This letter column is brought to you courtesy of four pints of IPA bitter and a box of home-made cookies. Let’s start with the random abuse.

David Thomson, Newcastle – “You’re talking bollocks again, I’m afraid [Again? Again? Oh, the ‘Scarecrows’ review.]. I loved this and I think it’s by far the most inventive horror film I’ve seen for at least, oooh, five years. Did you see it in a cinema or on video? I saw it at an all-nighter at my local cinema and thought at the time how much weaker it would be on video”.

I can quite believe it was better at the cinema – it would have been hard pushed to be worse. Things that work in THX sensurround Dolby often don’t on 22″ of glass at home, and this film must be one of them. Further disagreement, over the talents of Christopher Lee:

Mick Slatter, Crawley – “I personally think Lee’s talents as an actor are screamingly overrated; a cultivated voice and the ability to put on a half decent foreign accent do not a thespian make…I must correct you for the dialogue by Lugosi in ‘I Changed My Sex’. He doesn’t say “Beware, beware, beware…” he says “bevare, bevare, bevare”. Although I laughed with everyone else, I felt a bit sorry for Wood as I’m sure he was quite sincere”.

Paul Higson, Chorley – “‘Eat Them Alive’ also had me chuckling. Have you read ‘Keller: The Cannibal’ – I have planned to run a list of the best quotes/sarcasm in a future ‘Bleeders Digest’…trapped in tunnels in Vietnam, Kondor a forgotten soldier is alone, but others (Vietcong) are trapped too: “The candle went out and the eating stopped. Kondor heard a man snoring. Then what sounded like a burp. A burp. My God. He covered his face and wept.” John Martin’s favourite line from it is “You fuck. You stupid anthropophagist””.

Paul Kevern of Blandford must have written something interesting as his letter is in the pile, but I’m damned if I can find out what. “I enclose œ1 for TC7” seems to have been underlined in red… Andy Waller, Bromsgrove describes himself as “a difficult guy to satisfy” and says “the front [of TC6] is really a blatant and unapologetic salute to sexism”, a phrase that rings bells for some reason – fortunately, he continues “It’s a total knockout”. Phew.

Glyn Williams, Derby – “The Roadrunner article was a little gem…It would have been fair, however, to make at least a brief mention of Michael Maltese who actually wrote so many of the Roadrunner scripts”. Fair comment. It’s easy to forget that there was an awful lot more to the scripts than ‘Beep Beep’!!

Mikael Bomark, Sweden – “The Godzilla series showing on English TV sound just too fucking wild!!!!!! Can you tell me which episodes you have taped???? If you taped any?? sure you did, Jim. Got to have taped some….PLEASE!!!”.

Er, well actually, I recorded none of them, Friday nights being reserved for the TC weekly drool-over-Oriental-girls-in-PVC-miniskirts outing down the local Goth-pit, but I’m sure some of our readers will have done so. Mikael’s address is in the ‘zines section and you would, I’m sure, receive his eternal gratitude and list of tapes… Continuing themes from previous issues:

Cathy Barwick, Cambridge, while in hospital – “One of the nurses went to work in King’s Lynn and nursed NK during the filming of ‘Revolution’ – she couldn’t say why NK was there, but said she wasn’t very nice. Sorry to disappoint you, tho’ I doubt you’ll allow her opinion to alter yours!”.

Quite correct.

Steve Moss, Chessington – “I read of a Swedish band called To’emn Skr’umn (or summit like that) who allegedly had a song which included seven verses in ‘slightly less than one second’. No sign in this TC of the story of Sinead O’Connor and the vacuum cleaner – but enough about my fantasies”.

Yes, more than enough – you’ll notice, Steve, it didn’t make it into this issue either… And to finish off with, more evidence that TC is walking a very thin line comes from these two letters, which arrived in the same post :

• Andrew McGavin, Liverpool – “Nightmares 6 contained the usual quota of hilarious one-liners. You should give it four pages instead of just two”.
• Sunil Ranmal, Leicester – “The two stories you printed were crap – don’t do it again”.

One man’s crap is another man’s hilarious, or some such phrase. The biscuits are gone, the letters pile is empty and the IPA is wearing off. More random jottings next time.

