The Detonators (A & P #4)

Early in the second half of the 80s, I got in touch with Reiner Mettner (from Wuppertal) who was running the label Double A recs and organised tours. I started to help him with distribution and setting up some shows for his bands…

A bit before he was one of the people 2 guys who started A & P fanzine. Reiner also ran Bullshit Products (that became Double A recs in ’85) and he had been doing a zine called Der Letzte Wille (“last will & testament”; its #4 was done in 1984). The other founder was Frank Baumeister a.k.a. Albert Asthma (who would start Soon To Be Rare recs).

The first issue of A & P came out in November ’84. For #4 (part of the Punk Etc collection), Dietmar Plewka (Hamburger Mottenpost fanzine) also got involved. #5 was announced to be the last issue. But there’s a flyer mentioning A & P #6 with Dagmar ‘Dagi(bert)’ Bernhard – living at the same address as Reiner and doing the tape-label/-distribution Der Heimvorteil (“the home advantage”) – as contact.

Some contents? #1: ‘Conflict’, ‘Toxic Reasons’, Chaos Tage, gig-/record-reviews, news, etc. #2 (Jan/Feb ’85): ‘Disorder’, ‘EA80’, ‘Svart Framtid’, ‘The Bristles’, ‘Bluttat’, ‘Anti-Heroes’ and more. #3: ‘Verdun’, ‘Sons Of Sadism’, ‘Kaaos’, ‘English Dogs’. #4 (Aug ’85): ‘Euthanasie’, ‘The Detonators’, ‘Anti-System’, ‘Reality Control’, etc. #5: ‘Instigators’, ‘Concrete Sox’, ‘The Faith’, Emma Amsterdam, scenereports (Poland, Norway), … The flyer for #6 mentions ‘Marginal Man’, Jello Biafra, ‘Th’Inbred’, ‘Collaps’, ‘G.A.S.H.’ ‘Billy And The Willies’ & record-production.

Reiner moved to Hannover in the early 90s, got desillusioned with the HC/punk-scene and later became a truckdriver.

I helped organise a show for ‘The Detonators’ when they toured with ‘Instigators’ (87-04-03) and later hosted them for a Smurfpunx show (89-05-04). This interview here is from 1985 when the band consisted of Bruce, Juan, ‘Korky’ & Pat…

[Translation below]

At some point Reiner brought a tape of the first ‘The Detonators’ LP (Retaliation Tapes). Wow, I thought, this is really a great American band! They reminded me of ‘Youth Brigade’ somehow, in the way they sounded and I was surprised that I’d never read anything about them, let alone heard anything about them. With time the tape fell into oblivion again.

After our scenereport in MRR #23 [March 1985] I got a letter from the ‘The Detonators! They asked if we would like to distribute their records and if we knew of some gig-opportunities here in Germany. We could help the guys! And of course I didn’t miss the chance to ask them a few questions!

OK, here we go!

Who is in the band, how old are you and when did you form the band?

There’s Bruce Hartnell (24) vocals+guitar, Juan Camacho (24) guitar, Pat Fargher (20) bass and Korky Ollerton (20) drums. We started sometime in 1980, with Juan on guitar, Bruce on bass and various drummers and singers. The singer on the first LP left just before our first tour. So Bruce took over the singing and Pat joined us on bass.

What bands have you been influenced by and what kind of music or bands do you listen to?

When we started the band, there wasn’t much going on outside the punk-scene and most of the punk-bands weren’t that impressive, so we always believed in ourselves more than in any influences. We’re attracted to serious songs and bands, simply because here in L.A. nobody sees the punk-scene as a threat, neither the cops nor the punks themselves! The bands we took seriously (which in a way made us play ourselves) are e.g. ‘Sham 69’ (1st LP) & ‘Stiff Little Fingers’ (1st LP). Most of the 77 stuff from England was vicious. Songs like Suspect Device [‘S.L.F.’] or White Riot [‘The Clash’] or Rip off [???]! Some of the early ‘Black Flag’ stuff was just as great, plus they come from our area. What do we listen to nowadays? Well, we listen to everything, but what we take seriously is another thing. Having toured three times now, we pretty much know what is a really good and important band, or what is just a bunch of ‘entertainers’. You can judge the presentation or how they perform at a gig. But as long as they’re only interested in money, it’s just a business-adventure, but not a band! Anyway, we listen to all kinds of music (and rock’n’roll) and we judge them by the above mentioned things.

Can you live from your music? And if not, what do you do besides, jobs or something?

When we’re on tour we can earn the money we need to live by selling records, T-shirts and other shit. But when we’re at home, we can’t play often enough (and we don’t get much for it: we’re happy if we get $ 100) because there are so many bands here. The only thing we can do about it is to make records and hope that someone pays attention to us. But as I said, we can’t play often enough (sometimes 2-3 gigs a month, sometimes none at all); so we go on tour! To earn a living, we all go out to work: Bruce is a painter, Juan has his own gardening-business, and Pat & Korky work in a record-shop.

You have your own label! Do you also put out records with other bands or only your own records? And why did you start a label in the first place?

