The Cockney Rejects’ 1980 performance at Birmingham’s Cedar Club remains unnoted in the annals of rock history. It warrants no mention when music journalists compile the 100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock, nor the 100 Craziest Gigs Ever, which seems like a terrible oversight. In fairness, no one is ever going to rank the show by the East End quartet – then enjoying chart success with a punk take on the West Ham terrace anthem I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – alongside Jimi Hendrix at Monterey in terms of musical brilliance. Still, it has its own claim to historical import: by all accounts, it was the most violent gig in British history.
“I’d seen quite a bit on the terraces or outside football grounds, but this was carnage,” says Jeff Turner, today an immensely amiable decorator, then “Stinky” Turner, the Cockney Rejects’ teenage frontman, cursed with what his former manager Garry Bushell tactfully describes as “a bit of a temper”. Turner continues: “There was a lot of people cut and hurt, I got cut, my brother [Rejects’ guitarist Micky Geggus] really got done bad, with an ashtray, the gear was decimated, there was people lying around on the floor. Carnage.”
The problem was football-related. “Most of the punk bands at the time, they had their ideals – the Clash, Career Opportunities, political stuff, fair play,” says Turner. “When I was a kid, my thought for punk rock was that it could put West Ham on the front pages.” To this end, the band – affiliated to the club’s hooligans in the Inter City Firm – had appeared on Top of the Pops in West Ham shirts. “After that, everybody wanted to fight us, but you couldn’t back down,” says Turner. “Once you were defeated, it would have opened the floodgates for everybody.”
So the Rejects and their party fought: “Twenty Cockneys against … well, not all 300 Brummies were trying to attack us, but I’d say we were trying to fight off 50 to 100 people.” In the aftermath, Micky Geggus was charged with GBH and affray, and the Cockney Rejects’ career as a live band was, in effect, over. An attempt to play Liverpool later that year ended after six songs “because there was 150 Scousers trying to kill us”, while a subsequent gig in Birmingham was aborted by the police: “The old bill got wind of it and escorted us on to the M6,” says Turner. “At the time, I was gutted, but now, I think, thank God for that. Someone could have died.”
Perhaps it’s unsurprising the gig has been swept under the carpet of musical history: after all, so has the genre the Cockney Rejects inadvertently inspired. Thirty years after Bushell – then a writer for the music paper Sounds, as well as the Rejects’ manager – coined the term “Oi!” to describe a third generation of punk-inspired working-class bands playing “harder music on every level, guitar driven, terrace choruses”, it remains largely reviled or ignored in Britain.
In the eyes of its remaining fans, Oi! is the “real thing”, the genuine sound of Britain’s streets in the late 70s, populated by artists Bushell championed when the rest of the music press concentrated on “bands who dropped literary references you wouldn’t have got if you didn’t have a masters’ degree and wrote pretentious lyrics”. Bands such as the Cockney Rejects, the Angelic Upstarts – Marxists from South Shields managed by a man Bushell colourfully describes as “a psychopath – his house had bars over all the windows because people had thrown firebombs through it” – Red Alert, Peter and the Test Tube Babies. It briefly stormed the charts. The Angelic Upstarts followed the Cockney Rejects onto Top of the Pops, while Splodgenessabounds made the Top 10 with the deathless Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please. But today, if the general public have heard of it at all, they tend to agree with the assessment once offered by journalist and broadcaster Stuart Maconie: “Punk’s stunted idiot half-brother, musically primitive and politically unsavoury, with its close links to far-right groups.” It is, asserts Bushell, “without a doubt, the most misunderstood genre in history”.
The problem isn’t really to do with the music, although protracted exposure to the oeuvre of Peter and the Test Tube Babies – home to Student Wankers, Up Yer Bum and Pick Your Nose (and Eat It) – could leave all but the hardiest soul pleading tearfully for a few literary references and pretentious lyrics. The problem is Oi!’s adoption by the far-right as its soundtrack of choice. It wasn’t the only part of street culture to attract the attentions of the National Front and the British Movement in the late 70s and early 80s. Losing out at the polling stations thanks to the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the NF had instigated a programme of “direct action”: it would attempt to kick its way into the headlines at football matches and gigs. Chart bands such as Sham 69, Madness and the Specials had concerts disrupted.In 1978, seig-heiling skinheads caused £7,500 worth of damage at a Sham 69 gig in London.
But it was to Oi! that the far-right was most attracted, not least because it attracted both football hooligans and the re-emergent skinhead movement – two groups the NF’s direct-action programme targeted for recruitment. “We played a gig in Camden, we saw these Nazi skinheads beating the shit out of these two punks,” remembers Turner. “They’d managed to wreck Sham 69’s career, but us with our following” – the ICF was then headed by Cass Pennant, whose parents were Jamaican – “we weren’t going to have it. We just went down and absolutely slaughtered them. We declared to them that if they ever set foot where we were again, we’d decimate them.” And so it proved. “Neo-nazis confronted the Rejects again at Barking station,” remembers Bushell. “They basically told them, ‘We’re going to come to your gigs, we’re going to do this and do that.’ The Rejects crew battered them all over the station. They didn’t come to the gigs after that.”
Bushell points out that there was “a Nazi subculture all the way through punk. Malcolm McLaren started it all with the swastikas, which thick people saw and thought, ‘Oh, they must be Nazis.'” There were white power punk bands, too – such as the Dentists and the Ventz, which were formed by the “Punk Front” division of the National Front, in lieu of real punk bands showing any interest in promoting white supremacy. It was a trick the NF would be forced to pull again when Oi! bands resisted their overtures – the party recruited a failed punk band from Blackpool called Skrewdriver and repositioned them as the musical voice of the neo-Nazi movement. “It was totally distinct from us,” says Bushell. “We had no overlap other than a mutual dislike for each other.”
Bushell’s latterday career as a gleeful provoker of the liberal left, writing for the Sun and the Daily Star, probably hasn’t done much to help public perceptions regarding Oi!’s political affiliations. When Oi! was at its height, however, he says he was a Trotskyist who did his best to infuse the movement with socialist principles. He organised Oi! conferences and debates, “trying to shape the movement, trying to stop the culture of violence, talking about doing unemployment benefits, working with the Right to Work campaign, prisoners’ rights gigs – I thought we could unite punk and social progress.” Not everyone was receptive: “Stinky Turner was at one debate, and he didn’t contribute much, apart from the classic line, ‘Oi! is working class, and if you’re not working class you’ll get a kick in the bollocks.'” He laughs. “Perfect! That was what the Rejects were all about.”
Trotskyist or not, Bushell also managed to exacerbate the problem, not least by masterminding the unfortunately titled 1981 compilation Strength Thru Oi!. “I didn’t know!” he protests. “I’d been active in politics for years and had never come across the phrase ‘strength through joy’ as a Nazi slogan.It was the title of a Skids EP.”
To compound matters, its cover featured a photograph of a skinhead who turned out to be the delectable-sounding Nicky Crane, who – nothing if not a multi-tasker – managed to combine life as a neo-Nazi activist with a secret career as a gay porn star. “I had a Christmas card on the wall, it had that image that was on the cover of Strength Thru Oi!, but washed out. I honestly, hand on my heart, thought it was a still from The Wanderers,” Bushell says. “It was only when the album came through for me to approve the artwork that I saw his tattoos. Of course, if I hadn’t been impatient, I would have said, right, fucking scrap this, let’s shoot something else entirely. Instead, we airbrushed the tattoos out. There were two mistakes there, both mine. Hands up.”
Much worse was to follow. A July 1981 Oi! gig featuring the 4-Skins and the Business in Southall – the scene of a racist murder in 1976 and the race riot that ended in the death of Blair Peach in 1979 – erupted into violent chaos: 110 people were hospitalised, and the venue, the Hambrough Tavern, was burned down after being petrol bombed. Depending on whose version of events you believe, it was either sparked by skinheads attacking Asians or Asian youths attacking gig-goers: either way, the Southall riot stopped Oi!’s commercial progress dead. The Cockney Rejects found that shops refused to stock their new album, The Power and the Glory: “I’d sung a song called Oi Oi Oi and all of a sudden there’s an Oi! movement and I didn’t really want anything to do with it,” says Turner. “This awful, awful shit happened in Southall, we were never there, and we got the rug pulled out from under our feet. I went from the TV screen to the labour exchange in 18 months.”
An inflammatory article in the Daily Mail exacerbated the situation further: “We never had an problems with Nazi activists at our gigs until after the Mail’s piece,” says Bushell. “Only then did we have people coming down, thinking it was going to be this rightwing thing, When they discovered it wasn’t, that’s when the trouble started. I was attacked at an Upstarts gig at the 100 Club by about 20 of them. I had a knife pulled on me at Charing Cross station.”
That should have been that, had it not been for Oi!’s curious afterlife in America. Steve Whale – who joined the Business after Southall and struggled on through the 80s, repositioning the band as “street punk” – unexpectedly found himself in possession of a US recording contract with Bad Religion’s label Epitaph, lauded by bands including Boston’s Irish-punk stars the Dropkick Murphys and the extraordinarily influential California band Rancid. Jeff Turner has just returned from a tour of Japan: “Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya. I haven’t got fortunes but I’m able to do that. That’s all I can ask for, it makes me happy.”
“I had Lars Freidricksen of Rancid come in and sit in the pub round the corner from my house, welling up, telling me if it wasn’t for Oi! he might have killed himself as a teenager,” says Garry Bushell. “I thought, ‘Fuck me, it’s really had an effect on these people.’ I’m not proud of the way Oi! was misunderstood, but I’m proud of the music, proud of what it started, proud of what it gave punk.”
In Britain, he concedes, the genre’s name is still blackened in most people’s eyes. “There were people in 1976 saying punk had to be a Nazi thing because of the swastikas. The difference is, those bands had rock journalists on their side. The Oi! bands only had me.” He laughs, a little ruefully. “I did me best.”
The trouble caused by mods and rockers in May 1964
Bank holidays in Brighton tended to be busy, jolly affairs in which thousands of Londoners flocked to the sea and sunshine.
All that changed in 1964 during the Whitsun bank holiday when more than a thousand mods and rockers fought pitched battles with each other on the prom and pavements.
There was more trouble in 1965 during both the Easter and August bank holidays, only this time they were met by a force of 100 policemen chosen for their barn door proportions.
Deckchairs were a favourite weapon and if they were not being used for striking enemies, they were destroyed in fires on the beach.
Mods pictured in May 1964 throwing deckchairs from the roof terrace of Brighton Aquarium on to Madeira Drive below
There were 75 arrests and the courts were kept busy for weeks afterwards in dealing with all the cases. Images of the fights went all round the world.
In a new book on the shady side of Brighton, David Boyne says, “As shocking as the violence for many of the older generation was the discovery that many of those involved were taking drugs, particularly amphetamines.”
The Brighton Council of Churches found that more than half the mods and almost half the rockers were taking blues, a form of speed.
There was more trouble in 1965 during both the Easter and August bank holidays, only this time they were met by a force of 100 policemen chosen for their barn door proportions.
Boyne says all kinds of ideas were offered to solve the problem, including bringing back conscription, hard labour and even reviving the stocks.
Sentences handed out by Brighton magistrates were generally tough. One of them, Hebert Cushnie, referred to the youths as “sawdust Caesars”. He was widely quoted but few were sure what he meant.
But after that there was comparative peace on bank holidays until the late 1970s when the Brighton-based film Quadrophenia and the start of the punk fashion led to a mod revival.
This time the enemy was skinheads rather than rockers and confrontations Police worked out a simple but effective way of stopping youths from kicking each other. They made youths take out their bootlaces.
Mary Whitehouse, the doughty defender of old- fashioned morals, blamed the violence by young people on copying what they saw on TV.
Less predictably, support for mods and rockers came from the National Federation of Hairdressers as both sides paid much attention to style.
Forty years ago pictures of Mods and Rockers shocked polite society. But were they staged by the press?
It all kicked off between the mods and the rockers this weekend in 1964. But appearances can be deceptive
Robin Stummer reports
They came, they saw, they beat each other senseless on the shingle. Or did they? Forty years ago this Easter weekend, mods took on rockers for the first time, fuelling Britain’s first mass-media scare over dissolute, drug-taking, mindlessly violent youth.
They came, they saw, they beat each other senseless on the shingle. Or did they? Forty years ago this Easter weekend, mods took on rockers for the first time, fuelling Britain’s first mass-media scare over dissolute, drug-taking, mindlessly violent youth.
Starting with a spot of bother at Clacton, Essex, over the Easter weekend of 1964, the tabloid press feasted for months on the gory new phenomenon breaking out at sleepy seaside towns across the South-east.
Beside gleefully horrified headlines – “Riot police fly to seaside” – were photographs of pale youths in Italian fashions fighting pale youths in engine-oil-caked leathers beside penny arcades at Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth, Clacton, Southend and Hastings.
But now mod experts and some of the old rockers and mods themselves are admitting that many of the candid newspaper shots of seaside gang fighting in 1964 – so shocking at the time, and now considered classic images of Sixties Britain – were staged.
Further, with the tales of drug-fuelled derring-do and flying deckchairs now the stuff of pop-culture legend, a new, far less violent picture is emerging of what actually happened. It’s a world far removed from Quadrophenia, the cult 1979 film based on The Who’s mod-nostalgia album.
“There are famous photographs taken in Brighton where the photographer paid the lads a few shillings,” says David Cooke, a Brighton-based mod ephemera dealer and an authority on the history and lore of the mod world. “Quite a few people know that photographs were set up in Brighton.”
Finding that gangs were engaged not in open warfare but aimless wandering, some photographers and reporters paid youths to stage mock fights and chases.
“At Margate some photographs were definitely staged,” recalls Howard Baker, in 1964 a purist mod and now a writer whose novel Sawdust Caesar is set against mid-1960s mod culture. “Reporters and photographers were paying off a lot of kids. You’d get a fiver or a tenner. We’d get pissed on it.”
“The media made it sound much worse than it really was,” says rocker Phil Bradley, a veteran of dozens of seaside “visits” in the Sixties and a repentant mod-baiter. Bradley became a rocker at 14 when he bought his first motorbike, and spent most of his teens trading insults with the scootering mods. But bloodshed? “There wasn’t as much fighting as what has been made out,” he says. “The press hyped it right up. There were only isolated incidents. There weren’t riots like in that film Quadrophenia. The odd deckchair came flying through the air, but there weren’t weapons like you see nowadays.
“And we certainly didn’t go chasing after old people, even us rockers. If we saw an old lady going across the road having trouble, we’d walk across with her.”
Tabloid headlines about the drug menace facing Britain’s youth, which for a few months in mid-1964 alternated with seaside warfare headlines, pointed to another glaring falsehood. “There was an idea that amphetamines, which were the mod pill of choice at the time, caused us all to be terribly aggressive, but that wasn’t the case,” says Alfredo Marcantonio, 40 years ago a devoted mod and now a leading figure in British advertising. “Most of the time you danced your socks off in clubs, but afterwards you were so worn out you wouldn’t want to fight anyone.”
No, says Howard Baker, there was real fighting as well as fake fighting. “The Brighton photographs weren’t staged. I was there. The violence was nasty, but there weren’t guns.”
Mods were not averse to fighting other mods, rather than rockers. “It wasn’t really mods versus rockers, as the press put it, anyway,” says David Cooke. “Mods were fighting each other. The north London mods hated south London mods. South London mods hated north London mods, and east London mods hated everybody, and everybody hated them.”
“You could almost tell which part of London a mod was from by which colour suit he had,” recalls Mr Marcantonio. One of many early mods who went into advertising and the media, he remembers spats, but maintains pitched battles did not happen. “The streets were not strewn with broken deckchairs,” he says. “The police herded you up and you ended up walking around Brighton in the great phalanxes of people looking a bit pissed off.
“The seaside towns were the domain of the rocker, their patch,” he explains. “Every rocker, you imagined, dreamt of working on the dodgems, with the sound of Del Shannon echoing past the helter-skelter. So a lot of us turning up on scooters, it was asking for trouble. But mods didn’t ever get on their scooters and go down to the coast for a fight. Real mods were far too concerned about their clothing. I mean, we’re talking about possibly losing buttons – you know, creasing or tearing clothing you’d saved for!”
But isolated outbreaks of violence did continue throughout the Sixties. “The Battle of Hastings, about 1965, was quite a big one,” remembers Phil Bradley. “Some scooters and bikes went off the top of the cliff. Margate in 1964 was the worst – the cells filled up. There were only seven coppers in Margate at the time, and one Black Maria – but there were about 4,000 mods and 500 rockers!”
In the end, the mod movement mutated. “Everyone diverged,” says Howard Baker. “Lots of mods became hippies or freaks and wandered off to India, like I did.”
“I haven’t the foggiest idea why there was any fighting with the mods,” says Phil Bradley. “I really don’t know.”
The early 1980s revival ebbed away and since then all resorts including Brighton have not suffered from large-scale fighting by violent gangs of youths.
It is almost half a century now since the first clashes and some of the combatants have become nostalgic about them.
Every September there is a huge convoy of men on motorbikes and scooters who ride down to Brighton for the day.
Now mostly pensioners, they reminisce about what they see as the good old days while often drinking nothing stronger than tea.
By Adam Trimingham
Bloody British History: Brighton by David J. Boyne (The History Press £9.99)
Who are the subjects in the iconic “Skinhead girls, Bank Holiday, Brighton 1980” photo by Derek Ridgers used in Morrissey’s 1992 “Your Arsenal” tour as a backdrop and merchandise (t-shirt, program cover)? Finally we know – Caroline and Debbie. Both were together recently and surprisingly, both learned just last weekend (Aug. 2016) about the use of the photo on Morrissey’s tour 24 years ago.
Debbie writes through emails:
I am one of the skinhead girls in the photo as I have just found out my picture was used… Caroline on the left, I’m on the right (in both 1980 and 2016 photos, below). She moved to Australia and was over last weekend. That’s when we found out via Google about the photo, such a shock but a nice one. Eyes nearly popped out when we saw the huge backdrop of us.
I have been in touch with Derek, he is sending us a photo as we never got one. Sent him a photo of what we look like now and he thinks we haven’t changed (well, longer hair and older). Does anyone have any tour mementos?
Caroline lives in Perth, Australia, is married with 3 children and also a granny.
I live in Surrey, married, with 1 son and work in community nursing.
We was both wild when young, me being the worst as my mum tells me.
Brighton information Still one of the most popular seaside destinations in the UK, Brighton has been a tourist hotspot for many years thanks to its climate, nightlife and fantastic shopping. The advent of the railway really helped to boost the city’s profile. Brighton has consistently attracted visitors for day trips, weekends and entire holidays, with its proximity to London has helped create a huge tourist industry that erupted during the Victorian era, with the building of several attractions including the West Pier and the Palace Pier. Modern-day Brighton has much to echo the luxury of the Georgian and Victorian eras, with a new swathe of independent boutiques opening in key shopping areas of the city, such as The Lanes, which is packed full of quirky shops, jewellers, antiques dealers and specialist restaurants. Brighton has been a mecca for youth culture, ever since the 1960’s infamous Mods and Rockers battles. Punk found its south coast home during the 70’s and 80’s, with an explosion of Acid House at the end of the 80’s. in modern day, Brighton has a huge independent music scene, with world renowned bands regularly springing up and touring the world. The town has also seen the rise of a huge Skinhead weekender every June, where people come from across the planet to Moonstomp the weekend away. Showing what a cultural diverse and amazing place the City is
When I first received an email from the BBC asking would I like to be involved in a documentary that BBC4 were putting together with Don Letts, my first thought was one of caution, I have done a few documentaries over the years, starting with George Marshall in 1994, Then Skinhead attitude of 2002. The first documentary I remember being made was the 40 minutes, focussing on the band Combat 84 and chubby Chris, which was a complete stitch up, and ruined the bands career, making them being excluded from the forthcoming Oi! Albums and finding their records banned.
The media will always have an agenda, usually one based on other media perceptions on Skinhead racialist politics. So I thought to myself, do I really want to go and tell this terminally boring story once again, but then I thought, well if I don’t, someone else will. Its been a curse for nearly 40 years, since the far right National Front in the UK actively set up a recruitment campaign, targeting disenfranchised white working class kids, provoking and promoting violence and faction. The Skinhead image perfect for the Sun Newspaper to run front page images of the modern devil in our midst. Like any young kid, wanting to be part of something, many jumped onto that image and the wheels have turned ever since, one feeding the other.
I decided to go meet up with Don and get his story, find out his motivation in his desire to make a documentary. Was it going to be the usual media left wing leaning clap trap. But very soon Don and I started having a laugh, we shared many life experiences and times. Although he is slightly older than me, we were both involved in riots in 1981, both loved punk rock. I had booked Don in 2007 to DJ our Xray Spex show at the Roundhouse, as he was the legendary Roxy club Dj and a friend of Poly Styrene.
Before we started talking Skinhead, Don produced some old tattered photos of himself in the late 60’s as a skinhead, stapress, loafers and button down shirt. Then told me his own story of growing up on a south London council estate, and the early pre punk skinhead days. And that his motivation was to put the record straight, and celebrate the strongest youth subculture to have ever been born in England. Its rich tapestry, that has weaved the threads of Skinhead from the mid 60’s to the mid 2010’s.
I agreed to take part, and roped my old mate from the Wycombe Skinheads, Barry ‘Bmore’ George along. I did put several names forward to the researchers, as people I told them held respect through action in the skinhead world. People like Gary Hodges, Milky, Roy Ellis. They told me they had been speaking to Roi Pearce and Suggs, so I thought it would be great to have some of these king pins of the scene involved, but sadly most people in our scene distrust the media more than rabid dogs, which after all these years, and stitch ups, is understandable. I even find it a struggle with some bands that are very happy to play large ‘Punk’ festivals to a skinhead audience, but don’t want to appear on a flyer for a ‘Skinhead Reunion’ So its a problem on all levels. Until everyone involved claims the Skinhead subculture, and puts their truth forward, the subculture will forever be that of the medias perception. As a kid of 13 I made a vow to become a skinhead, and through lifes journey, its a belief and core I have never felt any embarrassment over. Guilt through association.. well I know who I am, and who my skinhead friends are. So what the media and the middle class think of me, I wont be losing sleep over.
I found the documentary to be surprisingly good. It started with the roots of skinhead. The Reggae and Jamaican influences of its inception in the 60’s. The football hooligan gang fighting of the 70-80’s. The influence created by Joe Pearce and the Young national Fronts campaign. The musical icons like Jimmy Pursey. The 2tone explosion of 1979. Some old footage of Ian Stuart. Live interviews with Kevin Rowland and Pauline Black, to give quite a good balance, and explain the why’s and wherefores of the British Skinhead subculture.
Sure if I had been given the job of researcher and assistant director, I would have added more elements in. The music and what it meant to us, on a street level, the offshoots like the scooter and northern soul scene. Perhaps tried to get people involved in the far right skinhead scene to explain from their angle, why they felt the way they did, and how they feel its part of the skinhead culture they have lived. Don had voices of the far left, with Roddy Mareno. Might have even been nice to find a journalist that would admit to paying young kids for a seig heil for the newspapers.
But what the documentary really did for me, was to show I am not the only person with such a strong passion for our beloved Skinhead subculture. I saw many faces on the screen I consider friends, brothers and sisters. So many of them singing from the same hymn sheet. And that is, there is only one skinhead subculture and its called SKINHEAD
The best punk singles record covers – in pictures Punk 45: The Singles Cover Art of Punk 1976-80 is a collection of punk’s seven-inch sleeves, whose distinctively DIY designs encapsulated the attitude at the heart of the musical genre. Co-edited by Jon Savage and Stuart Baker, the book includes interviews with some of the designers whose use of montage, Day-Glo colours and hand lettering created the punk aesthetic. For Savage, it was the single, not the album, that was the perfect format for the succinct speediness of the music (“A lot of punk songs were two minutes or under,” he says), and here he describes some of his favourite covers of the era
This book is a revelatory guide to hundreds and hundreds of original 7” record cover sleeve designs – visual artefacts found at the heart of the most radical and anarchistic musical movement of the 20th century. Punk Rock 45 Soundsystem! is introduced (and co-compiled) by Jon Savage, author of the acclaimed definitive history of punk, England’s Dreaming. As well as the encyclopaedic visual imagery featured inside, the book also includes a number of interviews with celebrated designers involved in creating punk’s original iconic imagery. The revolutionary do-it-yourself ethic of punk was applied to the aesthetic of design as much as it was to music, and record sleeves acted as lo-fi signifiers of anarchy, style, fashion, politics and more with an urban and suburban invective courtesy of the 1000s of new bands – punk, post-punk, pre-punk, nearly-punk and more – that emerged at the end of the 1970s. This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music – everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities.
Punk record covers: Punk Record covers x ray spex X-Ray Spex: The Day the World Turned Day-Glo Jon Savage: “A perfect fusion of music and image.”
Punk record covers: Punk record covers Ramones Ramones: Blitzkreig Bop Design by John Holmstrom of Punk magazine. “A very good example of their cartoon format.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Sex Pistols: God Save the Queen Design by Jamie Reid. “An archetypal image for an archetypal single.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: Punk record covers crass Crass: Nagasaki Nightmare Art and design by Crass. “Crass record sleeves were a mine of information, illustration and agit-prop design” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: Punk record covers scritti politti Scritti Politti: Work in Progress 2nd Peel Session “A fantastically influential sleeve, which includes a detailed breakdown of the cost of production.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: Punk record covers the panik The Panik: It Won’t Sell Design by Steve McGarry. “The image of hustlers is from a 1964 Time magazine. The Panik were the first group to be managed by future Joy Division and New Order manager Rob Gretton.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: Punk record covers the middle class The Middle Class, Out of Vogue “A great illustration of the suburban nightmare.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: punk record covers Buzzcocks Buzzcocks, Orgasm Addict Montage by Linder Sterling, design by Malcolm Garrett. “I worked with Linder Sterling when we produced a magazine called The Secret Public. From the first moment I saw her work, I was a huge fan, and very pleased to work with her. I also love the colour that Malcolm Garrett put behind the central image, which is so striking. It’s a feminist image on a pop record sleeve for a song about sexual excess, which manages to be at once extremely true and also very funny.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: punk record covers subway sect Subway Sect: Nobody’s Scared “Their first single, a good example of the underground imagery prevalent in punk.” Photograph: Soul Jazz Books
Punk record covers: Punk record covers punk 45 book cover Available on Amazon and other outlets
With The Great Skinhead Reunion looming we dropped into Jamie from Tear Up to see how things were cooking, so here’s a 5 minute interview
Whilst looking for new bands to introduce to the skinhead world, i came across Tear Up last year, and after a brief chat with the singer Jamie, sussed out, he had the right attitude and decided to give them a whirl at the Great Skinhead Northern gathering, an event which i thought might intimidate a young band, being in the deep dark north East town of Sunderland, home of British ship building and strong working class community, but they rode it like professionals and brought the house down. Apprenticeship served, they are up for smashing the fuck out of the Brighton Skinhead Reunion.
Takes me right back to early Cockney Rejects with a touch of Peter and The Test Tube Babies
1. the first thing that jumped in my mind when i saw Tear Up was, why would a young bloke be into oi? Well I grown up always loving the cockney rejects and I have known Jon from argy bargy and Nick from angry agenda since I was really little so they got me hooked on the oi scene I love the passion and aggression behind it
2. why did you decide to form a band I wrote a few songs in prison and when I came out I tried giving them to Terry Hayes from the east end badoes but he said I should start my own band so got on stage with them a few times then started my own band
3. where are you from, whats your history and connection to the oi/ skinhead scene Im from watford I was a bit of a scallywag growing up but I got a my little boy Ronnie now the only thing I love more than the band as I said previously there is a few bands out of Watford u go to a gig talk to people and your network just gets bigger and bigger
4. who writes for tear up I write all the stuff for us I co wrote a song with Steve thurlow from Peckham Rolex and I am currently writing a song with John mundy from vicious rumours top bloke he is
5. what was your first song My first song was bollocks to the smoking ban
6. what was your first gig, and the highlight so far My first gig was angry agenda nicks birthday at some club in Watford I was so nervous I pace up and down and drive everyone mad lol we played 4 songs I think
7. whats the plan for 2016 -2017 Just gotta finish recording the album and get it out there hopefully get a few gigs over the water
have you released any material for people to buy We have a 5 track ep called fuckin av it I’m sure we will have a couple kicking about in Brighton
9. why did you ask to play the skinhead reunion, a tough crowd to please We played the northern gathering and people loved us not as tough as they look lol I had lost my voice as well I’m pretty sure you asked us when we had all them jager bombs 10. can we expect new material from tear up soon We have 3 New songs called dodgy Dave, punch the cunt out of you inspired by the YouTube video cockney rejects trouble at bridgehouse and another song called retribution .
‘they are heavy at the same time it is very melodic and well played shit so i think anyone who is not too one-way-minded would appreciate their songs’ … Adelina, Sweden
Updates for 2016, Mindofalion have been busy in the studio, releasing an EP to critical acclaim, they immediately secured a play listing for BBC introducing, and have been inundated with live shows. Smashing the Brighton scene wide open they are very pleased to announce a series of Major UK Festivals
When’s it going to stop? So to remind ourselves… Sell out EP (THANKS EVERYONE!), BBC Sussexand BBC Introducing play Machina on national radio, Origin EP gets released on all major platforms – a first for Mindofalion, then we reveal we are performing Y Not Festival… Now we are pleased to announce we will be playing Truck Festival!!
2016 sees another band members shuffle, and in comes Sam on Bass guitar, to really lift the live shows, to another level of excitement, Think along the lines of Tim Commerford and you know what to expect from Sams stage performance
MindofaLion
2014 tour
Autumn 2014.
M.O.A.L Hit the road for a UK tour. From Manchester in the North to the Deep south
Into 2015 Together with the regular UK shows, M.O.A.L are proud to announce, they have been invited to perform in Stockholm, Sweden. Making this the first international performance.
‘Maximum Volume music‘……… Brighton based three piece MindOfALion are a new name on the landscape. What you need to know for now is they do a nice line in alternative rock. Tracks like “Monopoly” have a big sound and they are evidently a little different to the usual. Single “Zia Ground” is an interesting song and the band, built around the Brewis-Lawes brothers, Archie and Jack, are clearly driven. Archie’s guitar playing is impressive and when they really let go they are at their best.
Into 2014 Great news Mind of a lion have teamed up with Gullwing USA, with a second video being shot with Mind of a Lion track ‘Conflict’ being overdubbed, lets hope to see this great British band entertaining out cousins in the sunshine
Self motivated musicians expressing their state of mind through a raw, organic and poetic sound. Energy and influence through drums, bass, guitar and vocals.
At a very young age the brothers traveled around India, witnessing the poverty that we don’t experience in our world. People begging in front of their god’s temples, different mind sets, ancient beliefs & the segregation and conflict caused by religion. They use music to express their own thoughts and state of mind, influenced from these early experiences and blend the two to form Mindofalion, write songs to reflect their own life experience. Experimenting and developing, think of the verve, white stripes. but with a new 2014 energy
Check out the new music coming through, with a new direction, in the battle to achieve that stand alone sound
Mind of a lion have been busy writing new material, gigging and would like to announce a new member on bass. Henna
2012
Based in Brighton , England
This hard hitting band are very difficult to pigeon hole, although its clear to see a certain Rage Against the Machine influence. in their early tracks, the stuff coming through in 2014 is in a new direction, showing strong versatility, as the trio find their own individual sound . Mind of a Lion has a definite London working class feel, with an edge of Grime mixed in, but with elements of the verve and white stripes. The first thing that shocks, is the age of the lads when they turn out such a high level performance of well written songs, fully charged live performance. Most young bands tend to follow whatever is popular at the time, but Mind of a Lion seem to be more interested in the message in their music, than being the ‘rock star’.
“Music should have a message” Archie BL
As young lads, brothers Archie and Jack had a children’s tree camp in nearby woods, one day the whole area was cordoned off by police and terrorist material was discovered, which lead to the banning of all bottles on Aeroplanes. Perhaps subconsciously this had a great influence on Archie’s song writing. The First Demo album is entitled ‘Peace through aggression’ which is a direct reference to the life of young people in the 21st century. Living a backdrop of the war on terrorism, with Governments theory of war will create peace.
Co Writers- Archie Brewis-Lawes
& Jack Brewis-Lawes
Storming the stage as the opening band to 2012 Rebellion Festival
Definitely destined for the big time, Mind of a lion are the future of the British underground.
live in Brixton, London
Check out their songs: Monopoly, Obstacle, Zia Origin.
Into 2014 Great news Mind of a lion have teamed up with Gullwing USA, with a second video being shot with Mind of a Lion track ‘Conflict’ being overdubbed, lets hope to see this great British band entertaining out cousins in the sunshine
Mind of a Lion are two brothers, Jack and Archie, with female band member Henna. Touring the UK in 2014, fighting the never ending battle for recognition. They started life as musicians at 12 years old, writing a full album of material. this is a video, made by them at that age
written in 2007, by the boys, then aged 12 years old ‘Reliegion’
Legends of British Ska, King Hammond and The Rude Boy Mafia confirmed for the Great Skinhead Reunion, Brighton.
As we like to have a real mixed genre bag every day of the Great Skinhead Reunion, We are pleased to announce King Hammond will be hot tailing down to Brighton for our Sunday night Knees up session, to play out 2016.
* Nick played his first professional (paid!) gig in July 1977 at The Roxy Club in London where his band The Dead shared a bill with Cocksparrer & Dead Fingers Talk. The same week he was pictured on the front of the Melody Maker under the headline “Teds Versus Punks”!
Gavin Watson was born in London in 1965 and grew up on a council estate in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He bought a Hanimex camera from Woolworths in his early teens and began to take photographs. Upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, Watson moved back to London and became a darkroom assistant at Camera Press. He continued to photograph his younger brother Neville and their group of skinhead friends in High Wycombe.
The ‘Wycombe Skins’ were part of the working-class skinhead subculture brought together by a love of ska music and fashion. Although skinhead style had become associated with the right-wing extremism of political groups like the National Front in the 1970s, Watson’s photographs document a time and place where the subculture was racially mixed and inclusive. His photographs were published in the books Skins (1994) and Skins and Punks (2008), and the director Shane Meadows cited them as an inspiration for his film This is England (2006). In 2011 and 2012 Watson photographed campaigns for Dr Martens and began a project with the singer Plan B.
SULTAN ALI (Sonofprincebuster) aka #TheSultanofSKA Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Sultan has honed his craft performing in Los Angeles since the late eighties. His father is the legendary ska originator Prince Buster, who changed the face of Jamaican music forever and inspired generations of ska revivalists as well as producing greats like Toots and the Maytals and paving the way for international reggae. Sultan recently appeared onstage with Prince Buster at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. With this two-song teaser you’ll hear the music that’s been welling up inside of Sultan since childhood burst forth with a full-tilt pedal-to-the-metal intensity, all pistons firing. In his voice you will hear passion, urgency, commitment, heart and hope: the voice of a new generation drawing from the roots to create a new sound. Few Jamaicans or Americans would dare to cover Marvin Gaye, whose “Pride and Joy” Sultan delivers in an upbeat, driving style. “Beautiful Angel” is an original whose melodic and infectious chorus will stay with you long enough to make you want to hear it again and again. The music melds ska, rock steady reggae with contemporary dancehall and rhythm and blues. These cuts preview a forthcoming full-length release which should now be eagerly awaited by a growing number of fans.– Chuck Foster, host of KPFK-LA’s “Reggae Central” andauthor of Roots Rock Reggae (Billboard Books). In the influence of his father, Sultan performs many of the legendary songs written by his father, a rare chance to hear such great tunes performed live. For all enquiries and European bookings , please contact subcultz@gmail.com
Arrived in Brighton around 1.30 with my mate Steve Aller holding high expectations of what the weekend had in store. I was not to be disappointed as this years reunion was even better than the 2013 event. After checking in at the Adelaide hotel, we made our way to the Volks where we met up with many old mates, Dave Ryan and his son Sid, Dave Nash, Lisa Sumner, Lynda Scarpellini, Jo Barnett, Steve Parish, and many more. The vibe was good as we all sat around chatting outside in the sun whilst the music blasted out. First band on were ”Grade 2” who performed well above anything I had anticipated. This band made up of 3 lads all still at school showed a confidence well above their years. Sid the vocalist showing no nerves at all. I was straight on the dancefloor throwing myself about like a spider on acid. Loved every second of their set. Then it was back to the fresh air of Brighton to cool myself down. Saw a old flame from the past, [11 years to be exact!] Ana, and straight away we connected. The relationship blossomed over the w/e. Back to the bands and next on were Swedish Oi band ”Agent Bulldog” who had brought with them a large Swedish contingent. Although I could not understand the lyrics to their songs, I still enjoyed their set very much and had a jump around. Last band of the night were ”The Downsetters” who I had seen earlier in the year at Skamouth. The masses obviously enjoyed these lads as the dance floor filled. Their set included a combination of covers and their own material, which was very good. They even did a ska version of the Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant, which I was not sure about! By around 10ish the bands had finished. But for many the night was just beginning as the crowds headed for the next venue [which I cannot remember the name of!] After a short walk we arrived to hear old Trojan sounds blasting out, and so the dancing continued into the early hours. By around 1 o clock this old boy was done in, my bed was calling.
SATURDAY. Up early to hit the breakfast table, so after a shower and a squirt of Steves chanel deodorant, off we toddled. We eventually hit the Volks around 1ish on another scorching day. Gutted that I had missed Ken and Bobbi’s wedding do.Already the place was heaving with skinheads slowly getting pissed. As a non drinker it was J20s all the way, kinda funny seeing most getting pissed whilst I remained sober. The music is my alcohol! The Dr Martens photo booth was in big demand as many queued for a free photo. First band on today were ”Lineside” who I must apologise to for missing. I took a break from reunion activities for a walk along Brighton pier with the Latina Ana, where we got more reacquainted, and indulged in a ice cream. Back to the Volks just in time to catch Linesides last number. They actually sounded very good indeed. Next band up were the 2-Tones, who I thoroughly enjoyed from last years reunion. Again, they blew the roof off with the dance floor packed as they belted out cover after cover of our favourite ska/Trojan sounds. A hour or so later it was time for Saturdays headlining band ”The Feckin Ejits” a band I had not seen since the 1980’s. Really enjoyed this set as the crowd went mental to ”You gotta kick a picket or two”. Top marks Mr Sterling! Then at 10-30 it was off to the ?????? for more dancing. My poor feet were done in, the dms are certainly better than brogues for jumping about in. Again by 1ish I was cream crackered and pestered Steve to go back to the hotel. [He had the solitary key!]. And so endeth day 2.
SUNDAY Up early, due to my mate Steve singing Judge Dredd songs whilst I was trying to sleep. Down for brekky, then it was more sleep. Got to the Volks to find it still packed, regardless of many having headed home for work commitments. Only 2 bands tonight. ”Jack the Lad” with Gunk from Condemned 84 who did a complete set of Oi covers, and jolly good fun it was too! Once again I jumped about like a loony on day release. Finally it was the highlight of the w/e [not including meeting Ana again] the band I had really came to see ”The Last Resort”, having not seen them for a few years I was really psyched up. And what a energetic set it was. All the old favourites, mixed in with newer stuff like Never get a job, and the superb We are invincible. The floor was a mass of boots, muscle and sweat [with a couple of females amongst the nutters, well done Jo Barnett and Tash] . After 2 encores that was it, no more bands. But certainly not the end of the night as Ana and I strolled romantically along the beach with the lit up pier and big wheel in the background. Awww how nice. Still made it back to the volks for the last hour or so of music. The djs incidentally have been superb. Top marks to them all. Also the bar staff who were kept on their toes. Gotta say a massive thank you to everyone that made this w/e such a great event. It is what you make it to a point, but after all is said and done it would not be happening without Symond. Sod the haters. Roll on 2015s Reunion. Oi oi that’s yer lot Dave Webster. Could have wrote much more, but have left my personal details out. Ha ha.
