The Warzone Collective Big Interview

By Garry Brooks


“Derelict, dive and up a grotty alley…”, “High spirited and forward looking you don’t see these things….nothing like it.” These were the words used to describe Giros a number of years ago in a documentary charting the history of the Warzone Collective. Close to the employment centre it had a simple but effective premise – share resources – and that’s what they did. Now resurrected and putting on gigs again near Bruce Street in Belfast I caught up with Jimmy Segus to chat about the collective, how things have changed over the years, and more importantly the here and now.



Browsing the gigs on your website there is a diverse range of musical styles within the same line ups. Death metal bands playing with dub step and prog bands for example. Which style of music defines the Warzone Collective or is it noise for music’s sake?

Going right back to when we started out in the mid 80's the main 'style' was punk, and particularly what the music press of the time erroneously labeled 'anarcho-punk' after bands like CRASS and Poison Girls. For those readers not familiar with CRASS or anarcho-punk there's plenty of information online - CRASS encouraged a strong DIY mentality - you could form a band and put out a record WITHOUT a label, or you could do a zine and print and sell it yourself, or you could organise in a host of different ways - the key was to feel EMPOWERED to do such things and the philosophy behind it all was a variant of anarchism. We don't need middlemen, who are essentially parasites living off other people's creativity.


Read Garry's full interview by clicking the link below...