Warning - highly offensive content!
On 25 June 2011 a nightspot called the Slimelight in Islington, London, UK, plan to stage a concert that has attracted criticism over the involvement of musicians with links to Nazism. The headline band are an awful folk group called Sol Invictus, led by a singer called Tony Wakeford, who makes no secret of his past membership of the British Fascist party the National Front. Tony Wakeford was a founder member of Fascist bands Above the Ruins and Death In June, but says (on the Sol Invictus website) that his NF membership was the worst mistake he made. Tony Wakeford claims to have left his Fascist past behind him, but alot of people don't believe him, because still collaborates with racist musician Andrew King. Debate over the ethics of going ahead with this concert is divided between the small clique of fans, friends and members of these bands who bombard the WWW with comments claiming (usually without any proof) that (roughly summarizing) "they're alright mate", and anti-Nazis who present evidence showing that even if these bands aren't outright Nazis, at the very least they revel in displaying imagery that is highly offensive to victims of Nazism (1).
Slimelight manager Mayuan Mak told The Islington Gazette (newspaper) that "we would not tolerate an event that has a Neo-Nazi focus" (2), but Mayuan Mak is lying, because the Slimelight already staged concerts by Nazi performers Death In June, Luftwaffe and Non, and because, despite the ruckus caused by the Sol Invictus concert, on 1 Oct 2011 the Slimelight plan to stage a concert headlined by an electronic music group called Sutcliffe Jugend, who created their name by joining the terms "Peter Sutcliffe" (the name of a misogynist mass-murderer from Great Britain) with "Hitler Youth", while one of the support acts planned for 1 Oct is a convicted child sex offender and Nazi called Peter Sotos (3).
Sutcliffe Jugend is led by musician Kevin Tomkins, who is also an occasional member of another electronic music group called Whitehouse. Whitehouse leader William Bennett wrote a manifesto in the Belgian fanzine Force Mental (issue 1), also quoted in Flowmotion fanzine (issue 6), that explained how Whitehouse are "concerned with the struggle against the unhealthy Negroid influence in popular music". Whitehouse member Philip Best published a compilation (also featuring Sutcliffe Jugend) called White Power. Whitehouse member Peter Sotos was convicted for possessing child pornography after he was busted by Chicago PD for producing a fanzine called Pure, in which Sotos says "females are dogs whose only worth is as pawns for my pleasure" and describes death camps as "Triumphs of Nazism" (4). In a section called "Kiddie Torture" Peter Sotos describes "the sublime pleasure of child abuse" (sic), and shows graphic photographs of a man pleasuring himself over photographs of missing children (5). William Bennett also ran a record label called Come Organisation, who published a 10xC60 cassette box-set by Sutcliffe Jugend, entitled We Spit On Their Graves (extracts from which were reissued on CD by another UK label called Cold Spring Records), which features dozens of tracks which celebrate misogynist crime and Nazism (6+7). Many of the track titles from that release are named after women victimized by serial killers, refer in detail to murder techniques used by Peter Sutcliffe, and celebrate Nazism. Titles like "Storm Detachment Hitler", "SS 1982", "Reinard Heydrich", "Dictator Rule", "This Is Pommerenkke" and "New Camps" are some of the less offensive.
Debate about the morality of the music produced by the likes of Slimelight performers Peter Sotos and Sutcliffe Jugend is complicated, a little, by the defense put about by William Bennett, who (whenever anyone can be bothered to listen to him) argues against the huge weight of evidence provided by Pure fanzine and dozens of similar projects, that the ideas promoted by him and his friends do not come from National Socialist ideology, but that they come from a hyper-extreme interpretation of libertarian philosophy. William Bennett's self-justification takes libertarianism to the limits of self-parody, to an extreme in which the "rights" of the individual (as conceptualized in the Whitehouse track "Right to Kill") over-ride all rights and liberties due to all other people, period. William Bennett's self-justification distorts the meaning of libertarianism to equate the libertarian with the most psychotic libertine, who, through the broken lens of "Sadeian" cod-philosophy, identifies with "libertines" such as the Marquis de Sade, Ted Bundy, Peter Sutcliffe, and the Nazi war criminals who Bennett praised (in the Spanish music fanzine ADN) for enacting "glorious pleasures" rather than for their titular ideology. Bennett's defense is intellectually sub-zero, factually dishonest (as Bennett colleagues like Albin Julius are still Fascists), and a moot point when it comes to actual victims, because the bottom line is, legally and morally, that if some Nazi war criminals killed for "fun" rather than because they believed in Nazism... so what, they were still Nazi war criminals.
