Omega Tribe

Omega Tribe - Centro Iberico - 1982

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• published: 21 Jun 2016
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Omega Tribe at the Centro Iberico, Westbourne Park in the summer 1982 recorded at the same gig that the Conflict Live E.P was recorded at. If you listen from 7:22 you will hear the only official recording of a song called ‘Punk Roles’ that was issued on the 'Make Tea Not War' compilation, the only song to be included from this gig because of the awful guitar tuning throughout! This Omega Tribe performance was some months before I joined the band; hence I was able to do the recording via group outputs from Paul Tandy's mixing desk and a Calrec room mic. The original stereo recording was originally intended for release on Mortarhate Records alongside Conflict’s performance. I still have the master tapes up on my shelf. Pete Fender NOTE: This recording is an audience hand held cassette recorder version, not the crisp recording Pete Fender describes above. This recording has been digitalised straight off my copy of the cassette tape. All I knew of Riot/Clone was their recently released E.P and all I recall of their set was that they played the songs off of it. Omega Tribe were every bit as tuneful and punchy as they had been the other two times I’d seen them over the past week or so. And they seemed friendly too, giving us flyers printed with their song lyrics that the ink smudged on. But it was The Apostles who made the greatest impression of the night. For some unfathomable reason they had a succession of different drummers, could they have been scared to spend too long sharing the stage with Andy Martin? He did seem very angry about something. The Asian guy with the peroxide hair who pulled us up for scrawling on the walls was playing guitar too. After one song he berated the crowd; “This one’s for everyone who thinks it's enough to put a circled ‘A’ sign on their jacket. You make me fucking sick.” Not sure what he was really hoping for but clearly this statement had resonance so we clapped approvingly. Perhaps it was something to do with the slogan on one of their cassette covers; ‘There Can Be No Spectators’ I pondered how I should best avoid being a 'spectator' as I watched them play another of our favourites; 'Burn The Witch' which reverberates throughout the half-filled hall. Nic and Miles got up and had a dance to this one and I took some photos. Andy got more irascible with every song and, perhaps so he'd avoid the veins in his neck exploding, vocal duties for the last two numbers were consigned to other band members leaving Andy to concentrate on playing his guitar like Lou Reed and exude rancor. Conflict played the same ferocious break-neck speed set I’d seen twice recently and with a handful of the songs performed that night later released as their 'Live At The Centro Iberico' E.P. Nic and Miles left after a couple of songs. They didn't like Conflict. I watched the rest of their performance from the side of the stage, transfixed by how amazing their drummer was and trying to work out what he was doing to produce drum patterns with his feet. When it came to drumming, I was just about getting the hang of what to do with my hands. Icons Of Filth were the final band to play but I only caught a couple of songs before having to leave to run for the last tube, resolving to send them a blank cassette tape and a soaped stamp for a copy of their demo, as I pulled a photocopied poster for a previous Apostles gig off the wall by the exit. Chris Low – excerpt from the book ‘Not Just Bits Of Paper’. The photographs of the Centro Iberico are from the collection of Tony D. Thanks to him for those.