Forum Closed
The forum is now to new posts. All the historical content is still available to browse.
if you are looking for musicians to play with, please view the Bands Seeking Musicians list, or use the Musicians Directory
You can use our pages on social media to connect:
Iron Cross DCHC 1981
| Message Board > Music Chitchat - Heavy > Iron Cross DCHC 1981 |
| Jeff User Info... | Iron Cross will be playing at the Cobalt in Vancouver Friday June 8th. Here's an interview from this months Absolute Underground for anyone interested. _________________________________________________ Although there are a lot of cult fans of Iron Cross, most people on the west coast have probably only ever heard Iron Cross in the context of Dischord records compilations, or the covers that The Dropkick Murphys, Agnostic Front and The Business do. Iron Cross started in April of 1981 in Washington DC, and eked out a place among legendary bands like Minor Threat, Black Flag and Agnostic Front in the emerging Hard Core scene. Iron Cross stood out with a musical style and fashion different to that of their contemporaries. Interview with Sab Grey, singer and original member of Iron Cross: Absolute Underground: For a band that broke up more than 20 years ago and only released two singles and a few compilation tracks, what do you attribute your cult status to among die hard fans? Sab Grey: I think ultimately its the fact that the songs are pretty good. AU: As a part of the DC HC scene, Iron Cross had a sound and style unique at the time. What were your influences? SG: for one thing i had moved from England a few years before so my pre- punk listening was lots of glam like Slade, Bowie, Roxy Music etc. and when we started getting records by bands like Menace, the Cockney Rejects, Cocksparrer and Blitz, UK Subs and The Business it all kind of fell together. We knew we didn't want to sound like the other hard-core bands, they were our friends and all but what? I'm gonna out Minor Threat Minor Threat? No way! And I gotta say we weren't exactly the best of musicians, I mean I was the oldest at 18/19 the other guys were 14, 15 and 16 so playing a bit slower just came easier! Ha ha! I wouldn't have been able to define it then but I love melody and song structure. Nothing like a catchy riff and a strong chorus, no matter what the style. AU: How do you feel about original copies of your records selling for hundreds of dollars on ebay? SG: I'm fine with it. Spend your money how you want to. AU: The name "iron cross" not to mention skinhead dogma in general is often misinterpreted as a reference to fascism, did it cause problems in the early years? Has it caused problems since your reunion? SG: yes it certainly did. Part of it was naiveté on our part. it sure would have been easier if we'd picked another name. something really cool like "The Templars"! no wait that's taken... and we were skinheads and we werent exactly peaceful young men. but I gotta say a whole lot of it, a much larger part of it actually, was people with their own agendas bigging themselves up by attacking us. We were in our own world, we didn't hate anybody, WE HATED EVERYBODY! ha ha! seriously when we thought about the fascist thing, if we thought about it at all, it was just (and still is) dumb. Half our friends were Black, or Cuban or Italian or Jewish or whatever and we didn't have a lot of friends! so those we had were real important, like family.i mean these guys had our backs and that's all that mattered to us. So there just wasnt room for unlettered dogma. It's kinda funny cause all the people who got off on giving us shit were people who never knew us, you know what i mean? it was like they made up whatever they wanted to make themselves feel good and used us as a bete noir. on a personal level for me, and I've said this before, a lot of my family were killed in the death camps during the war so I'm not likely to hang out with that crowd am I? The great thing about doing all this the second time round is that those who know us know that we're not into all that crap. nor were we ever. the only folks that still complain are something like Maximun Rock n Roll, which sucked then and certainly hasn't gotten any better. so fuck 'em. Actually I'm rather pleased about how the skinhead thing turned out. it's full of really good people who are much closer to the spirit of what was going on in my day that those whiny vegetarian peace punk types. what's up with not taking a bath? I dont get that. Now if only the media would bother to realize that about 99% of skinheads hate nazis we'd be golden. AU: What factors led to your breakup in 1985? Are you still in touch with any original Iron Cross members or friends from the DC HC scene? SG: we were treading water by "85. everything was changing and looking back i wasn't smart enough to realize that this was the time to really push it. We had a great album in the works (ahh if only you could have heard those songs!) but no one wanted to put it out,we were broke, we were drinking a whole lot and we'd started fighting amongst ourselves. we'd been banned from playing just about everywhere and it just wasn't as much fun as it had been. Everything was separating and becoming a bit dogmatic. it just wasn't a good time. "Revolution Summer" was a load of weak shit if you ask me, but no one ever does! ha ha! I see a few folks from time to time, I don't live in DC anymore but we keep in touch. AU: Glen Danzig is quoted to say "there is no real punk, there is no real hard-core -- It's dead," what are your thoughts about that statement? SG: well folks have been saying "punk's dead" since about 1977 so what do you do? Is it dead in the sense that its not a driving original musical force influencing everything around it? perhaps. Does this mean that the music isnt worth listening to? I don't think so. and you could say the same thing for jazz, blues, rockabilly, country and hip hop too. AU: What were your most memorable shows? SG: seeing the Bad Brains in a row house living room in the summer of 1979. Un- fucking -real! UK Subs, DOA, Black Flag, Minor Threat. there's been so many gigs.... AU: