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Death In June (DIJ/DI6) is the musical outlet of Douglas Pearce (born 27/4/56). He started out in the band Crisis (with Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus, Tony was also in DIJ at the beginning. they met through involvement in far left-wing politics). "The name Death In June really refers to a period in history where man decided to go one way rather than another. As such DIJ has no desire to put forward a death notion." - DP.
29/30th June 1934 - Hitler named it the "Night Of The Long Knives" after a phrase from a popular Nazi song. That was when Hitler had the main members of the SA arrested and some executed by the SS, as it was suspected they were planning a coup. The SA (Sturm Abteilung) aka the Brownshirts was a force of about 3 million men and hence had power.
From Sounds magazine interview, 1985 - "Our interest doesn't come from killing all opposition, as it's been interpreted, but from identification with or an understanding of the leftist elements of the SA which were purged, or murdered, by the SS. That day is extremely important in human history... They were planning execution or overthrow of Hitler, so he wouldn't be around. We'd be living in a completely different world, I should imagine..." In 1981 the music started out as post-punk martial stuff, then a few years later to the synth-heavy folk stuff with acoustic guitar. The synths were phased out. The later stuff had atmospheric sound loops, dialogue samples, industrial beats, etc added.
My personal views on the major albums
The Guilty Have No Pride, Nada!, Brown Book, The World That Summer, and the Wall of Sacrifice are all very good.
Nada! has a synth sound which can be a bit weak (like NIINs first album) which can take a bit of getting used to - hopefully the reissue is better - but itt is good.
Burial is skippable, half of it is live and the rest is (done better) elsewhere.
Rose Clouds of Holocaust and But What Ends When The Symbols Shatter I'm not a big fan of. Some of the lyrics are quite good and work well on the live albums. David Michael (Tibet)'s influence on the earlier albums was good, but here there are some tracks I don't like. BWEWTSS is better, RCOH is a bit drawn out and soporific.
I really like the KAPO album.
Occidental Martyr is some guy speaking DIJ lyrics with soundscapes in the background, skippable.
Take Care and Control is good, Operation Hummingbird EP is a bit weaker - initially sounds good but doesn't stay the distance.
All Pigs Must Die - I don't listen to. Some of the folky tracks were ok. It has some noisy 'industrial' tracks.
Death In June notes and trivia
Mostly taken from Yahoo group including posts by Douglas P. (DP) and also Misery And Purity by Robert (1995, Jara Press). Excuse some lack of attribution of sources for things, at the time I didn't think to note where it came from. Miscellaneous notes followed by Album notes. Origin of the name of the group: "when we were recording our first 12" "Heaven Street" and we still didn't have a name for the group. We were in the studio and Patrick Leagas, whose now in Six Comm, said something and I have very weird hearing, and I thought he said Death In June and so I said it - and everyone just stopped and it really seemed, naturally the best name for the group!" - DP (Judas Kiss #3)
Totenkopf
Many record covers feature a Totenkopf - a Death's Head - a symbol used by SS-Totenkopfverbande - usually associated with Allgemeine and Waffen SS - but also by numerous elite military units of Imprerial Germany, other branches in the German army in World War I and II, and other units throughout the world including Britain and USA. DIJ version is the version the SS used and supposedly symbolises total commitment, one vision and tells the enemies that they will not be tolerated and were willing to die to protect their ideals. "The Totenkopf is used all over Europe as a sign of total commitment, so I've never really had any problems with it. When I thought of Death In June it was really the be all and end all of my life - it still is - so that's why I chose to use that symbol, plus the fact that the simple symbolism reads easy. The Totenkopf for Death, and the six for the sixth month - June." - DP (Judasa Kiss #3)
Whip-hand
A Whip-hand also features on many covers. "In English there's an expression 'to have the whip hand' which signifies to be in control, in command! That's one of the reasons why I used it. It also reflects a sadomasochistic image. It marked a new beginning and new period for Death In June" - DP. It was first used on the 1984 single 'She Said Destroy'.
Religion & Magick
"Religion and Magick? I am religous but follow not faith. I do practise magick. Brown Book is probably the most 'magickally' influenced record I have done. Most of the record was written during a period of what could best be described as one of initiation. I lean towards the Northern European tradition of runes and rune-magick. They are more 'natural' for me than the southern based workings of such people as Crowley. Many of my lyrics have been 'attained' or inspired by the outcome of my workings. In some cases they were literally shouted at me." - Douglas P. (Feverish)
Another world
"At the end of the day you have to deal with the reality you are faced with, or you have made for yourself. Between the ages of 16-20 in the early 1970’s I took a great deal of LSD and realized that there was, apparently, other states of ‘being.’ But, so what! 23 years on I don’t feel I’m any more illuminated. I feel a lot of that sensation was an absolute illusion from the true horror of existence. The sense of ‘oneness’ is definitely on eof those illusions. We are definitely not ‘one’! Let’s get on with what we find. I "pierce the veil" every time I step outside my front door and ‘mingle’ with the rest of humanity." - DP
The two Death In June albums most 'inspired' in part by Yukio Mishima were The World That Summer and Brown Book
DIJ has sold about 300,000 units since 1981. (L'ame Electrique #1, 2000?)
