'ANOTHER BLACK DAY'-

Black Celebration 5, 26/10/2003

I've learned my mistake from previous one-day festivals so I of course turn up late. By all accounts I didn't miss much. Lead band, Pro-Jekt (the electro Judas Priest) were unable to perform due to (get this) their lead singer being arrested. The rumour has it that the band were driving about lost in London on their way to the venue, when the band's singer came up with the wonderful idea of asking a policeman for directions. Upon doing this, the policeman in question smelt drink on the singer's breath and arrested him for drunken driving. Rock n Roll, huh? Bit of a shame really as their electro metal is actually one of the freshest sounds on the scene.

I arrive to see a three men and a young lady laying down a thousand volts of testosterone fuelled fury on the main stage. A vocalist raging against a guitarist, whilst said singer is thumping his handheld keyboard on the ground as if he's Jan Hammer possessed by Jimi Hendrix. It's about a good ten minutes before I realise that this band are actually former stationary keyboard prodders The Sepia! At every performance of theirs that I've reviewed I've always criticised their lack of stage presence, but they've changed beyond recognition. Newer material hints at a more savage direction (Think Fear Factory - yup they're now that hard!), which could easily see them become popular headliners on the London scene. Now the boys and girl have an aggressive stage presence that does credit to the power of their compositions, and I look forward to catching them again at a future date.

There have been a few changes to the bill, but Katscan play their obligatory set. Of course Roi, Martin Diablo's former husband in Nekromantic is due to appear with Mechanical Cabaret later on, so tonight should hopefully give us a chance to compare both their bands. Katscan are of course one of the few bands on the London electrogoth scene who've managed to get themselves some publicity that goes beyond websites like this written by hacks like me. They of course have also had the glorious honour of actually being featured in the greatest comic in the galaxy, 2000AD. They seem to have downsized a bit since I last saw them with Martin now with a lone keyboard player. I don't know if they've radically changed their material, perhaps it's just hearing them play at a venue with a decent PA, but their set tonight was definitely a few notches above past appearances. Their visuals were eye-catching and of all the times that I've seen them, this was the performance that impressed me the most.

Sadly Mechanical Cabaret fail to materialise, although perhaps this was due to a lack of time in which to set up their slide projector! In their place are an otherwise unknown band. I've no idea who they are, but it's good stuff all the same. 

The band's singer seems to be engaging in a similar amount of Marc Almond-style bravado, which appropriately leads into a medley of Soft Cell tracks that begins with a certain song about a dwarf before transforming into 'Memorabilia' and 'Heat'. I make a note to get a hold one of Psyche's singles, until I get home and realise that they have a track onthe Suicide tribute CD that I bought at the event!

After what only seems like a few minutes, headliners Icon Of Coil appear onstage. Like many of the bands that perform at these one day events, much of their material will appear familiar to regular attendees of London electro Goth club nights, even if the band themselves are not quite so recognisable. Their set up is the usual one (two keyboards, mini disc player and a singer) that we see so often as these things (Covenant, Mesh, Goteki etc). Musically I guess the Covenant are the closest reference point as the Icon are more like the hyper soundtrack to Saturday night out than a depressive weekday indoors. Whilst they may lack the Covenant's snazzy suits, Icon Of Coil have a far more aggressive stage presence and it's far easier to get into the thick swell of their ensnaring bass lines. Their front man is also alot less icy than the singers of most euro Goth bands, although by his own admission, he's 'no stand up comedian'. Too bad that this gig was bound by Sunday opening times, as I would've happily welcomed another encore.

So there we have it, Black Celebration 2003, perhaps not quite as memorable as past events, and perhaps one of the few where the actual bill bore very little resemblance to the line up advertised before the show. Sadly the overall turn out wasn't quite as high as previous one-day festivals, although I guess that we can put this down to fact that the bill lacked one of the big three (Covenant, Mesh and Sulpher) who always guarantee a packed house. It was surprising how quickly the whole day went, which I guess in some inverted kind of way has to be a good thing, and there was no appearance from either Greenhaus or the Borg - Now isn't that a surprise?

'ONE SKY'

Black Celebration III

Freudstein, Synthetic, The Borg,  Leech Woman, Haloblack, Sulpher, Suicide Commando, The Covenant 

28/10/01

The UK industrial scene has for once got a fair bit to celebrate in the year 2001. The year has seen a whole new slew of bands crop up (Katscan, Punishment State, Needleye), a promotions company dedicated entirely to electro acts (Armalyte Industries) and we’ve even got the likes of Sulpher and Suicide Commando

who are now courting the mainstream music press. But as we prepare for Flag Promotions third Black Celebration festival of Industrial music, it’s with a certain degree of sadness- With all the cross genre breeding going on in the world of underground music, EBM and electro dance are becoming the dominant force, leaving the industrial techno so beloved by many a decade ago high and dry.  Whilst it’s easy to ask where all the Morticia Goths have gone amongst the cyber crowd, we can rest assured at least that there will always be some kind of underground culture that encourages strange dressing up and general all round freakery. And dress up strange the pop kids will, with such eye opening attire spotted at BC III as a young gent wrapped in cling film, his modesty preserved by a dainty g string  (He’s obviously watched the Full Monty too many times!) and a young lady encased in layers of black tape, her otherwise bare breasts covered by two black tape crosses on her nipples (Visits to B&Q will never be the same again!).

