THE ENDLESS STRUGGLE
The next and last session by this particular Terminus line-up came when the band was asked to do a song for the Bradford 1in12 Club compilation series and the song "Dark Carnival" was written with that in mind. As usual, we didn't really have any idea how the song would work as we'd not rehearsed it properly. Bearing that in mind the results sound pretty good to me. It also stands out like a sore thumb on the album for being fairly tuneful, with a crisp production amid a predominantly Hardcore thrash comp. Luckily it's at the start, so if you like your thrash undiluted, you can easily miss it out!
ENDLESS STRUGGLE:
The Worst of the 1in12, Volume 12/13
Label: 1in12 Records, double album. CAT No. 12012/13
Track: Terminus: "Dark Carnival" (Richardson/ Dale/ Niland/ Connolly)
Recorded at Bird Song Studios in September 1994. Produced, as usual, by Steve Bird and Terminus.
Other tracks by: Disafect/ Sedition/ One By One/ Cluster Bomb Unit/ Blitzkrieg/ Sarcasm/ Wat Tyler/ Sore Throat/ Oi Polloi/ Voorhees/ Iron side/ Nailbomb/ Wordbug/ Decadence Within/ Contropotere/ Doom/ Concrete Sox/ Scraps/ Virtual Reality/ Hiatus/ Protest/ Beer Beast/ Immortal Dead.
"It don't matter if you're black or you are white. What sex or sexuality.
Don't matter if you're able bodied or you're not.
What matters is the person that you are...
Wrapped deep within this mortal skin of terrified and scarred humanity."
DARK CARNIVAL
Richardson/ Dale/ Niland/ Connolly © 1994
The Worst of the 1in12, Volume 12/13
Label: 1in12 Records, double album. CAT No. 12012/13
Track: Terminus: "Dark Carnival" (Richardson/ Dale/ Niland/ Connolly)
Recorded at Bird Song Studios in September 1994. Produced, as usual, by Steve Bird and Terminus.
Other tracks by: Disafect/ Sedition/ One By One/ Cluster Bomb Unit/ Blitzkrieg/ Sarcasm/ Wat Tyler/ Sore Throat/ Oi Polloi/ Voorhees/ Iron side/ Nailbomb/ Wordbug/ Decadence Within/ Contropotere/ Doom/ Concrete Sox/ Scraps/ Virtual Reality/ Hiatus/ Protest/ Beer Beast/ Immortal Dead.
"It don't matter if you're black or you are white. What sex or sexuality.
Don't matter if you're able bodied or you're not.
What matters is the person that you are...
Wrapped deep within this mortal skin of terrified and scarred humanity."
DARK CARNIVAL
Richardson/ Dale/ Niland/ Connolly © 1994
ALL CHANGE
Steve left for Nottingham, art collage and a life of
decadent indolence... and I don't think he'll mind me saying that. Chris left to concentrate on juggling his interests in various other bands which included a bhangra band (I've lost count of all the projects he gets up to!). Leigh came in on lead guitar with Towie returning on drums. We were also supposed to be doing a split album with punk/ ska masters Spithead which unfortunately, like so much else, never materialized.
However, somewhere along the line we did manage to record our second EP for Campary Records and our fifth single to date.
Steve left for Nottingham, art collage and a life of
decadent indolence... and I don't think he'll mind me saying that. Chris left to concentrate on juggling his interests in various other bands which included a bhangra band (I've lost count of all the projects he gets up to!). Leigh came in on lead guitar with Towie returning on drums. We were also supposed to be doing a split album with punk/ ska masters Spithead which unfortunately, like so much else, never materialized.
However, somewhere along the line we did manage to record our second EP for Campary Records and our fifth single to date.
NEWS FROM NOWHERE 5th EP
News From Nowhere (Richardson/ Niland)/
What Do You Want From Me?/ Untitled
Label: Campary Records CR026 1996
Line up: Paddy Niland - Bass, Leigh Bain - Guitars, Towie - Drums, Mark Richardson - Vocals.
Recorded at Ocean Studios (formerly Bird Song) in Ashby, during April and May 1996. Engineered by Steve Bird, mixed by delinquents. A version of the Specials track "Do Nothing" was also recorded for a comp LP on Ruptured Ambitions to be called "Too Little Too Late - the Two Tone Covers" compilation, which at the time of writing is so far unreleased. This was the reason it ended up on the Terminus singles compilation as an unlisted track later.
