Learning the Zanzibars Twist in Limbabwe

Anyone familiar with Limbabwe Records knows the kind of bands in their roster. Zanzibars Twist is one of my favorites & probably at the more extreme edge of some extreme music. For those of you who don’t know Limbabwe, here’s a little history.

Limbabwe was a music label active in the first half of the 80s. Their first release was in May 1982, a cassette tape called "Vlaaikots". The last tapes/records came out in 1985. Only a short 3 year of existence, but a catalogue of 42 releases.

Limbabwe Records started in Venlo, a city of 70,000 in the south of The Netherlands on the German border. The town never was all that exciting but in the beginning of the 80s, their "underground culture" was very much alive.

In the late 60s, a small but very active group of local hippies managed to get recognized by the city council & have a building at their disposal for cultural needs. They organized concerts & other artistic events. They built rehearsing space with PA (sound equipment) & after some time even a recording studio. The building was given the name OOC…Open Ontmoetings Centrum (Open Meeting Center). The OOC formed an important base for what came out of the next generation.

In 1980 a house in the center of Venlo was taken over as a local squat. This became Martinusstraat 24, or in popular scene language "de Martinusstraat". De Martinusstraat was in the town center & soon had a rehearsing space. Because of that it became a hang out of many musicians & bands. A group of people from de Martinusstraat began organizing cultural events under the name "Bauplatz". The group was allotted some space in the local OOC for their activities. Some of the original founders of OOC were opposed to the young radicals, but OOC was an Open Meeting Center & open means for everybody.

Bauplatz started to regularly hold events, art shows & concerts, every Sunday evening at OOC. This is about when Limbabwe came into existence. As the interest in the arts grew, the music scene in Venlo grew equally. Matski, who started Limbabwe, went around to rehearsing spaces, basements, back rooms, & squats with a tape recorder to register the "sound of Venlo". The sound was very diverse, from very industrial noise to ultra jazz to fast punk. These first recording sessions yielded Limbabwe’s first release Vlaaikots (Vlaai is a kind of local cake, kots is puke…so 'Cakepuke').

The tape was the first of its kind, representing the music that was happening in Venlo at that time. The tape was a success & received attention of the national press. Many tapes & records of bands followed. Venlo was in its most creative period ever. Art nights with industrial, punk rock, poetry, & paintings. A noted German music magazine declared Venlo "The New York of Europe" at that time. The front basement room of de Martinusstraat squat became the Limbabwe space. From there they produced, administrated, & distributed their products. Their roster included the trashy hardcore band Pandemonium, the trash rock band Oh’ Dev, the free-funk band Zoo, & many more.

Zanzibars Twist was a regular at Limbabwe. They released four cassettes on Limbabwe:

Never Mind the Bollocks (Limbabwe 7) 1982;

Zanzibars Twist Brings You Your Alltime Favourites (Limbabwe 9) 1982;

NRC By Bus (Limbabwe 17) - a 'live at NRC Amsterdam' recording 1983

Basta (Limbabwe 23) 1983.

I have posted Never Mind the Bollocks & Basta elsewhere, I don’t have NRC By Bus (hint-hint), & here is…

Zanzibars Twist – Zanzibars Twist Brings You Your Alltime Favourites cassette,
Limbabwe 09, 1982.
decryption code in comments

Side A –

Hey Yoe

16 Tons

It’s Going to Rain

Lust for Life

Side B –

Blue Spanish Eyes

Feel Allright

MacArthur Park

Je T'aime Mais Non Plus

Stop in the Name of Love / Ghostriders

Track order of tape does not match back cover of cassette.

Enjoy,

NØ