TERMINUS: GOING NOWHERE FAST - The First Album
THE FIRST ALBUM
Later that year saw the same line up start the recording of their first album. Unfortunately things started off badly and went down hill from there on in. Soon after the recording had finished Hairy had left for Madjik Allotment, a band Col was also playing in at the time, along with another ex-Duck in Fogger, Graham Davis on vocals.
"Left my arse! I was sacked! It was all just total anarchy!"
Mick Hare
"Hairy likes to say it was because he was too punk for the rest of us. Too pissed to play is more like!"
Mark R
Local 'Goth about Town' Steve Connolly then took over on drumming duties. By this time Chris Dale was already on full time guitar in place of Rocky. More on that a little later.
Later that year saw the same line up start the recording of their first album. Unfortunately things started off badly and went down hill from there on in. Soon after the recording had finished Hairy had left for Madjik Allotment, a band Col was also playing in at the time, along with another ex-Duck in Fogger, Graham Davis on vocals.
"Left my arse! I was sacked! It was all just total anarchy!"
Mick Hare
"Hairy likes to say it was because he was too punk for the rest of us. Too pissed to play is more like!"
Mark R
Local 'Goth about Town' Steve Connolly then took over on drumming duties. By this time Chris Dale was already on full time guitar in place of Rocky. More on that a little later.
GOING NOWHERE FAST LP
Words of Warning Records WOWLP9 1990
Side One: Propaganda War Richardson/ Bairstow)/ Starving Nations (Tow/ Richardson)/ Bending the Rules/ Bring Out Your Dead/ Collaborators/ Terror is the best of Guards/ Body Count.
Side Two: The Severed Head/ You Want Me Dead/ Terraces to the Trenches (Reid/ Richardson)/ Hey Little Girl/ Opium For the People (Gong)/ Going Nowhere Fast/ Free to be Slaves (Richardson/ Spence/ Hare).
Line up: Col Spence - Bass (and vocals on 'Opium' and 'Collaborators'), Rocky - Guitars, Mick Hare - Drums, Mark Richardson - Vocals and guitars, Chris Dale - Lead guitar. Craig Milner backing vocals on 'Opium' and Bring Out Your Dead.'
REVIEWS:
Ah, a crap review. Every other reviewer on this magazine thought the album was shit, but the guy who got to write the review was in two minds...
"This is what Punk Rock's all about! Crap music and excellent lyrics! No seriously, to me, the most important thing about the whole Anarcho movement (or whatever you want to call it) is the fact that huge musical talent and the ability to be the next Eric Clapton are just not important. Releasing your views in an imaginative and creative way is what it's all about. Terminus certainly do that, with a whole batch of highly thought provoking lyrics, set up against a background of different styles and experiments. Sounds ranging from Folk, Hard-core, Punk and Metal, all mixed up with a slight gothic feel and lyrics covering personal thoughts and more directly political issues. All presented with a free booklet, that displays the lyrics along side some interesting and striking graphics. All in all, an exceedingly interesting album with much
more to it than plain music. Nice one!"
'Metal Hammer' July/ August 1990. (Just who is this Clapton fella anyway... and for that matter, who the hell sent Metal Hammer a copy to review? Not me that's for sure!)
"The whole album has a slightly morbid, blackly humorous atmosphere wiv the odd spark of ecstatic energy that's totally different to anything else around, original and enticingly exiting."
'Myopic Dwarf' # 4
"After two tremendous EP's Terminus hit us with their debut LP, their best recording yet, and that's no mean feat! Their brand of doomy punk is very distinctive an just right up my street thank you very much! It's impossible to pick a fave track, but 'Propaganda War' and the title track are two worth a mention. Great songs, excellent lyrics and production, all for only £4!, What more could you want! Best punk LP I've heard in a LONG LONG time! 11/10. SM."
