Life&Metal behind the iron curtain ..

[soulflypl]

Reading OfficerN thread about being a Metalhead - that had many references to the past … I got inspired to write you this … sorry folks it turned out to be veeeery loooong.

… I wonder how many of you know how did life look like behind the "iron curtain" ? … and how people here were getting in touch with metal music? … you have no idea you say …ok, I will tell you …. If you manage to believe what I am going to write …

First life in general.
The word that would give you the best idea of living in this country in early&mid 80's is … "THE LINE". That is what you will not be able to understand - and I am very happy for you - but life that time was concentrated on standing in LINES. The amount of stuff in the shops was so limited!!!!! For example - basic product - ham. In 80's in USA you would go to the corner shop - buy 4 slices of it coz you just lacked some for breakfast. In Poland you were lucky if someone told you that the next day there would be a ham delivery in the shop at the other end of your 50.000 people city. So … you are well informed - you go to that shop couple of hours earlier, but of corz the LINE is already there!!! So - you stand in LINE for like 3-4 hours - you get to the counter ….but the best stuff is already gone ….nevermind, you will buy ANYTHING just to come back home with something …. So you ask for 1 kg of ham…..
But wait! Here you've got another problem! There was certain period in Poland when every citizen was entitled to get only limited amount of certain goods - each month you were getting some little governmental papers that enabled you to get f.e. 3 kg of meat per month, 1 kg of sugar per month etc. You couldn't buy more. My family was lucky enough coz we don't use sugar - so we could exchange our sugar for the neighbour's meat
And most lacking product of the eighties?? Toilet paper!!! No fuckin' toilet paper! - if you wanted to have your ass clean and done it nice&comfortable way - you would have to move to Germany - Western Germany to be precise . Other option - stand for hours in LINE - and if you were lucky you would get some!
That's about everyday stuff - I am not talking about stuff like furniture, bathroom equipment - in order to get those you had to stand in LINE - for days, weeks - of corz there were lists done so you could go home for dinner but it was better to be there all the time in order not to be thrown out of the LINE.
Now, don't ask me how long you have to wait for your own flat ….. that ain't even funny.

Let's move to the music field now.
I started listening to metal music around the age of 13 - if you can call Europe's Final Countdown metal :Spin: - ok seriously I was around 13 when I got Iron Maiden's "666" cassette.
So below you will find some info on how you would get access to music and metal music in particular in the late 80's in Poland.
Officially there was one governmental music-selling firm "Polskie Nagrania" and if my memory is correct they had a very wide offer of metal music let me write it for you:
1. Helloween - Keeper of the seven keys
…. And THAT"S ALL I CAN REMEMBER from back then!!!!! - and I started drinking vodka a bit later so there might be an album more that I didn't recall but generally that's it!

So - of corz - black market - and remember - no legal copyrights act at that time in Poland - total freedom of stealing intellectual property.
So actually some guys that had some money went abroad - bought tons of discs there - came to Poland and started copying to music cassettes. I mean you had to buy your own cassette go to them and couple of days later you would get it back with the album recorded - that's how I got my "Number of the beast" when I was around 13.
CD?? - I actually didn't see a metal CD till I guess 1990 - didn't even dream about having a Cdplayer - it was totally beyond our financial capabilities those days.
Clean music cassettes? Here is some funny stuff - actually it was very hard to get them in Poland - we got some Polish ones - terrible stuff - but even those were hard to get!
TDK or Sony music cassette was a dream of every teenager in Poland - so if your parents were rich enough or decided not to have dinner for a week you could go to a shop called "PEWEX" - there you could get imported stuff - of corz for $ only.
A teenager that had an original TDK cassette was SOMEONE in the neighbourhood. Even the act of opening it was a ceremony - this folic stuff on the outside had to be carefully taken off and saved as a total fucking treasure!!!!
Beginning of the 90's it obviously got better - in Warsaw we had like 4 shops that you could buy music cassettes in - this time you didn't have to leave your own cassette for recording - you were buying already recorded stuff (remember I am still not talking about the original music cassettes that came from the production company - I am talking about some cheapest cassettes bought in western countries that someone recorder with metal music and sold in Poland)
That's how we grew up

Now the bands - Vio-Lence, Forbidden, Heathen, Defiance ??? Forget it!!! Most of Metalheads didn't even know that such bands exist, and even if they knew it was very close to the miracle if you could get their music somehow.
Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, then Megadeth, AC/DC, Death - obviously the most popular bands in Poland. Officer - you wrote how Bay Area folks are sensitive about their metal - so the same goes for those bands above especially the first 3
Iron Maiden. Metallica, Slayer - Polish Holy 3. Those bands you couldn't touch - "THEY WERE THE METAL KINGS" :hotjump: © Eric Adams
I must say it works even today - some examples.

