JON JARRET NARROWLY ESCAPES TERRORIST BOMB BLAST was NIK/OFF: Litmus & Inner City Unit, The Standard, Walthamstow, 11/05/07

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 04:23:53PM +0100, trev typed out:
> Hi John,  I'm glad that you avoided Nazer's bomb.  As I have said before, 
> your reviews are accurate and demonstrate your considerable cognisance of 
> the subject. However, where you fall down is on your emotional receptivity. 
> We of the Inner City Unit don't stand up well to intellectual scrutiny, in 
> fact we don't like it. When you come to see us, you should be prepared to 
> abandon all mind functions and enter into the wonderful world of ZEN 
> NO-MIND (either temporarily by drink and drugs or,   more permanently, by a 
> lifetime of asceticism). Come down the front or if not, at least tap your 
> foot. All good gig experiences are a two-way affair between band and 
> Blessed Ones.

	I've not been entirely sure how to reply to this and keep it 
from getting too personal, so all I can say to this is that, though you 
may not have seen it, I do come to the front and dance, or something 
like that, when the band is one that has me wanting to. Plenty of people 
on this list have seen it and had to dodge... There might have been a 
lot of reasons that didn't happen this time: I was trying to keep an 
eye on a heavy bag, I was tired, whatever, but I gave it some to Litmus, 
but couldn't get moving to the ICU performance. Now I would put that 
down to the fact that the rhythm section were out of step and making it 
hard to get down, you can say I wasn't listening right, but I don't 
think either of us will convince the other.

> You left the gig just after half-way through, yes, we endured til the 
> bouncers started considering to use violence to stop us as usual. The most 
> important part of any gig is the last half hour.

	I've certainly been to gigs where it started awfully and then 
miraculously came right. I've also been to gigs where it was the other 
way, for twenty minutes it was the New One True Way and then they seemed 
to run out of ideas. I don't think I'd say `any gig' to what you say, 
then, but I've certainly seen what you mean.

> I was rather perturbed by some aspects of the reviews you have made in the 
> past, for example, you criticised the Mother of All Bands album "Insect 
> Brain" because it didn't sound anything like Hawkwind. With that kind of 
> attitude there would never have been a Hawkwind or Motorhead, or ICU, or 
> even Beatles etc. 

	<snip>

	That may be how you recall it, but it's not what I said.

http://listserv.ispnetinc.net/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503A&L=BOC-L&P=R622

	That review starts:

	"I have to say that this album was something of a surprise to 
me. Knowing bassist Ron Tree's punk background and the way he worked 
with that in Hawkwind, and owning quite a lot of guitarist Judge 
Trev's work with Inner City Unit and The Atomgods, I was expecting 
high-speed punk. Wasn't this, after all, a band which Terry Ollis had 
refused to join because they played too fast? Instead, they seem to have 
borrowed Senser's drummer and that too leads one to think high speed 
intricacy.

        "Well, this is not what it is, so you may as well shed that idea
straight away. This is actually mostly an album of jamming and tone
poems."

	I also said that Ron was singing better than he had with 
Hawkwind, that `Meat Eater' had a progression of ideas that reminded me 
of `Assassins of Allah' and that I wondered if Ron had been trying for 
something similar, and I mentioned that there was a Hawkwind *cover* on 
it (which you have to admit does encourage the comparison). But I didn't 
say what you say I said, and nor would I for exactly the reasons you 
give. In fact you can find me tearing Krel's _Ad Astra_ into bits 
precisely because of how Hawkwind-clonish it was, though even there I 
think I made it clear I was enjoying the album's update of the eighties 
HW sound:

http://listserv.ispnetinc.net/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0101C&L=BOC-L&P=R4781

	So I think you're propagating propaganda, O Judge.

> second:
> I have decided that Inner City Unit WILL NEVER REHEARSE AGAIN. OUR ONE AND 
> ONLY 2 HOUR REHEARSAL SO FAR WAS THE DAY BEFORE THAT FATEFUL GIG IN 
> WALTHAMSTOW - AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!

	So, how did *you* think it went? :-)

> third:
> And while we are on the subject of the Brotherhood, and considering matters 
> of  human equality. I think that all of you who are on £25,000+ should 
> visit www.realfestivalmusic.co.uk and buy as many of my CD's as possible - 
> not because you want them, but to alleviate the terrible inequality between 
> rich and poor in the world  today - it's the worst it's ever been in the 
> known history of man.

	Can you re-release the second Atomgods album on CD-R? That'd be 
cool.

> fourth:
> Mike Coleman is not getting his hands on my unopened copy of Atomgods WOW 
> vinyl, hovever much he whines and rants about it, or tells me how to open 
> it by "rolling it out" and "blowing into the sleeve"!

	It's a good album is that.

> fifth:
> John, I fancy your girlfriend.

	You're a man of taste. And she's a better bass-player than Nazer 
too, clearly a match made in heaven, or at least Brighton. Alas, she's 
moved... Yours,
		Jon

-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk