Practices going well

We've finally got together and started to rehearse. The songs from the old 'Thunk!' demo are being worked on and remodelled. they now sound much more aggressive than they ever did back in the day. A good dose of D-Beat energy has been infused intot he arrnagements and with two guitarists now in the band, the sound is so much fuller.

So far, we have four songs covered off, leaving two to complete from the original demo (minus the cover of 'Increase The Pressure'). From there, we'll be working on songs that only made it as far a live performances or rehearsals: Big Business, EMI FOAD, Forced Values, It's Up To Us.

After that? We'll be starting work on new songs and a new cover song that fits in very well with Working Class Hero: 'Hurry Up Harry' by Sham 69.

2015 is going to be a good year!

Major News Update!

So.... It's been a while since I updated the blog. Most of the activity to be honest has been going on over at Facebook, but I think we need to update this page too... Here are a few things that have happened...

1. The 'Total Decontrol' DVD is complete! Yes, it was eventually finished! 3 concert videos, the demo from the metal master, photos, rehearsals and gig flyers. All on a DVD with keepcase for the small sum of £2 (plus shipping). Order via Bandcamp.

2. We're on Bandcamp! Well you already know that from point 1, but you can buy our Demo 'Thunk!' as a direct download as well as the DVD.

3. Our Facebook page has a lot of information and news on it - check it out!

4. We've reformed! Yes - that's right! Whilst Paul is the only remaining original member, the band has reformed and currently preparing for gigs! Current lineup is: Paul (ex-Decontrol, vox), Hursty (ex-Mutant and Loaded 44, drums), Robby (of The Fiend, guitar), Sean (ex-Debauchery, guitar), Nick (ex-SORB, bass).

5. All of the gigs are also on YouTube - search them out or go to the Facebook page for more details.

So - expect a lot more from us in the future! Our first official practice is Sunday 16th November 2014! Watch this space!

DVD is finished. DVDROM content pretty much there now!

OK, so I've not been that active recently with the Decontrol project. That's now been remedied and I've finished off the three videos and menued them. Now I just need to put some final touches on the DVDROM extra content, which I'm hoping will be supplemented by Lee our bassist. The thought of additional photos and maybe higher res scans of existing ones is just too much! So, for now, here is a snippet from the disc. 'Working Class Hero' from the Royalty, Sunderland 1992. We were one singer down (only me singing) but the band were approaching their tightest in terms of performance. This set screamed through in 17 minutes! Enjoy...

Decontrol now on Facebook

Yes - I've put a page up on Facebook, so that I can spread the word a bit further... Like us if you want: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Decontrol/398456873594848 Yes - I still haven't finished the Total Decontrol DVD just yet... watch this space!

Rehearsal Tracks now available

I've captured what rehearsals I had on tape and put them into MP3 ready for the DVD I'm preparing.

Here is one from November 1991 - EMI FOAD:



Next up are two 'remixes' of Corporate Greed from October 1991:

'Cathedral Mix': warning...it is slllllooowww for us and rather funny :)



'Hellkrusher Mix': fastest recorded version of the song...it'd have been great to keep this tempo up generally , but alas Flossy would have been dead after 2 gigs, ha!

If we'd done this track 20 years later...

...would it have been met with the reaction that recent Facebook pages have got?

Our song: Working Class Hero

News link: BBC News

Answers on a used tenner to....

Audio page is now up

Started upping the audio tracks...they'll be drip-fed for now. Head over to the Audio page at http://totaldecontrol.blogspot.co.uk/p/sounds.html.

Decontrol Compliation DVD booklet - preview

Here's a sneak peek at the front and back of the booklet cover that will be part of the DVD I'm putting together. It'll be in a CD case not DVD case:

Decontrol Infamous In France

Now that I start to look around the Web a bit more, I spot another blog giving praise to the band - here is the translation provided by Google Translate:

Now the demo "Thunk!" a British group about which I have almost no information: Decontrol. If it can help you, the jacket tells us that the group consists of Smyf, Flossy, Nick, Paul & Chris (I'm not sure that is more advanced ...), the contacts mentioned two cities in North East of England (Tyne & Wear and County Durham). Finally, the list of thanks does not enlighten me more, almost only first names, and one group name that reminds me of something: Hellkrusher.