A little punk rock show – Maid Of Ace in Weinheim/Germany 27th november 2015 – Weinheim/Germany, Café Central It was the last weekend in november and I went to Weinheim. Maid Of Ace an all-sister punk band from Hastings, England was on a tour through Europe and that evening they did a show in Weinheim at Café Central. I saw them for the first time as main support of Bishops Green on their „A Chance To Change“ Europe tour in Schweinfurt/Germany. I’ve been in many clubs and locations but it was the first time for me being at Café Central. When I arrived at the location I was very astonished. It ist rue the club is small but when I saw all the tour posters at the walls of the club I was impressed how many great bands played there before. Florian, a really good mate of mine who joined my trip to London in february 2015 is a big fan of Maid Of Ace. When I told him I would go to their show in Weinheim he asked me to buy a patch and a CD signed by the band. So I went to the merch to fulfil his wish. I bought a patch and a CD and asked the gilrs to sign it.After a nice conversation about their tour, punk and the scene the girls entered the stage. Obviously there wasn’t a support band. A lot of people were in the small location and the ladies were able to made mostly everybody dancing and singing, even the people in the audience who were definitely not addicted to punk. Maid Of Ace play songs of their album but also some songs which were not on the album, maybe these songs will be on the upcoming album. For some songs there was a guest singer on stage. It was Dee Skusting the vocals of a punk band from Los Angeles/USA called A Pretty Mess. I have to admit that I like the sound of Maid Of Ace a lot, because it’s a real alternation in this man-dominated punkrock scene. The girls had a set of about an hour. After their show I was on my way home. two hours later I sat in my favourite pub and had a few beer with some mates who spent the evening there. Thilo (written in january 2016)
Eine kleine Punkrock Show – Maid Of Ace in Weinheim
27.11.2015 – Weinheim, Café Central
Am letzten Wochenende im November sollte es mich nach Weinheim verschlagen. Die Punk Band Maid Of Ace aus Hastings/England, welche ausschließlich aus vier Schwestern besteht war auf Europa-Tour und gab an eben jenem Freitag ein Konzert in Weinheim im Café Central. Ich sah Maid Of Ace bereits ein als Support auf der „A Chance To Change“ Europa Tour von Bishops Green in Schweinfurt. Ich bin zwar schon viel herumgekommen und habe auch schon viele Clubs und Locations gesehen, aber es war das erste mal, dass ich ins Café Central fuhr.
Dort angekommen war ich sehr erstaunt. Es handelt sich zwar nur um einen kleinen Club, aber den Tourplakaten zufolge hat dort schon viel mit Rang und Namen gespielt. Florian, ein guter Freund von mir mit dem ich im Februar 2015 in London war, ist ein großer Fan von Maid Of Ace. Als ich ihm erzählte, dass ich auf deren Konzert fahren würde, bat er mich, ihm eine signierte CD und ein Aufnäher mitzubringen. Gesagt, getan. Vor dem Auftritt ging ich also zum Merchstand der Band, kaufte eine CD und ein Aufnäher und bat die vier Mädels die CD in seinem Namen zu signieren. Wir wechselten danach noch ein paar nette Worte, über die Tour, Punkrock, die Szene usw. Dann betraten sie die Bühne. Eine Vorband gab es offenbar nicht.
Die kleine Location war sehr gut besucht und die Mädels schafften es, trotz der Tatsache dass einige Leute im Publikum waren, die mit Punkrock ungefähr so viel zu tun hatten, wie die Bildzeitung mit seriöser Berichterstattung, nahezu alle mitzureißen. Neben den Liedern ihres aktuellen Album, welches auch den Namen der Band trägt, spielten sie auch viele Lieder, die nicht auf dem Album waren. Bestimmt wird man diese dann auf dem neuen Album finden. Zu einigen Liedern holten sie Dee Skusting, die Sängerin der Punk Band A Pretty Mess aus Los Angeles/USA auf die Bühne. Ich muss zugeben, dass mir die Band Maid of Ace ganz gut gefällt, da es eine wirkliche Abwechslung darstellt zur sonst eher männlich dominierten Punkrock Szene.
Das Konzert ging etwas über eine Stunde, dann war es vorüber und ich machte mich allmählich auf den Heimweg. Ca. 2 Stunden kam ich dort an und gönnte mir noch ein paar Bier beim Wirt meines Vertrauens.
Wearing of swastikas proliferated as people made aware of Punk rock by the Grundy incident became punks adopting and adapting emblems and dress from the first wave of fans including swastikas. We can’t vouch for the political beliefs of these people but as people came to view the emerging far right National Front as a threat and more publicity was given to it in the rock weeklies, the swastikas disappeared.It was a very small part of Punk, and for a very short time. They were just kids. When you are at school what’s the most rebellious thing you could draw on your book? Exactly. A swastika. Don Letts Punk 77 Interview 2005
Sounds 25.3.78
Only punk could wear the swastika and detach its meaning from Nazism while attempting to shock. “That’s what I thought, if punks could wear it ,and we were trying to look decadent and imperfect that should piss every body off, including Nazis. I always thought that if gays had adopted the pink swastika instead of the pink triangle that would have said it all. We just wore swastikas coz we thought they looked cool. We weren’t Nazis nor did we have any political views at all. We had no problem with Jews, Pakistanis, gays or any one else we just hated every one who wore lived in the straight world. None of us fitted in anywhere and that’s the way I liked it. Sorry to go on about this but people loved to misunderstand it, even now especially skinheads who were just naff straights anyway, keeping England white. Who cares? Let the fucking shithole sink into the sea I thought at the time. I still do.” Marco Pirroni Punk 77 Interview 2002
However as punk proclaimed itself working class and ever more populist the more distinctly right wing skinheads became attracted to punks superficial violence and far right symbols. They latched onto bands like Sham 69 and the Lurkers often disrupting punk gigs sieg heiling and causing fights. Here the swastikas and far right symbolism was for real and they thought punk rock could be an ideal recruiting ground. However they thought wrong as the astutely mobilised anti fascist forces of Rock Against Racism and the Anti Nazi League outmanoeuvred the far right in the quest for converts.What happened In the late seventies/ eighties as punk fractured into a myriad of forms such as anarcho and oi the latter became associated with more nationalistic but not necessarily racist tendencies is not the concern of this site.So for UK punk rock 1976-79 we can conclude that. misguided, stupid whatever. “No one wore the swastika as a political statement. It was an attempt to shock, just like the gay t shirts. Shock was the order of the day, and wrong as it may seem, it did just that”. Nils Stevenson. Punk the Book. Colgrave & ColemanI’ll finish off with a quote from Hebdiger’s Subculture : The meaning of Style ” We must resort, then, to the most obvious of explanations – that the swastika was worn because it was guaranteed to shock…The signifier (swastika) had been willfully detached from the concept (Nazism) it conventionally signified and placed in an alternative context ( ie punk music)…it was exploited for an empty effect.”
Clockwise – Captain Sensible, Poly Styrene and friends, National Front at Sham 69 gig.
Fans at The Gaylads’ Echoplex showPHOTO BY JENNIE WARREN
Around 9 on a recent Friday night, the Echoplex is filling up quickly with skinheads. Men sport closely cropped hair — sometimes with a parting cut — while the women wear either shaved patches up top or mod hairstyles. Button-down Ben Sherman shirts, rolled-up Levi’s 501s or permanent-press trousers known as Sta-Prest are popular on both sexes. A sizable minority, meanwhile, are in their nattiest: well-tailored, slim-cut suits or mod dresses with boots or loafers. On the smoking patio, old friends reunite over cigarettes and beer, showing off new tattoos, talking about jobs they hate or maybe sharing war stories about old shows, old bands and old fights.
They’re here to see Jamaican reggae legends The Gaylads and Brenda Holloway, the first Los Angeles Motown artist. As Holloway takes the stage, small groups skank in circles, with some couples paired off and dancing close, face to face.
L.A.’s skinhead scene has been around for decades but has gotten particularly popular during this latest revival in the past few years. Unlike the skinheads you’ve seen on TV, the L.A. scene is not only anti-racist, it’s overwhelmingly Latino. Though scenesters are into punk and Oi!, early reggae and obscure soul records dominate their collections. At least once a month, several hundred people turn out for old Jamaican stars or mostly forgotten Motown singers. DJ nights at Fais Do-Do in Mid-City offer superdeep cuts of early reggae and “Northern soul,” a neologism for American soul tracks first popular in Northern English dance clubs in the early ’70s. The Rocksteady Lounge at Silver Lake’s Akbar, a gay pub, offers a more intimate monthly affair with no less drinking and revelry.
Skinheads range from teenagers to middle-aged scene veterans. Their boots get an extra coat of polish for a night out, but otherwise they leave for work in the morning looking the same as they do for the club. Unlike the East L.A. punk scene, skinheads aren’t preoccupied with rebelling against The Man, and the police aren’t always busting them up. Instead, they’re focused on the simple pleasures of beer, music, friends, dancing and fashion. Women are as much a part of it all as men, and there’s always a good chance for romance.
This working-class subculture grew out of the British mods of the late 1960s. Ten years later during a punk-oriented revival, the neo-fascist National Front targeted English skins for recruitment. This cleaved the scene into two groups: racists, known as “boneheads” (or “glue sniffers”), and “traditional skinheads,” also known as “sussed skins.” While the former degenerated into fascist street gangs, the latter remained true to the skinheads’ original ethos of beer, boots and monster beats.
Boneheads look like old-school racist rednecks in wifebeaters and combat fatigues. Traditional skinheads, however, look more cultured, with a preference for Italian scooters (rather than cars) and high-priced polos — a basic Fred Perry costs around $80. A suited and booted traditional skin easily could be mistaken for an extra on Mad Men, if his hair were longer. Strip off the tattoos and sideburns and they’re positively clean cut.
Los Angeles might have the biggest skinhead scene in the country, though cities like San Jose, Portland and Boston have sizable contingents. There’s no distinction here between Latinos and whites, though the latter are a distinct minority. Skinheads live all over L.A. County, but their hot spots are in Mid-City, Echo Park and Silver Lake.
One particularly devoted enthusiast is Mark Morales, a 35-year-old psychology researcher at USC, who promotes soul and reggae events. He’s at the Echoplex tonight but doesn’t have much time to party, as he’s working not only as DJ but also stage manager and liaison for a video crew taping the event. Having grown up in East L.A., he became obsessed with the ska-revival label Two Tone as an adolescent, before falling in love with early Jamaican classics.
A stocky, easygoing guy who’s quick with a smile, Morales hasn’t donned skinhead gear in years, but he’s an influential scenester, bringing top Jamaican acts of yesteryear and obscure soul players to spots like this one and downtown’s Alexandria Hotel. Being a skinhead “is not just a look, like rockabilly or mod or whatever,” he says. “There’s a working-class mentality to it that other scenes don’t have.”
Indeed, you’ll find folks with occupations like line cook, warehouse clerk and assembly-line worker in the crowd. Step into a skinhead’s home and you’re likely to see memorabilia from years past, such as vintage housewares, posters from original 1960s releases and records too scratched to play. Further, skins tend to marry and reproduce within the cult: Melrose shop Posers Hollywood even sells Fred Perry and Ben Sherman baby clothes.
And though this retro-obsessed crowd voraciously consumes tunes that originated in Jamaican shantytowns and American tenements, it’s not protest music per se.
Instead, it’s a document of downtrodden people keeping their collective heads up through hard times. Lyrical themes include colonial oppression (“Israelites” by Desmond Dekker), romance (“The Tide Is High” by the Paragons), sex (the list of dirty reggae tracks runs a mile long) or nothing at all (nonsensical songs like “Skinhead Moonstomp” by Symarip).
This complicated musical evolution began with American R&B singers like Fats Domino and Huey “Piano” Smith, who inspired early Jamaican ska, which evolved into rocksteady, then reggae. The first British skinheads embraced these sounds during tough economic times in late-’60s Britain; more than 40 years on, traditional skinhead tastes haven’t changed much.
But don’t listen for “Redemption Song” at these parties. Though Marley is beloved, skins prefer him with the classic Wailers lineup that includes Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. In fact, skinhead parties feature beats and bass that bear more resemblance to a good hip-hop break than what most people think of as reggae.
Unlike many other musical subcultures (punk, for example), skinheads don’t usually “grow out of it.” Some have been around since the early 1980s and are pushing 60. Their preferred look — sharp, smart and clean — certainly helps them to age gracefully, but Morales believes something else keeps people in the fold. “It’s that attitude: the idea that I work for all my shit. Nothing has been given to you, so you’re proud of the stuff you have.” It’s not just about wearing the right clothes or having the right records in your collection; it’s about representing your working-class way of life.
Morales gets a bit of downtime when Holloway takes the stage, though he’s still on the job, so there’s no time to grab a drink at the bar. His eyes darting about the room, he looks over the scene that has shaped him since he was an adolescent. He’s living proof that what makes a skinhead is not what you wear — or even how your hair’s shorn — but what you’ve got in your heart.
Check out the skinhead scene June 9, when reggae legends The Pioneers perform at Los Globos.1
Eagles of Death Metal Were Playing Paris Club When Gunmen Attacked
by JON SCHUPPE and SHANSHAN DONGParis Terror Attacks: As Many as 60 Dead as Violence Erupts Around City 2:28
The California rock band Eagles of Death Metal was on stage at a packed Paris nightclub Friday when gunmen stormed in, cut down dozens of fans with automatic weapon fire and held hundreds hostage for hours.
Family members said the band, including singer and guitarist Jesse Hughes, were able to escape the attack at Le Bataclan, one of several that unfolded simultaneously across Paris. But some members of the crew were unaccounted for.
More than 100 people were counted dead at the central Paris club, which holds about 1,500 people and was sold out. Many others were reported wounded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTXDfgXheU8Watch French Police Evacuate People From Concert Hall 2:42
The wife of drummer Julian Dorio told NBC News that he’d told her everyone on stage managed to get out and that he and other band members made it to a police station. Emily Hall Dorio said she believed that the whereabouts of some members of the band’s crew were unknown.
“I’m grateful and heartbroken at the same time,” Emily Hall Dorio said. “I’m grateful he’s alive.”
Hughes’ brother reported on Facebook that he was safe.
And Hughes’ mother said later that the rest of the band was also okay.
One of the band’s front men, Joshua Homme, was not on tour with the band. He declined to comment when NBC News reached him by phone in Palm Desert, California.
Eagles of Death Metal in concert in Britain on Oct. 31. Danny Payne / Rex via AP
Homme, also a founding member of Queens of the Stone Age, formed the band in 1998 with childhood friend Hughes. They have used a string of temporary members in the past, including Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and actor Jack Black.
The touring band’s bassist posted a photo of the show just before the band was to go on.
Eagles of Death Metal — not actually a death metal band; the name is an inside joke — last month released their fourth album, Zipper Down, and were in the middle of a European tour.
The road crew. hours of back ache, sore neck, sweaty armpits, 20 hours, an average day, drive. drive and drive all day, to get to a grubby venue and set up for 3pm soundcheck, a quick shower and a bit of food if you’re lucky, a 30 min kip in some backroom on a 2 seater sofa, a bowl of crisps and a sausage roll, doors at 7 and the excited people arrive,
The pre nerves of the band, our job some story telling, and plenty of laughs. On they go to great applause, while we stand behind the curtain, keeping an eye on the guitarists leads. More in the monitor, take the light from the face. the rooms filling up, thats all that matters.
The set you’ve heard a thousand times, even your favourite is beginning to burn the ear drums. but the band play, as if its their first ever gig. the crowd pissed up and jumping about, 45 mins and off for a break, the crowd cheer for their favourite song, another 15 mins and its time for work to begin again.
Rip off the the set list, stuck to the floor, and chuck to some smiling fans, to make their day,Unplug the leads, the amps and the lights, load them in and roll them out, into the van quick as you can, lets try and get at least one beer for the night. off to a fine art, we pack it all away, then into the back stage to see who’s still there. the fridge is empty, just a couple of apples and a half eaten loaf of bread. no one else there, the parties all gone. 3am, we need to be up at 6, to do it all again
It was tuesday, 21st of july 2015. My bell rings at 3 o’clock in the morning. This time I wanted to go to Hamburg to see the Angelic Upstarts from South Shields in England. Support band at that show were The Headlines from Malmö/Sweden.
I wasn’t in the city of Hamburg for a long time, so I started at about 4 o’clock in the morning to have the posibility of spending much time in Hamburg. But my first destination wasn’t Hamburg, it was the city of Oldenburg in Holstein. Frank, a good friend of mine lives there. First time we met was in Lübeck at an Oi! Punk show where he and his band „Drunken Swallows“ played as support act. Frank invited me to stay the night at the flat of him and his nice girlfriend. Otherwise I had to drive 4 hours to get home after the Angelic Upstarts show. He really takes care of me, hahaha.
At about midday we drive together with Henning, a mate of Frank to the harbour of Hamburg. The sun was shining and it was warm so we decided to go on a ship to do a sight-seeing-tour of the harbour and have a few beers in the sun. After that we to the store of Remedy Records to meet our friends of Skinheads Hamburg. We had a little meal at the greek rstaurant next to Remedy Records and went to the concert at Monkey Music Club. When we arrived The Headlines were already on stage. The location was mostly full of people, so a lot of people saw this great show of the four swedes. Some songs were sung by Jake, the male singer and guitar player and some songs were sung by Kerry, the female singer and bass player. I think that hot Kerry ist he reason why especially some male persons in the audience will like this band. They played their own songs and covered Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United and Rose Tattoo’s Nice Boys Don’t Play Rock’n’Roll.
Now it was time for me to see Angelic Upstarts. They entered the stage very confident. The audience enjoyed the show as much as I. It was a wonderfull evening and I was glad to see some classics like 2.000.000 Voices, Teenage Warning, England or Solidarity live. Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United was covered by Angelic Upstarts too. After the concert we went back home to the city of Oldenburg in Holstein.
I slept very well and long at Frank’s sofa. At 12 o’clock I was on my way back to my north hessian home. The rest of the day I spend in my flat because of the 11th Back On The Streets Festival in a village called Rheinböllen one day later.
It was thursday july 23rd 2015. After loading my car I startet to Rheinböllen. I was very happy because I knew I will see a lot of friends and bands I like at the festival.
At the early afternoon I arrived in Rheinböllen. I occupied my hotel and decided to do a little siesta because I knew that the evening would be very hard, haha. My first Stop at the festival was Diana and the pavilion of Randale Records. We hadn’t seen for a long while so we had to tell us a lot and had to have a few beer. Thank’s Diana for the records you brought to me. It was a wonderfull first evening of that festival with lots of friends from Kassel, Frankfurt, Hamburg, the „Ruhrpott“ and Passau. We told stories from the past, had a laugh and made new friends. My musical highlight of that evening were the guys from Rude Pride (Madrid/Spain). They do traditional Oi! with some influences of ska and reggae. They did a great job!
It was friday morning and I woke up with a big headache. Maybe we had a few beer too much at the evening before. When we went back to the festival our first stopp was again the pavilion of Randale Records. On this day The Business played at the festival and we wanted to have a look if they took some new merchandise to Diana. The first band playing was called Extrem Unangenehm (in english: extreme unpleasant). Butt he show of them wasn’t as bad as their name promised. It was a pity that there were just a small quantity of people in the audience. Then a Band called Foiernacht entered the stage. These four young guys from South Tyrol played a mixture of Oi!, Punk and Psychobilly. They did a very good job and there were more and more people in the audience.
my personal highlight was The Business as you maybe expected. From the beginning their show was powerfull and the sound was great. mostly the whole audience were in front of the stage so many people enjoyed The Business as much as we did. The weather got worse and worse. Now another band from South Tyrol wanted to play their instruments. They had one of the best slots at the festival but the heavy rain caused there were just a few fans watching their show. The completely tattooed singer of the bandwas able to encourage the audience although the weather was as bad as possible. While Unantastbar played their Song „Das Stadion brennt“ (in english: The football stadium burns), a song about football fans burning pyrotechnics, many people in the audience burned pyrotechnics too. Maybe a little bit dangerous but it looked very impressive. The last act of the night was Roy Ellis aka Mr. Symarip. The rain stopped so the audience got bigger again and the people dancd heavily to his reggae beats and ska tunes. As his concert ended, we got back to our hotel.
Saturday, July 25th 2015. It was the last day of eleventh Back On The Streets Festival. Because of the bad weather the local authority forbade to start the music before 5pm. So all the bands had to abridge their set. It was 5 o’clock in the afternoon and the first band of the day called EgOi!sten played their show very experienced and the audience liked it. Either I didn’t see the drummer of the band Paris violence or they used a drum computer, but I think it was the second one. The band Martens Army got strengthening by Ferdy Dörnberg while they were playing. Ferdy, the half Englishman is a real virtuoso at many instruments and this time he played the slide guitar. Then my personal highlight entered the stage: Superyob. Franky Flame and his band really knew how they got the attention of the audience. Many young bands could learn a lot from this Oi! Punk veteran. After KrawallBrüder played their set Franky entered the stage again. It was just him, his Piano and Ferdy Dörnberg for a few songs. I couldn’t imagine a better end of the festival as these two great musicians.
At the next morning I bade farewell of my friends and drove to my north hessian home.
Thilo (written in august 2015)
Eine Woche voller Subkultur
21.07.2015 – 26.07.2015
Es war Dienstag, der 21. Juli 2015, 03:00 Uhr, der Wecker klingelte. Mein Weg sollte mich dieses Mal in den Norden der Republik führen. In Hamburg spielten an diesem Tage die Punkrock-Urgesteine Angelic Upstarts aus South Shields in England. Vorband an diesem Abend waren The Headlines aus Malmö in Schweden.
Ich war schon länger nicht mehr in Hamburg, deswegen fuhr ich schon um 04:00 Uhr in der frühe los, um noch möglichst viel vom Tag zu haben. Das Auto war gepackt und so ging es in Bad Hersfeld auf die A7 und immer Richtung Norden. Das erste Ziel meiner Reise hieß aber nicht Hamburg, sondern Oldenburg in Holstein. Dort wohnt Frank, ein mittlerweile sehr guter Freund von mir. Ich lernte ihn vor Jahren in Lübeck auf einem Oi!-Punk Konzert kennen, an dem auch seine Punkrock-Band Drunken Swallows spielte. Er lud mich ein die Nacht in der Wohnung von ihm und seiner Freundin zu schlafen, damit ich nachts nach dem Upstarts-Konzert die Strecke von Hamburg nicht mehr zurückfahren muss, sondern erst ausgeschlafen am nächsten Tag. Sehr führsorglich von ihm, hehehe.
Gegen Mittag fuhren wir dann zusammen mit Henning, einem guten Freund von Frank in die Hansestadt. Da das Wetter absolut auf unserer Seite war, fuhren wir nach St. Pauli an die Landungsbrücken. Da jeder von uns überraschenderweise eine Hafenrundfahrt machen wollte, taten wir genau dies und gönnten uns währenddessen auf der Elbe ein paar Bier. Inzwischen war es später Nachmittag und wir trafen uns bei Remedy Records mit unseren Freunden von den Skinheads Hamburg, gingen nebenan griechisch essen und fuhren weiter auf das Konzert in den Monkey Music Club. Als wir ankamen, hatten The Headlines bereits die Bühne betraten und begannen zu spielen. Der Club war bereits sehr gut gefüllt, sodass die Schweden nicht vor einer halb leeren Location spielen mussten. Das war auch gut so, denn die vier Punkrocker legten die Messlatte zu beginn an gleich sehr hoch. Ihre Musik war kraftvoll und der Wechsel zwischen Frauen- und Männergesang passte perfekt dazu. Kerry, die Bassspielerin und Sängerin sorgte zusätzlich für Kurzweiligkeit, insbesondere beim männlichen Publikum. Neben ihren eigenen Liedern coverten sie Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United und Rose Tattoo’s Nice Boys Don’t Play Rock’n’Roll. Danach betraten endlich Angelic Upstarts die Bühne und begannen vor einem nahezu überfüllten Club zu spielen. Endlich konnte ich Angelic Upstarts das erste Mal live sehen. Ihr Programm war sehr solide und auch die Song-Auswahl war gut überlegt. Bei den Klassikern wie 2.000.000 Voices, Teenage Warning, England oder auch Solidarity gab es im Publikum kein halten mehr. Auch Angelic Upstarts coverten Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United. Nach dem Konzert fuhren wir wieder zu dritt zurück nach Oldenburg in Holstein.
Nachdem wir am nächsten Morgen ausschliefen und danach gemeinsam frühstückten, war es auch schon wieder Zeit sich zu verabschieden. Gegen Mittag startete ich wieder in meine nordhessische Heimat. Den Rest des Tages verbrachte ich nur zuhause auf dem Sofa, denn am nächsten Tag ging es schon wieder weiter. Das Ziel hieß Rheinböllen. Dort fand das 11. Back On The Streets Festival statt.
Donnerstag, der 23. Juli 2015. Gegen Mittag stieg ich voller Freude ins Auto, denn ich sollte an diesem langen Wochenende viele Freunde und Bekannte wieder treffen und auch die ein oder andere gute Band zu Gesicht bekommen.
Am frühen Nachmittag kam ich in Rheinböllen an. Da ich noch etwas Zeit hatte, nachdem ich im Hotel eingecheckt habe, beschloss ich ein kleines Mittagsschläfchen zu halten. Der Abend sollte ja noch lang genug werden, hehehe. Mein erster Halt am Festivalgelände galt dem Stand von Diana und Randale Records. Lange hatten wir uns nicht mehr gesehen und hatten uns daher viel zu erzählen und hatten auch das ein oder andere Bierchen zusammen zu trinken. Danke an der Stelle noch einmal an Diana für die Platten, die sie mir mitgebracht hatte. Es dauerte auch nicht allzu lange bis meine Freunde und bekannte aus Kassel, Frankfurt, Hamburg, dem Ruhrpott und Passau ankamen. Mein musikalischen Highlight an diesem Festivaltag waren Rude Pride aus Madrid/Spanien. Ihre traditionellen Oi!-Klänge, bei manchen Liedern mit leichtem Ska- und Reggae-Einschlag trafen voll meinen Geschmack. Die Jungs können was!
Es war Freitag Vormittag und ich wachte mit einem ordentlichen Kater im Hotelzimmer auf. Ich ging vom Hotel zum Rastplatz um zu frühstücken und erstmal einen Kaffee zu trinken. Inzwischen war es Nachmittag geworden und ich pilgerte mit ein paar Freunden zurück aufs Festival Gelände. Da an diesem Abend The Business spielten, gingen wir zuerst wieder zum Stand von Randale Records um zu sehen, ob The Business Diana noch neues Merch zum Verkaufen vorbei brachte. Die erste Band des Tages hieß Extrem Unangenehm, wurde aber ihrem Namen überhaupt nicht gerecht. Ganz im Gegenteil, Ihr Konzert war sehr kurzweilig. Schade nur, dass noch nicht allzu viele Leute vor der Bühne standen. Ähnliches Schauspiel bei der Band Foiernacht aus Südtirol. Ihre Mischung aus Oi!, Punk und Psychobilly kam beim anwesenden Publikum sehr gut an. Auch sehr gut waren die 5 Jungs von Restrisiko. Das Publikum wurde inzwischen auch immer größer und das Festivalgelände füllte sich zunehmends.
Mein persönliches Highlight an diesem Tag des Festivals waren – wie vielleicht schon zu erwarten – The Business. Ihre Show war von Anfang an energiegeladen. Und da mittlerweile das Festivalgelände fast voll war, konnten dies auch noch viele andere so sehen. Das Wetter wurde zwar zunehmend schlechter, aber die Jungs konnten noch trockenen Hauptes Ihr Konzert beenden. Danach spielten die Punkrocker von Unantastbar aus Südtirol. Diese hatten mit dem starken Regen allerdings so dermaßen Pech, dass bis auf einige Fans nahezu alle Gäste das Festivalgelände verließen, oder sich bei den Zelten der Merchstände unterstellten. Bei ihrem Lied „Das Stadion brennt“, ein Lied über Pyrotechnik in Fußballstadien, zündeten jede menge Fans passenderweise Bengalos. Ein herrlicher Anblick.
Zu guter letzt an diesem Abend lud Roy Ellis alias Mr. Symarip zum Tanz ein. Da sich das Wetter wieder einigermaßen beruhigt hatte, folgen dieser Einladung viele Festivalbesucher. Als sein Konzert vorüber war gingen wir auch wieder ins Hotel zurück.
Samstag, der 25. Juli 2015. Es war der letzte Tag des diesjährigen Back On The Streets Festival. Aufgrund einer Unwetterwarnung des Deutschen Wetterdienstes konnte das Programm erst um 17 Uhr beginnen und nahezu alle Bands des heutigen Tages durften nur ein verkürztes Set spielen. Da das Festival so spät los ging, hatte auch die erste Band EgOi!sten Glück und konnte vor einem großen Publikum spielen. Selbstsicher spielten sie Ihr Programm und wurden vom Publikum auch gut angenommen. Ein gelungener Auftritt dieser noch jungen Band. Bei der Band Paris Violence vermisste ich den Schlagzeuger. Entweder ich habe ihn tatsächlich übersehen, oder sie verwendeten einen Drum Computer. Die Band Martens Army holte sich für ihren Auftritt auf dem Festival Verstärkung in Form von Ferdy Dörnberg. Der halbe Engländer ist ein echter Allrounder, was Instrumente angeht und unterstützte Martens Army an der Slide Gitarre. Danach sollte mein persönliches Highlight an diesem Abend folgen: Superyob. Franky Flame schafft es auch im hohen Alter noch, das Publikum ganz auf seine Seite zu ziehen. Viele jüngere bands können sich von ihm noch eine gewaltige Scheibe abschneiden. Nachdem dann die KrawallBrüder einen zum Besten gegeben haben, betrat Franky erneut die Bühne. Dieses Mal haute er allerdings Solo am Piano. Auch Franky bat Ferdy Dörnberg für das ein oder andere Stück auf die Bühne. Diese beiden Virtuosen bildeten wirklich einen würdigen Abschluss für dieses Festival.
Am nächsten Morgen trat ich den Weg in meine hessische Heimat an.
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths (sometimes called herberts).
The Oi! movement was partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, “trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic…and losing touch”. André Schlesinger, singer of The Press, said, “Oi shares many similarities with folk music, besides its often simple musical structure; quaint in some respects and crude in others, not to mention brutally honest, it usually tells a story based in truth.”
In 1980, writing in Sounds magazine, rock journalist Garry Bushell labelled the movement Oi!, taking the name from the garbled “Oi!” that Stinky Turner of Cockney Rejects used to introduce the band’s songs. The word is an old Cockney expression, meaning hey or hello. In addition to Cockney Rejects, other bands to be explicitly labeled Oi! in the early days of the genre included Angelic Upstarts, The 4-Skins, The Business, Blitz, The Blood, and Combat 84.
The prevalent ideology of the original Oi! movement was a rough brand of working-class rebellion. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers’ rights, harassment by police and other authorities, and oppression by the government. Oi! songs also covered less-political topics such as street violence, football, sex, and alcohol. Although Oi! has come to be considered mainly a skinhead-oriented genre, the first Oi! bands were composed mostly of punk rockers and people who fit neither the skinhead nor punk label.
After the Oi! movement lost momentum in the United Kingdom, Oi! scenes formed in continental Europe, North America, and Asia. Soon, especially in the United States, the Oi! phenomenon mirrored the hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s, with Oi!-influenced bands such as Agnostic Front, Iron Cross, Anti Heros. Later American punk bands such as Rancid and Dropkick Murphys have credited Oi! as a source of inspiration. In the mid-1990s, there was a revival of interest in Oi! music in the UK, leading to older Oi! bands receiving more recognition. In the 2000s, many of the original UK Oi! bands reunited to perform and/or record. The song T.N.T. by hard rock bandAC/DC features the interjection at the start and in various parts throughout the song.
Some fans of Oi! were involved in white nationalist organisations such as the National Front (NF) and the British Movement (BM), leading some critics to identify the Oi! scene in general as racist. However, none of the bands associated with the original Oi! scene promoted racism in their lyrics. Some Oi! bands, such as the Angelic Upstarts,The Burial, and The Oppressed were associated with left wing politicsand anti-racism. The white power skinhead movement had developed its own music genre called Rock Against Communism, which had musical similarities to Oi!, but was not connected to the Oi! scene. Timothy S. Brown identifies a deeper connection: Oi!, he writes “played an important symbolic role in the politicization of the skinhead subculture. By providing, for the first time, a musical focus for skinhead identity that was ‘white’—that is, that had nothing to do with the West Indian immigrant presence and little obvious connection with black musical roots—Oi! provided a musical focus for new visions of skinhead identity [and] a point of entry for a new brand of right-wing rock music.”
Rightly or wrongly,The mainstream media especially associated Oi! with far right politics following a concert by The Business, The 4-Skins, and The Last Resort on 4 July 1981 at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall. Local Asian youths threw Molotov cocktails and other objects, mistakenly believing that the concert was a neo-Nazi event, partly because some audience members had written National Front slogans around the area. Although some of the skinheads were NF or BM supporters, among the 500 or so concert-goers were also left-wing skinheads, black skinheads, punk rockers, rockabillies, and non-affiliated youths. Five hours of rioting left 120 people injured—including 60 police officers—and the tavern burnt down. In the aftermath, many Oi! bands condemned racism and fascism.
These denials, however, were met with cynicism from some quarters because of the Strength Thru Oi!compilation album, released in May 1981. Not only was its title a play on a Nazi slogan—”Strength Through Joy“—but the cover featured Nicky Crane, a skinhead BM activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Critic Garry Bushell, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on The Skids‘ album Strength Through Joy, and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album’s cover until it was exposed by the Daily Mail two months later. Bushell, a socialist at the time, noted the irony of being branded a far right activist by a newspaper that “had once supported Oswald Mosley‘s Blackshirts, Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia, and appeasement with Hitler right up to the outbreak of World War Two.”
Another subsequent source for the popular association between Oi! and a racist or far-right creed was the bandSkrewdriver. Lead singer Ian Stuart Donaldson was recruited by the National Front—which had failed to enlist any actual Oi! bands—and reconstituted Skrewdriver as a white power skinhead act. While the band shared visual and musical attributes with Oi!, Bushell asserts, “It was totally distinct from us. We had no overlap other than a mutual dislike for each other.” Donaldson and Crane would later go on to found a magazine, Blood and Honour, and a street-orientated ‘skinhead’ club of the same name that arranged concerts for Skrewdriver and other racist bands such as No Remorse. Demonstrating the ongoing conflation of Oi! with the white power skinhead movement by some observers, the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations refers to these groups as “‘white noise’ and ‘oi’ racist bands”.
Agent Bulldogg Started rehearsing in Thomas bedroom (much to his parents’ enjoyment) back in March 1986 after about half a year or so of talking about it, recruiting members and getting hold of equipment through various ways. After another year of learning, and a move to the legendary – in Täby anyway – Vita Huset (The White House) for rehearsals we played our first gig in the early summer of 1987. We played a couple of more gigs that year and also recorded a demo before original bass player Micke were replaced by Jens in early 1988. That line-up continued to play any gigs we could get, and also managed to record some songs who found their way onto a compilation album as well as recording our debut album – “Livsstil” (A Way of Life) – in 1990.
It wasn’t actually released until 1992 (on our own label) and by then Jens had left the band only to be replaced by Jarl. With this line up we played in Germany, Finland and Austria and also recorded our second album “Ett Tusen Glas” (One Thousand Glasses) – again on our own label – together with the new member Johan on saxophone and keyboards. When we released it 1995, Jarl had left and was replaced by Olof. We continued doing gigs, in Norway for instance, before original guitarist Andreas – more known as Bogh – decided that enough was enough and left. A friend of a friend’s friend then joined briefly, but that didn’t quite work out so Daniel stepped in for a while. However Olof moved to Switzerland and original drummer Magnus became both disillusioned and pre-occupied with his new job so he decided to leave as well. Olof stepped in to do some studio work and together with some help from a couple of other friends two tracks for the compilation album Brewed In Sweden were recorded and released 2002.
Thomas and Johan continued to write a couple of songs but with no other members available it started to fizzle out. However the band never officially broke up, so when a friend asked if we could play a couple of songs for his 40th birthday, Thomas and ex-bass player Jens teamed up with 3 members of Antipati to do so.
We got a few more offers of doing gigs so it just felt natural to continue with that line-up, although Reidar decide to leave due to other commitments a couple of years later.
Since then the band has played in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Poland and Spain as well as some festivals and other various gigs in Sweden, and also released a split 7″ with The Templars, contributed to a four band split (with Gimp Fist, Sandals and Booze & Glory) and released a new EP “Vi Är Tillbaks” (We Are Back…) on tour own label – as always. The current line-up is: Thomas (vocals), Johan (guitar), Robert (guitar), Jens (bass) and Thobbe (drums)
Agent Bulldogg are special guest at The Great Skinhead Reunion, and we will be all be helping them to celebrate Swedens national day, in Brighton, England June 6th -8th 2014
Scores of youths have been given prison sentences following a Whitsun weekend of violent clashes between gangs of Mods and Rockers at a number of resorts on the south coast of England.Yesterday two youths were taken to hospital with knife wounds and 51 were arrested in Margate after hundreds of teenagers converged on the town for the holiday weekend. Dr George Simpson, chairman of Margate magistrates, jailed four young men and imposed fines totalling £1,900 on 36 people. Three offenders were jailed for three months each and five more sent to detention centres for up to six months.
Obscenities
In Brighton, two youths were jailed for three months and others were fined.
More than 1,000 teenagers were involved in skirmishes on the beach and the promenade last night.
They threw deckchairs around, broke them up to make bonfires, shouted obscenities at each other and at passers-by, jostled holidaymakers and terrified elderly residents.
At about 1300 BST Mods and Rockers gathered at the Palace Pier chanting and jeering at each other and threw stones when police tried to disperse them.
The teenagers staged a mass sit-down on the promenade when police, using horses and dogs, tried to move them on.
In Margate, there were running battles between police and up to 400 youths on the beach early yesterday morning. Bottles were thrown and two officers were slightly hurt.
Later, on the high street, around 40 young men smashed council flat windows and vandalised a pub and a hardware shop.
Last night, hundreds of young men and girls were still wandering around the resort long after the last train had left.
Police stepped in to prevent further violence and dispersed about 30 youths in leather jackets who marched up the promenade shouting “Up the Rockers!”
There were further clashes at Bournemouth and Clacton.
From the early to mid-1960s young, mainly working class, Britons with cash to spend joined one of two youth movements.The Mods wore designer suits protected by Parka jackets and were often armed with coshes and flick-knives. They rode Vespa or Lambretta scooters bedecked with mirrors and mascots and listened to Ska music and The Who.Rockers rode motorbikes – often at 100mph with no crash helmets – wore leathers and listened to the likes of Elvis and Gene Vincent.Inevitably the two gangs clashed. The 1964 Whitsun weekend violence in Brighton was famously dramatised in the film Quadrophenia (1979).In August that year police had to be flown into the Sussex resort of Hastings to break up fights between the two gangs.
But two years later, most Mods had turned their attentions to the burgeoning, more laid-back, hippie culture. While the harder working class Mods created the Skinhead Subculture
Friday 17th November 2006, 30 years since Punk detonated, and I had the pleasure of sharing a few drinks with Ron Watts in my home. Ron promoted many of the early bands, and organised the now legendary Punk Festival at the 100 Club on the 20th and 21st September, 1976. Ron’s just published a great book which documents those heady and (for those lucky enough to have been there) exciting times. I switched on the tape recorder, put some wine on the table and off we went, talking about our mutually favourite subject. Music! I hope people will find this interview as interesting as I did, he’s a top bloke with some great memories. Rob Maddison, Tamworth, 19th November 2006. 100 Watts, a life in Music. Written by Ron Watts and forward by Glen Matlock. ISBN 0-9543884-4-5. Available from Heroes Publishing, the Internet (it’s on Amazon) or even a bookshop!