"I've an interest in all the aspects of the third reich. It had such a huge influence on the world who could fail to be intrigued by it? However, I've still read more pages of 'Das Kapital' than I have 'Mein Kampf'!" - Douglas P (Achtung Baby! interview)
Technical specsifications, etc
Someone asked about the type of keyboards that have been used by Death In June and if there were, in particular, any old brands featured. From "The World That Summer" in 1985/1986 to "The Wall Of Sacrifice" in late 1988/early 1989 a Yamaho DX 7 combined with a Korg Poly 800 were used. Up until then it had been a combination of the Korg and various Rolands. The 'real' piano sounds were always those of a Chinese piano that either Alaska or The Greenhouse Studios in London had in-house. I can't remember the make of that piano but it was coloured blue and had an excellent cold sound to it.
After that the Korg M1 Work Station took over with the help of any other keyboards in whatever studio I was working in that were available at the time including various Wurlitzers and Hammonds. By the way, Albin's weapon of choice when he is working with me is an ASR 10 sampling keyboard.
Whilst on the subject of instruments since the "NADA!" days of 1984 I've used a combination of Washburn 6 & 12 string acoustic guitars with pickups, a Hohner 6 string headless electric guitar and 12 string electric Rickenbackers. Previously to that I had used a Framus 6 string electric which I had bought from Dick Middleton, the old rhythm guitarist in Mungo Jerry (does anyone still remember that groovy group?) and a hired Ovation 6 string acoustic for all of the recordings up until the "Burial" album. For that album alone I had a terrible semi-electric acoustic, brand name long since forgotten, that combined with Richard Butler's peculiar live settings on his keyboards gave rise to the awful sound of the murder of Sooty and Sweep that is to me the ambience of the "Burial" album. To those of you unfamiliar with Sooty and Sweep just imagine the sound of squeeky, cuddly toys being constantly jumped on. "EEE EEE EEE-EEE..." Heilige Harry Corbett!
Douglas P.
Tony used a Rickenbacher-copy bass guitar made by Shaftesbury but also played a hired Ovation acoustic bass on The Guilty Have No Pride album. Patrick used 2 Roland syn. drums and I also use a JHS(John Hornby Skewes) SD1 drum synth which is the type that Soft Cell used on "Tainted Love". Marc Almond later gave that drum to Geff and Sleazy of Coil but, I wouldn't know that having never met them, known them, worked with them etc. & so on. Pat and I also both used military side drums made by Premier and purchased at a music shop in Aldershot. Looping: I used a WEM Copy Cat echo unit and simple cassette tape loops available in most electrical shops. I still use the latter as I like their randomness.
Albin Julius of Der Blutharsch used an ASR 10 sampling keyboard when working with DIJ. Boyd Rice uses a Lexicon Jam Man. - DP
NER: New European Recordings
The main reason why NER first halted the release of material by other groups in the mid-1980s was financial. When Patrick did his disappearing trick after the Italian tour of April, 1985 I had to think about EVERYTHING concerning the future of Death In June. This was also combined with a very difficult period in my personal Life that was just about to start. At the age of 30, and for the first time in my Life, I became homeless, I was alone and I had to decide where I was going with this now solo project. To survive the next uncertain period it was obvious that contraction was necessary so projects with other groups/companies were ditched, live performances cancelled for several years and a general era of battoning down the hatches was embarked upon. Certainly, without the invaluable help of people like David Tibet and a few others who have been around me/DIJ from the very start, then I/DIJ may not have survived those tough years.
By the mid-1990s all aspects of that situation had changed dramatically so material was then put out by projects I Loved such as Strength Through Joy, Occidental Martyr, TeHom etc but once again the problem of money cropped up when wsd decided in 1999 to stop paying 'Satan's Spawn' and 3 years of expensive litigation began. That time has only recently ceased to exist. A little longer and much more will too!
There are definitely other groups out there that I know and Love but I can't for the foreseeable future see me/NER being in a position to help release anything by them. There is too much rebuilding of my own to be done. The last time I consciously remember hearing anything by the Incest Twins was many, many years ago. I immediately lost interest in them when I found out that what Tibet had been saying about them being 2-faced, back-stabbing twats was true. He had warned me that he had seen an interview in a French magazine where they had criticised and slandered me and had jumped on the "He's a really dangerous person" band wagon in a big way. I chose to give them the benefit of the doubt at the time as I realised sometimes translations in foreign magazines can be inaccurate. Sadly, when I saw in an English fanzine an interview of theirs, which was along the same lines, the sad little ingrates were no longer of any interest to me. All I know is that I vastly overpaid them for their support slots. Silly me!
Douglas P.
Biographical
"In the mid 1950s I was born in a working class council estate on the southern suburbs of London. Out of interest members of Status Quo and The Jam also came from here. I was at the same primary school as Bruce Foxton and probably the others and on my way to senior[high] school I'd walk by the house of the drummer in Status Quo and he'd already be rehearsing at that time in the morning!! The Communist Party had a presence on the estate and I suppose my first contact with leftist politics was with them. They would deliver their paper 'The Morning Star' to our house. However, after I started going to college I started coming into contact with what was then the New Left and that continued for a few years until the end of Crisis.
I had vague plans to go to University to study to be a teacher of Economic and Social History but LSD got in the way. I remember distinctly turning up at the entrance of the hall in which I was supposed to take my 'A' level History examination with a friend who has since gone onto to be a world famous actor and we both decided "no!" We both dropped a tab of acid and took off to St Catherine's Hill above the town of Guildford. A few weeks later we were both staying in Amsterdam dropping acid on a very regular basis and during that time we both decided that all else in life was a distraction unless it was exactly what you wanted to do. He decided his fate was in acting and I decided mine was in music. When we returned to England some months later we both got on with making sure that came about. Either working for Rough Trade Distribution or for myself I have managed to live off of music for 22 years." - DP (yahoo)
"At senior school (High School . U.S.A.) I was the athletic champion for the first 3 years, later head of my house, always represented my school at both athletics and football and even went on to trials for my country, England. " - DP (heimdallr.ch)
Douglas Pearce is homosexual and vegetarian.
