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I was reading (actually finished by now) the Tom Warrior/Martin Eric Ain Only Death is Real book. At the end of the book there are some scanned newsletters of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Two of these are a brief introduction to Warrior and Ain and two of the questions regard each of one's favorite bands and songs. Mind you that this newsletter must be from the final days of Hellhammer or the very early days of CF. The first small shock is when I read Ain mentioning Jag Panzer and Medieval among his faves. "Quite cool" I thought. Then I see the name of Banshee among the others, I honestly didn't know what to think about it. And the big shock came when in the following question I see the name of the song "I am the light" among Ain's favorite tracks! It's the same canadian Banshee that put out the ridiculously rare nowadays 7" in 1984! Can you imagine that? I still fail to grasp how this outrageously underground act reached Ain's ears in the rural and isolated Switzerland of 1984. How many people could have actually heard that 7" by that time, either through tape-trading or by owning a hard copy? I assume that even in Canada this release must have been mostly unknown, even in the year of its release. Totally unbelievable. Shock, amazement and respect at the same time. Wow. Fucking Wow.

ION BRITTON wrote:I was reading (actually finished by now) the Tom Warrior/Martin Eric Ain Only Death is Real book. At the end of the book there are some scanned newsletters of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Two of these are a brief introduction to Warrior and Ain and two of the questions regard each of one's favorite bands and songs. Mind you that this newsletter must be from the final days of Hellhammer or the very early days of CF. The first small shock is when I read Ain mentioning Jag Panzer and Medieval among his faves. "Quite cool" I thought. Then I see the name of Banshee among the others, I honestly didn't know what to think about it. And the big shock came when in the following question I see the name of the song "I am the light" among Ain's favorite tracks! It's the same canadian Banshee that put out the ridiculously rare nowadays 7" in 1984! Can you imagine that? I still fail to grasp how this outrageously underground act reached Ain's ears in the rural and isolated Switzerland of 1984. How many people could have actually heard that 7" by that time, either through tape-trading or by owning a hard copy? I assume that even in Canada this release must have been mostly unknown, even in the year of its release. Totally unbelievable. Shock, amazement and respect at the same time. Wow. Fucking Wow.

Unbelievable!

This story sounds like from Fantasy book,but... but It's still hard to believe. Anyway. my guess is that BANSHEE send some 7"s to European Fanzine / Magazine for review ,Eric read it and just bought this record.

I doubt that Banshee were that active and willing to promote their material. A friend found one of the members some time ago and said that the band was quite short-lived while being heavily into drugs. Actually, he could hardly remember its very existence.
What you say could be true, having in mind though that Hellhammer couldn't pay in due time 600 Swiss francs for the recording of Satanic Rites demo, I assume that the purchase of such an item would have been a big luxury for them at that time. My guess it that he must have heard the material through tape-trading. Who and when send it to him is another mystery.

I'm not surprised. at that time, if you were massively into tape-trading you could have anything you want.
It was just slower without the internet !

I need to buy this book. I let AYM pass me by.

I'm not surprised. I dare to say that both Tom and Eric knew scenes in smallest detail. They had enthusiasm, which as a musician you must have, if you want to produce anything at least mildly interesting.

wow! thats really amazing specially for the time...I need that 7" anyway,thanks for sharing the story!

ION BRITTON wrote:the rural and isolated Switzerland of 1984

Hahaha ! Very funny !
Switzerland had one of the best Metal/Hard Rock Scenes in Europe. There where a lot of fans especially in the end of the 70ies but also in the beginning of the 80ies ! Many shops where importing a lot of stuff from the US from about 1983 til 1989 ! You could buy Heathens Rage in the usual shops and hear Medieval Steel in the discos !
But i have to admit that 7"s where nearly inexistant in Switzerland back then ! At least in the shops i was visiting and as far i remember . Nobody was interrested in it.

Aim was working in a record store in Zurich. But i don't know from when on exactly.

Well, that's certainly not the impression I got from Warrior's writings regarding the early '80s. At some point in '81 I think, he even made a trip to London with a friend to buy records and especially NWOBHM stuff that was nowhere to be found in Switzerland. The shops that bothered to bring something related, usually brought miniscule quantities that couldn't satisfy the demand. I am not from Switzerland and I can't be sure about all these. But what I wrote was the general idea regarding record hunting that stems from Warrior's writings.

Of course London was much better than Switzerland for records. Especially till 1984. Shades was so great ! Also the prices where half of the ones in Switzerland. It's also true that many records where ordered in very few copys. For example in my (small) hometown back then (Lucerne) there where 2 records stores and from many private or small label records they only had 1 copy each. It usually was enough for me and my friend ! And if we missed something we buyed it later on our trips to Zurich or Lausanne or London.
But from 1984 the offers in Swiss record stores where very very good.
You did not have a store that had everything, but if you where visiting all the stores in Zurich, Basel, Lausanne, Lucerne, Geneva etc. you could find really a lot of things.

tbieri wrote:Of course London was much better than Switzerland for records. Especially till 1984. Shades was so great ! Also the prices where half of the ones in Switzerland. It's also true that many records where ordered in very few copys. For example in my (small) hometown back then (Lucerne) there where 2 records stores and from many private or small label records they only had 1 copy each. It usually was enough for me and my friend ! And if we missed something we buyed it later on our trips to Zurich or Lausanne or London.
But from 1984 the offers in Swiss record stores where very very good.
You did not have a store that had everything, but if you where visiting all the stores in Zurich, Basel, Lausanne, Lucerne, Geneva etc. you could find really a lot of things.

Damn, i need to finally build my time machine!

by the way the 7" is from 1983 not 1984

It can be a case of coming by a copy by sheer luck. Or perhaps Ain was impressed by a review or word of mouth and simply HAD to get it, no matter at what cost.

A friend of mine read about Canadian SLAUGHTER and wrote them in 1985 (I think it was) and when he received an answer from them they said he was the very first european that had contacted them! It's a small world when it comes to obscure metal underground!

nice read, tell me more about countries scenes back in the days

I’m from Milan;
I listen HM since ’85. At that time I was not in underground metal. But someone was very active in the early ‘80s.
Some stories:
1) At the end of 90s I bought 6 mint copies of COMMANDER High and mighty (with inside a little Azra catalog insert) for a total of actual 15 euro... Was a little store near Milan. This guy had many import LPs from US (and not only). I remember he had a copy of HAMMERWITCH for sale (2,5 euro!); at that time I bought the frist US METAL book and these were evaluated 100 DM. (approx 50 euro now). At that time he must change shop address and sold all the records in stock... great days!
2) I have a friend who bought (in the 80s) the SLAUTER XSTROYES from the band! Contacted by letter before the records was ready!
3) 15 years ago I found in a store the first 7” from SEVENTH SON (UK) mint with insert! At that time was a very big rarity; price I paid: the actual 2,5 euro...

Record fair in Milan (vinilmania) was a great appointment until 1999-2000. Now many bootlegs and higher priced records.
Tape trading, list from private sellers... some lucky friends went to London...
sounds weird, but also in Italy there was a good movement.
Until the end of the nineties, Milan was full of records store. Also I had 2-3 great records by mail store catalog...

In the eighties I was a student, so I could not spend much for records... A time machine, right. Will be great now...

Now in Milan there are no record shops... Now only a couples of stores but only with common records.
I do not pretend to find AMETHYST in a store for 5 euro; but to find some italian HM records for to make some trades. Now in Milan is nearly impossible to find some good records in a store.. You must contact private sellers, but at the moment I don’t know many serious record sellers.