Scene Wars
RECOLLECTION issue 3
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading some of my old scene articles from the late 80's & early 90's. Jazzcat had emailed me scans of the paper mag 'Escapism', a piece of work I did sometime in my mid-late teens. The first thing that struck me was the amateurishness of the work. But I soon forgave myself when I recalled the tools I had to work with.
This magazine is from an era when 'cut & paste' literally meant cut and paste. Most of the pages are actually collages of pictures and text glued onto an A4 page then photo-copied. And photocopiers in those days were pretty brutal; high-contrast temperamental things that only saw in black and white - greyscale was for pansies. The chunky dot matrix font brought back terrible memories of my slate grey C64 printer. It was a massive beast that took up half my desk and dimmed the lights every time I plugged it in. Printing was something I'd have to pre-warn my family about: "Mum, Dad, sis ...I gotta print a few pages... better fetch ear protection or step outside for a bit. I only have to print 2 pages so it'll only take about half an hour". The noise this printer made is hard to describe, an angle-grinder is the closest approximation. The thing was also very heavy, probably requiring a lift warning sticker, and although I don't recall ever having to carry out repairs or servicing, I suspect a tractor mechanic is whom I would've had to call.
The second thing that struck me when re-reading this 20 year old text was the level of aggression and gorilla chest thumping. Clearly I owe a lot of apologies. This was more apparent after I penetrated deep into my garage and dug out the old C64. Re-reading some of the scroll texts and Reason 4 Treason articles made me cringe. It appears I took aim at any dork, nerd, drop-out, non-music listener, anti-graffiti, pro-establishment, unfashionable person out there. I'm not sure why, perhaps it was because I occasionally copped a bit of flak myself for being a 'computer head' at school. Being a Dungeons & Dragons geek and using a brief-case as a school bag didn't do me any favours either.
But then I started checking out some of my favourite demos from that era and it seems just about everyone was slagging off everyone else and inter-groups wars were the norm. Indeed, it appears the best way to get some group cred was to declare war and bag out a rival group. I really can't remember how they started; somebody said someone else's demo was lame... someone retaliates, and then it was on. Wars and rivalry were integral to the scene though, they weren't just some mild side-effect. The scene was all about cred and bravado, and more often, who could make the most noise and be noticed. I've been out of the scene for a long time now and totally unfamiliar with the politics and machinations of the current scener society. Obviously the scene demographics are different these days, no longer dominated by teenagers or dumb-ass kids (Facebook & Myspace is their scene); so I suspect maturity of current sceners and the rigours of life in general have dampened the aggression somewhat. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if current sceners yearn for a bit of old fashioned scroll text fisticuffs.
Greetz to all sceners past, present and future.
Punk Executioner/Ikon Visual.
