Category: Events

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Jenny Woo

Bootgirl Power – By Jenny Woo

When I was thirteen years old, I was miserable. I had acne, I had only hand-me-down clothing from my older sister (who was 3 sizes smaller than me), I had no friends, and worst of all, I felt like I didnt belong in any crowd. I was exposed to pictures, music videos, and songs from major mainstream pop stars, and I just could not relate. I had no idea what they were singing about. The supposed universal topics of broken hearts, dancing, and the expression of teenage sexuality all seemed like distant and irrelevant subjects to me. I knew that I would never look like them, I would never live their lifestyle, and more importantly, I knew I never wanted to be like them. I felt lost, different, and profoundly alone. Then, one day, my life changed forever.

I was in junior high, eating alone in front of my locker as was my usual routine, when I came across an old fanzine lying on the floor of my school hallway. One of the other students in the school had probably been reading it and accidently left it behind. Having nothing better to do, I started flipping pages. My eyes caught an image that I had never seen before in my life a woman with spiked up blue hair, studs all over her black leather jacket, and wailing on a guitar. It was a picture of Bekki Bondage, and that was my first exposure to women in punk rock. I decided then and there that instead of unsuccessfully trying to fit in all the time, I would do my best to stand out. I was inspired by Bekki outrageousness, her energy, her unfaltering self-confidence, and I made it my own mission to find that sense of passion and assurance in myself. I ripped the picture out of the magazine and pasted it into my locker as a reminder, and I’ve still got the photo after all these years.

Going punk was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. Instead of trying to squeeze myself into whatever teenage girl fashion there was at the time, I cut my own path and made my own clothes. I found that by creating my own aesthetic, I avoided a lot of the societal pressure placed on adolescent girls to look and act a certain way. Instead of focusing on my body image, I embraced the fact that I was a unique person with a multi-dimensional world view and personality. Through bands such as The Wednesday Night Heroes, Cock Sparrer, and Riot 99 I learned to triumph the values of authenticity, independence, and critical thinking, and I have no doubt that this subculture helped me create the strong sense of self that I have today. Punk rock is a potent medicine that I would prescribe to any young woman going through a crisis of confidence.

However, as the years went by I found myself getting more and more interested in oi! music, and eventually cropped in as a skinhead. I still loved punk, but I no longer felt the need to spike my hair out in a million different directions in order to show the world that I was different. I already felt the difference on the inside, and I wanted to find a subculture whose values incorporated not only the importance of being distinct, but also a sense of community, a sense of self-pride, and a sense of loyalty. I love the fact that oi! music is still working-class DIY music, but I also love the fact that behind its

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Dissension in the Ska Camp

Dissension in the Ska Camp

From April 26, 1964–”Something had to come after the Twist and it appears to be the ‘Jamaica Ska,’ just imported from the Caribbean island by dance lovers of New York’s jet set. Here, at Shepheard’s night spot, where the infectious new dance made its U.S. debut, lovely Carol Joan Crawford (left), Miss World of 1964, pays close attention to the dancers. The ‘Ska’ may be simply described as ‘up-beat blues with a shuffle rhythm.’ Its name evolved out of the sound of the guitar’s up-beat stroke. Miss Crawford, who also hails from Jamaica, is currently touring the U.S. for the first time.”

The premiere of the ska in America was controversial then, as it is now. I recently found an article from 1964 called “Dissension in the Ska Camp” that shows even when musicians were in the thick of it, it was a contested issue of who was included and who was excluded, who created it first and who was following suit. So I today I share this article that appeared in the Sunday Gleaner, April 26, 1964 that shows these topics were just as relevant and talked about then as they are now, even more so. The article has no byline so it is not evident who wrote the piece, but Ronnie Nasralla and Prince Buster chime in with their opinions.

First, let’s set the scene. Referenced in this article is the event at Shepheard’s Club, seen above in the photo. This nightclub was located in the Drake Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan. It was a hotspot. It was hip and posh and cool. Big stars stayed at the Drake, including Frank Sinatra and Muhammad Ali and later Led Zeppelin and Slade. But Shepheard’s was also swanky and the hot dances of the day, like the Frug, were not only danced here, but unveiled here. So too was the Ska. Shepheard’s even produced a flyer called, “How to Do the Newest Discotheque Dances at Shepheard’s in New York’s Drake Hotel” with step-by-step instructions to dance the Jerk, Watusi, Frug and the Monkey.

