NAPALM DEATH BIOGRAPHY
by Miles Ratledge
Napalm Death first began in 1981 and the founder members were Nic Scab ( Nicholas Bullen) and Rat (Miles Ratledge). we were both neighbours living in Meriden, not far from Soilhull and Birmingham. We were only 12 and 13 years old and couldn`t play any instruments but improvised as best we could and sung/shouted songs mainly about police oppression and war. We were both involved in the anarcho-punk scene at that time and were both fanzine editors and school boys at the same time. We recruited Robo on Bass and Sid (Daryl Fideski) for guitar who went to the same school as me. The good thing about having Sid in the band was that he had a decent guitar and a distortion pedal. It was a great dissappointment when he left the band mainly because of the pedal.
Anyway, Robo stayed with the band and switched to guitar and Finbar Quinn ( a drunken youth but a good musician) joined the band on bass. We did early gigs with The Amebix, Chaos UK, The Apostles, and the Subhumans. This is also the line up which appears on Bullshit Detector 3. This Napalm Death sort of burnt out and then we reformed with the line up Nik - vocals, Justin - guitar, Rat - drums, P.nut - bass. It was Daz Russell from Birmingham that helped put Napalm death on the road to fame and fortune by giving us regular gigs at The Mermaid in Birmingham . It was here that we first developed a following of loyal fans, the most eager of these being Mick Harris, of course. It was also The Mermaid that had the best scrumpy cider in town which we had a great passion for.
With the money we got from Bullshit Detector 3 we recorded Hatred Surge, and things around us were starting to happen . We were no longer a bunch of school boy punk thrashers, we were a serious band with a future ahead of us. We`d had a lot of talks together about in which direction we should take musically, should it be louder, faster or should it be deeper and darker and more like the Amebix and Killing Joke? Louder, faster, and more metal it was, and it was goodbye to Rat. So there you go. There was a bit more of the early Napalm Death story for you. Interestingly enough Dig from Earache Records knew Nik Bullen and I long before he even started Earache Records. He had a mutual friend from Nottingham named Dave, from a group called Verbal Warning, who helped us get some gigs in the early 80`s. Dig was also present at these gigs. Things built from there and the rest is history. |