RM) Ron, firstly, why did you write the book? Ron) I was approached by the publishers, who said “would you be interested in writing your life story”. I thought about it, for about two days, and then thought yeah. Yes, I’d do that, you know what I mean.RM) How on earth did you remember everything? Ron) Most of it was in the house, still. I just had to find all the old diaries and booking sheets and things, and it jogged my memory, you know. RM) You kept all that stuff, then Ron? Ron) Well, yes, I suppose you would, really, wouldn’t you. To be honest, I sold some stuff off at auction, about 10 years ago, when I was skint. One thing was the Sex Pistols contract from the Punk Festival, which was handwritten by Malcolm McClaren.RM) Who bought it? Ron) I think it was the Hard Rock Café in Central London, to put up on the wall.RM) When’s your next promotion Ron? Ron) Well, I haven’t been promoting for a while, but it’s in my blood, and people are expressing an interest in me doing something. I’ve got 2 venues lined up for the new year, look here for news, come February. We’ve venues in Oxford Street and High Wycombe, but can’t say too much at this point!! These gigs are to be known as Ron’s part 1 and 2…RM) Who are you promoting? Ron) What I did in 1977. RM) What, new “Punk” bands, such as The View etc? Ron) No. Same bands I did in ’77. Same bands in the same place. Some of them are reforming, I’ve been on the bone mate!!RM) Who are you still in touch with from those days, Ron? Ron) Virtually everybody. People from the Sex Pistols, met some of the Clash quite recently, Damned I’m still in touch with, no end of people. RM) Glen Matlock wrote the forward to the book and is obviously a decent bloke. Ron) Glen is a nice bloke, and definitely part of the Pistols, but is his own man.RM) Did you ban Punk? Ron) No. Punk was banned around me, and while it was banned at one venue, I still considered doing it at another, the Nags Head in High Wycombe. At the first opportunity for it to go back into the 100 Club it went back in. It’s a false supposition to suggest I banned it. It was banned because the police and Oxford Street traders association objected to Punks standing in queues outside their shops waiting to get into the club. At this time Oxford Street was the premier shopping street in Europe. I’d be getting complaints, so would go out into the street and try and get people to move out of shop doorways etc, but as soon as I went back in the club they’d be back in there. And of course there’d been some real bad violence. When a girl loses her eye that’s a pretty serious thing. You have to remember that I didn’t own the club, I just promoted there. Simple as. RM) Did Sid Vicious throw the glass that injured the girl’s eye? Ron) Well, I presume so, the barman saw him do it. He didn’t know Sid from Adam, but he pointed him (Sid) out and told me it was him that threw it. I don’t think Sid meant to hurt anybody, except the Damned! If it had caught Captain Sensible on the head he’d have liked that! Funnily enough I was down at the 100 Club a couple of weeks ago, and Michelle Brigandage, who took some of the photos in the book, was telling me that she was actually sat with the girl who lost her eye. Apparently she was an art student from South London, never wanted any publicity and was broken hearted, as anyone would be who lost an eye, especially at that age. She was only 19 at the time. Michelle was sat with her when it happened, she was her mate, and it’s the first time I’ve had a real chat about it. She said herself that though she accepts that it was Sid who threw the glass, he hadn’t intended to do that. But at the same time, he had thrown the glass with malice, and might’ve done even worse damage to someone else, you never know. So in one sense, he’s exonerated to a degree, and in another sense he’s still a malicious Pratt. RM) Was there any collusion to get Sid off by discrediting the barman’s story? Ron) No, but so many people went down with him, to the police station, and said he didn’t do it that the CPS probably thought 250 against 1 and dropped it.RM) Were you surprised by Sid’s eventual demise? Ron) No. You know, his mother, Ann Beverley moved up to Swadlincote, near here. She got some money from Sid’s estate, and the Pistols gave her some money. She got a cheap house and a few bob in the bank, and when she’d run through that she topped herself. As for Nancy, the police weren’t looking for anybody else, but we don’t know, do we.RM) Ron, how proud are you of your role in Punk, and could it have happened without the 100 Club? Ron) Yeah, it would’ve happened anyway. It might have happened in a different way, but I suppose the traumatic birth it got, and the big hand it got via the Punk festival etc helped, otherwise it might have taken a bit longer. RM) Could it have started in any other city other than London? Ron) I think it needed London. It gave it the credibility. It might have happened somewhere else, and it might have been more interesting if it had happened, say, in Liverpool or Newcastle or somewhere, but it would have taken longer to be accepted, and London would have taken longer to accept it.RM) I suppose the Pistols, who catalyzed the movement were a London band, and people like Paul Weller, Pete Shelley etc always say the seeing that band is what galvanised them. Ron) Yes. They were the catalyst. We needed to have them in the Capital, playing in the middle of the Capital. It was always going to be a shortcut for them, you know. So yes, it would have still happened elsewhere, but in a different way. RM) Whose idea was the 1976 Punk Festival at the 100 Club? Ron) Mine. My idea, yeah. I approached Mclaren, as I knew that I needed the Pistols to headline it. And the Damned, they said that they wanted to do it, and The Clash agreed immediately, then we had to cast around to find some more. The Manchester bands were got down by Malcolm (Mclaren). Siouxsie approached me direct, although it wasn’t much of a band. Then, the Stinky Toys were volunteered by Mclaren, although I’d never heard of ‘em, and hardly anyone’s heard of ‘em since! Never mind, they got on eventually on the second night!RM) I read in the book that the Grande Piano on the stage got used like a climbing frame. Were you actually liable for damages if things got broken? Ron) The piano wasn’t going to get moved off the stage. It always stays there. Thing is, you’ve got to remember that it was a running, 7 nights a week club, for Jazz and Blues mainly, and the piano was a part of all that. The owners of the club left me to it for my nights, very seldom that they were there, even. If the place had been wrecked, it would’ve been down to me, I’d have had to pay for all the damage, you know.RM) Punk 77’s owner wondered if you thought the Banshees sounded as bad as he thought they did?! Ron) Well, in ’76 they weren’t really a band, you can’t comment. What they were doing was performance art, just getting up onto the stage and doing something off the top of their heads. They didn’t know any songs, and it sounded like it. It was weak, it was weedy. Sid just about tapped the drums. Siouxsie was doing the Lords Prayer and stuff like that. You couldn’t say it was a gig, or a rehearsed act, it was just people, getting up and trying to do something. I let them do it, you know, I might have done something like that at their age. I don’t think Siouxsie really lived up to her reputation, if you like. Well, not initially. RM) I didn’t like them, but the Banshees went on to become very skilled, musically. Ron) Yes. By then she’d recruited some good blokes. She’s been living in France for a long time now, I don’t see her.
RM) Were the early Punks, like Siouxsie, middle class students? If so, how did they feel when Punk was taken up by the masses? Ron) No. The early Punks were solidly working class. There was the art college mob, they weren’t numerically very strong, but they were the most vivid people, because of their appearance. They set the standard, the tone, you know? But immediately behind that, by the time of the punk festival of ‘76, the bulk of the audience was being formed by young, working class people and they took it to their hearts at once. RM) Were the movements roots biased towards the fashion element or more towards the music side, or was it one package?Ron) The fashion and art side, you know, was where Siouxsie was coming from. They took it very seriously, it was a new movement and they only had the one band to start with. It was very arty, but it was an art movement that worked. If you’d been there the first night I put the Pistols on, I think it was March 30th 1976, and you saw the Bromley Contingent coming in! They didn’t all come at once, they come in dribs and drabs. Each time, it was breathtaking and jaw dropping just to see them walk through that door.RM) Were contemporary Londoners shocked by the appearance of the early Punks? Ron) Initially, yeah. They’d got used to it by the end of that year. But initially, like in the early months, absolutely.RM) The summer of ’76 is famous for its heat wave. I bet you’ve great memories of it? RW) In that summer, and remember that it was the hottest, the best summer in living memory, it was the summer, people still talking about it now, and nothing was happening, everybody was asleep, you know. Anyway, this New Zealand film crew turned up to capture London. They’d been dispatched from Auckland to film London, in the summer. They were bright enough to cotton on to the movement, and they were haunting me! I mean, they got so many yards, so many miles of film, some of it’s not even been seen yet. All the main punk films, like the Rock ‘n Roll Swindle, The Filth and the Fury, were relying on their footage. They were amazed when they got their first, full on, Bromley Punk. They could not believe it. They said “You guys are 200 years ahead of New Zealand!” RM) Were you interested about the politics in Punk? Ron) I tried to keep it at arms length. I wasn’t interested in sub-divisions.RM) What about The Clash? Ron) Didn’t know that they were! (political). I think they were just trying to make it, I mean, they latched on to it. The Pistols had got a lot of the market wrapped up with their attitudes, so The Clash had to find some attitude, and they probably cooked it up with their manager, I reckon. What attitude can we have? Well, the Pistols have got this, that and the other and they found the one that they could go for. RM) I’ve read that the purists hated them, but I loved The Jam. They flirted with politics early on, and then really got involved, with Paul Weller joining Red Wedge later. Ron) The Jam were some of the biggest winners out of Punk. There was such a lot of talent in that band. That band was so tight.RM) Did you get more involved with them once they’d started to get bigger? Ron) They wanted me to help them with their American tour, by going ahead from city to city publicising it. But this was ’77, and I was amazed that their manager John Weller had asked me, and I would’ve loved to have done it. But, I was at the height of my promoting career, and I realised that. So I said “No, I’ve got to stick with this.” RM) The Jam always felt like a band that, as a fan, you had a stake in. Ron) I tell you what, they did a show for me at the 100 Club, when they’d been doing really huge venues like the Hammersmith Odeon. They’d always said, when we get there, we’ll come back and do one. They ended up doing three for me. One at Wycombe Town Hall, one at the Nags Head, which is a pub, you know! And, the 100 Club. They were really good like that, and I appreciate what they did for me and I love ‘em to bits.RM) It’s weird that there was all that acrimony between those people, and even stranger that Rick, and now Bruce, are playing in a Jam tribute band. (The Gift).Ron) Good drummer. I think, and this is my opinion, as I’ve no proof of it, that the girls all used to go for Bruce Foxton. The band was great, and they knew the band was great and they loved Paul Weller. But, in their hearts they all fancied that they’d get off with Bruce Foxton. When I did the box office at the 100 Club, there’d be all these girls turning up in school uniforms. I’d be saying “How old are you?” and the answer was always “19!” Am I really going to sell these girls tickets?!RM) I read somewhere, years ago, that Sid Vicious and Paul Weller had a fight after arguing about the Holidays in the Sun/ In the City riff. Did you hear that one? Ron) No. I can’t see that. Paul Weller was from a tough, working class background. A fight between him and Sid Vicious would have lasted about 8 seconds. He would have dealt with Sid in no time at all. It didn’t happen. Sid would need to have been tooled up, and I’ve had to fight him 3 times when he was. And I’m still here. Sid came at me with a chain, once. I confiscated it, and wish I still had all these weapons, as I could put them up for sale at Christies, couldn’t I?! And I saw Sid with a knife, threatening Elle, the singer out the Stinky Toys with it. I took that off him and gave it to Malcolm Mclaren. Wish I’d kept it. RM) Ron, did you have much to do with Rock Against Racism (R.A.R)? Ron) Only in as much as I endorsed it. And, I wouldn’t have any racist behaviour, as it says in the book, in any of my venues. I just wouldn’t. No way, I mean my bouncers were black, a lot of my acts were black, and I wasn’t going to have it. There were a few occasions when it surfaced, and I did the natural thing and let the black guys sort it themselves.RM) Empowerment? Ron) Yeah. At Wycombe Town Hall, the British movement guys were having a go at my bouncer, Gerry. One black guy against twenty or thirty of them, so I said to him “I’ll take your position, don’t be long, go down the pubs and get your mates.” And he come back in with a dozen big black lads. I said to them, “Look, you’re here to look after Gerry, not to kill these white guys.” So, Gerry stood in front of them, and there wasn’t a word out of them again! They moved out of the way, and went down the other side of the hall, these bullies. They saw the odds evening up a bit, and given the other 8 or 9 bouncers I had stood in the hall, we would’ve murdered them. RM) Jimmy Pursey went on-stage with The Clash at R.A.R in Victoria Park. Was this damage limitation on Pursey’s behalf? He seemed to get his fingers burned when the Skins affiliated to Sham 69. Ron) Exactly. And I don’t think he liked that one little bit. See, now, Jimmy Pursey is another guy, like Paul Weller and Joe Strummer, probably all of them at that time. Underneath he was a much nicer person than the media, and the world, would realise and portray. He was an alright geezer and he caught the wrong end of the backlash. People were believing what he was portraying and singing about, and that wasn’t necessarily him!RM) Did Sham 69 dance a bit to close the flame? They could be perceived as “rabble rousing”, if you like. Ron) They were looking for something to hang their stick on, if you like. The Pistols found it in one. Joe Strummer looked around with The Clash and thought about it and did it, you know. The Jam done it through their potent mix of soul and punk, and I think Jimmy Pursey thought he’d go with the hard boys in the East End. The skinheads, and the mobsters and the ruffians, you know. RM) Musically, Sham 69 were similar to the Pistols… Ron) Yeah, closer than some. I liked Sham 69, they were alright. I think Pursey is another guy who hung his hat somewhere, and that hat got on the wrong peg.
RM) How fast did Punk spread throughout 1977? Ron) Well, it got going in ’76. The Wycombe Punks, because they had me to promote at the Nags Head, got their first Sex Pistols gig there on September 3rd, which was actually 3 weeks before the 100 Club Festival. They were on the case really early. In ’76, Wycombe and the surrounding towns were full of Punks. By the end of that year, they even had a black Punk in Wycombe, a guy called Marmite. He had black hair, with a silver zigzag stripe in it. By ’77, it was all up and running everywhere. By January or February 1977 almost everyone under the age of 18 or 19 was a Punk.RM) When did the press really get hold of it? Ron) Then. But they were on to it before the Bill Grundy Show, the Punk Festival was before that show and from then it was just….you know. I used to get phone calls, from NBC and CBS in America asking if anything’s going on, or coming off, could you let us know. RM) That’s odd, being as the Americans claim to have invented Punk! Ron) They were a year or two ahead. It’s like most things. It’s like the Blues. We had to take the Blues back to America for White America to know about it. Cream, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, those sort of people. RM) America’s too big and too diverse. It couldn’t host youth movements like Punk and 2-Tone.Ron) No. It had to come from somewhere else. I mean, in New York it was a club scene, in Britain it was a national scene. RM) What did you think of those American bands?Ron) Some of them were really good. I didn’t think New York Dolls were as good as bands like Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. They were probably the best Punk band I ever saw, actually. RM) And Blondie? Ron) Well, Blondie. The bass player, Nigel was a guy from the Nags Head. Tigger, we used to call him. That was his name round Wycombe. He played at the Nags Head before he was in Blondie. I’ve got to say that Tigger and Blondie didn’t get on. Maybe she fancied him, and he didn’t fancy her!
RM) He would’ve been the only British male in the late ‘70’s who didn’t, then?! Ron) Perhaps he knew something we didn’t!RM) Back to the serious stuff, Ron. The Clash flew to Belfast, had some nice photos taken near some barricades and murals. Then they flew home. No gigs played. What do you think about all that? Ron) Well, it’s up to them. Sometimes, promotional events can take over. You can be wise after the event, it might have sounded like a good thing at the time. Who knows, I mean, it might have been sincere. I didn’t see them as a band who had very political motives outside of the publicity. I’m not saying they didn’t have a heart, but sometimes publicity sows a life of its own, you know.RM) If they’d played, this would never have been an issue with people over the years. Ron) No, but they would do benefits and things, R.A.R, and one just before Joe died, for a fireman’s benefit. RM) It’s ironic. The Pistols and Strummer/Jones last gigs in England were both strike fund benefits. And the Pistols, apparently, never cashed their cheque from that Christmas Day one. Ron) I wasn’t a party to any of that, but yeah, that was a good gesture. A lesson. A guy came down to interview me, and he lived near Joe Strummer. Lived in the same village and he was a long time journalist. He said that he thought that Joe Strummer had a lot of heart, and it was very typical of him that he’d go out and do a benefit as The Clash, but commercially would only do The Mescalero’s.
RM) Back to the Pistols, now Ron. What was their early live sound like? Ron) I’ll tell you something now that I’ve never told anybody before. Musically, when the Pistols started, I thought that they were, or sounded like, a youth club heavy metal band. Not the songs, or the vocals, or even the presentation but the actual sound of the band. It wasn’t a weak sound, but it wasn’t particularly pokey. Within three months, they’d perked it up a lot. RM) How big an influence was Dave Goodman to their sound? Ron) He brought a lot of stuff to them. He gave them a lot of advice. He’d make them sound a lot more pokey, he’d get them to do things. I spent a lot of time with Dave Goodman, as when you’re a promoter, you’re there to open it up. And Dave used to arrive early, you know, he’d arrive at four in the afternoon. I’d give him a hand in with some of the gear, and we’d spend some time together as we’d be the only ones there for a couple of hours. I’d be answering the phone and stuff, doing other things like that, but I got to know that guy. He never actually spoke to me about Punk. He mentioned the Pistols, but he never actually spoke about the Punk movement. I wish I’d recorded all those conversations!RM) Did you always fill the 100 Club? Ron) Well, after the first couple of months, it filled out, yeah. I mean, the Pistols didn’t pull a crowd for about their first six gigs. We’re talking about 50 – 80 people, the Bromley Contingent and a few interested parties!
RM) Some people must’ve come in to watch the Pistols out of curiosity? Maybe just walking by the club, then deciding to see what was going on in there, and finding their lives would never be quite the same again? Ron) Yeah, I think that younger people who come down to see it would change. They’d come down the first night with long hair and flares, and by the third night they’d seen them they’d come down in drainpipes and Punk haircut, you know?
RM) What about the other clubs, Ron, like the Roxy? Ron) Went to the Roxy, yes, many times. It was a bit of a pokey hole actually. The Roxy didn’t last long. The Vortex I went to. The stories I used to hear about that place! It was more of a disco crowd, actually. Rent-a-Punk, you know? It wasn’t for the faint hearted, not very savoury! RM) Did you get to read many of the fanzines? Ron) Yeah, I did. I used to see them all. We had one out in the Home Counties called the Buckshee Press, which is a piss take of the Bucks Free Press, of course there was Sniffin’ Glue, we used to see that at the 100 Club all the time. There were others, too, I came across them all over the place, actually, some of them were just one issue, you know, and just a couple of pages.RM) Did you know Mark Perry and the music hacks the time? Ron) Yeah, I knew Mark. Caroline Coon, too. Caroline has been very kind to me in her books, and things, you know. In fact she blamed me, or congratulated me for the whole of Punk in one of them, special thanks to Ron Watts, and that’s nice! Caroline was the first dedicated journalist who wanted to see Punk happen. And, I’m glad in a way that it happened for her, too, because she put her money on the table, you know? Same as I did. She ran that Release thing, which got all the hippies out of jail for cannabis. She was ahead of her time, I mean seriously, you can’t lock someone up for 6 months for smoking cannabis! RM) Changing tack again, Ron. What did you think of Malcolm Mclaren? Ron) I like Malcolm personally. No doubt, you know, I’m not just saying that. On first impressions he looked like an Edwardian gentleman. He’d got that off to a tee, I’d never seen anyone look like him, actually. I never had any bad dealings with him, and he was always very straightforward.RM) People either loved or loathed Mclaren. John Lydon isn’t a fan. Ron) Yeah, I think it was more of a financial thing, but I mean, John Lydon should also remember that without Mclaren he probably wouldn’t have been in them. Mclaren set the scene going, I was the first to pick it up, from that, before recording deals, but he never stuffed me like he stuffed the record companies. They made a lot of money, initially.RM) Did the record companies drop the band so willingly because it was Jubilee year? Ron) Well, the Pistols were full on and did it. I mean, “God Save The Queen” become one of the biggest selling British hit singles, didn’t it? It’s still selling now! And they wouldn’t let it on the shelves, would they. Bless ‘em! RM) You were on the legendary ’77 boat trip up the Thames, when the Pistols played and Mclaren got arrested. What was that like? Ron) It was lovely! You should’ve been there, honestly. The band were ok, they just did their normal gig. I enjoyed seeing people that you wouldn’t expect, talking to each other. When you’ve got the boss of Virgin, that business empire, talking to Sid Vicious, can you imagine what sort of conversation they had?! I’d loved to have taken a tape recorder in there! RM) Do you think the police raid on the boat was planned? Ron) I tell you what, I was amazed at that. I was actually on deck, and the boat was going downstream, back towards Westminster Pier. The Pistols were playing, and it got a bit jostley. You know, a bit of charging about in a small space ‘cause it wasn’t very big, the boat, really. So, I went out on to the deck by the railings, and a couple of other people come and joined me. There was plenty of food and drink, and I had a beer and a chicken leg or something, you know. And I’m looking and I can see these two police boats, and they were a way off. Downstream, I could see two more police boats, and they were a way off, too. I carried on eating the chicken and drinking the beer, looked round, and they were all there, together, at the same time! I mean, the degree of professionalism was just amazing! And then they were on that boat, in force, like about twelve or fifteen coppers, in moments. The boat was quite high sided, but they were up there. And you know what they were doing, they were up there and on that boat and we were escorted into the Westminster Pier basin.RM) Then Mclaren was nicked. Do you reckon he did just enough to get the publicity of an arrest without being charged with anything serious? Ron) I saw that. He got a lot of press out of it, yeah. He knew. Everybody turned to me, to try and sort it all out. One of them was a Countess! RM) Ron, you mentioned that no other bands were on the boat. Was there a real rivalry between these new bands at the time? Ron) The Jam were the young upstarts according to the Pistols, you know. The Clash were their biggest rivals at the time. The Damned, they had no time for.RM) Why don’t The Damned get their due credit? In my opinion, they should. Ron) I don’t know. A lot of people say they’re just a Punk cocktail act. You don’t see a lot about them, and yet they were the first to get a single out and they could play. Scabies could play. Brian James come up brilliant, but then he’d have done anything, if they’d have asked him to join Led Zeppelin he’d have done that, and Captain (Sensible), well I like Captain.RM) Buzzcocks were, from what I’ve heard on bootlegs, a bit rough to start with. They really hit a rich seam once they got up and running. Ron) If the Buzzcocks could make it, anybody could. I wasn’t impressed, really. But what’s in the future’s in the future, you never know what is at the time. They blossomed.
RM) And Magazine? Did you rate them? Ron) Yeah, I did. Brilliant guitarist, John McGeoch. And Penetration, they were a good band, and X-Ray Spex.
RM) Which bands are you the most pleased to have seen play? Ron) Well, I mean, it’s all of them. But where do you start?! Alright, the Pistols and The Clash, definitely, yeah. The Jam – pleased to see them anywhere, anytime. I did enjoy the Damned at an early stage, but they’re not in the top 5. And Sham 69, and The Heartbreakers.RM) I heard “Pretty Vacant” on the radio in my car earlier today, and I got the old goose bumps. Does any of the music from that time affect you the same? Ron) All the early Pistols stuff, yeah!RM) What’s your view on Punk and Reggae getting married? Ron) Yeah, if people want to get together and cross pollinate ideas, then that’s alright. It was the underbelly, twice. You had the white working class and the black working class responding to each other at last! RM) Some Punk bands who had a go at playing Reggae were better than others. Ruts, SLF and of course The Clash all cracked it in their own styles… Ron) The worst Reggae act I ever saw, were The Slits. Actually, probably just the worst act! RM) Do you think that Punk and Reggae blending in ’77 was the root of Two Tone? Ron) Yes. I’m sure it came out of that. I used to have a lot of Reggae acts on in that club, aside from Punk and the Blues and everything. I’d put on Steele Pulse, or an American Blues artist like Muddy Waters, as long as it was what I liked. RM) Your best front men and women? Ron) I’m thinking about this one…The best oddball front man was Wayne County. Best front woman, from what I saw, Faye Fife.RM) You rate Faye Fife over Poly Styrene?Ron) You’re putting me on the spot there! I’d put them equal for different reasons. Faye used to put on a great act. They were perennially at the club and at the Nags Head. Because I had so many venues, when they were coming down again, I needed to know, because that’s three bookings to give them. It was always like, “get your diary out, mate, when you coming down?” If I gave them three bookings, they’d come down, and they could fill it out with other stuff, do the rounds. X-Ray Spex were good, too. Really good band. The Rezillos are still going, actually. RM) I watched a documentary on TV the other night about that Stiff Records tour. The one where they hired a train from BR. Ron) They did the first night for me, at High Wycombe, yeah. There were some funny people there! Wreckless Eric was at the Punk thing I did in Blackpool this year. It took me about an hour to recognise him. I kept looking and looking and vaguely remembered him. Not a nice bloke. RM) Here’s the last one, Ron. Punk lit a fuse for many people. I’m one (albeit two years late), the other people who contributed questions to this interview are others and there’s millions more. As Ed Armchair puts it, his fuse is still burning to this day, and has affected virtually every aspect of his life since it was lit. Do you have the same feelings about Punk as we do? Ron) Yes. I got going through that and it still survives. My first love in music was, and is, Blues. I see a lot of similarities between Punk and Blues. They both come from the underbelly of a society, and they’ve both triumphed against all the odds. They both spoke for their people of that time and place. They’ll reverberate forever. Punk freshened up a stale music scene and the Blues were the bedrock for twentieth and twenty-first century music.RM) Ron, thanks for your time and best of luck with your new projects.END
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Jamaican producer and musician Harry Zephaniah Johnson, 67, credited with producing what is widely considered the first reggae single “No More Heartaches” by the vocal harmony trio The Beltones, passed away on Wednesday, April 3 in his Westmoreland, Jamaica birthplace, succumbing to complications from diabetes; Johnson leaves four children and three grandchildren.
Born on July 6th, 1945, Johnson, better known as Harry J, initially entered the music business as a bass player with The Virtues prior to becoming the group’s manager. Shortly thereafter, he took a job as an insurance salesman but his love for music continually beckoned. He booked time at producer/sound system owner Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One in 1968 and recorded The Beltones. The resultant debut release on Johnson’s Harry J label, “No More Heartaches,” is considered a defining record heralding the emergence of the reggae beat as distinctive from its rock steady predecessor. (“Nanny Goat”, a 1968 song produced by the better-known Coxsone Dodd and sung by the duo Larry and Alvin is also cited as a transformative record, moving the rock steady tempo into a reggae rhythm).
“At the time we were under contract with Coxsone Dodd but he wasn’t doing anything for us so a member of a popular group The Cables took us to Harry J; Harry was new to the business and happy to record us so we broke away from Coxsone and went with him,” recalled The Beltones’ former lead singer Trevor Shields told Billboard.biz. “The driving sound on “No More Heartache” was totally different; we were like outsiders starting something new but didn’t know it at the time. The song was No. 1 on the Jamaican charts for about four weeks, which was no easy feat in those days.”
Harry J’s next big hit “Cuss Cuss” by Lloyd Robinson, released in 1969, boasts one of the most recycled reggae rhythms in the voluminous Jamaican music canon. The same year Harry J released a succession of reggae instrumentals credited to the Harry J All Stars, a revolving cast of musicians that included pianist Gladstone “Gladdy” Anderson, keyboardist Winston Wright, bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Winston Grennan and guitarist Hux Brown. “Smashville,” “Je T’Aime” and “Srpyone” an assortment of Jamaican originals and reggae adaptations of international hits, are just three of the Harry J All Stars’ instrumentals that garnered steady play from Kingston’s sound system selectors.
Their most successful was “Liquidator,” led by Winston Wright’s spirited keyboard solos, which peaked at no. 9 on the UK Singles chart and became an unlikely skinhead anthem there. The song’s opening bassline was subsequently featured on the introduction to The Staple Singers’ 1972 Hot 100 chart topper “Ill Take You There” (Stax Records). According to an April 7 report in the Jamaica Observer newspaper by Howard Campbell, based on a 2000 Observer interview with Johnson, drummer Al Jackson (of Booker T and the MGs, Stax’s in-house band) visited Kingston in 1969 and met Harry J who gave him a copy of “Liquidator”; Johnson was shocked to hear the song used in the Staple Singers’ hit and took aggressive steps to collect royalties from Stax but made little progress.
Following “Liquidator’s” UK success, British reggae label Trojan gave Johnson his own Harry J imprint; his instrumental productions never again reaped the popularity of “Liquidator” but Johnson triumphed working with several of the island’s vocalists commencing with Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy: their 1970 duets covering Nina Simone’s “Young Gifted and Black” and Crispian St. Peters’ “The Pied Piper” reached the upper tiers of the UK singles charts.
In 1972 Johnson opened a sixteen-track studio at 10 Roosevelt Avenue, Kingston, which revolutionized the reggae capital’s recording industry. “Back then, we were recording two-track and four-track sessions so it took great foresight for someone to go all the way to 16-tracks, which brought us on par with the rest of the world,” engineer/musician/producer Stephen Stewart told Billboard.biz at Harry J studios; there Stewart learned audio engineering in the 1970s while still a teenager, working alongside the late Sylvan Morris. “Because he had the latest in technology Harry J attracted the best artists of the day,” Stewart noted.
A sampling of the classic 1970s roots reggae recordings done at Harry J studios includes: The Heptones’ “Book of Rules,” The Melodians’ “Sweet Sensation,” Toots and the Maytals’ “Reggae Got Soul,” Burning Spear’s “Days of Slavery” and Dennis Brown’s “So Long Rastafari.” Bob Marley and The Wailers also recorded their first four albums for Island Records at Harry J (“Catch a Fire,” “Burnin,” featuring Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, “Natty Dread,” and “Rastaman Vibration” with the I-Threes); presently, framed gold copies of those Wailers albums adorn the walls of the studio’s main room.
Harry J Studios are featured in the 1978 film “Rockers” (directed by Theodoros Bafaloukos and starring Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, Gregory Isaacs and Jacob Miller) in a scene that spotlights singer Kiddus I recording “Graduation In Zion” there.
Although the 1970s were Harry J’s production heyday he continued to produce and release hit singles throughout the 1980s including Sheila Hylton’s cover of The Police’s “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”, which reached no. 38 on the UK singles chart. Harry J responded to the massive “Sleng Teng” rhythm released by the King Jammys label in 1984, which jumpstarted Jamaican music’s digital revolution, with his aptly titled “Computer Rule” rhythm that spawned numerous hits for various singers and toasters including Daddy Freddy, Charlie Chaplin, Uglyman, and Little John.
Following a seven-year dormancy during the 1990s, Harry J studios reopened in 2000, under the management of Stephen Stewart who refurbished and re-equipped the facility, with Johnson retaining ownership of the premises. “Harry J pushed the business aspect of the industry, putting deals together and cataloguing his songs (including releases on the Jaywax, Roosevelt, 10 Roosevelt Avenue and Sunset subsidiaries), which were separate from the studio operations,” Stewart offered.
Countless reggae veterans including Toots Hibbert, Burning Spear, Sly and Robbie and Luciano have recorded at Harry J studios in recent years while upstart Jamaican groups Raging Fyah and Di Blueprint Band and an abundance of European reggae acts have each sought out its authentic roots reggae sound. “People come here to capture that live session chemistry where recording is more than just one person using a computer program,” observes Stewart. “The legacy of the musicianship that has come through here makes Harry J studios really special, it’s part of the vision Harry brought to Jamaican music.”
Thought this bunch of clips might be of interest to you, a short movie around the Fred Perry 60th anniversary event and if you missed them, the Subculture movies themselves.
The Fred Perry event took place last week, a showcase for the clothing label and its heritage and the Don Letts-directed mini movies, throwing in some live performances and DJs, headed up by The Charlatans.
You can watch it here…
Episode 2: This Is A Modern World
Episode 3: Made in England
Episode 4: Soul Power
British youth culture and style has gone around the globe, but there is a growing number of events back on home soil. The Great Skinhead Reunion in Brighton, cant be missed for any self respecting Skinhead, People travel from across the World to the Mecca annual event
There are many great British bank holiday traditions; determined but ultimately doomed DIY projects, staring from stationary car windows in lengthy traffic jams or simply avoiding the predictable rain. One tradition though which has largely been consigned to history is the invasion of south-coast seaside resorts by teenage youth cults; namely the Mods and Rockers.
The seaside battles between the sartorially elegant Mods and their leather-clad rivals the Rockers fuelled much sensationalist media coverage in 1964. As news of the fighting and arrests filtered out, these youngsters found themselves at theforefront of public outrage. In fact, the Easter weekend shenanigans were pretty much the first mass-media scare over a drug-taking, mindless, violent youth. Of course there have been quite a few scares since. Newspaper headlines from March 1964 screamed ‘Wild ones invade seaside’ and ’97 leather jacket arrests; youngsters beat-up seaside’ as fighting broke out in Clacton-on-Sea. The trouble caused enough outrage for Panorama to investigate the groups and work out whether this phenomenon would be become a regular feature of future bank holidays. The results were strikingly candid; providing a snapshot of working-class youth at the point where deference to the establishment was beginning to wane. The Mods preached a hedonistic take on life; enjoying drugs, music, clothes and violence to a lesser or greater degree and set a blueprint for many a youth tribe to follow. The Rockers seemed more about the bikes.
Perversely for a group with an anti-establishment reputation, the Rockers citied Mods lack of education and class as factors behind their behaviour. The reality though was that both groups were predominantly working-class. The battles may have ceased almost as quickly as they began; but they have become the stuff of legend, immortalised in the album, film and now stage play “Quadrophenia”. But as with any legend, it has tarnished a little over the years amid claims that many seaside punch-ups were actually faked for the press. This tradition carried on through peaks and troughs, right up until the early 80’s when cheap Spanish holidays, took British youth abroad
Both groups still thrive today albeit in smaller, underground circles. The great Skinhead Reunion in Brighton or the resurrection of the Rockers haunt the Ace cafe in north London, or the continued vogue for modish Fred Perry clothing and their mainstream influence is still evident today, although the violence is consigned to the past.
Headhunters … Terrence Matthews and Jason Marriner By MIKE SULLIVAN, Crime Editor, and ALEX PEAKEPublished: 26th March 2011 The Sun
FOR decades the mere mention of their name struck fear and terror into football fans across the UK and Europe.
They revelled in being the most notorious hooligans on the planet.
They were the Chelsea Headhunters — dishing out their savage brand of football violence on rival fans at grounds across the country in the Seventies and Eighties.
They disappeared from the scene for a number of years following a string of convictions for violence. Then last year the ringleaders coaxed the now middle-aged and pot-bellied brutes out of retirement for one last dust-up.
But yesterday the vile thugs’ 30-year reign of terror was ended once and for all as the last remnants of the ageing, desperate gang were brought to justice following their final brutal clash.
The chance to rekindle the tribal camaraderie and blood-fuelled adrenaline the Headhunters had once lived for presented itself when Championship side Cardiff City were drawn away to Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup on February 13 2010.
The Welsh club’s own hardcore group, the Soul Crew, enjoy a formidable reputation and relished the prospect of invading west London.
In the deluded minds of the Chelsea old guard, getting stuck in to the Cardiff mob was a matter of defending national pride.
The scene that unfolded was a perfect storm of football violence — punch-ups and brick-throwing in broad daylight as terrified families cowered in the carnage.
Marshalling the bloated and blowing Chelsea soldiers that day were Andy “Nightmare” Frain, 46, and Jason Marriner, 43.
Dad-of-three Marriner, of Stevenage, Herts, was yesterday jailed for two years and banned from football grounds for eight years having been found guilty at Isleworth Crown Court of playing a “pivotal role” in organising one of the biggest ever violent clashes between football hooligan “firms”.
He was due to be joined by Frain — who was last seen arriving at court swigging from a bottle of vodka — but his sentencing had to be postponed due to illness. Frain, of Chelmsford, Essex, has pleaded guilty to violent disorder and is due to be sentenced later.
Frain and Marriner have previously been jailed for seven and six years respectively in 2000 after being secretly filmed plotting violence during a BBC programme by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre. Frain discussed his involvement with the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 while Marriner had close links to Ulster loyalists.
Andy ‘Nightmare’ Frain … last seen at court with vodkaNational Pictures
On Thursday, 13 other Chelsea fans were jailed for offences of violence after the Cardiff game and received sentences of up to two years in jail. One of those was Ian Cutler, a 50-year-old builder from Wednesbury, West Mids, who has football-related convictions for violence dating back to the 1970s. He was seen kicking and punching a man lying on the ground and given 14 months and banned from football grounds for six years.
Judge Martin Edmunds QC told Cutler and other defendants they were “old enough to know better”.
On Monday, Terence Matthews, of Morden, Surrey, and two others pleaded guilty to affray. A judge warned them they face jail when sentenced in May.
A now slimmed-down Matthews, 50, was once accused of being the “Fat Man” who rammed a bottle in a barman’s face at a pub near Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground.
He was jailed for four years for affray in 1986 but, to the outrage of police and victims, was acquitted of the bottle attack. He later served a two-year jail sentence for assaulting a police officer. Det Supt William Lyle of the Metropolitan Police said of the violence on the day of the Cardiff match: “Nothing like it had happened since the 1970s. One heavily pregnant woman in a car became very stressed by fighting hooligans.
“There was CCTV of a father shielding his two children as missiles were thrown over their heads. We were prepared for trouble but nobody could have foreseen that.”
These fresh convictions have ripped the heart out of the Headhunters’ hierarchy who, in their heyday, became infamous for inflicting their own brand of torture.
In their “manor” of London’s trendy King’s Road they would administer the notorious “Chelsea Smile” — so-called because victims’ faces would be SLICED from the edges of the mouth to the ears.
To hurt or even kill the victim, he or SHE would then be STABBED in the stomach so the face would RIP when they screamed.
But with the arrival of all-seater stadiums in the early Nineties, football hooliganism was all but stamped out. The shaven-headed, hate-filled hooligans got older and there was a lack of wannabes waiting to fill their shoes.
In recent years the Headhunters became nothing more than a myth.
The group faded away after MacIntyre’s documentary exposed the remaining hardcore members.
But the cup clash with Cardiff last year proved too much for the now paunchy monsters to turn down. All the old crew were back for the reunion — Nightmare, Marriner and the Fat Man too.
Scene of terror … punch-up in 2010National Pictures
Police insisted on a noon kick-off but the first signs of trouble came in the morning when more than 100 Chelsea yobs marched on North End Road, splitting into two groups with military precision to attack Cardiff coaches.
Smoke bombs went off as the rival hooligans clashed before police took control.
The court heard this week how Chelsea fans then downed up to seven pints of lager and snorted lines of cocaine in pubs as they prepared to face their Welsh enemy after the final whistle.
The thugs jostled on the Fulham Road. A group of Cardiff fans broke away and made their way to the King’s Road, where they were met by the Headhunters.
More than 200 yobs then fought a running battle for the next quarter of an hour, hurling missiles and traffic cones at each other.
Bricks were thrown at police. One officer had his jaw broken and lost four teeth after being hit in the face with a rock.
The police quickly launched Operation Ternhill to identify the thugs and collected hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.
Seventeen hooligans were named to police in just two days last July following an appeal in The Sun.
A total of 96 people have been charged over the riot so far, with more than 60 having already pleaded guilty to offences of affray and violent disorder.
mpuDet Supt Lyle said: “A high number were in their thirties, forties and even their fifties. The oldest one was 55. A lot of them went because they knew there was a high possibility of violence.”
In February this year 27 Cardiff fans received sentences of up to 14 months in jail. A second batch of 18 more were given similar terms.
Brave telly investigator Donal MacIntyre was in court yesterday.
Thugs from the Headhunters firm attacked him and wife Ameera last year in “revenge” for some of their gang being convicted as a result of his 1999 report. A member of the gang James Wild, 47, was later convicted for the attack.
MacIntyre said: “They beat my wife up when she had a brain tumour. I’m here to see justice done. I’ve been running for ten years and now enough is enough.”
385 Willesden High Road is tucked away behind a row of dilapidated 19th century houses, its entrance obscured by high locked gates and a walled yard. But 385 is a treasure trove of reggae history. It’s called Theorem, Music Village, and it’s where we’re recording several artist interviews for Reggae Britannia. As we arrive, there’s a band in the studio rehearsing a romantic Lovers Rock number, there’s a man up a rickety ladder painting the walls and another mopping up from an all night dance in the ‘functions room’ with its damp lino and garish red felt walls.
T-Jae, the tall soft-spoken proprietor of what was once called BBMC (the Brent Black Music Cooperative) helps us with our camera gear. He’s got coffee brewing in the kitchen beside an open can of condensed milk. Before T-Jae’s time this was a leisure centre filled with rattle of pinball machines and the click of snooker balls – now replaced by the drum ‘n bass of reggae rhythms leaking from the studio.
We’re here to interview Dave Barker, one half of the Dave and Ansell Collins vocal duo who set the teenage mods alight, back in 1971, performing a novelty number called ‘Double Barrel’. Dave’s a quietly spoken man with a hint of a stammer. He tells us how, when he first came to this country (and he stayed here ever after) he peered out through the window of his BOAC plane as it banked over the smoking chimneys of the snow-covered houses below and wondered ‘how come they have so many bakeries in England?’ On the drive from the airport he was shocked at seeing white men digging the road and taking out garbage: ‘Wow man, that was strange, you didn’t see those things in Jamaica’. Nor dogs wearing winter vests, nor steak and kidney pies, nor that little sparrow he spied pecking the top off a milk bottle. He can’t help himself: Dave sings a refrain from Matt Munro’s ‘Born Free’ and segues into ‘Summer Holiday’.
