Unlimited Genocide and how the AOA/Oi Polloi split LP came together
Oi Polloi on tour in East Germany in 1989
How much genocide can you fit on one record? UNLIMITED GENOCIDE. The A.O.A./Oi Polloi "Unlimited Genocide" split LP has all the components of a classic record: great left wing/pro-environmental lyrics, raging songs with big riffs, urgent vocals, a perfect sounding recording with unmistakable '80s production, and a cut 'n paste layout that looks fucking COOL. Plus, it's on Children Of The Revolution Records, which was the best punk label going in 1985-1986.
A.O.A. has remained mostly shrouded in mystery over the decades. Their vinyl has been out of print (with the exception of a rare and little known Japanese reissue that may or may not be legit), and minimal info has come out regarding them. This has earned them cult status amongst the collector set, and with crossover appeal of anarcho punks, thrashers, and crusties, has driven up the price of their records.
Oi Polloi by contrast have taken the exact opposite path. They've remained together as a band since there inception in the early '80s, undergoing countless lineup changes, with vocalist Deek as the only constant member. The lineup changes have resulted in Oi Polloi having totally different sounds during different periods, including an Oi era, hardcore, and infusing more traditional Scottish influences. And while A.O.A.'s releases from the '80s are the only thing to remember them by, Oi Polloi's records from the same period are somewhat overlooked, possibly due to the sheer volume of their output.
We reached out to Deek of Oi Polloi to find out how this release happened, the relationship between the two Scottish thrashers, and how it ended up on COR. He replied lightening fast with tons of info, cool anecdotes, and some surprising answers (including multiple overlapping members). Check out the link in bio for the full interview. Apartheid Stinx, but this record does not.
NI: How did you initially meet AOA? Did you play gigs together in Scotland?
Deek: We're from Edinburgh and AOA were from a small mining town just outside there called Loanhead, so they played quite a few gigs in Edinburgh. A couple of us saw them play at a venue here called The Nite Club supporting an old Scottish band from Dalkeith called The Threats. We really enjoyed them so we got talking to them and got their demo cassette, which we really liked too. We featured them in an old fanzine two of us used to write and would go and see them whenever they played, so things kind of grew from there. When the miners' strike happened in 1984, we played benefit gigs together in support of the striking miners—that was a really big issue here with all the mining communities on the outskirts of Edinburgh like Newtongrange and Loanhead —and we got involved together in stuff like the Stop The City protests and actions against the nuclear submarine base in Faslane on the west coast of Scotland. So we got to know them really well.
In fact, when our previous bassist left, AOA's bassist's brother Rab ended up playing bass for us, so on that split LP there's one brother playing bass on each side! Rab played on that split as well as on our "Resist The Atomic Menace" 7" and our split LP with Betrayed on Oi Records which later came out on the "Fight Back" LP with the tracks from the AOA split on the other side. At one point AOA's drummer on the split, Deek, helped us out on drums at one gig in London when our drummer couldn't make it, their bassist Bruce played keyboards on our "Guilty" 7", and I shared a room for quite a while with their singer on their "Satisfactory Arrangement" LP. So it was quite an "incestuous" relationship, and we played a lot of gigs together both in Scotland and England.
NI: Who proposed the idea of doing the split LP?
Deek: AOA had released their 12" on Children Of The Revolution Records, which was a brilliant label at the time that we all loved. We were desperate to get our own vinyl release out too, so we asked AOA if they could put in a good word for us with Tim who ran the label to see if he would do something for us. I think he wasn't sure if an Oi Polloi release would sell as at that point we'd only had a couple of tracks on compilation LPs and EPs and hadn't played many gigs outside Scotland, so I think in the end he thought a split with a band like AOA who already had something out would be safer. That's how I remember it anyway and as both bands didn't have enough stuff for full LPs at the time it seemed to make sense. So basically, pretty sure it was his idea initially—but it's a long time ago now!
Oi Polloi at the Berlin Wall in spring 1989
NI: How did it end up coming out on Children of the Revolution Records in Bristol? Did you contact them?
Deek: Think the last answer covers this to an extent, but yeah, we did send them a demo but initially we'd asked AOA to sound them out on our behalf as they already had a relationship with Tim who ran the label.
NI: Any idea how many total were pressed?
Deek: Not a huge number and almost certainly not more than 3,000 in total. Think it was probably an inital pressing of 1,000 and then a couple of re-presses, but I wouldn't swear to that. That was one of the reasons we re-released the stuff on the "Fight Back" LP as we wanted to keep the songs available for folk.
NI: Although the Oi Polloi songs have been released on the "Fight Back" LP on Campary Records, have you ever discussed repressing the record in its original form with AOA?
Deek: We have indeed. AOA are playing again now and we've gigged together and talked about this. Scott, their guitarist, has also been roadying with us on tour, so we're still in touch and hopefully we'll make it happen. I think Scott was keen to put it out himself, but we've also had offers from other labels so there are various options. Would be great to get it out again and do a joint tour at the time of release—sadly most of the songs are just as relevant today—and we're just as angry now as we were then!
Live shots from East Germany during the first Oi Polloi European tour in spring of 1989