When I die, assuming there’s such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back to Earth as Rutger Hauer. Best known for his role as a replicant in ‘Blade Runner’, he’s played good guys, bad guys and a variety in between, all of them eminently plausible, and has even found time to increase the sales of Guinness on the way. Impressively, he’s done most of this in a foreign language.

His finest moment so far is undoubtedly ‘The Hitcher’. His performance as John Ryder, who torments an innocent driver (C. Thomas Howell) to the edge of sanity and beyond, is the most calmly evil (as opposed to the manic evil of Hopper and Nicholson) ever seen. He doesn’t rant, he doesn’t rave, he just remains supremely in control throughout the film; you get the feeling, right up until the end, that it’s all some grisly ballet he’s choreographed. His wickedly twisted sense of style and humour as he sets up his victim as a mass murderer make it a wonderfully warped experience. Even when not on screen, his presence dominates the movie.

A slightly more flamboyantly ambivalent side to his character can be seen in ‘Flesh and Blood’, directed by Paul Verhoeven. To start with, Hauer is undoubtedly a bad guy, raping Jennifer Jason Leigh (who suffers more Rutger-abuse in ‘The Hitcher’ when she is used as an ineffective tow-rope), looting, killing and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it. By the end of the movie, however, we can’t help feeling a sneaking admiration for him – he seems somehow more HUMAN than the hero. One dodgy angle is that JJ-L chooses to go off with him, suggesting women ‘like it rough’, but let’s face it, he’s certainly more interesting than the competition.

That wasn’t Hauer’s first film under Paul Verhoeven. The top Dutch director had previously teamed up with the top Dutch actor for ‘Spetters’ (1980), an offbeat tale about motorcycle racers starring Rene Soutendijk (who also played the Black Widow to great effect in Verhoeven’s ‘The Fourth Man’); it’s available on video, and is worth keeping an eye out for, although, like all Dutch films, it suffers from bad dubbing. Even earlier (1973) Verhoeven & Hauer made ‘The Sensualist’ with Hauer as a sculptor who suffers from bizarre hallucinations – uncertain reality being a theme common in Verhoeven’s films). This was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film the following year. And right back in the late 60’s, a TV series called ‘Floris’ and set in medieval times, was produced by the duo.

‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ is probably the nearest to a ‘straight’ action pic Rutger’s done. Hauer is a bounty-hunter and the owner of a VERY impressive collection of weaponry, he sets off after a terrorist who specialises in bombing cinemas. A very solid thriller, propelled into the realms of greatness by a brilliant ending [ WARNING Ending about to be revealed! ] – eventually the villain is captured, and led to the police with a hand-grenade in his mouth and Rutger holding the pin. He gets the cheque, plus the bonus for live capture, but on considering all the pain the guy caused him, blowing up his boat, his girl and his best friend, only one option is open. “Fuck the bonus”, he says, hands it back, pulls the grenade pin out and walks away… Sublimely cool.

His most recent movie to be released is ‘Blind Fury’, directed by Philip Noyce (‘Dead Calm’). Rutger plays the hero, Nick Kelly, who is blinded in Vietnam but rescued by the locals who teach him to live with his disability, and also educate him in sword-fighting skills. On his return to America, he has a run in with drug-dealing casino owners, who try to kidnap the son of a chemist to force him to make designer drugs. The chemist is one of Rutger’s old army buddies, so conflict naturally ensues. An impressive performance by Hauer, who is totally convincing, and a dryly funny stance (best shown when the hero ‘accidentally’ wipes the floor with four thugs in a bar) more than makeup for the lack of arterial fluid and just about undo the damage done to blind people by ‘The Toxic Avenger’!

Then, of course, there’s ‘Blade Runner’. What more needs to be said? The last twenty minutes (omitting the tacked-on postscript) combine tension, atmosphere and superb acting from both Harrison Ford and Hauer, to produce undoubtedly the best section of an already brilliant movie. Totally unforgettable.

This isn’t the only case where Hauer has shown he can act with the best of them. ‘The Legend of the Holy Drinker’ (see TC3) had him playing a down-and-out in Paris who receives a gift from a mysterious stranger, which leads to all sorts of complications. No effects, action sequences or other distractions just a vivid demonstration of his talent, generating sympathy for the character and provoking laughter and sadness with equal ease.

