Issue One Cassette Review - 'Good Men Die Quietly!' by Les Zeiga Fleurs Plus Band Interview

Les Zeiga Fleurs were a goth/punk band active on the Hull music scene in the early 1980s. They featured in issues one and two of Kindred Spirit, in fact they were the cover stars of issue two. 

This post features a review of the band's cassette tape - 'Good Men Die Quietly!' followed by an interview we did with the band in 1983.

In issue one of Kindred Spirit my brother wrote the following review of Hull based goth band Les Zeiga Fleurs cassette tape entitled “Good Men Die Quietly!” I’ve managed to track down some of the tracks on You Tube. The recordings are rather tinny with the background hissing those of us who listened to cassette tapes in the 80’s came to accept as normal, but they still give you a flavour of what Les Zeiga Fleurs were all about. My personal favourite track is the Cold October. Check out the accompanying video. It's such a perfect match!

Tracks

01. Les Zeiga Fleurs
02. Could You Love Me?  
03. Searching
04. Cinono  
05. Illusion  
06. Distant Eyes  
07. The Cold October  
08. Vagina Crisis
09. The Signature's Signed
10. In Far Off Days
11. Anyone
12. Trust  
13. Drowning

So here’s the review that was published in Kindred Spirit issue one…

“Who – the something flowers?” You must be thinking, lovingly remembering all those French lessons you sat through at school. Before you all dash for your French-English dictionaries, I should inform you that I have already done so and I’m still none the wiser. But never mind the name, although it probably has some significance to members of the group… Les Zeiga Fleurs are one of several up and coming Hull bands to hit the recording scene recently. The group consists of Ingo – vocals, guitar, keyboards and additional bass; Kamis – keyboards and additional bass; Sharon – bass and Nick – drums. Ingo being responsible for the artwork on the card which comes with the cassette.

In appearance Les Zeiga Fleurs look like your average punk band but placing their music into any one particular category is not quite as simple. Though sometimes as fast and furious as the Anti Nowhere League, their material is far more melodic, with great similarities to the Banshees.

The tape begins with a 43 second instrumental called ‘Les Zeiga Fleurs’. Perhaps this is meant to be a theme tune for the band, or possibly an opportunity to set your tone control to the desired level, as the overall sound is rather tinny on a portable cassette recorder.

After this brief opening three tracks really stand out on the first side. There is ‘Searching’ which reminded me of the B52s Rock Lobster; the excellent ‘Distant Eyes’ and ‘The Cold October’, with lengthy drum and guitar solos towards the end of the track.

Side two begins with the catchy ’Vagina Crisis’. Your guess as to what this is about is as good as mine because the lyrics, as with most tracks are not very easy to decipher. ‘In Far Off Days’ highlights the drumming of Nick Dalton and ‘Trust’ to use the words of Paul Weller ‘appears as if a rant against religion’. I arrived at the conclusion after managing to make out the following lines: “God does not exist/there is no heaven/there is no hell.” Speaks for itself really.

‘Drowning’ begins on the guitar, with the tune of that well know Exploited song about Mods, which somebody wrote a Christmas song around. This is one of the best tracks and is quite unique in that it has about two minutes filled with various different sound effects towards the end. Most of the tracks have original endings instead of the usual fade-outs or piercing feedback.

The 13 track cassette, recorded in Dolby stereo costs £1.50 and is a good first offering from the band.

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Shortly after ‘Good Men Die Quietly’ was released Kindred Spirit featured an interview with Les Zeiga Fleurs.

The interview took place at Ingo and Sharon’s home recording studio (Zeiga Recordings). An interesting little nugget is that Paul Heaton and Stan Cullimore recorded a demo tape with Zeiga somewhere around the 1983 mark which brought them to the attention of Go! Discs and subsequently led to the Housemartins putting Hull on the music map in the years that followed.

Another recording of note that was brought to us courtesy of Zeiga Recordings was an 18 track compilation tape called ‘The Twilight Zone’. This tape gives a real flavour of the music scene in Hull at that time and features bands such as The Gargoyles, Quel Dommage, Poor Howard and another very early offering by The Housemartins.

For a full listing and more information about the bands included check out the excellent Hull Music Archive website. 

Here is the interview with Les Zeiga Fleurs featured in issue two of Kindred Spirit:

Those of you (sensible people) who read issue one of Kindred Spirit should already be familiar with Hull band Les Zeiga Fleurs, as we featured an in-depth review of their first cassette “Good Men Die Quietly”.

To enlighten those unfortunate people who didn’t read issue one of Kindred Spirit, very briefly the band’s material is in places not totally unlike the early Banshees, but the overall effect created is individualistic with an emphasis on melody.