This is an issue of feminism and child protection as much as (if not more than) it is an issue of anti-Nazism, and attempts to discreetly stop these concerts at Slimelight, without publicity, have previously failed, which is (in case of asking) why the campaign's now gone public.
Both concerts are organised by promoter Gaya Donadio (who performs her own music under the name Anti-Child League). Objections to the Slimelight's entertainments license should forward this information to:
Licensing Service Public Protection Division Islington Council 222 Upper Street London N1 1XR Tel: 020 7527 3031 Fax: 020 7527 3430
Email: licensing@islington.gov.uk
1 - http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2011/04/weather-warning-shower-of-shit-expected.html
2 - http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/online_campaign_attacks_controversial_islington_gig_1_914659
3 - http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--qZWk4oN0mg/TfItm4wzMMI/AAAAAAAAATM/y1iQuuTlwz0/s1600/newpicoct11.jpg
4 - http://www.uncarved.org/othertexts/pure.html (reprinted from OVO magazine)
5 - These photos are documented in a book called Apocalypse Culture (Amok Press 1988)
6 - http://www.artnotart.com/come/cassettes.html
7 - http://noiz.tripod.com/sutcliffe.html
Photo 1 - Tony Wakeford (far left of photo) at NF newspaper stall in London's Brick Lane
Photo 2 - Boyd Rice of Non wearing Swastika pendant and "Rape" T-shirt
Photo 3 - Advertisement for Sutcliffe Jugend and Peter Sotos at the Slimelight
Photo 4 - Front cover and Whitehouse feature from Flowmotion fanzine, issue 6
Photo 5 - Detail from Flowmotion 6
Photo 6 - White Power compilation packaging
Not for Profit at Indymedia
Before his involvement with Death In June/Above The Ruins Wakeford was a member of the anti-fascist band Crisis.
ReplyDeleteHis conversion to the extreme right seems to have had something to do with his friendship with Pat Harrington. The connection was to do with the occult. Wakeford used to describe himself as a Satanist.
Just another couple of pieces of useless information, Wakeford used to write for the NF's Nationalism Today magazine under the alias "Dave Stevens".
Harrington's sister Lorna had some involvement with at least one album released by Death In June, and Harrington himself can be heard providing the backing vocals on the song "Progress".
An interesting article by the author Stewart Home on Tony Wakeford and the Neo Folk scene and an amusing one on nazi bonehead band Skrewdriver...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stewarthomesociety.org/wakeford.html
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/cranked/skrew.htm
Love Music Hate Racism have called a protest on the night about this so called evening of entertainment. For more info go to their website lovemusichateracism.com or follow them on Facebook, No Nazi bands in Islington is their page, i think.
ReplyDelete@Anon 10:25am June 15
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the piece, and before reading your comment, I thought to myself, "I bet Harrington is somehow involved in this.....The ALT scene combined with Nazism sounds like a Harrington project".
His strange 'wife' Michelle also has involvement in bands whose sexual politics are dodgy to say the least. Wouldn't be surprised if she was behind the scenes on all of this.
The photo of the NF stall in Brick Lane brings back memories. It was forever getting turned over by anti-fascists.
ReplyDelete"Pro-pedo"
ReplyDeleteWhat, are we Americans?
