Following on from our piece (which you can read here) in issue 221 of the Big List below is the full interview carried out by Garry Brooks
“Derelict, dive and up a grotty alley…”, “High spirited and forward looking you don’t see these things….nothing like it.” These were the words used to describe Giros a number of years ago in a documentary charting the history of the Warzone Collective. Close to the employment centre it had a simple but effective premise – share resources – and that’s what they did. Now resurrected and putting on gigs again near Bruce Street in Belfast I caught up with Jimmy Segus to chat about the collective, how things have changed over the years, and more importantly the here and now.
Browsing
the gigs on your website there is a diverse range of musical styles within the
same line ups. Death metal bands
playing with dub step and prog bands for example. Which style of music defines the Warzone Collective or is it
noise for music’s sake?
Going right
back to when we started out in the mid 80's the main 'style' was punk, and
particularly what the music press of the time erroneously labeled 'anarcho-punk'
after bands like CRASS and Poison Girls. For those readers not familiar with
CRASS or anarcho-punk there's plenty of information online - CRASS encouraged a
strong DIY mentality - you could form a band and put out a record WITHOUT a
label, or you could do a zine and print and sell it yourself, or you could
organise in a host of different ways - the key was to feel EMPOWERED to do such
things and the philosophy behind it all was a variant of anarchism. We don't
need middlemen, who are essentially parasites living off other people's
creativity. CRASS made their own albums, folded inserts and leaflets by hand
into them, and went on to sell millions, ploughing all the money back into
helping other bands and projects, including a small group at the time called
Greenpeace. They were intensely political and more influential than many people
think as a trip online or to YouTube will show you.
They played
in Belfast in 1982, twice actually, and their ideas took root in the local punk
scene, which until that point had more of a pop punk feel about it. It was this
influence which led to the formation of Warzone Collective; that philosophy of
doing things for yourself and being confident as individuals and as a
community; working without hierarchy and giving everyone a say in that process
became central to everything we did. So although punk would probably be the
central genre, since those times we have incorporated just about every style of
music out there, and we promote any musical genre, provided it meets with our
core principles - which are basically anti-sectarian, anti-racist, anti-sexist
but which also promotes the DiY ethos.
We're not too keen on wannabes, rock stars and the other spoiled brats
of the music industry. You can go to MTV for that!
I suppose there's
a lot of really fake music out there, which is more geared towards record sales
than being honestly entertaining, or having something genuinely meaningful to
offer in their lyrics . Things
like X-Factor promote this designer market thing and while some of the acts
have great voices and all, the whole thing is false and based on sales
demographics. We prefer to see bands that write their own songs, play them
live, record them and get them out there without having to prostitute
themselves to the corporate machine.
In this era
of online communities like Facebook was it a necessity to start up again and
bring people together in one place as opposed to online? The shift of musical formats back to
vinyl and demo tapes indicates this shift back to the old and better times when
people interacted in person?
There are
two questions in there, though in a sense they are related.
When we
first started out there were no computers or mobile phones - you had to meet
people face to face, or walk down the road to a phone booth. Since all this new
technology has come in I fear we've lost out considerably in the art of
conversation - you miss all the subtleties of facial expression, tone of voice,
look in the eyes, and lots of other nuances. This is all lost, or getting lost.
I sometimes sit on the bus and watch school kids sitting right next to each
other, texting each other rather than talking. It's utterly bizarre!
People, and
especially young people, can lose sight of what life is - life does not really
exist on a screen - it should surely be about interaction with community and
environs, rather than endless texts or the non-sense on Facebook - people talk
about the most banal and utterly irrelevant things rather than the stuff that
might actually matter or count. In a sense this is one aspect of why we felt
the need to get things going again (we stopped in 2003 and started again in
2009).
To answer
the other part of the question I wouldn't be overly convinced this is the case.
Vinyl has certainly made a comeback, and was probably maintained by white label
DJs and collectors - but even until relatively recently CD quality just
couldn't match vinyl. I used to remember ordering albums from the US and
waiting weeks for them to arrive; then poring over the artwork and the whole
experience. This was lost on CDs when they first came out in those awful jewel
cases, with a crap 4 page insert of somebody lying on a beach or a shot of an
empty studio or something equally dull. No wonder everybody started
downloading, given the price of a CDR is about the same as it costs a record
company to put out and the realisation of how much profit they were creaming
off us; AND often the artist as well! The advent of gatefold digipacks with big
booklets and CDROM content has helped considerably - you actually feel you're
getting something worth owning.
The format
isn't that important, it's the effort that people put in to creating something
special that counts.
The name
‘Giros’ still rings true today as when you started, although that name isn’t
used anymore, the times of austerity are very much rife and social divide
widening which is the perfect time to reestablish your identity on the Belfast
scene. Was this part of the ethos for the return?
In many
ways yes. When we folded in 2003 there was a major gap in Belfast's alternative
culture and it was difficult for local bands, particularly of an alternative
nature, to find venues to play in, as well as having to put up with overpriced
beer, greedy promoters and macho-bouncers. We knew the need was there but there
are a number of other reasons.