DIJ started out in England, but in the 1990s Douglas slowly moved to Australia.
Mask Douglas wears
"Even from the very very beginning of Death in June, when there were three people - Tony Wakeford, Patrick Leagas and myself - we did not want to become a part of a normal rock n'roll thing. Pretty boys staring into the cameras with huge cocks and IQs of one million... It doesn't work like that. It was embarrassing to be part of this thing in many ways, so we looked different onstage all the time. In fact, the first performances we played with our backs to the audience. And then we started having camouflage, net over the stage so that people could see us wearing different masks. Patrick Leagas, for instance, didn't even want to have his photograph taken ever. And in "NADA!" we stand with our backs to the camera. But talking about this particular mask... We had worn masks before because we would go onstage with pigs heads on or gorilla heads and different things, SS uniforms.
I was walking 10 years ago in Venice, Italy, and there was a shop called "New or Old". Then, through the window of the shop, there were all the usual Italian carnival masks like Suns and Moons, etc. but right through the shop I saw this one mask staring back at me. And that is the mask that now I wear." - DP (Edge of Time, Jan 2002)
"I consider Crisis was the first real group I ever played in although it's working title was originally A.S.U. (Active Service Unit)and besides Tony and myself had a lead guitarist called Keith Renton in it. I think he went on to be in some sort of Mod group and claimed to have been in Crisis but never was. ASU never got out of the 'rehearsal room'. Sometime probably in the Spring of 1977 I was on the seafront at Minehead in the West Country of England drinking a bottle of Carlsberg Special Brew and reading a newspaper when it hit me that nearly every lead paragraph had the word "crisis" in it. Bingo!! It's a moment I'll never forget and as soon as I could contacted Tony Wakeford, told him what I think the group name should really be and shortly after everything with personnel, gigs interviews etc began to fall quickly into place. " - DP (Yahoo)
Re: old Crisis clothes
"A lot of the designs were stencils of New Left/Situationist poster designs I had from the Paris May,1968 riots. Their original slogans I then distorted and re-stenciled in English along with Crisis lyrics." - DP (yahoo)
Re: Ennio Morricone
"Both Patrick Leagas and I always freely admitted our love for Spaghetti Western period, and before, Morricone. I don't believe Ennio had any further inspiration than that. I've been to Spain often and I had in mind for "Punishment Initiation" recreating the sound I heard in a transvestite Flamenco bar in Sitges, near Barcelona in 1980. This song is one of the remixed/re-recorded songs that will feature on the rarities album that is being currently worked on. I can't hear any Morricone connection in "Death Of A Man" which certainly has Mishima and Genet inspirations plus a lot more but, I can hear it in "The Honour Of Silence". Tibet said "..he stood like Jesus" and that made me write the rest of the song. Peculiar days!" - Douglas P on Yahoo Group.
Enrico Chiarparin?
Enrico left Calvin Klein some years ago but still works at the very top of the fashion world for someone who, incidentally, has a massive collection of German WWII uniforms from which samples are regularly cut to match fabrics and colours for the new seasons designs! Enrico brought along a fob of such cuttings when we went to see the stage show of Cabaret last November at Studio 54. Weird to say the very, very least! Some years ago Enrico did some cover work for Sol Invictus but I couldn't say exactly what. I know of The Blade and The Death Of The West albums but I'm unsure of any others. I've known Enrico since before he went to Milan's School of Fine Art and Design about 20 years ago and his work has never failed to leave me in awe of his talents.
Books
These were the last 'fictional' books I read and probably will remain that way. - DP 1.Funeral Rites-Jean Genet 2.The Decay Of The Angel-Yukio Mishima 3.Miracle Of The Rose-Jean Genet 4.The Temple Of Dawn-Yukio Mishima 5.Querelle Of Brest-Jean Genet 6.Spring Snow-Yukio Mishima 7.Our Lady Of The Flowers-Jean Genet 8.Runaway Horses-Yukio Mishima 9.Prisoner Of Love-Jean Genet 10.On Hagakure-Yukio Mishima.
Album notes
Heaven Street 12"
The blockhouses/pillbox/control tower on the cover are on Jersey Island (in the Channel Islands near England). Catalog number SA 29 6 34 and for the following 7": SA 30 6 34 - both dates of the Night of the Long Knives.
At Sobibor concentration camp the soldiers sarcastically called a thatched corridor leading to some 'gas chambers' the "Road to Heaven".
Hitler's invasion of Russia and crusade against communism was termed 'Drang nach Osten' - Drive East.
State Laughter/Holy Water 7"
Some think the title track could be about the Iron Curtain/Berlin Wall (which was in place at the time) and the people behind it. "And the red tears seeps / from the holes in the wall" "take it away", and "our distant youth / like flowers bloom / State laughter for all of you / But the petals fall" 1983
The Guilty Have No Pride LP/CD
Heaven Street:
3:27 - 3:57 has the quiet talk in Black Radio backwards.
Black Radio: Start of track is "We Drive East" backwards. 2:31 - 2:36 "This road leads to heaven" and music from Heaven Street backwards 3:35 - 4:10 "This road leads to heaven" and music from Heaven Street backwards, repeated Music from Black Radio itself and Heaven St is played backwards in places throughout the track.
