[kj] Amebix on Killing Joke in _The Day the Country Died: A History of Anarcho-Punk from 1980 - 1984_

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

Rob Miller of Amebix discusses Killing Joke in Ian Glasper's _The Day 
the Country Died_.

** One of Amebix's early Killing Joke-inspired efforts is online here:
 http://goodbadmusic.blogspot.com/2007/06/amebix-whos-enemy-7ep-spiderleg-records.html

** Amebix singer Miller is now a swordsmith on the Isle of Skye @ Castle 
Keep and discusses this early EP a bit on the forums section of his 
swordsmith website: 
http://www.castlekeep.co.uk/forums/index.php?s=54c98779de2478cabf19ef61cd6717c5&showtopic=184




 From Ian Glasper's _The Day the Country Died: A History of 
Anarcho-Punk: 1980-1984_ (Cherry Red Books, 2006):


"At this point Amebix were developing an unhealthy obsession with the 
mesmeric sounds of Killing Joke, a band whose tribal poundings changed 
[singer and bassist] Rob [Miller] and Stig's perceptions about what 
constitutes genuine musical power.

"'Yeah, we were developing all these influences from people like Bauhaus 
and Joy Division, but especially Killing Joke, who were just absolutely 
fucking incredible... we saw them at the Trafalgar Square CND rally in 
1980, and they came onstage and just fucking blew everybody else away. 
It was a bit pretentious, I suppose, but Jaz Coleman came on and said, 
'We're the only honest thing that's happened here all fucking day!' And 
all the CND people were looking at each other, shocked!

"'And we were obsessed with this idea of building as big a musical 
architecture as possible -- but we didn't have any musical ability. We 
still had no idea how to tune our guitars ... seriously. Right up until 
the end of the band, we were still saying to each other, "This is on the 
fat string ... this is on the second fattest!"

[...]

"The 'Winter' single followed (b/w 'Beginning of the End') in early '83, 
a poorly produced offering with insistent tom patterns drowned beneath 
waves of fuzzed-out guitars and Rob's repetitive wailing of the title, 
that actually spent almost two months in the Indies, peaking at No. 18.

"'A lot of the stuff that we were writing back then was just garbage,' 
scoffs Rob. 'But a lot of it was fundamental as well, building blocks 
for what we were trying to create. Unfortunately we wasted a lot of time 
in this melange of stuff that was trying to be Killing Joke ... trying 
to imitate their sound because they were the most realistic 
interpretation I'd heard of what we were trying to get to ourselves ... 
that whole primitive rhythmic thing that didn't really break into 
verse/chorus, verse/chorus, middle-eight ... it was just about creating 
this big, big presence.'

[...]

"'Talking about this, it makes me realise that I do feel very 
passionately about what we did as a band. A lot of people do heap a lot 
of praise upon us, but I read an American review of [the] "Arise" [LP  
from 1984/5] the other day and the guy was pretty much spot-on. He 
didn't go, "Amebix are progenitors of this and that," and all the rest 
of it ... he actually said, "These guys wear their influences on their  
sleeves. You can hear Joy Division, you can hear Killing Joke, you can 
hear Black Sabbath and Motorhead ..." But he was quite disparaging at 
the end, adding, "It's just a shame that they didn't leave us anything 
half as good as these other bands." Which is fine, y'know? It's his 
opinion, and good on him, because we did wear our influences on our 
sleeves in many ways.

"'Venom weren't an influence though ... that's one thing I need to 
strongly state to everybody. We were before Venom, and I got their first 
single and I wrote to them when they brought out "In League with 
Satan"... I wrote this letter to Abaddon, saying, "That's the funniest 
thing I've ever heard in my fucking life!" 'Cos I thought they were 
taking the piss! And the twat wrote back, "Do not mock the way of 
Venom..." and all this sort of thing!'"