The words used on the Untitled track at the end of side two are from the Marat quote used earlier on the "Into the Flames" lyric sheet, the music was knocked out by Paddy, Leigh and Towie, which if I remember right was a slowed down version of the "News From Nowhere" riff. This was later titled 'Marat' on the compilation CD and on the recent reissue finally got it's proper name: 'Don't Believe Them (Marat)' which was what I had originally intended.
Thanks are now due to George Pickles (RIP 2013) for being one more strange person who has laid out good money to get Terminus off the streets and into a recording studio. While we are on the subject of thanks, a big bottle of rancid scrumpy and a fake Rolex are long over due to Herbie Weber for driving the band to and from gigs and rehearsals - above and beyond the call of duty, let alone sanity, and exceeding the bounds of any kind of patience and toleration known to man or woman, and for more years than my, admittedly, snakebite addled mind cares to remember. The man's a star. Quite mad, but a star all the same.
REVIEWS
"A superb band that I've only just heard of but they've been going for years apparently, Clever, no-nonsense lyrics about media manipulation and the way we project an unattainable image onto people and then expect 'em to live up to it. Anarcho punk at its very best, I. e. with tunes where you can actually hear the words."
'Cat on a String' 'zine #2
"The 5th (and latest) offering from one of my consistent faves of the anarchy sector! Glad to see the UK's answer to Bad Religion are still with cuddly Armin's Campary Records - they've really not lost a drop of energy and conviction since the 'Star Born Thing' EP, ten years ago! This time the targets are the tabloid gutter press and life draining, all-consuming peers, plus a haunting epitaph... I love Terminus, from the distinct vocals, powerful compositions and commitment which goes into every release. This lot could well reach other parts without selling out..."
'Ruptured Ambitions' Catalogue #8
From Scunthorpe via Düsseldorf, Campary records bring you PUNK! And not bad punk at that, sorta got a bit of hardcore edge in it. It is an okay punk record, except that if you like punk,
you'll like it; if you don't, you won't. 'News From Nowhere' slag's off the main stream media and tabloids everywhere. 'What Do You Want From Me?' is about just that, and you'll have to contact Terminus for greater insight; I was never very good at deciphering meanings.
Well, with the helpful and informative bit of the review over, now to ponder. It seems every town has its own small punk scene above certain pubs, where all these obscure self-contained, often anarchist, punk bands play to groups of people in the know and sell each other records and fanzines. How do they keep going, and where do all these punks go the rest of the time? I see the odd punk every now and again wondering around, but at these events there are
dozens of the buggers. Anyway, if you like a shouty night out (and I know every now and then that I do), and are prepared to put up with some well dodgy bands, seek these events out. You can take DA's along to flog, and maybe pick up some Terminus records. If not drop DA a line and we'll tell you how to get them.
'Direct Action' #6 Spring 1998
"... from Scunthorpe, on a German label and sold in gypsy hill."
'Rugger Bugger' Distro List 1997
QUOTES USED ON THE LYRIC SHEET
"Proletarians of the world, look into the depths of your own beings, seek out the truth and realize it yourselves: you will find it nowhere else."
Peter Arshinov
"Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life. The urge to destroy is also a creative urge."
Michael Bakunin
"Mankind has honoured its destroyers and persecuted its benefactors, building palaces for living brigands, and tombs for long dead warriors."
DEAN W. R. Inge (1860-1954)
News From Nowhere (Richardson/ Niland)/
What Do You Want From Me?/ Untitled
Label: Campary Records CR026 1996
Line up: Paddy Niland - Bass, Leigh Bain - Guitars, Towie - Drums, Mark Richardson - Vocals.
Recorded at Ocean Studios (formerly Bird Song) in Ashby, during April and May 1996. Engineered by Steve Bird, mixed by delinquents. A version of the Specials track "Do Nothing" was also recorded for a comp LP on Ruptured Ambitions to be called "Too Little Too Late - the Two Tone Covers" compilation, which at the time of writing is so far unreleased. This was the reason it ended up on the Terminus singles compilation as an unlisted track later.
