Coup De Grace - Dokument - Over Europe (C-90 cassette)

A-01 - Trans-Atlantic Phone Call
A-02 - Introduction-March
A-03 - Funeral
A-04 - Radio Transmission
A-05 - Funeral
A-06 - Powermarch
A-07 - Powermarch (excerpt)
A-08 - Trans-Atlantic Phone Call
A-09 - Baseless Visions
A-10 - No Hope
A-11 - No Hope
A-12 - No Exit
A-13 - Trans-Atlantic Phone Call
A-14 - Your Children
A-15 - Your Children
A-16 - Deathening
A-17 - End Sequence
A-18 - New Buildings
A-19 - Surrexit Dominus
B-01 - Trans-Atlantic Phone Call
B-02 - Introduction-March
B-03 - Funeral
B-04 - Tattoo Bar Gustaf
B-05 - Use Humans Instead
B-06 - Surrexit Dominus
B-07 - Applause
B-08 - Combat Zone
B-09 - Combat Zone
B-10 - Tattoo Bar Gustaf
B-11 - Sick of Living
B-12 - Early End
B-13 - Birth
B-14 - Tattoo Bar Gustaf
B-15 - Finale
B-16 - Applause
B-17 - Applause
B-18 - Applause
B-19 - Applause
B-20 - Tattoo Bar Gustaf

This tape is a documentary of the 1986 European tour of Coup De Grace, which took place between aug. 20th and sept. 10th. Club Moral featuring as a backing group with Coup De Grace on vocals, delay-machines, tapes and pyrotechnics.
The events performed on were In Vitro by Club Moral, Altenberg by Cthulhu Records, Metabletica by V2 and The Bunker by Ret Marut. Since this tape is merely a documentation, the sound-quality may very between various recordings.
(Text from cassette cover)

This cassette was published in an edition of 113 copies. Some tracks were recorded stereo from P.A., some binaural and some plain mono on a walkman within the audience. The tracks performed live were previously released on two Coup De Grace cassettes: "Commencement / Corpse Education" (Introduction-March, Powermarch, Surrexit Dominus, Combat Zone, Finale) and "Anthems for Doomed Youth" (No Hope, End Sequence), some were previously released on various Inner-X-Musick compilations. The phonecalls were made while making arrangements for the In Vitro festival, the radio transmission was an interview at Radio Centraal in Antwerpen. The Tattoo Bar Gustaf recordings were made in a tattoo bar in the Antwerp red light district where Michael Moynihan had the Coup De Grace logo tattooed on the back of his shoulder. On one of the recordings you can hear Gustaf chasing away his aged German Shepherd dog who took a pleasure in eating bloodied tissues.

We have been in contact with Coup De Grace since 1985, exchanging tapes and printed matter. When organising the 1986 In Vitro exhibition and concerts (see Club Moral Stocklist episode 058) we thought of inviting them to play there as well. Since budgets were rather small for this kind of events back then, we decided to team up with some other organisations to set up a small tour and share the travel cost. It was also decided that Michael Moynihan would just come by himself, and Club Moral would play as a backing band during the European shows. In the end Cthulhu Records, V2 and Ret Marut/Jazzbunker booked this unique collaboration for 3 more shows after the In Vitro II Festival.

There was about a week of free time after the first show in Belgium and the last 3 performances occurred in a span of 2 days. If you look at the dates you will notice that the two Holland confrontations took place the same evening. This was due to the fact that after the dates had been arranged, V2 decided to change the days of their Metabletica festival. So we did the show in Rotterdam at 10:00pm, and then afterwards packed everything up and drove to V2 in 's Hertogenbosch, where the last performance was done (starting at about 1:30 in the morning). The components of the confrontations were as follows:
AUDIO: Backing tapes, Vocals, Synthesizers & Electronics.
VISUAL: Slides and Motion Pictures.
Surprisingly enough after a whole day of driving (from Germany to Rotterdam, then playing the show there, then driving to V2) the last confrontation was probably the most powerful of all...
(Text from Third Annual Report 12 31 86 by Coup De Grace)

From about summer 1987 until winter 1988 Coup De Grace set up a European Office in an abandoned part of the Club Moral factory. Michael Moynihan was living there, first in companionship with Zenobia and later teaming up with Hamish Halley aka SerVex 23. Part of an attic space was rebuilt into lodgings, office and a workshop. The rent was remarkably cheap and the landlord didn't really bother about anything going on, so any kind of activity was possible.
In October 1987 Coup De Grace was invited by AMVK to perform at an evening of Bar Europa, organised by NL-Centrum in Amsterdam.
Hamish Halley set up a leather artefact and special clothing workshop and successfully performed his Prince Albert piercing at the Club Moral Quarters using a 10ga needle and a lot of will power.
Thomas Thorn briefly stayed there and a one and only concert of Slave State was organised in a newly discovered basement underneath Club Moral.
Basically both Michael Moynihan and Hamish Halley were living in Belgium illegally, which made them decide in 1989 to return to the US and New Zealand respectively.

Michael Moynihan continues to publish music and books: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moynihan_(journalist)
Zenobia lives in Boston and works in the film industry.
Hamish Halley is now in charge of Flesh Wound: www.fleshwound.co.nz
Thomas Thorn is an active priest of the Church of Satan: www.churchofsatan.com