Quiet talk from 3:05 - 3:35 I can't make it out, here's my guess.. i stepped out of the car knee deep into human ashes, Clothes lay everywhere. My job was to make sure the camp functioned efficiently. I spent as much time as I could away from the camp. I would often ride my horse through the forest to the cottage where my wife and child stayed. We kept the curtains closed. One could always see the smoke… one could always see the smoke ...
The nature of "black radio" is for a foreign government to establish a seemingly innocuous radio presence in a nation which is to be invaded imminently. The station in question begins by broadcasting "normal" communications--music, news, weather--and by its strong frequency signal, attracts a large audience in a short period of time. As time passes, the nature of the communications become more political, and, naturally, toward encouraging the nation's citizens to reject its leadership, rise up against it, and to embrace a "liberation effort" on the part of the foreign government issuing the "black" broadcast.
Burial LP/CD
Cover photo is taken in central Paris. Fields: "where arrows crossed / point to the sky / and fathers, brothers / and lovers lie" - the arrows crossed possibly refer to the Týr rune which was placed above the graves of the SS killed in battle instead of crucifixs.
"The live side of Burial was recorded at The Clarendon Hotel in London by a certain Bob Santana using a 4 track machine linked to the mixing desk. 2 tracks were used for Death In June and the other 2 tracks were used by a group called Pig's Blood Rising, or something like that." DP. [Bob Santana is Babs Santini - Steven Stapelton, Pig's Blood Rising = Dog's Blood Rising = Current 93]
She Said Destroy 12"/7"
Cover art of a reaper is "I am Fire" by Fiona A Burr (who also did a C93 cover). She said destroy /Crowley: "The first book by Crowley I read was The Book of the Law, which David Tibet gave me in 1983. We wrote "She Said Destroy" shortly after. " DP
"She Said Destroy" was the first song I wrote using lyrics Tibet had given me and pretty much came as they were. It needed little fine tuning from me and was the only song from that era that didn't. Normally I would take a word or 2 from here and a sentence or 2 from there and fit them together. For example on the same page as the original drafts of "She Said Destroy In Black New York" and "Torture Garden" is this:
" 'The Heart Of The Master'
Eat! Eat!
Harm! Harm!
Kill! Kill!
Destroy! Destroy!
Cleave! Cleave!
Tear! Tear!
Uproot! Uproot!
Put to flight! Put to flight!
Dry up! Dry up!
Crush my enemies!
Conquer! Conquer!
Scatter! Scatter!
Crush! Crush!
Pound! Pound!
Delude! Delude!
Kill! Kill my enemies!"
Ruin! Ruin!
Eat! Eat!"
It took me 2 more years to figure out where only the title would work (in " Rule Again" on the "World That Summer" album) but, I like working like that even with my own words. Later with "But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter?" in 1992 and "Rose Clouds Of Holocaust" in 1994 Tibet brought along to the studio complete sets of lyrics that fit the music that had already been recorded and he sung them. By then, 10 years after "She Said Destroy" we were more used to working with each other so knew what to expect/do. However, writing a lot of C93's "Swastikas For Noddy" together in 1986 really ironed out any creases we had as co-songwriters. Heilige! Douglas P. 1985
NADA! LP/CD
At the last count since 1985-1999 "NADA!" had sold about 30,000 copies. The song "The Torture Garden" was the only song that Patrick Leagas, David Tibet, Richard Butler and myself completely collaborated on. At one of the first rehearsals we had after Tony Wakeford had been asked to leave the group in early 1984 I laid some of the lyrics Tibet had given me to use out on the floor of the studio and as I played drums and/or guitar and Richard mucked around on the keyboards Patrick picked and chose a few of the lyrics that were available. In fact, very few from the lyrics Tibet had written for the song he called "Torture Garden". Tibet came along later that day and suggested the use of Gregorian chants, recordings of which he had plenty to choose from. This was the 2nd song Death In June wrote using Tibet's words. Here are his original words:
'Torture Garden' More soil More earth More leaves More gravel Rusted and speckled More heaven More hell In the torture garden.
Patrick sings lead vocals and plays percussion/keyboards
Richard plays keyboards
Tibet plays a record
Myself: guitar/percussion and backing vocals.
DP. The "will to power" is reminiscent of Nietszche.
Torture Garden is the name of a decadent fin de siècle novel (1899) by the French anarchist Octave Mirbeau. The Torture Garden supposedly is exceptional for its detailed descriptions of sexual euphoria and exquisite torture, its political critique of government corruption and bureaucracy, and its revolutionary portrait of a woman - which challenges even contemporary models of feminine authority.
The Honour of Silence was based on sexual experiences
Rain of Despair low bass sounds: "'Subsonic' is the actual word I used in describing to our sound engineer Iain O'Higgins what we wanted. There's a bass machine, which I think was a Roland, and a bass guitar used on that particular track. We also used cut-to-size poles of scaffolding like industrial wind-chimes that also accounted for some of the bass frequencies." - DP (yahoo)
"C'est Un Rêve" The idea behind the track came When about to play in Lyons in 1983/84 near where Klaus Barbie was imprisoned. When in Paris there were rumours that DIJ were going to visit Klaus Barbie in prison which Douglas thought so ridiculous he decided to write the song, though he was going to use Klaus Barbie as a symbol anyway.