PAEDO, ffs.
'PAEDO, ffs.'
ReplyDeleteMaybe the original poster on Indymedia WAS American. Anyway, I've changed it just to please you, because I'm feeling generous. ;-)
Are other Nazis embarrassed by the fey artyness of these people?
ReplyDeleteDon Black from the KKK and Stormfront was successfully barred from entering the UK, so the person to approach re - banning Peter Sotos from entering this country is Home Secretary, Teresa May, mayt@parliament.uk, 020 7219 5206
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing fey or arty about Sutcliffe Jugend tracks like "Ballpen Hammer Ripper Attack" and "Legalise Child Abuse"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.discogs.com/Sutcliffe-Jugend-We-Spit-On-Their-Graves/release/1288959
The original article should also be corrected to read "HItler Jugend" instead of "Hitler Youth"
There's also a long article about some of these bands in issue 11 of the anti-fascist noise fanzine Datacide
ReplyDelete"In fact, a danger arises in that one can easily see how the public’s recalcitrant lust for the murder and rape and recording of Lesley Ann Downey could create the misunderstanding that a more specifically degenerate interest in her could be quietly acceptable or benign. Or that the responsive media fascination is a signpost for perverts to avoid help and instead find their ugly delusions more appropriate in light of the public’s greater denials." - Peter Sotos, 'Selfish Little" 2004.
ReplyDelete"I don't think [Peter Sotos's] work needs to be upgraded or explicated by anyone, me included, and I think its inability to present the details and factors and signals that would facilitate an argument for its value as literature is one of the reasons it's among the most important writing being done today. It is scary, intense, ugly, honest, original, problematic, profoundly challenging stuff. It's also highly intelligent, refined, and kind of a masterful example of writing at its most rendered and self-investigating, all the moreso because its art refuses to give an inch to readers who need something conventionally beautiful, however offbeat and subtle that beauty, to justfy a book's assault" - acclaimed gay and anarchist US writer Dennis Cooper, 2006
"When I think of Sotos, two writers come immediately to mind: Kathy Acker, for her blurring of gender, age, and sexuality as well as her insistently pornographic mode of depiction, and Andrea Dworkin, for her unapologetic exploration of themes of dominance and her central premise that women are undervalued in our society." - Scottish artist Lucy McKenzie, Artforum magazine 2005, naming his 'Comfort & Critique' as book of the year.
The blatant errors and wilfully misleading quotations out of context in 'Not For Profit's piece are too numerous to detail and stem from a long-standing personal vendetta dating back many years. This usually informative and well-researched blog really doesn't do itself any favours by reprinting this article.
Saying allegedly "blatant errors and wilfully misleading quotations out of context in Not For Profit's piece are too numerous to detail" is a good excuse for anyone who hasn't the courage to answer the points the piece actually made, or the courage to admit that the quotes are all accurate. All quotes can be accused of being "out of context" depending on how widely you choose to set the parameters of "context", but the response above cites Andrea Dworkin, out of context, without bothering to even quote her at all, even worse to present a feminist writer who spent her life campaigning against rape as though she'd somehow support a man like Peter Sotos, who advocates rape. Yes this article does stem from "a long-standing personal vendetta dating back many years", that "vendetta" is called Anti-Fascism!
ReplyDeleteThe response above was posted almost word-for-word on Indymedia under the name "Katrina Kessel", but I strongly suspect both posts were made by Peter Sotos.
Not wishing to be accused of not answering their claims however, Kathy Acker's "blurring of gender, age and sexuality" has nothing to do with Peter Sotos praising "Nazi Triumphs" and praising (what Sotos calls) "the sublime pleasure of child abuse". As for the quote attributed to Dennis Cooper, what utter bullshit. Sotos writing is "scary, intense, ugly, honest", but no more so than any crime scene photograph. It is only "original" in the sense that such extremism is unusual. To say it's "problematic" is insultingly obvious, but it's not "challenging" unless you're so gullible you're actually seduced by badly-written pedophiliac and Nazi diatribe? As for literary merit, the quote admits the writing of Peter Sotos suffers an "inability to present the details and factors and signals that would facilitate an argument for its value", then reaches what by its' own evidence is the self-contradictory conclusion that because of this inability (!) this writing is therefore "among the most important... being done today". What utter claptrap.
