Bands of Gateshead past

CHINESE BURN – 97 Practice

Recorded on a boombox at Northern Recording practice rooms, Consett in mid-97?
There are 6 tracks here I think? I even found the lyrics to 3 of them (below), one is a cover of VOID’s ‘My Rules’. It was our first hardcore band when we were around 16-17 and still in school. From what I recall Chinese Burn soon morphed into ‘Arthur Fonzarelli’ and played a show with the fantastic In/Humanity and Palatka… then died. This band was the launch pad for ORRIN DeFOREST but that’s a whole other story that will be told at a later date.

 

SID – Vox, TONY ROME – guitar, BURN – bass, WOODCOCK – Drums

 

CURTIS – 1998 4 song Demo

4 songs recorded in early 1998 at the Soundroom Studios, Gateshead.
It was an analogue 24 track, which I wish still existed. The unmixed version was put on a bunch of demo tapes and passed around. The mixed version was fed into the computer there where the ‘engineer’ then ‘mixed it’. It sounded horrendous at the time (still does) and I’ve not really ever listened to it since the time but you can’t really hear the guitars otherwise. Steve and Sid both sang on the last track, both sound tone deaf.
The influences at work here: Husker Du, Leatherface, Dag Nasty & Fuel.
SID – Guitar, BURN – Vocals/guitar, WOODCOCK – Drums, STEVE – bass

 

WATERFALL – Urban Hunter Gatherer 1999 demo

4 songs recorded in mid 1999 at the Soundroom again in Gateshead.
I think the Soundroom moved premises around 2 years after this session, going full on pro tools. There were only two bands on my mind at this stage: Helmet and Swervedriver.
It sounds like neither really, just noisy and badly mixed. The last track was actually on a compilation LP on Petset records, San Diego. They thought we sounded like Unwound.
It was a strange comp, I think we were next to a hip hop artist who sounded like Coolio.
We also used to do a cover of ‘By a thread’ by Inside Out, for what reason I don’t recall now. It was always instrumental unless played live (this version recorded at practice).

BURN – Vocals/guitar, WOODCOCK – drums, TONY ROME – bass, STEVE – guitar

 

TYRE IRON – ‘Super Marijuana Spider’

1 long song we recorded on a 4 track at First Avenue practice room, Newcastle in mid-2000. Above note is taken from a letter Lobsta sent me when I dubbed the track again for him some years later. From what I recall there were only three points of reference: Corrupted, Sleep and Celtic Frost. Lobsta was always telling myself and Woodcock that we weren’t playing slow enough. Marzuraan were blessed by his trombone playing once at a gig supporting Sunn 0))) in 2003. I still miss him immensely, a genuine North East legend R.I.P.

JON LOBSTA – Banjo, hooting / BURN – Tea chest, hollering / WOODCOCK – pots and pans

 

VARIOUS FLYERS:

 This is an overview of what little ‘scene’ there was in Gateshead during the later half of the nineties. It was extremely close knit and there was no such thing as a peer group… none. Given that, our attitude became us against the world. Things needed shaking up and we felt no bands were embracing the newer wave of hardcore from America as well as the classic bands. I’d imagine these days it has become a lot easier for kids do bands. Back then hardcore was like a secret society, to the extent that the signifiers would be the chain wallet and backpack on both shoulders. They were, in retrospect, the perfect conditions in staying true to your convictions. The lyrics, the music, the opinions are very earnest. I thought some of it may be cringeworthy but the songwriting holds up well. I just wish we’d had more money to record but that’s the price you pay for DIY!!!! 

-PETE BURN, Winter 2010