The Summer of 2007 saw the youthful straightedge Jamie being drafted in to play bass for the Nottingham Punks Picnic. He was supposed to stay for one gig but worked out so well and to the satisfaction of the band - being seriously committed to veganism and up for writing brand new songs - and proved to be the kick up the arse Active Slaughter needed, though one problem potentially could have put things on hold. On May the 1st 2007 JJ was amongst 32 people arrested as part of Operation Achilles. The police operation had targeted people they believed to be part of a campaign of harassment against Huntingdon Life Sciences. JJ has been on strict bail conditions ever since, but despite this the band has gone from strength to strength ever since. Unfortunately they won’t be able to play outside the UK for the foreseeable future - JJ’s trial is on-going - but I suggest you check the Active Slaughter myspace for all the up to date info. The fact is JJ needs your support .
2008 proved one of the most, if not the most, eventful year to date for the band. Gigs already got off to a good start, supporting anarcho legends subhumans at chat’s palace around Valentine’s Day. As more gigs happened the new songs were also coming together. There were some great moments on the gig front, such as a totally mental night at the squatted Hackney Social Centre - a benefit for the alternative community in Oaxaco, Mexico. Punks turning the dance floor into a boxing ring soon cleared off when ‘leather and studs’ was brought forward in the set list. One week later Active Slaughter, after a full seven years in the London punk scene, played their Camden Town debut, a free gig at Bar Monster. In May the band headed up to Glasgow for the annual Chernobyl lifeline fund raiser which, whilst not the best attended, was certainly very memorable.
Unfortunately the gig also clashed with the Faslane Punks Picnic - two anti nuclear punk events in the West of Scotland the same weekend is not, it has to be said, the best example of co-operatively planning events. Nonetheless Jake, Trev and JJ all popped into the peace camp and saw the massive submarine base from the outside of the fence. Let us just reflect on exactly what the Faslane base is. The Clyde naval Base is home to Britain’s so-called nuclear detterent, the Trident weapons system. Up to 16 Trident D4 ballistic missiles are carried on board four Vanguard class submarines. The Trident missile carries powerful independently targetable warheads as CND describes: Each Trident submarine carries up to 48 nuclear warheads, each of which can be sent to a different target. Each warhead has an explosive power of up to 100 kilotons, the equivalent of 100,000 tons of conventional high explosive. This is 8 times the power of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people.
The Trident programme is also very costly, in the early 1990’s when the programme was being phased in a Greenpeace estimate put it around 33 Billion pounds over 20 years. That estimate is likely to have risen since. The risk of a nuclear war may seem remote to many, though Bush’s policies (which Obama seems unlikely to over- turn) has possibly escalated the risk in the form of the Missile Defence shield. The ever present risk from Trident submarines is the nuclear reactor on board. The PWR 2 is believed to carry the same design fault as the original Pressurised Water Reactor. Some believe that these submarines are a potential Chernobyl at sea. The MOD continue to insist there is no risk from their nuclear arsenal but we all know how reliable the word of the military industrial complex is.
Active Slaughter helped to organise the first North London Punk’s picnic in around five years in the summer of 2008, joining two of the all time greats in Anarcho punk, Oi Polloi and Cress on the Saturday night making this one of the most eventful gigs they played. Certainly a lot of people went away very satisfied with the event and it was much talked about after. In great tradition of the way Active Slaughter like to do things the proceeds from the event were shared between No Sweat and Antifa, showing punk rock as being about supporting something other than someone’s personal profit.
Active Slaughter were already ready to roll with a second album back in the summer of 2004 but the ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’ scenario has often plagued the band. The wait should be worth it to anyone who gives a shit. The album came together after a year of almost weekly rehearsals, in fact the album would include three oldies and a few new songs were dropped for not quite meeting the calibre the band wanted with the album. The album was recorded in an anarcho paradise. The 1 in 12 club in Bradford has been serving the anarcho community for 25 years - it was an ideal place to be doing such an album.
Behind the mixing desk was, for the first time, an engineer who could really give Active Slaughter the sound which most suits them. Bri Doom took this task. Bri is well known on the DIY scene for being guitarist and founder member of crust-punk legends Doom. He’s worked with a number of bands including the recent incarnation of Discharge as well as Riot Squad and probably just about any Northern Crust these days. It’s no exaggeration Active Slaughter were really pleased to be working with someone in a totally anarcho DIY atmosphere who knows the punk rock sound, as opposed to some geezer who is used to working with bands who think they’ll be the next Blur or Oasis. The new album represented a move away from recordings that, as Trev would put it, sound like they were recorded in a biscuit tin, and instead what they got was a good solid slab of punk rock beefed up to fuck in the most vegan of ways.
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