Zounds - Demystification

"The Curse Of Zounds", 1981.
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Wikipedia:
Zounds were an English anarchist band formed in 1977 from loose jamming sessions around the Reading area. Originally they were part of the cassette culture movement, releasing material on the Fuck Off Records tape label, and were also involved in the squatting and free festival scene. The name of the band is derived from the old English minced oath "zounds", which is a contraction of "God's wounds" - i.e. the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ - formerly used as a mildly blasphemous oath.
The band were formed around the nucleus of Steve Lake in Reading, Berkshire and evolved from a number of jamming sessions with other musicians and friends, taking in influences from the Velvet Underground to the Sex Pistols. The band began performing gigs in 1977/78 with a line-up of Steve Lake(Vocals/Bass), Steve Burch(Guitar)and Jimmy Lacey(Drums) adopting the name 'Zounds', chosen from a dictionary by Burch. Soon Burch left the group and was replaced by Joseph Lawrence. After this the band slowly became more politicized due to troubles with police and unfolding events of the cold war, and became more and more involved with free festivals, alongside The Mob who they developed a close association with.
The band released their first album The Curse of Zounds on Rough Trade Records in 1981, recording and mixing the LP within five days. The cover art, by anarchist artist Clifford Harper, featured a painting of fire fighters apparently trying to put out a blaze at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. However, the picture continued onto the back cover, which showed that in fact they are spraying the fire with petrol, thus feeding it. The band released three more singles on Rough Trade, Demystification (a psychedelia influenced track backed with "Great White Hunter"), Dancing and More Trouble Coming Every Day as well Le Vache Qui Rit (initially intended for a split EP with The Mob for an anti-draft benefit in Belgium)

The band split up in late 1982, Steve Lake disaffected with the Anarchist music scene in general and the band worn out from touring. Bass player and vocalist Steve Lake and guitarist Laurence Wood continued to work together for a while as The World Service, whilst drummer Josef Porta went on to join the The Mob and later Blyth Power. Lake continued work as a solo artist, and Zounds occasionally reform for benefit gigs with a line-up augmented by Protag (formerly of Instant Automatons, Alternative TV and Blyth Power) and drummer Stick (previously of DIRT, Doom and Extreme Noise Terror). A remixed version of the bands song "This Land" was released in 2001 as a CD single benefit for the McLibel support campaign. In 2005 the Go All The Way EP was released with tracks from an aborted second album, with tracks commenting on the USA's War on Terror.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Zounds
• Demystification
• punk
• rock
• English
• curse
• Crass
• 1981

[clashboy1977]

kick ass band. they shudda been huge!

[dougalk2]

my uncle is steve..awasome guy

[juliaisafilmbuff123]

Love it. (A)

[hamsterbass123]

occupy



[greenbad2]

seeing zounds tomorrow night in providence, fuck yeah!!

[Cursed8Blessed]

i fkn love dis tune ta very much for posting. was my favourite prayer back in the days when i didnt even know i was praying or that the Most High is real.

[quaker261]

Punkkk! im 16 and well into punk if anyone lives in london and interested in any gigs or partys mesage me

[CosmeticPlague104]

@Aleks18CA

ME toooooo!!! =]

[Aleks18CA]

gonna go see them on sep 18! at the Echo! cant wait what an awesome band!

[amcginness13]

wow. theres some serious joy division influence in there

[brakspeed]

did he jump...im going out to this

[naoise1]

@eviliv3s you're right. They are playing here in Dublin tomorrow night. Very excited.