#6 excerpted from “THE GET QUICK FILES: CHOOSE YOUR OWN CONJECTURE” as remembered by Mark Question
Shock Treatments
1980 - 1982
So there they were — Mitch Joy and Erik Evol, hunched over the smoldering wreckage of the late-70s lineup, chain-smoking Dunhills like trench poets and wondering aloud if maybe this time the spell had finally broken for good. Alex Magus dispersed in a cloud of esoteric fumes, Mae Voce vanished into her own labyrinth of psycho-cinematic solo noise. The Get Quick, as they were, left once again, teetering on the verge of obsolescence. Or reinvention. Or both. Pick your poison.
“We had Christian and a few other mates holdin’ down the groove,” Mitch later muttered in some half-lit dressing room foxhole in Düsseldorf. “But yeah — we were kicking a corpse. No direction, no pulse. Felt like the end.”
Enter: the spectre of Coco LeBree. Not dead, but close enough — fresh off a double-feature surgery spectacular (nodules scraped from his golden pipes and a rogue appendix yanked like a cursed rabbit from a hat). But now, gloriously reborn, radiant with the mad-eyed energy of someone who’d stood like a stone god on the edge and watched the abyss blink first. Coco came back swinging — feathered, unbowed, and bellowing like an angel spitting femoral blood and internal rhymes.
With Coco’s return came transfusion fever. The Get Quick weren’t just surviving — they were reactivating. They torched the cathedral of the Magus/Voce era — all that layered sonic embroidery and acid-drenched conceptuality — and dove headfirst into the ice bath of the 80s. No more demon-prog dreamscapes or zombie-raga tangents. This was sharp pop in three-minute pulses: jagged guitars, fascist drum machines, Panzer fuzz bass, and the Erjk crooning like a lost lothario resurrected in a West Berlin cathouse after a mental eternity in a sensory deprivation tank.
Sure, the old guard moaned. Critics called it a “regression tactic” at best, “a nostalgic horror show” at worst. Fans clutched their scratched-up AGAINST ALL MODS LPs like security blankets. But the band didn’t care. They were alive, and they were loud, and they were touring — shock therapy in sonic form, converting skeptics in sweat-drenched clubs from Osaka to Omaha.
This wasn’t a nostalgia trip. Taunting death was played out. This was a tooth and claw fight for survival. This was The Get Quick facing down oblivion with their backs to the abyss. This was The Get Quick with nothing to lose and everything to shout.
January 1980
Fresh Deal For The Get Quick
Capital Lukács, Spectacular Times
With erstwhile bassist Coco LeBree firmly back in the fold, The Get Quick resumed their place at the head of the Cromicon roster. The agreement was announced and signed on August 3 at the label’s annual convention in Berlin, and is a five-year deal.
Although no figures were given, the contract is reportedly worth a minimum eleven million dollars. Since their last deal expired, the band has released twelve albums via Split Level Recordings, with distribution in Europe through Vogue Mogul and in the States via Refuge Records.
The Get Quick are set to begin recording their next album for Cromicon by month’s end.
* * * * * *
March 1980
The Get Quick’s New Tune
Helene V. Tausk, Secret Supersessions
The Get Quick made a big splash on the pop scene in ’62, but since then they’ve fallen in and out of favor — being either ahead or behind the times, depending on whom you talk to.
“I guess our songs can be a little too straightforward at times, and that’s not always what the rock intelligentsia are looking for,” LeBree admits. “We’ve always been pretty avant-garde, but we’re not about wallowing weirdness for the sake of it. A good song is just that — a good song.”
She pauses. “But we’ve somehow stayed current. And that’s what matters. Falling into the ‘Classic Rock’ category? Now that’s a fate worse than death.”
The release of their latest LP, Summer Thunder, had suffered a few setbacks due to technical hitches. A couple of bandmates have also fallen out along the way recently, which has curtailed their touring activities.
But as helmsman Mitchell Joy explains, TGQ is not your typical rock band. “The music press loves to paint us as an unstable outfit, full of internal drama and ready to self-destruct at any moment. But if you think of the band as more a concept than a group of specific musicians, you’ll see that the state of The Get Quick is actually much more secure. We have a bunch of satellite musicians who, though each is a brilliant performer with their own distinct style, are more or less interchangeable for our purposes. Usually we try to arrange the most apt sounds to fit each particular song, and then worry about how we’ll pull it off live later.”
Pressed on the exact “concept” behind The Get Quick, Joy deflects.
“It’s not like we have a manifesto or anything — at least not one you could write down. It’s more of a perspective, or a vibe. It’s complicated. Or maybe it’s absurdly simple. I don’t know — I’m too close to it to say. But even if I could articulate it, I still wouldn’t. I’d rather keep you guessing. After all, journalists love to over-explain things, but the real answers are in the music. You just have to listen.”
* * * * * *
June 1980
Christian Hait To Unveil His Audiodium
Raoul Vaneigem, Up Against the Wall
Christian Hait has been anything but idle. The elusive musician and audio visionary has been quietly ensconced in the coastal New England town of Rockport, Massachusetts, overseeing the final touches on his most ambitious project to date — The Audiodium.
A space dedicated to the pursuit of pure, unfiltered sound, The Audiodium is a planetarium-style room embedded within a larger building, completely insulated and sealed off from external noise.
