RIP Keith Dobson of World Domination Enterprises, possibly the most exciting live band I have ever seen still to this day, and creators of the immortal "Asbestos Lead Asbestos".
Lovely bloke and he had the gift of the gab so fun to interview.
Keith - who once went as Kif Kif le Batteur - had a long history with countercultural music going back to the ebb days of the actual counterculture - he drummed in the Gong-like festival band Here and Now.
Then, using the same fell-into-its-own-weird-unique-tuning-stayed-there guitar as in O12, he formed World Domination Enterprises with himself snarling at the mic' and hacking at his axe, Digger pummeling the drums like a caveman, and Steve Jameson (who died six years ago) on dub rumbly bass.
Big up to Chris Scott of Monitor who turned me onto World Dom in the first place.
World Domination Enterprises were on the cover of Melody Maker at least once - David Stubbs did the honors.
Here's some of my own Melody Maker ravings about WDE
live at The Underground, Croydon
Melody Maker, early 1987
with their pals MUTOID WASTE COMPANY
100 Club, London
Melody Maker, November 21st 1987
Let's Play Domination
Melody Maker, April 16th 1988
World Domination live at Hungarocarrot, Budapest summer 1988
The photo catches Keith's gold tooth nicely
Here's Stubbs remembering a jaunt to the Soviet Union with WDE
And a piece at the Quietus by Wyndham Wallace about Keith's whole story
Well, you learn something everyday and I didn't know that the O12 did the original version of "Asbestos Lead Asbestos" in 1984
off this album Let's Get Proffessional
Sad news, this. WDE were about the noisiest band I could still respond to in a traditionally "musical" sense (tapping a toe, nodding a head.) One of several acts of the era, along with Screaming Blue Messiahs and Charles Douglas, to fold not long after getting an endorsement from David Bowie. So much for the Bowie Bump.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard "Asbestos Lead Asbestos" was by The 012, back then, on the radio, here in Portugal. Blew my mind. Still does.
ReplyDeleteI was obsessed by World Dom in the 80’s after hearing “Asbestos, Lead Asbestos” and seeing them live in Glasgow and began following them around the U.K., bootlegging their gigs. I have about a dozen gigs on tape of their intense live shows! One of the best is from a Mutoid Waste Company rave in a Kings Cross factory space where the Mutoids were based, where World Dom had to compete with 2 different DJ stages on either side. There was no competition, World Domination Enterprises blew them away!
ReplyDeleteMe and my sister got tickets to two gigs on Zappa’s last tour in ‘88 at the Wembley Arena, and Keith kindly said we could stay at his gaff in Ladbroke Grove while we were in London for those gigs. I remember us getting off the bus in Ladbroke Grove on a bridge where there were massive posters of the Zappa gigs, and we took about 15 minutes slowly picking one off the wall! It was raining and we got soaked! We got to Keith’s about 30 minutes after we got off the bus and the first thing Keith said was “If you’d got here 5 minutes earlier you’d have met Daevid!”…AAARGH! That poster cost me the catch to meet one of my all-time heroes, Gong’s Daevid Allen!!
I’ve still got the poster, but every time I look at it, it reminds me of that!
Keith’s flat was wild, with art works coming out the walls, LITERALLY. Half a TV was stuck to a wall to look as if the entire thing was shoved through! His flat was full of mad stuff like that. Digger and Steve were also there, and we had a great time there being slagged off for going to a Zappa gig!! Lol!
Great memories of the guys, and now 2 of them are gone, and I’ve no idea where Digger is. I keep meaning to digitise those gigs and upload them to YouTube. I must get that together before I join them on the last journey….