Metallica - most of people of my generation will never say Metallica sucks :Spin: Even if they started recording Irish folk music we would say - Hey what a great fuckin' music !!!
It is obvious that I love first 4 albums and know every note there and when it comes to this ReLoad sth -I don't even know most of the songs - but it is still Metallica - I cannot forget what they meant to me in 80/90. Sorry! So couple of days ago they announced Metallica gig in Poland - and I am fuckin excited!!!! I can't wait - I want to see them now!! (especially with those set lists that they are playing now). For you guys there it is one of the many bands - for me it is METALLICA - when I was 16 my mother didn't shout "turn this metal music off!!" No. No matter what I had on my cassette player she shouted " Turn this Metallica thing off!!" and I would shout back "Jump in the fire"

Slayer - in Poland means "extreme metal = extreme fans". It is like this even today - every metal kid in Poland knows this story. Late 90's Slayer came to Poland with SOAD supporting ….. so u are guessing they got boooed off stage? …no …not boooed. While they played first songs the crowd shouted "Slayer" and "Fuck off" - they didn't get the message - so it needed to be some extra lunch boxes thrown in their faces till they run out off the stage. Get the picture?
BTW - I am not proud of this - I think it' a fucking shame - but it's a fact.

How does it look like now?
Well - I guess like elsewhere in Western Europe, but still if I want to get Death Angel Cds I have to order them in USA That's why I envy you Bay Area folks - and I feel like I am down with knowledge about metal because of those lost years - that is hard to catch up. Look what happened! When I started listening to metal Pyrus was the sweetest dream of his parents or (at best) was using the ladder to climb the carpet or called "Look Mam, Zorro" when he saw a priest.
Now I think I should pay him for some lectures on Bay Area metal

Hope I didn't bore you to death.

 

[one man]

So true, soulfly. I obviousely don't remember that much from these days, but I recall standing in a queue for 8 hours to buy some chocolate and end up buying a 1 kg of cheese, because it was there. I remember standing in line just because there was a line and finding out after a couple of hours what are you standing there for. I used to be more than just extremely happy whenever I was able to eat a banana or an orange. Ahh, those were the days.
As for metal, I remember even less, because I wasn't that much into it when I was like 4 years old. However I do remember my father bringing some "pirate tapes" from the black market (or sent to him by someone from behind the curtain) of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin or AC/DC back in the day and treating them as a real trasure.
Some bands used to visit Poland in those days, though. Overkill, Metallica, Budgie- that's what I remember and it was a very important contact with a piece of the then-idolized-Western-Free-World for those hords of metalheads who attended the shows. I believe the first official releases of metal records begun in 1990 (?), but the metal albums used to be played whole in the radio just after the release (Testament's first two, Vio-lence, Death Angel...)
As for the fans now- yes, some of them (especially Slayer fans) are very specific, so to say- and ready to fight hard for their band's good name, no matter how far from the roots and early quality this band is wandering.
As for DA's CDs- I bought Ultraviolence in Poland . I'm pretty sure I've heard people are having problems with getting them elsewhere too, so I wouldn't worry.
What bothers me the most is the delay in the release of a record here, compared to the original release date (it refers to the smaller labels in particular, like Spitfire). I know I've been complainig about it for quite a while, but that's really annoying as fuck and drastically decreases the sales. my 2 cents

 

[Deadly Embrace]

My God.............I can't imagine that............thanks for enlighting.....the Western World............those were excellant descriptions.........this thread is so heavy...........you've proved that your REAL METALHEADS..........& appeciate Music as a way of life!...............so much sacrafice & dedication, things most of us over here, take for granted..........

 

[HemiGTX]

Holy shit...you know, I know a tiny bit of the dedication of the some of the polish death metal bands, and how hard it is to keep going (let alone just practicing), and the religous aspects. But, I'll keep that to myself for now.

Thank you so much for exchanging information like you just did. I feel a like I got a peak into you world. THANKS!


Now, I wish I could send you some TP, sugar, smoked salmon (canned) and some CDs.

There's no way that bored me. I'd love to hear more.

 

[HemiGTX]

the end records has a European division....do you look at their site? Or order directly from the labels? CM, NB, MB, etc. have European divisions. What do you guys do?

Tell me how you get your music, please! Do people download a lot, trade, email tracks...how do you get it now?

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

Boring? hell no. That's what I call respectable

 

[MindInsane]

Wow...what a great and educational post! Thanks for the enlightenment! Makes me feel like a spoiled whiney ass brat! It also makes me want to burn you my entire cd collection...well...most of it anyway You guys probably wouldn't be interested in 3rd Eye blind..haha!

 

[SAZZ]

Now the bands - Vio-Lence, Forbidden, Heathen, Defiance ??? Forget it!!! Most of Metalheads didn't even know that such bands exist, and even if they knew it was very close to the miracle if you could get their music somehow.

im very surprised i found these groups in Maine. back in the 80's around here was all about the hair bands. i didnt read the whole story at 1st cause im not much of a reader but i couldnt imagine what it feels like to go thru what you did for your music, actually your life in general. i work with 5 Polish guys & they told me similiar stories like yours. reading a story like yours makes me happy to be an American, to live freely, choose what i want to do with my life, live it the way i want to & to buy whatever & not being told what to do & when to do it. we Americans are spoiled, BIGTIME

 

[Lies and Perfidy]

Man, I feel like such a whiny bitch now.