Dave arrived in the U.K exactly ten years before Theorem opened its doors to top British and Jamaican reggae artists passing through. Today, there’s the legendary Max Romeo sitting on bench in the winter sunshine, his grey locks neatly tucked into a woolly beret. In 1969, Max brought his wicked song ‘Wet Dream’ to Britain and its risqué lyrics – which got it banned in clubs and on the BBC – made it an anthem for skinheads in dance halls all across Britain. He sings a few lines, diffidently explaining how it caused an ‘upstir’ among the rebellious youth of the time. He’s a little ashamed of it now because, by the mid 70s, Max had embraced the wisdom of Rastafari. That was when he wrote and recorded some of reggae’s most powerful and memorable music in the Black Ark studio of Lee Scratch Perry: ‘War In A Babylon’ and ‘Chase The Devil’. When those songs arrived here, first as pre-releases and then remixed by Island Records, they inspired our fledgling roots reggae bands and then the punks and then Bob Marley too. Max intones a few lines from ‘Chase The Devil’, an ironic, cautionary tale that has been covered or sampled by dozens of musicians – including Jay-Z in ‘The Black Album’ – and was featured in the video-game Grand Theft Auto.
Dave Barker and Max Romeo – by Irfhan Mirza
‘I’m gonna put on an iron shirt and chase Satan out of earth’ he sings. ‘I’m gonna send him to outer space to find another race’. Max explains: ‘The devil is the negative within the psyche. Chasing the devil means chasing the negative out of your mind.’ There are people wandering in and out while he speaks; musicians carrying drums and guitars into this studio that’s cold as a morgue, or dropping off an amp or a heavyweight speaker, or they’ve come to pay their respects to the master, with a hug or a high-five.
T-Jae comes sauntering by with a piece of carpet under his arm to help our sound recordist dampen the ‘live’ acoustic of the room (yes, we still have a sound recordist on our crew) and he tells me that among the band members in the studio today is none other than Bigga Morrison. Bigga’s not a front man like Max, but a keyboard virtuoso and music director of renown. Reggae royalty. The band take a another break for a smoke in the yard and Bigga, immaculate in pin-striped suit and brogues, describes growing up in this country as a second generation West Indian: ‘My parents had experienced troubles and threats on the streets, back in the ’50s, with the Teddy Boys and such, but they wouldn’t discuss those things because they wanted to keep you free from the pressures. But as we grew up, we took our message and our fight onto the streets with the roots and culture music we played in bands like Steel Pulse and Aswad.’
Later during the interview, I asked Bigga to show us how the British reggae producers, back in the early 1970s, added violins to the Jamaican imports to make them sound ‘more classical’. Unfortunately, he’s lost his glasses and so can’t read the score. Tee Jay’s on hand to send for a replacement pair. Bigga fills in time by playing us a delightful new track by his band the Skatronics, but when the glasses arrive, they’re all wrong for Bigga. He wears them anyway, and peers astigmatically at the music for ‘Young Gifted And Black‘ which is layered in symphonic-style strings. Bigga (educated at Trinity College of Music) explains how Jamaican reggae gradually transformed into a British musical experience, first through the dub sounds and conscious lyrics of hardworking roots groups like Aswad and then by the bands that went platinum: the 2 Tone crowd, UB40 and The Police. Bigga’s being called back to rehearsals now, so we break for a late lunch. It’s a choice of The New Golden Duck Chinese Take Away or the Caribbean place half a mile up the road. We do the walk and settle for salt fish and akee. Or rather, the others do. I choose the goat curry on plantains and soon regret it.
Bigga Morrison
Back in Theorem, Bigga’s at the keyboards and a couple of pretty female vocalists are delivering more saccharine Lovers Rock. And that’s where we see Big Youth, in among them, gyrating his hips to the pounding bass and chugging upbeat of the guitar. He’s chaperoned by a petite Italian lady from an artists’ agency called Roots Rockers. She’s Trish, and she’s exhausted because they’ve only just returned from a nightmare flight from Spain. Trish is a miracle of calm and efficiency in the maelstrom of the struggling reggae business and it’s clear all the artists adore her. Trish has offered us the opportunity to interview Big Youth, the toaster who excited British reggae fans with his revolutionary, rasta-inspired lyrics in the mid ’70s. He’s on top form today, his wiry body twisting and swaying in the interview chair as he sings lines from ‘Hit The Road Jack’, telling me how the great Ray Charles called him up one Christmas-time to admit that Big Youth’s version was just ‘the best’. ‘Big Youth stole the scene,’ he concludes. Modesty isn’t one of Big Youth’s virtues. But I can vouch for his status, and integrity. I first met him insideRandy’s Record shop in Kingston Jamaica back in ’77. He was checking out the sales of his album – visiting these record stores was about the only way an artist could tell how many were selling. He was as big a name as Marley at the time, and revered both on the island and over here. We met again – by chance – in Lagos, Nigeria, when he was on the run from some unscrupulous promoter. He’s older and greyer now, but with no loss of energy, showmanship or sharp humour. And the red, gold and green implants in his front teeth are still there.
The filming days at Theorem haven’t only been productive for our ninety minute programme, they’ve also been enormous fun. Maybe it’s the familiarity and affection the artists have for this building, or maybe it’s what they call ‘the spirits’ of the house: a combination of all those sounds and experiences imbedded in the cracking plaster walls, the creaky floorboards which once the feet of hallowed artists trod, or the reverberating bass you can hear down Theorem’s honeycomb of corridors.
We’ll be back here later in the week to interview the fiery, bubbly Lovers Rock singer Sylvia Tella, from Manchester; and Tippa Irie who came to fame DJing for the Saxon sound system, and maybe Dennis Bovell, the multi-talented producer/song writer and bass player, who did so much to anglicise reggae music in this country. Oh, and Trish says Dennis Alcapone’s coming by, the dapper, bowler-hatted vocalist who brought a whole new style of toasting to these shores with songs like ‘Guns Don’t Argue’: ‘Don’t call me Scarface, my name is Capone, C-A-P-O-N-E!’
For him, we’ll haul our equipment boxes down the dark corridors of Theorem (we never could find the light switches, thriftily hidden away in recesses above door frames). Because we’ll place him in a room, behind the studio, which is every reggae fan’s dream, an Aladdin’s cave of antique tape machines and mixers, and an expansive crimson casting couch. The wood-trim Rainderk desk dates from the early ’70s when Reggae first exploded onto our pop charts with songs like ‘Young Gifted And Black’, bringing an upbeat musical thrill not just to those of Caribbean origin and the packs of skinheads who followed them around the country, but to the whole nation. This mixing desk was donated by Pete Townshend of The Who. It has made history since, recording reggae artists like The Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Aswad, Janet Kay, Maxi Priest … and so many more.
The traffic’s slow on Willesden High Road as we leave the studios and T- Jae waves us into the evening gridlock and shuts the gates. Back-in-the-day, Theorem would be filling up with dreadlocked musicians and their natty entourage, ready for another all night session. Sometimes it still does, but with the proliferation of cheap home studios and a music industry in crisis, it’s a whole lot quieter now. No sessions tonight. Just the rattling pipes, the whispering corridors, the vacant studio and the ghosts of British reggae history.
Can the UK’s ‘toilet circuit’ of small music venues survive?
From Punk Rock,Ian Dury, The Police, U2, Madness, Coldplay to PJ Harvey, Amy Winehouse, and countless other big British rock acts started out playing tiny pubs and clubs around the UK. But with many of these venues closing, who will keep the rock’n’roll dream alive?
Will another coffee shop bring in £ billions, tourists, radio play and record sales worldwide, that so many British bands have done for the UK. Small pub curcuit is the first step to a carreer, and artform, that british people hold so dearly to their hearts. The Government war on pubs and alcahol consumption will have its casualties, and British music is suffering severely. Every person that comes to the UK to see a band will bring on average around £500 to the British economy. The translates to £millions every year. Bands didnt start their career, at Wembley arena. Are we going to hand over the entire music industry to 5 minute kareoke singers and make Simon Cowell a bit richer
The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town in north London. Its closure is partly due to the city’s music scene migrating eastward. Outside the capital, things are even tougher. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town in north London is, in music-business vernacular, a “toilet venue”, where the stage can just about accommodate a four-piece band, and the dressing room contains a solitary grubby mirror. But the term does this place a real disservice, both in terms of the ornate Victorian splendour of the main bar, and in the roll call of names who have played in the 150-capacity back room – among them, Madness, The Clash Coldplay, Pulp, PJ Harvey, Muse, Blur and the Manic Street Preachers.
After three decades of hosting gigs here, the landlord and landlady are selling up and retiring. The Bull and Gate has been bought by the brewery and pub company Young’s, who are apparently set on turning it into a gastropub (“We don’t feel that having a live music offering at the pub alongside our plans to serve food is viable,” went one company statement). The venue’s current music promoters, a four-person outfit called Club Fandango, will stage their last show on 4 May, which will be preceded by a special run of gigs, likely to feature notable alumni of the Bull and Gate, to be titled Play Your Respects. And that will be that: yet another small music venue shutting its doors, adding to a list of closures that extends across the country, and threatens one of British popular culture’s most inspired inventions: the so-called “toilet circuit”, on which no end of hugely successful musicians have taken their first decisive steps.
In London, as with most matters reducible to hard cash, things are not as bad as elsewhere: here, the story is partly about decline, but also a migration of venues to the east of the city, as ongoing gentrification pushes live music out of its old north London stamping grounds. But beyond the M25, things look grim. The national Barfly chain, which had venues in Brighton, Birmingham, Cambridge and Cardiff, closed most of them between 2008 and 2010. Such famous places as Leeds’s Duchess of York, Newport’s TJs and Leicester’s Princess Charlotte have either been converted to new uses or left to fall into disrepair.
Others are surviving, but struggling: the people in charge of the renowned Hull Adelphi have expressed serious doubts about its future, and venues such as the Tunbridge Wells Forum are now staffed by volunteers. Four or five years ago, the music business clung to the idea that even if sales of CDs were being squeezed, people’s appetite for ticketed live events looked to be increasing. That may hold true for bigger venues, but at the bottom of the live hierarchy, a new rule seems to hold sway: if people now expect to get their music for nothing, they increasingly think that the same ought to apply to watching new bands, no matter how promising they might be.
Twenty or so years ago, when I was a young music writer, I spent most of my evenings in these places, keeping myself going on lager and cigarettes, watching endless bands and occasionally finding music worth evangelising about. It’s a life I still miss, when I used to keep the company of some of the people whose drive and enthusiasm still keep the milieu around small venues alive today – people such as Simon Williams, the one-time staff writer at the New Musical Express who went on to found esteemed independent record label Fierce Panda, before also extending his activities into gig promotion and eventually rooting Club Fandango at the Bull and Gate.
Sitting in an alcove in the pub’s main room, Williams and his business partner Andy Macleod briefly rhapsodise about triumphant Bull and Gate moments (when Coldplay played here in April 1999, says Williams, the queue extended down Kentish Town Road, and they were “just too good”). They also talk me through the events of the last few years: their attempts to buy the Bull and Gate to use as a venue and company HQ, and a quest to secure sponsorship which included a pitch to the makers of an iconic energy drink built on the rebranding of the place as the Red Bull and Gate: “We said to them, ‘You can just paint it, like you do with Formula 1 cars – it’s the greatest tag-line of all time.'”
They have now found a new venue in Dalston, but the imminent closure of the Bull and Gate evidently still hurts. “It’ll be appalling when it actually goes,” says Williams. “I’ve been coming here since 1986, when I was doing a fanzine. That’s a long time. We’re absurdly romantic about this place, and absurdly loyal.”
“Once it becomes a gastropub, that’s final, isn’t it?” says Macleod. “That 33 years of musical heritage just disappears. It’ll all feel really sad.”
Coldplay on stage at the Bull and Gate in London in April 1999, the night they signed their record deal. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the GuardianThe squeeze affecting small venues, they tell me, is down to a tangle of factors: among them, the transformation of urban neighbourhoods such as Kentish Town, the rise of free gigs where the band get a cut of the bar takings, and a music industry that now gets involved with up-and-coming acts at an absurdly early stage. “There’s no money in new bands, we all know that,” says Williams. “But now, with the hyper-speed of things in the music industry, you get in touch with a band who might be doing their first gig, and it’ll be, ‘Talk to our manager, who’s got to talk to the lawyer and the agent.'”
Purely to be seen to be doing their job, they tell me, a band’s representatives might now demand a guaranteed fee of anything up to £75. When the costs of a night at the Bull & Gate come in at least £200 before any musicians have been paid, that threatens the whole viability of the enterprise, not least when every promoter fears the turnout music industry lore knows as “two men and a dog”.
Tonight’s bands draw a combined crowd of around 40. First on are an unremarkable-looking quartet called Civil Love, who play a surprisingly accomplished version of the melodic genre some call power-pop. Next are Evil Alien, a part-electronic band from Birmingham who have driven down to play their first London show, pulling in talent scouts from record companies and a smattering of curious booking agents. Last, bless them, are a White Stripes-esque duo called I Like the GoGo, who send me running from the room with their somewhat irreverent treatment of the Dexys Midnight Runners’ song Geno.
Back at the bar, I talk to the Bull and Gate’s landlord, 70-year-old Pat Lynskey, who speaks with the wry detachment of a man who has seen a few generations of musicians and drinkers come and go, and will soon be spending his first summer in over three decades well away from beer taps and time bells. “I think in the last five years, technology has not been good to us,” he says. “Prior to that, people had to come and see what was on, and they’d stay for the night. Now, they can check everything on their phone before they leave. And if they don’t like it, they won’t come.”
History records that the Manic Street Preachers played at the Bull and Gate on 17 October 1990, when they had just put out an almost-ignored record titled New Art Riot, and were trying desperately to get the attention of the weekly music papers, and again on 17 July of the same year, in even less auspicious circumstances.
“We were on after this really weird folk band, who were Russian or Ukrainian, I think,” says their bass player and lyric writer Nicky Wire. “We walked on stage, and the first thing I said was, ‘Fuck me – no wonder so many Russians kill themselves’, to a very bemused audience. We did about five or six songs. It was a bit of a thrill to play there, because it was always on [1980s and 90s TV staples] Rapido and Snub TV. It did feel like a really good gig to do.”
He recalls the shabbiness of the kind of places the Manics once played, but also the romance they embodied. “There was definitely a ragged glory to it. You felt you were treading the boards of heroes, because nearly everyone we loved had done the same thing.” He mentions vividly remembered gigs at the Leeds Duchess of York, the long-gone Buzz Club in Aldershot, and Southampton Joiners, where the boss of the Columbia record label paid the band a visit, and their career-securing contract was thereby confirmed.
The 200-capacity Joiners is now battling to survive, which leads me to pay a visit the night after my trip to Kentish Town. Having never been there before, I’m thrilled to find a toilet venue par excellence: a bar whose furnishings extend to two apparently paleolithic sofas, a disused subterranean dressing room – flood-damaged, it seems – covered in graffiti left by visiting musicians (“Razorlight – I want to torture you slowly and let you die in a lot of pain”), and an abiding sense of everything being held together by simple goodwill.
“The chances of us closing are massive,” says the venue’s manager, the imposing but genial Patrick Muldowney. “Every Monday morning, we see what bills we can pay – and some weeks, we don’t have enough money, simple as that.” Recent benefit concerts by the Vaccines (toilet circuit graduates who will soon play the 20,000-capacity O2 arena in London) and the singer-songwriter Frank Turner have brought in much-needed funds. But times are unendingly tough: whereas he could once depend on even local bands drawing in at least 30 paying customers, Muldowney says the figure is now closer to 10. “It’s a two-thirds drop-off,” he says, with a grimace. “So it’s massive.”
As in London, Southampton now sees regular free gigs in standard-issue bars and pubs that are financed by sales of drinks, something made easier by a recent legislative change that got rid of any need for an official music license for venues that hold up to 200 people. For the Joiners, that kind of event is pretty much impossible: it has an over-14 license for its music room (an integral part, says Muldowney, of its ethos), and a much more thrifty culture. “The difference between us and a pub is that 50% of our crowd won’t buy a drink all evening,” he says; the Joiners’ head band booker, Ricky Bates, also points out that whereas lesser venues will offer little better than a “karaoke PA”, the Joiners prides itself on an estimable sound system, but it needs a paid engineer to work it.
Tonight’s headliners are the History of Apple Pie, who play indie-rock built on a mixture of sweetness and noise, and are at the end of a 19-date tour punctuated by nights spent at Travelodges and the odd recuperative stay at parents’ houses scattered around the country. Before them, I watch a local trio called Imperatrix, who are bedevilled by colds and flu, and by the fact that their drummer learned their songs a mere 12 hours before. They deliver a performance full of very familiar ingredients: brief flashes of promise, gauche repartee and the sense that with enough visits to venues like this, they might just discover who they actually are.
On my way out, I’m given a Joiners T-shirt, covered in an A-to-Z of the bands who have played here – from the Arctic Monkeys to the Zutons. Next to the door is a list of forthcoming attractions, featuring names that instantly convey the mixture of bravado and creativity that often courses around places like this: the Dead Lay Waiting, Our Lost Infantry, Burglars of the Heart. And a potent thought once again hits home: what a profound pity it would be if the toilet circuit was allowed to rot away – leaving endless free music and ad hoc gigs, but no dependable means via which musicians can been transported away from their home turf, towards something bigger.
“It gets under your skin, doesn’t it?” says Muldowney, by way of a goodbye. “You fall in love with places like this.” Counting in a steady stream of people at the door, he looks firmly in his element, though he views the future with an uneasy mixture of hope and uncertainty. “I’m an eternal optimist,” he says. “We’ll certainly be here in a year.”
UK toilet circuit landmarks past and present
1 Leicester Charlotte (formerly Princess Charlotte; capacity: 200)
Hosted Oasis, the Libertines, Muse et al, but closed in March 2010, to be developed into student flats.
2 Newport TJs (capacity: 350)
A legendary venue where, in December 1991, Kurt Cobain is said to have proposed to Courtney Love. Closed in 2010, and has fallen into disrepair.
3 Cardiff Barfly (capacity: 200)
Part of a chain of small venues that hit the buffers between 2008 and 2010. Hosted future US stars Kings of Leon on their first UK tour.
4 Leeds Duchess of York (capacity: 200 officially, 300 on a good night)
Put on gigs in its cramped back room by such future stars as Nirvana, Coldplay and Pulp. Now a branch of menswear giant Hugo Boss.
5 Manchester Roadhouse (capacity: 200)
Still in business. The entire membership of future Mercury Prize-winners Elbow have worked here; singer Guy Garvey was once the barman.
6 Hull Adelphi (capacity: 200)
In a former housing terrace. Has struggled to survive, but will, with luck, celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2014.
7 Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (capacity: 300)
A survivor, and one-time platform for such future stars as Florence and the Machine and the Killers. Famously where Creation records boss Alan McGee first saw Oasis in May 1993.
8 Southampton Joiners (capacity: 150)
Now fighting the prospect of closure; current indie stars the Vaccines recently played a benefit show. Local legend claims that Jimi Hendrix played here en route to the Isle of Wight festival in 1970.
9 Oxford Jericho Tavern (capacity: 180)
A heartwarming story: after a spell as part of the student-oriented pub chain Scream, reopened as a music venue in 2005. It was once a home from home for Radiohead.
10 Tunbridge Wells Forum (capacity: 250)
The toilet venue that was once a (public) toilet. Still in business, 20 years old, and staffed by volunteers.
11 London Kentish Town Bull & Gate (capacity: 150)
One of the most renowned toilet venues, and now set for closure. Has hosted Madness, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Muse, Coldplay and hundreds more. Set to become – why, of course – a gastropub.
Unhappy: Kimberley Vlaeminck claims she only wanted three stars
Kimberley Vlaeminck claimed to reporters and her family that she had only asked for three stars and he inked the rest while she was ASLEEP at his Tattoo box studio in Coutrai, Belgium.
She threatened to sue Toumaniantz for £10,000 to cover the cost of removing the permanent inkings.
However, a week later she confessed on TV that she had asked for all the stars but had lied about it as she was afraid of how her father would react.
He is still unrepentant of his earlier work and posted on his Facebook site: “I have done 25 face tattoos since Kimberley’s case, and don’t feel I did anything wrong during the Kimberley affair.”
Once upon a time tattoos were almost exclusively worn by Jailbirds, millitary, Bikers or Skinheads. Over the last 10 years they have become major fashion accessories to pretty girls. Websites like Suicide girls, based in the USA have found beautiful tattooed girls and posted them across the world. From the tramp stamp on the lower back, girls are now covering themselves from head to foot. Everybody has the right to do whatever they want with their body, but this horror shows how a tattooist can completely change a persons life. Is it time that tattooist need to become subject to legal regulation worldwide.
Watford (in red) and Harrow (yellow) skinheads at Butlins, Clacton, in 1968.
Philip Ellisdon has sent in this picture of the Watford and Harrow skinheads on holiday at Butlins, Clacton, in 1968.
He said: “There were 20 of us – ten from Watford, ten from Harrow and Wealdstone. I am the one on the floor in the centre, third from the left with the striped shirt on.
“I had just won a reggae dance competition sponsored by Trojan Records, the big reggae record company at the time.
“The local guys are there, red are Watford, yellow are Harrow and Wealdstone. Next to me was Steve Hickman, behind with the white braces is Keith Munday and to his right is guy called John Warby who was a last minute replacement.“Keith and I were born next door to each other, nine days apart, and are still friends today.
“In the front are Nicky and Charlie, and with the jacket and white socks is John Galley or Layo as he was called then. He was from Ruislip, but a friend I met at Butlins two years earlier. The rest of the boys were not in the photo – they were all at the bar.
“In the early days, all skinheads wore white socks. One day I went to the Co-op at Gade House with two friends, Barry Preston and his girlfriend at the time, Linda Howarth, to buy a new pair of white socks and they had sold out.
“I bought red socks, just to be different on the dance floor, then a few of my mates also bought the red socks and that was our Watford identity, not always welcome in some places like Wembley or Golders Green, as they knew where we came from and we were not always welcome.
“The prize at Butlins was a lifetime membership to the Trojan Record Club, a big gold medallion, a certificate and an invitation to dance in the next round at a club in London – but I never went.
“I used to dance in many clubs around our area and got to know loads of people from all over the place. Sometime we were welcome, sometime you could be classed as being ‘too flash’ and someone would take exception and start trouble. Time for us to leave.
“We use to dance in clubs in Hemel, Harrow, Greenford, Kingsbury, Ealing, Slough, Windsor, Wembley, Golders Green, Tottenham, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden and, of course, our own stamping ground, the Watford Top Rank, as it was in those days.
“The Top Rank was a safe haven for us, we could wear our red socks, be as ‘flash’ as we liked and dance all night with very little trouble. I had many regular girl dance partners who were great friends. I even met and married one, my wife Lori, and we can still mix it at a 60s/70s disco.
“In the skinhead days, you would never go out with a hair out of place. Tonic suits, Ben Sherman shirts ironed, Levi turn ups measured and pressed, Florshiem Imperial shoes shining, Doc Martin boots polished – everything immaculate, everything ready for The Top Rank. For us, this was the centre of our the universe in those days, a place where all the factions of Watford council estates congregated and because they either went to school, played football or supported Watford FC together, mostly they became friends and were Watford Boys as one.
“People used to travel from all the aforementioned places to spend a Saturday night “up the Top Rank”. It was amazing, how we all became friends, and my wife and I are still friends with many of the people we first met there.
“Many of the ‘faces’ from those days are still around the Watford area. A few are members at my golf club, West Herts. They have not changed, still smart, still looking like a ‘face’.
“The ‘ace face’ at the time was a guy called Roy Rumble. He was the best dancer around by a mile. People use to stop and watch him dance long before John Travolta could even walk.
“He was an inspiration to all those people who wanted to dance, me included, and for such a small guy, he could also look after himself if anyone started on him for being ‘too flash’.
“The Top Rank was open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights. They even opened a club on a Sunday night in later years after the skinhead era.
“The good days were gone and 70s music and clubs diversified into the suedehead and glam rock eras, so we all grew our hair down to our shoulders and moved on, an era gone, but certainly not forgotten.
“The music still lives and the memories flood back.”
Watford and Harrow skinheads, Philip Ellisdon has been in touch with more information about the skinhead and mod scene in Watford during the 1960s, and how it started.
He said: “This is a photo of Mick Colvin and myself at Butlins in 1967.
“Butlins was like Spain is now. It was fun and affordable. Too many stories to be told now, but a great era, lots of style and lots of fun.
“Notice the small turn ups on the Sta-Press trousers, another skinhead fashion if you could not afford Levis, but the obligatory braces and haircut – which was expensive till a mate of my Dad started to shave it for me.
“In this picture it’s grown a bit and the skinhead haircut did not compliment my forehead, as in the song Dr Jimmy from Quadrophenia: “You have to move with the fashion or be outcast”.
“Great film, the Who are my favourite group, great words from Townshend and an understanding of a generation that I think most can relate to, no matter what era they grew up in. All the generations have had the same growing pains.“There was a mod scene. The Trade Hall in Watford, which has been featured a few times in the Nostalgia section over the years, was famous.
“Many of the groups, The Who, Small Faces and the like, played there. I watched them through the windows with my mates, standing on beer crates as we were either too young or too skint to get in.
“There has never been a lot written about the skinhead days, only bad stuff, but it was a brilliant era, we had the Motown on one side and the reggae on the other. We liked both. The dancing was varied and everyone danced as you did not need to be a gymnast to dance in them days.
“We had the skinheads, hippies and rockers, all three factions and Watford had a place for them all – the Top Rank for the skinheads, Kingham Hall for the rockers and the Watford Tech for the hippies.
“We use to race around Watford on Vespas and Lambrettas. I was born and lived in Waterman Close, as were my friends. There was 12 of us all around the same age, born in or around Waterman’s, all living within a few yards of each other. Keith and I were next door neighbours and we had council garages at the bottom of our gardens where we kept our scooters and where all the others in the Close with a scooter would hang out.
“Watford had some infamous characters during the skinhead era. The first skinhead I knew in Watford was a guy called Gary Armstrong, who unfortunately is no longer with us.
“We were up the Top Rank one Thursday night when someone came in and said that Gary was down the Red Lion (now the Toby Carvery, where they use to have a disco sometimes) with a load of skinheads.
“We had no idea what a skinhead was, so we jumped on scooters and went to see what it was all about. When we got there, Gary, a style guru and a mod, (a Small Faces lookalike with glasses) was now a shaved head skinhead. Unbelievable.
“We were all basically young mods, seeing Gary and these guys from London’s East End, with all these smart clothes and shaved heads, some in Levi’s, Doc Martins, Ben Sherman shirts and Harrington jackets, some in tonic suits, Fred Perry’s and Florsheim shoes with white socks.
“These guys were so cool, we spent all night talking to them about the clothes, quickly realising that to become a skinhead was not cheap. Most of the gear was from the USA and no way we could afford it, but a shaved head we could.
“The next day, being Friday, pay day, Steve Hickman and I went to the A1 barbers in Carey Place, recommended by Gary, for a No1 haircut. The place was packed, but five minutes later, we were in the chair and in the blink of an eye, we were skinheads.
“My Mum went mad, my Dad thought the short, back and sides was a bit extreme and I got a lot of stick back at work, where I was a trainee panel beater.
“Within a week, Watford Top Rank was full of skinheads and pretty soon, during the late 60s, the Watford Top Rank became a infamous venue, with people coming from all over the place to spend a Saturday night ‘Up the Top Rank’.
“There were many “faces” during that time. Some became known for their style, others for their ability to take care of themselves, should the need arise of course, which, on a Saturday night, it did.
“There was always a chance of some “aggro” taking place, especially when gangs from outside Watford chose to visit and try and claim territory within ‘the Rank’.
“Roy Rumble danced and people watched. Outsiders would usually make some comments and it would all kick off, but as with generations before and since, this ended in trouble and being a skinhead meant you had to stand your ground.
“Watford Peace Memorial Hospital, as it was then, always had a busy Saturday night, especially being so close by. Many of the nurses who lived in also frequented the Rank, so sometime you got the personal service and an escort to the hospital.
“But in those days, there were very few knives, hardly any killings and in many cases, friendships were born out of the ‘aggro’ and I can speak from experience there.
“Getting blood down your white Fred Perry and your Tonic mohair suit was not part of the evening’s plans. You don’t look so cool with a nose bleed. It’s the guy who gave it to you who is the hero.
“Hope this gives you a brief insight to an untold era in Watford.”
Patsi Whelan-Archer, formally from Whitwell Road, in Garston, read Mr Ellisdon’s letter about Roy Rumble last week and has sent in some more information.
The 61-year-old, now living in Sutton Coldfield, said: “I remember him very well. As your article said, he was an amazing dancer.
“I used to go to the ‘Rank’ on Thursday and Saturday nights and Roy was always first up on the floor and always last off.
“We all loved him and looked up to him because he really had an amazing presence; he was his own man.
“I remember him stepping forward to help me when a lad was trying to force me to dance with him when I’d said ‘no’.
“Roy decked him and there was no more problems, even the bouncers respected him as they, and everyone, knew he was a trouble stopper, not a trouble starter.
“All Roy wanted was to dance and for everyone to be happy around him. I will never forget Roy Rumble – a lovely, lovely man.
“I now live in the Midlands and when I read your article it brought all the wonderful memories of the 60s flooding back. Does anyone remember ‘The Trade’?
“I saw the Who and many, many amazing bands there, and was asked out by Rod the Mod aka Rod Stewart, but thought he was a bighead and refused! Oh well, no regrets eh?
hello, over the last few days a lot of groups have gone, these are all related to the skinhead, fashion and music subculture. This is a serious issue as its effected thousands of people. As a promoter of events in England i use Facebook to promote and interact with bands, fans, media and many other aspects. Nobody has been given a reason for this. The groups have no political or aggressive nature, but more a nostalgic and bonding use. people get together from all over the world and follow events. we have The Great Skinhead Reunion weekend party booked in Brighton England, which attracts old jamaicans in their 70’s to young english 15 year old children, people attending from many counries. we have a very warm friendly environment. this culling of groups and people profiles has broken alot of communication links relied on. please contact me as soon as possible and let me know what has happened. has this been a facebook action, or that of a hacker?
We are aware that the skinhead subculture, over its 40 year life span has been abused by the media. but as active skinheads, many of us around the world have fought to kill off the political extremes attached from both left and right. to make it a celebration of music, style and friends. as an example, my next event has a band from ethnic singapore, english/polish band, ska and reggae dj’s. Women , children and every type of person, black and white, coming along for the third year.
an example of the groups which have gone are classic skinhead photographs. traditional skinheads and many more, which have the name skinhead in the title.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz_63cTrlxg We believe we have the right to know what has happened to our networking groups, personal photographs. and friendship links made across the Globe If you have been effected by this please register with subcultz and place your name in the comments below. please put your country and town, so we can show facebook what a worldwide family we are
Being a skinhead or skinhead girl in a country like Venezuela hasn’t been very easy, even though we are a tropical country and especially multicultural, here few subcultures are appreciated and followed, although punk subculture has had more relevance in Venezuelan youth, the skinhead subculture has left its mark on some of the Venezuelan’s youth, but today few remain in that lifestyle.
How did begin the skinhead subculture in Venezuela?
It is said that began in the mid-80s. At the time, in Venezuela, it was difficult to find music from other countries, especially from other continents; the music was coming rather late, as the news about the birth of new subcultures which by then some had over 20 years runs and others had more than 10 years. For this reason, the Venezuelan tried to obtain, anyhow, this type of information. Jamaican rhythms known as Ska and Reggae were heard at Venezuela by the mid-60s thanks to groups like “Las Cuatro Monedas”, many of our grandparents and parents fondly remember as part of their youth and good times. It is said that some young people began keeping Skinhead lifestyle in the mid-80s, but due to misinformation and bad reputation that the skinhead subculture had to the time (because they were identified as Nazis or Fascists) it became difficult to be a skinhead in Venezuela. Many of the Venezuelan’ skinheads couldn’t say that they were Skinheads because people confused them with Nazis and also it was known that were some groups of fascists and national socialists who claimed to be “skins” but they always were minority and lived hidden because it didn’t know more about them. In the 90s, the skinheads in Venezuela were few and numbered due to this situation.
By early 2000, the skinhead subculture took some notoriety among Venezuelan youth; this boom began after 2004, we were still few but far more than previous decades. The bad reputation was gradually eradicated, it wasn’t so hard to say if someone was a Skinhead, because this subculture was a symbol of beer, football and violence in some cities, for others it was to belong to certain groups such as SHARP and RASH and for some (very few actually) was a symbol of ska, reggae, beer, loyalty, friendship, tradition and pride.
Today the situation is different than used to be about 4 or 5 years ago, in the years 2007 and 2008, where it could be said that the skinhead scene in Venezuela was significantly higher than it was and what it is nowadays. They were good years for the skinheads of our country, we knew each other, there were events and there was presence. The skinhead scene began to losing ground by 2010, this mostly because of a personal nature. Although between 2011 until nowadays, events of ska and reggae have grown like wildfire in our country, this hasn’t affected in any way the interest in the scene. In fact, by this moment, we are a small number of traditional and Oi! Skinheads those still remain true to the lifestyle. Some people stopped living the skinhead lifestyle to continue with their lives from other perspectives.
Those who still continue living the skinhead lifestyle, we keep living life as each day goes by, it is something we own, something personal, when we can we enjoy excellent events of Venezuelan ska and reggae or some occasional party among friends. We are few in comparison to other Latin American countries but we are faithful and true to the skinhead lifestyle and every year we see more of it.
As I said before, it wasn’t easy to be a skinhead in Venezuela, far less being a skinhead girl like me, but that didn’t affect us negatively. On the contrary, this difficulty makes us true and faithful to the feeling.
Essay made by Mary GunsFever Montilla.
NOTE: Referential Photos of some Venezuelan Skinheads
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We announced ourselves for the first time as Soul Radics at an Atlanta ska fest in the summer of 2011. That’s the easiest way to say it I suppose.
As a band we’re unanimously fans of the Jamaican classics of ska, reggae, and rocksteady… Though I’m very favorable to Dekker, Toots, and Derrick Morgan, it is a endless list of inspiration. Opinions obviously differ for the whole band, but I’m a fan of a ridiculous amount of music that mostly came before I was born. It’s hard to break it down without yammering on forever, but it starts somewhere around Django Reinhardt, Charles Mingus, Otis Redding, The Beatles, The Animals, Chuck Berry and ends somewhere around Early punk, Devo, The Stray Cats, and The Squirrel Nut Zippers. But above all my heart lies in ska, reggae and soul. I like music with feeling… That’s my thing.
I moved to Nashville, Tennessee from a smaller town in Northwest Indiana that bordered Chicago. I have collectively spent most of my life there after moving young from my home state of Florida, but also lived in New York and oddly enough some obscure places in Nebraska.
I met Jay back in ’09 soon after I’d moved to Nashville. I was looking to play guitar in some kind of punk group, as it’s what I had messed around with prior to, and he said “how about sing in a ska/reggae band?” I immediately got more excited about the idea since the concept of ska thriving in Nashville didn’t even occur to me as a new resident. Jay was from Canada and moved to Nashville specifically for music…. I had never worked with anyone so passionate about it before; it was refreshing. Long story short, and trust me, it’s long…. Jay and I have reformed this group 3 times to get what we have now. We’ve had a great writing relationship since day 1. We picked up our bassist Jamie early on and he’s been with us the longest. Jamie was from Michigan and had played much heavier music before joining up with us, but beyond him it had seemed like a revolving door before we actually became Soul Radics last summer. I think what ailed us the most was our constant drummer situation…. I’m sure most musicians can relate. We had always had a hard time keeping horns on but Nels (Nebraska) came along on sax and held it down for a long time on his own… Rob Hoskins (from Murfreesboro) was in a.k.a: Rudie which is a flawless, long running rocksteady band in Nashville. I had collaborated with them a little bit and was a huge fan, even though in almost 20 years they had never gotten far out of Nashville. Rob and Kevin (also from a.k.a.) came to our show one night, at which point we were basically all leaning to play traditional ska. We played a song for the first time live that night called “Down to the Hall,” which is a more upbeat ska tune, and they wanted to help us track it. Rob then began producing what quickly went from an E.P. to a full album, and also playing organ for us. He opened the floodgate for seasoned musicians. We finally got a professional drummer (Dave from Nashville), and second guitar (Shane from Pittsburgh) that we kinda smuggled in from a.k.a: Rudie. Most recent is Chuck from Cali on trombone, and that’s our current line up. Sorry if that was long winded… big bands are high maintenance, ha.
i read you are in nashville, obviously world famous for music, but how does the soul/ skinhead reggae sound fit in there. i thought the town was very much based around country and western.
Nashville is one of those towns where everyone you bump into is a musician. There’s usually a good show every night but truth be told it’s a small demographic in comparison for what we do. There’s not a lot of pats on the back here for carrying the torch in our town. The people that love us at home base support us dearly… that’s our crew.
listening to ‘hey skavoovie’ it had good production on it. are you signed to a major label.
Cheers! We’ve been recording in a.k.a: Rudie’s studio (which actually happens to be the 2nd floor to their guitar player Kevin’s house). Kevin has engineered the album and the wonderfully talented Brett Tubin is mixing it. As of now and we’re set to release it on both vinyl and cd through Jump Up Records, and our record release show will be with Stranger Cole in Chicago on November 17th. I’m very excited for it! We’ve all poured a lot of blood and sweat into it and I can’t wait for the finished product.
how is the skinhead scene where you are?
Small in Nashville, but they represent. Our buddy Matt Gray DJ’s ‘Sunday Moonstomps’ and the scene brings in some good bands as often as possible. We do a free monthly Nashville gig in the summer and that’s where I see most the crew. Sometimes we’ll get an iconic band through and it’ll draw everyone out of the woodwork.how are your live shows, are you starting to pick up a following?
While Nashville shows are always personal and fun, I live for playing out of town shows. Hell, liveshows in general are my thing, but I love an adventure. I feel like we convert so many people when they see us live… that’s how we’ve gotten our biggest fans up until this point. A good Radics show leaves me high for days. It seems like every time we go back to Atlanta there’s more supporters, and I have to admit I feel a buzz around us right now which makes the record release all the more anticipated. I’m grateful for the shows we’ve been invited to play this year, supporting bands like the Aggrolites and The Toasters as well as a plethora of amazing regional bands. We’ve been fortunate with the opportunities and fans we’ve gotten without yet having an album out. Dani Radic
One of the longest running Indonesian Oi! bands is No Man’s Land. Founded in 1994 they are one of the pioneers in the skinheadscene overthere. Band based in Malang – Indonesia. Their music, started taking on a different direction and influence, after Didit (Vocal/Guitar) introduced them to Oi! music such as, The Last Resort, The Oppressed, The Strike and The 4skins, Cockney Rejects, The Business etc.No Man’s Land : Didit (Vocal/Guitar) Didik (Drum)Catur (Bass)Ferry (Guitar) Once before the three boys formed the band, fery and didik were friends in same high school, but not for didit. He knew them both as playmates at the age of 13 until they were in high school.Didit was the one who always had musical ideas or direction not commonplace and were sometimes considered extreme to some parents in local community, but they all have the similarities in outlook on social development in which they live. All three friends liked pretty much the same music. And most of all, punk and Oi!, they liked different music too and all three were music lovers. They did not like popular music,-pop music .But liked underground music that tended not be popular music listened too by other youth around them at the time. He was always more critical of the lyrics and music of other bands that might have an influence on them. And after they graduated from high school, they formed a band called No Man’s Land. They took this name from a war movie they had liked and all seen. No Man’s Land was a punk band they formed which was more of an upbeat, faster and more of a singa long punk rock style. Their music, started taking on a different direction and influence. After Didit introduced them to Oi! music such as, The Last Resort, The Oppressed, The Strike and The 4skins Cockney Rejects, The Business etc.The first time they recorded it was on very basic, simple equipment. The results for the first time weren’t what they wanted. Determined to make better recordings and sound better, they kept trying, and recorded once more with some additional tracks.
