of catfish in the amazon,...ok" played for too long and we never got to play!. I was HEADBUTTED whilst standing in the street and the rest is a blur. I was not on alcohol or drugs or anything,..it was just an awful situation and an awful time.The guy who headbutted me in the face was just plain fucking RUDE. I didn't even see it coming.I never even had a chance to defend myself,.I woke up lying in the gutter, as he had knocked me out. Ok,....the rest is bullshit,.and its an awfully long story. Jump ahead some years and we must remember SIMO who died a few years back,..simo wasn't meant for this world/life. May he rest in peace. The next line up we recruited SCOTTY on bass,...and we really got going. We recorded the infamous "RIPPER CRUST" demo for a total cost of 25.00 in a small 4 track studio in Alnwick, Northumberland (nr Scotland). After that we just kept on playing,.getting shows and playing anywhere and everywhere we could. I would spend every night copying demo tapes and cutting out photocopied demo sleeves and making a "presentable" demo presentation and sending them out to ANY magazine I could find the address of,.radio stations all over the world,.everywhere. I wrote to everyone,.everyone. worldwide. All of a sudden it was 1987, I was long gone from the children's home by this time,.left that place in 1984 I think. and we went back to the same studio in alnwick to record an album for PEACEVILLE RECORDS which turned out to be our 2nd demo tape "HATE MILITIA". Peaceville were kind enough to feature a track on a compilation LP called "A Vile Peace",..it also had the likes of Chumbawamba, Deviated Instinct, Doom etc etc on there. We were quite proud of our 16-track studio recording. We never even mixed it ourselves,.we all went to the pub and left the engineer to do it himself,.bad idea,.it turned out shit and too bassy and "muddy" and cost a whole lot more than the previous demo which sounded much better by far !!! Jump ahead to 1988 and we recorded our debut LP for a local label called "meantime Recs". Vinyl only. It was later released on CD by "Silent Scream" records in NEW YORK. Jeff Walker (carcass) called me and said he had a copy of the album on cd,...and I thought "No fucking way,....we only released it on vinyl...." anyway,.he got me a copy and it made me mad. I wrote to meantime and there was something about meantime selling the rights of the LP to the American label for 20,000. Naturally,.we never saw a penny." A german label called "temple Of Love Records" run by a cool guy released the "THEY BROUGHT DEATH" session on a LIMITED EDITION COLOURED VINYL 7",..we recorded it in LEEDS where we recorded the 1st LP. During all this time we were inundated with offers to go and play shows everywhere and anywhere,.Greece, China, Japan, USA, All throughout Europe and as far as the eye can see. The sole management for the band up until this point was myself,.and of course some friends across tthe world and assorted hoodlums who really appreciated the band for all the right reasons,.........which caused major problems because I couldn't operate on a scale of professionalism that I would have liked for the band. This was to inevitably cause the break up of HELLBASTARD in 1992 because we couldn't go any further after our ill-fated contract with Earache Records. But for now back to the mid 80's....................... The early line ups of HELLBASTARD gelled really well with each other. We all listened to the same kind of music,.bands like Antisect, Amebix, Discharge, Crass, Hellhammer, Venom, Slayer, Crucifix, all the 80s Anarcho-Punk bands were our favorites, that is basically what we all grew up with. The punk rock explosion of the 70s had us all transfixed with something REAL, we were young kids who knew that it was FOR us. Arguably , the finest line-up of HELLBASTARD (up until these current times - 2008 -) was Scotty-BASS/ Bry- DRUMS/ and myself on Guitar & Vocals. The whole beauty of D.I.Y punk/metal/hardcore was the fact that it held no secrets from anyone,..the rock stars of the past had us all believe they were something special and seemingly untouchable in the fact that what THEY do, is special,..and they got to that position because they were special, this is the message they gave out, anyway. Then punk rock came along and BANG !!! The message changed,..it was now: Hey,you !!! YOU CAN DO THIS TOO!!!! You don't have to come from some ultra-conservative smug clammy handed middle/upper class family to form a great band and make albums and go on tour and realize your OWN creative potential. Arguably that same tired old fucking message is still prevalent within rock music in general. What a load of bullshit. Punk came along and knocked these assholes on their arses, they got scared because their power-base was threatened by something that was REAL and HONEST. Throughout every single HELLBASTARD release I was the only one living alone and making sure the bills were paid and the rent was paid to keep a roof over my head, every other member lived with their parents, which made it a damn sight easier for them not to worry about food or starving. I would regularly actively seek employment (whilst accepting benefit to live on) but the band was taking up so much time and effort I did actually STARVE on a number of occasions. I used to borrow potatoes and bread from friends, I used to go out late at night and see if there were any cigarette ends that I could pick up and make a fresh rolled-up cigarette from. Those were heavy days, and not just musically either. I used to do 99% of the HELLBASTARD mail that came in from magazines, radio-stations, fans and tape traders etc etc, often the European & Foreign mail would include IRC coupons which could be exchanged for either stamps or cash at the local post office, I used to regularly save these up, cash them in for sterling and use them at the end of the week to buy food, having already replied to the mail and used my own money to post a reply out first. Letters started coming in at over 100 per week, and I would pride my responses to this worldwide mail with my photocopied hand made letterheads, and info/biography sheets about the band. I remember after recording the first HELLBASTARD Ripper Crust demo-tape