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History of the Nihilistics The Nihilistics were born in Sheffield in 1986 partly out of the ashes of one of Paul Mills' Media Premonition line-ups. We made no secret of our admiration for Manchester bands - Joy Division and The Fall, but we were also influenced by some of the Sheffield bands at the time (Pulp, Midnight Choir, Dig Vis Drill). After Media Premonition lost our drummer and keyboard player, we did a switch around, gained a guitarist and formed a new band. The line up was: Nile
Manilow (Paul Mills) vocals, The first gig we did was as The Atheist Militia. We wrote eight songs on a Sunday and performed them live the next day at the Hallamshire Hotel on West Street. The songs were made up of repetitive riffs, over which Nile Manilow poured scorn on religion. If one of the songs didn't sound quite right, it was because we were playing two different ones at the same time without realising. The result was stunning - we cleared the room at the first attempt, and following our performance some Jesus freak got on stage to say a prayer. The band we were playing with turned out to be some kind of Christian rock sad cases. It never got better than that - and the Atheist Militia never did another gig. We changed our name to the Nihilistics (to rhyme with The Stylistics) and Sex Vicar picked up the guitar. We recruited Pete Fuck, who spent an inordinate amount of time sitting behind a drum kit, splitting his time between the Nihilistics and his first love - the infamous Fuck City Shitters. Having Mr Fuck on drums and Sex Vicar on guitar (a left handed Gordon Smith Gypsy II) created a real step change in the quality of our performances and technical ability. We then started gigging and making and trying to sell tapes of our live and rehearsal room performances. One of them, "My heart goes a-flutter" had the following tracklist: Side 1 - live recording of the band's first real gig, Hallamshire Hotel, 22 March 1987 Nihilistics
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Nihilistics
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Eventually we had about half an hour's worth of songs, just about as much as any audience could handle. We joined Dolebusters, an organisation of unemployed bands, working together to organise gigs and promote live music. We did a fair few gigs, mostly at the Hallamshire Hotel on West Street, but we did perform at the Leadmill as part of a Dolebusters band night, and at the Maze Bar in the University. We also played a few times at Take 2, out towards Darnall, with the help of Pierre Drezet on the mixing desk. We played in another Dolebusters gig organised in a village outside Wrexham. This one included a speech by the local Labour MP - who was heckled, and then hounded out by a drunken Phillis, holding up a banner reading "never trust a politician". Eventually, we started to pick up a few people who would come to see us regularly - and pay for the privilege, including Patrick, who now writes for Sandman Magazine. One of the best gigs we did was an open air daytime Dolebusters gig in the bandstand on the Moor in Sheffield City Centre. We had a live crucifiction (courtesy of Lou Gilbert of the FCS) and burned a picture of Karl Marx, along with various wooden religious symbols. Sheffield City Council Health & Safety Committee were not pleased. One night, performing as the Nihilistics Cabaret Showband, we played a set comprising our favourite cover versions, ranging from "Cum on Feel the Noize" to the Poison Girls' "State Control and Rock and Roll are Run by Clever Men", Pulp's "Dogs are Everywhere" and one song that became one of our regular crowd pleasers - "What a Wonderful World". Years later, that gig made it into a list of the best gigs in Sheffield, which is what prompted us start discussing getting together again - for one last gig, and another, and another, and another. Unfortunately, we didn't split up due to musical differences. We finally called it a day when both Matty K and Sex Vicar went their separate ways to pursue careers as teachers. Finally, we put out a last tape - Nihilism Works, which included a short gigography, tapeography and histography of the band. The tracklist was: Side
1 Fate has finished Side 2 Jump forward 19 years to 13 September 2006. Upstairs at The Grapes. 50 or so people witnessed the reunion gig. The set list was: The V.I.L.E.One way ticket (out of oblivion) Blonds in the sun Targets (featuring drum solo by Mr Pete Fuck) God It's over forever Breathing space What a wonderful world Fate has finished My heart goes a flutter Give me precedence The encore numbers were cover versions by of songs by Joy Division and The Fall:: New Dawn Fades (featuring guest
guitar by Mr Pierre Drezet - the 6th Nihilistic) The gig was reviewed in the November 2006 issue of Sandman Magazine (click here). Was this to be the
end of the Nihilistics? - No! We played what was meant to
be our last ever gig at a benefit gig for Rare and Racy book and
record shop on 17 November 2006, at the George IV with a whole load of
other bands. Click here for more
info.
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