Here, for progeny, we can forget ... I wonder what led me to buy the K7? It should probably date from a time when I was interested in everything that was stamped Hardcore English, as I was excited about the spearheads of this scene (Doom, Heresy, Ripcord, Sore Throat, Excrement of War , Vorhees, and so on ...).


Musically, we are dealing with good Punk / Hardcore, pretty good hit. The demo includes seven titles, the last is a cover of Conflict, "Increase The Pressure". Perhaps this is a track to establish a possible affiliation ...

Undo editsThe original blog entry can be found here:

http://la-cantatrice-chauve.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/decontrol-anarcho-punk-uk-thunk-demo-1.html

Partial Band Plays at The Royalty Sunderland

I can't for the life of me remember why Chris couldn't make the gig that night. I think he must have been ill...leaving me with double vocal duty...not that easy for the songs were built around the double-attack approach a la ENT.

So - we had 17 minutes of all-out mayhem. Here's two photos:



This was - as far as I'm aware - the third and last gig that was recorded on video. There was two gigs that we done that weren' t recorded...maybe: Irish Centre - second visit (not the August bash) and Images in South Shields with Genital Deformities. I know that the gig may have had audio recorded - Ricey & crew I'm sure done that but I never got a copy.

Can anyone help?

A Concert at Consett: Our Second Gig's Ticket

A scan of the band's second gig:



Also available on video - one of the gigs to be on the DVD...

Five Moody Men

A picture of us outside of Tony's practice place early on in our 'career':



L-R: Chris, Paul, Flossy, Nick, Smyf

First real sighting of our demo online

First coverage of our old demo at http://terminalsoundnuisance.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/decontrol-thunk-demo-tape-1991.html - I've copied the post here...mint!

dimanche 20 mai 2012

Decontrol "Thunk!" demo tape 1991

People with decent music tastes tend to agree that Discharge's "Decontrol" is possibly the best song ever. It therefore doesn't come as a surprise that punk bands around the globe chose "Decontrol" as their moniker. There is a d-beat Decontrol in Canada, there was a Descontrol in Peru and even an utterly skilless Decontrol around in the early 80's in England, but the band we are talking about here was around in the very early 90's in the Durham/Tyne &Wear area.

Like Slander, Decontrol were part of the Northern anarchopunk and hardcore scene as their thanks list testifies (Hellkrusher, One by One, Senile Decay, Armed Relapse). While Slander had taken a Varukers/Hellkrusher path, Decontrol is much more of an 80's anarchopunk band in terms of sound, lyrics and esthetics. Their obvious main influence would be Conflict (they even offer a sloppy cover of "Increase the pressure" on this tape) but there is also a distinct UK82 spontaneity and snottiness to their tunes. The drumming is fast and binary, the riffs are simple, the chorus are catchy and can be sung along and the presence of two pissed off singers really helps make the songs dynamic despite the rather rough recording. The Ad'Nauseam demos or early Instant Agony would not be irrelevant comparisons. If Active Slaughter were 16 and couldn't play, you wouldn't be too far from Decontrol. If you like your English anarchopunk with a healthy dose of snot, aggression and attitude, Decontrol will work perfectly.
The lyrics are probably the strongest point here. Those were angry young punks. "Organized crime" gives the fingers to all religions, "Stereotyped" is about punks who are into politics for fashion's sake (it seems Decontrol were not too keen on the "metal invasion" of the scene), "No torture" deals unsurprisingly with vivisection and "Working class hero", my personnal favourite, tells the story of Harry Roberts, a man who killed three coppers in 1966 shortly after the World Cup in England. You have to love the parallel: "In the 1966 World Cup final / Geoff Hurst scored three goals / Less than two weeks later / Harry got a hat trick of his own". Just brilliant. Judging from the artwork, the band was very involved with Class War, the ALF, throwing bricks at the pigs, kicking nazis in the bollocks and having Tintin say "All yuppies are bastards!".

Top notch or what?

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9hiju6p8bg8hui8