[kj] Anti-Climax interview - February 1981

[Javier Garcia]

>JAZ : ...We've got quite a faithful tribe of
>idiots who follow us about to all our gigs...

Damn! I've never seen KJ live but still I got my ego hurt... at least he refers to us as 'faithfull'... ha!
What if we change the list's name from "The Gathering" to "A Faithful Tribe of Idiots" :)

Nice interview Antony

Javier
mex.city

--

--------- Original Message ---------

DATE: Sun, 25 May 2003 21:57:38
From: "Antoni Adamiak" <antoni@clara.net>
To: <gathering@misera.net>
Cc: 

>Here's another old fanzine dug out and faithfully transcribed for your
>pleasure - full of the same old Jaz ranting, complete with the usual
>contradictions and "crying wolf" but often entertaining and enlightening as
>ever.
>
>ANTI-CLIMAX fanzine No.8 (February 1981 - Ipswich, UK)
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>JAZ : Listen, what I'm into isn't hip by your standards - my beliefs, but I
>don't give a shit about that.
>
>GEORDIE : Don't believe a word he says !
>
>GABBY (AC) : I didn't know you had any standards.
>
>JAZ : No but ... when you get people doing fanzines, you always get - this
>is no offence right - Crass or whatever painted on their backs - I mean
>these people do fanzines.
>
>GABBY : Yeah, but these people .....
>
>JAZ : Yeah, I know him, I've talked to him, he's alright. But they do don't
>they, and they have what's cool and what's not cool whether you like it or
>not, you know, being the punk, Sid Vicious etc and all that shit. Well I've
>got nothing to do with all that. We play music that reflects pressure,
>because that's what I feel, I'm a very intense person. I'm no punk myself,
>don't get any illusions about it.
>
>AC : It depends on your definition of punk. If you think a punk is someone
>who wears a Sid Vicious t-shirt etc. That sort of punk is like the music
>paper mail order person - it's all the same whether you're wearing Judas
>Priest or Sid Vicious. Okay, so tell us what you as a group are trying to
>achieve, if anything.
>
>JAZ : Not a lot. Good times on stage.
>
>YOUTH : It's not something you think about like that - you just do it.
>
>JAZ : Individually we try to achieve different things.
>
>AC : So there's no great idea behind the band, you're working as individuals
>?
>
>YOUTH : That forms the band - the four individual ideas.
>
>AC : When you first started did you find it difficult to get accepted by the
>people who went to your gigs ?
>
>JAZ : We found it difficult, yes. People either like you or they don't and
>we play for the people who like us.
>
>AC : Yeah, obviously, but if you didn't get more people liking you then you
>wouldn't be able to carry on.
>
>JAZ : "More people" is selling records - the more records you sell, the more
>people you get at a gig.
>
>AC : Do you prefer doing gigs as a live band, or making records ?
>
>JAZ : The gigs we do, which might be one in a month or four in a month,
>those gigs are events. If you gig every week, it's not an event any more, it
>becomes a routine and you're back to square one. So we just have a few gigs
>and put all our energy into them.
>
>YOUTH : Even so, out of all the gigs we've done, only a few have turned out
>how we wanted them to.
>
>JAZ : Yeah, I mean you're confronted with a load of wankers half the time,
>which doesn't make us feel happy so we don't play well. It's the records
>that make the money.
>
>AC : How did you start to be self-sufficient as a group, where did the money
>come from ?
>
>JAZ : By being nasty and screwing as much money out of every bastard we
>could find.
>
>AC : What about Island ?
>
>JAZ : They served their purpose.
>
>YOUTH : We never signed to Island, all we did was sold them the 3 tracks on
>the 10". We didn't even sell them the rights. They don't own the songs, just
>the recordings. We sold them to make people aware that we existed. Island
>put ads in the paper and all that.
>
>JAZ : That was fuck all. They did what we wanted - got the name out.
>
>AC : Did they think that ultimately you would sign for them ?
>
>YOUTH : They tried to put a few dirty deeds in the contract .....
>
>JAZ : But we got it checked over. They're all bastards, you've just got to
>rip them off. It gave us enough money to bring out the next single.
