Plunder the Tombs: Lavolta Lakota - Prayer 7” (Factory Benelux, 1984)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Lavolta Lakota - Prayer 7” (Factory Benelux, 1984)

This will be a short post, in the main due to so little information being available, and the band having released so little during their existence. This in itself is rather a shame, because what they did do, while minimalist, is difficult not to like.

Started up by Jed, (formerly with Stockholm Monsters) and Dave, Lavolta Lakota sprang up out of Manchester in 1982, which was convenient since it gave them the opportunity to meet Peter Hook of Joy Divison / New Order fame who managed to help them get their single out through the Belgium arm of Factory Records, despite not being formally signed to the label. It also gave Dave some work as a roadie for New Order.

In 1983, the band records the track “Nightmare” on a double compilation cassette The Angels Are Coming (Pleasantly Surprised, 1983) alongside much bigger bands including Bauhaus, The March Violets, The Alarm, Bone Orchard, Death in June, Gene Loves Jezebel, Nico, Artery and Test Department. Interestingly, Jed’s old band Stockholm Monsters also put in an appearance.

Cover art of The Angels are Coming compilation

Nightmare

By the time the single is recorded, bassist Michael Eastwood has curiously decided to start calling himself “Moist” (as you do), and ensuring that the band maintain their distinctive line up of having two bass players. Also interesting is that the single was produced by Peter Hook under the psyudonym Be-Music.

The cover art bears a pleasingly tribal aesthetic, reflecting the band’s interest in American Indian culture which they shared with Southern Death Cult who they would occasionally support. Indeed, Lavolta Lakota translates as “all the tribes together”.

Prayer

Mitawin

A second single is reportedly planned, but somehow never eventuates. They are successful however in supporting Death Cult, Play Dead, New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, The Fall, and are occasionally joined onstage by Billy Duffy during 1985. Things grind to a halt the following year though as members begin to drift away, some to form BFG and Dave to join Peter Hook in Revenge.

Track Listing

i. Prayer

ii. Mitawin

No points for spelling

Line Up: Dave Hicks (vocals, guitar), Jed Duffy (bass), Moist (bass), Guy Ainsworth (drums)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavolta_Lakota

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Lavolta+Lakota

1 comment:

AmcApril 15, 2017 at 3:15 PM
I saw these at FUTURAMA 5 in 1983,I think the twin bass thing produced massive indiference from the crowd.
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A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….