Interview with Arcan Öğütverici
Around 26 years ago on December 9th, Mayhem (with Dead and Euronymous) played a very weird first gig in Turkey.
Interview with Arcan Öğütverici (pictured below) the 1990 Mayhem Izmir, Turkey gig promoterm from Norwegian ENO MAG 01 2011.
You corresponded with Euronymous via mail since the late eighties, how did you first get in contact with him? Had the "Deathcrush" record made its way to Turkey by then?
It must be 1987 or 1988 when I traveled to London, UK I brought back home lots of LPs, tshirts, magazines etc all metal of course, and then sent to a couple of mags' penpal pages to get some lettering and exchanging demos, LPs etc. Prior to that I used to mail order from UK since very few stuff were being released back then in Turkey. It was a good option to have penpals, as there was no internet hehhe... So
In a few months time, I had many penpal-metalheads from UK to USA, from Japan to Euronymous (Rest In Hell) from Norway, he was claiming to be the leader of a very underground band and inner circle. He sent me lots of extreme brutal metal bands' flyers. ALso a cassatte tape of Deathcrush...
At this time in 1990, "Deathcrush" was still the latest official release from the band. Had you heard any of the material from the Dead/Hellhammer period when you first booked the gig? I imagine that even for those who were familiar with the "Deathcrush" period, the 1990 version of the band would come as somewhat of a shock.
Yeah, the Mayhem style was a shock to many at the time. You know, thrash metal has just started to get big and Metallica was the heaviest known, except for Venom. But of course on the otherhand there were many underground bands especially in Europe and Americas claiming they were the real thing but I knew most of the so-called bands didn't even know to play their equipments, and the demos or LPs they did had no musical theory in it but pure noise! But Mayhem sort of had the attitude you know, and the guys were sure knew what they played professionally-wise. Euronymous used to send me lots of flyers, demo tapes, contacts from all over the world. I still exchange news with some of the guys from those days, such like Jakub Jodl from Praha! So, yes, I knew what Mayhem sounded like when booking them...
Do you have any recollection of which songs the band got to play before the show was shut down? Judging from the recordings that exist of the shows in Zeitz and Lepizig earlier in the tour, and also the Sarpsborg recording on "The dawn of the black hearts," their setlist at the time consisted of "Deathcrush," "Necrolust," "Funeral fog," "The freezing moon," "Carnage," "Buried by time and dust," "Pagan fears," "Chainsaw gutsfuck" and "Pure fucking armageddon." Can you remember if they brought the "Silvester Anfang" intro tape with them?
Yeah, the setlist seems familiar. By the time they hit freezing moon I was talking to the cops. I had just turned 20 by then so I had no idea to stop the police ruining the gig. I have this pain in somewhere that if I was more experienced I would have settled things, but hey, then it wouldn't be the cult-gig status as it's now hehehhe. After freezing moon Dead screamed "carnageee" and someway Euronymous had the clue that police was to interrupt the gig and I recall him cursing on the mic in English of course. After the gig I told him that he once asked me in one of his letters prior to coming Turkey about how to say "fuck off" in Turkish which is "siktir", and he said "siktir, I should have remembered at the gig and cursed them in their native language". So, I was struggling with the police that the venue owner never had told me that after sun goes down, the municipality had to issue a permit since the venue was inside the fairgrounds of Izmir city, it was impossible to go and obtain the permit in the middle of the gig so police made the venue owner shut the system. The owner of the venue told later that he though Mayhem would play first, then Hazy Hill and IDEA to close the show.The local bands to play were hardcore band IDEA from Izmir, and Thrash Band Hazy Hill from Ankara. Back then in local concerts here most of the time the headliners played first, due to venue or hour limits etc. so Idea sort of took advantage and played first, then Hazy Hill and then Mayhem had to cut their setlist in the middle. I dont recall about the intro tape as I was with them in their dressing room before they hit stage.
You brought the band to a Turkish bath when they first arrived by train, did the locals react when they saw these crazy-looking tourist types?
Ahahahahh, you should have seen that. I wish we had the technology of today hehhe,
many people would pay thousands to see Mayhem naked with only a towel around their bellies, and with those classic hamam slippers on their feet... Izmir city has always been a cosmpolitan city but the area I took Mayhem to a Hamam is in close vicinity of one of the worst parts of the city, also near a flee market where lots of secondhand (stolen) stuff is exchanged, so many shopowners and passerbys were examining our group with eyes wide open. They weren't used to long hair in men, the strech pants, leather jackets etc, some were afraid, some were joking as if we were out of some SF movie like Mad Max heheheh. I recall choosing the area as a place to pay a visit to a Hamam as it was also close to the fairgroud where the venue was.
There wasn't much time to the gig after they arrived by bus in Izmir, so I had to rush things a bit. After the hamam we went directly to the fairground, found a beerhouse and chatted and sipped beers then walked to the venue.