The list goes on. Although ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’ has been quietly buried by the industry, ‘Salute to the Jugger’, ‘Escape From Sobibor’, ‘Night Hawks’ (with Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Gillis among others) and ‘Ladyhawke’ are all worthy of praise, not to mention the mouth-watering prospect of the as yet unreleased ‘Up To Date with Nastassja Kinski. However, I can’t finish without mention of his adverts for Guinness, the only advertising campaign ever to directly succeed in making me buy the product. Employed because of his resemblance to a pint of Guinness when dressed in black (seriously!), he transformed the adverts into something weird & wonderful, the total antithesis of the highly nauseating Gold Blend, isn’t-it-nice-to-be-a-yuppie commercials.

Overall, if we’re looking for a way to sum up the man, the best thing we can do is borrow a phrase from the product that he’s singlehandedly made cool. Rutger Hauer is… PURE GENIUS

Filmography

• 1969 Floris (TV series)
• 1973 The Sensualist (Turkish Delight / Turks’ Delight)
• 1974 The Wilby Conspiracy
• 1975 Keetje Tippel [Kathy Tippel]
  Contrabande
  Pusten Blumen
  Der Wilde Blonde mit der Heissen Machine
  Cancer Rising
  Der Amulet des Todes
• 1977 Man of Orange (Soldier of Orange / Survival Run)
  Max Havelaar
• 1978 Pastorale 43
• 1979 Grigpastra und Deigier

• 1980 Spetters
  Femme entre Chien et Loup
  Mysteries (co-prod, script)
  Night Hawks
• 1981 Chanel Solitaire
• 1982 Inside the Third Reich (TV)
  Blade Runner
• 1983 The Osterman Weekend
  Eureka
• 1984 A Breed Apart
• 1985 Flesh and Blood
  Ladyhawke
• 1986 The Hitcher
  Wanted: Dead or Alive
• 1987 Escape from Sobibor (TV)
  Bloodhounds of Broadway
• 1989 Legend of the Holy Drinker
  Salute of the Jugger
  Up to Date (On a Moonlit Night)
• 1990 Blind Fury
  The Castle

This issue of Trash City is dedicated to Mark Durante. Mark is one of the guitarists with a band called The Revolting Cocks. They have single-handedly restored my faith in the music business as an oasis of free spirits, wild souls and truly weird individuals. This is their story…

The band were recently playing a club in Houston, as part of their world tour. Now, their latest LP takes the piss out of Texan rednecks – it’s called ‘Beers, Steers and Queers’, so it was no real surprise when the gig was picketed by a group of fundamentalist Christians with no sense of humour (is there any other sort?). No matter, the concert went on. Lead RevCos singer, Al Jourgensen, had also hired ten head of cattle for the occasion which were supposed to be driven on stage and into the audience during the encore, the title track from the LP.

His position during the whole concert was on the back of a mechanical bucking bronco, but during the song ‘Stainless Steel Providers’, a number unlikely to be played on Radio 1 dealing as it does with the joys of artificially inseminating cows, he got off the horse and started simulating sex with it. Oh, and he also had a flamethrower strapped between his legs and at the ‘climax’, this was set off and incinerated the machine. This was too much for the local police, who stopped the concert and charged the band with lewd and lascivious behaviour, incitement to riot and cruelty to animals!

Fortunately, no-one wanted to press charges. Even the promoter, who previously had only booked country and western acts, thought the RevCos were wonderful. The police left, but the show was dead so the band members went back-stage and got plastered. Sometime later, Mr. Durante woke up alone, the rest of the band having headed back to the hotel. He staggered out of the venue and hailed a cab but it didn’t stop, so not unnaturally he hurled a brick at it.

This was a mistake, as it wasn’t a taxi at all, but a police car.

Durante was arrested and searched, the cops finding two tabs of LSD on him and adding a charge of male prostitution to the list on account of the Revolting Cocks T-shirt he was wearing (the reports do not say what was actually on it to provoke this response!). He was eventually released on $3,000 bail and will stand trial round about the time I write this.

