The Custard Factory Birmingham UK 1st - 3rd September 2006

The entrance to the Custard Factory

Given the industrial nature of the ROTR exhibition, Birmingham was a very appropriate location as it's still clearly a heavy industrial city, with the huge power station and numerous factories noticeably visible on the approach to the city. Even the venue was a former factory, conveniently located very close to the centre of Birmingham. The doors opened at 8PM and on entry a black cross was inked onto our hands as we entered. It was quite a nice setting for an ex-factory, a number of different sections connected by an open-air central square, which featured a pool with a fountain. Notably mingling amongst the crowd were the Laibach members Milan, Ivan and Roman, there was also the members of the other live acts due to perform later that night. The Laibach Kunst installation was in one of the larger rooms, past the Cold Spring stall with an interesting collection on sale from their catalogue, which includes Laibach's Neu Konservatiw. There was a smaller Laibach stall nearby selling 300,000VK's latest CD 'Titan' and the remastered version of 'Rekapitulacija' along with some prints; The Wagner compilation beside the CD player on the stall caught my attention.

The Laibach exhibit had four main stands each displaying one of the equipments that were important to Laibach's industrial sound of the early eighties, these were surrounded by huge Laibach silkscreen posters. At one end and hidden behind the silkscreens there was a mixing desk and other components that would control the sound performance due that night however before that there was a chance to have a closer look at the exhibits. It was the first ever Laibach Kunst exhibition in the UK and in the early part of Laibach's career these exhibition played as big a role as their live concerts. Each item was encased in a clear Perspex box with a spotlight trained on them. The radio was much bigger and more sophisticated than the usual home radio, its antenna extended to an estimated three or four feet. Noticed in tape player the tape loop was surprisingly small in length; Ivan activated this first after removing the Perspex box and it was the first obvious sign the performance had began. The title 'Laibach Concerto for Magnetophone, Gramophone, Radiophone & Megaphone.'

After a spell Ivan reappeared from behind the silkscreens and went over to bring the record player into performance, on the turntable was a record from Rekapitulacija but with small strips of plastic stuck to the surface. A little while later Ivan began tuning the radio, movie clip 3 gives some idea of the sound created. The audience looked on curiously throughout, it demonstrated to some extent to what it was like to experience Laibach live during their Industrial period, it can't be replicated effectively through the typical home music system so it was really good to have this experience, they were the best in the field. Milan and Roman was standing nearby in amongst the audience, enjoying the performance. The music wasn't an old composition recreated at least as far as I am aware but there were pieces that were recognizable or sounded very similar from Laibach's industrial records. The last part to be utilised in the performance was the megaphone, probably introduced to Laibach by the band Last Few Days, Ivan connected the mouthpiece to a small radio. While it was the last to be used it was the first to be retired from the performance and eventually in reverse order all the modules were switched off and the music gradually descended towards the end receiving an enthusiastic applause. It had lasted about an hour though seemed a lot shorter. The performance was filmed in detail by a guy known as Soren and since heard the footage had turned out very well, it also includes a number of interesting aftershow comments from some members of the audience.

Shortly after it ended the Industrial related live acts began in the hall next door starting with Shit and Shine with at least four drummers, possibly more, pounding away so hard that you didn't really need to be inside the hall. PCM followed with a more techno based set controlled by their laptops and accompanied with some background film. Schloss Tegal attempted to deafen the audience towards the end of his set. Surgeon ended the night at 3AM and was highly rated by those who stayed on to the end.

After the impressive turnout the previous night it was a bit disappointing to get a much smaller turnout however there was more than enough to go ahead with the programme. So we all filed into the theatre hall. Before the showing of Laibach's film from the American tour Till Bruggemann from Gerechtigkeits Liga presented a collection of video work. He had recently released a CD of their 80's album 'Hypnotischer Existenzialismus' it also included bonus material. Till is now working on new projects but it was too early to say if there would be a new album. Many Laibach fan possibly came across them on the Vhutemas Architypi compilation from the Side Effect label, owned by Graeme Revell of SPK. It is one of the best compilations Laibach have featured on. Next up was the projection of 'Divided States of America', which was really enjoyable and now clear why it created a lot interest at the various film festivals.

The Laibach members were working away beside the exhibits while the rest of us went into the theatre. The talk on Laibach's performance at Bloomsbury back in 1985 when Laibach were at their Industrial peak was unfortunately cancelled. So the seminar started with a presentation by Alexander Nym titled 'But What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?' It's also the title from one of Death in June's best albums Alexander went into details on the symbolism used by industrial and Neofolk groups projecting a number of examples. It ended with a question and answer session. After a short break Alexei gave a presentation of Interrogation Machine, which was followed by the projection of very rare Laibach live video material from the early 80's and this ended the weekend long Return Of The Repressive exhibition. These events are rare in the UK so it was a worthwhile and unique opportunity and hopefully something similar can be organised in the future.