The Box VS Aleš Veselý - 2​/​12​/​83 Bohemia (Free Download)

Even considering the absolute impermeability of so called Iron curtain, there still had happened several shows in Eastern block which had something to do with industrial music. In Czechoslovakia itself, of course against the will of guardians of communism, there still has been a few people who were able to attach some of the wild noisy metallish industrial music acts from abroad. Ones who remember the times of so called „goulash communism“ in 80's, can hardly imagine how could someone almost smuggle band like The Box from Sheffield consisting of members of the first Clock DVA incarnation, more specifically Paul Widger, Charlie Collins and Roger Quail with Terry Todd on bass.
Before Peter Hope, who also often gives his support to our releases, joined The Box, they had cooperated with various singers including Ken Bingley and Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire). As you can see even such an event could be held very in very secret almost conspiratorial environment so that even today only few people know that such an event had actually occurred. So it is our pleasure to bring you this memory from deep 80's, same time when Jarda Palat was starting his first projects. However now we are asking Peter Hope himself to tell us about that unique trip to socialistic Czechoslovakia:
"Every Instrument was taken out for inspection at the border. All 6 of Charlie’s horns tipped and turned. A long drive to Prague. Big apartment blocks. Parking at the Railway station amidst a sea of Trabants. Soviet Soldiers watching. Strange Westerners, strange hair and clothes.
Finally meeting up with Milos Curik & going to eat stew on long tables. Evening spent in a massive underground theatre where students were having their graduation ball. Totally Surreal rock’n’roll band played and people danced in their best clothes. Police pulled us over on the way back to the house. In the morning ‘telephone engineers’ arrived to fix a problem on the line, and bug the phone. We went to Ales Vesely’s yard full of the most incredible metal sculpture, drank wine & played the art with beaters & hammers in the cold brightness. A woman washed clothes in the stream & the gate squealed like some half beast half horn.
That night we played an illegal gig at university college Strahov. We played hard & fast. The audience sat on chairs & tried not applaud as that would have made it official. They failed! They collected money in a hat and were eager to talk to us. “Now we know what it would have been like to see the Sex Pistols” some one said. We ate that night in a small restaurant, drinking ‘expensive’ beer that the owners wanted us to pay for first, afraid we might not have the money for the bill.
When we left the following day we still had as much money with us as we’d had to exchange when we entered the country. We bought Silk Cut cigarettes, which none of us liked, and chocolate. It had been an amazing time, never forgotten, the people open, generous and friendly. We forgot to record the gig but a short tape of Ales’s Sculpture remains. 31 years later it still evokes the harsh beauty of that cold bright day in Bohemia."
(Peter Hope)
Tracks 1-6 are treatments of the original tape.
Speed adjustments, Reverb, Delay & Distortion added in keeping with the simple ideas of Tape Manipulations happening at the time.
Tracks 7-11 are the raw cassette recordings.
Track 12 is a further treatment of The Gate featured on Track 6.
The Box were - Charlie Collins, Peter Hope, Roger Quail, Terry Todd & Paul Widger.
credits
released 02 December 2014
Label: CS Industrial 1982-2010 ‎- CSi 024