Peter Sotos does NOT post under the alias Katrina Kessel, acftually he doesn't post at all. he doesn't use the internet, he doesn't even own a computer. his world still is 100% printed media
ReplyDeleteBlimey - some interesting posts here - just a couple of observations: why is Patrick Harrington's wife referred to as 'wife'? Is this status in question? Secondly - its' ummm...its or it's maybe but never its'...(and I'll leave aside some American spelling as the poster might indeed be American).
ReplyDeleteYes, the fascists just loooved pathosexuality and deviance, didn't they? There are probably less misogynists and fascists in their crowd (judging from many years of attending such events) than in your local pub(judging from many years of attending local pubs). To deal with a taboo subject without rejecting it and morally explaining how bad it is? Aaaa, they are condoning and celebrating it! Stop them!! Ignorant blockheads.
ReplyDeleteSaying this creep's writing shows an "inability to present the details and factors and signals that would facilitate an argument for its value" is a very pretentious way of saying he's a shit writer, but how do you know whether "Peter Sotos does NOT post under the alias Katrina Kessel, doesn't use the internet, doesn't even own a computer"? For all I know you could be Peter Sotos, posting on the internet with your computer.
ReplyDeleteEven if we take someone's word for it there are less misogynists and fascists in Whitehouse audiences than "your local pub" (certainly not my local pub) I'm guessing no-one in your local published magazines that talked about the "pleasures of child abuse"? Based on my knowledge of popular culture I'm guessing that if anyone went into most pubs talking shit like that they'd probably be taken out by an ambulance crew. Yes Sotos was "condoning and celebrating" Nazism because he described Nazi war crimes as "Triumphs".
Secondly - its' ummm...its or it's maybe but never its'
ReplyDeleteGet a friggin life pal!
It's probably known to everyone here that industrial music, as a child of the 80s, did flirt excessively with Nazi and fascist imagery (a lot of people in the 80s did: Joy Division, New Order, Bowie, etc). I think for people who *don't* actually understand what happened in Nazi Germany, the use of it is not so much in agreement with Nazism, but a lashing out at society telling them who to judge when that society itself seems to be failing them. Whitehouse may have indulged in White Power rhetoric and imagery in their infancy - which is unquestionably disgusting - but they have also released (on their label Susan Lawly) a series of noise compilations including "Extreme music from Africa" and "Extreme music from women". This seems to indicate that racism or misogyny may be surface images they have indulged, without them being based on firmly held ideology. It's easy for us who have very strong feelings about these matters and know a lot of the facts, to assume that everyone else does - but simply, a lot of people don't, it's all just history or politics to them and they take it or leave it for the effect it creates, just like kids calling each other gay or jew without there being any theory or even intention behind it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Sotos, that's a different kettle of fish because he does seem to have a very complex theory behind his work, and from what I've read he's very aware of both the disgust which he feels for the topic and the hypocrisy of people who would call for his books to be banned while consuming front page headlines or factual autobiographies of serial killers and their victims. He seems most akin to Michael Gira in both his style and his self-awareness.
It sounds like something out of Nathan Barley. Is it really worth the energy of shaking our fists at it?
ReplyDeletereally strange how a badly researched article on bands, which the writer knows nothing about is being taken as a gospel to re-post here (it is right cos the bible...ooops indymedia says so). strange how people who actually listen and use their heads are pretty aware of what the artists (they are artists even if you arrogant twits do not like it) are trying to say.
