LEGION OF PARASITES
DEMO 1984 (self released)
Legion of Parasites were a great thrash band from London, England circa the early 80’s. This was their first release. They went on to put out 3 solid 12′’s and a handful of comp apperances before calling it quits. Their earlier material (this demo and the 1st 12′’ “the undesirable guest”) is their most brutal stuff. Years later, some members went on to various UK bands such as SICK ON THE BUS. This band has always been a bit mysterious(at least to me) therefore I don’t have alot of info on em’. I’ve included a great song from the “Bullshit detector vol2″ lp on Crass records. This song was also on 2 or 3 other comps including “We don’t want you fucking war” on the famous Mortarhate recs. Go HERE for a discography.
Tracks
01.Dying World
06.Sea of Desecration (from V/A bullshit detector vol. 2)
Posted by: SurlyOldPunk
September 6th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
this band really really really really really fucking rules! my partner loves them. great demo, great upload. also there is another demo i think 83 or 85 AND there is an unrel LP from 88 which is about as good as this stuff, although i think “prison of life” is the best lp (fav uk lp ever)
September 6th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
theres another demo and another lp that never came out which is much better than the 1st 12″ and just as good as prison of life.
September 14th, 2006 at 4:55 am
Hi! In fact, this is their 2nd demo called “Death Watch” (5 tracks) from mid-1983. Two of these tracks (”Dying World” and “Death Watch”) ended up on the “Bollocks to the Gonads” comp LP on Pax rec. Their 1st demo is from late 1982, it’s called “Another Disaster”, 10 tracks. Their 3rd one is “Party Time”, from late 1983, with 6 tracks. Then they were supposed to record a Mlp for Pax rec., which didn’t happened. Then in february 1984, they recorded their “Undesirable Guests” Mlp for Fight Back rec., 2 tracks from this session ended on the “Empty Skulls vol.2″ in the US. Then came later in 1985, their 1st LP “Prison of Life” on Thrash rec. Overall, a very good, constant UK band. Even their more metallish 2nd LP “Dawn to Dust” from 1987 on Stud rec. isn’t bad at all. Unfortunately, i don’t got those 1st and 3rd demo myself. People from this band should help us out and issue these recordings one of these days…They will get all the recognition they deserve. Better late than never.
October 12th, 2006 at 2:39 am
Hello, I use to be heavilly involved with this band. I sang backing vocals on `war hero` on their third demo, and had a thanks mention on the back of `undesirable guests`. I use to hang out and go to gigs with them etc, and was asked to play bass when Scott left, but as I was crap, Cian took over and did the singing as well. They were actually from Bedford, and not London as mentioned above. I taped their practices and gigs, and had loads of rare stuff, all my own original recordings but over the years, I got rid of them all, even the demos. I do have 2 poor quality copies of the 2nd 2 demos, and im trying to get hold of better ones. Cian now sings for Saints Of Eden, they have an official website which he runs if you want to contact him. The last I saw him was at a SOE gig. I asked about getting LOP back together again before but he did`nt think there would be much interest, I asked Sean the guitarist who said he would`nt mind, if the others wanted to. I did get a live tape (that I originally recorded) at the 100 club off ebay, but the quality was so poor and unlistenable I threw it away. Wag the drummer went onto drum for Sick On The Bus, I heard that Discharge wanted him to drum for them when they first reformed, but he turned it down. Cian has sold all the rights to his songs so you might see tracks popping up on various compilations. He did play bass for The Nefilm (or Nephilm) for a while. His current stuff is industrial, goth , metal. They were featured on a Kerrang (or Metal Hammer) cd comp. LOP had a lot of trouble getting stuff released later on, I did have everything that was recorded and meant to be released but no longer have. They turned a bit too grunge metally later for my liking. They lifted the title `eroded freedom` from a fanzine I did. My mate (al) designed the `dawn to dusk `sleeve. It was originally meant to be black ink, but the record company sent it back saying they wanted it coloured. I think it got reviewed some where as `being drawn by a three year old`. I see him regular but he just threw the original art work away. He played in a thrash band/s called Holy Plauge, and Twerp. Sean lives in Milton keynes, I have`nt seen wag or cian for a while, scott the original bass player lives in London, Gibbo who played guitar for a while, lives in Cornwall or somewhere, he was a tosser anyway. Get in touch if anyone got any demos, cdrs. Ive got a poor quality cdr. Im going to see if I can do some myself. justin (musicisloud@hotmail.co.uk)
December 17th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
damn, i got this & 2 other demos & the “Out Of Tune At The 100 Club” cassette somewhere…they actually sent me all these tapes back when i was like 14 when i did a zine & wrote them asking for anything to print, etc…seemed like good guys, and they totally DESTROYED most bands in the whole UK Anarcho scene. i like their 1st 2 12′es, but i found “dawn To Dusk” to be pretty boring once i finally found a copy in Scotland back in 1990…a totally KILLER demo, with Death In The City being the stand-out track…what a trip down memory lane…
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:20 am
Well fuck me, I jus found this site and can’t beleive that the Legion Of Parasites stuff is still getting interest.
Those certainly were the days!
Just to clear things up - this is CIAN HOUCHIN - the LOP singer..
We have not sold the rights to the music (c’mon it’s probably worth £10 the lot!).. We have recently (Sean) been talking to a label ‘worldwide something or other’.. about releasing all the early stuff, including demos and unreleased material from back in the day. Got the master tapes sitting here, just trying to get our shit together and send it all off to the label.
Here’s a note to JUSTIN, ALAN and everyone who was involved/helped with the band… Nice one, thanks!