In 1996, they made recording of their new songs in a better studio with better equipment. Each of them would collect a little money for the new recordngs. They all had to utilise their time very well, and work out songs faster and more efficiently. As they could not afford to many recording sessions at the new studio. the personnel at the time have become four. is Catur who encounter at the first time when No Man’s Land played in some gig, then didit offered him to join. after the master tape was completed,. They took it to a studio which was commonly used to record/press traditional and folk songs. They made 200 copies and distributed them all friend to friend . In a true DIY punk/Oi way. It was extremely rare and unusual for a band to record and distribute their tapes without a label at that time in Indonesia. Some was merch or music from other punk distro’s etc, from other countries.No Man’s Land formed many good friendships/relationships, in other areas of Indonesia and abroad aswell. Didit corresponded with many friends and fans. Usually writing in the letters, first by introducing his band No Man’s Land. Didit was very diligent with correspondance and keeping up with his fans letters. On average the letters would take about 2 weeks to be delivered upon receivership etc. He was diligent because letter writing was still a main source of communication. As the internet, and internet access for the common people, was still fairly rare at the time. he did it also to make sure , No Man’s Land was given some attention by other scenes, by introducing it to people around the world. And wanted people to know, there was a good and growing punk and Oi scene coming from out of Indonesia. In 1997, a label from Malaysia offered to make a split tape album with No Man’s Land and a punk band called Karatz from Malaysia. The album was produced in Malaysia, and then distributed to various countries.For the Indonesian market , No Man’s Land would be given royalties.After the sale of 200 copies of the album. The label sent 200 printed covers of the album to No Man’s Land. Then they would make copies of the tapes in a DIY way, and then sell those copies themselves. In 1998, No Man’s Land recorded their new album. The studio was better and more proffessional than what they had been used to before. The LP ” Grow Away From The Society ” was recorded all in a live session. In this new album they had a faster and more aggressive sound and more intense lyrics, the lyrics were alot to do with social and racial unrest at the time, commenting about riots etc. The album was released by local label, Confuse records. They took no royalties from album sales, but instead passed on the finances to friends who would later construct a record label-distro, and so develop and build it up. To later pay the recording cost of the next album. The distro serves to distribute stuffs such as tapes-cds-t shirts-button pins etc. Which would be made available for anyone to buy, also became a place for the boys to hang out, and socialise etc. A year after that, No Man’s Land recorded for a new album once again.Called ” All Together Now “. In that album, there was alot of lyrics about the local scene in Malang. The scene was growing bigger at the time, many more punks and skins seemed to be coming up in the scene. No Man’s Land played and average of weekly gigs, but never left town. Due to work commitments, No Man’s Land only played in Malang for a while, but their merch and lp’s were sold all over by friends distro and DIY. And then in 2001, Didit got married and so did Ferry and Didik. Didit got work out of town. Times changed, the scene seemed to slow down, and No Man’s Land were only playing on average a gig/show a month. Didits mates rarely went to see shows after a time. And Didit barely had time to go see a punk show himself anymore. His work was that full time, that he only got back to home to Malang once a week. But inbetween his and their hectic shedules, they still found a little time to get some band practice in and hang out together.
In 2005, Didit resigned from his out of town work, and started and built up a business with his wife. So then he had plenty of time to get together with his mates again. Then in 2008, No Mans Land went to record some new material after a fair hiatus, of just jamming and prac and no recording. Lyrically and musically they felt they had improved, and seemed they had improved on their sound quality. They were kind of veterans in their scene by now. They took 3 tracks from and old lp, to record on the new material. They didn’t change their sound too drastically, kept it much the same. But just made some subtle adjustments and improvements. The latest lp is scheduled to be released on a European label, and will be out at the end of 2011. No Man’s Land’s expectations for the new album will be realised against the feedback and sales from the current international skinhead scene. Didit and the boys have faith that old fans of No Man’s Land will not be dissapointed, as No Man’s Land has kept true to its lyrical and musical roots, pure , straight up Indonesian Oi!. And at the end of the day, No Mans Land are just happy to play the music they love, and have a laugh and a say. And happy that the Skins/Punks scene is still alive and kicking.
http://youtu.be/xg46V7ZKGDQAlbums + Separatist Tendency (Demo Tape Self-release) 1995+ P.A.A.S.D.O (LP) KDHC Recs 1996+ Punk Hey Punk (split cassette) Phisik Scream Ent. Malaysia 1998+ Grow Away From The Society (LP) Confuse Recs 1998+ All Together Now (LP) Rawtape Recs 1999+ Scattered Around And Buried (CD) OiShop Germany 2012+ The Best of 1994-2012 (next on Aggro Beat Recs Compilations + Saudara Sebotol (RawTape) 1998+ Anti Disco League Vol.1 (Templecombe Recs 2006+ Skins And Punks (CD) M2 Bootboys Recs 2008+ Work Together vol.1 ( Virtual Comp.) Work Together Recs 2012+ Made In Indonesia (next on Agrro Beat Recs late 2012 (From: http://www.last.fm/music/No+Man%27s+Land+Oi!)Indonesia is one of the countries with a growing skinhead scene. there are Oi! bands from this country. One of the longest running Indonesian Oi! bands is No Man’s Land. Founded in 1994 they are one of the pioneers in the skinhead scene overthere. Band based in Malang – Indonesia. Once before they formed the band, fery and didik were friends in same high school, but not for didit. He knew them both as playmates at the age of 13 until they were in high school.Didit was the one who always had musical ideas or direction not commonplace and were sometimes considered extreme to some parents in local community, but they all have the similarities in outlook on social development in which they live. All three friends liked pretty much the same music. And most of all, punk and Oi!, they liked different music too and all three were music lovers. They did not like popular music,-pop music .But liked underground music that tended not be popular music listened too by other youth around them at the time. He was always more critical of the lyrics and music of other bands that might have an influence on them.
And after they graduated from high school, they formed a band called No Man’s Land. They took this name from a war movie they had liked and all seen. No Man’s Land was a punk band they formed which was more of an upbeat, faster and more of a singa long punk rock style.
Where the fuck is Soho¨? Jack said to Gav studying the tube map on the wall,
I am sure it’s in the west end¨
A bit to shy to ask adults, as Soho was known for sex shops and sleaze, not really the sort of place to encourage teenage kids to go hang around.
But where ever there was danger, there was always fun
The first time the lads had gone looking for Soho, they had studied the tube map looking for Soho station. But to no avail. Being street wise 14 year old skins, they didn’t want to have to ask a stranger and risk embarrassment, but just managed to find it by chance, wandering up through china town behind Leicester square, the shops changed from Chinese restaurants to small shops with the words ,Adult shop’ on the window. Handmade signs saying ´Model upstairs, above a shabby unpainted doorway, a bell hanging on the frame with exposed wires. Not really the place for a twiggy jack thought to himself. More like a model zeppelin he imagined.
Designed for ripping off rich Americans or drunks on a stag night, famous for sleazy shops and overpriced drinks in basement strip clubs. Porn cinemas and prostitution.
A few streets down, in Leicester square were the large theatres showing the Hollywood blockbusters, the caricature artists, painting pictures of ugly kids, whilst throngs of Japanese tourists photograph everything that moves, and most things that dont . The street buskers singing the same old Beatles and rolling stones songs to passing tourists. Well behaved London police officers playing the part of ´Bobby´, giving directions to the tourists, desperately trying to keep the image of nice London safe for the US Dollar and Japanese Yen. Smiling kids posing by red telephone boxes, in their plastic bowler hats.
But for the young skinheads it was a different world.
I´m bursting for a piss¨ jack announced to his mates, just gotta go to the loo¨
In the middle of Leicester square by the small garden there are some public lavatories. Walking down the steps the smell of disinfectant hits the nostrils mixed with the rancid smell of human waste. The tiled black and white chequered tiles, as you enter. The shiny polished copper pipes. Jack wondered to himself, who took so much pride in cleaning toilet water pipes. But any pride is a good thing he reckoned. All the lads piled down the steps to go for a pee.
But even in such a public functional place, there lurked danger.
Like rats, you are never far from a nonce in the west end, and like rats they scamper around looking to feed their hunger. A lot of runaways head for London. The bright lights, the romantic notion of a better life, the anonymity of the big city. Escaping some form of child abuse or unhappiness.
Like Ying and Yang, there is the Salvation Army and churches which are there to help and support. There is also the anti Christ waiting to feed.
When jack was 10 years old he had gone to the seaside, to Selsea Bill, on a very rare trip with his family.. Jack had been so excited, as lots of his mates had been there on family holidays, and had come to school telling stories of the sea and riding donkeys on the beach. Jacks town was about as far inland as possible in the UK, and it took hours to ever reach the ocean.
It was late autumn, and the place was almost deserted, a cold wind coming in off the sea. A closed fair ground and shuttered fish and chip shops, but any trip with his family was a great thing for jack and his sisters, and to see the ocean was almost magical.
Almost as soon as jack got out of his dads car, he needed the bathroom, his dad went crazy if his kids ever asked to stop for a toilet break on the journey, and the excitement of a glimpse of the sea, kept all the kids in anxious excitement anyway. His mum fed them boiled sweets for the journey, which was a lovely treat.
On the edge of the closed fair ground was a public WC. So jack headed straight for it, leaving his sisters and parents to wander along the promenade admiring the view, his sisters dashing down onto the beach to look for sea shells. The seagulls screaming overhead searching for washed up fish.
Jack was so excited to explore the seashore, he thought nothing as he ran into the toilet. Straight into a cubicle he slammed the door behind him, slipped the bolt across and took a seat on the toilet.
As he sat there, a piece of toilet paper flew under the gap beneath the door, and some footsteps walked away. Glancing down, jack noticed there was something handwritten on the piece of paper.
IF YOU WANT A WANK OPEN THE DOOR. The paper read.
Jack was absolutely frozen with fear.
Öh my god, he thought, what can I do, I have to open the door to escape, but if I open the door, then he will get me. He had only just about heard of the word ´wank´ . It’s something Pitwell often talked about, but jack was a lot more interested in collecting football cards and climbing trees for conkers, than anything vaguely sexual. But he realized he was in serious danger.
He understood the danger from his father’s tempers, he got at home, the canings and beatings from school teachers, even the bullies in the street of the council estate. But this was a whole new danger. Something that even scared adults. There were often rumours around the streets about strange men in red Austin mini cars. His mother always told him, never to speak to strangers. Kids talked about this danger, but never in detail, no one really knew who they were, or what they did to kids, when they kidnapped them.
What was he to do, he sat frozen, unable to breath, as it might let out a noise, holding his heart trying to hide the sound of the beating, he let out a slight uncontrollable murmour of fear. Where was he to go, he would have to open the door at some point. Perhaps his dad would come looking for him. But maybe not. Maybe this man will kick in the door. Thinking about it, he realized that as he had came into the building, there was a whole group of men in the toilet. Why were they all there? Were they all bursting to use the bathroom, as he was, maybe they would help him. But then a thought hit him. Maybe they are all together, maybe they are all kidnappers and perverts.
He slowly stood, pulling his belt tight. Raising his courage. Very slowly, he pulled the bolt on the lock, trying desperately not to make a scraping sound of metal on metal, mustering every bit of courage he could in an attempt to allow his escape. The door slowly opened. With every ounce of strength, every piece of energy, he ran. Not looking at anyone, not giving anyone a chance to grab him, he darted for the door to exit. Within a few seconds he was outside. He ran straight into a car parked outside, and as he looked into the window he saw the face of the devil. A thin old man in bottle glasses, with greased hair, staring at him. The look chilled his bones, as he ran for safety towards his sisters and parents. He could feel the eyes of the demon on his back, but he wasn’t going to look behind him.
Making the promenade, he saw his family down on the beach, his sisters bending over and searching the sand for shells, by the edge of the tide, jumping waves and running to escape them. His parents walking along further inland.
His anxiety dropped as he reached safety. Running down the otherwise deserted beach, his sister called him,
¨jack, look I’ve already found a shell fish, as she held it to her ear, listen you can hear the sea inside¨
Instantly he decided not to mention the toilet experience to anyone. His dad would only get angry, his mum wouldn´t know what to say. And it would at the very least, ruin the day for the whole family.
Instead he picked a flat stone up and threw it as hard as he could into the sea, trying to make it skim the surface of the sea. It went up twice then disappeared into a large white rimmed wave of the ocean. Jacks dog ´George ´chased the stone straight into the ocean, which filled jacks heart with joy. The dog had never seen the sea before, and had been howling on the entire journey from home.
´George had endless energy for chasing sticks, balls and anything you threw for him. He was jacks closest friend. One of the few kind things his dad ever did, was to save George from being killed by the vet. He had been bought as a German shepherd, but had not grown. He was just a mongrel, so the neighbour had taken him in the pub and asked if anyone wanted to save the young dog from its death sentence. He soon became one of the biggest personalities on the estate, being Jack, the paperboys dog.
Walking along the beach, the kids were all having the best fun ever. As usual feeling starving hungry, but otherwise loving it. Along the side of the ocean road were lots of shops, all looking tatty, selling rock and postcards and one large one with red flashing lights and music blasting out. It was an arcade filled with amusement and gambling machines. Oh how jack wished he had a few coins to go inside.
¨right that’s it we´re going home!¨ jacks dad barked
What, why? His mother asked quite shocked
¨Bloody Wogs¨ his dad barked with hatred in his eyes, staring at a group of black teenagers who were in the amusement arcade. ¨
So that was the end of the family holiday.
Leicester square was buzzing with crowds of people as the young teenage skinheads entered the toilets. Jack eyeing up the situation, looking for an empty cubical. Most people would be oblivious to the parasitic nonce. They don’t look very different to any man you could see on a Sunday watering his garden lawn, they don’t wear anything different than anyone else. They could be a school teacher or a bus driver, married to a fat wife with blow dried hair. But hidden behind that mask is the sexual deviant, who prey on young boys in public lavatories.
As Stuart entered the toilet, he went immediately to the standing urinal, undoing his jeans zip. Richard a bit further along. Jack was on watch, and sure enough, a man came running up beside Stuart from one of the wash basins. As Stuart was going about his personal business the man stood and looked down at Stuarts hands .
¨Stuart, there’s a fucking nonce next to you¨ jack screamed as loud as he could.
Stuart, bewildered, looked to his side, to see the man of about 45, wearing a sports jacket and backpack, looking at him, trying to get his kicks.
The pervert realizing very quickly he had been noticed ran for the door. This was jacks chance.
¨ let´s do the fucking scum¨ he cried to his mates.
Racing forward. He wanted this piece of scum before he could make the street outside.
Stuart and Richard joined in the chase, but were slightly to late, as the nonce made the crowds of Leicester Square. He went immediately into hiding behind the tourists. But Richard chased straight into the crowd, throwing a can of coke which had been discarded on the litter bin.
´clang´. It bounced off the side of the nonce’s head, sending its contents splashing over the pervert, and some other people in the crowd.
¨fucking nonce¨ Richard called after him.
¨Bloody Yobs ¨ a voice came from the crowd
Yes did you see what that thug did to that poor man?¨ came the sound of his wife
Bloody skinheads, where´s the police¨?, another startled onlooker called out¨.
Quickly coming to his senses jack realized they were in a volatile situation. The west end is crawling with police, and the skinheads would be the first arrested.
¨leave it he cried out to his mates, there´s old bill about ¨
Yes I hope they lock you away¨, came the voices
¨Aww bollocks to you fucking lot, what do you know¨. jack shouted into the crowd.
As the lads got together and mutually decided to leave the scene sharpish, running up the side of the theatre into Leicester place.
Bring back national service¨ came a comment as jack stuck up the V´s to the onlookers as the young skins made their escape into china town.
Another statistic for the newspaper reports
SKINHEAD THUGS ATTACK INNOCENT MAN IN LEICESTER SQUARE, WITNESSES REPORT.
Jack thought to himself as they trotted north into Soho. Sexual perversion and child molesting was a lesser crime than parking on a yellow line in the British court system. For the parking offence the driver immediately gains a fine. For the nonce the most he could expect was a few hours counseling if he ever made it to court.
The courts were full of nonce’s anyway, judges and barristers all had attended private schools and been buggered by rugby playing elder kids as part of the normal initiation. So they didn’t understand what crime had been committed. They would often go to whores in the back streets of kings cross to have their arses spanked by some sexually abused runaway and pay them money for the service.
Whilst Mrs. Judge was at home in Twickenham worrying about the colour of the curtains, as little Harriot and Bartholomew were away at school studying law and sociology in the hope of following their father into chambers, or failing that, getting a high paid job at the BBC, or in the media to write about the menace of the lower class thugs in British society.
Soho peep shows were always good for a laugh. The darkened hallways and the row of booths, a little like confession boxes in a catholic church. Only instead of getting father O´Reilly, when the flap opened after inserting 50p you got a naked girl sitting on a bar stall touching herself for the gratification of anyone with a few spare coins. Sometimes she would be so excited she would be sitting there reading a book, with her lily white skin, cellulite and stretch marks visible to anyone with a few spare coins.
Amongst the sex shops and porn cinemas, Soho was also a place for the drugs trade, it was not uncommon to see a few smack heads lying in the gutter, or spaced out in shop doorways, pallid white skin with blackened eyes. Pupils like pin dots. The living dead, covered in cysts and boils, from too many poisoned needles. Resorting to thieving or begging for any spare change, once the good looks had gone and there was no room left for them on the peep show stool, when the curb crawler kept driving, the nonce onto his next victim. The wheels of the sex industry, ploughing on through the harvest of human destruction.
Jack wondered why in this day and age with all the information out there, people would still take that first puff of opium. That first chase of the dragon. Was Sid Vicious or the rock stars of the 1960´s so cool as to want to follow them to a lonely end. Did they really believe that they were immune to addiction. Or was it just a death wish that would soon be granted, their bodies being found in cardboard city under waterloo bridge. another victim to the paupers grave.
Late night cafe, for a hot mug of tea, or a Spanish omelet. A place to escape the cold night air, or to wait for the morning trains to start. A few drunk clubbers, some musicians sitting for an after work coffee. Late night whores on a break. Old school gangsters wearing the immaculate fitted suites of a bye gone era, after spending too many years behind bars, cooped up in wormwood scrubs. Undercover vice squad with yellow fingers, from too long sitting on stake outs smoking players number 10. The proprietor watching over his flock of misfits.
On the wall are pictures of beautiful Spanish hillside villages, the sunsets over the Mediterranean, white painted buildings and tango dancers, all slightly faded and worn, a tea urn sitting on the edge of the surface, with a steady flow of steam escaping from the top rim.
Family photos of children in Sunday best clothing, posing with their mother and father, proudly hanging on the wall behind the service area. Jack wondered what brought this guy to London, the city of thieves. Maybe he had got on a boat to seek excitement of the most magical city on earth, His own business feeding the English people Spanish food. Sending regular letters home about the great business in London, hoping one day for his Spanish sweetheart to join him, or to one day return a rich man to the village he had come from.
Furniture from 1960´s square melamine tables with wooden chairs. A yellow glow from too much cigarette smoke and cooking fat, creating a warm homely atmosphere, the transistor radio playing wonderful world by Louis Armstrong.
A politeness and courtesy to the night owls of Soho. Two young skinheads feel welcomed as they take a seat, resting the tired feet from the constant walk around the streets of the west end.
Two overdressed and over made up girls stand, the smell of perfume hanging over them mixed with cigarette smoke. One wearing tight leather dress and leopard skin coat. The other in a bright red micro mini skirt short enough, it almost reveals her panties. Her boob tube squeezing the breath out of her chest, pushing her ample breasts to bursting point. Bright red lipstick and almost red blusher on her face.
¨see you later Luca, back to work¨ one says as she blows the proprietor a kiss walking out of the late night omelet café.
¨stay safe darling¨ replies the Spanish guy behind the counter
Jack and Gavin sit by the window sipping mugs of tea. Jack watching the Mercedes outside with the Arabic looking guy behind the wheel.
¨mind if we sit here?¨ a strong female northern Irish accent asks.
Yes sure you can¨ jack says, looking up to see two pretty punk girls standing smiling at him and Gavin. Jack offering a big smile to the girls as they take their seats.
¨god I could murder a cup of tea¨, one of the girls remarks as she looks at the menu written on the wall.
¨I think you have to go ask at the counter, Jack says, I’ll come with you, I need a refill, thinking it a good excuse to talk to the girl.
The proprietor , a thick set man in his mid 50´s with jet black hair and dark brown eyes, a few too many hairs sprouting from his nose and ears, wearing a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, an apron not hiding his petruding stomach very well, a tea towel laying over his shoulder.
¨how can I help you kids¨, he asks the couple as he places some clean plates on the shelf.
¨two cups of tea, please Mr.¨, the young punk girl asks
Holding the silver aluminium teapot under the water boiler, he pulls the handle and a high pitch hiss comes as the boiling water squirts into the open pot. Swirling it around in circles, he pours the thick brown tea,
¨And what about you son?¨ he says to jack without looking at him, preferring to concentrate on the boiling water.
¨I´ll have two teas as well please¨, he says placing his two cups on the surface.
Rejoining Gavin and the other girl, who had already struck up a conversation, the two friends placed the tea cups on the table and sat down opposite each other.
Where you two from¨? Gavin asks, my mum is from Ireland.
¨really, where from, asks the girl, we are from Belfast¨
Port Louth, by the prison¨ Gavin replies.
¨Wild place that, all the families from both sides go and live there, to be near the old man in jail, the girl says with a laugh, having their own private war¨.
Gavin continues ¨my mum hates it in Ireland, she has been here since she was about 18, got out as fast as she could, my uncles also moved to England, so we don’t really have any family there at all nowadays, I have never been there, but my uncle was a champion hurling player.´ Billy Dargan .
¨Oh that’s grand, I hope to move away from Ireland too, maybe we will stay in London, we just got here today, so we don’t know yet. London scares me.¨
Ha-ha jack laughed, you are scared of London, and you got the IRA blowing the fuck out of your town?
¨Oh it’s not as bad as that, don’t believe all the news reports, if you don’t get involved with it, they leave you alone¨.´ The IRA blew up the police station down my street once, but that’s about it¨. London is full of muggers.
¨Yes I guess so, Jack said, my brother was in the army over there, but he was stationed down in south Armagh, a place called Crossmaglen¨
¨Oh yes that’s called bandit country, they have shite going on across the border down there.¨
¨I´m Mary by the way, and this is Bridget, nice to meet you´.
¨My brother is a Belfast skinhead, but he´s over here now, living in Kilburn, do you know him, he´s called Mickey Doyle¨.
¨No can’t say I do know him, there’s a lot of skinheads in London´, but might have met him at some time or other,¨ Jack replied.
So what brought you to London, you just visiting your brother and shopping¨?
Well , something like that. Bridget here thinks she is in the family way, so we had to come over here, you know how it is being catholic in Ireland, she is going to the family planning clinic tomorrow, her ex boyfriend doesn’t want to know, he´s a waste of space, the feckin ejit¨.
¨Oh well I am sure you will be ok in London, there´s more Irish here than in Ireland.
Is that a fact, I was a bit worried we might get a hard time here, because of all the political shite.
¨No, like you say, don’t believe the media, our estate has loads of Irish, I don’t think the average Englishman blames all Irish for a few fucking scumbags, Gavin said, when my mum came over in the 50´s there was a bit of ignorance to the Irish, they used to have signs up in lodging houses, saying no dogs or Irish, but that’s ancient history.
So what brought your brother here, work¨? Asked jack.
Ha-ha, our brother, she said with a big smile. Biggest fool of them all, wherever there is trouble , our brother won’t be far away, he decided one night to steal a car, to get home from the pub, him and a few ejit mates of his.
The next day we get a visit from the ´Boys´, they tell our brother he has one hour to leave Ireland, turns out the car belonged to them. Luckily for him our Dar knows a few people, so managed to sweet talk them into agreeing not to take my brothers knees, if he left, and my father paid for the repairs to the car.
Silly fool, he parks the car a few streets away, thinking no one would notice, the local skinheads, in their big boots and no brains. You can´t blow your nose in my street without all the neighbours knowing how many tissues you use¨. ´
´so of course the Provo’s were round the house before breakfast, knocking me Ole Fella out of bed in his Y fronts
Hahahaha, so he moved to safe London, full of muggers, hahahaha, Jack said with sarcasm.
Yes, something like that, she said, he has to send me father money every week. He got a solid leathering from me Dars belt, to send him on his way. ¨she said, as all the four new friends laughed together.
A man came into the café, immaculately dressed in a sharp 3 button Italian suite, with a full length Crombie style overcoat draped over his shoulders, a pair of smooth’s, so shiny you could see your face in them.
¨hey Peter! The man behind the counter called out, in a very pronounced Spanish English accent, a huge smile across his face and an outstretched hand. The two guys hug, and the proprietor kisses the man on the cheek.
¨how’s the lovely clean air of free London my friend,
¨just great Luca, but the air is not so clean these days, with all these cars about¨.
¨what you want my friend? anything you like on the house, my home is your home¨ he continues
With that, the two old friends went into conversation about old times, dropping the volume levels gradually to a quiet talk.
Jack watched them as they spoke, imaging the stories those two guys could tell. Men from a different era, The jazz clubs of Soho, the swinging 60´s of the Mods . And The London underworld. Judging by Peters clothing, the way he held himself, with confidence, and the fact he wore a deep scar down the side of his face. Not a Chelsea smile, but a sign of an old street fight and a cut throat razor.
¨jack stop staring, Gavin’s voice broke through jacks thoughts¨.
¨Ur ur yes, shit, jack stuttered realizing he had been eyeballing someone who could take it seriously the wrong way, and returned his attention back to the girls.
¨so how’s the punk scene in Ireland¨ jack asked Bridget.
¨Yes pretty good, I like the English bands more. I love Sousxie and the Banshees, X-ray Specs¨ she said.
Yes they are good bands answered jack, but I love Stiff Little fingers and the Undertones¨.
¨Yes they are good an all, but all the best music, comes from London, you have so much here, most of the Belfast punks have turned skinhead now, they all love madness and the specials¨.
The conversation carried on about the punk and skinhead scenes in London and Ireland. As peter the sharp dressed guy crossed the room towards three other older guys of similar age who were sitting in the corner. As he passed the young skinheads table he smiled.
¨Tut tut, what’s this town coming too, he said, bloody skinheads
Hey Luca you don’t want these trouble makers in here, he called over to the proprietor, who was in the process of washing some blue and white striped mugs.
¨Get them all a hot drink on me, he said with a wink and a smile, as he took his seat with the other three guys.
Jack gave a shy thank you smile, in recognition of the generosity shown by the charismatic stranger, the 4 fresh cups of tea arriving soon afterwards to the table.
¨see London’s, not so bad¨ jack said to the Irish girls, who seemed enthralled by this new city.
Gavin pulled out his camera and took a few shots of the girls, which sparked conversation.
¨ I wanted to go to college to study photography , remarked Mary¨. But I couldn´t afford it, I had to get a job, so I ended up working in Woolworths, but at least it was in the photographic processing department ha-ha¨ she laughed.
¨ I never studied a thing, Gavin said, just got hold of a camera off my old man and started taking pictures.
Gavin often used his camera for opening doors, got him free into gigs as well as a good tool for chatting up women.
¨Great fun printing the pictures in the bathroom, as well, interjected jack, then turned his attention back to Bridget and the conversation of music. Jack loved punk music, and also liked punk girls, as they tended to be feminine and wore more revealing clothes than the skinhead girls.
Bridget was a small framed girl, her hair dyed black, with bright green Irish eyes. She was wearing tight fitting black jeans, destroy shirt which was torn across the chest to reveal a slight cleavage and black bra. Her leather biker jacket with love hearts and anarchy sign painted on the lapel in Tipex, with a few band pin badges, one saying Belfast punks, Sousxie and the banshees badges., alternative Ulster, oh bondage up yours, Her skin was crystal clear with a natural beauty. A soft gentleness about her. Small petite hands with manicured nails painted black, with a few silver rings, silver bracelets and pieces of material tied around her wrists.
¨Fancy going for a walk¨? Jack offered the girls
¨Yes sure, why not, can we go see Trafalgar square¨? Asked Bridget.
¨ I thought you said you´d been sightseeing today¨?
¨well we have, but London´s massive, we seen all the shops in Oxford street and Covent Garden¨ laughed Mary.
Yes bet you did¨, jack said with a raised eyebrow and frown, thanking god he wasn’t mugged into that sightseeing trip.
Taking the last mouthful of tea, jack stood and slipped on his prized Crombie, doing up the three buttons, adjusting the red handkerchief in the top pocket and brushing it off with his hand, he walked towards peter, the sharp dressed guy, but as he did he noticed the guys all stopped talking, on his approach. Jack sensing not to step to close, stopped and just nodded at peter.
¨thanks for the tea mate¨!
Peter rose his eyebrows. Don’t mention it , enjoy your girls. A short pause as jack turned away,
¨Keep your nose clean son,¨ Peter chipped in,
As jack walked away, ¨ if you can’t keep it clean, don’t get caught! ¨
Walking through Soho at night was a different experience than during the daytime. Gone were the shoppers and city workers, the black cabs and motorcycles couriers. Replaced by drunken clubbers wearing this week’s trendy clothes, staggering about looking for a kebab to wash down the alcohol, homeless sleeping in shop doorways, sheltering from the wind and rain, the scruffy dog sleeping at his feet, dirty clothing and one bag to hold the worldly possessions, making a bed on piss a stained pavement.
Piles of rubbish waiting collection from the council workers dustcart leaning against lamp posts.
Red lights flickering in upstairs windows above closed video shops.
¨If the Nuns could see me now, Bridget laughed, as she read the posters pinned to the porn cinema windows. Debbie does Dallas ¨she said as she tucked her hand around Jacks arm
Gavin and Mary were walking in front, probably discussing the meaning of life, knowing Gavin, he was always deep in thought about astrology, karma, from the latest hippy book he had read about metaphysics.
Through the streets of Soho the gay rent boys at old Compton street, the Chinese restaurants of china town surrounding Gerard street, on the edge of Soho, bordering Leicester Square and theatre land. Who knows where they all come from, rumours of human trafficking, stuffing people in container s on ships and backs of trucks, all the way from small villages in China, to work the restaurants and sweat shops of London and Europe. Controlled by the Chinese Triad gangs of Hong Kong. But no one really knows, they don’t mix with English people, live a parallel life within the city. But they don’t cause any public concerns. There are never stories of Chinese muggers or street riots, so they go un noticed, so long as the Peking duck stays cheap and tasty.
Maybe due to Bruce Lee movies nobody fucks around with the Chinese, as British kids are well aware that every Chinese person is a trained killer, who can take the biggest man down with one flying kick or karate chop.
Old Compton Street looks like any other West End Street, but Jack felt glad to have Bridget on his arm as they walked along. This strange group of bikers standing around, dressed in too much leather, with no obvious signs of motorbikes about, and even less females for comfort.
Jack felt eyes on him, as he walked, but kept his eyes on the path in front, his conversation with Bridget, perhaps subconsciously pulling her a bit closer to him, as he passed along the road. Bridget seemed unaware of anything odd about these people.
Reaching Charring Cross road unscathed, jack felt a sigh of relief. Relaxing slightly.
¨they give me the creeps¨, he said to Bridget, who was busy chatting about something , which had become a blur to jack, his mind was otherwise engaged.
¨who do, the Buzzcocks? ¨ Bridget answered, a bit confused.
¨No, said Jack, Fucking Queers¨
¨Are the Buzzcocks Gay?¨ She said
¨No, I don’t think so, said jack, but all those Poofs in Compton Street are¨
¨Who…. Those bikers¨? She remarked, looking back over her shoulder, I thought it was a hells angels club or something¨
¨Yes but with a few too many moustaches for my liking¨, laughed Jack
¨Aww leave them, they do no harm¨, She said tugging on Jacks arm
¨Idon’t want to know the harm they do to each others arses¨, Jack joked back
¨Urrr you´re disgusting, she said, screwing up her face.
She giggled a little and rested her head on jacks shoulder, as they walked, jack was worried slightly that her makeup would smudge onto his prized coat, but thought he wouldn´t mention it, he was quite enjoying the feminine touches coming from Bridget. He wasn’t sure if he was on a result here with the girl. Was she putting out inviting body language, or was it was just her friendly Irish nature.
Walking down Charring Cross Road, jack was giving Bridget a bit of a history lesson.
¨Denmark Street, they call Tin pan alley, because of all the musical instrument shops. The sex pistols used to rehearse in an upstairs room above a shop there, McLaren paid them 25 quid a week, before they made it big.
And that’s the National portrait gallery, where they have all the old biscuit tin classics, Constable, or whatever his name is, you´d know his paintings, countryside stuff, with horses and carts etc. the Heywayne or something like that.
That church is St Martin’s in the fields, weird to think this was all fields, once upon a time. The actual city of London, is only one square mile, and was once walled, its where the tower of London is and all the banks. It used to have gates likes Bishops gate etc.
They got a doss house now at St Martin’s for all the homeless, and a lot of those big buildings are embassies, like Canada and south Africa. And there is Trafalgar square, jack announced as Nelsons Column came into view.
¨You know a lot about this stuff Jack, I am very impressed, the perfect English gentleman tourist guide, did they teach you this at school?¨ Bridget asked.
HAHA jack laughed, they teach us fuck all, apart from how to bend over for a whack on the arse from a wooden cane. And especially nothing about British history, its politically incorrect. We have the industrial revolution, all about the toll puddle martyrs and who gives a toss who invented the fucking safety lamp. They teach us nothing about our culture or political history. I just like it, my ancestors were undertakers in Drury Lane, which is just up the road there, at the time the first white settlers were discovering America ¨.
♪have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man♪ Bridget began to sing.
¨Maybe you are the muffin man Jack hehehe¨ she giggled.
♪yes I know the muffin man the muffin man♪ she teased and kissed jack on the side of his cheek.
¨My family have always been Boggies, Bridget laughed, don’t think we ever had anyone as grand as the muffin man. I think a lot left during the famine, to England and America, and ever since then we have tended to leave Ireland, I don’t want to go back, there´s nothing there, in the North with all the guns, bombs, army and police everywhere, it’s no place to bring up children¨ she said with a sad sort of sigh, her mind drifting back to home for a short moment.
¨What about the south¨? Jack asked
¨Never live there, it’s all farmers and cows¨ she said, you don’t get much Rock n Roll in Cork¨. She laughed out loud to herself, putting on some sort of accent, as if laughing at people from Cork.
¨So you gonna be a born again cockney girl now then¨. Jack asked
¨yes something like that, I will start my own band and become the next Souxsie Sue¨
¨Irish Irene and the screaming Fenians¨ Jack suggested
¨sounds great, where the Albert Hall¨ she laughed.
♪ I came a long way from Tipperary, to the streets of London Town♪ jack began singing to make up a song
♪ Where I met a crazy English clown ♪ she sang
Up ahead Gavin and Mary had stopped and were talking to a guy in the street, who looked like another skinhead.
¨seen any skinheads knocking about?¨he asked
¨No not since earlier on¨ Gav replied.
¨You got any fags?, I’m gasping. He asked.
¨no mate sorry, jack answered, we don’t smoke¨
¨I got some rollies, Bridget piped in, as she opened her satchel which was covered in writing from a marker pen, and decorated with pin badges of mainly British punk bands, anarchy symbols and a CND patch.
Searching through her makeup and other things, girls carry around in bags, she pulled out a packet of Golden Virginia.
The guy looked a bit worse for wear, as Bridget handed him the tobacco, jack noticed his hands were black and bruised, visible sores across his knuckles, covered in dry blood, covering the Indian ink tattoos, blood was also all over his green flight jacket. Jack didn’t really want to ask him, what had happened to him.
¨That’s great.¨ He said raising a smile across his face, taking the tobacco and searching for some papers inside.
He stuck a paper to his lip and hissed a little, as he touched a cut , putting his fingers in the pouch to get a few strands of tobacco.
¨that’s looks a bit painful¨ Bridget said, as she curled her eyebrows.
¨ Oh its nothing, I just got out the cells, the old bill gave me a right good hiding. Look, he said as he poked out his tongue, to reveal that is was torn almost in two, from left to right.
Shissssshh, Bridget let out a sound, as she peered at him, touching the side of his face gently. Jack and the rest of the guys also stared in horror.
¨fucking old bill punched me in the face and I bit into my tongue¨.
It looked horrifically painful, jack thought almost cringing, as he felt his own tongue in his mouth, imaging the pain this guy must be feeling.
¨Oh you poor love¨, Bridget continued, as she looked at his mouth, in a caring almost motherly way, as if speaking to a young child who had just fallen off of his bicycle.
¨Why did they do that¨? she asked,
¨I got in a row with some Gooners up at Finsbury Park, and the fuckers nicked me, gave me a right pasting in the cells, but at least they didn’t charge me¨: he said with half a smile.
Jack noticed the skinhead was wearing a London Yids badge and a Tottenham Cockerel. Arch rivals to North London team Arsenal FC.
The guy handed back the tobacco to Bridget, but she held her palm up, and pushed his hand away.
¨No you keep it dear, it looks like you need it more than me, you have had a bad day, she said with a caring soft voice and smile.
¨oh if you insist, the guy returned, quickly pushing the Golden Virginia into his jacket pocket before Bridget changed her mind.
He then tapped his jeans and jacket, whilst holding the unlit cigarette in his mouth.
¨Got a light?¨ he asked from the corner of his mouth, with a raised eyebrow and a little boys cheeky grin, feeling really happy, with the generosity shown to him by Bridget.
¨Here you are, now go on with ya¨. Bridget passed a disposable lighter, closing his hand around it, with her hand.
¨You´re a sweetheart ¨. He said giving Bridget a hug, and a kiss on her cheek.
¨Hope you don’t mind mate. He said to Jack, you got a cracking bird there, make sure you look after her¨.
Bridget giggled slightly and looked at Jack for a split second, which in turn he felt a blush sweep across his cheeks
¨Have a great night¨! He said as the flame lit the end of his cigarette, allowing him to inhale a large lung full of relaxing tobacco smoke.
He took Jacks hand and shook it, and with that, walked into the London night, with a slight stride in his walk.
¨what’s a Gooner¨? Bridget asked Jack as they began to walk.
¨ An Arsenal football hooligan, Gooner is the name for Gunners firm. That guy was a Yid, which is Tottenham Hotspur, they are the big north London rivals, a bit like West Ham and Millwall in East and South London.
¨ha ha, you boys all want to be hero´s, always have to have something to fight about, thought you had a bit more education here, you are as bad as the lads back home¨.
¨Don´t look at me, I’m a nice boy¨. Jack said, giving his most angelic smile possible.
Bridget smiled, like a teacher does, not believing a word.
¨Besides, I come from High Wycombe, we got a shit team, made up of butchers and bakers.¨
¨and candlestick makers¨. Bridget added, giggling to herself.
¨ha ha you know the team then Bridge¨?
Jack paused to let the joke have some time.
¨No I never really been a big football fan, I think my dad put me off it, coming in pissed on a Sunday afternoon and turning the movie off we had all been watching, for the start of match of the day. I am much more into music and having fun. All that running about and millions of hours talking about 90 minutes of pretty boys kicking a bag of wind around, then getting in the bath together afterwards, doesn’t do it for me¨.
¨hahahaha you are funny Jack, she said. My sort of boy¨.
Trafalgar square was empty, just a few people standing on the road above the Square waiting for a night bus, and one guy in the far corner sweeping up discarded litter..
The four teenagers just messing about. Gavin leaned against the big grey stone held his hands together and gave the girls a bunk up onto the surface surrounding Nelson.
Jack jumped up himself, and immediately climbed onto one of the four brass lions, which sat at Nelsons column´s base.
¨pull me up jack¨. Asked Bridget, as she desperately tried to be the tom boy and join jack on the climb.
Jack leaned over and took her hands, pulling her up to join him. The both sat astride the lion, as if riding him, jack felt the closeness of Bridget against his body and smelled her perfume and the beautiful fragrance of female, as she looked out over London.
¨That’s Whitehall down there, where Maggie and the Government do their stuff. At the End is Big Ben, I think you can see that from here. And the next street over there is The Mall. We can go visit Lizzie if you like¨.
¨Who´s Lizzie¨? Asked Bridget.
¨You know, Lizzie, The Queen, Elizabeth¨! Jack Explained
¨Oww got ya, Bridget said, as she got the joke, Yes lets go see the Queen at Buckingham Palace, do you think she will make us some tea?¨
¨I am sure she will, we can tell her some loyal subjects are over from Ireland, maybe we will get some Digestives, or scones¨. Jack added.
