Another great post from Beyond the Implode, this time on Herman Nitsch and the like. I was actually involved in showing one of his films at the Scala a while back. It was pretty good from what I can remember (I was doing my usual trick of organising great events and then spending the whole time running around the venue sorting stuff out rather than just sitting down and enjoying it). Loadsa insane black and white cow dismemberin’ and religious image desecratin’ and all that.

It was one of those nights, the Scala. Some bloke complaining about how it wasn’t extreme enough, other people walking out because it was. We had a bit of a Vienna “theme” with some ambient industrial bizness from Immolation by Scum, who were great (the projectionist at the Scala just spontaneously mashed up all this insane porn, riot and other weird footage whilst they were on, which was a fantastic surprise). Some other bloke was giving the guy selling their tapes a hard time before they even went on:

“Well what if I don’t like it?”

“Eh?”

“What if don’t like the performance?”

“Fucking DO something about it – don’t come whining to me, mate.”

“Er… oh…”

Never been that excited by the prospect of the Nitsch music itself, tho. The Aktionists were barking though, weren’t they? Schwarzkogler with his bandages and schizophrenia and Muhl (sp?) with his freaky german sex communes and stuff. There’s definitely scope there for a performance art version of Spinal Tap, I reckon… didn’t a crew including Germaine Greer try to disrupt one of the ICA shows they did?