The End..? I’m still shell-shocked. Finish The Story‘s debut gig was better than the second coming of Jesus Christ. Hastily flung together four weeks ago for this gig, they were raw, powerful and exciting. They’re a three-piece band from such diverse Islands of Aptitude as Bromsgrove, Bristol and Evesham.
Fronted by the blonde and the beautiful Nicola (the Evesham ingredient, hostess at the notorious Vauxhall Inn), they skipped through a short set of six embryonic classics. The drum machine went places no drum machine has been before, Gary etched lines in the air on his keyboards (I thought he was touching em .. Mick Mercer), Pete murdered his rabid guitar in true Bauhaus style, and above it all Nicola’s vocals soared clear and sane.
She bounced and bopped through the catchy “Chant of the Boxed-in Society”, caused a major emotional earthquake with “Apparently He Couldn’t Hear Me”, bounded through “Inspiration Didn’t Come Today” and “Alone With A Picture In A Matchstick Frame”, forgot the words to “The Dodgy Concept”, and . finally ended with “Playing At Life”.
They left. the audience happy, if a little confused, Through the last two songs a video of unsurpassed excellence played. They were wonderful. What more can I say?
Next band up were Evesham’s own Dancing. Did..(Cut!…. Ed).
SARA JONES
Collecting Easter eggs and telephone answer machine messages, a video that has taken 20 years to compile.
BBC online . September 2005 – a fresh look back at the early days as guitarist with ‘Finish The Story’. Click Here
In 2009 a free download of ‘You Have The Power‘ by This Window was made possible by Microsoft. There were 1,000s of other FREE songs available to download. These free downloads (m4a and mp3) were all from ReverbNation artists and made possible through the Sponsored Songs program. These songs were EXCLUSIVE to the program, which meant you would have to pay to get these downloads from anywhere else.
This was a fantastic success with thousands of copies of the track being downloaded, which helped sell other artworks.
Custer’s Last Stand
Free download of a track recorded by This Window featuring Jake Bright on guitar. The lyrics to this song were written in 1979 and was a song performed by T34. This is a totally different version to the original.
The first four tracks on this CD were recorded between March and May 2008 at Morgue Studio and the fifth is a section from This Window’s 30 minute live set which was streamed (via the Internet) to the Plac.Art.X event in Leerer Beutel/ Regensburg Germany on the 18th August 2007. This CD is a limited release of 100.Read review of Morgue Studio Demos by Mick Mercer
Cassette Culture was an offshoot of the mail art movement of the 1970s and 1980s, it emerged from the DIY ethic of punk. In the UK cassette culture was born during the post-punk period, 1978–1984, extending through the late ’80s and into the ’90s. It was a postal-based network identical to the mail art scene.
The packaging and designing of the insert sleeve of cassette releases was an important part of the movement, a high degree of creativity and originality was visable in the execution of the overall appearence of the prioduct. Most of the packaging relied on traditional plastic shells with a photocopied “J-card” insert but some artists broke away from the restrictive dimensions of the audio cassette format, either in a slick graphic way or by taking an anti-art stand point – using a conceptual, DADA methodology .
BWCD released a cassette by Japanese noise artist Aube that came tied to a blue plastic ashtray shaped like a fish. EEtapes of Belgium release of This Window “Extraction 2” was packaged with an X-ray of a broken limb in 1995. The Barry Douglas Lamb album “Ludi Funebres” had the cassette box buried in some earth contained in a larger outer tin and covered in leaves.
The European scene was very active during this period with exceptional ‘labels’ appearing in Germany and Belgium.
IRRE Tapes (Germany) run by Matthias Lang evolved out of the IRRE Fanzine which he published regularly during the early 1980’s covering New Wave, Post Punk and the German Underground. This European cassette label helped to spread the word around the world, supporting the independent, self financed artist, releasing material by the likes of Brume, Maeror Tri, City Of Worms and This Window. His eclectic taste covered the whole range of the DIY, Independent Underground music scene from Experimental Electronica to Guitar Pop.
Wie hattest Du das Label bekannt gemacht? Durch Magazine, andere Labels, Radio?
How did you spread the word of the tape label? Magazines, other labels, radio?
