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Sunday 12 September 2010

SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE - Stars/Autonomia (7" Single)




What I know about this band could be written on the back of a postage stamp. I first heard ‘em in Dec 1982 when they appeared at The ZigZag Club squat gig that Crass and others in the London Anarcho-Punk scene organised. You had The Mob, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Apostles, Omega Tribe amongst may others including Soldiers Of Fortune, I’d never heard of them prior to their brief 15 minute set, and never heard anything about them afterwards. The only thing I had was this 7” single, well not this one, my copy went wherever, whenever. I’ve been searching for a copy over the last few years, but never come across one uploaded to a blog, the only one I did find was on eBay which went for £15 (out of my price range.) and nice price increase, I’m sure I only paid 50p or a £1 for mine at the gig. My mate Das who went to the gig with me also bought one. Met up with him last weekend when I went camping in the New Forest and he’s kindly loaned me his copy to rip to MP3 for my listening pleasure and post for you good people. Here’s the postage stamp stuff: Soldiers Of Fortune came from Berlin. They were a 3 piece band that sounded like a cross between Killing Joke, Adam and The Ants and The Clash. This was their only single, although they had released an album Waiting For World War III in 1981, which I’d really like to hear. Anyway here's their Stars b/w Autonomia single released by Total Darkness Productions in 1982. Enjoy!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can find their song from Waiting for World War III on youtube, just search Soldiers Of Fortune and the name of the album, all the songs are there.

Anonymous said...

Actually the Soldiers were originally from Great Yarmouth, and consisted two brothers, Ingmar (Ig) on guitar and vox, and Roger on bass plus Trevor on drums. They moved to Berlin in 1980, and to London in '82 and helped set up the Kafe Kollaps squat bar in West Hampstead along with the Burn It Down collective, who then opened the Burn It Down Ballroom on Finchley Road in 1983 (Crass played the first gig, the Soldiers also plays; the Mob were regulars) and the Glasshouse in Camden in 1984. The Burn It Downs also put on the first ever Class War benefit gig in 1984 (in what used to be the Camden Council housing offices just off Finchley Road) which was headlined by Poison Girls, helped set up the Ambulance Station in the Old Kent Road, supplied PAs for lots of squat gigs and joined with CopyArt in 1985. The Soldiers became a kind of Cult-lite in 1986, moved back to Berlin and stopped playing music.