Seriously, great post, man. Very informative, very emotionally affecting, and very METAL. Thanks for that.

 

[Super Mahrio]

Hmmmmm......i dunno...thats interesting....nice story!
it doesnt make me feel like a whiney brat however...it does remind me of people i hung out with in the early to mid 90s...
metal in the old days...hmmmm..my brain is kinda tired..ill tell my story some other time

 

[soulflypl]

Thanx for cool reactions everybody! And for sparing some time on reading our Polish stories.



I guess I also wanted to make you think about that fact that some things that you take for granted aren’t/weren’t granted to some people in other parts of the world. Freedom of speech, right to choose a job, freedom of journey.



Will add just two more sentences.

1.When you were finishing your studies in Poland in 70’s you couldn’t choose a job – you were given the order – hey you will work here and you will work there, cool huh?

2.Passport – a dream of each Pole back in 70’s 80’s – going abroad? Not so easy. Your local governmental branch was keeping all the passports – you had to give good reasons and be politically correct in order to be able to go abroad.



Enough of this, bbrrrr!



Also thanx for food packages offers:Spin: but I have to tell you this – now Poland is more or less like any other western European country. We got all we want and can afford.

Btw 1.05.2004 we are joining European Community. So those bad times are gone for good I hope!:Smokin:



Music – how do we get music? – it is ok now.

Last 3-4 years they opened some really big music stores in Warsaw with cool metal sections – so f.e. if I made a list of 10 cds I would like to get - then:

1.After spending an afternoon on visiting 3 biggest music shops I would have let’s say half of the list covered.

2.The rest I could buy ordering it via internet in Poland

3.Some stuff I would still have to order in USA – recently – above mentioned DA, Infectious Grooves (funky band based on Suicidal Tendencies members) , Attention Deficit (Alex)



I usually don’t download – sometimes just to check a song or a band – but if I like it I try to go for an original plus I am not really fond of mp3 sound. But downloading is pretty popular in Poland.

There are a couple of firms that are in touch with metal labels and so we got most of the stuff available for us now – but – as High Priest wrote – there are some problems.

F.e. stuff from Spitfire is always late – I hope this will not be the case with new Testament.

Another problem – still a lot of bands avoid eastern European countries during their tours … hope that will change!



Death Metal musician in Poland – well they don’ have an easy life – Polish society is very catholic and – unfortunately – still very prejudiced.



The most successful Polish musicians (all streams apart from classical music) that made it abroad – is clearly Vader. But if you asked about them in Poland – only metalheads will tell you that, the rest of the people has no idea about the fact that such a band exists.



That would be it…

 

[Vic Rattlehead]

This might be a weird question, but where did lunch boxes come from at that Slayer concert you talked about?

 

[Officer Nice]

Hey Sounds like Pyrus needs more prune juice....



That post was unreal. Simply unbelievable. Makes you look at things
in an entirely different way. Thanks dude for posting that.
I feel like my cranium grew a few millimeters and I'm more enlightened
now and more grateful.


Oh, this may be off-topic, but do you guys get really good weed in
Poland?

 

[soulflypl]

This might be a weird question, but where did lunch boxes come from at that Slayer concert you talked about?

Sorry - I thought it was obvious (?)
From the audience.
The audience was throwing food&and everything they had in range at them.

 

[soulflypl]

Oh, this may be off-topic, but do you guys get really good weed in
Poland?

When i was into it - which was like ...hmmm seven years ago ... there was a lot of stuff - starting with some useless shit - ending on some chemically imroved very strong one.

no problem with access to MJ

 

[Vic Rattlehead]

Sorry - I thought it was obvious (?)
From the audience.
The audience was throwing food&and everything they had in range at them.

Oh no, I was wondering though, like why food and lunch boxes were at the concert.

 

[Steiner]

Great thread guys and girls. Makes me think. When I was a kid I thought it was such a bitch to mow the lawn or pick up dog shit so I could make some extra money to ride my bike down to Tower records and buy Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, Pro-Pain, Prong, etc. I had it easy.

 

[Insania]

One of the best threads, man. I have nothing to say, what could I after that? Having to push does, though, make you a better person for it.

Catching up on metal -- that might be a good thing, 'cause even now you'll still come across some obscure older stuff that'll make you think back to the first time you got that Maiden tape... it's that cherry high we all look for when we discover some good metal -- and no one can fuck with that...

 

[one man]

Oh no, I was wondering though, like why food and lunch boxes were at the concert

Simple- people had known the line-up some time before the concert so they prepared themselves to greet their nu-metal friends.

Or were you asking how did they get that food (having in mind that it was hard to get that stuff here back in the day)? Well, this concert was already in the times of "democracy and access to various forms of food", which means after the "Autumn of the Nations" '89/'90

:Spin:

 

[Vic Rattlehead]

Simple- people had known the line-up some time before the concert so they prepared themselves to greet their nu-metal friends.

Works for me!