The event at Shepheard’s Club was prior to the World’s Fair. This event was held in April, whereas the World’s Fair wasn’t until August of 1964. However, Jamaica’s tourism efforts began before the World’s Fair in anticipation of creating a buzz and capitalizing on the dance craze trend. You may remember the photo I posted with Arthur Murray’s wife and Ronnie Nasralla from this evening at the Shepheard’s Club, and above is another rare gem.

Without further ado, the article:

National sound hits New York but now the argument flares as to what it is and who started it!

DISSENSION IN THE SKA CAMP

LIKE a raging fire, the promotional tour of the Jamaican National Sound, the Ska, has started a smoldering in the underbrush of the Kingston music world from which this distinctive brand of music was born.

Everyone wants to prove who is the true exponent of the Ska and who originated it? What is the authentic style of the Ska dancing? Successful though the promotional tour to the U.S. was, enthusiastic though the reports which came back treat the appearance of a Jamaican troupe of dancers and artistes at the Shepheard’s Club, there is dissension in the camp.

Some artistes who made the trip say their sound was not promoted as much as certain other sounds. Some of the artistes say that some of the other artistes didn’t have a clue about Ska dancing and in fact did the Monkey, the Wobble, the Twist . . . anything but true Ska.

Reports from the other side say that the moves done at Shepheard’s were moves decided on and rehearsed for several nights, together, before the team left the island.

To the accusation that other records were promoted over others, we discover from Mr. Winston Stona of the Jamaican Tourist Board, a co-sponsor of the promotional venture that:

The junket to the Shepheard’s Ska dancing, backed up over recorded music. Shepheard’s is one of a current crop of New York Clubs called discotheques. In this night spot feature entertainment comes from records played on a large turntable, from an amplification booth much like the Jamaican sound system of the dance halls.

According to the Tourist Board spokesman, the promotional venture for the Ska, as suggested by Henri Paul Marshall and Roland Rennie, the music promotion experts who came to the island last month on the invitation of the Ministry of Development and Welfare, was that Ska records and not personal performances by the artistes, would be projected.

The records which were taken to Shepheard’s therefore, were a selection made on the suggestion of the experts who, on their visit to the island, listened to the work of various Ska exponents. The records chosen for promotion were the ones which the experts deemed most likely to catch on with the American public.

These records included the works of Prince Buster, Derryck Morgan, Eric Morris, and others known to the local Ska followers.

Why should there be dissension? Among the tunes featured at Shepheard’s was “Sammy Dead,” the old Jamaican folk tune restyled as Ska by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, featuring the voice of Eric Morris. Certain members of the troupe to Shepheard’s say “Sammy Dead” was promoted over other tunes.

According to Mr. Stona, “Sammy Dead” was actually played twice at the beginning and at the end of the programme of Ska records which he presented to the Shepheard’s audience.

It was also revealed that “Sammy Dead” which is to be released on a Capitol label in the States was specifically promoted on the request of Capitol records.

Prince Buster and the other early devotees of the Ska say this should not be so. And they throw in the argument that in their opinion “Sammy Dead” is not a true Ska tune and why should it be played even one more time than any of the others, which are reorganized as real Ska by the real Ska fans?

Prince Buster, who took the Ska to England where it is known now as the Blue Beat, was very expressive about this. He says he is one of the originators of the Ska and sees no reason why he and others, who worked together on the National Sound, should not have got as big billing.

But who really originated the Ska? As Buster tells it, it was back in 1958 that he, Derryck Morgan, Eric Morris and others used to meet on top of an old house situated on Charles Street near Orange Street. The meetings were inspired because “as boys together, we were looking at making a brand.”

He points out that a number of Jamaican musicians had tried adopting American shuffle sounds to their own style, but it didn’t really work. There was need for “our own sound.” So those meetings on top of the house was to find out just how to make things work, how to find a Jamaican sound which the fans would go for.