ReplyDeletehas it ever crossed your mind that these artists make a lot of deafening noise about the subjects because they perceive the world as sick and try to make the listener feel disgusted about it?
has it ever crossed your mind that you are wrong and that your fascistic tendencies try to discriminate, are defamatory and persecute a group of people who are those people you are pretending to "save"?
a minority! who has it's own culture, expression and art and that it is not up to you to judge people like that without a deeper insight than having spotted this or that person some 20 - 30 years prior to their performance do something that you do not like?
right now all i see here is a bunch of ill informed fascistic (oops communist) commissars trying to relive the old communist ideas which mean that if you are not for it, then you must be against it (got the gluag ready yet?). death threats and attacks on people who peacefully went to concerts with what you define as no art at all (hey hitler did that too congratulations) have not gone unnoticed. also not unnoticed went the fact that the writing style of the originators is being identified now and the right people will soon see if they can uphold their libelous claims against people in front of a less biased audience. your are nothing but blind followers of an outdated philosophical idea which tries to stamp out it's counter part. we should be through with this game of communists against fascists by now, both state models have failed spectacularly in history, both have committed roughly the same amount of genocide..... before you point and scream THINK... USE YOUR HEAD!
because they perceive the world as sick and try to make the listener feel disgusted about it?
ReplyDeleteThey're the ones who are fucking sick pal.
The blatant errors and wilfully misleading quotations out of context in 'Not For Profit's piece are too numerous to detail and stem from a long-standing personal vendetta dating back many years. This usually informative and well-researched blog really doesn't do itself any favours by reprinting this article.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny to see Harrington trying to defend the scum bands he's associated with? As always the message for Harrington is simple enough that even a serial failure like him can understand...
FUCK OFF YOU SLIMY, NAZI CUNT!!!!
William Bennett has been quite frank about how his new-found fascination with Africa has alot to do with the rape, child abuse and genocidal violence that have sadly taken place in some African states, and it's widely acknowledged that virtually all the acts on the "Extreme Music from Africa" CD that Bennett published were Bennett himself using various pseudonyms. No less dishonestly, the "Extreme Music" CDs were an attempt to confuse Bennett's critics and distract attention away from the many dozen pro-Nazi and pro-rape projects Bennett produced and published over the years, but Bennett was still working with Nazi music promoter Albin Julius as recently as 2006. As for Peter Sotos, even his apologists admit his writing shows an "inability to present the details and factors and signals that would facilitate an argument for its value", yet in Ayin's mind this inability adds up to a "very complex theory"! Does it?
ReplyDeleteThe original article is not (as "Snoww" says) "badly researched", because the article bases its conclusions on direct presentations of primary source material (you don't know much about research methods, or about defamation law, do you Snoww). If it were the case that these artists talk about stuff like the "the sublime pleasure of child abuse" (sic) because they "perceive the world as sick and try to make the listener feel disgusted about it", then those artists would not respond to a question about whether men should (quote) "kill women" by saying "it's the only way to treat them".
Expect William Bennett, Peter Sotos, Philip Best, Kevin Tomkins and the Slimelight management to troll alot more comments in their increasingly desperate attempts to wriggle out of this.
If Whitehouse supporters think this band has been quoted out of context, they should scan entire 12 page long "Triumphs of Nazism" feature from Pure magazine by Peter Sotos and post it on-line, so we can see what all of it looks like, in context
ReplyDeleteThe cover of William Bennett's "Africa" CD shows a bleeding, bandaged and seriously injured black woman - so, given Bennett's comments about opposing "unhealthy negroid influences in music", how does the imagery of his "Africa" CD show Bennett's not still racist?
ReplyDeleteThe "Africa" CD cover art is drawn in the "erotic" style of its illustrator Trevor Brown, who emigrated to Japan some years ago, as this is the safest place for him to pursue his love for making pictures of what he calls "Baby Art" which (I'm not joking) frequently involve graphic sadistic paedophile imagery. And for those who pretend this all happened in the early 1980s, William Bennett's "Africa" CD was released in 2001.
