Einstürzende Neubauten - NL Centrum Amsterdam (16/2/85)

Meningitis Live
Photos by Claude Crommelin for Vinyl magazine (NL)
This was a great gig by EN that was unfortunately shut down by the cops after about an hour. I was lucky enough to catch all the London and Amsterdam gigs by them until I moved to Australia in 1986. The sheer power and 'danger' (e.g. a pneumatic drill making its way into a support column of the Westway when they played Acklam Hall) of their performances back then are something that was missing when I caught them last year out here in Melbourne when they played at ATP's 'I'll Be Your Mirror'. and indeed also way back in 1989 when they played at The Old Greek Theatre.

Anyway I am currently reading this book, which I have to say for an academic tome is actually really enjoyable (and accessible)

Firstly one thing that constantly irks me though is the rewritten history of the 'Concerto for Voice and Machinery' night held at London's ICA back in January 1984 (and I am not going to go anywhere near The 2007 re-enactment except to ask "why?")*

It is stated that it was not advertised as a Neubauten gig...

...but it certainly was. There was a sign outside the door explaining that this was not to be a performance by Neubauten and this partly explains the 'aggressive' behaviour of the crowd that night. I'm sure Frank (Fad Gadget) Tovey was a lovely bloke but that was not who I had spent my money to see.The crowd's palpable disappointment certainly contributed to the rather mild (to my mind at least) mayhem of the night but it was also helped along by a certain Genesis P'Orridge, who with the aid of a megaphone was encouraging everyone to basically cause as much damage as they could. This resulted after the twenty minute set, in a rather ludicrous tug of war involving a cement mixer going on between those on stage and off.

Those supposed secret tunnels under the ICA that led to Buckingham Palace were safe that night after all...

*At the discussion after the 2007 re-enactment Chris Bohn (who attended both performances) is quoted in Shryane's wonderfully engrossing book)as remarking that the original night was a "non-event musically, made into an event through media coverage."  At the conclusion instead of being forced out of the gallery by the ICA staff as quickly as possible, the audience having now endured forty minutes of theatre could disperse leisurely to discuss the art that they had just witnessed.

Which still begs the question "why?"
Secondly while I can whinge that I have been slightly disappointed in the two live EN experiences that I've encountered in the last twenty eight years, on record they have matured into one magnificently (mostly) refined beast culminating in 'Lament' which is quite probably the crowning achievement of their long career.
If there was ever a band to summon the horrors of war then that band is Einstürzende Neubauten