Down on the ground you might say the big sound system operators Duke Reid and Coxson were evolving their own sound. It was an adaptation of certain American shuffle tunes re-recorded for the sound system dance audiences. It is said that when the experimenters offered Duke Reid and Coxson the new Jamaican sound they would have nothing to do with it.

According to Buster, the new sound when it was evolved was referred to with great disdain by other musicians and by the public as the Boop-Boop. He even earned the name Boop. And when he and Derryck Morgan, for a promotional stunt, launched Boop-Boop songs deriding each other the public really went for their skins.

But out West, the thump of the Boop, later is to be called Sca, then Ska, was catching on. Musicians who had “boxed around” in various musical combos began to be reorganized as “Ska beaters.” Out west and on the east, they could tell you and still tell you about Drumbago who played the drums and Ja Jerry, Theophilus Beckford, and Raymond Harper, Rupert “Blues” Miller, and Stanley Notice.

These according to the fans and on Orange Street and (unreadable) where sound boxes thump through the Saturday night of every week were the original ska men.

As the craze progressed, getting popularity most of all on JBC’s Teenage Dance Party, other musicians joined the parade, cut dies, met for sessions, helped the sound to grow.

The fans began to acclaim Baba Brooks, Roland Alphonso, Lloyd Brevet, Lloyd Tate, Don Drummond, Lester Sterling, Johnny Moore, Lloyd Knibb and the men whose full names nobody remembers but rather a name like Jackie, Charlie, and Campbell. Later they were joined by the acclaimed pure jazz, tenor man, Tommy McCook.

The Ska caught on, spread and grew, most of all in the Saturday night sound system headquarters such as Forrester’s Hall, Jubilee Tile Gardens, Carnival and Gold Coast on Sundays.

Sound system operators worked feverishly to get the latest biscuits on disc. Early on release, they bore no labels, but the dance hall spies got the names eventually and the sound system which didn’t have the new biscuit last week, acquired it this week, to draw the fans.

It is interesting to find a parallel in the discotheques which began in Paris and spread to London and New York.

In the process of finding who should get credit for what, it is eye opening to hear Prince Buster saying that Louise Bennett played her part in the promotion of this peculiarly Jamaican sound and dance. He says that Louise’s life work of keeping alive the folk songs and rhythms of Jamaica is responsible for many of them coming back into popularity, set against the Ska beat.

Many of the musicians and artistes associated with the Ska movement are fairly young men. However, one of the acknowledged originators and Dean of the Sound has been playing music in Kingston for 46 years.

He is Drumbago the drummer who also plays a flute. His real name is Arkland Parks and (unreadable) Mapletoft Poulle and Frankie Bonnitto.

Drumbago, a mild mannered gentleman, says he and Rupert Miller, a bass player for 36 years, were in on the original search to find the sound which came to be called Ska. He explains their best arrangement of the sound as being basically four beats to the bar in eight or twelve measures.

“You get the sound according to how you invert the beats,” says Drumbago.

Another exponent of Ska and its various offshoots feel that the dance called Wash Wash has every claim to being truly Jamaican, for it is inspired by one of the basic Jamaican show dances … the wash day scene. This is a standard with many nightclub rhumba dancers, with many folk lore troupes.

So what constitutes Ska dancing?  According to the fanatics, true Ska motions are the wash wash, the peculiar washing motion of either clothes or the body, the press along, in which the  dancer thumps out the rhythm with his arms at shoulder level, the move (for which we found no

name) of spiraling down to floor level and back up, the one in which you moved the hips and pumped the arms in the opposite direction to the press along.

The fans say that while the extempore movements are allowed dancing the Ska, these are the definite basic movements which one must know to be IN.

Dissenters from the troupe which performed at Shepheard’s say these movements were not used fully or enough and that at one stage they heard a critic saying that what was being done was nothing new, it looked like a first cousin to the Twist. And that the Monkey and the Pony movements which were done were recognized as old hat immediately.