'Powerslam!!' Issue Number One
"Interesting offering here with a mix of catchy punk and mid-tempo rockers. However the real standout tracks here are the few hard-core tunes that kick hard with an almost BAD RELIGION feel. Politically 'mature' lyrics also add a certain odd dimension to this curious, but good, record. Pretty punk for a band with this much facial hair. (LH)"
'Maximumrocknroll'
"Words Of Warning come out tops again as just about the only label consistently supporting bands trying to achieve more than 'just music' with their releases. Terminus convey Britain today as a dark Orwellian world where the wealthy and powerful conspire to manipulate and sedate the minds of the masses away from reality. Their response is a call to arms against the ruling classes, and if ever their was a manifesto of the 'underclass' who got blamed for the Poll Tax Riots this year, then this is it. The mood is conveyed excellently by distinctive doom-laden vocals which dominate the basic punk tracks of varying speeds and catchiness. Eerily excellent. (JL)"
'UK Resist' Fanzine, #3
"Tense, nervous headache? No? Then try releasing a Terminus LP!"
Karl Horton, Words of Warning Records supremo, as scribbled despairingly on the back of an envelope. He should thank the Gods he wasn't actually in the band!
Words of Warning Records WOWLP9 1990
Side One: Propaganda War Richardson/ Bairstow)/ Starving Nations (Tow/ Richardson)/ Bending the Rules/ Bring Out Your Dead/ Collaborators/ Terror is the best of Guards/ Body Count.
Side Two: The Severed Head/ You Want Me Dead/ Terraces to the Trenches (Reid/ Richardson)/ Hey Little Girl/ Opium For the People (Gong)/ Going Nowhere Fast/ Free to be Slaves (Richardson/ Spence/ Hare).
Line up: Col Spence - Bass (and vocals on 'Opium' and 'Collaborators'), Rocky - Guitars, Mick Hare - Drums, Mark Richardson - Vocals and guitars, Chris Dale - Lead guitar. Craig Milner backing vocals on 'Opium' and Bring Out Your Dead.'
REVIEWS:
Ah, a crap review. Every other reviewer on this magazine thought the album was shit, but the guy who got to write the review was in two minds...
"This is what Punk Rock's all about! Crap music and excellent lyrics! No seriously, to me, the most important thing about the whole Anarcho movement (or whatever you want to call it) is the fact that huge musical talent and the ability to be the next Eric Clapton are just not important. Releasing your views in an imaginative and creative way is what it's all about. Terminus certainly do that, with a whole batch of highly thought provoking lyrics, set up against a background of different styles and experiments. Sounds ranging from Folk, Hard-core, Punk and Metal, all mixed up with a slight gothic feel and lyrics covering personal thoughts and more directly political issues. All presented with a free booklet, that displays the lyrics along side some interesting and striking graphics. All in all, an exceedingly interesting album with much
more to it than plain music. Nice one!"
'Metal Hammer' July/ August 1990. (Just who is this Clapton fella anyway... and for that matter, who the hell sent Metal Hammer a copy to review? Not me that's for sure!)
"The whole album has a slightly morbid, blackly humorous atmosphere wiv the odd spark of ecstatic energy that's totally different to anything else around, original and enticingly exiting."
'Myopic Dwarf' # 4
"After two tremendous EP's Terminus hit us with their debut LP, their best recording yet, and that's no mean feat! Their brand of doomy punk is very distinctive an just right up my street thank you very much! It's impossible to pick a fave track, but 'Propaganda War' and the title track are two worth a mention. Great songs, excellent lyrics and production, all for only £4!, What more could you want! Best punk LP I've heard in a LONG LONG time! 11/10. SM."
'Powerslam!!' Issue Number One
"Interesting offering here with a mix of catchy punk and mid-tempo rockers. However the real standout tracks here are the few hard-core tunes that kick hard with an almost BAD RELIGION feel. Politically 'mature' lyrics also add a certain odd dimension to this curious, but good, record. Pretty punk for a band with this much facial hair. (LH)"
'Maximumrocknroll'
"Words Of Warning come out tops again as just about the only label consistently supporting bands trying to achieve more than 'just music' with their releases. Terminus convey Britain today as a dark Orwellian world where the wealthy and powerful conspire to manipulate and sedate the minds of the masses away from reality. Their response is a call to arms against the ruling classes, and if ever their was a manifesto of the 'underclass' who got blamed for the Poll Tax Riots this year, then this is it. The mood is conveyed excellently by distinctive doom-laden vocals which dominate the basic punk tracks of varying speeds and catchiness. Eerily excellent. (JL)"
'UK Resist' Fanzine, #3
"Tense, nervous headache? No? Then try releasing a Terminus LP!"
