Maybe you remember our info-sheet about THE
DIRTY SCUMS with a history from our start in 1981 till 1986 ? As that info is
now a bit out of time, we present you this sheet with things that happened with
us in 1987. Read all about it.OLD BIOGRAPHIES - 1988
1987
Maybe you remember our info-sheet about THE
DIRTY SCUMS with a history from our start in 1981 till 1986 ? As that info is
now a bit out of time, we present you this sheet with things that happened with
us in 1987. Read all about it.
We gave our last gig of 1986 on 27/12 in ANTWERP with amongst others E.A.T.E.R. from SWEDEN, with whom we kept contact. 1987 began properly speaking not so good. First of all, we didn't get a single offer for a gig and beside that we had problems with the cover of FULL SPEED AHEAD !. The person who made the film (the printer needs that in order to print the covers) couldn't handle the job. The chap wasn't as capable as he presented himself (he made some serious, unprofessional, mistakes), through which the covers only came out in February while the albums were printed in November. The flyers were also spread in November, so a lot of people had to wait a long time for their order. A lesson we have learned is that it is better to let things do professionally and to pay more, than to work with an amateur who doesn't know his job. The critiques on the other hand were good. Yet a lot of people who considered us as a '77-punkband were surprised (and in fact not pleasant surprised) by the hardcoresongs on the album. We hope that it were not those who shouted "faster" during our gigs. Nevertheless at least 50 % of the songs on FULL SPEED AHEAD ! are '77-punksongs and our new repertory consists mainly out of punkrock. The new records (single and album) also moved a lot of people to write to us for information and such things, so we had a lot of work to answer all those letters. To be exact, we send in 1987 465 letters, mostly answers to received letters.
The first three months of 1987 we didn't get one gig (in 1986 we played thirteen times). Through that it was a bit difficult for us to promote our new album and, yes the metalinvasion started. Bands who didn't have metalinfluences in their music were apparently considered as second class. Personally we don't have anything against metalinfluences, we haven't anything against any influence to be exact, it can only be good for punk and its music and that is why it went against the grain with us. We think it is wrong to consider punkrock bands as second best because they don't have metalinfluences in their music. Anyway, we didn't have gigs anymore and metal became more and more a norm instead of an influence and we are opposed to that. So we wrote a song about it, "AGAINST THE NORM", which you will find on our next album. Naturally it is good that two subcultures who were opposite in the past now become closer but if that brings along a new form of intolerance then we're better off without that fraternization. And we are talking here about both sides, '77-punk and hardrock.
In March we tried to set up a tour (in Belgium) together with NO NUMBERS in order to get some gigs and to promote our second album: the FULL SPEED AHEAD ! tour. We wrote to a lot of people (owners of pubs and so) and there were a few reactions to our letters, but then NO NUMBERS splitted up and goodbye tour and gigs. But there was one ray of hope: in April we were asked to play in Liège, by people who saw us the year before in AMSTERDAM. There were three bands: WASHINGTON DEAD CATS (FRA) (a kind of rockabilly), BERURIER NOIR (very famous in France) and we, and it was a very good gig because we were of course very anxious to play and we used every effort.
On 1 May we took part in a contest for young talent in a local pub. Normally we don't do such things anymore but every band could get a videotape from their gig and we couldn't resist. Every year we celibrate the anniversary of the band (in 1987 it was our fifth anniversary) with gigs from bands we like and/or with whom we played with in the past. This time we asked FULL TIME DRINKERS, VORTEX, EARDAMAGE, CRISIS-C (NLD), BLACK VAMPIRE (NLD), W.C.F. (NLD) and ourselves of course, THE DIRTY SCUMS. But that gig became in fact a disaster because a stupid punk ruined it. He was very drunk and he started to damage cars and to annoy people on the street and so the police came with several busses, they blocked off the street, stopped the gig and they controlled everyone's identification card. It took three or four hours and two bands couldn't play because of the cops, you can understand that it was a financial calamity for us. Several fanzines wrote about it and also the local press gave attention to it. We released a live-tape called 5th ANNIVERSARY GIG and it 's now available but three of the bands on it don' t exist anymore, namely FULL TIME DRINKERS, CRISIS-C and BLACK VAMPIRE. It ts a pity and also remarkable that so many bands are splitting up.
From then on things began to go better for us, between July and November we played seven times and on 13/11 (Friday, the thirteenth) we were the support act of the TOY DOLLS (GBR). We looked forward to that gig because THE TOY DOLLS is a band we liked very much. During our performance there was almost no reaction from the audience that mainly consisted out of skinheads and Teddy Boys who came only to see TOY DOLLS, but fortunate for us they left us alone. But they started to fight each other during the gig of TOY DOLLS. As far as we are concerned they may easily kill each other as long as they are leaving us in peace. The TOY DOLLS were very good but we thought their songs were very simular to each other. TOY DOLLS gave us also a rather dubious impression: the skins did the Hitler-salute on top of their nose and it didn't bother them at all. The Belgian television was also presented and they filmed TOY DOLLS and their audience and they used fractions of the film in a dispatch called "Racism among young people", which was very good. In that way people could see what kind of bullshit there is in this world. On the other hand it isn't good that fascism gets too much attention, it could influence people to join them. The television also filmed us but fortunate they didn't use it for the dispatch.
After that one, we did three more gigs, one for a marxist movement and one we organised with M.S.T., from Paris. The last gig was on 27/12. It was a benefit for an alternative pub that was threatened to be closed by the local governement. There were a lot of trashers and they liked us very much. A good end of the year.
To end we want to thank the people who organised gigs for us and the people who came to watch them.
Appeared in:
- Alternative #2 (CHE) - summer 1989