The Unofficial Inkubus Sukkubus Website

<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#ffffff" link="#ff4000" vlink="#ff4000" alink="#ffffff"> <font face='arial, helvetica, sans-serif'> <center> <table width='700' border='0'><tr><td> <h1 align='center'>Never Forget!</h1> <p> <table width='100%'><tr> <td align='left'> <img src='315-candia-with-skull-fan.jpg' alt='Lady of Darkness...'> </td> <td align='center'> <img src='amnesty-candle.gif' alt='Amnesty International'> </td> <td align='right'> <img src='315-candia-with-skull-fan-reversed.jpg' alt='Lady of Light...'> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan='3' align='center'> <img src='greenpeace-logo-02b.gif' alt='Greenpeace'> </td></tr> </table> </p> <hr> <h2 align='center'>The Setting</h2> <p><img src='280-arts-centre.jpg' alt='Guildhall Artc Centre' align='left'> On the 10th January, 2003, just as the new year was dawning, for the first time in ten years, Inkubus Sukkubus were playing in Gloucester. The venue was the Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre, and the occasion was a combined Amnesty / Greenpeace benefit gig. </p> <p>Of course the band have long been interested in, and involved with, the green movement, quite apart from their current status as the world's No1 pagan band, and have played numerous benefit gigs for green and pagan organisations over the years. This one was special, though. In a world gone mad for oil, where western financial interests abuse and exploit indigenous peoples and natural resources across the globe, and with the fundamentalist right screaming for war, raising awareness and funds for two of the worlds most respected environmental and human rights campaigning organisations was the very least any of us could do, and Inkubus Sukkubus, Freefall, and The Pony Club rose magnificently to the challenge.</p> <p><img src='028-full-view.jpg' alt='The Stage' align='center'></p> <p>The venue was magnificent - a huge Victorian theatre building, now modernised with new facilities facing the street but still with the original large auditorium and high stage in the rear hall, meaning everyone had an excellent view of the bands.</p> <p><img src='040-audience.jpg' alt='The Audience' align='center'></p> <hr> <h2 align='center'>The Support</h2> <p>Gloucester's Goths, Sk8rs, Punks and other varied folk had turned out in force to support the event, giving rise to one of the most varied crowds we'd ever seen at an Inkies' gig. The anticipation was electric, and the support bands were getting stuck into the main business with everything they had.</p> <p> <table width='100%'><tr> <td><img src='023-a.jpg' alt='' align='left'></td> <td><img src='023-b.jpg' alt='' align='center'></td> <td><img src='023-c.jpg' alt='' align='center'></td> <td><img src='023-d.jpg' alt='' align='right'></td> </tr></table> </p> <p> <table width='100%'> <tr> <td> <img src='029-sound-engineer.jpg' alt='the sound engineer, supporting Amnesty'> </td> <td> <img src='018-green-hair.jpg' alt=''> <br> <img src='035.jpg' alt=''> </td> <td> <img src='019-axe-man.jpg' alt='The Mad Axe Man!' align='right'> </td> </tr> </table> </p> <p>Everyone was getting in on the act, with protest and support posters and banners festoning every available surface. No-one was going home tonight with any doubts about what they'd been part of - from the sound engineers to the bands and backstage crew, everyone was promoting the twin causes of human rights and environmental protection.</p> <p><img src='022-audience.jpg' alt='The Audience, escaped from the School Disco!'></p> <p>And if this lot look like they've just escaped from one of the many ghastly reincarnations of long-burried school discos, well they learned a lot about protest and entertainment tonight!</p> <p> <table width='100%'><tr> <td><img src='17-a.jpg' alt='' align='left'></td> <td><img src='10-activists.jpg' alt='Greenpeace Activists on the Info stand' align='center'></td> <td><img src='17-b.jpg' alt='' align='right'></td> </tr> </table> </p> <hr> <h2 align='center'>View From The Bar</h2> <p><img src='003-arts-guild-cherubs.jpg' alt='Arts Guild Cherubs' align='center'></p> <p> <table width='100%'> <tr> <td> <img src='007-in-the-bar.jpg' alt='in the bar'> <br> <img src='006-in-the-bar.jpg' alt='in the bar'> </td> <td align='center'> <p><img src='004-is-at-the-bar.jpg' alt='Inkubus Sukkubus in the bar' align='center'></p> <p align='left'> Meanwhile, we retired to the truly magnificent bar for a couple of drinks before Inkubus Sukkubus came on. Look closely at the fresco above - all is not quite as it seems with these cherubs!