The band should, legal complications permitting, play London in November. TC will be there, needless to say, if they do and a full report of the goings-on will appear in the next issue.

Distribution: TC6 was available from Forbidden Planet and Psychotronic Videos (both London), the FP shop in Cardiff, Artware of Germany (eventually!) and Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham. Thanks to Phil Mielewczyk, Andy Waller, Roman Gottinger for the ‘Reform School Girls’ LP, my pal Dario, Paul Mallinson, the Men in Black again, Malibu Graphics, Damien Drake (for last issue), Damien Drake (for this issue), Angie who likes cheese ‘n’ onion crisps and anyone else whom I’ve forgotten.

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[2020 update. It appears the reports of the concert above were rather exaggerated by the music press. While Durante was indeed arrested, for the reasons described, the show was not quite as apocalyptic. Jason Pettigrew of Alternative Press was on tour with the band, said of the published version, “A better dream sequence could not have been directed by David Lynch.” But I thoroughly recommend his account of the tour, for pure entertainment value. I found some video of the show on YouTube. If chaotic, it seems almost tame, compared to the London show. More on which next issue, as promised]

Trash City – Issue 7

Autumn 1990

TC-shirts! The picture on the TC-shirt has now been selected and produced. and I think it sums up the emos of TC fairly well: Nastassja Kinski and a blood-spattered chainsaw. Oh. and NK isn’t wearing anything. did I mention this? It’s tasteful. however. since it’s a back view with her looking over her shoulder. All in all, very nice and not something you could find offensive unless your sense of reality had been short-circuited. Unfortunately, the man in the T-shirt printers could have been who P.J.O’Rourke • was writing about when he said “People who worry themselves sick over sexism…can not he expected to have a sense of humour”. “That’s sexist. We’ve got a policy against that”. said the printer, and refused to print it. So much for civil liberties. I am now determined to make sure they got done, and now I know the text on it: “TRASH CITY – the shirt they tried to ban…”

This is TC7, an organ. probably a gall bladder. for the free expression of views, especially when the views are about Nastassja Kinski, films. books. comics, music. death, travel. TV or the problems caused by small-minded people who refuse to accept the validity of views other than their own. I still have a handful of TC6. our Japanese special. but hurry: the rest are gone, but ask as I occasionally run some off.

Credits

Chief Civil Liberties Slugger: Jim McLennan. Artistic freedom: Per Porter. Freedom for Fonts: Steve Welburn. People being allowed to express their opinions: Alun Fairbum, Roman Giittinger. Tony I.ee, Des Lewis. Andrew McGavin, Jim McLennan, Per Porter, David Thompson & Andy Waller. Printers. who have never tried to interfere with us: Copyprint, London.

A strong pound means a hike in $-rates. £-rates will reflect new postage soon but for the moment, the sub. rates (min. 2 issues) are 60p/issue UK, $1.50 Europe, $3 elsewhere. A label on the envelope tells you the last one you’ll get + how much is left over after it. This is slitting my own throat and doesn’t even cover production costs let alone postage. but goes back to when I produced TC on the computer at work. Single issues are £1 ($2 $4) including postage – this just about breaks even. I sell copies to shops for 75p, so a £1.25 shop price seems fair. Cheques/PO’s to Jim McLennan. Contributions are welcome. and I reserve the right to publish correspondence unless specifically asked not to. Send everything to:
Jim McLennan. 247 Underhill Road. E.Dulwich. LONDON. SE22 OPB

Contents

1-3	The Usual Stuff	30-31	Italia Nightly?
4-6	Fuck the bonus!	32-33	Nothing to do with parks…
7	The Things on the Mat	34-35	Hiroshima strikes back
8-9	The Other Things on the Mat	36-37	Real to reel
10-13	Zombie Car Park Massacre	38-39	Let’s get outta here!
14-15	The New York Tripper	40-41	!Natas evol uoy yas
16-19	It Came From Toronto	42-43	Something to do with parks
20-22	Rule Britannia	44	For better, for hearse
23-26	Phoebe Cates (+some other stuff)	45-47	“I’ll have my revenge. and…”
27-29	Oh, God, not another festival!!	48	Almost a Kinski-free issue!