January 2007
Early Anti-Cimex gig in Finland
Janne from Selfish was a nephew, I believe, to the singer of Vaurio, who died a few years ago. Janne inherited his collection, including a flyer and newspaper clipping from Anti-Cimex's first gig in Finland. Vaurio was the only Finnish band that played with four Swedish bands at the gig in Naantali--known as Finland's most popular holiday destination! I talked to Vote Vasko about this gig, and he did not remember it having happened. He thought the first Cimex gig in Finland came much later. But here's the proof (anyway, Vote lived in a different town, hundreds of miles away). My Finnish is a little rusty, but I think the newspaper clipping expresses revulsion at these hellions' music and behavior. Killer line-up at this gig, no? Thanks very much to Janne for this material.
Anti-Cimex video (Leeds, UK, 1986)
1/13/11 post correction: This video is not from Leeds. See this post for more information.
I had heard this video existed a year or two ago, but no one seemed to have a copy of it. Youtube to the rescue. This video displays some pretty fascinating aspects of mid-'80s Cimex. Their detractors always claimed that they were Discharge clones, changing their style as Discharge did. This video seems to substantiate that claim: check out Jonsson's fashion choices. Luckily his vocals remained intense as ever. (One wonders if Cal ever beat himself in the head with the microphone.) Musically, the band is strong, playing the same songs it seems they played--or attempted to play--at all the UK tour dates. "Game of the Arseholes" is particularly great in this video. But how many of those gigs ended like this one? An intro and not even three songs into it, the drummer walks off stage, perhaps because Jonsson had too disappeared. Maybe they were both annoyed at the guitar cutting out. Or maybe someone off screen was offering free drugs and booze. Another highlight is that there are two drummers, which was supposedly true at all the UK tour dates. The back of the "s/t" 12" depicts the second drummer and says that he was a member of the band, in charge of percussion. A great photo, possibly from the same gig, was printed in Maximum Rocknroll's photo zine Welcome to Cruise Country, which is below. Anyway, not much else to say here, except that this video is awesome. I've also been informed that the gig in this video was not in Leeds, but that's what the Youtube video title says, so I'll leave it like that here to avoid confusion.
Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2MBUo2j7W0
Bullshit Recordz 003 Variation of Skitslickers EP
Late in 2006, an auction on eBay revealed the existence of yet another variation of the Skitslickers EP's sleeve. This one is on Bullshit Records, which released Anti-Cimex's first EP and Absurd's EP. The auction description tells a story about Bullshit Records intending to release the record but running out of money so that "Malign Massacre/Studio Lane" had to step in to release the record. I do not believe this story. What is important to note is that Mats Boldenmalm had his hand in nearly everything relating to Skitslickers and Anti-Cimex, and was also responsible for creating some of the rare sleeve variations, such as this one. One such variation he did not remember having made until it was shown to him many years later. For this and other reasons, I take all stories about "pressings" and amounts of records/sleeves made with a great deal of skepticism (the seller also told me that someone had told him 3 or 4 copies of this sleeve exist). Mats was quite kind and forthcoming to me in 2001 when I wrote to him asking many questions on the subject in the process of writing an article for Maximum Rocknroll about Swedish hardcore, but a great deal of minutia remains to be clarified. In that article, I wrote that Jonsson, bassist of Skitslickers, was the proprietor of Bullshit Recordz, but I don't remember the source of that information.