Battery

Trying to mop up some more stuff I got this year, and I realised there were two records I could lump together, because both are from the same band, and both were also gifts from fellow collectors.

After many years in the wilderness, Battery reformed this year to play at Damaged City Fest in Washington, DC. In my mind it was in Summer, but looking online and it seems it was back at the start of April. Crazy. Anyway, they recorded a new song and Revelation also released a 'greatest hits' type LP in time for the occassion. As you may expect, when an old straight edge band reforms and Rev outs out a record, demand was gonna be high, but thankfully my man in DC and fellow test press chaser, Chris, picked a record up for me at the show. It was a few weeks before he sent it, but somehow I just realised I never got around to featuring it on here until the end of the year. I think this is because I was waiting for the other versions to show up to feature them all at once, although for one reason of another I didn't actually get around to pick up and further copies.

These first copies made for Damaged City came without the thick booklet that the subsequent pressings had, and were numbered out of 200 copies. Definitely the most 'DIY' looking of all the versions that came out.

So after Damaged City, and the Rev record being released, the band then announced a European tour for the end of the year. Here's a video I shot of the opening song from their set in Leeds, which was the first night of the tour. Most of the band members had only landed in the UK that day, so were slightly jet lagged. I'd spent good money and time travelling to Leeds for this show, as I firmly believed it would be a better show than the London show the night after, but from what I've seen it was probably the weakest show of the tour. The venue wasn't full and the energy just wasn't quite there. But the band still played well.

Despite the lack of energy, I still had a great night. I spent an hour or so after the show chatting to Ken and Mike about all kinds of things. It was fun. And I saw some friends I'd not seen in a while. And I got to see a bit of Leeds again. So all in all a good night.

After the UK, Battery went on to Europe for a week or so. The final show was at Conne Island in Leipzig, Germany. The venue is now world famous in record collecting circles after both Sick Of It All and Gorilla Biscuits made special edition records for shows they played there. Like a lot of these older bands, Battery played there in the past and always went down well, so it seemed a fitting place to end the tour. And to coincide with the show, Unity Worldwide Records made a special repress of the first Battery 7", featuring different artwork. I didn't even try to get a copy, as I figured I would have no chance, but my man in Germany and fellow Bane collector, Ralf, came through for me and sent me this 7" as a thanks for helping him out with something.

I've always been a fan of detail, and I love how they translated the song titles into German for the back cover of this. Very Minor Threat-ish.

The song titles are shown in English on the lyric sheet though. I guess translating the lyrics would have taken a bit too long.

It also comes with an insert featuring band member and crew memories from previous shows at the venue.

So that's that. A tour and two reissue records in 2017. I wonder whether Battery will continue to play shows or record new songs into 2018? I really hope so.