Various Artists - Equinox Event

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Rob Snivlem

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Published on May 9, 2023 4:29:46 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPaeT8tNaFk

Game:

Equinox (1993)

Duration: 1:22:33

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#powerelectronics #experimental #noise

01 Return to Slavery - Ramleh 07:16
02 Ramleh - Ramleh 04:34
03 Cease to Exist - Dogs Blood Order 10:36
04 Speech - Death And Beauty Foundation 05:48
05 Whore of Babylon Part 1 and 2 - Death And Beauty Foundation 05:41
06 Music for Performance - Jill Westwood 06:07
07 R_ape - AKE 05:22
08 Ripped Out of the World - Pure 08:05
09 Krank 14:45
10 Exces Kontro - Club Moral l03:03
11 Pinta - Club Moral 04:22
12 Buig Nooit - Club Moral 05:30
13 Jack the Ripper in Heaven - Club Moral 06:41

The "Equinox Event" was the first major UK/European extreme noise music festival. It was organised by Mary Dowd and ProduKtion on 21 june 1983 at the Musicians' Co-op in London, United Kingdom.
There were a whole bunch of bands scheduled to play, and the event was widely publicised in quite a few noise music magazines at the time. Many die-hard fans from all over the UK, Germany, France, Holland flocked to London to witness it. However, lack of organisation skills and money caused some bands to fail for appearance. Etat Brut only played 'hit and run' concert that would allow them to drive up, play, and drive back to Brussels the same night. A 4-hour ferry crossing was not an option. V-Side, barely surviving in their Gent quarters had no funding at all to travel. So that left only Club Moral to represent the mainland.
As mentioned in the previous episode of our podcast, the Equinox Event was initiated with an exhibition by AMVK and performance by Club Moral at ProduKtion-HAIR on 20 june 1983.
We spent a whole week in Mary Dowd's basement apartment, where every room including the kitchen and even the refrigerator was painted in black. Every day we went out it was as if came out of a nightclub, the only living being that supposedly survived there, apart from Mary Dowd, was a huge dog, living on a can of tinned food a day.
The Equinox Event. Well it looked a lot like a Wasp synthesizer event, since almost every band was using one. And yes, the Equinox Event attracted quite some strange folk. While most of you probably weren't even born, spending some innocent youth in the country, or hey, daring the first steps of a certain punk attitude, these bands were proclaiming violence, perverted sex, torture and wicked magick. But on the other hand there were also 15-year-old Philip Best, experimenting with beer and a shortwave radio, William Bennett, experimenting with more beer and pseudo-political activism, and Steven Stapleton aka "Nurse With Wound", experimenting with even more beer. The "Mystery Guest band" announced on the flyer were to be Whitehouse. They couldn't be named on the flyer because they were 'banned' at the Musicians' Co-op. Supposedly Best was dumped by Mary Dowd in an unsatisfying love affair, subsequently he joined Whitehouse and wrote "Tit Pulp" (dedicated to Mary Dowd), and so both were banned from the Equinox Event. Best nevertheless got lively once in a while whining and screaming "Disco Shit!" (see also our "White Power" podcast episode), Bennett might have thrown an empty beer-bottle towards the stage (but there is no evidence of that), and Stapleton got into an argument with a drunken fellow who pulled out his private parts at a certain point and started pissing all over the place, including Steven's pants. All three were not ready for that kind of Aktionism, so they soon turned their heels to the Musicians' Co-op and headed for the bar across the street to rant further on.
The Equinox Event nevertheless continued. I remember (the late) Ross Cannon having a chair cracked on his head, and using another chair to wear off more bottles while we played, but yes, the mood was on. Ramleh performed their classic "Return to Slavery", Dogs Blood Order happened to be the first performance of what later would be Current 93 (on this occasion with David Tibet, John Murphy and Roger Smith - their track was later renamed "Maldoror Ceases to Exist"), the Death and Beauty Foundation delivered quite a speech and Jill Westwood presented and early performance piece in chains. Ake set the standard with "Rape" and Pure continued to "Rip Out of the World". Krank aka John Murphy performed an agonising soundscape and finally Club Moral set out some stunning versions of "Exces Kontrol", "Pinta", "Buig Nooit en Buig voor Niemand" and "Jack the Ripper" (while AMVK played the organ, DDV placed an axe in the Musicians' Co-op's floor and left the stage, marking the end of the Equinox Event) finalising "In Heaven".
Throughout the recording you can hear the occasional bottle flying through the air, some serious arguments going on with members of the audience, and over & over again Ross Cannon throwing off would-be offenders from the stage.

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