Mr. Stona says this accusation is not true. He found nothing but satisfaction for the presentation at Shepheard’s and is optimistic for the future of Ska promotion in the United States.

We contacted a spokesman for the Byron Lee and the Dragonaires outfit who made “Sammy Dead.”

He told of having heard the feeling expressed by some of the original Ska sound makers that certain orchestras now playing the sound were only cashing in and didn’t know how the sound began.

The Byron Lee spokesman—Mr. Ronnie Nasralla—says:

“For Byron Lee and the Dragonaires it’s not just cashing in. I know Byron feels that it is full time Ska was organized and promoted so that the best can be got out of it for the benefit of the artistes and Jamaica.”

According to Mr. Nasralla:

“Many Ska artistes were not properly protected or organized before Byron Lee has signed up several artistes for recordings and appearances and we’re taking all steps to see that they’re properly presented.”

“I’ve heard that some people say that Byron Lee is just promoting his orchestra. It’s not true. Sure, as a businessman he will look out for his investments, but let us stop quarrelling among ourselves and promote the sound not only for the good of one band but for all Jamaica.”

Whatever comes of it, Ska is going to be a talking point for many more months. Ironically, like most things, it was an art without honour in its own country until it was discovered somewhere else.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog when I will post a response to this article that appeared in the Daily Gleaner the following Sunday. Apparently the comments made by Ronnie Nasralla and Prince Buster struck a chord and a number of musicians responded with their thoughts, including Eric Monty Morris, Roy Panton, Ronnie Nasralla again, Alphanso Castro, Sir Lord Comic, and Roy Willis who respond with comments of their own.

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Mods and Rockers, Brighton Beach Riot 1964


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.

Crowd running on the beach

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

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Mods and Rockers fight it out, bank Holiday 1964

  1. 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.
Mods_Wild_Ones.jpg

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.

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Insta-Fest Punk Festival, Los Angeles, Cancelled due to paranoia about Skinhead element

Old Firm Casuals

News broke this morning that The Echo has cancelled what was to be the first installment of an event called Insta-Fest, to take place March 30. The punk rock festival, sponsored by Insta-Press Clothing, Durty Mick Records and others, was slated to feature a who’s who of international punk and oi bands, including Old Firm Casuals (featuring Lars Frederiksen of Rancid), Pressure Point from Sacramento and Toughskins, from L.A.

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Durty Mick announced the cancellation this morning via Facebook, alleging that, after the Echo management caught wind that the festivities would feature “the skinhead element” it decided to pull the plug.

Instafest Cancelled

As we’ve previously written, the skinhead scene in Los Angeles is non-racist and overwhelmingly Latino. Neither it nor any of the bands scheduled have any connection to Nazi elements, whose members are referred to as “boneheads.”

See also: Skinheads United: All Over L.A., Nonracist, Primarily Latino Skinheads Obsess on Classic Reggae and Soul

In their statement (which you can read in full below) Durty Mick Records took issue with the cancellation and The Echo’s management. “Their lack of communication and unprofessionalism is beyond words,” it says. (A representative from the Echo did not immediately return a request for comment; we will update this post when they do.)

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Insta-Fest certainly would not have been the first time skinheads have performed at the Echo. In November, reggae legend Roy Ellis performed there, while in June The Gaylads played to a packed house as well.

Still, the boots and braces crowd won’t want for something to do on March 30. Skamania!is presenting rocksteady legend Errol Dunkley at Los Globos.

Durty Mick Records statement:

After 6 months of planning, unfortunately Insta Fest will be cancelled.

The Echo at the last minute realized that some of the bands playing Insta Fest had band members and fans they referred to as “the skinhead element” and they do not want those types in their establishment. They now have decided to cancel this show two weeks before it was meant to happen. Their lack of communication and unprofessionalism is beyond words.

I would like to thank all the bands and people who have stuck by my side and helped me relocate after our first venue cancellation. Their tireless efforts to promote this event and to make sure it was going to be a success is immeasurable. However, sometimes things are not meant to be. I will be contacting everyone who purchased tickets via Durty Mick Records individually.

