Interview with Club le Bomb Gala Band by Christian Lehmann.
11.11.01

Punk's not dead! Retro safety pin fashion and Mohawk hair-dos may have been fucked over, exploited and left discarded in the rubbish bins of a cyclic clothing industry - but PONK Rooaaargh is alive and snotty and all put up to date in the weirdo Munich universe of Club le Bomb - the club, the cult and the Gala Band.
What we at Datamusik offer here is an unique street appearance of Mr and Miss le Bomb and special guest Electric le Sheep improvising over Star Wars serenity and the turmoils of light and darkness in an ever outdated modernity - all brilliantly laid out and deftly executed the ponk rock way on the street in front of a Munich gallery fernissage of an Uncle le Bomb Star Wars exhibit - recorded on a tape deck according to true lo-fi standards, rewarped a bit in the studio and presented to YOU for a real taste of street credibility, Euro trash humour and post millennium ponk rockishness. This is as true as it's gonna get - so dig in and savour the moment.
Tomorrow Club le Bomb Gala Band might be gone or at least transformed into something completely different.
"People tend to get scared or annoyed when something totally different comes up. It's a lot easier to take things you already know and build on them than start from scratch. But we wanted to create something brand new that was funny as well. And we think it's fun. Our only problem is that our equipment keeps breaking down," says Catriona Shaw aka. miss le Bomb.
Club le Bomb started out as an access-for-all Hotmail address and a performance crew at DJ Hell gigs, evolved into a regular Munich Ponk club and have now reached their zenith of artistry with the Gala Band World Tour in Germany and Scotland, releases on Datamusik, ANTIHUND , REIS Records and viralcee.com and an upcoming, much awaited debut EP.
The seed for this experience was laid in 1997, when Catriona moved to Munich from Scotland to study at the Munich Art College. There she met Emanuel 'Mooner' Guenther aka. mr. le Bomb (whom the public might also know as the master mind behind the sick-but-brilliant Erkrankung Durch Musique records.
Catriona arrived to the center of the new retro euro-electro universe and home of DJ Hell and International DJ Gigolo and all the rest - but at that time she was an indie-punkrock girl with no experiences whatsoever with electronic music. She quickly did get involved in the 'scene' - but there were many things she didn't like about it.
"This 80's retro stuff is really getting on my nerves. Everyone was stuck in the retro, everyone took elements from everyone else's music - and generally the German scene just lacked humour. When I arrived, there were parties everywhere but not a lot of fun."
So one night in 1998, when Catriona and Mooner went out walking after an evening at home listening to old punk records, they passed some old public toilets in downtown Munich and were struck by an idea: Why not create a punk rock club?
"We really wanted to create a place that was fun. Where all styles of music were played - and a place where we felt comfortable."
They came up with a name, too - Club le Bomb. And when they soon after that were hired by DJ Hell to do performances at his shows, they started spreading the word. They staged Russian type security checks at the club entrances and passed out fishy flyers to all the guests. Here (without the knowledge of mr. Hell himself), they announced a spoof competition - the main prize being an evening in the VIP lounge with DJ Hell - AND the hotmail address for the 'brand new' Club le Bomb.
"We just wanted to vandalize the whole e-mail idea. We also published the password and had thought of it as some kind of a forum. But soon people started asking about the when and where of the club."
And in April 1999, Club le Bomb came into physical existence. Mooner and Catriona found a cellar room in the center of Munich and opened the doors for 'ponk club nites and ponkformances'. And people loved it.
"We had plastered the whole place with old posters and mixed ANY kind of music. It was loud and lo-fi and the reactions were really hysterical. Loads of people were totally surprised. They would get annoyed by hearing Michael Jackson mixed into the Sex Pistols. But they never left. They wanted to hear what happened next. And I think they enjoyed the wild, carefree atmosphere," Catriona explains.
This atmosphere was a lot different from what the Munich techno/electro crowd was used to in clubs like Atomic Café and Kunstpark Ost
"They're used to this weird, and very serious party atmosphere. DJs want to see people dance, so they put on the exact records they know will please the crowd. It's all very technical. But we were not set up to please in the same way. We just played what we thought was fun. I had never DJ'ed before and still people freaked out."
The Club closed down after five months of party mayhem - but in spite of that and the fact, that FACE magazine last year proclaimed Punk as the new fashion statement, Catriona & co keep the vibe alive with the Gala Band: Weirdo analogue ponk/pop/electro with a lot of weight on the visual & wacky stage performance. The key word for Catriona is fun. Something completely different from it's very German counterpart that e.g. International DJ Gigolo excel in: Jaded irony.
"There's a huge difference between being humorous and being ironic. And that is: Are they having fun or just trying to take the piss out of me? It has to be witty - and stuff like Aphex Twin for example is very witty. Gigolo on the other hand is not witty at all."
For more in-depth Club le Bomb ponk experiences, check out their <a href="http://www.clublebomb.com" target="_new">website</a>