Karl Horton, Words of Warning Records supremo, as scribbled despairingly on the back of an envelope. He should thank the Gods he wasn't actually in the band!
FIRST LP RECORDING SESSIONS
Recorded at Beaumont Street Recording Studios in Huddersfield during the later half of 1989 and finally mixed
(some would say laid to rest) in January/ February of 1990 by whoever was left in the studio from the band at the time (usually Mark, oh aye, blame me!) and Chris Ellis, who was that relieved at finishing the mix he erased the multi-tracks the day after we left to prevent us from changing our minds and coming back! Which must have made a change from the studio accidentally
erasing the bass and drum tracks the very day after we'd been in to start the album, resulting in the band (including a severely hung-over drummer) having to go in and do most of them again before we could continue! The re-recorded bass and drum tracks were nowhere near as tight as the first ones had been. Things did not get any better!
As has been stated, late on during the recording Chris Dale was drafted into the band to salvage some of the lead guitar tracks which Rocky couldn't do properly due to being 'ill'. Oh
yes, a very sick man indeed. On the other hand, I was merely pig sick of the whole debacle.
Craig Milner did backing vocals on the tracks "Opium" and "Bring Out Your Dead", mainly because he just happened to be loitering around in the studio at the time after kindly driving us up to Huddersfield. Rocky, on the other hand, was probably out on the moors hunting down magic mushrooms (strictly for religious purposes, you understand!) with Andy T at the time. A job far more important than recording album tracks, and such fripperies as backing vocals. God knows where the rest of 'em were! Many of those involved in the recording of this album are still in therapy.
So, it was out with Rocky, and in with Chris Dale, probably the best guitar player Terminus have ever had in all the long and wasted (and I use that term advisedly) years, and that's no insult to the other guitar players we have had, including myself.
Recorded at Beaumont Street Recording Studios in Huddersfield during the later half of 1989 and finally mixed
(some would say laid to rest) in January/ February of 1990 by whoever was left in the studio from the band at the time (usually Mark, oh aye, blame me!) and Chris Ellis, who was that relieved at finishing the mix he erased the multi-tracks the day after we left to prevent us from changing our minds and coming back! Which must have made a change from the studio accidentally
erasing the bass and drum tracks the very day after we'd been in to start the album, resulting in the band (including a severely hung-over drummer) having to go in and do most of them again before we could continue! The re-recorded bass and drum tracks were nowhere near as tight as the first ones had been. Things did not get any better!
As has been stated, late on during the recording Chris Dale was drafted into the band to salvage some of the lead guitar tracks which Rocky couldn't do properly due to being 'ill'. Oh
yes, a very sick man indeed. On the other hand, I was merely pig sick of the whole debacle.
Craig Milner did backing vocals on the tracks "Opium" and "Bring Out Your Dead", mainly because he just happened to be loitering around in the studio at the time after kindly driving us up to Huddersfield. Rocky, on the other hand, was probably out on the moors hunting down magic mushrooms (strictly for religious purposes, you understand!) with Andy T at the time. A job far more important than recording album tracks, and such fripperies as backing vocals. God knows where the rest of 'em were! Many of those involved in the recording of this album are still in therapy.
So, it was out with Rocky, and in with Chris Dale, probably the best guitar player Terminus have ever had in all the long and wasted (and I use that term advisedly) years, and that's no insult to the other guitar players we have had, including myself.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
The recording of this album was a nightmare from start to finish. the pessimistic title track was written during the sessions and recorded in a couple of takes with just me on acoustic guitar, and is a telling reflection of the overall mood pervading the recordings. I.e. I would've strung myself up, but with my luck, the rope would've snapped!
If I wasn't such a stubborn bastard it would have put me off for life. I have nightmares about the making of this album to the present day, all of which reached a horrifying crescendo on the night we finally finished the mix. The events of this last night we left the studio sum the entire thing up for me and are included here just to give you a slight taste of the utter despair I felt at the time (after all, why should I suffer alone!).
The night was cold, windy and very wet (sounds like a trash pulp novel already I know, but it sometimes feels like that!).... myself and Karl, from Words of Warning Records, had finally
managed to leave the studio with the album tapes... and were stood on Huddersfield station waiting for our respective trains. Karl's came first. As I said, It was wet, freezing cold and, would you believe it, my train was late. Then when I did manage to get a train it had top stop because a bridge had collapsed onto the track.