No one wanted to release our songs and we were pretty frustrated, so we took matters into our own hands. We thought that if ‘Black Flag’ can do it, we can do it too. But we don’t want to do something only with bands whose music we like, because we think that’s not fair. Are we supposed to be ‘idolmakers’? Who are we to say this is cool and that is shit? Sure we have other bands on our label, like ‘The Hags’, ‘Surex’, ‘Against The Grain’ – but unless each band works for themselves, we can’t help them and don’t want to. We’re a ‘system’ that tries to help bands and anyone who doesn’t do anything themselves can leave. We’ve had so many contacts with bands who have just said “You go ahead!” but that’s not the point! Besides, we also have to take care of our own band.

Do you have problems with distribution and how many records have you sold so far?

Well, in the beginning it didn’t go so well with the distribution, but you learn and at the moment it’s going quite well. But we’re also sure that there’s a lot of people that we don’t know who could help us with distribution. We would also like to have a better distribution in Europe, we could definitely sell more records in Europe if we had more relations. Well, we’ve only sold 5.000 copies of the first LP so far – that’s not much when you think that S.S.T. recs [recordlabel of ‘Black Flag’s Greg Ginn] presses that many every month!

Who in the band writes your lyrics? I think they’re quite personal, is that right? And what is more important for you: the lyrics or the music?

Bruce writes all the lyrics and they’re quite personal. But we all know what the songs are about. E.g. our new [1985] single on Emergency Broadcast Systems, is about a friend who lived in his house and who committed suicide in the backyard! And the flipside Yer Child’s War is about kids not having a choice what to do with their lives. In previous generations there were always wars that this country was involved in and people only had two choices: either you joined the army or you studied and got put back like that. And now there’s punk-rock! And if you’re one, for whatever reason, you can’t deny that it’s there and that it’s making a lot of noise in our culture – because it’s an alternative way! Just like a war that goes on in everybody’s head when they’re 18 or 21 years old! We think the lyrics are more important to us but of course the music is important too.

Do you have certain political views? What do you think about anarchy and how do you look upon anarcho bands?

We’re a political band! But not in the sense of ‘preaching’. We don’t tell people who to vote for, what to eat or how to act cool! We’re more interested in private and personal politics, like the lack of possibilities for resistance in this country. We’re active on different political levels – I Voted For President – but the system is so rigid in every way that you can never change it democratically. That’s why we’ll probably never see a coloured president in our lifetime (although it would look nice in the school books, wouldn’t it?)! It looks like anarchy would immediately lead to a possible change but it would only lead to a worse ‘all against all’! About anarcho bands: we believe they’re not as big a threat as many think, including themselves? They’re caught in a dream too deep. When the money comes in, they will consume just like everyone else!

What about drugs? Are you Straight Edge and if not, what do you think about it?

Drugs are too personal a thing to talk about as a band. We don’t care if someone takes drugs or not, as long as they leave us alone or don’t try to force them on us. We don’t condemn them but we don’t support them either! We think that if you want to fuck around then go ahead, but don’t fuck around with us! Straight Edge is also a very personal thing. It’s nothing for us but if someone can pull it off: great! Then that’s also a good thing. But we don’t care what people say about themselves, as long as they can take the daily pressure and deal with it without killing anything or anyone!

A few months ago one could read a lot about ‘Gang Violence’ in MRR! Do you have problems with that shit?

Here in L.A. there are a bunch of gangs but they’re not as bad as the street-gangs. The punk-gangs just riot at gigs and that’s definitely not the ideology of punk-rock. They really only come to gigs to fuck things up. And the cops don’t take them seriously because they know they would never get organised. Whenever we play and a gang-member jumps on stage and shouts the name of his gang, we stop playing and say: “Yo, assholes – if you’re really in a gang, go to Watts [neighborhood in southern Los Angeles] or South Central L.A. (pretty rough neighbourhoods) and sell angel-dust, but stop disturbing the gig! Then they usually stop, because they all come from very quiet and safe areas.

I often think that the punk-scene in U.S. is as much business as pop or heavy metal! How do you see that?

It’s business and you’re completely at its mercy! If you try to fight it, you can’t compete with the other bands and you don’t get gigs! I’m always amazed how many bands spend a lot of money on their clothes and haircuts! And the promoters and radio-stations really go after it. It’s all become too commercial and glittering. But maybe one day it will all explode again and become different!

Do you know any German bands and what do you know and think about the German scene?

We know the ‘Inferno’ LP and the stuff that’s on the Welcome To 1984 compilation [MRR], but that’s not enough to be trusted with it. We’ve heard a few things about how radical you guys over there are. And also about the fucking violence between the different factions. Europe is more dangerous than America – it’s pretty safe here, no matter what you’ve heard! But we’ll experience it ourselves when we come over. We heard from bands like ‘Toxic Reasons’, ‘Black Flag’ or ‘Circle Jerks’ that the German scene stands more with both feet on the ground than the English – and we think that’s much better!

Do you have anything else to say?

We’ld just like to say thanx and hope to see you soon!

Latest news: The guys will do a U.S. tour with the ‘Instigators’. After that they will come to Europe with them and tour the continent! The 2nd LP is still not out, there must have been some problems with the pressing-plant. The first LP is sold out by now but a second pressing is planned. Until then you can get it on tape for $ 2,50 directly from them.

E.B.S. Records S.A. / P.O.BOX 2120 / Redondo Beach / CA 90278, USA