There are
serious issues out there - the global capitalist system (enter Star Wars music
here) continues to promote a free market economy by opening up international
markets for corporate exploitation - driving out small business, creating
unemployment (by moving to areas of cheap and unorganised labour such as sweat
shops), creating environmental catastrophe on the assumption that there are an
infinite amount of raw materials to be extracted (there aren't), lobbying for
warfare (resource grabbing like we saw in Iraq), pushing towards peak oil and
climate change (look at Google Earth's map of the ice caps now and 20 years ago
for all you climate skeptics) etc
Human
beings are now known disparagingly as 'human resources', who are to be
exploited to maintain the privileges of elites. We are trickle fed wages which
enables us to get by if we're lucky to have a job, but when you look down the
line it holds you back, limits your life and ultimately controls who you are.
The Occupy movement talks about the 1% and the 99% in this regard - the 1%
exist because we accept that the way things are is the only way that things
could be.
We are
allowed to vote every few years for a change of face but NEVER given a say in
the actual society itself. More recently with what is politely called a
recession - global depression is more accurate - corporate interests have blatantly paid themselves huge
amounts of bonuses, politicians have exploited their expenses, while the public
and voluntary sectors are slashed. The trillions that went into the debacle in
the Middle East invasions - amounts so huge that unreal amounts of credit had
to be created to prevent soaring inflation - this is the real reason why the
world economy has crashed.
These
things make us angry, it's in our music, in our ethos - but we believe real
change will only come about when people take things back into their own hands.
Can you
tell us a bit about Warzine and is there any old issues we can read or buy to
support the collective? Are you open to submissions?
Warzine
first came out in 1986 and has been sporadic ever since. It was really a way of
letting people know what we are about and the bands we were putting on,
protests we were staging etc. It was and always has been uncensored and open to
anyone. At the moment we are working on a PDF archive of all the back issues
which will be available on our website www.warzonecollective.com later this
year. There should also be a new issue out at some point in the near future -
it's always free as well though donations gladly accepted.
How do you
think the music scene has changed in Belfast over the years and do you think
the resurgence of record shops and music fans in general wanting more for their
money, with vinyl sales going up 40%, surely this will also see more people
turning up at Warzone gigs with a carryout, to buy a 7”, and a fanzine or am I
romanticizing!?
That's not
an easy question to answer as there are quite a few different music scenes and
I'm not familiar with the half of them, so I can only talk about of my own
experiences.
Due to the
paramilitary situation back in the day there were not many bands willing to
play here other than punk bands and the likes of Motorhead. Although there has always been a folk
music scene the DiY aspect of punk was so very central in generating a local
music culture with labels like Good Vibrations putting out homegrown bands like
Rudi or The Undertones.
More
recently Belfast seemed to be saturated with cover bands because the cost of
bringing actual bands over the Irish Sea (the world's most expensive stretch of
water btw) and subsequent low turn outs for the high ticket prices meant many
promoters couldn't afford the bigger touring bands. Not always a bad thing I might add. Then we got the Odyssey
and ridiculously overpriced events. We found it amusing when Green Day played
there recently, seemingly forgetting a certain Collective who put them on back
in the day.
Really it's
always been that way, it just seems more blatant nowadays. There's genuine
people playing good music in all sorts of styles and there are less genuine
people who want their egos stroked at every opportunity. And then there are the
greedy promoters....
Very sad to
see only a handful of small independent record shops left in what is a European
capitol city - we really should support them because they often stock stuff
you'll not get online - local bands for example. We have our own shop/distro at
gigs and online. Average price of a brand new CD is £5. Support the
independents, and not just music ones, they are what brings variety and culture
to the community - instead of the usual suspect chain stores that seem to be on
every European high Street - whatever happened to diversity!!
On your
forum there is a post about a Warzone compilation? Can you tell us how it
turned out and have you considered starting a label to expose new acts or will
it stay a distro?
We started
the label again 2 years ago and we've put out 2 double CDs so far, digital live
recordings of the Subhumans and Steve Ignorant (singer of CRASS), which we
recorded - in gatefold card sleeves - as benefits to get us started. We will be
releasing some more local bands this year as well, hopefully the new album by
Belfast ska legends AGRESSORS BC. A few people are doing compilation benefits
for us as far as I know though not sure of the details. We are working on a
major compilation of Warzone bands, accompanied by a book, which looks at
anarchist ideas in the North from the late 1800s to the present. Thich should
be out sometime this year.
We have an
online shop and distro as I said. We'd love to help more people get their stuff
out there but budget is tight, but certainly in the future... We'd certainly
also encourage and will help people to do the whole thing themselves, from
recording to printing to distribution. DIY is what we're about after all.
Thank you
for your time, the last word is yours!
Thanks for
the interest in Warzone Collective Garry. More information on what we are doing
and all upcoming events can be found on the website. We put on all types of
music and we're open to all - we encourage anyone interested in genuine forms
of expression and community to come down and get involved. You never know what
you can do until you put your mind to it!
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