Notice something about that NF stall? Most of the guys manning it are fairly young.
ReplyDeleteIf you took a photo of a BNP stall today they'd be in their 40's and 50's.
I wasn't going to weigh into this one re Peter Sotos, but - here we go (Gawd 'elp us all.....) - I've actually read two of Sotos' books ("Index" and "Lazy"), read all three issues of "Pure" (yes, the third issue IS available to read online), one issue of "Parasite", the full text of "Quality Time", and various interviews, short pieces etc. - with all this information, I for one don't buy Sotos' "art" pretensions for a second.
ReplyDeleteHis racism is virulent (check out the end of "Dugs" in "Pure" issue 1), his homophobia is all over his literature (so he's been to some "glory hole" places...so what? he stil see gays as worthless dregs), and, hmm, anti-Semitism? Check out his "tribute" to Josef Mengele in "Pure" issue 3, including a huge amount of "grovelling, miserable Jews" spiel.
And as for the child porn question, he himself bragged in an interview (available online) that following his conviction for child pornography possession (for one magazine) in the mid 80's, Chicago police gave him back several items of child porn, going against his defence that he "only" had one CP mag on him at the time...and read his description of the "physically disabled child porn" section in "Quality Time" - either he has a very active imagination, or he's seen and enjoyed said "product".
So, Jim Goad once said that "Time will vindicate Peter Sotos". Hmm. I prefer a friend's comment, who referred to Mister Peter as "lowlife criminal scum"...but what do I know, eh? I've only read and informed myself on his "art"....
Anonymous,
ReplyDeletegreat name btw, shows how much guts you really have!
you claim they are sick
who are sick? me? the artists?
so you are saying the world is not sick, there is no such thing as rape, murder and abuse?
people who pick up difficult subjects and do not indulge in subjects that are easy to stomach, people who scream about the general sickness of the world must be sick in your opinion?
silly.
why do you think it is sick to not look away? does it touch something inside you that makes you feel uncomfortable and dirty?
are you at that moment a part of the performance?
i still stand up for the right of expression. this right is very important to me.
equally important is freedom of speech, the right to be unharmed, the right to choice and equality as well as women's and children's rights.
Good post by Sacha C. Can Sacha C post-up some links to all this stuff please, because this information could be very useful
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous: there's an "archive" of Sotos material at a Peter Sotos Yahoo Groups place, which can be accessed here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/petersotos/files/
ReplyDeleteThe interview in question (scans of the original magazine article) is here: http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2010/01/jesse-hudson-presents-peter-sotos-day.html
And the Quality Time article is here: http://feastofhateandfear.com/archives/sotos2.html
As someone who is both disabled and Jewish, I'd be the first victim of 'Nazi Triumphs'.
ReplyDeleteHere are my views on Peter Sotos, reprinted from the whomakesthenazis blog:
I've read his work since he started seriously publishing in the mid-90s and in so many ways he is such a difficult writer to defend - the newer writing is far removed from the style of Pure but it's still relentlessly disgusting and bleak. Paedophiles hate him, as he's not talking about age of consent laws or 'loving intergenerational relationships' - he talks about cruelty and abuse with terrible consequences. The picture he paints of his own homosexuality isn't done with 'pride' or any kind of sex-positive celebration - he describes squalid and ugly anonymous encounters between damaged men. Victims of crimes hate him because, just like the newspapers, he exploits them by using their real names prominently in books. The liberal literary intelligentsia and art scene hate him for pushing the aesthetics of people like Genet and Francis Bacon into an area that drips into uneducated real-life violence. His books still feature casual racism which he refuses to self-censor, mixed with gleeful depictions of cruelty to animals.
