Monocled Alchemist

The Sex Gang Children don’t stand on ceremony

Article published in NME, 4th December 1982

“My friends, these people whom you see are the last obstacle which stops us from being where we have so long struggled to be. We ought, if we could, to eat them up alive.” —Xenophon’s Anabasis

SOCIETY REGARDS cults with an uneasy eye and a cold shoulder, its ignorance and suspicion fuelled by the other’s secrecy and elitism. Whether the groups are bound by fiscal or religious practises is irrelevant; that they exist is excuse enough for Society’s paranoia to demand their destruction.

Thus, in these days of spiritual and material recession, new cults proliferate — ranging from get-skint-quick enlightenment courses, to sinister pseudo-religious organisations propagated by the likes of Sun-Yet Moon (the Moonies). And from amidst this mess, between the brain-washing and the wallet-hashing, there now emerges a cult more potent, more arcane than any seen before. They call themselves The Sex Gang Children.

Although these ‘Children’ can claim no formal cult, no hierarchy or congregation (unlike Psychic TV) they still command the fealty of their covens. A loyalty that has pushed their current single ‘Into The Abyss’ into the upper echelons of the indie charts. They don’t actually pose a serious threat to life-as-we-know-it; they are more ‘the Other’, the surrogate family with more in common with The Warriors than A Clockwork Orange cutting a sharp swathe through the opposition with their naked strength as opposed to lunging blindly in any direction with a series of hopeless blows.

The Sex Gang Children | Initiation Rights

The Sex Gang are: Andi (white face and vocals), Terry (Crowley A. and guitar), Dave (indignation and bass) and Rob iwry smiles and drums) And their cry swings from the innocent sob of the babe in arms to the precocious whinge of the enfant terrible; full blown, it is all treble and siren screams, a squeal of delight that echoes through the burning aggression and the staccato arrangement. On a lower key it is the pendulum swing of the rhythm section that lures you into the pit; a chasm that echoes to the tortuous wails torn from Andi’s throat.

On a hoarser afternoon, he describes his dreams and his accomplishments like some intense Napoleon “The logo it’s the grim reaper — the Death with his scythe, cutting down the old regime. That’s us.

“We took the name from Burroughs because it’s such a strong name. We didn’t just think, OK here it is, the perfect schlock horror name.”

But what is your interpretation of the name?

“Go to a housing estate, a deprived area the kids there hang around in gangs and they’re bonded by their desire to cause trouble, it’s a sexual urge.” That, Terry states, is what a Sex Gang should be.

Andi interjects: “That’s OK, but to say that Sex Gang Children is a totally working class ethic is to he very elitist about it Sex Gang are people who, perhaps, are non-conformist. The ‘Children’ are individuals.”

But why are people turning to the Gang and all its overt occult symbolism? Is there such a spiritual vacuum?

Dave sighs “Yeah, there is They’re all bored — everything on the spiritual side is held down by orthodox religions throughout the world. It’s a stagnant scene so they turn to the dark side to seek answers.”

Terry, who is the band’s real occult link, is worried by it all. “This is the end of a cycle and I’m sure that people are gonna take things into their own hands. Things can only degenerate or improve. And at the moment the world is sliding fast.”

Not all the band are happy with the ‘schlock horror’ brush that they’ve been daubed with by the press. As Andi (crucifixes, et al) blurts: “People like Crowley were just big egotists. He was a pretentious fart . . . and worse, he played on people’s ignorance.”

The Sex Gang Children | Initiation Rights

Still, cult and occult aside, how strong are the Gang?

“We’re very strong,” they cry, “Four individuals, like a compass — the only common ground that we share is in the middle, the pivot. So we row and discuss and eventually the centre becomes a focus for our energy.”

The Gang themselves are wild, though not as Chris Bohn suggested ‘barbarians’ The songs boast such titles as ‘Kill Machine’, ‘Beasts’, ‘Cannibal Queen’, and therefore it’s far from surprising that the media have pocketed them comfortably with the likes of UK Decay and Bauhaus.

Dave shrugs it off with a smirk “I suppose that Bauhaus and early Siouxsie are bands that I like, but they’re not hands that we emulate.”

Likewise Andi defends his lyrics: “You have to listen to my lyrics ‘Into The Abyss’ is very romantic. Songs like ‘Kill Machine’ are about the ultimate killers, the people that enjoy killing. Its revelling in the joy of that which kills us –it’s as though we love to live with death, but it’s not a morbid preoccupation, it’s a positive realisation.”

Isn’t that glorification?

“No, it’s telling us, shit this is awful, but it’s something that we do — we are all guilty. But it doesn’t condone violence.

“I like to rub people’s faces in the truth, to shock them into seeing. The same thing happened when punx started wearing swastikas, it had all been so taboo, it scared people because some of them had supported that regime. In fact it’s almost cheeky and I like to be cheeky.”

I express my doubts about the ambiguities in his presentation of his views and the fact that his delivery affects the accessibility of his ideas. Couldn’t naive listeners garner the wrong opinions?

The Sex Gang Children | Initiation Rights

“No, my presentation holds the listener’s interest until they can discover the true meaning. It’s all part of the show, the same as my stage make-up – it’s a mask that exaggerates, similar to the accentuations of the Japanese theatre. The act is like a ritual, a ceremony – both highly spiritual and highly physical. We are constantly accused of theatricality but that’s not true. Bingo (the fire-breathing skeleton man who graced many shows) was originally one of the crowd, he used to do it (?) in the audience. His coming on stage was totally spontaneous.”

The macabre imagery lingers on, through, and it seems almost inevitable that the Gang will collapse under the weight of their own cross. Were they doomed to be buried alive in a Poe-like grave of their own making?

Andi seems sure that they have their own escape hatch from the living death “Our present B-side ‘Deiche’ was our way out. (Indeed it is radically different from their heavier material). It’s like The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass — as a reaction to everything around him, little Oscar stunts his growth and finds an escape; an observation post within himself. The Sex Gang Children are the same — we’re growing from within.

“We can still succeed, we can still be commercially successful and retain our own perverse image. We will stick by our guns — truth is being true to yourself.”

The Sex Gang Children offer the real alternative — as they call it, ‘the threat’. For some of the fans it has already become an escape from the tunnel vision philosophies of ‘Neu Punk’ — for the band the real fight is just beginning. People who stand in their way will have two choices: join the cult .. or be eaten alive.