¨I want to meet the Corgi’s, I love dogs¨, Bridget said as she slid down off the Lion.
Walking down through Admiralty Arch into the Mall, the sight of thousands of parades over the last few hundred years.
Jack was giving Bridget the tourist guide, all about how the Royal Navy was controlled from here, and the Horse guards which did all the ceremonial stuff for the tourists. Reading a few plaques, under military statues. From days gone by, when the British establishment, honoured its fallen heroes, killed on a far way field. During the time Britain was building her Empire.
Jack felt a sense of pride, as he walked down the Mall, admiring the palace buildings. The architecture. The flag poles lining all the way down the road, one of the few places in Britain they still flew the union jack on occasions. The guardsmen outside the palaces, in their immaculate red tunics and bearskin hats, were just there to collect the tourist dollar. But as an Englishman Jack still felt a pride in his heart, and yearned to be part of a Britain which travelled the Earth, spreading education, designing and building railway systems and hospitals. Trading with tribes, in distant nations. Discovering amazing new breeds of animals and forests. Being feared and respected by all the other World powers, bashing the French and Spanish for Gold in the process.
But this was 1981, what future was there for today’s youth, what did this country hold for him. Unemployment and maybe a council flat if there are any left. Some shit job in a factory or supermarket.
¨ It’s a bit dark and quiet down here Jack, are you sure we will be ok¨?
¨ Yes, this is tourist central, you won’t get any problems here¨ Jack answered,
The two walking arm in arm down the road. Jack felt good. It was really lucky to meet Bridget in the café, she seemed a really nice girl. Jack was wondering how he could see her again, and was hoping she decided to stay in London. Maybe she would come visit Wycombe some time. Was he going to get a kiss at some point tonight, he was wishing.
The City was quiet, just the odd car passing along the Mall, it’s not a bus or truck route, and there were no other pedestrians.
The pair were just wandering along casually, enjoying the evening, when behind him jack felt the thump of running feet. Looking over his shoulder, he saw somebody in the distance coming towards him. Not sure who it was or quite what to do, Jack immediately thought it best to keep Bridget calm. His natural male protectiveness coming to the fore.
He carried on chatting, but was concentrating on the feet, bracing himself for some sort of confrontation. Gavin was up ahead. Jack wondered if he had noticed yet, but didn’t want to raise the alarm, because he didn’t want to frighten Bridget, but she had noticed, jack felt her pull a bit tighter on his arm. Maybe she was also thinking about not to panic.
Speeding up his step slightly to close the gap between himself and Gavin, bracing himself as the footsteps got nearer
Jack was on high alert, his muscles tightening, but he didn’t want to look at the person running, hoping he would keep on going. He pulled his hands out of his pockets, clenched fists.
The guy passed him, overtook Gavin, then in front he stopped the run, and went into a slow pace.
He was a young black guy.
Gavin had noticed and looked back to Jack, to see where his backup was. Jack was thinking the same thing.
Something made jack look over his own shoulder, maybe for an escape route, but to his major alarm he saw a big mob running towards him.
Shit! He thought, this is going to be a proper row.
This was definitely getting more serious by the minute. The guy in front was holding them pinned in, as the rest of the mob caught up. Jack stood his ground and turned. He was used to street fighting, and knew Gavin would be thinking the same thing. He weighed his options up in his mind.
Fight or flight. Well he wasn’t going to run for several reasons, mainly that Bridget would slow him down, and if he did run he would almost certainly take a beating, or his friends would. He had learned that its always best to front out a situation, however much it goes against nature.
Bridget had stopped talking, she must have noticed the impending situation. Jacks stress levels were rising, the adrenalin and rushing of blood to the head. His sensing becoming hyper aware, as all the sounds disappeared. Jack focused
In a situation like this jack always applied the same rule, just go for the biggest one, take out the leader, in a firm, you will have the fighters and the followers. If you are going to take a beating then at least inflict as much damage into one of them as you can. Get hold of him. Bite him, punch and gauge his eyes out, but whatever you do, but don’t let go. If they are going to kick the shit out of you, then use their guy as your shield keep your face and body as close to him as you can and cause him maximum damage, the more vicious you are, the less you should get hurt. Most attacks will be over in a few minutes, so just hold on. Unless they have a blade, you should only end up with a few cuts and bruises. But long gone were the days when Jack would let anyone rob him, without a fucking good fight.
The mob approached, but as they neared it became apparent that they weren’t looking at jack. They divided and ran either side, as if Jack were a lamppost. He didn’t feel any punches, and kicks, were they going to attack Gavin first?
A thought struck him. These were white guys, and not the black mob Jack was expecting. Who were they?
They all ran past Gavin, then like a pack of wild dogs tore into the lone black guy.
The game had changed, but both jack and Gavin were pumped and ready to fight. But instead of defensive, it turned to offensive. Without a word Jack and Gavin charged towards the mob to defend the lone victim. Gavin grabbed one by the shoulder, spinning him around as Jack sprinted in, his fist raised, lining it up for the first jaw to smash.
The guy raised his hand up from his jacket pocket, he was holding something.
Pointing it directly at Jack came the words
¨Old Bill, Fuck Off¨!!
Like a sportsman’s getting the whistle, Jack just sort of froze mid flight, as reality hit him. Maybe with a little help from Bridget who grabbed his coat tail.
¨NOOOOOO, JAAAAAACKKK¨
Perhaps it was the girls company or location, but for whatever reason. The police didn’t react to the Skinheads, but put their attention back to the black guy, who by now was spread eagled on the pavement, Two undercover policemen holding him down, knees pushed into his back, as they pulled his hands behind him, clipping the handcuffs on him. Cursing and swearing at him, as another stood over him, speaking into a radio.
The four teenagers were all silent as they walked for a few minutes, past the dramatic scene.
¨We should be getting back. Was the first words Bridget spoke, as she hung onto Mary. I don’t feel safe, let’s get back to the room Mary¨:
Another night ruined by the fucking Police. Jack thought, scratching an imaginary ACAB tattoo into his knuckles, as the two girls said their farewells, never to be seen again.
My name is Sara Silva and I am Portuguese. I am 29 years old and currently live in the south of Portugal in Faro. After finishing my degree in Graphic Design from the University of Algarve in 2007, started working as a freelancer in design and as a collaborator in the studio of tattoos and piercings Freak Shop, where i currently work as a full time as body piercer. I started drawing as a child, I studied art in high school and went into graphic design. In my illustrations use my main theme is skinhead culture composition, dynamic fruit of my artistic evolution and personal . My inspiration comes from the music I hear, the lifestyle I have, to my personal experience and artitist and my everyday struggle in life. I try to combine traditional design with more digital techniques to create a more personal and current mixture.
Plan B Photographed In Skrewdriver T Shirt The Quietus , July 22nd, 2012 05:18
Has Ill Manors rapper had an attack of the Morrisseys?
As reported on Brian Whelan’s excellent blog recently, UK rapper/neo-soul star Plan B was photographed last week wearing a T shirt bearing the band name Skrewdriver.
The picture was taken from the front cover of popular free title, Shortlist which has a circulation of over half a million copies a week. The The Defamation Of Strickland Banks star was giving an interview to promote his new album and film (both called Ill Manors). The photoshoot took place immediately on his arrival at the studio, but it isn’t made clear if the clothes belong to the rapper or were given to him by a stylist.
The T shirt appears to bear a picture of Nicky Crane, a violent Nazi skin who provided security for Skrewdriver and served several jail terms for racist assaults. Donaldson and Crane both fell out when the latter came out as gay towards the end of his life. For many, the white power, bonehead band Skrewdriver represented the absolute nadir of popular music’s interaction with the Fascist movement, given that their message was evangelical, unironic, violent, radical and, to a certain degree, popular. That singer Ian Stuart Donaldson died in a car crash in 1992, did nothing to hurt their standing worldwide among neo-Nazis. The band however started as a non-politically aligned punk group in 1976 signed to Chiswick, and this incarnation of the group still has many fans internationally including J Mascis and Pink Eyes from Fucked Up. (Pink Eyes, aka Damian from Fucked Up, delivered a righteous screed on the subject of being a fan of the band’s early recordings on the Guardian which is worth checking out.) The interview with Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew aka Plan B is still viewable on the Shortlist website where you can clearly see he is wearing the neo-Nazi band top. It seems highly unlikely that Plan B has accidentally revealed himself to be – or indeed is – a Nazi especially given his recent, left leaning and nuanced ‘Ill Manors’ single but it is ironic and doesn’t help him any that during the interview he praises Tim Roth’s acting in Made In Britain, Alan Clarke’s 1982 film about racist skinheads. He was asked: “Do you look at actors such as Winstone, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth and think, ‘I’d like to be at that level in 20 years’?” And replied: “Oh mate, Tim Roth in Made In Britain – f*cking amazing. In 20 years, I’d love to be at the level they’re at, but it depends how I look. Some people don’t age well for films. They lose that spark. Oldman’s still got it, Ray’s still got it. It all depends on what fate’s got in store for me.”Yet another example of a complete lack of knowledge or investigation by the media, but printed as fact.Well here’s the real story of the ‘T shirt’ the facts are Gavin Watson has done a bit of work with Plan B, and he loved Gavins skinhead photographs, he asked Gav could he use some, and Gavin gave him a whole box of images to choose from, which he then printed a few to t shirts, as a way of using genuine British street images, and also supporting Gavins photography.
But the picture in question, printed on the T shirt is one that Gavin Watson took of his younger brother Neville, who at the time was about 14 years old. Taken in the mid 1980’s on a council estate in High Wycombe at the height of the Skinhead Subculture. Posing against a garage, which has the word Skrewdriver graffitied on it. At that time it was very common for punk bands names to be graffitied all over the country.Gavins photographs have been printed worldwide and have come to represent Margaret Thatchers Britain. Gavin was given a camera as a kid and went about photographing his environment, family and friends, in a complete innocent love of photography. It just so happens that the time was when the British youth culture of Skinheads was at its height, of which Gavin was an active part. Films like ‘ This is England’ and many fashion designers and marketting people have used Gavins images as inspiration, but due to 21st Century political correctness, the actual era that the photos represent is something the British establishment would rather bury under a carpet. and even today, 30 years later the media are still spewing out their lies about the time and the young people involved.This obsession withbelittling council estate kids, and anyone that tries to inspire them. i think its extremely brave and sincere of Plan B to take genuine images of real kids from the council estates that he now represents with his music. In the USA people like Biggy Smalls did that, with his own environment, to huge worldwide success. Yesterdays Skinheads who listened to Oi music, are no different than todays youth, listening to Grime . The more young people feel attacked and written off, outcast, the more chance they will take to the streets, as was seen last year in British cities and in 1981, with the previous generation. July 22, 2012 13:34
Plan B responds to NME ‘neo-Nazi’ t-shirt criticism
Rapper apologises, says he was unaware of the existence of Skrewdriver
Plan B has responded to criticism for a photograph which shows him wearing what appears to be a Skrewdriver t-shirt. The most recent issue of Shortlist shows the rapper sporting a top with the band’s name written on it. This prompted some commentators to question his motive. The New Statesman asked why the rapper had worn the T-shirt and quoted journalist Brian Whelan, who wrote on his blog: ” It is very unusual that Plan B would knowingly wear this t-shirt and that Shortlist would stick it on the front of their publication. Make no mistake about it Skrewdriver were a nasty bunch, [founding member] Ian Stuart became a martyr for the far-right when he died in a car crash almost 20 years ago.” The rapper has now released a statement, which has been posted on The Quietus, explaining that the garment was not an official Skrewdriver t-shirt. He also apologised for not knowing who the band were, or what they represented. He said: “I was ignorant to the existence of the band Skrewdriver. I don’t listen to music like that so I wouldn’t know the names of bands that make that music. I was wearing a T-shirt I created using a photograph from the photographer Gavin Watson’s book Skins. “I asked him if I could print shots from his book on to T-shirts. I made a number of these T-shirts. Gavin’s photos are relevant to me because they represent the demonised youth of the past. Just like my generation of young people are demonised in the media to all be hoodie wearing thugs and chavs so were the skinheads in the 80’s.” Speaking about the person on the T-shirt, who some thought to be former Skrewdriver associate Nicky Crane, Plan B explained: “Most of the T-shirts I had made were of his brother. The boy on the image is Neville Watson. Neville is Gavin Watson’s brother. The graffiti behind him is graffiti. Neither Gavin or Neville put it there; it was already there when Gavin took the photo. Gavin did not know I had printed that image on a T-shirt and I was not aware of the significance of it.” He concluded: “The minute I found out what the words on the T-shirt meant I was angry with myself for not questioning them. The T-shirt is not official nor is it on sale anywhere. It was of my own doing and therefore it is my mistake, but that is all it is.” Skrewdriver were a notorious neo-Nazi “white power” group with links to the National Front. Founding member Ian Stuart Donaldson died in a car crash in 1993 and his death is celebrated every year by the far-right movement. Shortlist’s interview with Plan B can still be viewed on their website, where he talks about his favourite actors and movies as well as his own film, and accompanying album, Ill Manors.
(Reuters) – Security guards scuffled on Wednesday with masked protesters demonstrating outside Moscow’s main cathedral in support of members of the Pussy Riot punk band who are on trial for an irreverent protest at the same church.
Witnesses said 18 demonstrators in colourful balaclavas like those worn by the band mounted the steps of Christ the Saviour Cathedral and held up placards reading: “Blessed are the merciful”.
Guards moved swiftly to disperse the demonstrators and treated some of them roughly, Internet TV channel Dozhd reported. Ekho Moskvy radio said five people were detained.
A Moscow court is to issue its verdict on Friday in the trial of three women who sang a “punk prayer” on the altar of Christ the Saviour in February, calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin, then prime minister.
Prosecutors want the judge to convict Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentence each to three years in prison.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups called for protests around the world to support the jailed musicians on the day of the verdict.
Amnesty International in Washington said a senior counsellor at the Russian embassy refused to discuss “more than 70,000 petitions urging Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the women.”
“This representative of President Putin and his government not only rejected Amnesty International’s pleas to take our concerns to Moscow, he unceremoniously dumped the petitions on the sidewalk. If this and other actions taken by Russian authorities are any indication, Putin’s vision for the country is a complete breakdown of a free and just society,” it said.
The accused say they were protesting against close ties between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader supported Putin during his successful campaign in a presidential election in March.
They have been held in jail since shortly after their performance, which offended many people in mostly Orthodox Christian Russia. Kremlin critics see their trial as part of a crackdown on dissent as Putin starts a new six-year term.
(Editing by Timothy Heritage and Robin Pomeroy)
An international frenzy is building over the trial verdict that some are saying could decide the future of Russia. Artists in London and Berlin are organising protests. The European Union has accused Russia of intimidating judges and witnesses. Even stars like Yoko Ono and Madonna are getting involved.
Here’s what happened: Nadia, Masha, and Katya were arrested, denied bail, and imprisoned for months because they sang a protest song criticising Russian president Vladimir Putin. In just days, a judge will decide whether to sentence them to three years in prison on charges of “hooliganism.”
Nadia, Masha, and Katya joined the political punk band, known as “Pussy Riot,” to help raise awareness over government corruption. Together with a handful of other committed young women, they dress up in colourful clothing and sing about what they think is wrong with their country — like earlier this year when they performed outside a prison for political dissidents.
Their arrest and trial have drawn international attention. Musicians across the globe are rallying to the cause, with Madonna interrupting her concert in Moscow this week to voice her support, and Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky sewing his mouth shut in protest.
President Putin is starting to show sensitivity to the pressure, and the women’s defense lawyer has told the press that he thinks the judge may be moved by outside influence. To ramp up the pressure, supporters of the Pussy Riot defendants are collecting petition signatures from thousands of people around the world calling on Russian authorities to release the women.
Pussy Riot’s brief act of defiance last year helped lift the lid on some deep divisions within Russian society. August 16, 2013
Ayear ago, much of the world’s eyes were on a Moscow courtroom where three young women were on trial for a two-minute act of defiance in the Russian capital’s main Orthodox cathedral.The Pussy Riot case exposed deep divisions in Russian society — divisions the Kremlin was eager to exploit for its own purposes.In the latest “Power Vertical Podcast,” we discuss the implications of the cultural war and countercultural insurgency that has raged since the verdict.
Joining me is co-host Kirill Kobrin of RFE/RL’s Russian Service, a contributor to the online magazine Polit.ru, and Sean Guillory of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, author of Sean’s Russia Blog.
Enjoy…
Podcast: One Year After Pussy Riot, Culture War Vs. Countercultural Insurgency
My name is Cheryl Cole and I’m originally from Oakland, California, U.S.A. My interest in skinheads goes back to the early 80’s when I was very much into the second wave of ska and mod sounds. I was not a skinhead then, more of a rude girl/mod/new wavey type. I also listened to R&B and oldies, I loved Prince, I loved rap, Run DMC and all that, I don’t know how you would classify me! By the late 80’s I was obsessed with music, mainly punk, metal, glam, some Oi! ska, industrial, rap, soul, anything that was good I got into it. Most of the skinheads I would see back then were hardcore skins, which I love of course but my skinhead love affair was really with the ska end of it. During the 90’s I was very disapointed with the third wave and the new punk that was coming out so I basically spent that decade listening to the music I loved from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Just a few years back I got very involved in the traditional skinhead life and now I am happy to be a part of this amazing vibrant subculture.
I did not study art at school, I had high school art class, and I tried to take a figure drawing course at community college but I hated it so I walked out. My friends and I used to draw and paint all the time, I had friends in the 80’s who were incredible graffiti artists, painters, people who drew things with a Sharpie pen that were mind bendingly good with meticulous shading done with old pens which were half way dried out. I learned techniques from those friends, and from my love of comic books. I used to sit and draw from comic books and try to paint similar to the watercolor comic art like Havok and Wolverine and Black Orchid. my friends and I used to stay up for days on end, (if you know what I mean) and just draw until we could barely see any more! Now days I am straightedge, but I do think that those crazy days of my youth and the obsessive way I drew and drew truly shaped my style and abilities. I also learned SO much from the staff at an art store I worked at for 4 years. They were all amazing artists who had gone to school and knew so many techniques and they shared that knowledge with me and encouraged me to try oils, which I love now of course!
I would like to show the world through my art what a beautiful and diverse scene we have, I would love it if the name skinhead made people think immediately of Jamaican Ska, dancing and good times. Unfortunately, at least here in the USA, “normal” people tend to cringe when you say the word skinhead. Right now I live in San Diego, California. The skinhead world here is small, but very welcoming. I am fairly new to them and for the past few years, they have all been so great, I just love each and every one of them. There are a few excellent and knowledgeable DJ’s who have skinhead reggae nights around town, and we are very close to Tijuana, which has a big group of skinheads along with good shows and dos. Also we are just a few hours from Los Angeles, they have some GREAT shows up there, and lots of people doing events with amazing DJ’s and really good people.
I can’t think of one particular highlight to my artistic life, but I do really enjoy giving my art to my dear friends. They get so happy and there is really no feeling like it! I have had low points, where I just don’t want to paint or draw, and sometimes these low points will last for a few years. I will try to force myself to do stuff but if you are not feeling it, it will turn out bad. I’ve noticed that good positive friends who truly encourage me help immensley. Right now I am surrounded by people who truly care for me, and want to encourage me and all I want to do is paint and draw! My dry spells usually went along with stress and depression. I am currently in the process of some big changes in my life, I plan on taking big steps to forge a positive life for myself and my family, I am making an effort every day to be a good person, be a hard worker, be an honest and loyal friend. It takes effort to be positive and truly honest as much as you can, but it is worth it as you find good things around you and good people come in to your life.
I’ve given up trying to change other people, I just change myself and be what I wish other people would be.
I was born at a very young age like everyone else. By the time I was four-years old I could read, and I did. I read constantly. I talked to adults that came over to visit my drug dealing, crooked, thieving, mobbed-up parents, and I freaked them out. Once, a lady said, “Shit! This kid is not normal; she is like a midget that knows about everything.” The point is is that I grew up fast. And, for whatever reason, I want to share the shit life that I have had with you. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I am trying to purge the past, and get on with the future. And there may be a little vanity in there somewhere, too.
I was a street kid since I could remember anything. I have stories about being a woman who always had to fight all the sordid creeps that have crossed my path on this planet with pride and violence. I got into punk rock in 1989 from a neighbor that moved across the street from me in Los Angeles. The first punk song I ever heard was “John Wayne was a Nazi” by MDC. I fell in love. I was eleven years old and completely blown the fuck away. I got into underground music, and started seeking the underground in Hollywood, California. Slowly, but surely I ended up running with a punk gang. Real chaos punks, but we were down with the merkzy traveling crusties too. Subcultural people from all over the world would end up in our town. It was never boring. It was great to wake up every morning for everyday was an adventure. Of course, there were hard times. Of course, there was violence. But I was really innit for the madness.
Eventually I got burnt-out, tired of seeing everyone sleep with everyone behind each other’s back, hated being a sexual target all the time. It all made me sick. I started to grow up, and became tired of the endless drug overdoses, the growing pile of dead friends. And of L.A.’s biggest gang: the LAPD. Good times had gone sour. It was too painful. At times, I was able to distance myself from the self-destruction for long periods as the “family” business kept me on the road a lot. And, even though I got to travel, I hated that, too. But I make the best of any situation. I am big on fun. When I’d roll back into town after being on the road for up to a year (I was fifteen when the road trips started.) I’d get bored and go kick it for days or weeks in Hollywood, or whatever city I happened to be in. But I always knew when to fuck off. I was too afraid I would be sucked into gutter punk vortex yet again. I couldn’t handle it because I had a little sister I had to protect. I had others to think about now. I had to keep myself somewhat together.
I started getting chummier and drawing closer to like-minded friends who were sick of it all too. We all became skins. And strangely enough, things actually got crazier without the drugs or indiscretions. With the skins, if you were gonna fuck around, you could end up six feet underground. I came from a mob-y family anyway. This was just right for me. Music-wise, the genre that made me fucking maniacal was Oi! I was a fucking Oi! girl!!! I was not mousey, but quite the opposite- menacing, loud, obnoxious, wild-eyed, but always a sweetheart (for the most part).
My personal battles have included crime, alcoholism, domestic violence, and just plain old violence. But I’ve never stopped fighting. Even if it’s just for the remote control. I din’t always win. Sometimes I had so much on my mind that I just did not fucking care. I will tell you the truth. I will tell you when I was weak and when I was strong. I got nothing to hide. And nothing to prove.
I married a skin, and two years in I hung up my boots. Why? Fuck. I had developed so many anxiety disorders that I did not feel tough enough to represent. I had a life changing experience aka the worst day of my fucking life, a day that continues to torment me.
My life has been many things, but it’s never been normal or boring. I mean, where I was at last night? Drinking with a motley crew of nutters at a party worthy of the silver screen. Like always, it was fucking crazy. Who I am nowadays? A humanitarian that looks like she gets dressed in the dark. Had enough yet?
The Bother Girl and the Pimp
I have recently acquired a Cosmetology license. It really is a brilliant way to start all over. Because all hair dressers are crazy and nobody gives a fuck! Here in America the students who get a Cosmetology license get a fresh start which includes disregard for criminal histories and bad work histories. A lot of women in America acquire their Cosmetology education in prison and statistically they have the best grades. As an enigmatic fuck in this society and love for all things regarding beauty, this was perfect for me.
I knew this lady for a year, she was one of my favorite school mates and drinking buddies. We never had a problem and a pretty solid friendship at that. I took my State Board of Texass Practicum test with her. We both passed. She works at a spa. She had been working there long before we met as the receptionist. Once licensed, she got to do more than run the desk. She came to my birthday party and told me she would put in a good work for me at work.
I was thrilled with thoughts of the possibility of a better near future. Things went fast. The next day she told me her boss was interested in me. I came in that very day for an interview. I was supposed to be hired as a nail tech. I arrive and the place is so nice, I am excited, oozing with energy, and ready to charm my way in!
We must have nattered for an hour and a half that old geezer and I. I sold myself offering all of my other skills. I was confident, I knew I was in! I thought “Oh wow look at the fucking bar in here!” Then he started putting me through a series of hands on tests…
He had me give him a manicure. I made sure to give the enormous weirdo a great hand massage. Shit! I am horrible at cutting cuticles out and I pulled through that miraculously because I wanted in! I wanted to be able to make the bills this month. My despair was kicked in sky high because I have a baby nephew living with me and thus I have got to make it!
Next up he has me shampoo his unstylish mop. So I rub that head into submission, I gave it my all, every second I felt more confident that this job was mine and that life would be right. He then wants to have another talk. This time he asked me about how I felt about performing Brazilian waxing. I told him I had absolutely no problem performing this task at all. He proceeds to ask me if I am comfortable with nudity enough to perform this task on the male clientele. I say to him that I haven’t got a problem with it at all. (In my brain I am thinking, ah, surely these guys are poofs… coming in to get their cracks, yarvels, and tallywackers waxed!)
Ha! He asks me how he can trust me with his clientele, and their genitalia… hahahaha! This is when everything started getting weird. He asked me to wax him to see how good a job I could do!!! Ok, so I was so weirded out and wanting to laugh, I told him I would be right back. I run outside and tell my people that were waiting for me outside about this wacky shit I am about to do. And we had jokes, a real hard bunch of laughs but I went back in and I went for it. We are half way through the service and the man is still flaccid, I was no longer shallow breathing but actually deep breathing from the release of the paranoia this fucking idea had given me.
Now, this is where it starts to go to shit… this asinine fuckhead starts to tell me that in order for me to wax the males’ shafts I must make sure to get them erect!!! He commenced to give me tips on how to arouse him personally, playing with his cock in the way that most guys do. He is exposed lying back and in a very vulnerable position. My head starts to go into a tizzy. I could feel it. I had the crazy look in my eyes but much to my demise psychos find it sexy. I tell him sternly that I am not jacking anyone off! My face is in a craze. I keep my composure. I just keep waxing. As I wax I am enjoying burning him and making this as painful as possible! I am clever. I am angry. And this weak faced fuck has no idea who “I” am!
He asks me how it is that I will make the experience pleasurable for his clientele??? I then tell him that I am not a whore and will never be. I am being stern. So it was clear as day that I was in an undercover whorehouse! And that I hate this piece of shit scum pimp! I realize I’ve got the upper hand and that my purse is behind me which always has a weapon innit according to my mood. It was a hammer day, as it often is… I had a driver right outside the front door behind the wheel. I fucked off with a bottle of cake rum from the bar, I had been looking at those bottles earlier…
My Knight in Shining Boots
I was destitute. My grandmother had left the country. My uncle would not even let me in his apartment to pee. I was in Los Angeles. I had left town for too long and as always had lost my phone book. I went to an older half-brother of mine. Who might actually be my biological father? Yeah! I love to hear about that fucking shit. I did not grow up around the white side of my family. I needed help. He said I could move in. I got a job at a Chinese restaurant. Funny thing is they never seem to hire outsiders. He said that if I was to live at his house I had to disconnect from everyone I knew. Tall order, Mr. Asshole! Finally, about after a month of my good behavior, he said I was allowed to go hang out. So my old neighbor from Hollywood rolled up to the Valley and picked me up. He came with an old punk rocker. They got too drunk to drive me home. I was terrified to call up and awaken Mr. Asshole from his beauty sleep. I thought fuck it, “I’ll wait until the buses run in the morning and get back a.s.a.p.!” So I did. I am so tired, it was a long night. He comes in mid-morning and I am asleep on the floor and starts kicking me. This is the first time I literally get kicked-out of someone’s house.
I call my friend who had picked me up to see if I could come over. He said his roommate would not let him have anyone over. He told me to call the old punker we had been hanging with all night. I call and tell him what’s going on. He told me to grab my stuff and call a cab and get to his address. I was hesitating but it made sense. I had to go!
I hang out with him for like two weeks and he called me “kid”; he seemed to really want to help me out. But it all went to shit the night he smoked mad crack, pot, and got awfully drunk. I refrained from the crack but indulged from the ganja tree and the beverage. Still being a paranoid ex-squatter I slept with my steelies on! I allowed myself the comfort of wearing a band t-shirt and flannel pajama pants, but the boots were not coming off!!! So we have my ex neighbor over and he runs him off for some reason. I thought he might just want to sleep. What he wanted to do was ravish me. Yuck! This fucker was nasty looking. I had nicked him “Frog Legs.” He went for my pajama pants pulling them down! I was like “Fuck no! Get off me!” Well he got nasty persistent. So he got a kick, a kick right between the eyes and that was all it took. He was knocked the fuck out. So I fuck off and thank God I was in Hollywood because I had homeless droogs o’ plenty in town. I come out and find em and shelter. Next mourning I am really pensive.
I was drinking with the punks on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea planning further action. That hot fucking skinhead guy I avoided hanging out with for years shows up and asks me what in the hell I am doing on the street again. So I tell him. He says “Where does this faggot live?” It was on! He said you are one of us now and I’ll be damned if you’re gonna live in the street, you’re rolling with me now! I felt like a million bucks right after I was feeling like a copper penny.
We set out to get hammered and planned for an evening attack. He was so fucking good looking, funny, and I saw him in a different light. And in this light I fell in love. We were drinking a carton of orange juice wif a lot of potato juice innit. We were sitting in front of some gypsy establishment; the ambience was mystical and silly. The bliss of being hammered, the incredible man candy next to me on that bench, and the exchange of madness, was glorious. We went for it, we kissed and it was fucking hot! I think there were imaginary fireworks in the skies, what a kiss! He stole my fucking soul with that kiss. It was perfect. As the evening fell we started up with our sanguinary appetite, it was time to fry us up some frog legs!
We show up and the moment is mighty opportune! Frog Legs is scared shitless! He was just stepping out of his place, so he was ours, all ours!
My hero tells frog legs real firmly in his gangster tone that he needs to let me in and get my shit right now…or else! Well nervy lil ole creepy cretin lets us in as he knows he is at a loss but he comes in as well. And the criminal mischief/retaliation starts! We went all Dennis Hopper on this motherfucker! Once inside my boy took his keys and we locked ourselves in with him. We tied him to a chair, real horrorshow. My boy cut the phone lines. We had fun slapping him in the face with his big heavy rotary desk phone. “Wouldn’t you love to be able to call someone for help right now?” We had fun verbally, mentally and physically torturing this rapo scum. He had this big old stuffed swordfish that I was whacking him in the face with, it was so ridiculous, and I just HAD to do it. I was laughing. Maybe I am twisted but even while I felt that I was getting my justice I still had to have fun with it.
We were pretty blitzed on the giant screwdriver as it was and we had all this sexual tension between us the bovver was only getting us turned on, hahaha! So here is where we take it to the next level we have sex there while the douchebag is tied up. Now what fucking girl comes back after her failure of a rapist to scare the shit out of him and fuck somebody hot in front of them? Me, that’s who! This is how our incendiary, insane love affair started. Man I know most of you skins are not that bad and would never do such heinous thing. But this was the unholy union of two tearaways in love. We were two very troubled adolescents. And together we were bad, baddywad indeed! I had never been so turned on by a man in my life, one look was all it took. Girls! He was so gorgeous and he could kick people’s asses by the dozen simultaneously. I’d never seen such a king of the boot party, and thus I became his queen!
The iconic British clothing brand is officially dead to many loyal fans.
Founded in 1963 by Arthur Benjamin Sugarman, Ben Sherman was an originator of the mod look and a legendary lifestyle brand that became an international sensation for impeccably tailored shirts and suits.
Ben Sherman was murdered by a new corporate structure that didn’t stay true to its roots and completely disregarded his loyal following. While trying to boost sales and increase market share by appealing to a broader audience, Ben Sherman’s new marketing tactics led to his ultimate demise.
His health started to fail when the women’s line was discontinued and subsequently restyled shirts, clothing and accessories were introduced without any trace of Ben’s original clean-cut, mod identity. The final nail in the coffin was the “Plectrum Sessions” – featuring un-kept, unfashionable hippie and hipster bands- exactly the opposite of his original style.
He is survived by betrayed loyal fans worldwide, especially mods and skinheads who will miss the classic, clean-cut styles that have been replaced by fickle hippie and hipster fads. Restoration of the lifestyle brand seems hopeless. Based in London, UK; Ben Sherman was 49 years old.
Chelsea Hawkins
IT’S A MOD, MOD WORLD
London Mods 1960’s
Pan Philippou, CEO of Ben Sherman, reflects on the company’s heritage and plans for a brilliant future.
How does an iconic brand get its groove back? That was one of the key conundrums facing mover and shaker Pan Philippou when he took the reins as CEO of Ben Sherman in January 2010. A British company with staying power Ben Sherman was founded in 1963 by Arthur Benjamin Sugarman, a shirtmaker who seized the mod moment and ran with it, creating London-look button-downs that struck a chord with bands like The Who , The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, becoming a vibrant emblem of youth culture. “It was post-war — you think of the revolution, The Beatles, all that. And this brand comes around,” says Philippou during a recent interview at the company’s midtown Manhattan showroom. “He took the shirt to another level. The button-down collar, the button at the back, all the colors, the fabrications, and people were just used to wearing white shirts. Now they were wearing colored shirts. It was a bit of the anti of the shirt in many respects,” he says. (It might be said that Philippou, too, takes the radical approach, dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans rather a Ben Sherman button-down.)
“I was born in the ’60s,” he continues. “I remember, if you had a Ben Sherman, in the ’70s, you were like the crème de la crème — if you had a Ben Sherman, certainly you’d get a bird.”
Over the decades, Ben Sherman continued to outfit musicians like The Clash, The Jam, Blur, Oasis and Moby and it also captured the hip peacock’s fancy with its kaleidoscope of eye-catching hues and patterns. “There are stories around Ben Sherman, there’s sincerity, there’s heritage,” he explains. But as this pioneering label, which turns 50 years old in 2013, expanded its reach into women’s clothing and beyond, it also morphed into a business with an unwieldy number of categories and licensees and its vision got, well, a tad murky. The name, Philippou notes, seemed to carry more weight than the goods bearing its label.
Plectrum Collection Approachable, funny and candid, with impressive business chops to boot, this Londoner knows a thing or two about redefining a brand and maximizing its potential. Prior to joining Ben Sherman, Philippou headed up the privately held World Design & Trade Co. for four years, where he restructured the prominent UK streetwear brands Firetrap, Full Circle and Sonnetti. His gig before that: leading the charge at Diesel, from 1995 to 2007, where he started as finance director and was swiftly promoted to CEO. “I was like a duck to water,” he says, recalling his transition from numbers man to the style side of the fence. “I just really enjoyed the whole fashion thing. I was probably living that life, at the weekend, parties, dressing up a bit, and it was just an extension of that, so it became a blur of happiness. I didn’t know anything about markets but it was really just the intuition, the feel of the market, the distribution, understanding the customer. I loved being a connoisseur, understanding what was cool and what wasn’t cool and that made it all sort of relevant to the brand.”
Diesel, of course, went on to become “best in the class in the UK” and at the end of 2003, its owner, Renzo Rosso, dispatched Philippou, a born fashion-maven, to the States to reposition the brand.
This look could be based on 1930’s Bolshevik, or perhaps just the local jumble sale
Philippou’s laser-beam focus has come to the fore once again in his current post. Once onboard, he and his team took stock of every detail, from the branding strategy and the very definition of the Ben Sherman customer to its own store concepts, which have been repositioned and will soon be launched in the UK.
As the reshaping got underway, it became apparent that a return to the company’s core business was imperative if Ben Sherman was to move ahead. “We had to say first and foremost we’re a shirt company. And that got lost along the way; we developed into a lifestyle brand. So we spent a lot of time rekindling. We had some people who had come on board, help design the shirts further, looking at supply chain to see where we could start to innovate a little bit more,” says Philippou. “Now we’re trying to get back with the Ben Sherman button-down shirt. We need to make sure that the staple is always there so we can build on that and build around that.”
In an effort to streamline the myriad licenses, accessories, for instance, have been brought back in house, and placed in the hands of a Fred Perry alum. This September, Ben Sherman will launch a fragrance through Nordstrom’s — not exactly a new foray, but a better-positioned, more professional undertaking. And as many a bird can tell you, women’s clothing has flown the coop. “It’s a market based on trends, as opposed to brands. Women are very fickle. They’ll wear leggings one season, denim another and we just couldn’t compete in that marketplace where there’s a massive turnaround for looks,” he says.
Admittedly, the fashionable guy is also capricious, but Philippou has found that as a customer, he’s “more dedicated to a brand. It’s more of a case of I’m part of that tribe, I’ve gone for Ben Sherman, therefore this is my DNA, this is what I subscribe to, this is the music I like, this is where I hang out.”
Back in Sugarman’s day, that mod guy wearing a Ben Sherman shirt would have hopped on his scooter, dressed in his parka, and zipped down to Brighton. Not so, today’s modernist customer, a fashion lover who’s 25 to 45, professional, educated and makes an above-average income. “He’d maybe take a flight to Miami, maybe take a flight to Ibizia, with his iPad; he’d be really techno savvy. He wouldn’t be bringing some girl on a scooter to Brighton. He’s listening to things like Plan B and Mos Def,” muses Philippou.
And he might also opt for one of the brand’s more premium segments — the on-trend Plectrum collection, or the higher-end Modern Classics, which incorporates slim-fit shirts and jackets with a hint of British attitude.
“We’re really trying to make a brand these last 12 months all relevant to 2011, while at the same time, keeping the heritage there,” Philippou says. “We call ourselves the heritage of modernism. We want to be applicable to the modern guy — the mod guy of 2011.”
The Great Skinhead Reunion 2Brighton Seafront 8th – 10th June 2012Live Performance from the Legend of Skinhead Reggae, Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip, plus a full line up of events from Friday afternoon until Sunday. The Ticket is for the Allnighter. Due to high numbers expected, this year we have incurred costs for extra security, and the all nighter is in a second venue, The View, Hove Beachfront, which starts at 10pm . The Wristband will also give you preferential entry to all free daytime venues, and to take part in the Quadrophenia tour
on Sunday 10thThe Great Skinhead Reunion is booked for the 8-10th june on Brighton seafront. the event kicks off on friday with a gathering at the volks club. Spirit of 79 will be focussing on the era of punk rock, oi and 2tone as well as the origins. CASE coming down from London on the Saturday, it will be all day at the volks, Madeira Drive,from 12 noon, which is the venue used in quadrophenia , where sting first shows up . Scooterists are parking for the day, Live performance from Ska’d 4 Life.Then after that is the allnighter, which will be two rooms, bands, dj’s and right on the beach. The Jamaican Reggae Legend Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip live. Then weather permitting a Quadrophenia tour and beach BBQ on Sunday. this event is for anyone who is, was and just likes the skinhead scene, all styles and eras of skinhead music will be played, from original ska and soul, to punk, oi, 2 tone and beyond, its strictly non political and non snob. everyone is welcome. we have people coming from ireland, scotland, the north and south of the uk, plus several contacting us from abroad as far away as USA and Singapore who are making the trip.You dont have to be a skinhead, nobody is excluded. its for fun. children and famillies are welcome. (very strictly non political)A full line up of The Uk’s top dj’sBands Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip meets the Moonstompers, Ska’d 4 Life, Case,. Dj’s ConfirmedSka ShackGrooverDarren (official Madness DJ) Hit the MoonOlas BossLee Evans, Direction ReactionBarrySabrina LatinaGegga, Skinhead Heaven Check out last years video if you missed ithttps://subcultz.com/2011/12/the-great-skinhead-reunion-review/SCOOTER PARKING AVAILABLEhttp://www.facebook.com/groups/SkinsUWW/
Waging turf wars with knives and belts, teenage gangs with a ‘ferocious love of fighting’ horrified civilised society. The date? 1870. A new study of ‘The Scuttlers’ of Victorian Manchester reveals that gang culture dates back almost 140 years.
First of the gangs? Convicted Scuttlers
Out of the grime and squalor of industrial Manchester, emerged Britain’s first youth cult. The Scuttlers were the ‘hoodies’ of their day: teenagers who dressed alike and shared a thirst for recreational violence.
Their turf wars waged by gangs such as the Bengal Tigers and the She Battery Mob are described in detail in the book: ‘The Gangs of Manchester: The Story of The Scuttlers.’
We spoke to its author Andrew Davies, senior lecturer in History at the University of Liverpool:
So who or what was a Scuttler?
“A Scuttler was a gang member. The term ‘Scuttler’ was devised by young people who were taking part in gang conflicts but it was passed on to the magistrates at some of the early trials of gang members and at that point the local press became very interested in both the new term and what looked like a new and very dangerous pastime.”
