IN THIS ISSUE - (Scroll down to see full stories)

ALIEN SEX FIEND TO PLAY AMPHI FESTIVAL, KOLN, GERMANY
- Saturday July 20th 2013
- Tickets on sale NOW

CHERRY RED RELEASE NEW ALIEN SEX FIEND CD COMPILATION
"BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL" (THE COLLECTION)
- Scheduled release date 6th May - Pre-order NOW 

FOOTAGE OF ALIEN SEX FIEND AT THE BATCAVE IN 1983
- from BBC TV Halloween programme

ALIEN SEX FIEND's 30th BATCAVE ANNIVERSARY SHOW
- Photos, set list, reviews, Nik & Mrs Fiend write about the December 2012 show

BLUE CRUMB TRUCK ONLINE STORE
NEW Tote Bag & Batcave Souvenir Poster
T-shirt Sale - Girls SkinniFit 30th Batcave Anniversary T-shirt
/ 2012 Tour T-shirt / Death Trip T-shirt

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Venue : Amphi Festival, Tanzbrunnen
Address : Tanzbrunnen, Rheinparkweg 1, 50679 Cologne, Germany
Tickets : Tickets are available for ONE DAY only
(either Saturday 20th or Sunday 21st) or for the whole WEEKEND.
CAMPING tickets are also available.
FREE Parking.
Ticket Websites : Tickets are on sale NOW at Amphi Ticketshop & from EVENTIM / CTS pre-sales offices in Germany & Eventim website
Alien Sex Fiend Show Time : Alien Sex Fiend will play the midnight headliner
Alien Sex Fiend venue : ASF will play the indoor Staatenhaus venue (after the Castle Party rain last year that will be a relief to the audience!)
Bands on Saturday 20th of July 2013 include :
Alien Sex Fiend, Agonoize, Atari Teenage Riot, De/Vision, Faderhead, Phillip Boa & The Voodoo Club, Suicide Commando, VNV Nation & more.
Bands on Sunday 21th of July 2013 include :
Anne Clark, Diary Of Dreams, Die Form, Fields Of The Nephilim, Icon Of Coil, Umbra Et Imago, & more.
Times : Running Order & Times are yet to be 100% confirmed.
Ages : Children under 16 years of age must be accompanied by parent or adult (with written authorisation). Over 16 and under 18 years of age must leave the event´s venue at midnight UNLESS accompanied by parents or an adult (with written authorisation) more info
Disabled : Wheelchair users can use the large wheelchair accessible ranks on the left side of the stage. Toilets for disabled persons are available. more info

Lots more helpful info including travel info for airports, rail & car.

More info
Amphi Festival site (also in English)
Full list of bands playing at the festival
Amphi on Facebook
Preview Of Amphi Festival at Reflections Of Darkness site

This release has been designed as a "starting point" or "introductory" compilation to the music of the iconic band, Alien Sex Fiend. Offered at a low retail price, this CD's 16 tracks cover ASF's music from their first single "Ignore The Machine", classics like "I Walk the Line" & "Now I’m Feeling Zombiefied" through to 1994's "Inferno". (Note: No 13th Moon Records tracks are included, this is a Cherry Red/Anagram based collection only)

PRE-ORDER NOW 
(will be shipped when stock arrives)
from Blue Crumb Truck online store

Cherry Red say "PressPlay is a brand new Cherry Red label which offers the perfect introduction to the music of its most popular artists at a competitive price. From 70s prog to punk, vintage ska to rock’n’roll, 60s beat to 80s indie, PressPlay’s "The Collection” range will complement the existing Cherry Red labels by combining great value-for-money with the best music from a wide range of iconic cult bands /artists. Each compilation offers the ideal starting place for the general music fan."

Extracts from the feature :
"Here’s a treat for you : three films chronicling the early 80s British Goth club scene while it was in its infancy. Offering (mostly) untampered footage shot directly from the dance floors and stages, the films vary in length from 8 minutes to over two hours. The first film is a BBC promo for the infamous London haunt The Batcave, which was originally broadcast on Halloween, 1983. Ok, the Vincent Price/William Castle inserts are cheesy as hell, but there’s some great footage of Alien Sex Fiend performing live to make up for it. The second film covers a night out at Manchester’s Devilles in 1983. And finally, The Height Of Goth, subtitled A Night at the Xclusiv nightclub, Batley, West Yorkshire includes some good interviews to keep you entertained.

Photo credit : Tony Mottram

Thirty years ago, thirty years ago to the very day, the original power couple of electro-goth, Nik Fiend and his wife, erm, Mrs Fiend, unveiled their psychedelic horror show for the first, and for what they admit they believed would also be the last, time. And somehow they’re still here, thirty years on. And it’s time for a party.

The years drop away like the limbs of a zombie who’s just had Bruce Campbell show up unannounced with a chainsaw... within the first couple of songs it’s like a particularly weird episode of Dr Who, where we’ve all been sent back in time and it’s the golden age of Fiendishness again... A swirling morass of psychobilly guitars, electro beats, horror visuals and punk attitude. And it’s only when you hear them all back to back again that you remember just how many great songs Alien Sex Fiend have. “Smells Like…”, “Dead And Buried,” “Now I’m Feeling Zombiefied…” and it seems like they play them ALL in an insane three-hour marathon.... and it’s PRETTY FUCKING SWEET.