Tja ob IRRE Tapes je bekannt war? Wenn dann eher durch das unabhängige Netzwerk in der ganzen Welt, damals konnte man auch noch kostengünstig Tapes in andere Länder schicken… die Mehrzahl der Tapes wurde mit Gleichgesinnten in der ganzen Welt getauscht, so richtig kommerziell verkauft wurden die wenigsten – dafür hab ich heute aber auch noch unzählige Kisten alter Tapes die ich im Tausch damals bekommen hatte. Es gab zwar auch kommerziellere Vertriebe, die aber nie wirklich lange z.B. der tolle 235 Laden ich glaube in Bad Honnef. Die hatten auch mit tolle Mailorder-Kataloge, geniale Ideen z.B. gab es da das Tape des Monats das man per Dauerauftrag bekommen konnte……
Well, if IRRE-tapes were really that popular? If so, the independent network all around the world helped to make the label popular…at that time postage for tapes to be sent to other countries was quite cheap…the majority of tapes was swapped with artists all around the world and only a very few were really commercially sold. I still have many boxes full of old tapes that I received by trade. There were also more commercial distributors that never existed so long, like the 235-shop in Bad Honnef. They had great mailorder-catalogues and it was even possible to get there the „tape of the month“ by periodical payment order.
The Insanely Happy EP – Insane from Belgium
Alain Neffe is probably one of the most influential ‘cassette underground’ people around, his Belgian label Insane released many of the 1980′s heroes of the home taping and mail art scenes. Here is an opportunity to get a collectors edition … Continue reading →
I was selected for “Softcopy” exhibition at the Kimura Gallery, University of Alaska, April 3-17, 2006. I have always been fascinated by time and this exhibition was an ideal opportunity to document a period in my life when I was obsessed with genetics and had embarked on breeding a champion mouse to gain a National Mouse Club best in breed trophy. Our vast knowledge on the way living thing are made, enable us to create larger or smaller domesticated animals or other living organisms for food and pleasure.
The piece exhibited in the ‘Softcopy’ exhibition was called ‘Site Under Construction’ this was an ongoing project I started in 1999, which explored the complex idea of identity and truth. Documenting how to breed a ‘difficult colour’ – difficult colours are the colours painters love to use. I was painting with living things.
Through out the web there are thousands of extremist viewpoints all ejaculating vicious and malicious bile. By assuming an extreme identity you can adapt innocent information and create a political or moral hard-line manifesto and engage in extreme ideologies and propagate propaganda. Extremes like fascism can be alluring in times of National crisis and could be considered as a remedy for terrorism and economic crisis. (I naturally don’t agree with this but…)
Below is a copy of the original proposal
Site Under Construction. This was selected for the “Softcopy” exhibition at Kimura Gallery, University of Alaska, April 3-17, 2006.
The Quest For The Perfect Colour
Producing the perfect specimen, with the perfect colour 1985-1987
I discovered a book ‘Exhibition & Pet Mice’ by Tony Cooke L.R.I.C and was fascinated by the concept of using genetics to produce colour. A Frankenstein urge to tamper with genes and create truly living colours. Click here for brief bibliography and my source material.
The first step was to purchase the best raw material for my palette. A gentleman in Brighouse, Yorkshire had a mousery full of excellent breeding stock. I purchased the finest trio he had available. (These were Chocolate and Tans. C/T’s contain genes, which allow you to create different varieties, however I had to search high and low for the specific gene I required to create a specimen that would become a ‘Breed Champion’.)
Within a few months I had produced a good strain of mice which were healthy and of a good size. I then began taking them to shows were they were judged, ‘under the strictest rules laid down by the National Mouse Club’. I was slowly accepted into this community.
THE AIMS
1/ To reach a high status within this group of people.
2/ To question and explore their motivation.
3/ To study their class structure.
2/ To win a breed cup.
The Variety to Win the Breed Cup
The proof of my success
I was tempted to try and produce a tri-coloured mouse (This was genetically impossible at the time). However I settled on a Satin Sable, a type developed by Walter Maxey in the 1880’s. A difficult colour prone to obesity and death (see text below on the red gene). I found the ‘Satin’ gene in Shropshire and acquired a pathetic example that I crossed into my pedigree stock. After several failures with my experiments and selective breeding I eventually produced the beast that won the Sable Cup in July 1987.
Section on basic colour varieties and how to breed them.
Their features and body confirmation have to be of a certain type. All examples that do not meet these criteria have to be destroyed, to prevent them contaminating the pure blood line.
Section on Fatal genetics…obese gene… waltzing gene. Double lethal gene
The comitee members discovered I was an Artist and asked me to become the cartoonist for the ‘National Mouse Club News’ this I did and created ‘The Diary of a Thinking Mouse’. This modest position within the organisation enabled me to observe the heirachy and social structure of this group. I was never socially accepted and was treated as an outsider. The majority of the people I came into contact with were from the North of England or the poorer suburbs of London. They were Council Workers, caretakers, labourers and retired people. As a group it would be safe to describe them as, mainly ‘Working Class’ and as is typical with this this class of society, they were extremely dull of mind and poorly educated.
In 2009 a free download of ‘
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