A BRIEF HISTORY OF TERMINUS
For those of you who don't already know (and that will be most of you I would think), TERMINUS are/ were a long serving 'punk-rock' band from the Steel Town of Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire and have been described
in the local press as anything from 'local rockers', 'indie-speed-doomsters' to (with tongue stuck firmly in cheek) a 'psychedelic biker band'! None of which fits with singer Mark Richardson's description of the band as "Punk Rock, not punk-rock."
Elsewhere, in fanzine reviews of gigs and records, comparisons have been drawn between such diverse bands as the Damned, Dead Kennedy's, Conflict, Naked Raygun, Bad Religion, "Motorhead meets the Mob", and "a cross between Hawkwind and the Subhumans." The vocals to such unlikely folk as Jake Thackary, Billy Bragg and Oi Polloi (in the same German review!), Dave Vanian and Animal (from Anti Nowhere League and again both in the same review) and even Richard Butler and Bauhaus! Needless to say the band themselves consider all such comparisons dubious and the possible result of alcohol abuse. More likely is the simple fact that, although charges of inconsistency and idleness would certainly stick, they could never be accused of being as musically one dimensional as many of their contemporaries.
What follows is a brief history of the band compiled by longest serving member and founder of the band, Mark, for the information of those who have and still show an interest in the bands past and, who knows, maybe present activities.
John Fleming (RIP)
The above was the original introduction for the Terminus web site, kindly created for the band by our friend, and a good friend of many others, John Fleming, and I have kept it in memory of John, who has sadly died, and not forgetting Robbie, his three legged dog! I have obviously added and revised where necessary, and am in the process of updating low res images from the original site, and adding more photo's and text, etc. It is also not-so-brief, either when it was originally done, or now!
All photo's/ graphics/ content © their respective creators/ owners. If anyone uses any content from this site it would be nice to be asked and credited.
Cheers!
Mark Richardson, December 2013
in the local press as anything from 'local rockers', 'indie-speed-doomsters' to (with tongue stuck firmly in cheek) a 'psychedelic biker band'! None of which fits with singer Mark Richardson's description of the band as "Punk Rock, not punk-rock."
Elsewhere, in fanzine reviews of gigs and records, comparisons have been drawn between such diverse bands as the Damned, Dead Kennedy's, Conflict, Naked Raygun, Bad Religion, "Motorhead meets the Mob", and "a cross between Hawkwind and the Subhumans." The vocals to such unlikely folk as Jake Thackary, Billy Bragg and Oi Polloi (in the same German review!), Dave Vanian and Animal (from Anti Nowhere League and again both in the same review) and even Richard Butler and Bauhaus! Needless to say the band themselves consider all such comparisons dubious and the possible result of alcohol abuse. More likely is the simple fact that, although charges of inconsistency and idleness would certainly stick, they could never be accused of being as musically one dimensional as many of their contemporaries.
What follows is a brief history of the band compiled by longest serving member and founder of the band, Mark, for the information of those who have and still show an interest in the bands past and, who knows, maybe present activities.
John Fleming (RIP)
The above was the original introduction for the Terminus web site, kindly created for the band by our friend, and a good friend of many others, John Fleming, and I have kept it in memory of John, who has sadly died, and not forgetting Robbie, his three legged dog! I have obviously added and revised where necessary, and am in the process of updating low res images from the original site, and adding more photo's and text, etc. It is also not-so-brief, either when it was originally done, or now!
All photo's/ graphics/ content © their respective creators/ owners. If anyone uses any content from this site it would be nice to be asked and credited.
Cheers!
Mark Richardson, December 2013
The Fascist Groove Thing: A History of Thatcher's Britain
The Fascist Groove Thing: A History of Thatcher's Britain in 21 Mixtapes
Hugh Hodges • Preface: Dick Lucas • Foreword: Boff Whalley, PM Press, 2023
An interesting book written by Hugh Hodges, an Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Trent University, Canada. The subject being 'pop music' during the often turbulent events of 'Thatchers Britain'. Apparently, the actions of the odious Thatcher, her 'free market' brethren, and the events of the 1980's are being sanitised and rewritten so that the suffering, conflict and the overt class war the Tories engaged in are slowly being airbrushed from history. There are now histories of the 1980's that do not mention such things as the inner city riots or mass demo's such as Stop the City. The idea that Thatcher was a 'strong leader' and only doing what was necessary to 'sort out' the country after Labour and the unions had fucked things up is not knew – it is in fact the usual Tory bollocks, and bearing in mind they took us into the shit-cart that was the EEC, and were actually responsible for the economic policies Labour failed to deal with during the late 1970's you'd be forgiven your derision at their barefaced cheek; it is this whitewashing of those times by revisionist 'historians' that the book hopes to set right.