Ancoats c. 1870 (c) Manchester Libraries
You say it was the earliest recorded instance of a youth culture…
“Yes, it was a way of life, with its own fashions, its own language, its own code of conduct and it was very, very visible on the streets of Manchester in the 1870s. But it really shocked local civic and religious leaders who hadn’t come across anything quite like this before and didn’t know how to make sense of it.”
And the Scuttlers had a kind of uniform…
“Yes, the fashions were very distinctive. The Scuttlers’ haircut was described as a ‘donkey fringe’: hair cropped very closely at the back and sides but with long fringes at the front that were longer on the left hand side than the right. They also wore neckerchiefs which might vary in pattern or colour and that would be used to denote membership of a particular gang: there are a few surviving photos in which the neckerchiefs look, ironically, very like modern day Burberry! The Scuttlers also wore bell-bottom trousers and, though many adults at the time wore clogs in Manchester, the Scuttlers’ clogs had a brass tip on the end. They would have made quite a clatter on the cobbles.”
Why did they fight?
“The Scuttling conflicts were all about local pride and were organised as neighbourhood-based fighting gangs. They weren’t criminal gangs in the conventional sense. I think that Scuttling was very much about carving out an identity in what were these very densely populated districts. So it was about a sense of locality with young people trying to prove that their neighbourhood was the toughest one in town. So a lot of status or kudos rested on that.”
“Toughness, the resort to fighting to prove your mettle, and also the fierce pride in territory… I think all those ingredients are still there today”
Andrew Davies, author
There are obvious parallels between the Scuttlers and the gangs of today…
“Yes, the pride in toughness, the resort to fighting to prove your mettle both as an individual and on behalf of the gang, and also the fierce pride in territory – I think all of those ingredients are there today and in studies of football gangs. And of course the importance of fashion is paramount today as it was then. I was very struck by the description of Scuttler fashion of the 1880s – they were staggeringly close to the fashions of the Madchester era. You could imagine a Scuttler finding himself at a Happy Mondays concert a hundred years later and blending right in.”
So what was it that gave rise to Scuttling and this passion for extreme violence?
“It seems that the practice was somehow ratcheted up as Manchester became more heavily industrialised. You’ve got huge problems of overcrowding in the poorer districts with tens of thousands of people crammed into very close proximity in areas like Ancoats, Angel Meadow, Collyhurst and Salford. What that seems to have done is to have injected a new vigour and ferocity into the fights between competing sets of young men which had always gone on but never with this intensity of violence.”
And there were the same debates about how to deal disaffected youths as there are today…
“Yes. At the time, very large numbers of youths were sent to jail. In the first 12 months of the so-called Rochdale Road War of 1870-71, around 500 Scuttlers were convicted and members of the local council were growing quite alarmed at the sheer number of 12 and 13-year-old boys who were languishing in prison. So, the resort to imprisonment was made very early with sentences being handed out of 15–20 years. And somewhat to the astonishment of the authorities, this wasn’t enough to stamp the practice out.”
So why did Scuttling come to an end?
“What changed in the 1890s was the development of the Lads’ Club movement in Manchester and Salford, set up by local philanthropists and targeting those areas most infamous for their Scuttling gangs. For instance, Ancoats had four Lads’ Clubs established in a period of five years. Where they were very successful was in working with 12, 13 & 14 year olds – those lads of school leaving age who might have been expected to form the next cohort of the Scuttling gangs and getting those younger lads involved in educational and craft training and, more importantly, in new forms of leisure and sport and, most of all, football. So I think the Lads’ Clubs must have played some part in disrupting the supply of recruits into the gangs and also by promoting sport as an alternative form of competition between lads from different streets and neighbourhoods.”
So what do you conclude from your research?
“What’s very striking is that, looking at the records of Scuttling over a 30-year period, you seldom find a clerk or an apprentice being arrested. It was always those lads in that huge swathe of society for whom there were very few opportunities, and had no political rights. So if you like, staking out a claim to territory was one of the very few opportunities to ‘be somebody’ and be respected – even if that was to be feared.
“I think it’s no coincidence that when we get reports of gang activity today and knife or gun crime, they still tend to be clustered in those areas where young people, I would say, still have far fewer educational opportunities and poorer prospects in the labour market than their counterparts might enjoy in more affluent areas of Greater Manchester. That was the case in the late 19th Century and I would say absolutely remains the case today.”
‘The Gangs of Manchester: The Story of The Scuttlers’ by Andrew Davies
In the distinctive language of British journalism, the English football fans who caused so much trouble in Marseilles variously “went on the rampage”, “ran amuck”, were guilty of “thuggish behaviour”, or “caused mayhem”. They were variously described in news stories as louts, yobs, thugs and ruffians, but the word that was universally employed was hooligan.
It’s an odd word, which the Oxford English Dictionary says started to appear in London police-court reports in the summer of 1898. It became instantly popular, with several compounds appearing in newspapers within weeks (a sure sign of acceptance), including Hooliganism, hooliganesque, Hooliganic, and the verb to hooligan, of which only the first has survived. The long-defunct London newspaper the Daily Graphicwrote in a report on 22 August that year, “The avalanche of brutality which, under the name of ‘Hooliganism’ … has cast such a dire slur on the social records of South London”. The word soon reached literary works; Conan Doyle employed it in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons in 1904: “It seemed to be one of those senseless acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time, and it was reported to the constable on the beat as such”, and H G Wells included it in his novel Tono-Bungay in 1909: “Three energetic young men of the hooligan type, in neck-wraps and caps, were packing wooden cases with papered-up bottles, amidst much straw and confusion”.
Several suggestions have been made about its origin that link it to the Irish family name variously spelt Hooligan or Houlihan. It seems there was a popular music-hall song of the period about a rowdy Irish family of that name; the OED comments that there was a series about a similarly-named comic Irish character that appeared in a periodical called Funny Folks. Some reports say it was a mishearing of the termHooley’s gang but nobody has come up with a source for this.
However, a book by Clarence Rook named Hooligan Nights, which was published in 1899, gives some helpful evidence. Mr Rook claimed that the word derives from a Patrick Hooligan, a small-time bouncer and thief, who lived in the Borough, on the south side of the river. With his family and a small gang of followers he frequented the Lamb and Flag public house in Southwark (not to be confused with the older and more famous hostelry of the same name across the river in Covent Garden). Mr Hooligan murdered a policeman, was put away for life and died in prison. Another writer, Earnest Weekley, said in his Romance of Words in 1912: “The original Hooligans were a spirited Irish family of that name whose proceedings enlivened the drab monotony of life in Southwark about fourteen years ago”. It would seem from the other evidence that spirited and enlivened are euphemisms.
Whatever its origins, it quickly became established. At first this was most probably because of its novelty and news value. Later, as its sense shifted slightly, none of the possible alternatives had precisely the undertones of a (usually young) person, a member of an informal group, who commits acts of vandalism or criminal damage, starts fights, and who causes disturbances but is not a thief. Last week’s newspaper reports show that it continues to serve a useful purpose.
From Concrete Jungle Festival to X-ray Spex live at the Roundhouse
Dress rehearsal one week before the gigwhat was I thinking, the day I decided to get involved with punk rock. my youth was way behind me, long gone were the days when I thought we were going to change the world. call it a mid life crisis, or just plain madness., but I would like to think it was more the desire to preserve and celebrate a time in British culture and music.
Poly and Saxby live on the roundhouse stageI had been away, become a father, worked for many years as a television actor, seen the world, discovered foreign cultures and philosophy. I didn’t need a pair of doc martins to define myself.Whether it was because I had often played skinhead roles on television shows, the bond I had with my friends, the memories of punks queuing up outside the town hall when I was a kid to see our local band the Xtraverts. The Clash at Brixton, Madness in Hammersmith Odeon, The fact Gavin Watson had made a living from photographs of my friends and me, or the TV documentaries I took part in on the subject. whatever it was, inside me was a belief which I discovered in my teenage years, which had kept me safe throughout my life. that said whoever you are, from where ever you come, you can get up there and do it. Punk Rock was a lot more than fashion and clothes, records and rock stars. It was a belief system, shared and loved by thousands.
Flash on saxAfter my time working with the Mean Fiddler came to an end, I was at a lose end. throughout my time doing large festivals, such as Leeds and Glastonbury, working behind the scenes, I had witnessed hundreds of bands come and go. The large American corporate labels selling the new generations, their version of Punk Rock, never booking the real thing. I often felt it such a shame that the kids of today or the Bands of real Punk had never had the chance of such exposure to each other, so when I bumped into an old friend, who was guitarist in the biggest band on the punk underground, Cock Sparrer, I agreed to work with him to produce a punk festival. I had experience with production, he was well in with the scene and all the bands, so the agreement was that I would sort the venue out, he would book the acts.
The crowd loving poly
All ages for an icon
Poly styrene
a job well done
Straight from signing the contract with the venue and paying the deposit of £10.000 I was in too deep, and alarm bells started ringing. Bands contacted me to ask who I was and why was I advertising that they were playing at my show. I was just going on what my booker was informing me, but apparently it had been discussions in bar rooms, and not official agreements made. “Oh well that’s how its done in Punk” He told me.Things were quickly ironed out with most bands, but a few had to drop out because of other commitments. The tickets went on sale through a punk website, at first all was OK, but after months of promotion it became apparent that tickets weren’t selling at anywhere near the amount we needed to break even. I then noticed even headline acts hadn’t put on websites etc. that they were even playing. I didn’t have the money or time to go to every small gig in Europe to give out flyers, I was hoping the punk scene would rally behind a great new event. but what I got was the polar opposite.
When I asked a headline band from Scotland called the Exploited, if we could renegotiate their fee, which was four times higher than their usual gig fee, they refused and threatened the website selling tickets, which then panicked and returned everyone’s money that had ordered tickets. The money I had taken directly had all gone to pay the monthly deposits ordered by the venue, which was non refundable. Rumours became loud about cancellation, other punk promoters sent texts out to tell people it was cancelled. Political extremists started to spread personal insults and commit purgery about me. Even one disgruntled ex Punk singer Jimmy Percey, who incidentally was the singer of a song which changed my life called the kids are united, put on his website that the event was some sort of Nazi rally, because his previous band had decided to play without him. Who was this stranger, who had come from nowhere and decided to put on a Punk festival. Is he a Nazi or communist. The truth didn’t seem to matter on the internet world, where the Troll and Internet warrior rules.Concrete Jungle Festival 2007, featured over 60 bandsThen the next head-liner started causing trouble because the logo used mentioned a band he was once a member of, again one of my all time favourite acts from Coventry, and ex members of the Coventry Ska band The Specials accused us of trying to cash in on the name, or give people false hope that it was in fact the original act playing, which was completely untrue, but he also had to pull off of the event.The stress levels were effecting my personal life beyond belief. I had invested my life savings. I naively thought that the scene would get behind a great new event. 60 bands were booked. but sales we lower than band members. with no sleep for three months my mental health was suffering, I had no energy left to fight an internet war, I had no idea about what bands had been involved with in the last 30 years politically, had no idea about how many loyal fans they had, I took the word of people I thought knew. a very bad business decision. as the stress became higher and higher, I cut away from people, found myself lost in the internet world of make believe, just looking for positives. it cost me the relationship with the girl I loved.Two weeks before the event the website/ production manager demanded full payment then ran away, refusing to work any moreMy girlfriend and helper abandoned ship and left the country. taking what she thought should be her wages, but was in fact ticket money to be paid to bands. but worst of all my emotions.An hour away from the show, I knew I was financially ruined, my crew had left, the money gone, I preyed for a walk up which never came. but I had found some friends who had come in to at least help on the day, my kids ran the merchandise stall with my sister, some real angels helped to make the show go on. In terms of entertainment it was highly successful. many people told me later that it was the best punk show they had ever attended, but emotionally. financially and mentally I was broken.One guest came that day, who was to turn the whole tide, and if there is a god on Earth it was her. Poly Styrene is her stage name. to me she is Marianne.She offered me the hand of friendship, showed me a way forward, gave me support and mental help, the courage to go on.She also offered to perform an X-Ray Spex show with me. With my last bit of energy, I agreed and booked the Roundhouse in London, for a show the next year. I was finished financially, so what did I have to lose, it was not like Concrete Jungle festival,this was a standard venue, with a band which were icons of my youth. one of my all time favourite acts, and true punk rock, in attitude and action.The Roundhouse holds 3000 people, and by new years day we had sold enough tickets to break even,but there was a lot of work to be done, find musicians, work on the set, organise all the promotions,the radio, press.Three thousand people came
Poly suffers with serious mental health issues, which had to be considered everyday. until she actually got on the stage we never knew if it would go ahead. we had the usual people trying to sabotage the event, but we also had an army of loyal fans that made X-Ray Spex live at the Roundhouse the best day of my life.
for the year running up to the event, we booked the venue, put our money where our mouth was, poly was constantly worrying about her mortgage payments, she had a little house in st leonards by her mother, any money she had made years before had been taken from her by bad management and sharks. we were in the same boat, it was us against the world. but the word spread, the love which was attracted to poly from across the world was unbelievable, with no big business, no big corporate promotion we did it. people said it wasnt punk rock, because we put the show in a big venue, but the roundhouse is a charity which helps deprived kids, poly and me decided its the only place we could possibly hold it, she didnt like the drinking festivals which most punk gigs were, neither of us liked the corporate events. we wanted to do the show for the real fans, from all walks of life, all ages groups and backgrounds.
the night before the gig my friend fiona was cutting the logo out to stick on a drum kit on her lounge carpet, for the kit we had got from ebay, the drummer didnt have his own kit. pete heywood had his circle of plyboard from his old band pink fraud, to be used for the stage projection.
on the day we didnt have any catering or food for the band, but no one complained, poly got on the stage and took the house down. halway through the gig my son asked me to go upstairs. we looked over the balcony, the place was full from wall to wall, back to front, people of all ages, from many different countries, the atmosphere was beyond words. my son said to me ‘ Dad did you do this’ the pride i felt at that moment will live with me forever.
later i stood on the side of the stage with my nephew alfie, watching the crowd going crazy, poly was alive and so young, her natural charisma shining like a star, my nephew asked me why was a crying. i said well. ‘its the happiest day of my life’Thank you Poly, Saxby, Flash, Paul, Pete Heywood, Oonagh. Luke
My son Jack, Sally, Alfie and Steve Reeve
daryl, ian, daz and guss, Oonagh and LukeAnd everyone that bought a ticket or helped out with promotion and spreading the word
Published: Thursday May 3, 2012 | 9:05 am15 Comments
Lloyd Brevett (2nd left) in the company of his friends and fellow musicians.
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
One of the founding members of The Skatalites Band, Lloyd Brevett is dead.
Brevett died at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in St. Andrew this morning at the age of 80.
In October 2001, he was conferred with Jamaica’s fifth highest honour, the Order of Distinction and in October 2010, he was awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to music.
The musician’s son Okine Brevett was killed in February after collecting an award on his father’s behalf at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association Awards at Emancipation Park.
At that time, the former upright bass player of The Skatalites was said to be too ill to collect the award.
barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com
Lloyd Brevett, the upright bass player for the legendary Skatalites, has passed away at the age of 80 in St. Andrew’s Parish, Jamaica. Brevett had been hospitalized a few weeks earlier due to a series of seizures and a stroke. While he was already in poor health, Lloyd’s health began to decline following the tragic murder of his son, Okine, in February of 2012. Okine had just accepted an award on behalf of his father earlier that night, but the celebration was cut short after he was accosted not far from the Brevett home.
Lloyd Brevett’s musical legacy cannot be understated, although his name sometimes does not get as much mention as other Skatalites members. Lloyd was introduced to the bass at a young age, as his father was one of Jamaica’s first jazz bass players. His father taught a young Lloyd not only how to play bass, but also how to make his own upright bass. As a young bass prodigy, Lloyd would be exposed to many local bands and players through his father’s work, meeting other up-and-comers like future Skatalites drummer Lloyd Knibb, who was learning how to play drums from Esmond Jarrett, who was playing with Eric Dean’s band at that time. Both Knibb and Brevett would eventually go on to play with Eric Dean’s band (as well as many other club and hotel bands), and from there, both became highly sought-after musicians in Jamaica.
As the recording industry began to take off in Jamaica in the late 1950’s, Brevett found plenty of session work, where the best of the local musicians would find themselves doing many sessions together for various producers. It was at Studio One, however, where the core group of musicians that would eventually become the Skatalites recorded some of the most popular tunes of the early 60s. Sir Coxsone would play his Studio One productions at his Downbeat sound system dances, and as the local demand for buying these records grew, Coxsone figured that the people would want to know the name of the band that everyone was dancing to. Coxsone then assembled his finest group of session players, and attracted the talents of other in-demand players like Tommy McCooke (who was working in Nassau), Lloyd Knibb (who was working in Montego Bay) and Lynn Taitt (who was working with Byron Lee and Count Lasher, as well as his own groups), and thus the Skatalites were born.
Lloyd Brevett’s bass work was quintessential to the Skatalites’ sound, even though his bass lines may not always be all that easy to define. That was really his genius coming through, though. Although he learned the instrument from his father, Lloyd had been developing his own style based on all of the styles he played in his earlier career, as well as his understanding of drumming styles like burru and mento, which were uniquely Jamaican. Listening to certain Skatalites tunes, it can be quite difficult to pick out just what Brevett is playing; at times he seems to be all over the place, but it becomes apparent that every note is exactly in its place.
Brevett was also crucial in the transition from ska to rocksteady, as he was the bass player for the Soul Vendors, the studio band that rose from the ashes of the Skatalites and the Soul Brothers.
This is Lloyd Brevett’s legacy; the sublime beauty of his musicianship, a crucial foundation of the ska beat, and a true Jamaican legend. His music will live on in his numerous recordings, from ska and rocksteady to roots and dub, and his memory will endure as one of Jamaica’s best known and most-beloved bass players.
If you would like to donate money to the fund for both Okine and Lloyd Brevett (for funeral arrangements and hospital bills), please see the information listed below. Even though Lloyd was a US citizen, he was unable to receive any health or social security benefits while being hospitalized in Jamaica. His wife (Ruth Brevett) and family would appreciate any assistance during this tragic time. Rest In Peace, Lloyd Brevett.
c/o Lloyd Brevett National Commercial Bank, Hagley Park Branch – Hagley Park Road
Acct # 174274584
Western Union – Ruth Brevett, Kingston Jamaica 876-850-4403 originaljamaicaskatalites@gmail.com
Protect Our Children has challenged the planned visit of a British sex offender scheduled to perform at a concert in May. Jimmy Pursey, a member of the Punk group “Sham 69″, is slated to appear May 25th, at a music festival called “Punk Rock Bowling 2012″, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 2002, Pursey received a “Caution” from police in Weybridge, U.K., for committing an Indecent Assault on a teenaged girl. The British “Caution”, which has no corollary in the U.S., allows offenders to avoid trial if they agree to admit guilt and register with the police. They are also listed on the United Kingdom’s “Registry of Sexual and Violent Offenders”.
Correspondence sent to John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), renewed the group’s objection to the practice of granting visas to foreign nationals who have been registered as Sex Offenders in their homelands. The March 14th letter calls the practice “a slap in the face” to victims of sexual abuse.
In a response dated March 26, Deputy Director Peter T. Edge, said the Department of Homeland Security takes the allegations seriously, and has forwarded the information to the D.H.S. field office.
In 2010, the Brevard County charity joined other child-advocacy organizations in protesting Pete Townshend’s performance at the SuperBowl in Miami. The group, which informs local citizens about convicted child molesters, mailed a sex offender advisory to residents living in the vicinity of the stadium in Miami Gardens.
Immigration officials were also notified that permitting foreign sex offenders to enter the U.S., is in conflict, with the “Moral Turpitude” clause, found in American immigration law. Townshend, a member of the British rock band: The WHO, received a Caution in 1983 after his arrest for paying to access child pornography.
15 hours agoOFFICIAL SHAM 69 STATEMENTA DISCLAIMERWE, THE OFFICIAL SHAM 69, WISH TO MAKE THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER STATEMENT:THIS IS DUE TO THE PERSISTENT EMAILS FROM BOTH FANS, MEMBERS OF THE UK/INTERNATIONAL PRESS, AND STATEMENTS MADE VIA SOCIAL NETWORK SITES REGARDING AN INCIDENT THAT TOOK PLACE INVOLVING JAMES TIMOTHY PURSEY (AKA JIMMY PURSEY) BEING ARRESTED FOR INDECENTLY ASSAULTING AN UNDER AGE GIRL. THIS INCIDENT DID TAKE PLACE, THE GIRL WAS UNDERAGE, THEREFORE LEGALLY A MINOR, AND SUFFERED TRAUMA AS A RESULT WITH LIFE LONG CONSEQUENCES NO DOUBT. THIS BAND FULLY AND UTTERLY CONDEMNS SUCH BEHAVIOUR AND WISHES TO MAKE IT KNOWN THAT JIMMY PURSEY IS NOT PART OF THE OFFICIAL SHAM 69 LINEUP IN ANY WAY. WE ALSO WISH TO MAKE IT KNOWN THAT HE IS NOT PART OF THE STAFF OR ANY SUBSIDIARY OF THIS BAND. ALONG WITH MANY FANS, BE THEY PUNKS, SKINS OR WHATEVER, WE TOO HAVE KIDS OF OUR OWN AND SOME HAVE GRAND KIDS TOO. AS SUCH WE DO NOT TREAT THIS AS A LIGHT HEARTED MISTAKE AND NEITHER DID THE GIRL’S PARENTS, ADDITIONALLY NEITHER WOULD YOU IF IT WAS YOUR CHILD OR FAMILY MEMBER. THIS GIRL WAS A MINOR, AND THOUGH SOME PEOPLE MAY BRUSH THIS OFF WITH A BLIND VIEW IN SUPPORT OF THIS MAN, WE WONT. SEEING AS WE DO HAVE SOME LYRICAL CONNECTIONS HOWEVER, WE, THE OFFICIAL SHAM 69, HAVE DECIDED THAT IN RESPECT OF OUR MORAL BELIEF AND SUPPORT WE WILL MAKE A DONATION FROM EVERY SHOW WE PERFORM, BE IT UK OR WORLDWIDE, TO THE NSPCC’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE, AND WILL DO SO UNTIL WE RETIRE AS A BAND. SO STAY TRUE AND STRONG AND WE’LL SEE YOU DOWN THE FRONT. SHAM 69however……
Hurry up Harry, get that Sham 69 plaque erected
1:46pm Saturday 23rd September 2006
By Yvonne Gordon
A plaque has finally been erected at The Watermans Arms in Hersham to seminal 1970s punk rockers Sham 69.
The band which which was formed in 1975 had several hits, including Hersham Boys, Hurry Up Harry and If the Kids are United.
Hersham residents association chairman, Andy Pinnick said the plaque was put up outside the pub, on Hersham Green, as a tribute to the band’s role in putting Hersham on the map. He said: “The band played there regularly when it was starting out in the mid-1970s, because all its members came from Hersham village.
“We originally wanted a blue plaque but found out from English Heritage that you had to be dead for at least 20 years! We thought green was the best colour.”
The plaque, which was funded by £200 from community donations and £100 from the residents’ association, is made of enamelled steel and is oval-shaped, 20ins by 14ins.
Pub landlord, Tony Blenkinsop, who went to school with the band’s frontman Jimmy Pursey, said although he didn’t live in the village any more, the group had made a big impact.
He said: “The cover of the band’s first album, Hersham Boys, was photographed outside The George Pub in Hersham Road, opposite our old school, Rydens. All the Hersham boys were in the picture.”
The residents’ association began discussions about the plaque in November but there was a delay after controversy caused by Pursey admitting he accepted a police caution in 2002 after forcibly kissing a 16-year-old girl in a Weybridge newsagents.
Pursey said the incident was “exaggerated”.
It’s no Sham: Hersham Boys honoured despite assault2:07pm Thursday 4th May 2006 inLocals will erect a plaque in tribute to Hersham punk rockers Sham 69 despite its controversial lead singer admitting to a caution for indecent assault.The work of frontman Jimmy Pursey will be honoured along with band members Dave Parsons, Rick Goldstein, Dave Tregenna, Albie Slider and Mark Cain.Their 70s hit Hersham Boys which contained memorable refrain “Hersham Boys, Hersham Boys, laced-up boots and corduroys” is credited with putting the town on the map.Plans by Hersham Residents’ Association (HRA) to erect the plaque were put on hold last month after it emerged police cautioned Pursey in 2002 after he admitted he was involved in an incident in a Weybridge newsagents with a 16-year-old girl when he forcibly kissed her on the mouth an incident which left her so traumatised she left her job.Pursey said the incident was exaggerated and added the plaque should be more about the music than the person behind it.Since a meeting of HRA last week, members and locals have come up with the cash to fund the £300 plaque.The plaque will go outside the Waterman’s Arms in Hersham Green and will be in place in the next three months.Andy Pinnick, chairman of Hersham Residents’ Association, said: “Some of the people in Hersham have known Jimmy throughout his life. “He is a little bit impulsive and over the top but he is not malicious.”His behaviour was inappropriate and we are not condoning it but there needs to be an element of understanding.”There is more to him than the negative headlines.” Pursey recently beat more than 600 entrants to win Virgin Radio’s competition to write the unofficial song for the England football team for the World Cup finals in Germany.His single, which will raise cash for the Teenage Cancer Trust, will be recorded later this month and released to coincide with the start of the tournament in June.More about the Walton Hop peodaphiles September 10, 2001. The Old Bailey trial of the pop mogul and former pop star Jonathan King, in which he is accused of a series of child sex offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, begins this morning. Back in July, Judge Paget decided, for the purposes of case management, to have three trials instead of one. So the jury will hear only the charges that relate to the years between 1982 and 1987. There are six within this time frame – one buggery, one attempted buggery, and four indecent assaults on boys aged 14 and 15.I have been having an email correspondence with Jonathan King for the past nine months, and last night he emailed me to say, “I think you know, young Ronson, that whichever way it goes for me you could have an award-winning story here, if you’re brave. You can change the face of Great Britain if you do it well. Good luck! JK”I have just returned from New York, and in the canteen on the third floor of the Old Bailey – in the minutes before the trial is due to begin – Jonathan King comes over to make small talk about my trip. “Did you bring me any presents back?” he asks. “Any small boys? Just kidding! Don’t you think it is amazing that I have retained my sense of humour?”He smiles across the canteen at his arresting officers. They smile faintly back. Jonathan has always told me about his good relationship with the police, how kind they were to him during his arrest, and he looks a little crestfallen at their evident withdrawal of affection. “The police are far less friendly than they were,” he says. “Quite boot-faced, in fact.” He pauses. “And there doesn’t even seem to be a senior officer around. I’m getting quite insulted that I’m so unimportant that only constables are allowed anywhere near the case.”He looks at me for a response. What should I say? Yes, his crimes are so significant and he is so famous that it would seem appropriate for a more senior officer to be in attendance? In the end, I just shrug.There are half-a-dozen journalists here today covering the case. In the lobby outside the court, Jonathan approaches some to shake their hands. “Who’s the gorgeous blonde with a TV cameraman?” he whispers to me. “Sorry if this ruins my image.””I felt terrible about shaking his hand,” one reporter says a little later. “I felt disgusting. I was standing there thinking, ‘What’s he done with that hand?’ I should have refused to shake it.””I just asked my solicitor if it’s unusual for the accused to make a point of shaking the hands of the press and the prosecution barrister,” Jonathan says as we walk into court. “He said it was absolutely unheard of!” Jonathan laughs, and adds, “You know, I fully intend to change the legal system just like I changed the pop industry.”And, at that, we take our seats. The jury is selected, and the trial begins.On November 24, 2000, Jonathan King was charged with three child sex offences, dating back 32 years. In the light of the publicity surrounding his arrest, a dozen other boys (now men) came forward to tell police that King had abused them too, during the 1970s and 1980s. Some said he picked them up at the Walton Hop, a disco in Walton-on-Thames run by his friend Deniz Corday. Others said he cruised them in his Rolls-Royce in London. He’d pull over and ask why they were out so late and did they know who he was. He was Jonathan King! Did they want a lift?He told the boys he was conducting market research into the tastes of young people. Did they like his music? His TV shows? Were they fans of Entertainment USA, his BBC2 series? He asked them to complete a questionnaire – written by him – to list their hobbies in order of preference. Cars? Music? Family and friends? Sex?”Oh, really?” Jonathan would say to them. “You’ve only put sex at number two?”And so they would get talking about sex. He sometimes took them to his Bayswater mews house, with its mirrored toilet and casually scattered photos of naked women on the coffee table. Sometimes, he took them to car parks, or to the forests near the Walton Hop. He showed them photographs of naked Colombian air hostesses and Sam Fox. He could, he said, arrange for them to have sex with the women in the photos. (Sam Fox knew nothing about this).Sometimes, within the bundle of photographs of naked women he would hand the boys, there would be a picture of himself naked. “Oh!” he’d say, blushing a little. “Sorry. You weren’t supposed to see that one of me!” (When the police raided King’s house, they say they found 10 overnight bags, each stuffed with his seduction kit – his questionnaires and photos of Sam Fox and photos of himself naked – all packed and ready for when the urge took him to get into his Rolls-Royce and start driving around.)He told the boys that it was fine if they wanted to masturbate. And then things would progress from there. Some of the boys reported that his whole body would start to shake as he sat next to them in the Rolls-Royce. And then he “went for it”, in the words of one victim. None of the boys say that he forced himself on to them. They all say they just sat there, awed into submission by his celebrity. The boys all say that Jonathan King has emotionally scarred them for life, although almost all of them returned, on many occasions, and became the victims of more assaults.Later, Jonathan King will spend his last weekend of freedom – the weekend before the guilty verdicts – recording for me a video diary of his feelings about the charges. At one point, midway through this 20-minute tape, he hollers into his camera about this perplexing aspect of the case. “They kept coming back to me again and again and again, although this vile behaviour was supposed to be taking place!” He laughs, as if he’s delivering a funny monologue on some entertainment TV show. “Why on earth would anybody do that? I’d be out of that house as fast as I possibly could! I’d make damned sure I was never alone with that person again. Mad!”When the police asked Jonathan why all these boys – who have never met or even spoken to each other – had almost identical stories to tell, he replied that he didn’t know. I am determined to ask at least one victim why he continually went back for more.The defence argues that the police actively encouraged claims of emotional scarring when they interviewed the victims, because, without it, what else was there? Just some sex, long ago. The danger, says the defence team, is that if Jonathan is found guilty, the judge will sentence him not only for the acts themselves, but also for the quantity of emotional scarring the victims claim to have. And how can that be quantified, especially in this age of the self, when the whole world seems to be forever looking to their childhoods for clues as to why they turned out so badly.”Jonathan King,” says David Jeremy, the prosecution barrister, in his opening remarks to the jury, “was exploiting the young by his celebrity.”When I first heard about King’s arrest, I looked back at his press interviews for clues, and found a quote he gave Music Week magazine in 1997: “I am a 15-year-old trapped inside a 52-year-old body.”I talked to some of his friends from the pop industry, and one of them said, “Poor Jonathan. We were all doing that sort of thing back then.”I attended an early hearing at Staines Magistrates’ Court. Jonathan King arrived in a chauffeured car. The windows were blacked out. Two builders watched him from a distance. As he walked past them and into the court, one of them yelled, “Fucking nonce!”He kept walking. Inside, he noticed me on the press benches. We had appeared together on Talk Radio a few years ago and he recognised me. On his way out, he gave me a lavish bow, as if I had just witnessed a theatrical event, starring him. Outside, the builders were still there. They shouted “Fucking nonce!” again.My email correspondence with Jonathan began soon after this hearing. In one email, he asked me if I would consider it fair if, say, Mick Jagger was arrested today for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in 1970. I agreed that it wouldn’t be. He told me that he was being charged with the same crime that destroyed Oscar Wilde – the buggering of teenage boys – and we perceive Wilde to have been unjustly treated by a puritanical society from long ago. I wonder if the reason why we look less kindly upon Jonathan King is because he sang Jump Up And Down And Wave Your Knickers In The Air , while Oscar Wilde wrote De Profundis.In another email, he wrote about Neil and Christine Hamilton, falsely accused of rape while being filmed by Louis Theroux, whom Jonathan sees as my great competitor in the humorous journalism market. He wrote, “Louis EVERYWHERE . . . but who on earth would want to cover the Hamiltons, famous for doing NOTHING. Still, I do hope The Real Jon Ronson will have the balls, courage and integrity to take up the crusade (whatever the outcome) that it is GROSSLY unfair for the accused person/people to be smeared all over the media. Over to you, Ronson (we don’t just want a Theroux treatment, do we?)”Later, in court, some of the victims say that Jonathan had a trick of making them feel special, as if they could do anything, as if they could make it big in showbusiness, just so long as they stuck with him (and didn’t tell anyone what had happened). Has King got legitimate grievances against the legal system, or is he simply trying to seduce me in the same way he seduced the boys?His Jagger analogy, I presume, was alluding to some covert homophobia at the heart of the case. But perhaps the real contrast lies somewhere else. Mick Jagger (or, indeed, Bill Wyman) wouldn’t have needed to pretend he was conducting market research into the tastes of young people. He wouldn’t have needed to have promised them sex with Colombian air hostesses. But Jonathan did not, intrinsically, have much pulling power, so he did need those extra little touches. Perhaps the real contrast, then, is one of aesthetics.The Walton Hop closed down in 1990. There were complaints of noise from the neighbours. But the Hop’s home, the Walton Playhouse, still stands. Jimmy Pursey, the lead singer of Sham 69, was one of the Hop’s most regular teenage attendees. He went dancing there every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night throughout the 1970s. One day, shortly before the trial began, Jimmy gave me a guided tour of the Playhouse. “It’s so hard to explain to people who see in black and white the colour that existed in this club,” he said. “The Playhouse was a theatre for fringe plays and amateur dramatics. But on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays it would become paradise.” Jimmy took me through the hall, and towards the stage.”It was inspirational,” said Jimmy. “This wasn’t table tennis. This was dancing. This was testing out your own sexuality. Normal people would become very unnormal. It was Welcome to the Pleasure Dome. It was everything.”He leapt up on to the stage, and took me to the wings, stage right. We stood behind the curtains. “This is where the inner sanctum was,” said Jimmy. “From here, Deniz Corday [the manager of the Walton Hop] would have the best view of the teenagers who were a little bit bolder, a little bit more interesting.””Bolder and interesting in what way?” I asked.”People like me,” said Jimmy. “If Deniz liked you, you’d be invited backstage and get a little bit of whisky added to your Coca-Cola. Backstage, you see. And you’d go, ‘Oh, I’m in with the big crowd now’. That’s all there was to it with Deniz.””And Jonathan?” I asked.”He’d drive into the Hop car park, and come backstage from the side,” he said. “And we’d all be going, ‘God! There’s a Rolls-Royce outside with a TV aerial coming from it! Ooh, it’s got a TV in the back and it’s a white Rolls-Royce!’ Because you’d never know if it was the Beatles.””But it wasn’t the Beatles,” I said.”No,” said Jimmy. “It was Jonathan King.” He laughed. “A very big difference there!”The Beatles lived on St George’s Hill, in nearby Weybridge, and were often seen driving around Walton in their Rolls-Royces. The Walton area, in the 1970s, was London’s playpen, full of pop moguls and pop stars, letting their hair down, doing just what Jimmy said the teenagers at the Walton Hop did – being “unnormal”. In fact, a disproportionate number of celebrities who are now convicted paedophiles hung around backstage at the Walton Hop, this popular youth club, during the 1970s and 1980s. There was Jonathan King’s friend, Tam Paton, for instance, the manager of the Bay City Rollers who was convicted of child sex offences in the early 1980s. (It was Paton who first introduced Jonathan King to the Hop – they met when Jonathan was invited to produce the Rollers’ debut single, Keep On Dancing.) Chris Denning, the former Radio 1 DJ, was another Hop regular – he has a string of child sex convictions, is currently in jail in Prague, and was friendly with King and Paton.For Jimmy Pursey, the trick was to pick up the girls who were drawn to the Hop to see the Bay City Rollers, while avoiding the attentions of the impresarios who orchestrated the night. “It was fun with Deniz Corday,” said Jimmy. “Deniz would say, ‘Oh Jimmy! Come here! I’d love to suck your fucking cock!’ Deniz was a silly, fluffy man. Then there was Tam Paton.I remember being back here having one of my whisky and Coca-Colas one night, and Tam turned to me and he said, ‘I like fucking lorry drivers’. Chris Denning was more reckless. One time he placed his penis within the pages of a gay centrefold and showed it to my ex-bass player, who proceeded to kick the magazine, and Denning’s dick, and yell, ‘Come on, Jimmy, we’re fucking out of here!’ But Jonathan King was more like a Victorian doctor. It wasn’t an eerie vibe . . . but Jonathan had this highbrow, Cambridge, sophisticated thing about him. The Jekyll and Hyde thing. There wasn’t much conversation with Jonathan. And with Jonathan, you’d always had these rumours. ‘Oh, he got so and so into the white Rolls-Royce’. And they’d always be the David Cassidy lookalike competition winners. Very beautiful.””Would he make a grand entrance?” I asked.”Oh no,” said Jimmy. “It was never, ‘Look at me!’ He never went out on to the dancefloor at all. He was much happier hiding backstage up here, behind the curtains, in the inner sanctum.” Jimmy paused. “The same way he hid behind all those pseudonyms, see? He’s always hiding. I think that’s the whole thing of his life. He always says, ‘That was me behind Genesis! That was me behind 10cc! That was me behind all those pseudonyms.’ But what do you do then, Jonathan? Who are you then, Jonathan?”Jimmy was referring to the countless pseudonymous novelty hits Jonathan had in the late 1960s and 1970s – The Piglets’ Johnny Reggae, for instance, and Shag’s Loop Di Love. These came after his hugely successful 1965 debut, Everyone’s Gone To The Moon, which was recorded while he was still a student at Cambridge. (Before that, he was a pupil at Charterhouse). It was a remarkable career path: a lovely, plaintive debut, followed by a string of silly, deliberately irritating hits.One of King’s friends later suggests to me that it was his look – the big nose, the glasses, the weird lop-sided grin – that determined this career path, as if he somehow came to realise that it was his aesthetic destiny to play the clown. But one cannot categorise his career as a downward spiral from Everyone’s Gone To The Moon onwards. In fact, he has sold 40 million records. He’s had a hand in almost every musical movement since the mid-1960s – psychedelic, novelty bubblegum pop, alternative pop, Eurovision, the Bay City Rollers, 10CC, the Rocky Horror Show, Genesis, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, the Brit awards, and so on.Within two years of leaving Cambridge, he was running Decca Records for Sir Edward Lewis, with his own West End offices and a Rolls-Royce parked outside. “Genesis,” he once said, “would have become accountants and lawyers if I hadn’t heard their concealed and budding musical talent when they were 15 years old.”He is at once seen to be the quintessential Broadway Danny Rose – the buffoonish loser who was forever nearly making it – and also a powerful multi-millionaire whose influence is as incalculable as it is overlooked. He’s hosted radio shows in New York and London, presented the successful and long-running Entertainment USA TV series for the BBC, written two novels, created a political party – the Royalists – and published The Tip Sheet, an influential online industry magazine that, he claims, is responsible for bringing the Spice Girls, Oasis, Blur, Prodigy, R Kelly, and others “exploding on to musical success. We find and help break new stars around the world.”In 1997, he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Music Industry Trust. In a letter read out at the ceremony, Tony Blair acknowledged King’s “important contribution to one of this country’s great success stories”. A galaxy of stars – Peter Gabriel, Ozzy Osbourne, Simon Bates – came out to praise him, although no galaxy of stars is willing to do the same now that he’s been accused of paedophilia.Nonetheless, he seems to delight in being the man we love to hate (theatrically speaking: he is mortified when he thinks his arresting officers really do hate him). “I love to infuriate,” Jonathan told me over coffee in his office, shortly before the trial began. “I deliberately set out to irritate.””Of course,” I said, “should you be convicted, people will hate you in a very different way. This is not a good climate in which to be accused of paedophilia.””Well,” he shrugged, “it’s not as though I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Oh I’m such a nice person. Will everybody please be nice to me.’I know I tend to provoke extreme reactions, so I’m not at all surprised when they arrive.”There was a short silence.”So you see what’s happening now as a continuation of your public image?” I asked him.”Absolutely,” said Jonathan. “And it is so. And it would be absurd not to regard it as so.””But there’s a difference between bringing out a novelty record that nobody likes and being accused of buggering an underage boy,” I said.There was another silence. “Let’s not discuss it further,” he said.September 11, day two of the trial, and things are already looking hopeless for Jonathan King. The first victim – now a painter and decorator from the suburbs of north London – takes the stand. I’ll call him David. Jonathan approached David in Leicester Square when David was 14 or 15. Although David had no idea who Jonathan was, he quickly told him he was famous. “It was exciting,” says David.Jonathan gave David the questionnaire, the one that ranked boys’ hobbies in order of preference. He filled it out. Jonathan invited him back to his house and asked him if he and his friends masturbated together. Jonathan showed him pornographic movies on a cine projector. “We were talking about masturbation,” says David. “He told me to relax. He undid my trousers. He tried to masturbate me, which didn’t arouse me at all. He told me to do it myself, which I proceeded to do. I felt very awkward.”David returned to King’s house on three occasions. Similar indecent assaults occurred each time. Later, Jonathan wrote David a series of letters. “He made it sound like I would be famous,” says David. The prosecuting barristor asks David to read one of these letters to the jury. “‘Maybe you will go on to be a megastar. Now I am in New York. I will call you when I next hit town. In the meantime, keep tuning in on Wednesday at 9pm for Entertainment USA, the greatest TV show in the world.'”David says that Jonathan King has emotionally scarred him for life. He says he cannot hold children. He says it makes him scared and uncomfortable to hold and play with his girlfriend’s little boy.After lunch Ron Thwaites, Jonathan’s defence barrister, begins his cross examination of David. His tone is breathtakingly abrasive. “We are going back 16 years because you decided not to make the complaint until nine months ago,” he says. “You’re not asking for sympathy for that, are you?””I was the one that was assaulted,” David replies, shakily.”Do you think it’s easy for a man to be accused of a crime after 20 years,” says Thwaites. And then: “Are you interested in money?””I am nervous up here,” says David. “You are putting me under pressure. I was sexually assaulted by that man over there.””You must have been fairly grown up to go to London on your own,” says Ron Thwaites. “You can’t have been a boy in short trousers, crying for your mother.”And so on.We are unaware that, during this cross examination, New York and Washington DC are under attack. That night, I receive an email from Jonathan: “Makes whether or not I put my hand on a teenager’s knee 15 years ago seem rather trivial, doesn’t it? Are you dropping KING for the World Trade Centre? Boo hoo!”What do you think of the jury? A lot of ethnic variation which,I think, is probably a good thing. Not Ron’s best day, but not terminal! See you tomorrow. Love JK.”A week later, Jonathan posts an extraordinary message on his website, kingofhits.com: “Well, it’s been a fascinating couple of weeks. Not many people are fortunate to discover first hand exactly what Oscar Wilde went through! This week is the crucial one for me – keep praying. And just one oblique thought . . . when you look at the teenagers from 15 years ago who grew up to be terrorists who killed thousands in America, wonder what changed them into mass murderers. Then wonder what turns other decent teenagers into mass liars.” Of course, they didn’t turn out to have been lying.King’s demeanour remains cheerful throughout our time together. “I am living in clouds and happy flowers and love and beauty,” he tells me one day. “And if I go to prison, I shall enjoy myself.”Even on the one occasion that Jonathan all but confesses to me – “I’m sure you’ve got skeletons in your own closet, Jon. ‘Honest guv! I thought she was 16!'” – he says it with a spirited laugh.When the Guardian’s photographer takes Jonathan’s portrait early one morning before a day in court, he is frustrated to report that during almost every shot Jonathan stuck his thumbs up – as if he was doing a Radio 1 publicity session – or grinned his famous, funny, lop-sided grin into the camera. This was not the image anyone wanted. We were hoping for something more revealing, sadder, perhaps, or even something that said “child sex”, or “guilty”. But Jonathan wouldn’t oblige.One day during the trial, I hear a story about Larry Parnes, Britain’s first pop mogul. He discovered Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde. Like many of the great British impresarios back then, he based his business judgements on his sexual tastes. “If I am attracted to Tommy Steele,” he would tell his associates, “teenage girls will be, too.” Parnes’s West End flat was often full of teenage boys hoping to be chosen as his next stars. If he liked the look of them, he’d give them a clean white T-shirt. Once he’d had sex with them, he’d make them take off the white T-shirt and put on a black one.Wham!’s manager Simon Napier-Bell – who was once invited by Parnes to put on a white T-shirt – has said that the great difference between the British and American pop industries is this: the American impresarios are traditionally driven by money, while their British counterparts were historically driven by gay sex, usually with younger boys – and that British pop was conceived as a canvas upon which older gay svengalis could paint their sexual fantasies, knowing their tastes would be shared by the teenage girls who bought the records. I wonder if the pop impresarios who seduced young teenage boys at the Walton Hop saw themselves not as a paedophile ring, but as the continuance of a venerable tradition.Deniz Corday is desperately worried that the Walton Hop, his life’s work, is about to become famous for something terrible. “Jonathan didn’t want me to talk to you,” he says, “but I must defend the Hop with all my life.” Deniz is immensely proud of the Hop. There is Hop memorabilia all over his flat, including a poster from a Weybridge Museum exhibition, “The Happy Hop Years 1958 – 1990. An Exhibition About Britain’s First Disco: The Walton Hop”.”Every day, someone comes up to me in the supermarket,” says Deniz, “and says, ‘Thank you, Deniz, for making my childhood special.’ Some say the Hop was the first disco in Great Britain. It was terribly influential. Oh dear . . .” Deniz sighs. “This kind of thing can happen in any disco. The manager can’t control everything.”Deniz says that he knows it looks bad. Yes, an unusually large number of convicted celebrity paedophiles used to hang around backstage at the Walton Hop. But, he says, they weren’t there to pick up boys. They were there to conduct market research. “Tam Paton would play all the latest Roller acetates and say, ‘Clap for the one you like the best’. Same as Jonathan and Chris Denning. It helped them in their work.”Deniz turns out the lights and gets out the super-8 films he shot over the years at his club. Here’s the Hop in 1958. Billy Fury played there. The teenagers are all in suits, dancing the hokey-cokey. “Suits!” laughs Deniz, sadly.The years tumble by on the super-8 films. Now it’s the mid-1970s. Here’s Jonathan at the turntables. He’s playing disco records, announcing the raffle winners and grinning his lop-sided grin into Deniz’s super-8 camera. He’s wearing his famous multi-coloured afro wig.Now, on the super-8, two young girls are on stage at the Hop, miming to King’s song, Johnny Reggae. “These were the days before karaoke,” explains Deniz.For a while, we watch the girls on the stage mime to Johnny Reggae. It turns out that Jonathan wrote it about a boy called John he met at the Walton Hop who was locally famous for his reggae obsession. David Jeremy – the prosecutor at the Old Bailey – says that Jonathan’s “market research” was simply a ploy, his real motive being to engage the boys in conversations about sex. But I imagine that the two endeavours were, in Jonathan’s mind, indistinguishable. I picture Jonathan in the shadows, backstage at the Hop, taking all he could from the teenagers he scrutinised – consuming their ideas, their energy, their tastes, and then everything else.The super-8s continue in Deniz’s living room. Here’s Jonathan again, in 1983, backstage at the Hop. He’s put on weight. He doesn’t know the camera is on him. He’s holding court to a group of young boys and girls on a sofa. You can just make out little snippets of conversation over the noise of the disco. He chews on a toothpick, looks down at a piece of paper, turns to a boy and says, “Who’s phone number is this?”He spots the camera. “It’s Deniz Corday!” he yells. “Look who it is! Deniz Corday! Smile at the camera!” He lifts up his T-shirt and Deniz zooms in on his chest.”In 32 years,” says Deniz, “we never had one complaint about Jona-than and young boys, and suddenly, after 32 years, all these old men, grandfathers some of them, come forward and say they’ve been sexually abused and it’s been bothering them all their lives. I think there’s something deeply suspicious about it. Jonathan’s a really nice guy and definitely not a paedophile. Anyway, I think it should be reworded. I think a paedophile should be someone who goes with someone under 13.”The clothes and hairstyles change as the decades roll past on the super-8s, but the faces of the 13- to 18-year-olds remain the same. They are young and happy. Deniz says that, nowadays, we have an absurdly halcyon image of childhood. He says that the youngsters at the Walton Hop were not fragile little flowers. They were big and tough and they could look after themselves. He rifles through his drawer and produces some of the police evidence statements. He reads me some excerpts. “‘There was a crate of Coca-Cola kept backstage, and it was people like Jonathan King and Corday who hung around there. If you were invited back there you would get a free coke with a shot of whiskey.'”Deniz pauses. “Now how ridiculous can you get? I’m going to give the kids of the Hop a shot of whiskey with a coke?” There is a silence. “Well,” he says quietly. “If I gave them a little bit of whisky once in a while, they’re not going to put me in jail for it. I used to call it ‘coke with a kick’. Anyway, we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about Jonathan. Have you heard of any charges against me?””No,” I say.”Exactly,” says Deniz. “This is about Jonathan. Not about me.”Deniz continues to read. The victim making the statement describes life at the Walton Hop and how Jonathan – a regular visitor – once went out of his way to talk to him. “‘I was obviously excited to be talking to Jonathan King. He offered to give me a lift home, which I accepted. This was the first of many lifts King gave me, and I recall that he always drove me home in a white convertible Rolls-Royce. It was an automatic car and the number plate was JK9000. We talked about music, and he often told me that he needed a young person’s point of view. King drove me home on a couple of occasions before he eventually assaulted me. The first assault occurred at a car park, which was situated on the left-hand side of the Old Woking Road. Next to the car park was a field and a wooded area. King seemed familiar with the location. I believe he had been there before. I was sat in the front passenger seat and King was in the driver seat. I noticed that King had started shaking, and I presumed that he needed the toilet.'”Jon Ronson
In 1979, I was 13 years of age, and like half the kids on my estate, I became a skinhead. Down the local youth club i would just love to hang about listening to all the 2tone tracks that were being played. Going to school in my 14 hole pair of Dr Martins, Sta press trousers, school tie turned around the wrong way, so that only the thin part was showing, made me feel like a somebody.
