THE LAMP POST INCIDENT

Inlay of Glorious Death/ Stanx/ Idijotz tape, 1983
When I think of the "Holland Hardcore" bands of 1982-1984, there's one band in particular that I really liked, that never made it to vinyl; Steenwijk's Glorious Death. They were a siamese-twin-brother-band to the (slightly) better known Stanx, both played 200MPH-thrash but Glorious Death seemed just a bit more melodic. In fact, most of their songs are really catchy; I could still sing along (in my head) playing this for the first time in more than 20 years. These tracks are from the demo tape pictured above; they're practice room recordings from late 1983, about a year after the Holland HC tape and mostly the same songs, but with some interesting changes and better sound!
Glorious Death/ Stanx turned the unlikely small town of Steenwijk (in the thinly populated East of the Netherlands, right at the edge of our own Bible Belt) into something of a punk stronghold during 1983-84. Every band that counted (and some that didn't) played the punk festivals held at youth center De Buze; 4 to 6 times a year the good citizens of Steenwijk saw their town being invaded by an army of freaks. When some of those freaks pulled a lamp post out of the ground and triumphantly paraded it into De Buze, they were not amused, and around late 1984 (as I recall) those festivals ended.
The last time I played De Buze was around 1996; there were none of the old faces in the audience. My band played an impromptu version of Glorious Death's "Police State" (I love the line "you feel like some shit"), dedicated to any ex-members that might be present, but we didn't hear from any.

Glorious Death - Love Story
Glorious Death - Jesus Christ
Glorious Death - The News
Glorious Death - R.I.P.
Glorious Death - Commercial Beat
Glorious Death - Police State