The loops at the start of C'est Un Rêve are from tapes of random radio stations Richard Butler made. Conincidentally it sounds a bit like "ou est Klaus Barbie". (Descent mag vol 3)
Influences at the time: "That said I have to say that I was reading a lot of stuff by The Marquis De Sade and Crowley that Tibet had given me and my first real ventures into the occult were beginning and instantly proved successful." - DP (Compulsion)
Born Again 12"
Come Before Christ And Murder Love 12"/7"
The cover features what appears to be an inverted Oþila rune (Othila,Odal). According to STATOR and TMFH #1, the inverted rune signifies for Douglas a futile "relationship", a message not received or wasted. 1986
The World That Summer 2xLP
The album name is from the German TV movie "The World That Summer / Die Welt in Jenem Sommer" based on the book by Robert Muller about a youngster in the Hitler Jugend during the mid-1930s. The boy is very keen to excel and be awarded his HJ dagger. At the same time he has a guilty secret--a Jewish grandmother whom he dearly loves. I think he would have been expelled from the HJ if his Jewish ancestry was known--even one fourth. Robert Muller wrote the book in English some time after the war. I assume he was a refugee from the Nazi regime. The movie is also very moving--although there is a very sad ending.
The umlauts over some letters in the bands name on the cover: "They were purely artistic devices and not meant to be taken phonetically in any way." - DP (Yahoo) Scratched message on LP version: "One is the number..../Anonymous in glory..../Love is now empty.../And incomplete! For BC, Y.M. & J.G." Y.M Yukio Mishima, J.G Jean Genet, who is BC?
Hidden Amongst the Leaves is supposedly a literal translation of 'Hagakure' (the name of a book that contains the code of the Samurai). It is about the suicide of Yukio Mishima by seppuku? Song instrumentation: "It was a Korg Poly 800 set on sequencer mode. Whether or not I then midi-ed it through a Yamaha DX7 I can't remember and would have to examine the original 2" master tapes and the track sheets for an absolutely accurate reply" - DP (yahoo) "The correlation between the Japanese ethic of Hagakure or 'Hidden Amongst the Leaves' and the fact that I wear camouflage clothing is important. I really do believe that it is better to work in a quiet, behind-the-scenes type of way to truly achieve your goals. To remain camouflaged and undetected for as long as possible guarantees more effective results. However, that whole idea goes beyond that. It is The Will's sole commitment to one way" - DP (Propaganda magazine #25)
Torture By Roses is the name of a book of photographs of Yukio Mishima by Eikoh Hosoe. Some lyrics are sung in French by David Michael (Tibet) (not backwards as I had originally thought) after the second and fourth verses 0:38 - 0:57 and 1:45 - 2:04 ("Your image is burnt / You are dead / You are nothing / Yes, I love you").
Break The Black Ice - some words spoken backwards throughout?
Rocking Horse Night was based on a childhood nightmare David Michael (Tibet) experienced in Asia. "You can be fulfilled by destroying or being destroyed. In sex, in fulfilment, you lose everything, for a moment the individual dies. That's the 'little death' in 'Rocking Horse Night'" DP.
Death of a Man is the title of another photo book of Yukio Mishima. The title for the track came about two days into recording - the day Jean Genet died (April 15, 1986). Samples of both Mishima and Genet speaking, Mishima talking about the Hagakure. The title of the Japanese military song that is sampled towards the end of "Death of a Man" on TWTS: It's the anthem of Yukio Mishima's private army; the Tatanokai or Shield Society. What are the words? "I do have them and I do know them but I won't print them. They're too good and would probably be used by a second rate neo-whatever group as lyrics. Sorry, I knew that question would come up and I knew I would have to answer it in that fashion." DP. Released only as a 7" record in May 70 with a great cover, good luck in finding a copy: Aside : tate ! kurenai no wakashi sishi tachi - Bside : eirei no koe. There is one other 7" of mishima, 3 flexis 7" and 5 Lps. The BBC documentary called 'The Strange Case Of Yukio Mishima' is the film where the track 'Death Of A Man' gets it's Mishima samples from. That chanting/ shouting in the background you hear is Kendo being practised. It has interviews with Mishima, his close friends, biographers and critics. Lots of archive footage of the final day.
Lesson 1: Misanthropy LP
A compilation album of first 12",7", and two LPs Guilty and Burial. Album sleeve quote: "When our shadow falls in tears, we shall not fall so easily into your trap, you slithering pieces of filth." 1987
To Drown A Rose 10"
Cover photo taken just after the liberation of Dachau concentration camp and shows the body of an SS guard who had been killed by inmates being lifted out of the canal that ran around the camp. "I like very much the way the title and the image conflict. I also like the ambiguity of it. It cause concern. It provokes." - DP (from Dreams From Within.) To Drown A Rose The line '32 creases' probably comes from Jean Genet's 'Funeral Rites' and refers to homosexuality: "'He no longer has 32 creases..' This remark which Erik once heard about a kid who was suspected by his bunkmates to have given himself to an officer."
"Zimmerit" is supposedly anti-magnetic compound applied to German WWII tanks to help prevent magnetic charges being placed on them.
