LA 46 - 666 Club, Barcelona (Spain), 19th January 1985
MEMBERS: William Bennett, Kevin Tomkins, Glenn Michael Wallis
TRACKLISTING: Great White Death, You Don't Have To Say Please, My Cock's On Fire, We've Got The Power, Death Penalty
NOTES: audience 300-400 / live action videoed by Catalan TV channel / no support act / local pirate radio interview conducted / this was to be the last Whitehouse live action for five years when all members of Whitehouse went to live outside London for varying reasons and pursued separate lives, there was a feeling in the group that all that could be achieved had been realised culminating in these Barcelona shows and the ‘Great White Death’ LP
REVIEW: (translated from Catalan) by Ramon Súriò (El Món)
Those who possibly didn’t control the distortion as well as Johnny Thunders or the Desechables were Whitehouse, an existential group along the lines of Psychic TV (sic) or Throbbing Gristle but even more extreme. They arrived here preceded by an aura of marginalisation heightened by the pictures of cunts on the concert poster, a show which one imagines isn’t really for the repressed elements amongst our rulers.
The sinister concert venue in Poble Nou was pretty appropriate for the Whitehouse show, a performance which left all of us rather confused. I still remember Cristof’s ironic comments of surprise that the audience put up so stoically with the din of tuneless sounds supplied to us by the three members of Whitehouse. If what this group intends is to provoke, then they fully achieved their aim; helped by beers and a pair of battery-operated mini-keyboards, they caused more destruction than an army of incompetent soldiers.
I cannot praise this album enough. This album is absolutely terrifying! The many starts and stops creates this very h settling tension. Each start expands on the stopper idea previously. It’s like the music equivalent of walking through thick fog while passing out multiple times throughout trying to find a place to orientate yourself. There may or may not be something sinister in that fog, but you don’t want to stick around to find out. Bought the vinyl so I summon the fog demons through spe showhornwithteeth
The terrific debut album from Berlin industrial-pop auteurs Mueran Humanos was out of print until this reissue on the band's own new label. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 22, 2020