At the age of 16, in 1982 i left school and got a job on a fun fair which, had visited Bristol for 2 weeks. After about a year and a half of travelling around the country with the fair i left, and signed on the dole for around 6 months.
By then I was 18 years of age, watching the telly one rainy Saturday afternoon, some wrestling came on the box, i remembered watching it years before with my family, and thought that I’m sure that I could do that. I decided to contact the local venue that held wrestling shows every fortnight, and asked them who the promoter was. The phone call has stuck in my memory forever, like as if it were yesterday. The guy asked if i had a portfolio which of course i said yes too, and they also said if i had any experience which i followed with another quick lie about having done judo for the last few years,
I had two days in which to get a few photos done and to sort out what i will say to the promoter when i met him. The night came for the first meeting, i showed him my photos and just blagged it whilst talking, it was arranged to meet the following Sunday in Liverpool for my 1st bout which would be in Ayr, Scotland, Determined, the next day i ordered my 1st pair of wrestling boots and shorts.
I travelled up alone, arrived in Scotland and got changed ready for my first match, to tell the truth it went so quick i couldn’t remember much about it. My opponent was a Scouse guy Robbie Brookside, I was more excited than scared, he was about the same size as me. I don’t remember much about the crowd reaction, but due to the fact I am the villain character, they always bay for my blood. The promoter said that i was ok and that the match went well, which made me think that i could make a living doing this, so i trained hard, started to make a name for myself.
In the early days of my career, my wrestling name was Hammer Head, quickly became a villain which i didn’t mind, as there’s no way i could have been one of those good guys.
A few years later i watched a new film called Romper Stomper and thought, now there’s a good idea, being that i was a villain i decided to put my wrestling kit away and purchase some new jeans, Dr Martins and a pair of bracers to which i became The Romper Stomper. The next step was to choose the right piece of music in which to walk out to, deciding there was only one track which i could possibly use, and that was the skinhead moonstomp.
In the 26 years of being a pro carreer, i travelled all over the country wrestling 7 days a week , with only Christmas day off, becoming British heavy middle weight champion, appearances on World of Sport, cable tv, sky and the local news, when the Americans visited.
I wrsesteld non stop, working with a lot of my hero’s like big daddy, giant haystacks, Kendo, Dave Fit Finley, Rollerblade Rocco and Danny Boy Collins, who was in my class at school.
I must say, that as hard as the sport can be on your body, I wouldn’t have changed any of it .
I retired in 2000 from wrestling, after having 3 back operations, so for the next 6-8 months trained other people who wanted to get into the sport.
I enjoyed helping and training people, but missed the part of entertaining,
I decided to try standup, so went to a comedy venue for an open mic session.
The spot was only on me for 10 minutes, and to tell the truth, felt like 1 hour, but I caught the bug.
Robbie Twinkle was born and I started to travel the country once again. I’ve now been entertaining audiences with my comedy show for just over 10 years .
Staying a true skinhead, since my teenage years, I have proved to the finger pointers, who prejudged us as lazy, low life, wasters,.
When the teenage Roy Ellis set sail for a new life in the United Kingdom in 1959. He had no idea what to expect, his mother had left a few months previously, and made a home for her children to join her.
On arrival Roy settled in South London with many other Jamaican immigrants, and found it to be bleak and aggressive. Rife with racism and fear from the local people. Roy began his love of music, in church, like many other black people of the era.
“ I really started my music career in London in 1962, As a young man with full blooded music in me, not only I wanted to sing, but also wanted to play an instrument too. So I took up the Trombone. At the same time getting a few lesson from one of the masters Rico Rodriguez, In this time he just got to England,from there onI choose music as my career, singing and playing, and so it all started to where I am today.”
Reggae was finding its feet in the UK and artists were active and playing. Roy got together with some friends and set up his band, The Bees in 1964, and started to perform in small clubs around London. The Jamaican community being quite small at the time, gathered around its own culture and Reggae music. Roys band were discovered by Legendary Laurel Aitkin, who was leading the way in British/Jamaican Reggae in the early part of the 1960’s
The Bees breakthrough came with the chance to play backing band for Laurel Aitkin, who encouraged and helped this young band to climb the ladder, working as producer and promoter for his fellow Reggae musicians.
The new Reggae sound was picking up a large following from fellow council estate kids, who had created their own subculture, a fragment of the Mod culture, which came to be known as Skinheads. A mixture of white working class English kids, who loved the new sounds coming into their own area.
Although Roy, at first found it hard to find new friends, with strong racial barriers to cross. He was readily accepted within the Skinhead culture, partly because of his love of music, but mainly because he was a very good amateur boxer. Inter youth cult fighting was a big part of British youth culture during the 60’s. With the Mods and Rockers clashes on South Coast towns hitting the headlines in 1967.
“I got into the mods scene with the other english teenager who was already in it, So at last they accept me,
But why did they accept me? because I was a very good Amature boxer from Jamaica, And that`s how I got in to the mods and skinheads scene on till this day.
Someone is got to build the bridges so that we all can cross over doesn`t matter what colour we are.”
“I have very fond memories of Brighton, my mates and me would ride our scooters down from London every Friday night, go dancing in the clubs, kick some Rockers arses, well not me, I was always the guy making the others laugh, but you know, all the teenage things that people do”
With the hunger for new music in the boom years of British music, Reggae found its home and quickly swept the dance halls and charts, with people like Prince Buster, Desmond Decker, Laural Aitkin leading the way. With Infectious Rock Steady rythms.
Record labels, such as Trojan, Blue beat, Island were doing very well in the UK.
“ Actually I haven`t done any recording in Jamaica, As I said it all started in England,But as singing and playing in a band called The Bees in 1964. We got the luck to be discovered by the one and only late Laurel Aitken who had us as his backing band,and also as our producer, and a promoter. We were touring the UK with him.
Then we got the chance to back Prince Buster, The Ethiopians, Maytals, Earol Dickson, The Pioneers, Millie Small, Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards and Desmond Dekker. Then in 1967 we met Eddy Grant, he wrote our first two hits Train tour to Rainbow city, and All Change On The Bakerloo line.
Then in 1969 I wrote Skinhead Moonstomp and Skinhead Girl, and also we recorded the Symarip debut album, Skinhead Moonstomp that went to way up in the hit chart. then it all started
from there.”
Symarip, Skinhead Moonstomp album stormed the charts, which created a boom in the Skinhead Youth cult. The Vietnam war was in full swing. The hippy era began, which took the middle class mods into psychodelia and then flower power. The street kids went the other way into Skinhead working class fashion
A huge show was arranged for Wembley Stadium in 1970, which packed. One half white skinheads, the other half, Jamaicans.
“ Wembley was one of the biggest hightlights of my life, to see this unity of fans, black and white dancing to my songs”
But with the rise of violence associated, the start of football hooligans, it became impossible for Symarip to play anywhere, the press were hyping the violence as a modern menace.
“We were sent to Europe, to pioneer Reggae on the Continent. A completely new sound for them. I Moved to Switzerland, met a lovely lady who became my wife, where I still live”
In 1979 2tone bands like the Specials and Madness paid us the honour of covering some of my songs, which opened it up to a new audience and decade.
Since I`m back in 2005 a lot of great things been happening for me, I`ve been travelling the world knowing the different Countrys, meeting different people, making new friends and new fans, I got the chance to put out two albums, three singles,
Coming out in April my new single with my new video, a lots concerts, lots of media connections etc. It`s been all good for me, could be better, but I`m happy with what I`ve got.
Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip will be performing a very special live appearance on June the 9th. The event is titled ‘ The Great Skinhead Reunion’ To celebrate Roys life, The music and youth culture he Pioneered, which has spread the world, from its beginnings in London and Brighton to modern day Indonesia and Columbia. Everybody is welcome, young and old. You don’t have to wear Doc martens or be an active skinhead
GREAT SKINHEAD REUNION ACCOMODATION. i have found 2 more guest houses which are a stones throw from the venue. the first one is £65 per person for the entire weekend including friday and saturday night. there are 20 beds available for our event, so if you would like a full weekend wristband with a room , the total cost per person is £80 (nothing more to pay, this is NOT per night) The second one is double twin room. £70 per night (per room), Family room £75, this option includes breakfast, so add £15 per person for your weekend wristband per person. please contact me asap. as once these rooms are gone i will try and find some more, but dont leave it too late. for this deal please write to symond.lawes@gmail.com
Natasha Thompson – Singer/guitarist/songwriter (Founder of the Oi! band Bleach Battalion.)
Natasha is currently (2012) touring solo with an all-acoustic Oi! / Street Rock’n’Roll set including Bleach Battalion tunes and old school Skinhead & American classics.
Both Perry and I have been involved in the scene since the 80s and watched tons of shit being written about skinheads by people that had no idea what the subculture was about. I review book proposals for a publisher and I saw another series was being written about skinheads so I thought this would be a great chance to write the definitive book about skinheads in America. I was loathe to see another horrible book about skinheads written by people that had no clue what the subculture was about. I asked Perry because he and I had talked about writing a book before and this seemed like the perfect chance and so we wrote a proposal and got accepted.
2. how did you first discover the skinhead culture.
Perry:I first got into punk in 1980 while growing up in Chicago. I had seen a few TV reports on it and was fascinated. Bought the first Clash album and was hooked, the second or third punk album I got was “Tell Us the Truth” by Sham 69. That album had a huge impact on me and I remember reading an article on them in Trouser Press that mentioned the Sham Army and their large skinhead following. I met a kid at my high school that was really into punk as well as two-tone ska and he turned me onto a lot of bands and suggested I listen to a local radio show called the Big Beat. It was on for an hour every friday night and mainly consisted of new wave stuff. However the DJ always played a set or two of punk. I heard so many new bands on that show including the Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Blitz, Cock Sparrer, etc. After seeing footage of the Southall Riot on TV and all the coverage of Oi I’d been reading in Sounds I broke down and bought the Strength Thru Oi! comp. Loved It! Even though I was a punk I became more and more interested in skinhead culture over the next few years and finally got up the nerve to shave my head in late 1985. Have never looked back since.
Tiffini: I got into skinhead by way of hardcore and punk. I went to punk shows at Fenders in Long Beach and saw skinheads and discovered oi music by buying British compilations and started hanging out with skinheads and learned more about it and eventually shaved my head about a year after I heard about the subculture. What attracted me to the scene initially was how bad ass skinheads were at the shows. Back then they dominated and people were afraid of them. I also liked the sound of oi and the look. It was in 1987 so there was nothing in the news about skinheads just the different crews around the LA area. I didn’t shave my head immediately because I knew about right wing skinheads and nazi stuff was alive and well so I wanted to make sure I knew about the subculture before I shaved my head. A guy I was dating before I shaved my head handed me Skrewdriver’s Blood and Honour and said: don’t shave your head THIS is what skinhead is (and yeah he was skinhead). But I knew about the roots of the subculture and so I didn’t listen to him and shaved my head anyways. Later i discovered the original style of skinheads and the early reggae and ska stuff as well.
3. what is/was your involvement.
I grew my fringe out around 1993 but my friends and my lifestyle are still deeply tied with the scene. I still go to shows and travel to the UK to Rebellion festival and still own all my old gear and even my first pair of DMs.
Perry of course is in the Templars so he plays regularly and is active in the scene as well.
4. the book says ‘an american’ subculture, how do you think that wil go down around the world, or is the book aimed purely at an american readership.
I am sooo happy you asked this question. First to clarify the SERIES is called “American Subcultures” so every single title says that regardless of the subculture. Unfortunately for us that makes the books seem as if we are implying skinheads are an American creation which we all know it isn’t.
The first section of the book traces the origins of skinheads in the UK. The rest of the book focuses on the development of the subculture in America from its inception here in the 1980s until the present day. Because the subculture is British, we talk about the similarities and differences between the UK and US versions of the subculture throughout the book.
We hope that this title becomes one of many volumes people buy to find out the history of skinheads in general. The same way I have skinheads by Nick Knight and Spirit of 69, I am hoping it will become just one other title to have to document the history of the subculture. This one just happens to examine the history of skinheads as they occurred in the USA.
5. how important is the skinhead subculture in the usa, next to things which seem traditionally more american . like rap, rock n roll, blues etc
I think a better comparison would be skinhead subculture and punk subculture in the USA. In terms of alternative music, I think it has increased and decreased depending upon the scenes in different cities. The USA is huge geographically so it really depends on what year, region or strain of the subculture you are considering. Ska and Reggae are more popular in some cities while Oi and hardcore are the mainstay of the scene in others. To try to compare it other subcultures in terms of “importance” would be impossible to do.
6. when did skinheads first make its way to the usa, and why was it picked up there.
Skinheads started in the early 80s in USA. Definitely due to the popularity of 2Tone and Oi! and Punk music. It was picked up because the look and the sound were unique and different. Probably the same reasons skinheads in England got popular.
7. how has the skinhead subculture been treated by the american media over the years, has it always been seen as a political movement or a music, fashion based subculture.
Initially it was reported in the media as a British youth movement. At first when skinheads began popping up in the USA they were lumped together with punks. It wasn’t till a few years after skinheads was in the USA that they started getting labeled as Nazis by the press. Mostly because of groups that started distributing racist materials and marching for a political cause. Once the talk shows and the media portrayed skinheads in one way, the general population saw the subculture as a bunch of “nazi, thugs”.
Of course people in the scene always identified with the subculture based on the lifestyle and didn’t really pay attention or care what the media said.
8. without me reading the book, how do you start middle and end the book, is it just done as a dated reference to the spread of the skinhead subculture across america, with media stories propping it up, ie the geraldo show.
The book is organized by topics. There is a timeline at the beginning tracing the major events that shaped the subculture in the USA and after that its broken down into the following chapters: Origins of Skinheads, Being a Skinhead (for people that don’t know anything about the lifestyle), Media coverage of the subculture (mainstream media, skinhead publications, movies, television and internet), Music (Oi!, 2Tone, Reggae, Ska, NY Hardcore, American Oi! and Djs) Fashion (clothes, tattoos and hairstyles), and Politics (Rise of White Power and Antiracist groups). It ends with profiles of the major skinhead bands and crews, primary documents (interviews, scene reviews and research written during the 80s-90s) and a glossary of major terms used in the subculture (again for people that don’t know about the subculture).
Because this is a reference book it is written so people that don’t know anything about skinheads will understand how it developed, what shaped the subculture and how it was in the early days in the USA. For that reason we interviewed skinheads all over the USA and did extensive research in both the mainstream and underground media. The perspective of the scene is given from all parts of the subculture and all regions.
We collected so much information that we couldn’t fit into the book we could have literally written a second book just based on the interviews. But the publishers wanted a more general overview of the subculture so we couldn’t include everything.
9. from my own investigation into the american version of the skinhead scene, it seems from an outsiders view point to be very gang related, with ceremonies like, ‘shaving in’ ‘jumped in’, and various other terms, freshcuts, peckerwood etc. is there some form of organised gangs or crews with strict rules, if so where did that come from, and how does a skinhead differentiate from any other ‘gang’
Just like in the UK there were various factions of skins that developed. I think the longstanding existence of gangs in the United States made it much more aligned with traditional gang structure in some cities. For example Chicago and New York and Los Angeles were well known for having crews that resembled street gangs. Even the political groups were derived from gang structures and heavily influenced by pre-existing gangs. Probably due to the size of the US, every region had its own unique aspects which we explore in the book.
As far the “rules” or social structure of the subculture, I can’t speak to every one. But I know in my own experience these were things just passed down or generally “known” by skinheads. For example, girls were expected to cut their fringe really short when I shaved my head and the term “earning your fringe” was something you just knew you did. Who knows it was probably some rule made up by a girl that didn’t’ want anyone having a better cut than her! The same for the lace color rules. Every city was different but you heard about all the different ones. I always thought they were dumb and wore white laces (white power) in my boots because it looked good.
Skinheads in America basically made their own rules because they could. In the early 80s there was no manual, no older skinheads to define the rules so they just did what they wanted and made it their own.
10. do you think that the media version, of the political extremist is the actual reality of skinheads in usa. being a racially devided country, how does the skinheads cross communities. in the uk the scene was very much from the working class, is that the same in the usa?
Again, that depended on the geography. There is no denying that in some cities racist skinheads ran shit. Just like in other cities it was the opposite. In even more cities it was a constant war between the two factions. The media only looked at the side that sold the most papers. Even when they reported so called racists attacks they were talking about non-racist skinheads. I am sure you have plenty examples of the UK misrepresenting events that involved skinheads too. So in short I don’t think the media version of skinhead is the reality of the subculture (god help us if it was!).
I also think the assumption of the USA as being “racially divided” is a misleading statement. We are too large a country to make sweeping statements about- some cities and areas are different than others. As far as skinheads go, they basically reflect the populations they live in. For example there are larger Latino skinhead populations in states like Texas and California. In New York there were a lot of Italians, Puerto Ricans and Blacks. Chicago probably had the largest black skinhead population of all in the 80s and 90s.
Because our countries are different we don’t have the same “working class” as you do. We have the middle class as well which a lot of skinheads would probably be categorized as in addition to working class. To skinheads that we interviewed, “working class” meant working for a living and being self-sufficient – not existing on government handouts or other people. If you listen to the lyrics of a lot of American skinhead bands you can hear this same message. 11, which skinhead bands first became known in the usa, did they model themselves on the uk oi bands, 2tone or original Jamaican ska.
First bands that became popular were from the UK (ska and oi). A lot of early American bands emulated those sounds. But just like other areas of the subculture the bands integrated sounds that were popular in their areas with what the UK brought over. The first skinhead band in the USA according to our exhaustive research was Iron Cross from Washington, DC. Other US bands were influenced by the UK oi scene: Youth Brigade from LA, Negative Approach from Detroit and The Effigies from Chicago for example, but none of those bands could really be defined as ‘skinhead’ bands in the UK sense. The bands that really kick-started the skinhead scenes in the US were New York hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags. While they listened to British Oi!, they fused it with their own distinctly New York Hardcore sound. They were both dynamic live bands with skinhead members in their ranks and they really spread the skinhead idea through touring in the mid-1980s. Other American Oi! bands like the Anti Heros have a uniquely American sound. Later bands sounded more like traditional Oi! (Templars) and ska/reggae (Hepcat and Aggrolites). 12. how did Hollywood effect the skinhead culture, with films like American history x
Killed it. You had a whole definition of kids that ONLY knew about skinhead from that movie. Before that, the other shows also gave a very plastic view of the subculture. Luckily most of those kids have moved onto another cool subculture. Maybe they are all wearing black like Twilight movies or something.
13, when would you say the height of the skinhead population was.
Probably the late 1980s and the late 1990s. The scene has had its ebbs and flows. It was real small in the early 1980s, grew exponentially and peaked in the late 1980s, fell off in the early 1990s, grew big again in the late 1990s, declined in the early 2000s and now in the last couple years its really picked up again. Hopefully we can sustain the growth this time around! 14, how did the hardcore scene become part of the skinhead culture.
All roads lead to New York. The Lower East Side Crew was formed in NY and included most of the members of all the original NYHC bands (Cromags, Agnostic Front, Warzone). They adopted the skinhead look and sung about skinheads but to hardcore music. NYHC was an entry point for many youths into the subculture especially for the second generation of skinheads in the USA (after 1986). Because they toured they brought it all over the US. Eventually hardcore branched off and became its own subculture.
15 what do you wish to achieve with your book
We hope that anyone that wants to learn about the subculture will read our book instead of the other bullshit titles out there written by people that don’t know shit about it. Every “academic” book written about it is done by cops or scholars and not people that lived it. We are hoping to document our past so any future generations will have a story that isn’t twisted by whatever some dumb fuck makes up on the internet. We want to publish something that accurately portrays the subculture to the best of our ability. I am sure there will be people that say “you didn’t add this or you didn’t cover that” or “why did you put that or why did you quote that” but to them I say this: go ahead and publish your own book. This book took more than two years to put together and we interviewed skinheads from every generation and across the nation to make it as comprehensive as possible. It is impossible to include everything in just one volume but we hope this is a good start to covering the subculture we both love.
Hi Symond,Here we go with the answer to your questions!! For pictures, I`ve to look, By moving from place to place it seem to lost lots of them.My bestRoy Elis
where were you born ( I was born in Kinghton Jamaica 27 April, age I never tell, it`s not important for me,is how you feel It`s just another number.
when did you first get into music? (As you all know, most black singers started their singing career in the churches,and so did I
I really started my music career in London in 1962, As a young man with full blooded music in me, not only I wanted to sing, but also wanted to play an instrumant too. So I took up the Trombone,at the sametime getting a few lesson from one of the masters Rico Rodriguez, In this time he just got to England, And from there on I choose music as my career, singing and playing, and so it all started to where I am today.
how was life in jamaica, what studio’s did you work at, orange street, studio 1 etc. what musicians and people did you know and work with
actually I haven`t done any recording in Jamaica, As I said it all started in England,But as singing and playing in a band called The Bees in 1964.
We got the luck to be discovered by the one and only late Laurel Aitken who had us as his backing band,and also as our producer, and a promoter. we were touring the UK with him.
Then we got the chance to backed Prince Buster,The Ethiopians, Maytals, Earol Dickson,The Pioneers,Millie Small, Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards, Desmond Dekker, Then in 1967 we met Eddy Grant he wrote our first two hits Train tour to rainbow city, and All change on he Bakerloo line.
Then in 1969 I wrote Skinhead Moonstomp and Skinhead Girl, and also we recorded the Skinhead Moonstomp album that went to way up in the hit chart. then it all started
from there.
when and why did you come to the uk ( I came to UK between 1959-1960 as a teenage school boy.
how did you find life different in the uk, was it what you expected on arrival, did you come with family and friends.
I came to Uk alone, My mother was here long before me,in this time the Uk wasn`t a nice place for black people,It was too much discrimination giong on then, and it still is!!
for me it was very very hard as a teenager,no one to play with or to talk to me, but I was mentally strong, so I try to over come the problem by try to intergrate.how did you get involved in the mod scene, and how come you moved onto the skinheads. what was the difference in the two scenes.
Well been intergrate in the school, and learning to be a cook, I got into the mods scene with the other english teenagers who were already in it, So at last they accept me, But why did they accept me? because I was a very good Amature boxer from Jamaica, And that`s how I got in to the mods and skinheads scene on till this day.
Someone is got to build the bridges so that we all can cross over doesn`t matter what colour we are.
whats the story with symarip, who were the guys, do you ever see them, why did you write the skinhead moonstomp album, with many songs referencing skinheads
Well I was the only one the band as a black skinhead who believed in the scene at that time,and after Prince Buster tour we made meny fans and Laurel Aitkens gave me the idea by saying why don`t you write something about the skinheads, then come Skinhead Moonstomp etc.
Well The Bees,The Pyramids,The Symarip, The Seven Letters were the same people,and we allcame from Jamaica, some have been to school here in Uk, and some have been to school in Jamaica,The band broke up in 1988.and I went on my own to do solo as Roy Ellis aka Mr.Symarip and it`s been going well for me since, as solo singer and I`ve been traveling all over the world,t hey got very jealous, so right now we don`t speak to each other,It`s pitty thow, But that`s how it is with some people.
what significance has brighton to your life
Great remembrance as a teenager, every friday night riding down to Brighton beach on scooters with the other boys, kicking Rockers asses, dancing, drinking a little etc. You know what teenagers do. Its such a pleasure to be invited back to Brighton to play for the Skinheads in june 2012, i hope to see some old friends there and meet all the new boys and girls
how is your carreer these days. (Well I can`t complain, since I`m back in 2005 a lot of great things been happening for me,I`ve been traveling the world knowing the drifferent Countrys, meeting different people, making new friends and new fans, I got the chance to put out two albums, three singles, coming out in April my new single with my new video, a lots concerts, lots of media connections etc. It`s been all good for me could be better, but I`m happy with what I`ve got.
what has been the highlight of your musical life. (Well my highlights are all my hit records, Playing Wembley Stadium 1970, Been in a film with Sydney Poitier, Travel the world etc. there are so much more, but it goes on to long 🙂why did you go to switzerland.
In 1970,after the Wembley Stadium concert, our agent sent us to mittle Europe to Pioneer the reggae music,no one knew what reggae was then,So by touring around I`ve met a lovely lady in Switzerland in 1980, and she became my second wife in 1988, that`s why I stayed in Switzerland (The end !!
I keep being told to wrote a blog, so here are some thoughts that I thinked!There is no set topic, just my brain wave patterns expressed in words
I play drums so don’t be surprised if there are a lot of posts on the subject
Also tattoos … I have lots of tattoos.
Londoner
Twitter: @quinn_drummerSieg Heiling? Then piss off out of my gig!
Let me first of all get one thing straight. I’m a very liberal person. I believe whole heartedly in free will and that there are very few occasions that you should be told what you can and cannot do. I also believe whole heartedly that you are free to believe and think whatever you want to believe or think. This can be summed up in a famous quote by Voltaire, which I have tattooed on my back, “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”. I for one am not of any religious orientation what so ever and I’ll happily admit that I think anyone who holds any belief in a supernatural being that is solely responsible for the creation of an infinite universe with only one inhabited planet totally fucking nuts. But then those people will think exactly the same as me for believing, nay, knowing the opposite is true. However I won’t storm up to them and force them to try thinking the way I think or believe what I do, I will hold lengthy discussions on the matter come up on a stale mate and go home happy in the knowledge that I live in a country where I am free to do so.
I am exactly the same when it comes to politics. Absolutely everyone holds differing political views. Even if you are of the same political persuasion as someone else you are undoubtedly going to disagree on a number of things and how we should deal with them, which is why you can talk for hours down the pub with your mates on one issue and all throw up different ideas and opinions on it and leave pondering things that may never have occurred to you before.
The reason I write this is because I play in a band, well several bands actually, but this particular band I speak of today is the London Diehards. We are an Oi band, from in and around London (obviously) formed a few years back and I have been playing with them for about a year. In that time I have seen so much shit flying it’s like being stuck in a wind tunnel with 1000 diarrhetic elephants after a curry eating contest. It seems everywhere we turn someone is trying to convince the world we are right wing, Nazi loving, ethnic hating band that is intent on spreading our racial hatred where ever we go. This is simply NOT TRUE.
There is one individual that is famous for this that anyone with even the slightest of connections to the UK Oi scene will know by name. He seems to find joy in running Facebook groups and blogs and websites dedicated to smearing the name of many a good band on the basis of incorrect rumours, miscalculated and ill informed connections and general lazy fact gathering. Now it is not he that I am here to fire down, that’s why I haven’t put his name in print. The people I am here to fire down are the selfish, idiotic, racist scumbags that tarnish an almost unblemished UK Oi scene. I am talking about the unwelcome far right of our group that seem to find it acceptable to turn up at a show and start throwing Sieg Heils left, right and centre in front of a band while they are playing. Now personally I really could not give two fucks where your political allegiances lie, if you want to frog march every one of an ethnic background out of the country then so be it. It’s never going to happen, chances are if you tried you’d end up incarcerated quicker than you can say Islamic Fundamentalist, which is actually a very long time judging by some news footage of EDL members on demonstrations. Just remember this, chances are your GP, Doctor, Fire Fighter etc is of ethnic origin and chances are one day you’ll need him or her to save your life.
Anyway as always I digress somewhat. I am not altogether against anyone that leans heavily on the far right pillar coming to our shows, you have as much right as anyone else to attend. What I do object to is having you stand their throwing Nazi salutes wearing fascist symbols on your jackets and stomping around having your picture taken while we are on stage … or even while you are in the same venue as us frankly.
It’s hard enough for us to get gigs at the best of times because we’ve been tarnished and stigmatised with the far right. As it stands the venue for the show on Saturday was kept a secret to avoid it getting unwanted attention for ill informed left wing do gooders that think they are helping society by telling the venue owners that they had inadvertently given permission to the promoter to run the next Nuremburg Rally and even then the venue pulled the gig just a few days before it was meant to go ahead and we had to relocate everything from Hayes to Essex. And is it any wonder why? It’s not because the bands set to perform sing songs about our higher racial authority as White Brits, its not because we turn up to gigs to promote racial genocide of the masses of hard working foreigners that live in this country. It’s not because our singer used to be a member of the BNP (a rather ridiculous rumour started by same internet demon of the PC Mafia) and it’s not because we go on stage with a flaming cross as a back drop, because none of these things are true. It’s because a few selfish bastards who come to our shows, pay good money to get in and then stand at the front Sieg Heiling us and the rest of the crowd from the entire hour of our set. People take pictures at shows, these pictures end up on the internet and then because people see two or three small minded individuals throwing Nazi salutes around they put 2 and 2 together and make 5.
Apart from the fact it’s blindingly disrespectful to all the bands that play these shows, to the venues that are willing to put them on despite the rumours they hear and to the promoters that go out on a limb to put these shows on, it’s also making it more and more impossible for those shows to even happen. I nearly pulled the gig myself last night for reasons I won’t go into but that link to the content of this post. I assume you come to these shows to see us play, I assume you enjoy our music (most of you were wearing our band’s t-shirt so an accurate assumption I’ll presume) and I assume you want to continue for us to write and record music (music that if you actually bothered to pay attention to the lyrics and the context you’d realise were predominately working class, slightly left wing, anti-government, anti-terrorist [but not anti-Islamic or any other religion or culture], anti-hate songs) and play shows, then for fucks sake stop giving fuel to the internet trolls that sit at computers all day with a metaphorical magnifying glass trying to find evidence that we, or any other generic Punk and Oi band want to purge this wonderful, multi-cultural country of ours of all our non-indigenous population. Which is a completely bullshit phrase to use anyway because none of us are indigenous. Geography, History and Science would all seem to agree that we migrated over thousands of years starting our journey in Africa.
As I have said, believe as you wish, think as you will but please, if you want to Sieg Heil then piss off out of our gig and go and do it in front of Skrewdriver or Nick Griffin. You can all throw your hands into the air and praise Hitler in the sanctuary of your own far right meetings not at a Punk and Oi show and especially not at one I’m playing, because next time I might not be so forgiving and refuse to play meaning you’ll have blown £10 on a poxy arm movement.
Very rare book for sale, Best offer winsPenguin, 1972People who buy books are higher-class people. they don’t want to read this, they’ll say it’s lies. So says one member of The Paint House, a cooperative formed between a skinhead gang in the East End of London and two outsiders they encountered.
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