I noticed a post about heavy-metal earlier in the week.
Here is a quick little story about my favorite metal band, although I can't tell you their name because I don't remember.
....it must've been 1989 or 1990, in Amsterdam. I saw this contraption moving down the street. I say contraption because what is was was a cherry-picker, one of those crane-type devices used to work on traffic lights or such things where a normal ladder just doesn't work. A cherry-picker normally has a bucket for a person to ride in and from where the machine is controlled; raised, extended, left, right, back and forth, etc.
This cherry-picker was missing that bucket. Instead, it had a gas-burner from a hot-air balloon in that place. Then mounted down the shaft of the crane were several positions where something like tractor-seats were welded into place and were perched these characters making noise several different ways. It seems like they were banging on pipes of various sizes, maybe an anvil and definitely some sheet metal. I think two or three of them had welders torches and I think maybe a jackhammer. They were quite a spectacle. Bang, bang, whing, hiss, bang, bang, whing, hiss. And for the refrain, Whoosh (that was the big sound coming from the gas burner of the hot-air balloon - accompanied by a column of blue flame about fifty feet into the air). Needless to say it put a smile on my face.
Then I heard a similar group was to play in Paradiso, which is (or was) a sort of avant-garde music venue in Amsterdam
I went. This group came to play. The drum kit was wheels from automobiles, (no tires, just the wheels mounted on iron poles). Large monkey wrenches were used to bang on the wheels instead of drumsticks. One musician played a grinder on sheet metal, there was at least one welder's torch (I think two). It seems like there was a sort of zylophone, only it was made of iron pipes getting banged-on with a ball-pin hammer if I remember correctly. There was more but at the moment I don't recall.
Sounds crazy but it was really quite good and exceptionally clever. Sort of a cross between African music and the noise of a busy junkyard.
I've looked on You Tube but I haven't had any luck finding the name of this band or even the genre. I think it was some form of industrial noise. I also think it was an English band that worked in Berlin in the 1980s.
That's heavy metal. None of that 1970s boys that dress like girls and have big hair like the mainstream girls ended up looking like in the 1980s. :D
I would like it well if someone could tell me the name of this group and what sort of music that was. Remember, there were no conventional musical instruments used. Thanks.