Brown Book LP
Brown Book: The title "was taken from the books of the same name which were published before WWII reporting the conditions in Nazi Germany and then after that war by the East German authorities listing Nazi and war criminals supposedly living in West Germany and their influence over that country." Over a vocal rendition of the war song of the Brownshirts and the unofficial National Socialist anthem The Horst Wessel are various voices taped in German, including a shout of "Achtung" (warning). Doug Pearce is allowed to explain: "No matter what I did I was accused of being this, that and the other, by the music press. I thought, alright, let's go all out. On that album I went for contradictions... A Brownshirt is talking about a variety of matters and taking an idiotic stand on some things that were completely anti-SA and much more SS. He accused the SS of being homosexuals which is what the SA were infamous for. That speech was juxtaposed by the half-Jewish grandmother saying that life was like jumping from one ice float to another, with each jump they get smaller and smaller. The end is inevitable." "I and David Tibet were sitting outside a cafe, when Steve Stapleton came along. He took out of his bag a copy of a book to show us, and it turned out to be a copy of the "Brown Book" which he had just found in a dustbin! He sometimes goes to the backs of book shops or studios to see if there is anything of interest that they have thrown away and he found this. The strange thing was that he didn't know that I was writing an album that was called "Brown Book"! A meaningful co-incidence! To this day that copy of the book is on my bookshelf at home. So he gave me an affirmation that this was the right path, a magical affirmative to what I was doing. " - DP (Per Nostrum interview)
Hail The White Grain lyrics inspired by 'The Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem'. "And, yes, it was inspirational to a number of my works. Still is!" - DP
Runes And Men sample: "Es gibt keine Revolution als Dauererscheinung, die nicht zur vollkommenen Anarchie fuehren muesste. So wie die Welt nicht von Kriegen lebt, so leben die Voelker nicht von Revolution. Es gibt nichts Grosses auf dieser Erde, das Jahrtausende beherrschte und in Jahrzenten entstanden waere. Der groesste Baum hat auch das laengste Wachstum hinter sich. Was Jahrhunderten trotzt, wird auch nur in Jahrhunderten stark." @ 0:10 (Note: This is actually not Hitler himself speaking, actually it is the Gauleiter of Munich-Upper Bavaria, Adolf Wagner, known as 'the voice' because he had a voice as almost identical as Hitler's.) Adolf Wagner is supposedly talking about the Night of the Long Knives.
Red dog/Black dog: detail a dream Douglas had. Douglas later learned from Ian Read the method of divination was Nine Mans Morris.
Genet references such as in the lyrics to "The Fog of The World" (quoting words from Genet's novel "Funeral Rites") "His muscular build, his brown hair cropped close" are a description of the Berlin Executioner whose smile was meant to "brave me and tame me". On days when capital punishment was scheduled, the Berlin Executioner did not go home in the evening. He would stay in a cabaret till daybreak, then 'wander in the dawn and dew' through the 'lanes and lawns' of the Tiergarten.
"Horst Wessel Lied" on 'Brown Book' track. It is originally known as Horst Wessel Lied or Die Fahne Hoch, which was the unofficial Nationalist Socialist anthem. Wessel was an SA man killed by communists and turned into a martyr by Goebbels. Sung by Ian Read on DIJ issue I believe.
Brown Book track sample: "[grandmother speaking in German]" @ 0:00 from the film Die Welt in Jenenm Sommer
Basically, one features the voice of a Jewish grandmother of a Hitler Youth speaking about how life is like a series of ice-floats - no matter how much you keep jumping from one to another they grow smaller and smaller and only the inevitable awaits. The other is that of an S.A. Man talking about how the S.S. is full of gays [which is what the SA was supposedly infamous for] and how it was the S.A. that confronted the red front in the streets with placards etc. A lovely contradictory piece that the smartarses of the antivolk just don't seem to be able to get their heads around. Not that any of them have ever heard it, of course! Heilige! Douglas P.---
Burn Again opening lines spoken by David Michael (Tibet), are also the opening lines to Great Black Time from the Current 93 album Dawn. "This destiny does not tire, nor does it falter, its mantle of strength descends upon those in its service."
The photo on the record label is detail of a photo of a group of soldiers from the Totenkopf Waffen SS division celebrating Xmas 1941 in a Russian Dacha.
Scratched message at end of record is "A holy death for Douglas." The first track on the album is Heilige Tod (Holy death).
Album sleeve quote: "It is the Plague of Our Age, that We Fight in isolation."
"Much of the new lyrics have been dictated. They came as dreams or are written down as they're spoken to me. We touch on things I don't know about but am aware of." - DP (Melody Maker article).
Bee (in the credits) is from Into A Circle.
Oh How We Laughed LP/CD
Live in May 1982 at Kings College, feat. Douglas P. Tony Wakeford, and Patrick Legas. From the booklet:
Oh How We Laughed at your failure to see in us, yourselves,
when you scorn us you thrust a dagger in your own heart,
for those who know not their own Self know nothing at all.
"so this guitar kills fascists?"
does it really you braindead bastard
yours lovingly, Patrick I okill.
This is actually a variation on an inscription on one of Woody Guthrie's guitars...the original quote was something along the lines of "this machine kills fascists," Knives; Oh How We Laughed sample:
"Morde? Sie sind ja - ein schäbiger Lump" @ 0:01
President of the 'Reichsgerichtshof', Germany, during World War II, Judge Roland Freisler a.k.a. Mr Death Sentence, when speaking to Count Schwerin during the lawsuit against Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld.
How We Laughed (the last track) is a studio track.
Like Carousel from "NADA!" started life as Christine the Lizard so Until The Living Flesh Is Burned began life as Knives.
"Because the Oh, How We Laughed album was never an official release (Patrick and I have long ago resolved that problem) it has never been considered for reissue." - DP. Patrick Legas released it without permission after leaving the band.
93 Dead Sunwheels EP/CD
A sunwheel is an old symbol of the Sun, which also happened to be liked by the Third Reich. The tracks 'Torture Garden' and 'Last Farewell' are from the 'From Torture to Conscience' compilation. 'Doubt to Nothing' from the 'She Said Destory 12"'. 'Fields of Rape' and 'C'est Un Rêve' are May 1988 re-recordings. 'She Said Destroy' is a June 1988 remix.
