Edinburgh punk band
1978-79
At the beginning of 1978 guitarist Steve Fraser
and drummer Keith Wilson decided to form a band. By early summer a
good friend, Derek Rennie, said he knew this guy called Lenny who
would fit well in their group. After a meeting where they found they
shared lots of similar musical tastes, Steve asked Lenny to join
them as vocalist. Lenny decided against using his own surname
Montgomery, toying instead with the idea of Frank Xerox and (stop
chortling at the back) Sebastian Scavenger, eventually settling on
the horror-film friendly surname of Helsing.
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We are left to right in photo: Mark Patrizzio - bass (later to The Exploited), Lenny Helsing - vocals, Keith Wilson -
drums (later to The Visitors) and Steve Fraser - guitar (later depped for John Mackie in Scars, and joined up with Mike Scott in post-Another
Pretty Face, pre-Waterboys groups) |
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Like many teenage groups
from the late ‘70s punk rock scene the group’s influences included
such glam-era and proto-punk icons as Roxy Music, David Bowie, The
Sweet, Alice Cooper, T. Rex, Iggy / Stooges, Mott The Hoople, Lou
Reed / the Velvet Underground, Slade and Cockney Rebel. But the new
sounds being created by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, The
Buzzcocks, Wire, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants,
Generation X etc, alongside powerful new local groups like the
Scars, would also be key elements in the group’s sound, presentation
and general outlook.
After a few spray-painting
episode’s around the streets and back-alleys of the ancient Scottish
capital, The Belsen Horrors’ controversial name started to get
noticed by many punks in and around the Edinburgh area. Finding a
bass player was proving to be somewhat difficult, but after a while
they finally found Mark Patrizzio, and after a few rehearsals the
group felt they were now ready to play their first gig. This
momentous occasion was to have taken place at the Gibson Craig Hall
on the outskirts of Edinburgh, in Currie in late November. Alas, the
debut live appearance of The Belsen Horrors would have to be
postponed, due to the temporary incarceration of the group’s singer.
(I
got 3 months detention for ermmm breaking into shops and the school
we were at and stealing things, what can I say it wasn't big, nor
clever, learnt my lesson...most of the folks there said, see ye in 6
months! But I said, aye riiiiiiiiight!)
The music paper Record
Mirror included the gig in its listings page, even adding in their
own “tasteless” caption next to the group’s ‘controversial’ name.
However, every time the group put up posters anywhere, a ‘grim
reminder’ would be included to make sure that everyone reading it
knew that the group were in no way in support of any neo-Nazism or
pro-racism groups. |
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The Belsen Horrors
debut gig would eventually materialise three or four months
later supporting local group The Dirty Reds; this lot would
change their name shortly after, becoming better known as the
Fire Engines. By now it is already early 1979 and a lot of the
initial punk rock action has either waned, or dramatically
changed. A few more gigs took place at the likes of the YMCA
hall, and another playing in the notorious Pilton area’s
Triangle Club, both gigs featuring one of the earliest known
line-ups of The Exploited; the Pilton gig also featured one of
the earliest appearances by Edinburgh’s all-girl three-piece The
Ettes.
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The ‘Belsens now began to
get a bit more of a following, leading to local scribe Johnny Waller
interviewing the group for his acclaimed Kingdom Come fanzine. If
anyone has seen a copy of this they will know that the group, well
Lenny anyway, hammed it up in the resulting photo-shoot. Rab
(sometimes Bobby, sometimes Robert) King - real name Robert Allan -
singer of afore-mentioned local heroes the Scars, along with Fast
label friend / musician Simon Best then helped the group to record a
cheap demo in the group’s temporary church hall practice space.
Seven tracks were recorded in all: ‘Car Crash Victim’, ‘Pin-Up Boy’,
‘On The Beach, ‘Bride Of Frankenstein’, ‘Chant’, ‘Premonition’ and
also a sparse cover of their beloved Roxy Music’s ‘Virginia Plain’.
Steve Fraser was responsible for the bulk of the music, while the
lyrics were written by Lenny Helsing. |
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Those loveable
exploited chappies with Gary on bass performing Dead Cities to a
stunned ToTP crowd! |
There was some talk at the
time of trying to get a Belsen Horrors single released; to appear on
Johnny Waller’s New Pleasures label, home to the Visitors, and The
Fakes…but alas nothing became of these plans. The group then had a
brief spell under a new name, Barbed Choir, playing one of their
only gigs at the Mars Bar in Glasgow, opening for the Visitors. The
group then splintered soon after with drummer Keith Wilson joining
the Visitors. Mark Patrizzio went on to play bass for the hard
rockin’ Phyne Thanquz group, before joining The Exploited in time
for their first Sounds front cover.
Steve Fraser and Lenny Helsing
then founded a new group, the November Crimes, with ex-Visitors
drummer Alan Laing, and ex-TV Art (soon to be Josef K) bassist Gary
McCormack. Gary would then go on to play in Fun City, with his
brother Stu and legendary local punks Dave Christie (he was Matt
Vinyl of Matt Vinyl & the Decorators infamy) and The Valves’ Ronnie
MacKinnon. In another twist of fate Gary would replace ex-Belsen
Horror Mark in The Exploited, and featured in their Top Of The Pops
appearance for ‘Dead Cities’. |
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Over the last few years Gary has begun a successful acting career in
television and in films: Irvine Welsh’s story The Acid House, and Martin
Scorsese’s ‘Gangs Of New York’. Lenny Helsing formed the
garage-psychedelic group The Green Telescope in the early 1980s. They in
turn became
The Thanes, releasing a slew of records for small
independent labels all over the world and continue to play and record as
The Thanes to this day. |
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Thanks
to Lenny Helsing for above entry |