ISD Memorial in Southern France

The date of 9th October was planned for ISD Memorial gig, which should take place in Southern France under the banner of B&H Midgard. This was my first ISD Memorial ever so I was quite curious and exited because of the upcoming event.
B&H Midgard are the only official Division of the Brotherhood in France and they exist for more then 10 years. They don’t have a big number of members, but many followers and supporters. Alongside with the Hammerskins, 28 Midgard is the most active skinhead organization in France at the present times.

After a long but pleasant journey we arrived on the gig venue. The hall was located in the industrial side of the city - a perfect place for this purpose. The first people who welcomed us were the guys from Italian band "Still Burnin`Youth", which had just arrived. Inside the hall the preparations for the concert have already began. The next few hours went into band rehearsals and sound checking.

The gig started around 22.00 when first on stage appeared the Italians from Still Burnin`Youth. This is very young band, founded just 3 years ago. For this short period they have released two albums: "The Flames Of Hatred"-2008, "NSHC Is Not Music,It`s A Family"-2010 and one split cd "Italians Do It Better" together with "Blind Justice" and "Ribelli D`Indastria". Their style can be described as a brutal Hate Core. Their set began with songs like "Nightmare", "Misantropo e asociale", "Io Non Ci Sto!" – the last one is very powerful song which lyrics are against the laboratory experiments and torture of animals. They also did few covers of some legendary Italian bands like Hate for breakfast-"Bella come una prigione che brucia", Plastic Surgery - "Rivolta" and Intolleranza’s "Come il vento".

Their performance was a perfect start of the concert which warm up the crowd for the next band for the night, our old palls from Mas Que Parablas/Spain/.
I have followed the band for their last three gigs and I find out that they are getting better and more professional from their previous performances. The interesting thing is that this band has fans both from RAC/Oi! scene and by those who prefer the very popular in last few years NS Hard Core.

First song of their set was from their own repertoire, followed by cover version of Estirpe Imperial-"Iremos a un bar" and few more by Division 250 and Battalon De Castigo. Their part of the gig was finished by a speech held by the bass player dedicated to our Spanish comrade Josue, who was unjustly sentenced for 26 years imprisonment.

He was followed by another speaker from the organizing crew who gave a long and well prepared speech about the lifework of Ian Stuart. His words grabbed the attention of the crowed. The speech ended with one minute silence in the memory of our fallen leader.

Last band for the night were French veterans Frakass. This band exists since 1986 (!!!) and in last few years they share some of their members with living legends from Brutal Attack. They have played some of their old songs, my favourite of which is "Bouclier contre bouclier", classical Skrewdriver’s “White Power” as well us covers of old French bands such as Legion 88 and "Gardien de l'ordre” by Nouvelle Croisade. This was the final blow of the concert.

The gig was attended by around 150 people – guests from France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia and Bulgaria. The organization was on top level. Every detail from the service on the bar, gig venue, selection of the bands… everything was perfect. The most impressing for me was the security – it was really serious guarded concert. There was no possibility for fights between the guests inside the gig hall. I didn’t saw any heavily drunken people or beer split on the floor.

Once all the guests went over to their cars and headed to the hotel which was about 20 km from the place of the gig. We were heading towards to our car when we got a phone call from the organizers. They warned us that the police patrols are stopping comrade’s vehicles for alcohol check up and making photos of the passengers of the cars! We had the same bad experience after the last gig in Spain. So we have decided to wait and hour or two until checking get over. This time was spend with the Italian guys, we had some extra drinks, lot of laughs and fun, really nice way to finish this wonderful evening.

I would like to thank Xavier, Dimitri and guys from "Still Burnin`Youth" for the great party time spent with them, hail to B&H Midgard and Loic for the perfectly organized event and their warm hospitality.

828!!!

Exclusive report for NS Revolt by S.