I read him, with some regrets, as he is a unique stylist and one of very few writers willing to cast an eye on the brutal power dynamics that lie behind everyday human interactions. Andrea Dworkin was another, and like Sotos she is frequently discussed by people who haven't actually read her. [insert joke about 'they both ate all the pies' here]
As Peter Sotos has now withdrawn from this event stating via its failbook event page "The only reason that I wanted to be involved with this show was that I like SJ and Gaya very much. I’d rather not put anyone in the position of having to defend me or ideas that are, to me at least, more complex and lifelong than the current forum seems to allow " , all this talk is kinda meaningless as censorship won, for better or worse.
I don't think the cause of anti-fascism is served at all by picking on unpopular and shit-stirring artists, and I would suggest some of you re-read Tilzey & Hann's 'No Retreat' to remind yourselves of your real goals. Then maybe get a database together of names and addresses of prominent EDL supporters and publish everywhere.
I was the anonymous commenter 2:24 AM, June 16, 2011 who has been accused here of being both Sotos and some fascist fuck called Harrington. Forgive me if I don't leave a link to my real identity - some of the witch-hunt mentality here is actually frightening me.
Taking a look at Dennis Cooper's blog, he's not exactly an unbiased observer. No surprise to find Dennis Cooper's a big Whitehouse fan, who talks about sexist nonsense like Whitehouse's Titpulp and Shitfun (no joking) without anything like a feminist critique, and who talks about Philip Best without admitting stuff like White Power even exists. OK, so a gay man celebrates people who produce violently misogynist and racist trash.... who is that we learn most about from that?
ReplyDeletehttp://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2007/12/sypha69-presents-ultimate-whitehouse.html
To reply to "disabled and Jewish", I've read No Retreat, dedicated years of work to conventional Anti-fascism (at massive personal risk) and believe it's because mainstream Anti-fascism has rightly not prioritised people like Whitehouse and Sutcliffe Jugend that unfortunately they've been allowed to operate under the radar and, albeit slowly, over a long period, cumulatively cause great damage to society. There's been a slow drift towards increased tolerance of and desensitisation to extreme right-wing imagery, and a marked increase in hostility to Anti-fascism, in cultural circles that are influenced by magazines like The Wire and Artforum etc. If you think I need to read No Retreat, you need to read Mephisto.
Alot of new documentation about this has been posted on Indymedia
ReplyDeletehttps://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/480820.html?c=on
Andrew King is not a "racist musician" — do try to keep some semblance of objectivity.
ReplyDelete1. It is not actually correct to say 'Wotan Rains...', the song referred to, has "racist and fascist" lyrics. The song is clearly sung from the perspective of a racist/fascist personality, hence its delivery. It's a first person narrative. Ask David E Williams about it.
2. It is NOT an "Andrew King release." King records and releases traditional song, and only that — this was a cover version done, at the request of David E Williams — for an album devoted to cover versions of Williams's songs, and released by Williams.
3. "Quotes" by the Slimelight manager to the effect that Sol Invictus will be playing the song during the gig in question, is sheer invention on the part of the website that published it, and they will be punished accordingly. Neither King nor Sol Invictus would consider playing the song live — this nonsensical trash spewed out by the Islington Tribune's Pavan Amara will surely come back to haunt him.
As mentioned above, defenses of Peter Sotos that appear here on Lancaster Unity also appear almost word-for-word on Indymedia, attributed to the name "Katrina Kessel". Doing a little research it turns out that the real Katrina Kessel is not the "female artist" their impersonator claims to be on Indymedia, but is instead an anti-pedo campaigner from Portsmouth, England, who's attacked and ridiculed at length in one of Peter Sotos books! In other words, the real author of these bullshit posts is almost certainly none other than Peter Sotos, failing to pull a stunt at the expense of one of his opponents. So, thanks to Peter Sotos for taking the time to visit Lancaster Unity (hope LU logged his IP address) and for the opportunity to shred your pathetic attempts at self-justification, now FUCK OFF
ReplyDeleteAs for this shithead Dennis Cooper - another scumbag, thanks for tipping us off!