93 Dead Sunwheels: photosession the album uses took place on Friday the 13th July 1984 in Brookwood Cemetery, England.
She Said Destroy: Hats off to Leo McKern and Patrick McGoohan but please don't forget the equally god-like Dennis Hopper. Indeed, If is the middle word in Life! These tapes were utilised on this recording because that was how those particular songs were performed live during that short and strange period. I would play the cassette machine through my Vox AC30 amp via a WEM Copycat echo unit which I would control to introduce or end various songs. - DP.
She Said Destroy (1988 remix); 93 Dead Sunwheels sample
"... if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
if you can trust yourself and all in doubts..." @0:00
" 'if' is the middle word in 'life' " @1:00 and at end.
Apocalypse Now
"'I am glad you could you could come... where are you?' 'It won't make any difference' 'I want to see you! I've been dying to see you!' 'It doesn't matter' 'People who hide are a plague!'" * "Society, listen, society is a place where people exist together. That is civilization. A lone wolf belongs to the wilderness! You must not grow up to be a lone wolf! You must conform!" ** "'I'm a rat!' 'No, sir, I'm a fool. Not a rat.'" ** "'I didn't know you existed.' 'It is often the case with very important people. Anonymity is the best disguise'" * (Note: * = From the third episode, "A, B & C", ** = From the episode "Once upon a time") Prisoner, The (TV Series)
The Corn Years CD
Has a selection of tracks from Brown Book and The World That Summer, the two extra tracks from the To Drown A Rose 10", but also features 1 new track and 4 re-recordings. The new track 'Heilige' is just 'Heilige Tod' minus the vocals. The four re-recording were of 'Rule Again', 'Fields of Rape', 'Love Murder', and 'Break the Black Ice'. Europa The Gates of Heaven. The lyrics "here open: the gates of heaven; here open: the gates of hell" first appeared on Current 93 track 'Happy Birthday Pigface Christus' on the 12" of the same name. Live Douglas P always used to say 'Europa: Gates of heaven'. Supposedly it comes from a Japanese Buddhist story: A fierce Samurai came to a Zen master who was sat meditating. The Samurai said to him "Oh! Priest! Tell me about Buddhism, I want to know if paradise and hell exist". The Priest said to him "Look at yourself with your booming voice, your stupid weapon, you think you are strong, but you are nothing." Furious the Samurai drew his sword and the Priest said to him "Europa, the gates of hell!" Then the Samurai suddenly realized something and replied to him "Europa, the gates of heaven!". This story is saying that at any given moment you can find one feeling or another in your heart.
1990
The Wall Of Sacrifice LP/CD
I think that they represent different periods in Death In June's development which should be kept separate. "The Wall Of Sacrifice" was a very different 'Me' to the one who sent Erik of Les Joyaux De La Princesse those vocal recordings 18 months before. There is an air of optimism in "Ostenbraun" that I was still hanging onto and that I cannot hear in "The Wall Of Sacrifice". I remember that I literally felt I was at the end of a Quest when I recorded that particular album and friends even described me as 'a ghost' after that album. Even David Tibet; hence "A Song For Douglas After He's Dead"! "The Wall Of Sacrifice" is extremely particular. Heilige! Douglas P. Title came from a dream that came to Douglas over 3 nights. On the last night he came to a house that also had appeared to him on the previous two nights. He was led upstairs to a room with walls stripped of plaster and the walls were of ice, through which there was frozen blood. The brickwork could still be seen through the blood. As the ice melted the blood dripped and depending on how it went that was how your life went. Therefore life depended on how you directed the flame. This was the Wall of Sacrifice and you are presented this before you take up your position on Earth.. Douglas said it represented the Web of Wyrd (from the Northern Traditions).
"the order in which they were written / recorded is the order in which they appear on the record" - DP (compulsion)
It is Nikolas Schreck on the 'The Wall of Sacrifice' track saying "First you take a heart, then you tear it apart". This was Nikolas' sole contribution to the album. The phrase was one David Michael (Tibet) had heard a girl say once.
A video of "Giddy Giddy Carousel" was shot which has been shown at many DIJ live performances throughout recent years and on a variety of television channels throughout the world
Bring In The Night features the voice of Boyd Rice.
"That which is falling should also be pushed, that which is crawling should also be crushed." Tibet actually gave me that line for Fall Apart [but ended up on Hullo Angel] and I think he stole it from a speech by Adolf Hitler. - DP.
Death is a Drummer - the title was inspired by a figurine of a skeleton playing a drum that Douglas saw in the foyer of a museum in London. "It might have even been called "Death Is A Drummer" but possibly in German or something. Either way, it made an impression with me and one thing led to another...." -DP (yahoo)
Wall of Sacrifice contains samples of two German/Nazi songs: 'Freut Euch des Lebens' (Be happy to be alive), 'Heil dir Mein Brandenburger Land' (of which is supposedly banned in Germany due to its lyrics, don't know why.). At 2:47 in and throughout: A sample from the documentary film on the Holocaust "Shoah" is of Franz Suchomel (an SS Untersharfuhrer at Treblinka) singing in German a song written by a senior commander that all new inmates had to learn off by heart.
The words are:
Bravely, striding with steadfast gaze
steadfast gaze upon the world.
The squads march to work.
Treblinka is all that matters to us now
It is our destiny.
We have become one with Treblinka
In no time at all
We know only the word of the Commandant.
we know only obedience and duty.