Euronymous had intended for Mayhem to play in both Iran and Syria, but you talked him out of the former? Do you know if they ever made it to Damascus, or any other places besides İzmir, Zeitz and Leipzig?
There would be two gigs in Turkey, one in Izmir and other in Ankara, the latter was cancelled due to financial problems and lack of good connections. In some letters
Euronymous sent me he talked about plans to play in oppressed countries. As you can see from the tour programme Euronymous sent me, they were in Germany from 23rd Nov till 28th; then supposed to be in Greece on 4th Dec thru 6th ( but Dead somehow misunderstood a letter and said the Greece gig was postponed and Mayhem did not go to Greece, Euronymous wrote that in a letter to me after he went back to Oslo) ; Turkey from 9th Dec thru 11th and then Netherlands from 15th Dec to 20th to finish. In the beginning I was to arrange a gig in Ankara on the 11th Dec but I just could not handle that, so we stuck with only the Izmir gig in Turkey. I recall Euronymous asking me if I knew someone in Iran! to arrange a gig for Mayhem there. I told it was impossible to have a Mayhem gig there for known issues, and somehow persuaded him not to.
Shortly after the band returned from this tour the recordings from the Zeitz and Leipzig shows turned up. Do you know if there was made a recording of the İzmir show as well? Did the band bring along their own tape recorder or would they have relied on the venue's equipment to procure a recording?
I know, Euronymous sent me a cass. tape of the Leipzig show. Euronymous asked the sound board operator to give him a tape, I don't think he ever got that tape as the gig ended with the police arriving. Later I tried to reach the man but never got a hold of him or the tape.
Stories about Dead bringing a rotting raven in a plastic bag to concerts to precipitate the proper mood have been told for years. Did he bring any such things with him on this tour?
Dead wasn't talkative at all. I only remember shaking hands with him when I first met them at the bus station and he only nodded with his head when I talked to him. We went to a Turkish hamam, he was extremely pale from former blood losses caused by cutting himself. He had lots of scars thru out his body without any part of the body being an exception. Later, we went to a pub to have beer, Dead just sat and sipped his beer without words. He just looked me straight in the eye a couple of times: once when Euronymous told Dead buries his pants and shirts before gigs to have a feel that he was buried & came back to scream his vocal parts; the other when they were departing from Izmir, as if he wanted to leave a part in Izmir, or someway he saved the look in my memory, that he was here in this strange country to scream out his lungs for the true metal he believed.
Interview with Arcan Öğütverici (pictured below) the 1990 Mayhem Izmir, Turkey gig promoterm from Norwegian ENO MAG 01 2011.
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You corresponded with Euronymous via mail since the late eighties, how did you first get in contact with him? Had the "Deathcrush" record made its way to Turkey by then?
It must be 1987 or 1988 when I traveled to London, UK I brought back home lots of LPs, tshirts, magazines etc all metal of course, and then sent to a couple of mags' penpal pages to get some lettering and exchanging demos, LPs etc. Prior to that I used to mail order from UK since very few stuff were being released back then in Turkey. It was a good option to have penpals, as there was no internet hehhe... So
In a few months time, I had many penpal-metalheads from UK to USA, from Japan to Euronymous (Rest In Hell) from Norway, he was claiming to be the leader of a very underground band and inner circle. He sent me lots of extreme brutal metal bands' flyers. ALso a cassatte tape of Deathcrush...
At this time in 1990, "Deathcrush" was still the latest official release from the band. Had you heard any of the material from the Dead/Hellhammer period when you first booked the gig? I imagine that even for those who were familiar with the "Deathcrush" period, the 1990 version of the band would come as somewhat of a shock.
Yeah, the Mayhem style was a shock to many at the time. You know, thrash metal has just started to get big and Metallica was the heaviest known, except for Venom. But of course on the otherhand there were many underground bands especially in Europe and Americas claiming they were the real thing but I knew most of the so-called bands didn't even know to play their equipments, and the demos or LPs they did had no musical theory in it but pure noise! But Mayhem sort of had the attitude you know, and the guys were sure knew what they played professionally-wise. Euronymous used to send me lots of flyers, demo tapes, contacts from all over the world. I still exchange news with some of the guys from those days, such like Jakub Jodl from Praha! So, yes, I knew what Mayhem sounded like when booking them...
Do you have any recollection of which songs the band got to play before the show was shut down? Judging from the recordings that exist of the shows in Zeitz and Lepizig earlier in the tour, and also the Sarpsborg recording on "The dawn of the black hearts," their setlist at the time consisted of "Deathcrush," "Necrolust," "Funeral fog," "The freezing moon," "Carnage," "Buried by time and dust," "Pagan fears," "Chainsaw gutsfuck" and "Pure fucking armageddon." Can you remember if they brought the "Silvester Anfang" intro tape with them?
