The Belsen Horrors

The Belsen Horrors in the photo are left to right: Mark Patrizzio – bass (later to The Exploited), Lenny Helsing – vocals, Keith Wilson – drums (later to The Visitors) and Steve Fraser – guitar (later depped for John Mackie in Scars, and joined up with Mike Scott in post-Another Pretty Face, pre-Waterboys groups)

Edinburgh punk band 1978-79

At the beginning of 1978 guitarist Steve Fraser and drummer Keith Wilson decided to form a band. By early summer a good friend, Derek Rennie, said he knew this guy called Lenny who would fit well in their group. After a meeting where they found they shared lots of similar musical tastes, Steve asked Lenny to join them as vocalist. Lenny decided against using his own surname Montgomery, toying instead with the idea of Frank Xerox and (stop chortling at the back) Sebastian Scavenger, eventually settling on the horror-film friendly surname of Helsing.

Like many teenage groups from the late ‘70s punk rock scene the group’s influences included such glam-era and proto-punk icons as Roxy Music, David Bowie, The Sweet, Alice Cooper, T. Rex, Iggy / Stooges, Mott The Hoople, Lou Reed / the Velvet Underground, Slade and Cockney Rebel. But the new sounds being created by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, The Buzzcocks, Wire, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Generation X etc, alongside powerful new local groups like the Scars, would also be key elements in the group’s sound, presentation and general outlook.

After a few spray-painting episode’s around the streets and back-alleys of the ancient Scottish capital, The Belsen Horrors’ controversial name started to get noticed by many punks in and around the Edinburgh area. Finding a bass player was proving to be somewhat difficult, but after a while they finally found Mark Patrizzio, and after a few rehearsals the group felt they were now ready to play their first gig. This momentous occasion was to have taken place at the Gibson Craig Hall on the outskirts of Edinburgh, in Currie in late November. Alas, the debut live appearance of The Belsen Horrors would have to be postponed, due to the temporary incarceration of the group’s singer. (I got 3 months detention for ermmm breaking into shops and the school we were at and stealing things, what can I say it wasn’t big, nor clever, learnt my lesson…most of the folks there said, see ye in 6 months! But I said, aye riiiiiiiiight!)

The music paper Record Mirror included the gig in its listings page, even adding in their own “tasteless” caption next to the group’s ‘controversial’ name. However, every time the group put up posters anywhere, a ‘‘grim reminder’ would be included to make sure that everyone reading it knew that the group were in no way in support of any neo-Nazism or pro-racism groups.

The Belsen Horrors debut gig would eventually materialise three or four months later supporting local group The Dirty Reds; this lot would change their name shortly after, becoming better known as the Fire Engines. By now it is already early 1979 and a lot of the initial punk rock action has either waned, or dramatically changed. A few more gigs took place at the likes of the YMCA hall, and another playing in the notorious Pilton area’s Triangle Club, both gigs featuring one of the earliest known line-ups of The Exploited; the Pilton gig also featured one of the earliest appearances by Edinburgh’s all-girl three-piece The Ettes.

The ‘Belsens now began to get a bit more of a following, leading to local scribe Johnny Waller interviewing the group for his acclaimed Kingdom Come fanzine. If anyone has seen a copy of this they will know that the group, well Lenny anyway, hammed it up in the resulting photo-shoot. Rab (sometimes Bobby, sometimes Robert) King – real name Robert Allan – singer of afore-mentioned local heroes the Scars, along with Fast label friend/musician Simon Best then helped the group to record a cheap demo in the group’s temporary church hall practice space. Seven tracks were recorded in all: ‘Car Crash Victim’, ‘Pin-Up Boy’, ‘On The Beach, ‘Bride Of Frankenstein’, ‘Chant’, ‘Premonition’ and also a sparse cover of their beloved Roxy Music’s ‘Virginia Plain’. Steve Fraser was responsible for the bulk of the music, while the lyrics were written by Lenny Helsing.

There was some talk at the time of trying to get a Belsen Horrors single released; to appear on Johnny Waller’s New Pleasures label, home to the Visitors, and The Fakes…but alas nothing became of these plans. The group then had a brief spell under a new name, Barbed Choir, playing one of their only gigs at the Mars Bar in Glasgow, opening for the Visitors. The group then splintered soon after with drummer Keith Wilson joining the Visitors. Mark Patrizzio went on to play bass for the hard rockin’ Phyne Thanquz group, before joining The Exploited in time for their first Sounds front cover.

Steve Fraser and Lenny Helsing then founded a new group, the November Crimes, with ex-Visitors drummer Alan Laing, and ex-TV Art (soon to be Josef K) bassist Gary McCormack. Gary would then go on to play in Fun City, with his brother Stu and legendary local punks Dave Christie (he was Matt Vinyl of Matt Vinyl & the Decorators infamy) and The Valves’ Ronnie MacKinnon. In another twist of fate Gary would replace ex-Belsen Horror Mark in The Exploited, and featured in their Top Of The Pops appearance for ‘Dead Cities’.

Over the last few years Gary has begun a successful acting career in television and in films: Irvine Welsh’s story The Acid House, and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Gangs Of New York’. Lenny Helsing formed the garage-psychedelic group The Green Telescope in the early 1980s. They in turn became The Thanes, releasing a slew of records for small independent labels all over the world and continue to play and record as The Thanes to this day. 

Entry courtesy of Lenny Helsing

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