The words used on the Untitled track at the end of side two are from the Marat quote used earlier on the "Into the Flames" lyric sheet, the music was knocked out by Paddy, Leigh and Towie, which if I remember right was a slowed down version of the "News From Nowhere" riff. This was later titled 'Marat' on the compilation CD and on the recent reissue finally got it's proper name: 'Don't Believe Them (Marat)' which was what I had originally intended.
Thanks are now due to George Pickles (RIP 2013) for being one more strange person who has laid out good money to get Terminus off the streets and into a recording studio. While we are on the subject of thanks, a big bottle of rancid scrumpy and a fake Rolex are long over due to Herbie Weber for driving the band to and from gigs and rehearsals - above and beyond the call of duty, let alone sanity, and exceeding the bounds of any kind of patience and toleration known to man or woman, and for more years than my, admittedly, snakebite addled mind cares to remember. The man's a star. Quite mad, but a star all the same.
REVIEWS
"A superb band that I've only just heard of but they've been going for years apparently, Clever, no-nonsense lyrics about media manipulation and the way we project an unattainable image onto people and then expect 'em to live up to it. Anarcho punk at its very best, I. e. with tunes where you can actually hear the words."
'Cat on a String' 'zine #2
"The 5th (and latest) offering from one of my consistent faves of the anarchy sector! Glad to see the UK's answer to Bad Religion are still with cuddly Armin's Campary Records - they've really not lost a drop of energy and conviction since the 'Star Born Thing' EP, ten years ago! This time the targets are the tabloid gutter press and life draining, all-consuming peers, plus a haunting epitaph... I love Terminus, from the distinct vocals, powerful compositions and commitment which goes into every release. This lot could well reach other parts without selling out..."
'Ruptured Ambitions' Catalogue #8
From Scunthorpe via Düsseldorf, Campary records bring you PUNK! And not bad punk at that, sorta got a bit of hardcore edge in it. It is an okay punk record, except that if you like punk,
you'll like it; if you don't, you won't. 'News From Nowhere' slag's off the main stream media and tabloids everywhere. 'What Do You Want From Me?' is about just that, and you'll have to contact Terminus for greater insight; I was never very good at deciphering meanings.
Well, with the helpful and informative bit of the review over, now to ponder. It seems every town has its own small punk scene above certain pubs, where all these obscure self-contained, often anarchist, punk bands play to groups of people in the know and sell each other records and fanzines. How do they keep going, and where do all these punks go the rest of the time? I see the odd punk every now and again wondering around, but at these events there are
dozens of the buggers. Anyway, if you like a shouty night out (and I know every now and then that I do), and are prepared to put up with some well dodgy bands, seek these events out. You can take DA's along to flog, and maybe pick up some Terminus records. If not drop DA a line and we'll tell you how to get them.
'Direct Action' #6 Spring 1998
"... from Scunthorpe, on a German label and sold in gypsy hill."
'Rugger Bugger' Distro List 1997
QUOTES USED ON THE LYRIC SHEET
"Proletarians of the world, look into the depths of your own beings, seek out the truth and realize it yourselves: you will find it nowhere else."
Peter Arshinov
"Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life. The urge to destroy is also a creative urge."
Michael Bakunin
"Mankind has honoured its destroyers and persecuted its benefactors, building palaces for living brigands, and tombs for long dead warriors."
DEAN W. R. Inge (1860-1954)
SPITHEAD/ TERMINUS: QUEENS HOTEL, SCUNTHORPE 20th May 1995
I could not actually remember if this line up ever having gigged but ,apparently, we played with the mighty Spithead on 20th May 1995 at The Queens Hotel, in Scunthorpe.
We did spend ages rehearsing, and getting very little done really done, in a lock up slap next door to a Budgie Hotel. That's right. A Budgie Hotel. Pity the poor budgies, now deaf as posts.
Line up for gig: Robin 'Towie' Tow, Mark Richardson, Paddy Niland, Leigh Bain.
I could not actually remember if this line up ever having gigged but ,apparently, we played with the mighty Spithead on 20th May 1995 at The Queens Hotel, in Scunthorpe.
We did spend ages rehearsing, and getting very little done really done, in a lock up slap next door to a Budgie Hotel. That's right. A Budgie Hotel. Pity the poor budgies, now deaf as posts.
Line up for gig: Robin 'Towie' Tow, Mark Richardson, Paddy Niland, Leigh Bain.