Yeah, the setlist seems familiar. By the time they hit freezing moon I was talking to the cops. I had just turned 20 by then so I had no idea to stop the police ruining the gig. I have this pain in somewhere that if I was more experienced I would have settled things, but hey, then it wouldn't be the cult-gig status as it's now hehehhe. After freezing moon Dead screamed "carnageee" and someway Euronymous had the clue that police was to interrupt the gig and I recall him cursing on the mic in English of course. After the gig I told him that he once asked me in one of his letters prior to coming Turkey about how to say "fuck off" in Turkish which is "siktir", and he said "siktir, I should have remembered at the gig and cursed them in their native language". So, I was struggling with the police that the venue owner never had told me that after sun goes down, the municipality had to issue a permit since the venue was inside the fairgrounds of Izmir city, it was impossible to go and obtain the permit in the middle of the gig so police made the venue owner shut the system. The owner of the venue told later that he though Mayhem would play first, then Hazy Hill and IDEA to close the show.The local bands to play were hardcore band IDEA from Izmir, and Thrash Band Hazy Hill from Ankara. Back then in local concerts here most of the time the headliners played first, due to venue or hour limits etc. so Idea sort of took advantage and played first, then Hazy Hill and then Mayhem had to cut their setlist in the middle. I dont recall about the intro tape as I was with them in their dressing room before they hit stage.
You brought the band to a Turkish bath when they first arrived by train, did the locals react when they saw these crazy-looking tourist types?
Ahahahahh, you should have seen that. I wish we had the technology of today hehhe,
many people would pay thousands to see Mayhem naked with only a towel around their bellies, and with those classic hamam slippers on their feet... Izmir city has always been a cosmpolitan city but the area I took Mayhem to a Hamam is in close vicinity of one of the worst parts of the city, also near a flee market where lots of secondhand (stolen) stuff is exchanged, so many shopowners and passerbys were examining our group with eyes wide open. They weren't used to long hair in men, the strech pants, leather jackets etc, some were afraid, some were joking as if we were out of some SF movie like Mad Max heheheh. I recall choosing the area as a place to pay a visit to a Hamam as it was also close to the fairgroud where the venue was.
There wasn't much time to the gig after they arrived by bus in Izmir, so I had to rush things a bit. After the hamam we went directly to the fairground, found a beerhouse and chatted and sipped beers then walked to the venue.
Euronymous had intended for Mayhem to play in both Iran and Syria, but you talked him out of the former? Do you know if they ever made it to Damascus, or any other places besides İzmir, Zeitz and Leipzig?
There would be two gigs in Turkey, one in Izmir and other in Ankara, the latter was cancelled due to financial problems and lack of good connections. In some letters
Euronymous sent me he talked about plans to play in oppressed countries. As you can see from the tour programme Euronymous sent me, they were in Germany from 23rd Nov till 28th; then supposed to be in Greece on 4th Dec thru 6th ( but Dead somehow misunderstood a letter and said the Greece gig was postponed and Mayhem did not go to Greece, Euronymous wrote that in a letter to me after he went back to Oslo) ; Turkey from 9th Dec thru 11th and then Netherlands from 15th Dec to 20th to finish. In the beginning I was to arrange a gig in Ankara on the 11th Dec but I just could not handle that, so we stuck with only the Izmir gig in Turkey. I recall Euronymous asking me if I knew someone in Iran! to arrange a gig for Mayhem there. I told it was impossible to have a Mayhem gig there for known issues, and somehow persuaded him not to.
Shortly after the band returned from this tour the recordings from the Zeitz and Leipzig shows turned up. Do you know if there was made a recording of the İzmir show as well? Did the band bring along their own tape recorder or would they have relied on the venue's equipment to procure a recording?
I know, Euronymous sent me a cass. tape of the Leipzig show. Euronymous asked the sound board operator to give him a tape, I don't think he ever got that tape as the gig ended with the police arriving. Later I tried to reach the man but never got a hold of him or the tape.
Stories about Dead bringing a rotting raven in a plastic bag to concerts to precipitate the proper mood have been told for years. Did he bring any such things with him on this tour?
Dead wasn't talkative at all. I only remember shaking hands with him when I first met them at the bus station and he only nodded with his head when I talked to him. We went to a Turkish hamam, he was extremely pale from former blood losses caused by cutting himself. He had lots of scars thru out his body without any part of the body being an exception. Later, we went to a pub to have beer, Dead just sat and sipped his beer without words. He just looked me straight in the eye a couple of times: once when Euronymous told Dead buries his pants and shirts before gigs to have a feel that he was buried & came back to scream his vocal parts; the other when they were departing from Izmir, as if he wanted to leave a part in Izmir, or someway he saved the look in my memory, that he was here in this strange country to scream out his lungs for the true metal he believed.
