Intensified Chaos

My brother Nick was in a punk band called Intensified Chaos (great name!) in his teens so was really interested to find out recently that Mike Osmond, the band's drummer, has posted memories of the band and Nick on the blog of his current band, The Painkillers. Tim Hawley, also from Intensified Chaos and The Painkillers, gave the family the link and has added some of his memories to Mike's post.

I only saw Intensified Chaos once, at The Blue Angel Islington. As a very square student with my church mates, we felt very out of place amongst the crowd of gobbing punks and only stayed to hear the band and talk to Nick but really enjoyed their set. Tim remembers the gig like this (I assume it's the same gig): "SKUNX (the Angel pub at Islington) supporting Blitz. They refused to pay us and Mackie from Blitz gave us a fiver out of pity. Nice bloke. We were waiting to see some guy from Sounds, but no one we recognised turned up….but someone must’ve been there as the following review came out “a chorus of Ooh Arrs greeted Intensified Chaos when they admitted to coming from Somerset, but apart from their silly voices they were a bland bunch”. Could’ve been worse I s’pose.."

The band's only released recording was, I think, a track called 'Waste Away' on the Wet Dreams compilation album. Tim writes that this was essentially Nick's song and says just listen to the lyrics and remember when his day job was making garage doors.

Nick went on from Intensified Chaos to become a Royal Engineer. He joined 59 Independant Squadron and Royal Marine Commandos and trained as a sports instructor and joint service mountain leader before becoming a detatched youth worker for the Aston Community Youth Project. With the Youth Project, he organised the expedition to climb Mount Elgon in Uganda which led to the formation of the charity now known as Rejuvenate Worldwide. Nick also worked for the Fire Service and The Prince's Trust before joining Tear Fund's Disaster Response Team and going to Kosovo where he lost his life. More of his story can be read by clicking here, here and here.

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The Painkillers.