Although the flashy start of 1986 gave lots of room for optimism, with plenty of gigs and foreign visits ahead, something underneath kept itching that was impossible to scratch away. Our musical future seemed to provide a lot of challenges to ensure continuity as a band and allowing us to set our sights on more activities. The advances achieved in the previous years which we have identified in our historical reports on this site, seemed to be of full of promise, but in 1986 things worked out differently. By no further improvement our drive to go on could gradually disappear. In the years before we always found new sources that kept us on track, but this year something slipped in our minds that wouldn't go away. Renewing and improving music is not simply a matter of refurbishing our rehearsal room or a change of guitars, but merely a struggle with limited possibilities. We could not go on repeating the same songs and travelling the same circles. As long as new songs remain unborn patience could degenerate into indifference. As it is with changing mind sets, there's no effective solution to stop the process. Zowiso was never based on a straight plan nor created as a fine business model. We were slowly pushed forward by relatively smooth waves of successes, as far as these waves could take us. But this year a small undertow took his own active role that finally washed Zowiso ashore. Luckily we have never forced ourselves to keep going whatsoever, as there was always more appearing on the horizon than shadows of a playing in a band. Besides, everyone around us seemed to know for certain what was going on in the world, in a time it became clear for us that there were more directions to travel in life and no one has the right answers to all the questions. We had to face the truth that we lost track and we changed too rapidly as well.

The trend towards a split in this year was irreversible. Eventually when we reached autumn 1986, our pleasure fuel finally dried up. After a critical and analytical approach of our recent efforts and our limited possibilities, we finally decided to stop. Rick pulled the plug first and the others did not feel to plug it in again, although giving up felt a bit like a loss.

Zowiso was a spontaneous result from a joint willingness to experience pleasure and engagement expressed in music. Zowiso could therefore only be together in the same formation, strictly these four particular lads and no one else. Zowiso shall therefore never be a band of substitutes. There was no other way than doing it Zowiso, as it was printed only once as an irreversible design. In a subculture in which no future is a fierce statement, no future as a continuous band was a fact in 1986. Anyway, we learned that if you're tending to lose significance, whether it is as a person or as a group, it's better to stop than to end up in a circus of caricatures. By reading this all you may be concluding that 1986 was just a blackish period in our history as a band. Although some really sad things happened this year it is definitely no year to look back in anger or sadness. Therefore we like end this chapter by mentioning a few highlights of Zowiso's history in 1986.

Just for remarkable reasons we therefore like mention our outstanding winterish trip to Denmark. Zowiso was invited to play on 28 February during a two days festival in the friendly Danish capital of Copenhagen, among other bands like the Australian band Crime and the City Solution. Due to space left in our dirty white minivan, we had the opportunity to take some friends with us. Amongst this small group of innocent creatures, one was not able to cross the border legally, so we had to experience some illegally human trafficking, by covering his body on the floor by blankets, cloths and some dirty feet.

The day after our fine gig in Copenhagen, on 1 March 1986, we happened to cross the sea called Kattegat to reach the city of Arhus, by ferry over a beautiful partly frozen sea full of broken ice shelves. Our loud positive excitement about the frozen state of the sea could not count on wide support of the local fishermen. Due to weather conditions they worked temporarily in the local pub we visited afterwards. John's hundreds of noisy coins, as a sudden result of fine revenue from a Fruit Machine, didn't make life much better for our temporary barman, although the amount of drinks ordered with the money from the machine can be counted as an attenuating circumstance.

Besides the excitement of an icy happening, we were also experiencing a mark in world history, which happened in the neighboring country Sweden that very night before. On Friday 28 February 1986, awkwardly also Aad and John's father 50th and last recorded birthday, Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, was assassinated. Palme was fatally wounded by a single gunshot while walking home from a cinema with his wife. This deadly event was clearly screaming from all the front pages of people's papers on the ferry and we suppose also on the other newspapers in the world. Despite the fact that this assassination are amongst the most extensively investigated cases, the reason remain unclarified to date. Anyway hearing Palme's name now and in the future will always be mentally connected with our cold Danish ferry crossing.

Apart from all the historical facts, the gigs in Denmark were fine and even quiet amusing. The tape recording of our gig in Arhus can even still be enjoyed for yourselves on this Zowiso site. Basically that still one of the clear reasons to visit this site. Thanks for sharing anyway!!!