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History
1992
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The financial difficulties that marked
the beginning of 1992 for Frostbyte Records had forced the company to put
on hold their recording itinerary. This resulted in major lost income
for Viewpoint Studios, and made Andrew Morrison resort to making money
on the streets of Munich, Germany...
After a week of busking with his bass guitar
and a drum machine borrowed from a loyal friend, Andy was spending another
cold night working the streets outside the Olympic Stadium, when he overheard
the sounds of a band hosting the first night of three sold out concerts.
Andrew found himself unusually overwhelmed by the band's musical prowess,
and noticed his left foot tapping constantly (and occasionally he would
slap his thigh unwittingly).
For the next two nights he returned outside
the stadium to listen to this band he now found himself hooked on.
On the final night, Andy waited eagerly outside the stage door to get his
branded T-shirt (that he had obtained from a suspicious looking ticket
tout) signed by the band themselves. After waiting for over three hours
on the cold Munich street he resigned himself to the fact that his now
beloved T-shirt would remain un-blessed. As he started the long walk
back to his bedsit in Düsseldorf he heard the stage door opening,
then turned and ran back in the hope of seeing his idols. However,
he was to find only a menacing (yet strangely familiar) looking man whose
I.D. card revealed him to be the head of security. Andrew was supposedly
to have asked the whereabouts of the band and if there was any chance of
meeting them, but he was told they had already flown back to Hamburg.
Despite this disappointing news the conversation which then took place
would have huge consequences for Frostbyte Records.
The exact content of the conversation is
not known, but whatever was said resulted in Andrew, BBFCB and the strange
looking security chief flying to Hamburg 36 hours later.
Due to the disarray in the German music
industry (caused by the reunification of the East to the West) amazingly
the band remained unsigned. Seizing this opportunity, BBFCB swiftly
orchestrated the signing of this German superband called Fußgängerzone.
N.B: The band stipulated strict contractual conditions, which also saw
the signing of their two support bands (Austrian rockers Etch-A-Sketch
Warhead, and fellow Hamburg residents The Celestial Anthropoids).
On returning to England with Fußgängerzone
(who immediately commenced recording work at Viewpoint Studios) The Big
Bat Fat Cat found a cassette demo from another talented local artist known
simply as 'Dave', who he signed forthwith.
The first fruits of Fußgängerzone's
creativity were released on the 23rd March - a single entitled 'The
Ballad Song' (the band's torchlight encore). The following week,
The Celestial Anthropoids brought out their debut single, a cover version
of Kicks Like A Mule's 'The Bouncer' backed with the band's own
club smash '8...9...Techno'.
'Going Back To College' by Dave
came out on the 6th April, and was co-written by Viewpoint engineer Andrew
Morrison and Dave himself.
On the 27th April, 1992, Frostbyte's financial
predicament was solved by the release of Fußgängerzone's first
LP 'The Song Album' which grossed £2.6 million within the
first six months.
'Pitch Bend' was the first long
player by The Celestial Anthropoids and came out seven days after 'The
Song Album'.
For all of the hype surrounding Euthanasia,
their second single 'Pleasure Dome' proved to be, as quoted from
the NME, "a disco disaster. Euthanasia's DJing sets are world renowned,
but as recording artists they produce anally-retentive and simply masturbatory
material which can at best be described as dire."
Austrian signings Etch-A-Sketch Warhead
spewed forth their first thrash metal E.P. 'Don’t Take No Prisoners'
on the 8th June (a six track seven inch only release, with no song longer
than two minutes).
To counteract the undeniable failure of
'Pleasure Dome' BBFCB forced Euthanasia to re-release a new instrumental
mix of 'Patsy K' known as 'Pasty K 1992' which the band did reluctantly.
This caused friction between label manager and band, as they felt that
their artistic integrity had been "tainted". It was at this time
that band members Scott and Andy insisted on being freed from their contract.