Most of us, especially those on the receiving end, will recall the 1980's as a pretty diabolical time - a time where our industrial base was dismantled amid massive strikes by, among others, the steel workers, dockers, the print workers, and the miners strikes (among many others) leading to massive unemployment. With the fire sale and asset stripping of the countries publicly owned utilities – the effects of which we are still suffering; mass rioting in many inner cities caused by a combination of disgraceful social policies and heavy handed racist policing; the ongoing criminalisation of dissent; wide spread corruption and scandal in government (nothing changes in the rotten heart of Westminster); the CND rallies; the women at Greenham Common; the free festivals and travellers battered by roving gangs of police; the imposition of the Poll Tax whereby large swathes of the population were effectively criminalised for want of being able to pay an unjust tax (and I was one of those lined up outside Scunthorpe court buildings along with many others); and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction hanging over everything like the Sword of Damocles. So the nineteen eighties were a long way from the sanitised vision being peddled in some of today's histories.
During this time the only thing many of us had was music. And the problem for historical revisionists is that the late 70's and the 1980's were a highly fertile time for music; where both popular and alternative varieties flourished. Many of the songs produced during these times reflect and document both people's attitudes to events and the anger at what our political elites were doing to our communities, industries and the country as a whole. Hugh's book attempts to trace these events through those bands and songs, regardless of their popularity or commercial success (hence the inclusion of Terminus), and, in my opinion he has done a damned fine, entertaining and informative job. As I have said before and elsewhere, I doubt that protest songs ever really change anything, they can however, make a fine soundtrack to our revolt. Recommended.
Hugh Hodges • Preface: Dick Lucas • Foreword: Boff Whalley, PM Press, 2023
An interesting book written by Hugh Hodges, an Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Trent University, Canada. The subject being 'pop music' during the often turbulent events of 'Thatchers Britain'. Apparently, the actions of the odious Thatcher, her 'free market' brethren, and the events of the 1980's are being sanitised and rewritten so that the suffering, conflict and the overt class war the Tories engaged in are slowly being airbrushed from history. There are now histories of the 1980's that do not mention such things as the inner city riots or mass demo's such as Stop the City. The idea that Thatcher was a 'strong leader' and only doing what was necessary to 'sort out' the country after Labour and the unions had fucked things up is not knew – it is in fact the usual Tory bollocks, and bearing in mind they took us into the shit-cart that was the EEC, and were actually responsible for the economic policies Labour failed to deal with during the late 1970's you'd be forgiven your derision at their barefaced cheek; it is this whitewashing of those times by revisionist 'historians' that the book hopes to set right.
Most of us, especially those on the receiving end, will recall the 1980's as a pretty diabolical time - a time where our industrial base was dismantled amid massive strikes by, among others, the steel workers, dockers, the print workers, and the miners strikes (among many others) leading to massive unemployment. With the fire sale and asset stripping of the countries publicly owned utilities – the effects of which we are still suffering; mass rioting in many inner cities caused by a combination of disgraceful social policies and heavy handed racist policing; the ongoing criminalisation of dissent; wide spread corruption and scandal in government (nothing changes in the rotten heart of Westminster); the CND rallies; the women at Greenham Common; the free festivals and travellers battered by roving gangs of police; the imposition of the Poll Tax whereby large swathes of the population were effectively criminalised for want of being able to pay an unjust tax (and I was one of those lined up outside Scunthorpe court buildings along with many others); and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction hanging over everything like the Sword of Damocles. So the nineteen eighties were a long way from the sanitised vision being peddled in some of today's histories.
During this time the only thing many of us had was music. And the problem for historical revisionists is that the late 70's and the 1980's were a highly fertile time for music; where both popular and alternative varieties flourished. Many of the songs produced during these times reflect and document both people's attitudes to events and the anger at what our political elites were doing to our communities, industries and the country as a whole. Hugh's book attempts to trace these events through those bands and songs, regardless of their popularity or commercial success (hence the inclusion of Terminus), and, in my opinion he has done a damned fine, entertaining and informative job. As I have said before and elsewhere, I doubt that protest songs ever really change anything, they can however, make a fine soundtrack to our revolt. Recommended.
TOO MUCH TOO LATE!
2-Tone Compilation album released 1st March 2017
TOO MUCH TOO LATE: On March 1st, the "Too Much Too Late" 2-Tone tribute compilation album finally arrived, featuring various punk bands from back in the 1990's when the project was first conceived by the inimitable Chris from The Bus Station Loonies/ CDS, and very worthwhile it is too, even if I do say so myself!