This event was lucky only for the student three seats up who had been treating every one in the carriage to a 'hilarious' Chubby Brown tape on his Walkman. Yes, it was loud enough to hear, and what we didn't quite catch he shouted out so we didn't get to miss any of the high lights. What the fallen bridge cost British Rail to repair, the NHS saved in surgery fees. We were
then frog marched out of the carriage and trooped from the train over a bridge (not the bridge, I hoped) to the shoddy collection of coaches that were to take us to the next station... and I must have picked the shoddiest of the lot because we hadn't gone more than a mile when our bus
'caught fire'... with smoke billowing down the motorway behind us, the babbling voices from the back gradually reaching panic proportions, we hurtled towards the next station. Luckily I was as far as I could be from the back where a screeching mother howled over her soon to be barbecued kids. She lived, and so did her brats. The bus pulled into the station with no
fatalities... except maybe my patience.
The unlucky passengers were then told that our train was about to leave and nearly killed ourselves running for it. Half an hour later it still hadn't pulled out when we were informed that our real train was on the other side of the station and, again, was about to leave. Another
mad dash ensued only for us to wait another three quarters of an hour before it finally left for Doncaster, and 'Lady Luck', who had obviously been trying to avoid eye contact with me all year, managed to find me a seat in front of two pissed up, filthy and argumentative 'tramps' who steamed off a rank stench of stale whisky and were only too pleased to share this blessing with
the nearest available passenger. That being me, seeing as everybody else had abandoned this end cubicle, squashing themselves into any other available nook and cranny... just as long as it wasn't near yours truly and my new found 'friends'.
The recording of this album was a nightmare from start to finish. the pessimistic title track was written during the sessions and recorded in a couple of takes with just me on acoustic guitar, and is a telling reflection of the overall mood pervading the recordings. I.e. I would've strung myself up, but with my luck, the rope would've snapped!
If I wasn't such a stubborn bastard it would have put me off for life. I have nightmares about the making of this album to the present day, all of which reached a horrifying crescendo on the night we finally finished the mix. The events of this last night we left the studio sum the entire thing up for me and are included here just to give you a slight taste of the utter despair I felt at the time (after all, why should I suffer alone!).
The night was cold, windy and very wet (sounds like a trash pulp novel already I know, but it sometimes feels like that!).... myself and Karl, from Words of Warning Records, had finally
managed to leave the studio with the album tapes... and were stood on Huddersfield station waiting for our respective trains. Karl's came first. As I said, It was wet, freezing cold and, would you believe it, my train was late. Then when I did manage to get a train it had top stop because a bridge had collapsed onto the track.
This event was lucky only for the student three seats up who had been treating every one in the carriage to a 'hilarious' Chubby Brown tape on his Walkman. Yes, it was loud enough to hear, and what we didn't quite catch he shouted out so we didn't get to miss any of the high lights. What the fallen bridge cost British Rail to repair, the NHS saved in surgery fees. We were
then frog marched out of the carriage and trooped from the train over a bridge (not the bridge, I hoped) to the shoddy collection of coaches that were to take us to the next station... and I must have picked the shoddiest of the lot because we hadn't gone more than a mile when our bus
'caught fire'... with smoke billowing down the motorway behind us, the babbling voices from the back gradually reaching panic proportions, we hurtled towards the next station. Luckily I was as far as I could be from the back where a screeching mother howled over her soon to be barbecued kids. She lived, and so did her brats. The bus pulled into the station with no
fatalities... except maybe my patience.
The unlucky passengers were then told that our train was about to leave and nearly killed ourselves running for it. Half an hour later it still hadn't pulled out when we were informed that our real train was on the other side of the station and, again, was about to leave. Another
mad dash ensued only for us to wait another three quarters of an hour before it finally left for Doncaster, and 'Lady Luck', who had obviously been trying to avoid eye contact with me all year, managed to find me a seat in front of two pissed up, filthy and argumentative 'tramps' who steamed off a rank stench of stale whisky and were only too pleased to share this blessing with
the nearest available passenger. That being me, seeing as everybody else had abandoned this end cubicle, squashing themselves into any other available nook and cranny... just as long as it wasn't near yours truly and my new found 'friends'.
