THE HERETICS - "Private Tape 1979" 7" EP (NR013)
£10.00
THE HERETICS - "Private Tape 1979" 7" EP (NR013)
£10.00
PRE ORDER NOW, START SHIPPING BY THE END OF MARCH
The Heretics was formed in North London in 1978 and split in 1980.
This 7" EP contains 4 rehearsal tracks recorded in 1979, mastered and restored from a rare cassette tape found by the band members.
Limited to 200 copies, fluor green vinyl. Sleeve artwork contains never before seen photos, bio and lyrics.
Remastered by Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory
Layout by Marco No Front Teeth
A1 - Nazi Born and Bred
A2 - Mania
B1 - Napalm Babies
B2 - Death or Glory
LISTEN HERE:
“HERESY IN THE UK – IT’S COMING RIGHT NOW”
Four Rabid and Raw low-fi punk classics from the legendary cult band immortalised in the pages of Toxic Graffiti fanzine.
“WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH MUSIC. WE PLAY CHORDS THAT DON’T LIKE EACH OTHER.”
Sounds like – Snotty ‘77 style punk that wouldn’t be out of place on the first Live at The Roxy LP. Nazi Born And Bred is a demented, feedback swathed thrasher propelled by a pounding drum beat; Mania sounds like the Flipper classic HaHaha if the band had been on speed rather than smack; Napalm Babies is every bit the incendiary thrasher its name would suggest whilst closing track, Death or Glory, hints at how the band may have developed with its strong guitar and structure buried amid the buzzsaw scuzz with elements similar to early Slaughter & The Dogs, Chelsea or even Warsaw.
“I WANNA CUT MY HEAD OFF. I DON’T WANNA LOOK LIKE WHO I AM.”
The Heretics were in the first fanzine I ever bought, Toxic Graffiti issue four. Their impact was every bit as powerful as Never Mind The Bollocks and Feeding of The 5,000 had been before but what was so mind-blowing was how The Heretics looked. This was 1979, when the original punk bands were gracing the Top of The Pops stage in skinny ties and pastel jackets and the crusty punk look was still half a decade away. The Heretics looked like punks who had survived a nuclear apocalypse and the only stage they might have graced was the High Court being tried serial killers. Noone looked like that at the time. I can’t image anyone would have wanted to. These weren’t posers with a contrived slumming image: The Heretics looked how they lived. They lived in squats without water, toilets and even floorboards; their deathly pallour was the product of a diet where drugs took precedence over food and their clothes (if not recently stolen) had been reduced to rags when salvaged from firebombed squats or slashed by knife wielding skinheads.
“I WOULDN’T GIVE A FUCK IF THE WORLD BLEW UP. WE’RE ANTI- EVERYTHING. I DON’T BELIEVE IN ANYTHING UNLES I’M SPEEDING.”
Equal parts intrigued and intimidated, I wrote off to the band and received back the tape featuring the four practice tracks pressed onto vinyl now. This was before the Bullshit Detector and was the first tape I had ever been sent by an ‘unknown’ band. Even hearing a recording as rough and unrefined as this was almost as shocking as their appearance had been but some indefinable way (I was only nine at the time) it sounded like everything I had imagined punk would and should sound like from the outrageous looks and shock horror headlines. Nasty, Vicious and absolutely nothing like anything I had ever heard before. 45 years later, it still does. (Chris Low, 2025)
All quotes from The Heretics Toxic Graffiti interview.
All photos taken by Anthon Sieveking, 1979.