By the end, when there are thank-you speeches and the offer of cake (yeah, cake! Remember, kids, it’s a made-up drug…), Nik’s a king celebrating his jubilee bedecked in razor wire and drowning in stage blood, and it’s all just about as awesome as you could possibly want it to be.

I know you never went away, but welcome back anyway, Nik. And the Mrs.

Written by DEUTERONEMU 90210
(whose brain is now in the cupboard!)

Read the Frequency review in full

Thanks to Frequency

Nik Fiend, Mrs Fiend (background), Doc Milton (silhouette)

Nik Fiend & the famous "IT" book
(it looks as if Mrs Fiend's hand is working Nik via the top of his hat! -
It's a PUPPET !!!)
Photo credit : Ben Guiver

I think we've all only just got over quite what a monumental night the 1st December 2012 was! The original plan - although admittedly it was a bit vague (!) - was that we'd play 2 sets of around 90 minutes each, with an intermission (30 mins or so?) about half way through.... BUT on the night there was news that there was some sort of breakdown on the Underground / Tube trains.... bugger! Everyone was concerned that if we kicked off our first set at the planned time a lot of people were going to miss a lot of IT... SO it was decided to delay proceedings & instead of us getting a "lie down" during the 30 minutes intermission we were gonna hafta keep rocking for a full 3 hours.... could we do it?? OF COURSE! It's The Fiends you're talking about here!! We ain't wimps! We can pass out afterwards instead!... Eventually we got the word that the trains were back in action - wahey! - & off we went stage-wards....

We can only feel humbled by all the support Alien Sex Fiend has had over all these years! Fiend fans came from far & wide for this final gig of 2012 A.D. & our 30th Anniversary Show, they had travelled from South Africa, the U.S.A., Germany, France, Holland, Ireland.... & that's just the ones that we heard of, or managed to say hi to post show. And wot a nite IT woz! A right ol' knees-up. FINALLY we got to play freely without hitting a curfew & runnin' outta time... we ended up playing for 3 hours 20 minutes, which for us flew past as quick as anyfing... Mrs Fiend even managed to get her geetar strapped on & fuzz us out of existence wiv "My Brain Is In The Cupboard" from 1987 followed by the very first ASF tune "Boneshaker Baby" from 1982 (!) which turned the Dome into a full-on mosh pit - pulsating psychobilly reverberations a go-go... The gig elevated us to new heights, beyond anyfing I could have thought... or expected... - a huge THANK YOU goes to our crew "The Space Cadets" (both old & new) who all came together from across the UK & Europe to help put on such an amazing & memorable gig .

It was fantastic to meet up / work with all sorts of people that we've known since our early days... some were at that very first Batcave gig! During the after show party we got to do a bit of a meet n greet - thanks to everyone who brought us various presents, cheers (hic!) to Alec & Tina for the back-stage champagne, to Debbie, Phil, Porl & Gail, to Tez for "being there", & to the audience who joined in the night's celebrations.

30 years of The Fiend, wow doesn’t time fly, like a bat! I have loved this band for a very long time myself and had been looking forward to this somewhat rare performance from the Fiend, one that was going to be a celebration and one that was going to be host to many of their great songs from the past as well as no doubt a smattering of newer ones. The stage looked absolutely fantastic, dressed to the hilt with the accoutrements of the Fiend’s stage show. It was littered with webs and bones and bins and dolls and all manner of ghastly things that were no doubt going to be put to use later. I have fond memories of being almost brained by a plastic bone launched off the stage at the Whitby Dracfest back in (apparently) 1997.

The sound it has to be said was fantastic, the clarity of it all brilliant. Things were bouncing us about like a spring loaded, booby trapped trampoline and it did not take much to get the crowd dancing away to the songs that we all knew and loved. Strobes and lights mesmerised us and massive bursts of pulsating energy blew out the speakers and to cap it all the singer decided to roll around the stage, not acting his age in the slightest. For every up there is a down but ‘Manic Depression’ - yep some of us do get it every day - had me grinning like a loon. We had been told to expect some numbers that had not been played in many a moon and one I cannot even remember if I have ever heard live was ‘In And Out Of My Mind’ wow, was really not expecting that and indeed it is still there, working its way around what little mind I have left. The depressive, repetitive beats backed up the ghostly pulsating atmosphere nicely.

Nik took brief time out to thank us all for coming and as ever acted with a noticeable humble demeanour as chuffed as we were that they were still doing this after three decades. White noise and full on epilepsy inducing strobes took us to another dimension, no other word can sum it up better that “wow!”. “Bats In The Belfry, meet me at the altar, like a little lamb lead me to the slaughter.“ Did anyone here not know the words to Attack? Doubtful by the sound of it and if the band had an anthem would it possibly be their Bela Lugosi? I think it is very likely and judging by the reaction it was a song we expected and the one that ASF probably could not have got away leaving out their set. We seriously did the bossanova!

Gig of the year!

Written by Pete Woods

Read the Ave Noctem review in full

Thanks to Ave Noctem

Mat "Pod" in background with a blood splattered Doc Milton
Photo credit : Pete Woods

Any relevant blogs & updates posted by Nik & Mrs Fiend on Facebook & MySpace will be included on this website from time to time. So if you are not into social networking you will still get the important news from THIS site (as always!) & if you SUBSCRIBE to my "ASF News" list you will receive any news updates via email.

So it's up to you - you can go whichever route you prefer - or all of them!!

LINKS - Updated

NEWS ARCHIVE - Previous "Alien World News" articles are in the News Archive