We want to serve, and serve
Until a stroke of luck ends it all
Hurrah!
In Giddy Giddy Carousel the first four lines of the second verse are supposedly from Yukio Mishima's novel "Forbidden Colours". The phrase 'one-step men' _may_ refer to a homosexual one-night stand.
Spoken word monologue at beginning of Bring In the Night is Psalm of Destruction by Boyd Rice.
The photos in the booklet contain a life rune, roses, an SA dagger, a photo of Jean Genet, the book 'Torture by Roses', a German WWII steel helmet, around his neck an Icelandic dreamstick which means 'Dreams may come true'. Also a cuff band/title with SACH (or just SA is seen in the CD booklet photo) which potentially could be a SS-Wachtruppe "Saschen" cuff title with 'Sachsen' on it.
1888 EP
The EP is split with Current 93, and has three DIJ tracks. Track 1 is on the Corn Years CD, Track 2 appears on DISCriminate compilation. Track 3 is the Tibet mix of Rule Again which uses the same music as the mix on the Corn Years but mostly has only David Michael (Tibet) vocalizing whereas the Corn Years mix has Douglas as well for most of the track. I prefer the Tibet mix myself. Photos for "1888" were taken in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Brookwood Cemetery and the old Reichstag
Album release number is BAD VC693 - 6 for DIJ (DI6), 93 for Current 93.
Track 2, the Rose mix of Fall Apart was to be issued on a compilation called Demonic Revolution but this never appeared. The revised compilation actually was released as The Sacred War around about the same time as 1888 to the annoyance of Douglas. There is a sample from the film Taxi Driver (a favourite of Douglas') in the collage intro to the NON track on this compilation: 'here's a man who would not take it, a man who stands up against the scum...'
1991
The Cathedral Of Tears CD
Has a selection of tracks from Brown Book and The World That Summer, but also features two new tracks: Brown Book (re-read) is like the first twenty seconds of Brown Book, i.e. none of the singing. Cathedral of Tears track recorded in London on 29th May 1991 with David Michael (Tibet) and James Mannox at Bar Maldoror. Bar Maldoror isn't actually a place in the real world, it's more an Idea. 1992
But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter? LP/CD
Cover statue: might be taken in Rome (Porta Heroes?). Also: The statue on the cover of "What ends.." is located at the Foro Italico (earlier known as Foro Mussolini), near the Olympic stadium. If you go there you should not miss the beautiful mosaics and the obelisk. re: title: "I was going through a particular period in my life. I underwent spiritual death. And for me personally the symbols were shattering. But then, of course, you can take that as a microcosm and see it in a bigger way that it is not just for me that the world is ending." - DP (judas kiss #3)
Start of "Death is the Martyr of Beauty" features South Australian Magpies or, as they are sometimes called, 'Bell Magpies'. "When I first came to S.A. hills in 1989 I was enthralled by their song as I lay awake at night jetlagged. They have a beautiful voice and they love singing at the best of times but, it's especially strong and plaintive during moonlit nights. I recorded them and later put the tape through an effect and thus was another starting point for what became "But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter?" " - DP (more noticeable on the Something Is Coming CD) The opening line "Drunk with the nectar of submission" and also "A loneliness that will not come off" is supposedly from Yukio Mishima's novel "Forbidden Colours". While in Sydney one night in 1989 during a violent thunderstorm, Douglas was in the city down by Circular Quay near the harbour and "as the thunderstrikes echoed between the skyscrapers, thoughts of my own personal loss, decimation, and Yukio Mishima came to mind and this is what came out" [the song] - Douglas (during a concert)
Alan Trench had suggested to Douglas that he may wish to do something with "He's Able", an album from Jim Jones' ill-fated People's Temple Choir that World Serpent were looking to reissue. "they asked me to do some different versions of the songs of the album and they would sell the album with a 7-inch by Death In June." - DP (Per Nostrum) Dismissing it as one of the worst records ever, Douglas's adapted a number of tracks. The cult was led to their deaths via cyanide laced Kool Aid (& bullets for those who weren't thirsty) by Jim Jones in 1977. Grey Matter released a CD of their gospel songs. Little Black Baby by Jim Jones Choir is a toned-down “dramatic” song about a mother’s hope for a black baby to be free from racism and be all it could be… at least before her mother shoved a syringe filled with cyanide in its mouth.
| Jim Jones and the People's Temple Choir | Death In June version | Diana Ross |
| He's Able | He's Disabled | |
|
He's a friend to the friendless |
He's no friend to the friendless | |
| Something Got Hold Of Me | Mourner's Bench | |
|
the Holy Ghost, Got all over me |
Something got hold of me I went to a meeting last night My heart it was filled misery | |
| Because of Him | Because of Him | |
|
A friend that will dedicate To live the same way. |
A friend that will eradicate Oh, let us start today | |
| Black Baby</td> | <b>Little Black Angel</b> | <b>Brown Baby</b> | </tr>
|
Black baby clear and cloud My Little Black baby by the justice code I want you to walk down Freedom's road My Little Black baby And keep you save from all harm My Little Black baby My Little Black baby
|
Black angel, black angel As you grow up
as years roll by I want you to fly with wings held high by the justice code I want you to burn down Freedom's road
oh lie away sleeping Lie away safe in my arms And locks you safe from all harm I feel so glad You'll never have things I never had When out of men's hearts all hate is gone It's better to die than forever live on
|
Brown baby I want you to stand up Brown baby I want you to live by Brown baby x2 Lie away here in my arms Brown baby x2 All the hate is hurled |