Following on from our piece (which you can read here) in issue 221 of the Big List below is the full interview carried out by Garry Brooks
By Garry Brooks
“Derelict, dive and up a grotty alley…”, “High spirited and forward looking you don’t see these things….nothing like it.” These were the words used to describe Giros a number of years ago in a documentary charting the history of the Warzone Collective. Close to the employment centre it had a simple but effective premise – share resources – and that’s what they did. Now resurrected and putting on gigs again near Bruce Street in Belfast I caught up with Jimmy Segus to chat about the collective, how things have changed over the years, and more importantly the here and now.
“Derelict, dive and up a grotty alley…”, “High spirited and forward looking you don’t see these things….nothing like it.” These were the words used to describe Giros a number of years ago in a documentary charting the history of the Warzone Collective. Close to the employment centre it had a simple but effective premise – share resources – and that’s what they did. Now resurrected and putting on gigs again near Bruce Street in Belfast I caught up with Jimmy Segus to chat about the collective, how things have changed over the years, and more importantly the here and now.
Browsing
the gigs on your website there is a diverse range of musical styles within the
same line ups. Death metal bands
playing with dub step and prog bands for example. Which style of music defines the Warzone Collective or is it
noise for music’s sake?
Going right
back to when we started out in the mid 80's the main 'style' was punk, and
particularly what the music press of the time erroneously labeled 'anarcho-punk'
after bands like CRASS and Poison Girls. For those readers not familiar with
CRASS or anarcho-punk there's plenty of information online - CRASS encouraged a
strong DIY mentality - you could form a band and put out a record WITHOUT a
label, or you could do a zine and print and sell it yourself, or you could
organise in a host of different ways - the key was to feel EMPOWERED to do such
things and the philosophy behind it all was a variant of anarchism. We don't
need middlemen, who are essentially parasites living off other people's
creativity. CRASS made their own albums, folded inserts and leaflets by hand
into them, and went on to sell millions, ploughing all the money back into
helping other bands and projects, including a small group at the time called
Greenpeace. They were intensely political and more influential than many people
think as a trip online or to YouTube will show you.
They played
in Belfast in 1982, twice actually, and their ideas took root in the local punk
scene, which until that point had more of a pop punk feel about it. It was this
influence which led to the formation of Warzone Collective; that philosophy of
doing things for yourself and being confident as individuals and as a
community; working without hierarchy and giving everyone a say in that process
became central to everything we did. So although punk would probably be the
central genre, since those times we have incorporated just about every style of
music out there, and we promote any musical genre, provided it meets with our
core principles - which are basically anti-sectarian, anti-racist, anti-sexist
but which also promotes the DiY ethos.
We're not too keen on wannabes, rock stars and the other spoiled brats
of the music industry. You can go to MTV for that!
I suppose there's
a lot of really fake music out there, which is more geared towards record sales
than being honestly entertaining, or having something genuinely meaningful to
offer in their lyrics . Things
like X-Factor promote this designer market thing and while some of the acts
have great voices and all, the whole thing is false and based on sales
demographics. We prefer to see bands that write their own songs, play them
live, record them and get them out there without having to prostitute
themselves to the corporate machine.