</p> <p align='left'>The bar was absolutely packed, however the service was good and the drinks cold, so nothing to complain about there. Tony, Adam and Candia wandered in while we were there, chatting to friends and strangers alike and generally being available for people to talk to.</p> <p><img src='004-is-at-the-bar.jpg' alt='Inkubus Sukkubus in the bar' align='center'></p> </td> </tr> </table> </p> <hr> <h2 align='center'>The Causes</h2> <p> <img src='050-amnesty-bloke.jpg' alt='Amnesty Speaker' align='left'> <img src='048-greenpeace-lady.jpg' alt='Greenpeace Speaker' align='right'> Once the support acts had finished, before the Inkies came on, two speakers, one from Greenpeace (right) and one from Amnesty (left), took to the stage, thanked us all for coming and supporting the two causes, and told us a little about each organisation's current campaigns. As this was early January, the enormous "stop the war" protests of the following month weren't yet high on the agenda, though fears for global peace were mentioned. Locally, Greenpeace were highlighting the dangers of radioactive contamination, while globally they were focussing on the fate of the tens of thousands of people maimed and killed by the Union Carbide disaster, and it's on-going environmental aftermath in Bophal, India. Amnesty, as ever, were campaigning for the human rights of prisoners of conciencse across the globe, probably the longest running, hardest, and frequently unpopular campaign of modern times, yet one that is vitally needed. </p> <hr> <h2 align='center'>The Performance!</h2> <p><img src='064-candia-tall.jpg' alt='Queen of the May' align='right'> Then the lights dimmed, the oh-so-evocative bell rang out, and we were away and into "Wytches 2002". Always one of the band's classic tracks, the 2002 remix, built on a real steam-hammer driven version of the goddess chant, with traces of the original 'Beltaine' instrumentatuion, plus an all-new second-layer chant that none of us have managed to decypher yet, and added bat effects, is a stunning update - and the live version is even wilder than the MP3.com version! Not an opening track for the faint hearted, and they stormed through it in an absolute frenzy that grabbed you by the throat and simply did not let go!</p> <p> <img src='065-tony.jpg' alt='Lord of the Hunt' align='left'> Could they top that? You bet, as soon as the final crechendo of chanting died away, while the audience were still applauding, it was full pelt into "Smile of Torment", another live classic, again delivered non-stop and flat out.</p> <p>"Smile" was followed in turn one of my all-time favourite Inkies track, the true story song "The Rape Of Maude Bowen", again delivered with power and finesse. By the end of it the front rows of the audience were already overheating and we were only three tracks into the fifteen song set! <img src='060-audience.jpg' alt='More! More! More!' align='right'> </p> <p>After three tracks of non-stop power, the band eased up a little for the fourth, "I Am The One".</p> <p> <table width='100%'> <tr> <td> <p>Next two tracks were on the Vampyre theme, with "Take My Hunger" swiftly followed by "Vampyres", while pulsating blood-red floodlamps bathed the stage in brooding, glistening scarlet.</p> </td> <td rowspan='2'> <img src='082-adam.jpg' alt='Master of the Deeps' align='right'> </td></tr> <tr><td> <img src='083-blood-red-vampyres.jpg' alt='Blood red vampyres...' align='left'> </td> </tr> </table> </p> <p> <table width='100%'><tr> <td align='center'><img src='199-goth.jpg' alt='Vampyre'><br>?</td> <td align='center'><img src='goth-bloke-01.jpg' alt='Vampyre'><br>Mark</td> <td align='center'><img src='041-bloke.jpg' alt='Vampyre'><br>?</td> <td align='center'><img src='042-bob.jpg' alt='Vampyre'><br>Bob</td>  </tr></table> Which of us would receive the honour of the vampyre's dark kiss this night?  </p> </p><i>And if the people with the ? under their pics care to mail their names / nicknames to <a href='mailto:pyromancer@inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk'> pyromancer@inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk</a> I'll add proper credits - I know, I have the memory span of an acid-tripping goldfish... sorry!