Rote Kapelle – Live at the Cavern (Edinburgh) – 12 January 1987

Rote Kapelle were a great post/punk band from Edinburgh. The were noisier and weirder sounding than most of the anorak pop bands while retaining a pop sensibility.

It may be high time to reassess Marguerite Vasquez-Ponte importance in the Edinburgh scene. She formed Rote Kapelle in the early 1980s with Andrew Tully (vocals), both of whom would also form Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes. She was also a member of The Fizzbombs and joined the re-formed Shop Assistants in the late 80’s.

The other Rote Kapelle members were Chris Henman (guitar), Ian Binns (keyboards, also a member of The Stayrcase and who played drums in The Thanes from 1987 until at least 1994), Malcolm Kergan (bass, also a member of The Thanes), and Jonathan Muir (drums). As always in Edinburgh at that time, a few familiar faces kept popping up in many bands.

The peculiar concert was filmed in 1987 during a series of Thursday nights organized by Avalanche Records in the Cavern and Rumours, Edinburgh. The videos of the gigs would be shown later in Avalanche Records shop. Since I was to leave Scotland before this would materialize, I begged Kevin Buckle to sell me advance copies of what had been filmed so far.

He was kind enough to oblige and here it is in all its lo-fi glory!