Formed last October LZF played their first gig after only three weeks together. According to Ingo “they went down like a bomb” and since that time have continued to build up a strong following in and around Hull.

“Good Men Die Quietly” which was released earlier this year sold out quickly and by the time you read this, the band’s second cassette should have been launched on the unsuspecting public.

But before going any further, if only to quell my curiosity, what exactly does the name mean?

Nick: We were going to plan our answer for this but we just haven’t a clue what it means!

Ingo: It doesn’t mean a thing.

So who thought of it?

Ingo: I did. It was a dream I had. It was a bit like this Triffid kind of creature that devoured people. I woke up and that was the name of the plant things - Zeiga Fleurs. I thought it was a good name for a band.

Do you all write your songs together?

Ingo: It’s mainly me. I come up with the basic ideas and the rest put their own bits together. Like I show Kamis the chords and he puts his own style to it, then I show Sharon the bass line and she adds bits to it. And Nick does the rest.

Nick: It’s just guesswork!

Ingo: Eventually we end up with a song.

Do you ever try and deliver political messages via your music?

Nick: No, mostly sexual ones - it’s much nicer.

Ingo: There’s only one political song and that’s “The Cold October”, about the October revolution, and that’s only ’cause it turned out that way.

Nick: We have got our own political views, but we don’t really put them into the songs.

Ingo: No we don’t believe in pressing or joining things like CND and all the rest of it. Joining movements and going on marches don’t work. People don’t listen to them. Maggie Thatcher’s sat in number ten thinking “what a bunch of prats they are. That won’t change my mind.” So we won’t lower ourselves to that kind of thing.

We think your music is similar to some of the early punk. Do you agree?

Ingo: Punk’s the nearest thing.

Nick: It’s self-styled. It’s not a sort of cliche.

But you have a largely punk following.

Ingo: Not really. It’s a mixture of everything. I mean we get people of 30 and 40 coming to see us as well as skinheads and mods.

Nick: We didn’t originally set out to be a punk band. From our appearance we may look like it... it’s just that we’ve got fuck all else to wear I suppose.

Ingo: We hate anything like The Exploited, they just totally don’t interest us. I still like the old stuff like Buzzcocks, the Pistols... they’re still the greatest.

Nick: I don’t even know half of these modern punk bands, there’s so many of them. I absolutely detest most of them.

Ingo: There’s only really Killing Joke that are still classed as a punk band that we listen to.

Have you any record companies showing an interest in you?

Ingo: Beggars Banquet. That’s about all. We haven’t really pushed ourselves enough yet.

How interested were they?

Ingo: They wanted our tape and just general information on us.

Nick: Inside leg measurements, colour of eyes, Swiss bank account number...

Ingo: They wrote back saying they were all full up.

Did you advertise your tape much?

Ingo: We hardly ever advertise for anything. Like when we’re playing, we rarely put posters up. We just tell people we’re playing and if they wanna come they come.

Sharon: At the moment we’re a kind of cult in Hull.

Have you been in touch with John Peel at all?

Ingo: Well no, basically because he gets so many anyway. What we’ll probably do is bug him first, get him interested in the name. He’s coming to Hornsea soon, so we might pile up there one night.

Can you tell us more about some of the other bands who might be using your porta studio?

Ingo: We’re doing a comp... copulation tape including some of our solo stuff and hopefully about 10 or 15 local bands.

Sharon: We had a Country and Western singer using it once.

When is the copulation tape coming out?

Ingo: Probably about December.

Nick: As soon as possible.

What did you think of the way The Alarm dropped out of their Spiders (in Hull) gig at the last minute?

Nick: Well The Alarm wouldn’t touch that place now they’re megastars!

Ingo: It’s because they’ve got a single in the charts.

Sharon: And they’re pop stars.

Ingo: Yeah even though they sound like The Clash and look like U2. I mean, bands get the information on a sheet - exactly what size stage they’re gonna be using and everything about that venue, so they knew beforehand. There’s no way on earth a band like them would come along and say, “Oh is that the stage?” It’s just a case of being pop stars.

Would you like to appear on Top of the Pops?

Ingo: Oh yes definitely. It sells records.

Are you going to make it?

Nick: Yes.

Ingo: Definitely. We’re pretty confident on that. I don’t think we’re in any sort of style at the moment. We’re pretty original.

Nick: Oh we’re going to succeed. There’s no doubt about it.

Any final messages to anyone reading this feature?

Ingo: No I can’t think of anything. We’re shit hot though!

Nick: We do it ‘cause we just love it.

Ingo: Yes at the moment we’re not in it for any particular reason apart from the fact that we like playing. Eventually we want to be little rich bastards, who all have 20,000 Porsche each, two Rolls Royces at least and our own cigarette factory, distillery, record company, WORLD!

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