DISORDER INTERVIEW
from Skull & Crossbones zine #6 (Scotland), 1988
Disorder will be known by most people reading this, so I think there's no real need of an introduction. Catch them live though when they come across this April/May. Cheers to Taf once again for his co-operation.
S&C: You Taf are now living in Norway, Is there any particular reason for you flitting? What's the "scene" like in Norway compared to the U.K.?
T: I came here a few years ago and really had a good time, then I got a bit fed up of Bristol so I thought there's a lot of people active in the scene here - people are really into standing up for their rights and other people's, came to think of it. Anyway, it's a laugh here and I like it.
S&C: I thought the "One Day Son..." LP had the best Disorder stuff I've heard. What's your thoughts on the LP? Did it sell well? What are Kafka Prosess?
T: I thought it was the best we've done for production, but we should've put more songs on it. I reckon it's not long enough. It's selling at the rate of about 500 every two months and it's sold about 4 or 5 thousands I think, I haven't been keeping count properly. Kafka have split, 2 new bands have come out of it, So Much Hate & Race Against Time.
S&C: Most new bands nowadays seem to be going metal and we all know what metal is like. Amebix have just signed to a subsidiary of the arms dealers RCA, so it seems that even honest bands are selling out. Do you think metal has killed off the true spirit of punk? Or do you think it's merely another musical style?
T: Well, I never. I'm shocked about Amebix doing that, pretty dumb really, well it's true what they say "never trust a friend". I like metal music but I hate the lyrics and the big business involved.
S&C: You said recently in a letter the cops in Norway are even worse than our town. What’s the overall public awareness and resistance to oppression like in Norway? Is animal rights as big an issue there as in the U.K.?
T: Everyone is well aware and the punks here are really "solidarisk", when someone in the group gets arrested, then there’s a demo outside the prison without a doubt.
S&C: What do you think of the recent demo in Germany where demonstrators opened fire on police, killing 2 and injuring 11? Is non-violence a cop-out?
T: it should have been 11 that was killed and 2 injured, nuke the bastards.
S&C: Some anarchists (fascists?) like Class War seem strongly anti punk and animal rights. What do you think of this? Is speciesism as strong as an issue as racism and sexism?
T: I think it's really hypocritical to be on one hand screaming out for justice, freedom and liberation from the system and on the other hand you are supporting the imprisoned (sic) torture and murder of innocent creatures. People like Class War don't deserve the things they want because they only care about themselves, that is working class men out to fight for the rights of the working class men without giving a thought for the women at home looking after the kids or the animal that gave it's life to be shoved down his throat, every night on the way back from the fucking pub. Human freedom, Animal rights, Equality, One fight!
S&C: What's the 'zine scene like in Norway? Any recommendations?
T: There's a really good paper called "Folk & Rovere" but it’s in Norwegian so I guess no one would be interested.
S&C: You were on two "Punk & Disorderly" LP'’s a few years back, what did you think of them? Were they rip-offs?
T: No, I thought they were good records, I still listen to them even now and they were slightly cheaper than most other commercial market LP's at the time. The only people who got ripped off were the bands, I don’t know who ended up with the royalties but somewhere along the line we missed out – hence "Disorder Records".
S&C: Norway seems to have produced a few good bands (like Bannlyst, Kafka Prosess, Angor Wat). Are there any others we should watch out for? Are there any good bands playing non-punk music?
T: Yes, Homo Detritus, So Much Hate, Stengte Dorer, Data Morgana and Confused Minds is just a few but there’s many more, Oslo even has two Oi! Bands, T.H.C., who do a great version of "Two Years Too Late" and "Joleen" and Oslo's only skinhead band The Roll On Boys – not nazis by the way. There is one band called Y.M.Stammen who are playing sort of interesting P.I.L. type stuff. Yes, it's all jolly good fun on the old punk music scene.
S&C: I've read that a lot of your gigs get stopped by dickheads. Do you think it's the music that attracts them? Or are you just unlucky? Have you ever had serious hassle from nazis?
T: No, it's not true, yeah, we had a few incidents but not many, the most recent trouble was about 2 years ago at a gig in Scotland but that was nothing much, just a drunken brawl. We've quite a few of our gigs stopped by the pigs though, like in Coventry a girl slashed her wrists in the toilet while we were playing "Suicide Children" and the police stopped the gig. At a Stonehenge benefit at Woolwich Fire Station we got a visit from the new recruits out on a riot training exercise from Woolwich Riot Police training center. They made an impromptu entrance from the back of the stage right in the middle of "Love And Flowers" and started swinging their batons. It's not always the police try and stop the gigs however, once in Sweden they threatened to arrest us if we didn't play, it was a shit place and we didn’t want to play there, so the fans got a bit mad, having traveled a long way some of them just to see Disorder so the police were scared of a riot situation and they said that if it was a riot they would hold me personally responsible, so we played. Yes, I know it wasn't brave but to be honest I shit myself, those Swedish cops have guns and they have a psychotic reputation, they mentioned I would get a beating too.
S&C: I think your envelope's on its last legs!
T: No it's not, never, what do you mean? I've only used it 86 times – same stamp too, can it be the world record. FUCK THE SUSTEM – DON'T BUY STAMPS, USE THEM AGAIN. SAVE PAPER, SAVE TREES, SAVE MONEY. OPEN ENVELOPES CAREFULLY AND USE THEM AGAIN.
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