GORGOROTH

The management of a Polish state TV station has suspended the producer of last Sunday's (Feb. 1) controversial concert by the black metal band GORGOROTH.

“We are trying to determine if he had advance knowledge of the activities that were going to take place during the concert and allowed the show to proceed anyway,” TVP (Polish Television) director Andrzej Jeziorek told Gazeta Wyborcza. “Based on the documents that I have seen, it appears that he did not.”

The public prosecutor in Krakow, southern Poland, has opened an investigation into accusations that GORGOROTH offended religious feelings by displaying naked women, covered in blood and being crucified, during the concert.

Miroslawa Kalinowska-Zajdak, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor, said it was following up a complaint from TVP, which rented its studio in Krakow to GORGOROTH (via Metal Mind Productions from Katowice) for the concert, recorded for a DVD.

The Norwegian band, who were widely known for their antichristian ideologies, had long promised on their web site that the Polish concert would feature an “amazing” stage show “with lots of pyro, gallons of blood, live crucifixion [and] nude models.” Despite this, the employees of the Krakow branch of TVP claim that they had no knowledge of what the musicians and the promoters had in mind until they saw the actual performance (the deal signed by the TV producers and the promoters of the concert specified only technical requirements).

Jeziorek, head of the Krakow branch of TVP, admitted that the suspended producer tried to reach him by telephone several times during the concert. When he failed to make contact, the producer made a decision to allow the show to continue.

“Calling off the concert meant breaking the contract and only I had the authority to do that,” Jeziorek confirmed.

The board of directors of TVP in Warsaw have issued a written statement backing Jeziorek's decision to call the police and confiscate the recorded footage taken at the concert.

February 08. 2004