Wakeford's Sol Invictus is a multi-faith and LGBT-friendly outfit singing inoffensive neo-folk. Leagas's 6Comm is basically a 'world music' project that would not be out of place at the old WOMAD festival. The worst threat this Slimelight gig poses is that people might start getting tribal tattoos whilst listening to songs around campfires sung by middle-aged liberals in kaftans. Really.
ReplyDeleteLike some other commenters have opined, if you're looking for a cause to fight, look elsewhere, where the action is hot, heavy and real. But this Slimelight neo-folk thing is cold porridge frankly, and all the hot air blown on it so far ain't gonna heat it up.
Well I like Current 93, Tibet and neo-folk — who do you think got them on the bill at Ray Davies' Meltdown? The anti-neo-folk crusade, the 'Who Makes the Nazis' blog and the anti-Slimelight campaign is entirely a personal and vindictive obsession of the bloodthirsty Count Stewart Home and his loyal, half-cocked Renfield, Karl Blake. STop fucking about boys — I'M SERIOUS!
ReplyDeleteSo, that said — WHO ARE THE REAL 'USEFUL IDIOTS'?
Leon: Looks like Wakeford has had his hand forced re. King regarding his "Tyr" interview (and the fact he's also touring with Moynihan this summer) - otherwise he was more than happy for King to record "that" Second Amendment track. Says much about Mr Wakeford, no? And as for Leagas, I can't say that going on stage with an open racist says much for him too. The last time I checked, WOMAD wasn't down with racist and neo-fascist clowns.
ReplyDeleteNatalie: Should you get the chance to speak to Mr Bunting, ask him about his attitude towards homosexual penetrative sex - you may be surprised by the answer you get....and, er, it's NOT an anti-Slimelight campaign at all - do keep up there!
For your info: one of the bands has pulled out of this concert, supposedly for reasons of ill-health. The group in question, Joy of Life (whose full line-up intended for this gig isn't known), has previously shared members with Sol Invictus and had, as it's keyboardist and laptop computer operator, one Butow Maler, who is one-half of the group Seelenlicht with Troy Southgate. I guess everyone here is aware as to who Troy Southgate is?
ReplyDeleteTROLL ALERT. The above comment supposedly by Natalie has been written by someone else, as I am Natalie. The above views do not represent my own in any shape or form and I consider Stewart Home a friend and would never write anything like that about him.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Bennett from Whitehouse is now releasing music under the name Cut Hands, aka DJ Cut Hands. William Bennett is promoting Cut Hands with an extract from a review from the Wire magazine, which says Cut Hands "may be the most radical step in the evolution of modern noise" (noise being a sub-genre of experimental music). The unedited Wire review sounds a bit less impressive, stating that Cut Hands "may be the most radical step in the evolution of modern noise since the harsh noise walls micro-genre first gained international recognition through the works of Werewolf Jerusalem and The Rita a few years ago". The Wire review might impress fans of "the harsh noise walls micro-genre" or fans Werewolf Jerusalem (?), but might not impress those of us who've never heard of these superstars.
ReplyDeleteHaving discovered African culture for the much same reasons that Nazi film-maker Leni Reifenstahl discovered African culture after WW2, William Bennett describes Cut Hands as Afro-Noise (sic), and likes people to think Cut Hands is musically innovative, but, for the real beginners out there - 1, real innovators like Steve Reich worked with African rhythms as far back as 1972, 2, musicians of African origin and/or descent - African Headcharge, Lee Perry and thousands of dub, ragga and dancehall artists, have been fusing African percussion with noise for decades, 3, William Bennett's not African, 4, William Bennett described his music as being "concerned with the struggle AGAINST the unhealthy Negroid influence in popular music" (sic), and 5, William Bennett's Extreme Music from Africa compilation (which features the first Cut Hands track) was made in Edinburgh, was entirely composed by William Bennett (using various aliases), and features a heavily eroticised graphic of a badly injured African woman on the CD cover (rewind to Whitehouse tracks like "Pro-Rapist").