Cold and hungry I arrived in Doncaster, missing the last train to Scunthorpe by hours and then contrived to lose my last 50p in a chocolate machine. I should have known better (no, I should have honest, as I'd already lost money in a similar machine at an earlier station the same night!). I spent the night in a freezing waiting room where the only heat came from an over head fan heater that seemed timed to come on every half hour and then only for a couple of minutes. That was the only time during the night when I made an effort
and sprung into half life from a freezing wooden bench to stand shivering ungratefully under the brief warmth, cursing the tight fisted bastards of British Rail and all their relatives and ancestors to nine generations. Catching the first train out I managed to get my self within gagging distance of a middle aged lady (a teacher I believe, from her conversation) who babbled incessantly to anyone within ear shot (and I was not in the mood for polite chat) and whose flatulence was truly appalling... especially in view of my empty stomach. Finally I arrived
in rain lashed Scunthorpe (never been so pleased to see the place!), and walked the short distance to 'Weber Mansions' where I then rented a room, thoroughly pissed off with the entire thing.... bands! Recordings! Albums! Pah! I thought things couldn't get any worse... then we got the test pressings back...
After saying all that, I have always been surprised that some people actually thought the album was good. It would be correct to say that it was not the album it should have been.
and sprung into half life from a freezing wooden bench to stand shivering ungratefully under the brief warmth, cursing the tight fisted bastards of British Rail and all their relatives and ancestors to nine generations. Catching the first train out I managed to get my self within gagging distance of a middle aged lady (a teacher I believe, from her conversation) who babbled incessantly to anyone within ear shot (and I was not in the mood for polite chat) and whose flatulence was truly appalling... especially in view of my empty stomach. Finally I arrived
in rain lashed Scunthorpe (never been so pleased to see the place!), and walked the short distance to 'Weber Mansions' where I then rented a room, thoroughly pissed off with the entire thing.... bands! Recordings! Albums! Pah! I thought things couldn't get any worse... then we got the test pressings back...
After saying all that, I have always been surprised that some people actually thought the album was good. It would be correct to say that it was not the album it should have been.
SOME QUOTES USED IN THE LYRIC BOOK
"Government and politics... it's all just a fake. It's got nothing to do with me. Politics are for rich people."
Unemployed Youth
"Meanwhile the government pushed more money into arms that could destroy millions, blackmailed councils into enforcing cuts and helped big money leave the country. The Tories values were encapsulated in a statement by Thatcher: her friends, she said, were the police because they '... never go on strike, they never let us down'."
"These skilled people joined the TA. Have they taken leave of their senses?"
"It has become clear during this summer that a substantial section of the urban working class no longer give consent for the police to operate in their neighbourhood."
"Signing on and being forced to live off parents has become common place for a generation of kids."
"Things have already changed far more than most people realise. The passage down the slippery slope to a markedly more repressive system has accelerated alarmingly."
"The governments message came across clear, if you are homeless, out of a job, tired and sick, it's your fault. Only the strong, in their view, deserve to survive."
"We are fighting a propaganda war that we are losing because of the medium we use and elitist attitudes we have..."
Propaganda War
"Government and politics... it's all just a fake. It's got nothing to do with me. Politics are for rich people."
Unemployed Youth
"Meanwhile the government pushed more money into arms that could destroy millions, blackmailed councils into enforcing cuts and helped big money leave the country. The Tories values were encapsulated in a statement by Thatcher: her friends, she said, were the police because they '... never go on strike, they never let us down'."
"These skilled people joined the TA. Have they taken leave of their senses?"
"It has become clear during this summer that a substantial section of the urban working class no longer give consent for the police to operate in their neighbourhood."
"Signing on and being forced to live off parents has become common place for a generation of kids."
"Things have already changed far more than most people realise. The passage down the slippery slope to a markedly more repressive system has accelerated alarmingly."
"The governments message came across clear, if you are homeless, out of a job, tired and sick, it's your fault. Only the strong, in their view, deserve to survive."
"We are fighting a propaganda war that we are losing because of the medium we use and elitist attitudes we have..."
Propaganda War