From 1989 through to '95 The Venue on Carlton Road in Edinburgh, a darkened hole of a club with strange slime on the walls down the stairs to the unintentionally unisex toilets, a place that perpetually smelt of stale beer, nicotine, sweat, and unwashed hair was my destination every Sunday. Sunday night was the Moshpit which generally meant thrash or death metal bands would be playing host to our lemming like tendencies as we threw ourselves into oblivion, swung round The Pillar or hung from the ceiling like the headbanging little monkeys we were.
It was here in around 1990 that an Edinburgh thrash band upon hearing the slap of a bass guitar metamorphosed into best funkthrashparty band ever. Dunderfunk. Sunday nights at the Moshpit were never the same. Well they were, but we just danced worse than before and got covered in donuts and silly string and foam and used surfboards indoors, wore our hair in bunches and did kazoo solos, but apart from that...
Anyway, I was going to post the two demo tapes and the live set as the Australian Dunderfunk, oh yeah, that was another thing, didgeridoos, they did that too, but I'm going to have to redo the tapes as lost the files, so in the meantime here is their one and only vinyl release The Brick Cat E.P.
Dunderfunk -The Brick Cat E.P.
Ah yes, I remember them well, those schizophrenic party days...
12 comments:
Happy days :)
Wow, synchronicity.
I heard a song on Belgian radio today called 'Fuzzball', by 'The Wizards of Ooze'. I found it on YouTube and, in the mood for some more funk, I was disappointed to find no dunderfunk apart from new band 'The Dunder Funk'. :0o
So I googled brick cat ep and found your blog. Thanks for uploading the tunes, happy days indeed. Now to find some Gargleblood and my nostalgia trip will be complete.
Ah Sundays at The Venue, Acid Reign, Sacred Reich, Xentrix.....good times.
The hardest, fastest band in Edinburgh at the time were called 'End of City' (haha great name). I still have their demo tape somewhere. I only saw them once when I went to see Carcass and End of City blew them away.
Many thanks for this! In return, I've put these up —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPQLJ-QHaDg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIaMAfEahlI
Anyone remember the food fights with The Beyond from Derby?
By jebus this takes me back, australian dunderfunk, lawnmower deth, the beyond (years before their time!), slammer.
God bless the moshpit, edinburgh's never been the same since
And Helen, I remember the food fights fondly, but not as fondly as when lawnmower deth were in town - everyone spit on kev!
p.s. Beyond myspace pags...
http://www.myspace.com/httpwwwmyspacecombeyond777cooper
Helen I proudly wore my 1 step 2 far tshirt for years until the cloth just couldn't take it any more!
Food fights, spit on Kev, Australian dunderfunk stage surfing, slammer, the wonderful beyond, xentrix, bomb disneyland, acid reign, the brick cat e.p., broken toe (just me?), pro celebrity gowf, condensed sweat dripping from the roof.
Brilliant, brilliant times, I wouldn't change a thing
Thnaks for this, i've most probably landed on your head a few times...
The gigs at the venue were unparalleled in Edinburgh for the shit that went down, there were was a stage diving pit from the front the back of the room on many occasions, there were no spectators.
I saw Dunderfunk many, many times, the marquee was a good time with The Beyond(light years ahead for every other metal band in the UK), General Damage were cool, Demise were fantastic, I'd love to hear End Of City.
The moshpit was too much, i saw every thrash worth seeing there, Sacred Reich, Mordred, Nocturnus, Pestilence, Cathedral, Gwar, My Dying Bride, Acid Reign, Re-animator, DAM, Sabbat(with the security that helped you dive!)
Its amazing how such a shit hole can missed so much.
A bunch of us (school friends/colleagues) used to hire a minibus so we could enjoy the Moshpit without having to worry about missing the last train home to Fife. Still have fond memories of sitting in a classroom on a Monday morning, ears still ringing and barely able to hear the teacher.
If asked to categorise my favourite gigs I suspect the order would change depending on my mood but (any) Acid Reign set was great value; the first Beyond gig (barely 20 people there but they just went for it); Dunderfunk’s last performance (they threw everything in there, still got the photos); Sabbat absolutely killed it; Bomb Disneyland first time in The Venue was awesome. They’d lost their drummer two days before but had hit the studio to record drum tracks and legged it up to Edinburgh with barely any time to rehearse.
I loved that place. For so many of my friends The Venue was/is our spiritual home. So many bands, so many great times and memories.
My first gig at the Venue was Acid Reign, Bomb Disneyland and The Beyond.
would like to see any photos you have from the Venue, the last Dunderfunk gig was great, I've got a few shots from it too which I'll be putting up here soon.
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