>
>YOUTH : The money we get we don't spend on ourselves, it goes into the band.
>
>JAZ : We're here now (mixing the album) and that's in a period of about 8
>months. In another 8 months we're really going to start doing things.
>
>AC : Do you prefer having your own label as an ideal ?
>
>YOUTH : It's not an ideal, it's just a logical assumption, you've got
>complete control. It doesn't matter if you're a band that haven't got any
>ideas and like people to do it for you. You've got to do it yourself if you
>want it to work.
>
>JAZ : It is an ideal in one way. We do it so we can control all our artwork,
>money and everything, so we set up our own company. It's funny if you think
>about it. Money talks and the only way to do it is to use it. Use the
>environment, 'cos they use you.
>
>YOUTH : The only way is to survive. If you don't, you're a mug. You've got
>to rip people off before they rip you off.
>
>AC : Yeah, but who do you want to rip off ?
>
>JAZ : You don't want to rip off your tribe do you ! There's a distinction -
>Marks & Spencer's, Woolworth's, you know, the norm, the establishment if you
>like. You don't rip off a mate. (laughs) Depends what they're like, then
>again. Basic morals.
>The Killing Joke is more than just a band. We're going to get twice as far
>as we have done in a short amount of time. And yes, we want to go on Top Of
>The Pops, the lot. Imagine that cunt grinning and saying this is so and so
>by Killing Joke ! I mean we couldn't be popstars if we wanted to. It's
>religion. That's something I really want to stir up. I know what I'm talking
>about there. The church is a fucking joke. I'm into what's beyond that. The
>occult if you like.
>
>AC : What exactly do you mean when you say you want to get a tribal feel to
>your music ?
>
>JAZ : We live in a tribe. We've got an alternative reaction to the whole
>thing. Listen, I know Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Rotten. I know what they're
>like. It's shite. I go for personalities. The way they play their lives is
>just as important as the way they play their instruments.
>
>AC : But people like that are just living it out as superstars.
>
>JAZ : Cook is alright. He's got time for you. It's Siouxsie, Severin and
>Jobson who go to all the hip little parties around London.
>
>AC : So you're opposed to the whole aura of the 'rock scene' ?
>
>JAZ : Of course I'm fucking opposed to it ! Don't you think it's funny that
>people like us can be in a studio like this. They hate it, the idea that a
>grotty little turd like me could get anywhere near what they're doing. I
>hate the music business. I like the scene you guys are into - small bands.
>We went through a lot of shit getting where we are now. We approach things
>from a different angle, it might seems a bit unreal to you. We're playing
>with something completely different.
>
>AC : Don't you think you're in danger of becoming a hip band ?
>
>JAZ : Well that would just be funny !
>
>AC : I think it's expected. It's already happening to a certain extent.
>Killing Joke are the 'new in thing man'.
>
>JAZ : We don't play for those cunts. We've got quite a faithful tribe of
>idiots who follow us about to all our gigs. We want to make the most of what
>we've got.
>
>AC : But I think that already you're becoming one of the new "in" punk rock
>bands.
>
>JAZ  Well that's just ignorance isn't it because we don't play 'punk rock',
>we just reflect what's happening and endeavour
>to be honest with ourselves. You can either be a shitty little band doing
>the circuits week in, week out, for the rest of your life or you can go
>through the mangle. The choice is yours.
>
>    *    *    *    *    *
>
>JAZ : When you're recording you've got to capture the atmosphere, as long as
>it makes you react to it. I don't mind being in the studio, but I do like
>gigging.
>
>AC : How did you get your name ?
>
>JAZ : You can apply the killing joke to everything. Imagine a soldier in the
>trenches in WW1. He's just been told to run over and gain another, say, 15ft
>of land and he knows he's going to die, and he suddenly thinks that there's
>some cunt back in Westminster controlling his life, and he feels a bit of a