in 1986 I went out and spent ALL money I had on cassettes and photocopying,so I could mail EVERYONE a demo tape! Scotty (bless the lad) did his fair share too, of course,..these demos came complete with their own D.I.Y home made sleeve which included lyrics, pics and general info. We did exactly the same with 1987s Hate Militia demo, too. After appearing on stage practically everywhere in the UK and Europe we were offered a contract by VINYL SOLUTION records,who had already signed and released the Grim Reality LP by Chicago's finest, MACABRE. Being HUGE fans of Macabre, we thought this would be cool,but instead we stayed off, offered the deal instead to our friends band ENERGETIC KRUSHER,. and subsequently their "Path To Oblivion" album was recorded and released that same year. Jeff and Bill from Carcass had an offshoot label from EARACHE records called Necrosis and they had re-released the REPULSION Horrified LP, which we thought was quite cool, but not cool enough.,.they offered us a deal and we turned it down only to end up on Earache Records anyway. Big mistake. As is usual with bands that LOVE the music and just wanna rock out,.we went ahead and signed the contract,..on a polecat hutch in the drummers garden in Alnwick, Northumberland. It was 1989 and we were very excited,Thrash Metal was BIG and we loved to thrash ! We loved it so much we didn't even really care what we were signing. We had no idea that the publishing part meant that Earache OWNED all our songs and that we didn't. Digby and Earache treat us fairly well,.they put us on tours and our records were EVERYWHERE in the WORLD. It was a far cry from the first album being available in a few small unknown parts of the globe. They got us interviews with magazines that I had been getting the band small bits of coverage in anyway,.but It was to no end, really. After more ill-fated tours and recordings we eventually split for good. Our drummer Bry Newton moved to Italy after meeting a girl there when we toured the country previously. That was the biggest blow to the band, Bry was by far THE drummer for Hellbastard, and without him we went on a downward spiral quite quickly. Things change , though,...and now there is THE JOINT! Not just a good drummer, but a very creative and AWESOME drummer ! (NOTE ++++ A BAND IS ONLY AS "good" AS THEIR DRUMMER ! GUITARISTS AND VOCALISTS TAKE NOTE !!! YOU KNOW DEEP DOWN THAT WITHOUT YOUR RYTHMN ALLIANCE YOU CANNOT DO SHIT,....THE DRUMMER AND BASSIST ARE THE BACKBONE TO EVERYTHING YOU CAN WRITE, PERFORM OR PLAY...GET USED TO IT ++++) That was the end of 1990. We carried on with a new drummer and it really did'nt work out. The music had changed and we had changed,everything changed and I got fucked off with the whole thing and left too. I moved hundreds of miles away and formed a band called NERO CIRCUS. It was 1993 and things were looking good !! Nero Circus got Bry to move BACK to the UK and join the band,..but again, that wasn't to be. We went through more members coming and going whilst the stable end was myself, Big Phil the bass player and Sean Marshall the vocalist. Then, after playing many shows and releasing a few albums, (Namely "NAILED HARDER" for the American WILD RAGS label..and "HUMAN PIGS-THE HARDLINE ACCORDING TO,...." for the Italian label Godhead/Flying Records and recording 4 or 5 demo tapes it all went wrong. I formed a band called SIDEWINDER (with ex members of Nero Circus, Big Phil and Sean Marshall) and we released a great album,. "LIES, HALF-TRUTHS, MISINFORMATION AND COVERT OPERATIONS" for the BOMB FACTORY UK label only for that to crumble, too. Then I formed a band called KING FUEL with 2 ex HELLBASTARD members no less. That was just too much work,.traveling hours and hours on a train from the South of Britain to the North,.then traveling BACK again in time to get to work at 4am on the Monday morning after a weekend. That was just pure hell. Having to get up at 4 am and go into work on a Saturday and then travel ,.rehearse and leave again on the Sunday,.it was impossible to fit it all in,the distance was incredible,after 5 or 6 trips like that I was just too damned tired to continue. The train would often take anything up to 8 hours to get THERE and maybe even more to get back again. Fuck that. Not being one to give up I formed a band called HEAVY WATER and we recorded a couple of albums,..The self-titled "ANGRY BALLERINA" and the current "SIMPLE SONGS FOR COMPLICATED MINDS" out now on Fury 76 Records. Not a bad album, seeing as it was mainly myself and a drummer and some special guests helping out. Now its 2006 and THE DISCHARGERS album,.."Theres No Place Like Hell" has been released on FURY 76 RECORDS, the band features myself on vocals,.a good friend of 16 years from Belgium, DAVID (Brain Detzer) on bass and his other Belgian mafioso STEF on guitar and ZEN on drums. We are about to tour the UK (May 2006) in support of this album with FURY76 label mates RUNT,.who feature none other than EX-HELLBASTARD guitarist NICK PARSONS, who took HELLBASTARD in a real extreme thrash direction in the late 90s. The Dischargers album gave me a real BUZZ because it felt like I was 15 again and just about to leave school and enter the world for the first time. Although it must be stressed that the cd has that familiar D-BEAT Dis-core style,.it is not merely a discharge-copy!!!!!!!! Far from it,..we covered TWO Discharge songs for good measure though,.an old early 7 track but after the gig and the massive wall-of-guitars-powerful-as-fuck A HELL ON EARTH from their Hear Nothing LP. They are included in the bonus track section of the album. Sadly, after the MAY tour,.David has to leave DISCHARGERS to continue work for his own band ,.the awesome HELLSONICS. And the future of DISCHARGERS is as yet unwritten. After DISCHARGERS Scruff formed the band "MOODHOOVER", which led a very short existence with one mini album,."EDUCATING THE POOR WILL ONLY MAKE THEM RIOT..." available from FURY76 RECORDS and most good stores...... HELLBASTARD 1986-1988 HELLBASTARD 1988-1989 HELLBASTARD 1990 Scruff Guitars/Vocals HELLBASTARD 1991 1993 Scruff guitars/Vocals And INBETWEEN these line ups the following people came in the band and left again Gordy/Blobb/Grant/Ian Crow/ |