Freudstein opened the days festivities, and despite it being not long after lunch time on a Sunday, the crowds were already packing in nicely. A perfect opener for the Celebration really, Freudstein played a fairly short but sweet set, belting out a diverse range of material. Visually they came across as a more old-fashioned goth ensemble, but they treated us all to a fusion of old and new styles. The balance of power between guitar and synthesiser varied in each song, and towards the end they also changed over to female vocals - in all, a pleasing and not entirely predictable variety show. Brighton's workaholic trio Synthetic picked up the baton next, with a typically energetic performance of dark EBM/electro-pop. Again the set is dissapointingly short due to the sheer number of bands waiting to appear. But hey, at least frontman Tim Mathias appologises for this, and it's quality and not quantity that the crowd want judging by their enthusiastic response. Synthetic have a passionate yet fun stage-presence and make an interesting counterpoint to some of the more doom-laden acts that follow. They are currently touring northwards to promote their album ASDR - check out "http://www.syntheticdomain.com" for details.

I really wanted to like the Borg. They adore Gary Numan and have an unrequited admiration for the early eighties synth pop movement so beloved by us in these pages, but sorry, they just don’t work for me. It’s not that their music is entirely bad, it’s just that the band themselves are so vacant in it’s performance it’s easy to forget that they’re there at all. Our slap-headed singer appears rooted to the spot and his lone keyboard-playing mate is more or less hidden by the PA. I guess that if I was being generous I could stipulate that the Borg might work as a studio project, but that was only if I was being extremely generous!

Leech Woman on the other hand, are at the total other end of the spectrum, being one of the few contemporary Industrial bands who are actually better in the flesh. As our frighteningly hairy drummer pounds away on a pair of gas cylinders and an upturned dustbin, a back lit film of various grotesqueness plays out. That we can barely hear the guitar player and the bassist above the racket from the back hardly matters as it’s the strange kinetic energy that the band summon forth that keeps the show rolling forward. Whilst there’s hardly anything new about Leech Woman’s metal bashing post modern punk, they stick out like a sore thumb amongst the legion of key tapping synth pop merchants and are all the more welcome for doing so.

Man(I)kin appear to have been lost to the mists of time, and the stage is taken by their last minute replacements Halo Black. Whilst musically it’s hard to fault this trio’s insistent take on electro rock cross over, like the Borg, they are unable to fully project their intense sound to a full auditorium. The band requires more than just a lone drummer and two singers to fill up the stage. Ideal for the dance floor, just not quite right for a stage. As the masses gathered in the LA2 (Alright, the Mean Fiddler) slowly forget what daylight tastes like, the stage fills with dry ice for first of tonight’s big guns. Sadly somebody in the front roe of the audience decides to take Sulpher’s name literally and lets rip a truly grotesque fart. Still I digress, for it’s a shame that Sulpher are only third from the top on the bill as they’re now a more than capable headliner in their own right. Of course, since we last encountered them they’ve found their name a regular fixture in the mainstream rock press and have experienced at first hand how poisonous the tongue of the music weeklies can be. Main man Rob Holiday has obviously got the lad’s recent review from Kerrang on the brain as he’s going ten colours of apeshit about the stage thrashing out at just about everything in site. Either that or he’s extremely pissed off at his DOA microphone.  "Crappy American Equipment!!!" yells Rob. Yes, let it be known that tonight Sulpher are every bit as good as they were at their 242 debut gig a mere twelve months ago- If not a fraction better! Close your eyes to the Cure-gone-death metal riff of ‘One of Us’ or the sampled feedback bursts of ’Unknown’ and it could almost be a certain Mr Reznor up on the stage in front! Rumour has it that the boys are currently being headhunted by some major labels for a big money deal, so this could well be the last time we’ll see them at such close range!

I’m going to put my head on the block here and admit that I actually quite like Suicide Commando, and whilst their new melodic approach is a vast volte force from their edgier offerings of the past, you’ve got to admire their bravery at trying to seduce some new punters towards this old chestnut called EBM. Sadly after the aural fury of Sulpher, their set feels sterile and uneventful, a fact hardly helped by a truly dire sound mix (The guys singing, but where’s his voice?) and a non existent stage presence (Before I realised that the band had begun to play, I thought that they were in fact just their roadies testing the equipment!). Live, Suicide Commando are nothing more than 2 Unlimited for Goths, but even then, at least everyone’s favourite disposable euro pop band have a sultry female singer to divert attention from their otherwise insipid sounds!

The Covenant are a band who are currently loved and loathed by EBM fans in equal measure. Whilst their experimental early nineties material was instrumental in taking the sounds of the alternative dance floor to the masses, in the intervening period the Swedish trio have embraced mainstream dance music in a big way, much to the disgust of many fans.  Despite the reservations of many, they can still command quite a crowd (Although thanks to the work of one Sven Goran Eriksson, this may be just a current British love of all things Swedish!). The lads have played around with some strange stage outfits in then past but tonight are fitted out in oddly totalitarian suits (Shades of Heaven 17 anyone?). Their set plays it safe, mixing the experimental works of old with the more commercial output of recent times. There are moments of opulent grandeur that capture the lost treasures of John Foxx’s original Ultravox, there are others where the band appear to be auditioning as Front 242 for an appearance on ‘Stars In Their Eyes’! At times the band’s sound is totally lost in the vacuum of the venue and in all honesty, their famous fans in Mesh achieve a far better impact with more diverse sounds and far better song writing, but when the band and audience become one for the audio visual spectrum of ‘One Sky’, the Covenant can rest assured that their place in the history of the alternative dance floor is guaranteed.  But as the dance floor becomes all the more important in the world of alternative music, will there still be enough ‘live’ bands to fill an event such as Black Celebration a few years down the line?

Freudstein and Synthetic reviewed by Howard Gardner, all other reviews by Dave

home