“There are 172 speakers integrated into the architecture,” Hait explains with a measured enthusiasm. “Tweeters suspended from the ceiling, sub-woofers under the seats, and massive coned cabinets hidden within the walls and beneath the floating floor.”
The space is designed as a performance venue, with 53 seats arranged in four concentric rings. “There’s no bad seat in the house,” he jokes. “Once the lights go down, each listener will be fully immersed in the sound field. Every person will experience something uniquely personal, their own wave of memories and emotions triggered by the audio.”
But what, exactly, will it sound like?
Hait, known for his obsessive control over sound design, promises that the live performances at The Audiodium will be an otherworldly experience. Using a combination of synthesized tones and “Concrete Music” — pre-recorded tapes and loops — he aims to “disrupt the natural directionality of sound and completely reframe the auditory experience.”
As Hait puts it, "This is about altering how we hear. It's not just about music, it’s about the environment of sound itself."
The Audiodium is set to be completed in the next few weeks, with the grand unveiling scheduled for July 4.
* * * * * *
October 1981
The Get Quick, Live In Bremen
A. S. Konigsberg, STAR MAGAZINE, Friday Oct 30
The Böttcherstraße — a narrow medieval lane tucked behind the Markplatz in Bremen — is a curious blend of Gothic arches and Art Nouveau flourishes, remnants of its 1920s revival. The area was once deemed “entartete Kunst” (depraved art) by the Nazis, but as it turns out, they were wrong about a lot of things. Today, this lively street is one of Bremen’s most vibrant spots — and even more so this evening, as members of The Get Quick stroll through, soaking in the atmosphere.
“I enjoy both kinds of architecture,” says bassist Coco LeBree with a grin, “buildings and women.”
And yes, it’s true — the women here are statuesque enough to intimidate even the most hardened reporter.
“The Free Fair is fantastic,” adds Erjk Vanderwolf, a thick mustache frosted with schwarzbier. “Thoroughly enjoying it.”
Indeed, the Freimarkt (Free Fair), celebrated annually in Bremen since 1035, makes Munich’s famed Oktoberfest look like a newcomer in comparison. It’s a historic festival, and The Get Quick are here to enjoy it all — including their show tonight at the Bavarian Festival Hall under the alias The Town Musicians of Bremen (after the Brothers Grimm fairy tale).
"We plan to stay for the parade tomorrow," Vanderwolf says. "It should be like the Mummers Parade in South Philly, only with more beer."
“I’m going to hammer my mind out with a bloody mallet of Beck’s,” LeBree states firmly.
The band is eager to experience the “Freimarktsumzug” (parade) the next day, a must-see event steeped in tradition. But first, the gang is off to the “Kleiner Freimarkt,” the lively market square, to sample the beer tents and amusement rides.
However, the real discovery happens when word spreads that the City Hall of Bremen houses twelve of the oldest wines in the world. Eyes light up like porcelain dolls possessed by demons. The Get Quick are on their way.
* * * * * *
April 1981
TGQ Courting The Crowds
Attila Zengotita, The Rebel Worker
The Get Quick are set for a return to Aylesbury’s Friars on June 6, following the chaos that greeted their opening night here two weeks ago — a near-riot as fans scrambled for tickets.
Countless fans clamored for the 700 available tickets, scooped up in a box office blitz. An additional 400+ dreamers were turned away at the door.
The frenzied demand for tickets has forced a reshuffle in TGQ’s UK tour. Scarborough and Bristol will now host larger gigs — with TGQ moving to the Bristol Locarno on June 24 (replacing Ta-ta’s) and a new Scarborough venue still in the works for their June 13 date.
The band’s growing pull is undeniable. A TGQ gig has moved beyond just show and into the realm of spectacle.
* * * * * *
June 1982
Jetsetting TGQ Jettisons Tour
Michele Dargent, The Decontextualised Reader
The Get Quick have now scrapped their entire European tour which was originally scheduled to open on June 10 and continue until November 18. The reason for calling off the jaunt is that Mitchell Joy — whose collapse from physical exhaustion while on a brief private trip to Peru to visit the band’s financial advisor, S. True Smith, caused the initial three dates to be cancelled — has not recovered and has been ordered to rest for two months.
Accordingly he is staying put in South America to recuperate and is not expected to return to the band or their commitments until after Christmas. In the interim, speculation has been growing on both sides of the Atlantic that Joy’s illness may lead to the final dissolution of The Mighty GQ.
One proffered reason for Joy being in Peru at the time of his collapse was that, having married a Peruvian princess, he was looking for a house somewhere near the Bolivian border and that he hopes to settle in the country for good.
* * * * * *
October 1982
TGQ Lambasts LeBree
Guy Bernstein, Logical Tendencies
Coco LeBree has left The Get Quick for the umpteenth time, to concentrate on alchemical record production.
He departed after the group’s US tour, which was planned to last eight weeks, but was called off after only 13 days because “venues which had been hoped for did not materialize,” and because LeBree became plagued by a throat infection.
TGQ returned to the UK to begin recording work on another LP, but without LeBree, who went to Los Angeles to discuss business deals. S. True Smith, who was quoting as saying “With the utmost respect to Coco and his talent, he is just too intense of an individual to be part of a group — any group. He seems to feel that he will be able to find some sort of satisfaction working alone in the realm of production, so... let him have at it.”