The release is available from the Bus Station Loonies Bandcamp site as a Digital Album: Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more, and can be bought and downloaded for £7.00, and is still a benefit for 'Rape Crisis'. Track listing is:
1. Unique Freak - Baggy Trousers (Madness) 02:10
2. A38 - Dawning of a New Era (The Specials) 02:30
3. The Desired - Ghost Town (The Specials) 04:34
4. Rectify - Missing Words (The Selecter) 02:58
5. Terminal Virgin - Friday Night, Saturday Morning (The Specials) 02:44
6. Citizen Fish - Nite Klub (The Specials) 03:02
7. Haywire - Special Brew (Bad Manners) 02:49
8. Oi Polloi - Concrete Jungle (The Specials) 02:57
9. Useful Idiot - Twist and Crawl (The Beat) 02:48
10. Pan's Grannies - Too Much Too Young (The Specials) 01:42
11. Terminus - Do Nothing (The Specials) 03:32
12. Spithead - Stupid Marriage (The Specials) 03:28
"Originally intended for release in 1995 on Ruptured Ambitions, as a sequel to the Crass covers album and prior to the release of the 'Angry Songs and Bitter Words' compilation. As with the other two albums, this Two-Tone covers compilation is to be sold to help raise funds for Rape Crisis in the UK."
The release is available from the Bus Station Loonies Bandcamp site as a Digital Album: Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more, and can be bought and downloaded for £7.00, and is still a benefit for 'Rape Crisis'. Track listing is:
1. Unique Freak - Baggy Trousers (Madness) 02:10
2. A38 - Dawning of a New Era (The Specials) 02:30
3. The Desired - Ghost Town (The Specials) 04:34
4. Rectify - Missing Words (The Selecter) 02:58
5. Terminal Virgin - Friday Night, Saturday Morning (The Specials) 02:44
6. Citizen Fish - Nite Klub (The Specials) 03:02
7. Haywire - Special Brew (Bad Manners) 02:49
8. Oi Polloi - Concrete Jungle (The Specials) 02:57
9. Useful Idiot - Twist and Crawl (The Beat) 02:48
10. Pan's Grannies - Too Much Too Young (The Specials) 01:42
11. Terminus - Do Nothing (The Specials) 03:32
12. Spithead - Stupid Marriage (The Specials) 03:28
"Originally intended for release in 1995 on Ruptured Ambitions, as a sequel to the Crass covers album and prior to the release of the 'Angry Songs and Bitter Words' compilation. As with the other two albums, this Two-Tone covers compilation is to be sold to help raise funds for Rape Crisis in the UK."
UPDATE AUGUST 2016: New Entropia Magazine
A new interview with Terminus (or rather just Mark) features in the new issue of Greek magazine “Entropia” . The new issue was launched at the Athens Zine Fest on 12th May 2016. We last featured in a Greek 'zine when we were interviewed for 'Stress' fanzine way back in 1989.
UPDATE MAY 2015: TERMINUS: Dance With the Dead' Shirts Now Available!
We now have a new Terminus T-Shirt available on e-bay (or write via our contacts and links page):
Terminus - 'Dance With The Dead'. The illustration used on the shirts is 'The Dance of Death' - a woodcut by Michael Wolgemut, from Hartmann Schedel's Liber Chronicarum, 1493, which I think is a pretty good choice for that particular song, and the shirts look really good, and there are still a few left. |
UPDATE DECEMBER 2014: BACK AMONG THE BLIND
UPDATE JULY 2014: TERMINUS T-SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE
TERMINUS: SKULL & HANDS Logo
The Terminus T-Shirts are now available from the Annihilation Age Product's page.
Featuring the 'classic' logo used on the 'What Kind of World?' back sleeve and the 2nd album. These are printed white on black Gildan T-Shirts and are available in M, L, XL, and are priced at £9.99 plus £1.50 P&P. These are available from the AAA web store and also now on e-bay, they are also available directly from myself, Mark Richardson, should you live near 'sunny Scunny' and wish to pick one up.
The Terminus T-Shirts are now available from the Annihilation Age Product's page.
Featuring the 'classic' logo used on the 'What Kind of World?' back sleeve and the 2nd album. These are printed white on black Gildan T-Shirts and are available in M, L, XL, and are priced at £9.99 plus £1.50 P&P. These are available from the AAA web store and also now on e-bay, they are also available directly from myself, Mark Richardson, should you live near 'sunny Scunny' and wish to pick one up.
TERMINUS: First album issued on CD, & compilation CD reissued .
2014: Thanks to Aston at Boss Tuneage Records, a CD of the bands singles and compilation LP appearances, 'Graveyard Of Dreams' and also the first Terminus album, 'Going Nowhere Fast' have both been recently issued on CD. Both available from either Boss Tuneage Records or the Annihilation Age Art web site, which features artwork created by Mark Richardson.