Southern Death Cult

The first show

2005-11-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

The first live performance of Southern Death Cult in front of an audience was filmed at Bradford Royal Standard around July 1981 by Yorkshire Television for a documentary on the punk scene in the area.
Whilst rehearsing with the band Aky was still doubling as the band’s manager, continuing to chase up leads and through a contact that he knew at the local TV station his persistence had been rewarded. Some months earlier he had passed the suggestion on that it would be a good idea to do a programme on up and coming bands in the area and it seemed that the powers that be approved of the idea and a film crew was despatched to catch up on the local groups.
The Bradford music scene at the time consisted New Model Army, Joolz, Wild Willi Beckett, Seething Wells, Southern Death Cult and several bands like The Shakes and The Elements from the nearby satellite towns, but the first that NMA and Joolz found out about anything to do with the filming was when Ian was caught leaving the house in secret.
Joolz, “We found out when he came downstairs with all of his war paint on!” she asked him why did he have all of his stuff on at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and the story came out, as a result the programme was filmed and included the debut performance by SDC, an interview with NMA and a section with Joolz reading her poetry at The Old Crown in front of a stripper. Leeds band Abrasive Wheels were “got” drunk and were filmed throwing nazi salutes.
The two days of filming was finished off with all of those included being interviewed at Roots records in Bradford which ended with the musicians slagging of the film makers and telling them that they “knew fuck all”
None of the film was ever shown.

Portraits

2005-11-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Aky
Barry
Ian
Buzz

Portraits of the band taken from the Fatman / Moya single

Embryonic SDC

2005-11-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

Around March 1981 David Burrows (Buzz) joined the now unnamed band, he had been in another Bradford based group called God and the Demi-Gods and had been playing guitar for several years.
The three of them rehearsed in the cellar writing new material including the song Vivisection. This line up lasted for almost two months until they enrolled (or he enrolled himself, depending on who is telling the story) singer Ian Lindsey.
Ian had recently moved into the communal house after travelling around the country following the Crass / Poison Girls tour. The tour had finished in Bradford leaving Ian homeless and directionless.
Rumour had it that he was an unsuccessful “pick up” by Steven wells, who was also living at the New Cross address. “Ian bored him telling him his life story and the next day and Joolz felt sorry for him and said that he could stay a while. So he stayed a while!”
Joolz convinced him that he should do something with his life and suggested singing with the band that were playing in the basement, Buzz thought that he would look good as a singer and invited him to rehearse with them.
Barry and Aky thought that he was dreadful, but Ian decided that he liked the idea of being in the band and continued to invite himself to their rehearsals.
Ian had already had some limited experience of playing in bands after a short stint with a Liverpool group called Send No Flowers, but this venture barely lasted a few rehearsals before Ian moved to Belfast where he had started his own group called Children of Lust where they had rehearsed a considerable amount before Ian moved back to England where he found himself on the Poison Girls tour.
The name Southern Death Cult was Ian’s suggestion which Barry and Buzz hated, but Ian and Aky were quite fond of and as no other name was in the pipeline, the name was used for their first show almost two months after Ian’s “audition”

SDC photo

2005-11-16T10:04:00.000-08:00

Buzz, Ian, Barry, Aky - Bradford February 1983

Violation

2005-11-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

The musical history of Southern Death Cult can be charted as far back as early 1979 in Bradford, West Yorkshire with the band Violation.
Bassist Barry Jepson and drummer Aky (Aki Nawaz Quereshi) had formed the band with a guitarist now only known as Mick.
The band rehearsed for about 7 months before playing their first show, in which time the line up changed constantly with guitarists coming and going and without them successfully finding a singer that would last for more than a few rehearsals, the only notable exceptions being a character called “Oxfam Harry” who was finally replaced by Gary O’Connal
Aky, who also doubled up as the manager got the embryonic band it’s first show, despite Barry protesting that they weren’t ready they had to go ahead as Aky had already booked the gig. Barry remembers that Aky used to get up at 8 in the morning and work until 6 in the evening phoning promoters and management companies and that he had incredible determination.
The band played about 20 shows in total over the 18 months that they were together and recorded a set of thirteen demos on a 4 track on 3rd and 4th January 1981 at Bradford Community Studio.
Some of the songs recorded were Violation / The System / Hymn 359 and Fashion (which was used as a Southern Death Cult song with new lyrics as The Crypt)
After the demos were recorded their guitarist got married and was less inclined to play with the band so he left, as a result New Model Army guitarist Justin Sullivan filled in on guitar for what was to become their final show in the north east of England, played either in Newcastle, Sunderland or Middlesbrough (nobody can seem to remember which)
When interviewed in 1991, Justin recalled “I said I’ll fill in guitar for you, ‘cos I thought it was dead bloody simple, which it should have been, but I didn’t learn it properly. So I actually blew it in Newcastle (?). I actually played as session guitarist for Violation for one gig and actually blew it seriously. I was seriously bad.”
After this disastrous show Gary moved down to Brighton and the band just dissolved leaving Barry and Aky to continue rehearsing, which they did in the cellar of 166 New Cross Street the house that Barry was living in at the time with Joolz and Justin (from New Model Army) they had converted the cellar into a rehearsal room by putting in a false floor and packing egg boxes onto the walls.

Known Violation gigs
1980
Jan – Venue unknown (3rd gig)
Jul 12 - Huddersfield Albion Hotel
Jul 20 - Bradford Kirkgate Panache
Sep 11 - Leeds Fan Club (Supporting Discharge)
Oct 23 - Bradford Scamps Disco (With New Model Army)
Oct 31 - Bradford University Union (Small Hall) (with Au Pairs)
Nov 22 – Keighley Funhouse
Dec 1 - Keighley Funhouse
1981
Feb - Sunderland or Newcastle (last gig)