>mug. That feeling is the killing joke. You can relate that to yourselves,
>because that's what's happening to you. In 3 or 4 years something is going
>to happen, the Earth will react. You pump the Earth full of shit and in the
>end it's going to throw up, whether it's an atom bomb or an earthquake.
>You've got to go down to your roots, you've got to know why it's happening.
>You can't take any religion seriously these days. Your instincts tell you
>it's lies. It's all changing, you know what happens every 2,000 years,  the
>last 2,000 have been the age of Pisces, now we're moving into Aquarius. I
>know, because I worked with the church believe it or not. That's my personal
>interest. I'm not interested in religion, I'm interested in fact.
>
>GABBY : It seems a good idea for why we exist.
>
>JAZ : Exactly. Most people, they'll know how a motor car engine works, but
>they don't know why their heart is ticking. What do you want to call it, God
>? There's more to it than that. I call it the life force. I don't see life
>represented in the body.
>
>AC : Why do you think we're alive then ?
>
>JAZ : You want to go that deep ?
>
>AC : Why not ? Instead of asking what your next single is.
>
>JAZ : The big reason. Why should I tell you ? All I will tell you , when I
>was with the church, I saw the altar frontals and related the colours they
>had to the time of the year, and it related to the Zodiac, which is split up
>into Fire, Air, Earth and Water. I looked further into it and the facts come
>from before Christianity. That's what I'm interested in. You know the
>Freemasons right ? They're all rich bastards, high society. They use a form
>of the occult, the sun, moon and symbols but they're the people who
>originally planned the whole layout of the church. What is behind it is
>Paganism, which is like my belief. That is the killing joke, to know that
>established religion has all been clouded, the truth's not there.
>
>AC : What exactly do you mean by the occult ?
>
>JAZ : The science of religion, the natural powers.
>
>AC : What about Gemini's not getting on with Scorpio's, and that kind of
>thing ?
>
>JAZ : That's a load of bollocks, you can get on with any fucker. The proof
>of that is in the band. All that the Zodiac is, is measuring where nature
>was when you were born. The sun and moon influence the pattern. The moon
>influences the water and as we're 90% water therefore it influences us. I'm
>on about the absolute science, that's what I believe in and I don't give a
>shit whether it's hip or not. I'm sticking by my roots, that's Killing Joke,
>that's one of the aspects we're about.
>
>AC : So you're going a lot deeper than just being a rock band making music ?
>
>JAZ : Yeah, you've got to have your roots.
>
>AC : What about the other members of the band, what are their views on it ?
>
>JAZ : That is the whole reason for the band. We're very different people.
>Youth is a very earthy character, he like getting pissed and shagging women.
>I mean we all do. The Church says you mustn't.
>
>GABBY : Don't you think you're being restrained by the fact that you are a
>rock band ?
>
>JAZ : We're doing what comes naturally to us. We are using our environment.
>The planet uranus and pluto - uranium and plutonium which make atomic bombs.
>It's all related - look and find the facts.
>
>AC : But they're just related names !
>
>JAZ : But the facts of science are behind it. Look into it yourself. That is
>why there's going to be a lot of mass change in the next 3 years. It's going
>to affect you, so you've got to know why it's going to happen. Forget the
>Sex Pistols and what they said. We're about something completely different.,
>which has been bugging me for a long time. The Killing Joke is a state of
>mind of being aware of what is going on about you.
>
>*** THE END ***
>
>The relevant pages have also been scanned & are available at the following
>URLs :
>
>(NB. They are about 200Kb+ each)
>
>http://home.clara.net/antoni/ac8p01.jpg (200Kb)
>http://home.clara.net/antoni/ac8p09.jpg (216Kb)
>http://home.clara.net/antoni/ac8p10.jpg (291Kb)
>http://home.clara.net/antoni/ac8p11.jpg (237Kb)
>
>Regards,
>
>Antoni
>
>* http://home.clara.net/antoni/ *
>
>



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