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Chelsea Headhunters Jailed

The end of a reign of terror

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.”

m.sullivan@the-sun.co.uk

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A View With Nu – #3

WEDNESDAY 13 + SUPPORT @ CONCORDE 2, 6TH MARCH 2013. 

Leaving my abode at 6:30 and wheeling down Brighton seafront in, I just couldn’t sit still.  The drizzling rain and icy cold didn’t stop me from hurtling down towards the venue, eager to see a band that I had been awaiting their return to the Sussex since Oct 2012. Upon my arrival I met up with a close friend of mine [Captain Morgan] whom has loved WEDNESDAY 13 since the age of 11, including many other blood hungry fans lurking around outside including the usual drunken weirdos! So, after I’d gotten myself the usual I was ready to hear some good n loud stuff from the first support ORESTEA, a five-piece, South East UK Rock band, continuing their ‘uplifting energetic musical approach’. I was somewhat a little surprised as to lovely the vocals were, powerful, empowering and inspiration were my first immediate thoughts. Although the structure of the band is a little to soft and basic for my taste, I felt the front-girl (Lisa Avon), presented us with a great show! Their most well-known songs are their self-release debut EP, ‘Shadows Of Yesterday’, and their 2010 release ‘Your Own Mistake’ – Official Video here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8jyhGx93fQ, Twitter : www.twitter.com/orestea, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oresteaband~

When the first support band had ended, I headed off to get some air, another drink and chat with others about 2013’s future line-up of gigs and festivals. Although the second support of the night wasn’t far behind so myself and my fellow head-thumpers (Rowan and Captain Morgan) made our way to the crowd gathering by the stage to get a good view. As the music started, there was a series of loud cheers from the barriers in front of the stage noting that SISTER, ‘The sleaze/punk influenced metal outfit’ from Stockholm in Sweden, slowing mooched out in front.  Their incredibly Gothic Ramone-like style was almost overwhelming as the screamed loudly at their hyper gathering. I was very impressed by the overall enthusiasm of the band and how the guitarist’s (Lestat) riffs were super fast! The drumming by (Cari) was making everyone around me thrash which in history of gigs, is always a good sign, but the backing vocals from all the members, including main vocalist (Jamie), really was the bath-bomb in the bloodbath! Some of my most liked tracks of the night included, ‘Too Bad for You’ and ‘The Unlucky Majority’. SISTER’s YouTube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/sisterofficial, Twitter : https://twitter.com/SISTER_official, Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/sisterband~

Even though I was psychically exhausted from waving my arms around, me and my friends were really pumped for seeing highlight of the evening ..WEDNESDAY 13. After I relaxed in my chair for a few minutes, the intro music (Death Arise) to The Dixie Dead, (WEDNESDAY 13’s new album), crept up slowly onto the audience, making us all scream in horrific passion. For those who don’t know this band very well, or have heard of them, I can tell you now, they are really amazing live and put on a terrifically terrorizing show! Their music genres between horror punk and psychobilly rock, which personally are my favorite sounds to rave around to at home, muahahaha!! So they began the insanity with ‘Blood Sucker’ motherfucker! My favorite song fro The Dixie Dead ‘Get your Grave on’ was played after and I must admit I went a little fan-girly when half-way through the show they played ‘I Love To Say Fuck’, after all it is my 4th ‘most played’ song on Itunes! Then, after a few other tracks (of which I was too pissed to remember), ‘I Walked With A Zombie’  was played and Wednesday 13 sang it brilliantly! It made the crowd go wild, front and back of the crowd, creating a small mosh for a few minutes.. was tempting to drive into hehe! After my frantic headbanging and spinning in my chair, the gig came to a gory/sweaty end, if which I almost fainted driving outside. All in all, a pretty fun frightening night and I definetly hope to see WEDNESDAY 13 again in the near future! ALSO I RECOMMEND SEEING THEM AT A VENUE NEAR YOU!!! Here are the tour dates for March 2013 starting from yesterday : The Fleece – Bristol [Thursday 7th March] TONIGHT! More dates here – http://wednesday-13.com/?page_id=2~ Come back soon guys!

Article By Naomi McAdam

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British Reggae History

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.