'St. Olaf Hooker' was a Fußgängerzone
single in July, and was the first cover version made of a Frostbyte Records
song (it originally appeared on No One Knows We're Dead & The Saint's
'Nicely Offensive'). Because of "the Fuß's" megastar status,
this song was a massive hit, and provided No One Knows We're Dead (currently
minus The Saint) with enough royalty payments to announce their comfortable
early retirement.
Dave's second single (released on the 13th
July) entitled 'I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher' became Frostbyte's
first ever charity record (the label were now, after all, running with
vast profit margins). All money raised from the sale of this single
went towards medical research into a recently discovered and extremely
rare condition. Two of Dave's very close friends had been admitted
to the intensive therapy unit at Portsmouth's Queen Alexandra Hospital
with life threatening symptoms. After extensive tests and examinations,
it eventually became obvious that the only way two stop the two patients
(Duke Twatdefiner and Meathook Snatch the 3rd) from dying was to submit
them to the sound of constant feedback. Thus this disease became
known as "feedback syndrome". Doctors and surgeons were desperate
to find an alternative cure for this awful condition.
(Dave's close friends in
their intensive care beds.)
The 22nd July saw the release of 'Je
M'apelle Etch-A-Sketch Warhead', the band's eponymous first album.
Connoisseurs of Frostbyte Records soon picked up on the opening track 'My
Sister Is A Lesbian', which was later released in August as part of
the 'Four Songs From Our L.P.' E.P.
In August that year, it emerged that the
now retired No One Knows We're Dead had all but blown their royalties on
£1000-a-night hookers and The Quiff's cocaine addiction, (and Kermit's
boozing had bled the band dry). This forced them to return to studio
and Frostbyte Records. The subsequent release of the '...And We
Were Bored Again, E.P.' went some way towards recouping the group's
losses.
Meanwhile, reports were beginning to circulate
in the music press that Fußgängerzone were starting to dominate
the day-to-day running of the label. Partially to dismiss these allegations,
BBFCB commissioned the release of a double album including every single
released so far on Frostbyte (ending with The Celestial Anthropoids August
single 'Seventh Heaven'). The compilation album, 'Nocturnal
Emissions' was released on the 7th of September.
In late October Fußgängerzone
released the double A sided single 'Alcohol' / 'Educ8'.
This was the first material to be made available from the group's second
album 'Buried In The M1' (released in December).
Despite all of the charity money invested
in researching "feedback syndrome", no other feasible cure could be found
apart from the continuous playing of feedback into the ears of the only
two known sufferers. To free up much needed beds in the ITU department
of Q.A. Hospital, BBFCB volunteered to support their plight. He provided
them with the technical equipment to give them 24 hour feedback.
It soon became apparent to Benjamin that rather than endure the consistent
whine of feedback, Twatdefiner and Snatch the 3rd could turn this vile
condition to their advantage by making alternative music. They then
formed Frostbyte’s next signing 'Feedback Syndrome' (named after
the condition in the hope that it would bring more publicity to the disease).
To this day they have never performed any original material, simply recording
disjointed interpretations of established artists' material. The
first E.P. 'Feedback Syndrome Nut The Devil' came out on the 2nd
November, 1992.
'Blue Room' (a cover version of
the ambient house track from The Orb) by The Celestial Anthropoids was
also released in November, and eventually featured on the 1994 album 'Existence'.
Late November brought the first album by
Feedback Syndrome to the masses. 'Feedback Syndrome Lose It Live'
(as the title suggests) was recorded live during a benefit concert at the
DM Institute for the Phonophobic on the 5th October, 1992. The 18
cover versions on this LP were linked together as if a musical with a running
commentary written and spoken by Duke Twatdefiner (who lost his voice in
the midst of recording this live set).
The final release of that year was the
one-off EP by The Chinky Mental Daves. 'Music Crisis Hits
Chatsworth Avenue Post Office' was the only single ever to come out
by this band, who were a well known Portsmouth based 'The Frank & Walters'
tribute act.
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