Whitehouse article in Unsound (1983)

Whitehouse at the On Broadway, San Francisco, April 22^nd 1983 by William D.

(A personal view trying not to name too many names)

Whitehouse seemed with this show to create more agitation without even ever striking a singular sound. Never has one heard of a show filled with politics and misunderstanding than this cancelled fiasco. To make a long and complex story short, the problems began in LA, where Whitehouse received a series of death threats (phone calls & letters) originating from San Francisco. Basically, the threats stated that if Whitehouse came to SF they would be approached on a violent level, or in other words, they would be illustrated violence comparable to Whitehouse's own musically violent tendencies. Whitehouse became very upset by these threats, but what does one expect - here they are in a strange country, in a tension-filled city (LA), receiving death threats that possibly could be real. Whitehouse wanted to back out of all the shows that had been set up in SF, but somehow they were convinced to play one of the alleged three shows (On Broadway). This is where the confusion begins, Whitehouse arrives in SF, tired and frustrated, paranoid and in a strange environment. Now, Whitehouse figures out that this is a conspiracy, an attempt to denigrate the name of Whitehouse, "a band with seven albums". The conspiracy was rooted in various presumptions: first, the fact that Minimal Man was to play with Whitehouse at the ON Broadway. Whitehouse saw a poster made by Minimal Man which listed Minimal Man as possibly the headliner or any other words, Minimal Man's name was on top. Well, this alleged poster was made by Minimal Man so of course they listed themselves on top, this was not an official poster, but Whitehouse could not understand why this poster was constructed like this. Second factor of confusion, who did send these death threats anyway? All people concerned assumed that it possibly could have been Monte Cazzaza because of his sense of humour and possibly because of his dislike for Whitehouse. The third reason why Whitehouse cancelled the performance was that they did not want to play on a bill with other Art/Industrial groups, they stated they wanted to play with heavy rock bands. Lastly, Whitehouse felt as though they were not getting respect, the respect that is due a band with so many albums, on tour from England. Whitehouse cancelled the On Broadway show stating strangely that, "California is full of psychotics". Why was this show cancelled? Was it pride-filled confusion and egotistical ethical reasoning on the part of this Whitehouse band. A real big mess. The nature of Whitehouse itself I fell constitutes this type of situation. I would like to stress that I was very disappointed by the cancellation and that in these mediocre times perhaps this Whitehouse band is something other than a standardisation of form. I had no conception of what to expect with the On Broadway Whitehouse Live Action, and that is a great rarity in a band from any genre. Are you still confused, more next issue on this matter…

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