How was playing with DOA way back when? SG: DOA were huge to me! I just want to say they were, are, and always will be one of the best bands of all time. they were a huge influence. I mean all you have to do is play "woke up screaming" and follow it by "shadows in the night" seriously that's where it comes from. Joey Shithead taught me a whole lot about rock n roll. He probably doesn't even remember doing it. We played two shows together once. this is early 1981, we were just starting out. the first night was in DC and was great the show was packed it rocked. the second night was in Baltimore and the promoter blew it and there was no one there. maybe five people and a dog. and the dog was sleeping. so we played a half assed show. We were bummed after the high of the previous night. DOA, on the other hand, got onstage and just ripped into it, they were awesome just like the night before. I mean they really worked it, even the dog woke up and paid attention. afterwards we were packing up and I asked Joey how he did it, you know on a dead night with no one there and all. He just said, "That's what you do. It doesn't matter how many people are in the crowd, you give it one hundred percent every time. If you cant do that- don't even bother," and he's right! I've carried that with me for over twenty-five years. and I'd like to add that very, very few bands standup for what they believe in, but DOA always did and that is a rare and wonderful thing. They wrote some fucking good songs too! ha ha! AU: Well, now you've got more in common with DOA than just playing shows together in '81. Joey Kiethley published a book a few years back, and you've written a book and will be publishing it shortly. What's your book about? SG: it's about an aging skinhead! Ha ha! He takes a wrong turn after a show and stops to help some guy getting beat up and things go rapidly downhill from there. I used a lot of true-life vignettes and real friends of mine. I wanted to tell a story where the skinheads are the good guys. I figured no one else had so why not me? It's kind of a Walter Mosley type novel but with a skinhead protagonist if ya know what I mean. It's part one of a trilogy in three parts. It's called Skinhead Army and will be available through… wait for it… 13th state! Ha ha! Crash and Burn in Atlanta will also have it for mail order. Hey wait a minute… Joey wrote a book? How do I get one? AU: Are you familiar with Vancouver author Chris Walter? SG: I have to say I'm not, but where can I get some of his books? I love reading and love finding new authors. Seriously where do I send my cash? AU: What are your thoughts on the movie American Hard Core? SG: I thumbed through the book once on tour and laughed my ass off. Was that guy even there? So I wouldn't see that movie if you paid me! If you want to see a good movie about punk rock go see "Punk's Not Dead" the woman who made it, Susan Dyner, is one of the most genuine people you'll ever meet, she was there in the thick of it back in the day so she knows what she's talking about, and she's extremely talented and can make a good film. AU: What factors lead to you resurrecting Iron Cross? SG: In 2000 i was back in DC playing in my other band, the Royal Americans, and the guitar player moved to SF because his wife was going to grad school out there. The bass player at the time was Paul Cleary, one of the old i.c. bassists. so we were at a loose end. people had asked me about putting i.c. back for some shows so it seemed like a good time to do it. We thought we would do maybe three shows, DC, NY and Boston. So we booked the DC show and then record companies started calling etc. and it kind of took off from there. And the main thing and the most important thing as well is that it was fun again! if it wasn't fun i wouldn't do it. no ones getting rich off this playing Oi! music thing but it really is a bloody good time! AU: Iron cross has developed a lot musically, and is very different now than it was in the early eighties, is there a conscious effort to be a different band? SG: well we learned how to play our instruments for one thing! AU: Ha! I didn't want to be the one to say it! So, Iron Cross will be releasing a new EP shortly, tell us about it. SG: it's called "Two Piece and a Biscuit" and it'll be out in April on Thirteenth State Records. It's a split with Sab Grey and the Royal Americans. It's four Iron Cross tunes, including "I don't love you anymore" which was always my favorite song we did back then. Why we didn't record it I don't know… And three songs by my other band. Two of which I.C. have been playing live for a while now. Including, btw, the version of Skinhead Girl that's on the solo album. So many people asked where to get it after the solo CD sold out, we thought we'd put the two out together. Which is rather good because 13th State will be re- releasing the solo album later this year. AU: What are the last 5 CDs you bought? SG: I don't buy many anymore. I get em off the Internet. why not! But last time I was in London I scored a brilliant Serge Gainsbourg double CD, i love serge gainsbourg. also I finally got slade alive, the second album and my favorite. I also got a CD by Strait Laced who are a really good new oi! band. The guitar player plays with me in i.c. now and they are a shit hot band. Which is why I poached him for my band of course! AU: Thanks a lot for the interview. I'm looking forward to seeing you in Vancouver at the Cobalt on your Unity Nights Tour June 8th. Thank you and see you soon.I look forward to visiting a sensible country. Mine's a rum and soda. - Sat, 26 May 2007 9:50pm | ||
|
|||
Not logged in
Log In / Register (optional)
Featured Events
Featured Historical Events
Featured Article
Newest Profiles
West Coast REACH Association
Utilizing music & the other performing arts for social good
722 Cormorant St. Victoria BC
Open / Operational
Thursday Night Jam at The Loft
Cancelled - no jam. Drummer's head wouldn't fit through the ...
229 Gorge Road East Victoria BC
Closed / Inactive
First Metropolitan United Fellowship Hall
Large hall in the First Metropolitan Church Building.
Open / Operational
