B.G.K. were definitely not part of the New York hardcore scene, despite the fact that New York used to be called New Amsterdam, maybe. We are definitely bona fide old school hardcore though. The NY scene embraced us heartily when they had heard our music and found we were tough enough to hang/drink with them in Thompins Square park I guess. This is long before bands like Biohazard (at the time 100 % metallers with dubious political affiliations) or Sick Of It All would claim their stake as "original NY hardcore" with tough guy cookie monster bullshit.
Upon arrival (staying in a cockroach infested hellhole on 2nd street in the Lower East Side's notorious "alphabet city") we discovered that M.D.C. ditched us and that the whole tour had been cancelled. Great timing !
The reason for this cancellation was that the companion of tour booker (manager of D.O.A., Ken Lester) had freaked out with a nervous breakdown or whatever to the point of going into hiding, taking all the tour info and papers with her to some super secret motel location.
Wonderful. Again, great timing. Furthermore, to our surprise, M.D.C. had seemingly abandoned their squathouse/anti-commercial/anarchy antics, and now demanded $1000 guarantees per show. Plus planetickets, that is, maybe conveniently neglecting to mention certain members drug habits, argueing "we're far from home, we got rent to pay, we got kids, and have been doing this for a long time", etc.
Which totally made sense seeing as how we were about 10 times farther away from home, also had kids and rent to pay and have been doing this as long as they had. Not to mention the B.G.K. album they released on their R Radical label that we hadn't been paid for, the European tour we set up for them, and all the Euopean shows we did together and gave all our money to them. It wouldn't be the first (or the last) time they dicked us, but I have to be diplomatic here.
Anywhoo, making the best of a bad situation, Cause For Alarm reformed ad hoc, and we went on tour anyways as a package deal. The line-up of C.F.A. consisted of former M.D.C. roadie and future Grateful Dead(!) tourmanager Chris Charuki (check this if you don't believe me) on vocals, ex-Agnostic Front guy Alex on guitar, Robbie on drums and newcomer Joe Rock on bass. 15 Years or so later I went to see C.F.A. in Amsterdam to say hi and could not recognize one single member. When some 'hardcore' girl at that show sneered "what are you doing in our scene, hippie ?" because of my long hair so I was like fuck this 'hardcore' bullshit and bailed.
MRR 16 NY scene report. No mention of S.O.I.A. or other metal goofs.
Despite my pleading, B.G.K.'s 'manager' Wouter refused to shell out out $ 15,- for a 16 track mixing desk recording ("$ 15,- ?? that's ridiculous") for anti-commercial reasons, but the gig was recorded anyways and came out as a bootleg later.
B.G.K. at CBGB's, New York, 1984
Some guy from Agnostic Front stagediving or something
Also on that bill were Adrenalin O.D. from New Jersey. They would follow us around in their car, showing up unexpectedly in the oddest places, requesting they also play. Of course they could. For this aptly titled "invite ourselves" tour, they printed T-shirts showing a hand holding a bundle of flowers, which we thought was pretty amusing.
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