Warsaw Pakt - Needle Time (1977)

Warsaw Pakt to zupełnie zapomniana grupa pierwszej fali brytyjskiego punk rocka. Powstali w Londynie wiosną 1977. Zespół koncertował w lokalnych klubach, m.in. z Siouxsie and the Banshees w barze w Exeter College (na Uniwersytecie Oksfordzkim).Pierwszy album zespołu, "Needle Time", powstał w ciągu jednej doby, nagrany między 26 listopada 1977 (godzina 22), a 27 listopada (godzina 19). W ciągu pierwszego tygodnia sprzedało się 5 tysięcy egzemplarzy, jednak pod koniec tygodnia wytwórnia Island Records zdecydowała o wstrzymaniu sprzedaży (z niejasnych dla zespołu powodów). Zespół rozwiązał się w marcu 1978, wydając jeszcze zbiór odrzutów z sesji nagraniowej, "See You In Court". Swoją drogą bardzo ciekawe są motywy jakim kierowała się Island Records - może grupa miała politycznie niewygodną nazwę?

Lucas Fox – drums
Jimmy Coull – vocal
Andy Colquhoun – guitar
John Walker – guitar
Chris Underhill – bass

Formed in Spring 1977 around Ladbroke Grove, London. Guitarist Andy Colquhoun had been in a London R & B band called The Rockets, which played support for The Clash a few times and poto punk band The Zips. Lucas Fox had previously been drummer in Motörhead’s first incarnation. The Pakt could obviously play a bit, unlike many overnight punk bands, but to the best of my knowledge they weren’t session men.

I saw Warsaw Pakt in late 1977 supporting Siouxsie & The Banshees at a very bizarre gig which took place in the Refectory of Exeter College, Oxford. Imagine, if you will, an ancient gothic university building right out of "Inspector Morse", steeped in tradition, its wainscotted hallways decked with the portraits of former Professors stretching back to Tudor times: suddenly invaded by upwards of 500 local underage punk rockers, of whom I was one.

Needless to say, the place got well and truly trashed. Warsaw Pakt were good, definitely out of the punky pogo-a-gogo mainstream. The gig was marred by flurries of violence, as the “security staff” (consisting of the college rugby team) tried vainly to keep a lid on the barbarians who’d invaded their sacred grove of academe. Andy Colquhoun’s abiding memory of the gig is having to dodge the stream of bottles hurled stagewards by the crowd; but, as he puts it, “it made a change from gobbing.”

The album “Needle Time” was recorded for Island in November 1977 and was indeed recorded, mastered, produced, packaged and distributed within a 24-hour timeslot, from 10 p.m. on Sat 26 November to 7 p.m. on Sunday 27 November – the band were trying to make a point about the way technology, etc. had opened up the potential for music to be truly immediate.

The album sold 5000 copies in its first week. Unfortunately, its first week was also its last: at the end of the week Island Records decided (for reasons not made clear to the band) that they would press no further copies, and shelved the master tapes. The Pakt soldiered on for a few months more, and even managed to release a set of outtakes from previous recording sessions (called “See You In Court”) but, faced with such record company capriciousness, it was inevitable that they would fold.

After the Pakt, guitarist Andy Colquhoun joined Brian James’s Tanz Der Youth, and subsequently played with the Pink Fairies and ex-MC5 star Wayne Kramer. (Phil Jones, punk77.co.uk)

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