</i> <p> <table width='100%'><tr> <td><img src='207-candia.jpg' alt='' align='left'></td> <td><img src='194-bob-and-tony.jpg' alt='' align='center'></td> <td><img src='204-candia.jpg' alt='' align='right'></td> </tr></table> </p> <p>"Heart Of Lilith" was next up, brooding, swirling, seductive, dark... ...and as it faded, the lights dimmed, Tony, Bob and Adam vanished like wraiths in the night, and once again, as at Camden half a year before, Candia held us spellbound for a solo performance of the utterly beautiful "We Belong With The Dead". </p> <p> <table width='100%'> <tr> <td> <img src='168-candia-wbtd-01.jpg' alt='Behold the siren...' align='right'></td> </td> <td rowspan='2'> <p><i> It’s too late to turn back now<br> We have slain the Sacred Cow<br> For paradise we are bound<br> We were lost, but now we’re found<br> As the razor cuts the wrist<br> Rejoice for Heaven’s love has kissed<br> The icy blade shall lead the way<br> Don’t you cry and don’t you pray<br> </i></p> <p><i> We belong with the Dead... </i></p> <p><i> Come and sleep eternal sleep<br> Don’t you fear and don’t you weep<br> On a chariot we shall ride, all the way to suicide<br> You took me up, you dragged me down<br> Now my soul is quite unbound<br> Don’t you try to change my mind<br> To sense and reason I am blind<br> </i></p> <p><i> We belong with the Dead... </i></p> <p><i> On the ferry to the Underworld<br> Round the blade our fingers curled<br> Let me give you your release<br> In my love and in my peace<br> </i></p> <p><i> We belong with the dead... </i></p> </td> <td rowspan='2'> <img src='171-candia-wbtd-02.jpg' alt='Behold the siren...' align='left'></td> </td> </tr><tr> <td> <img src='170-candia-wbtd-03.jpg' alt='Behold the siren...' align='right'> </td> </tr> </table> </p> <p>The lights dimmed as the song faded away, and then thunderous applause burst out, with people screaming and yelling in awe of what was a stunning performance.</p> <p>Then the lights came back up, Tony, Adam and Bob returned, and it was time to slam the pace back up to "maximum" with Catherine... <i>The rage of unloved wives would seal this beauty's fate, Many years of fading looks brought bitterness and hate...</i> and then on into "Lucifer Rising" before an all-out no-holds-barred thrash through "Belladonna & Aconite". Now that is one of my all time favourite Inkies' tracks, and I do have a tendency to pogo up and down to it's all-engulfing tripple-beat, so I'm really sorry to whoever it was who's toes I landed on at one point, but I really couldn't help myself! Sorry!</p> <p> <table width='100%'><tr> <td><img src='135-tony.jpg' alt='The Vampyre McKormack' align='left'></td> <td><img src='138-candia-n-bob.jpg' alt='The Vampyre Candia' align='center'></td> <td><img src='141-adam.jpg' alt='The Vampyre Adam' align='right'></td> </tr></table> </p> <p><img src='160-audience.jpg' alt='' align='left'> <br> <br> Then it was back to blood-dripping crimson for the final track of the main set, "Vampyre Erotica".<br>And so it ended, with the band triumphantly exiting stage left, while the audience clamoured for more.</p> <p>Of course, we didn't have long to wait...</p> <p> </p> <hr> <h2 align='center'>The Video Stills</h2> <p>Rob Sherlock from the IS Yahoo! group videoed parts of this gig, and has made some video stills available. Video cameras tend respond differently to ambient lighting conditions than still cameras (even digital ones), so these give a slightly different view of the evening.</p> <p><img src='9.jpg' alt='' align='center'></p> <p><img src='13.jpg' alt='' align='center'></p> <p><img src='21.jpg' alt='' align='center'></p>  <p align='center'> <i>"In All Our Names", Amnesty/Greenpeace benefit gig, Gloucester, reviewed by Pyromancer, February 2003</i> </p> </td></tr></table> <p><a href='/main.html' target='_top'>Home</a></p> <body bgcolor="#004000" text="#ffffff" link="#ff4000" vlink="#ff4000" alink="#ffffff"> <div id="navcontainer"> <ul id="navlist"> <li id="active"><a href='index.html' target='_top'>Home & News</a></li> <li><a href='fs-live.html' target='_top'>Live Gig Reviews!</a></li> <li><a href='fs-music.html' target='_top'>The Albums</a></li> <li><a href='fs-backstage.html' target='_top'>Backstage</a></li> <li><a href='fs-audio-video.html' target='_top'>Media</a></li> <li><a href='fs-links.html' target='_top'>Links</a></li> <li><a href='fs-circle.html' target='_top'>The Circle</a></li> <li><a href='http://supernature.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk' target='_top'>The Supernature Forum</a></li> <li><a href='player.html' target='_blank' onClick="return popup(this, 'notes')">Music Player</a></li> <li></li> </ul> </div> <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript">  </SCRIPT>