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NO SYSTEM HISTORY by Al. If I'm forgetting or messed up some details or dates, chalk it up to the fact it was over 20 fucking years ago, OK? And my memory ain't what it was :-)No System began in early 1984 when zine publishers Mike Gitter (xXx) and myself, Al Quint (Suburban Punk/Voice), decided to put a band together. We began jamming with guitar player Becky Day and drummer Scott Weissman. Some of the more "memorable" early songs were "Trendy New Wave Chicks" and "S.A.T." (a protest song against the S.A.T. tests). This lineup only lasted a few practices and Becky was replaced by Matt Murphy. After a few months of practice and writing a new batch of songs (although "TNWC" and "S.A.T." stayed on the set list for awhile, god knows why), this lineup made its debut at my parents' house in Swampscott in early June of '84. My parents were away and we decided it'd be a good time to play a show in the living room. As far as I know, they never found out about it.
After two shows, Mike was out of the band and we became a trio with me handling both bass and lead vocals. This lineup played just a few times--opening for Raw Power in Easthampton, MA and also playing at Lincoln-Sudbury High in early '85. Shortly after that show, Tim Willis joined on bass and I became the frontman. Scott left sometime in the spring and was replaced by Doug MacKinnon. In June, I had a falling-out with the three other guys and was asked to leave the band. We played our last show on June 20 at the Blue Pelican in Newport, RI. Matt, Tim and Doug continued playing that summer as Rex and the Human Tripods.
In the fall of 1985, I hooked up with Bob and Ron Domenici and Chris Lillyman from PTL Klub and recorded the six song "Dead Bands Tell No Tales" demo on a four-track in their practice space. Five songs were by No System and there was a cover of "Doomsday" by Discharge. I actually added the vocals a few days after the basic tracks were done. The demo was recorded by Chuck Freeman from Moving Targets and less than 100 copies were made. This lineup played one show in Middleborough, MA soon after the demo's release.
For some inexplicable reason, Tim, Doug and Matt asked me to give No System another shot during the summer of '86. We played at the Rat, opening for Marginal Man. Then there was the debacle where we got the opening slot for Suicidal Tendencies at the Paradise in Boston. Suicidal never showed and they kept delaying our set hoping they'd make it. We finally went on an hour and a half late and to say we got a less-than-warm reception would be an understatement. The fact that our set included several Kiss and Def Leppard songs did even less to ingratiate ourselves to that audience.
A much more enjoyable show was one that we played in Toronto. Psycho and Cancerous Growth, from here, were supposed to play the show with us but couldn't get over the border. So we became the de-facto headliners and the local bands, Dark Legion and Death of Gods, loaned us gear so we could play. It was probably the best reaction we ever got. The guys were leaving for college that fall, so we played our final show on August 13, 1986 at Brandeis University for WBRS' "The Joint" show.
As for what the members did afterward, I have no idea what happened to Becky. I recently heard from Tim and you can read the blog for what happened with him, Matt and Scott. Gitter went on to play in the bands Apology and Grin and currently does A&R at Roadrunner Records in NYC. Doug played drums for the Vandals and Slapshot and currently lives in Florida, playing in the band Guajiro. I went on to play in Shattered Silence (1986-1989, one reunion in '94), NPD (1989), Bludbrall (2001) and briefly reunited with two of the guys from my first band Isolated Youth in 2006 but we never played any shows. We did practice the No System song "Holy Vision." That song also resurfaced when I did a covers band called I Hate The Kids. We played two shows (with different lineups) and "Holy Vision" was played on Feb. 11, 2006 at my 46th birthday party show at Regeneration Records.
As for recordings, besides the demo with the "PTL System" lineup, we did some practice recordings and also have recordings of the appearance on WBRS and WUNH at the University of New Hampshire, which was recorded in June '85. Some tracks made it onto various cassette compilations and two songs, "Doomsday" from "Dead Bands" and "Life In General," from the WBRS recording, were on the Suburban Voice 15th Anniversary CD.