Saturday, July 24, 2021

COMRADE - What About The Children EP 1995

I was able to experience the next band live sometime in the early nineties, but I really don't know exactly when and where, what is for sure; I bought their demo back then and posted it in my carefree days on wilddevilrules. But to the slab, their only EP is finally ready and I promise you refreshingly hearty streetpunk from a very nice combo. A few facts: Comrade was an anti-fascist/anti-racist Oi! band from Antwerp, with Klaas (vocals), Joost (guitar), Bib (bass), Joris (drums) & Marc (harmonica). They were around from the late 80s to half-way the 90s and did a demo (1990) & a EP on Mad Butcher Records. As far as official, now a few words from Klaas himself, which I like to quote and found on Brob Tilt's Tapes blog as decent source, there you can also find a famous live recording from 1988:

"The band originated in 1986 during a Conflict concert in Antwerp. We could do better than what we saw on stage, we thought. We were skins who wanted to play Oi!. That gave a bad after-taste in the Antwerp punk-scene. We were going to show that those kind of prejudices were bullshit. The politically correct thinking was damping freedom, also back then. People wanted to put us in a corner; for the Antwerp punk-scene skinheads were nazis and racists. ‘Comrade’ wanted to show that skinheads had nothing to do with fascism. We were never a political band but only because of our militant anti-racism (words & action), we were easily labeled as leftist. Our name did(n’t) help to that matter, for sure, haha. We played until 1992 all over Europe. Because of our self-willed choices we didn’t really fit in a certain current, group or movement. We’ve always chosen our own path. We never forgot our roots: Skinhead & Oi!. Nostalgia isn’t our thing but we will show the newer generation what us oldies still have to say and do what they think. In 2021 we’ll be on stage a couple of times, playing festivals in Germany. Our first mini-LP will also be released, together with a compilation of demos and live recordings." (Klaas)

Now you are reasonably informed and let's see if I can still find the demo somewhere in the wide spheres of my digital music world, because there are six songs on it. Enjoy!


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