Jeremy Marre is the Producer and Director of Reggae Britannia

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Scuttlers! Hooligans! Street gangs are nothing new

The Scuttlers of Manchester

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.

A Scuttler gang [photo: Greater Manchester Police Museum]

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.”

Smoky houses in Ancoats (c) Manchester Libraries

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.

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–201

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Concrete Jungle Festival to X-ray Spex

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

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Doc Marten Boot company up for sale

British boot and shoemaker Dr Martens put up for sale by R Griggs Group

British boot and shoemaker Dr Martens has been put up for sale by R Griggs Group, which has owned it for more than 50 years. It could fetch as much as £120m.

The firm, which makes fashionable footwear in the style of the one pictured on the front of a shop in Camden, North London, is run by Max Griggs.

A giant Union Jack Dr Martens boot above a shop in Camden High Street, London

Best foot forward: Pre-tax profits at Dr Martens more than tripled last year

His father bought the design rights – originally standard boots for the German army – after the Second World War.

It was struggling to survive ten years ago, but revenue jumped 33 per cent to £110m last year. Pre-tax profits more than tripled to £15.3m.

Dr Martens has become an inconic brand, favoured variously over the years by punks, skinhead and goths and more recently once again in mainstream fashion.

The last year has seen Dr Marten open more stores in the U.S., which accounts for 42 per cent of sales, and also grew sales in Asia.

Current owner Max Griggs’ father, Reginald, bought the rights to Dr Martens boots from its German owners after the Second World War. The boots were originally designed by Dr Klaus Maertens. The signature air-cushioned sole was originally made with abandoned rubber from Luftwaffe airfields.

The first eight-eyelet boot – with its distinctive yellow stitching and black and yellow heel loop – entered production in the UK in 1960.

In 2000 Dr Martens moved production to China and Thailand. But R Griggs reopened the brand’s original factory at Wollaston, in Northamptonshire, in 2007 to produce vintage styles.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2096859/British-boot-shoemaker-Dr-Martens-sale-R-Griggs-Group.html#ixzz1lj0QwOnb

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Poly Styrene Xray Spex a legend of Punk Rock

Punk icon Poly Styrene dies at 53

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Punk icon Poly Styrene, former X-Ray Spex singer, dies aged 53

Punk singer Poly Styrene, former singer with the X-Ray Spex, has died at the age of 53 after suffering from cancer.

She was one of the first female punk icons, whose unorthodox yet infectious style was highly influential.

Real name Marianne Elliot-Said, she had cancer of the spine and breast.

A statement on her official Twitter feed said: “We can confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter, won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places.”

Singer Billy Bragg was among those who paid tribute, saying: “Punk without Poly Styrene and the X-Ray Spex wouldn’t have been the same.”

Poly Styrene formed her band after watching the Sex Pistols perform on Hastings Pier on her 18th birthday and became known for her unpolished vocals and energetic rallying cries against consumerism and environmental destruction.

Poly Styrene

Poly Styrene released her third solo album only a month before passing away

X-Ray Spex’s signature tune was Oh Bondage Up Yours!, a riotous rejection of social and gender norms that began with Poly Styrene’s spoken line: “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard.”

The band released just one album, Germ Free Adolescents, in 1978, before splitting up.

The singer went on to record a more subtle and subdued solo album, Translucence, in 1980, before retreating from the music industry to join the Hare Krishnas.

She moved into a Krishna temple in Hertfordshire with her daughter, and struggled with bipolar disorder.

Boy George – who once tried to break her out of the temple – wrote on Twitter: “I was a fan of Poly before I got to know her, she was a Krishna follower too, oh bless you Polly you will be missed! Legend!”

Former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock praised the “general joie de vivre nuttiness” shown in songs like Oh Bondage Up Yours!

X-Ray Spex with Poly Styrene, right

X-Ray Spex, with Poly Styrene, right, recorded just one album before splitting up

“She wouldn’t kow-tow to even what the punk fashions should be, I think that’s what that song is about,” he told BBC 6 Music.

“I did see her not that long ago so it’s sad. Again, somebody from the punk rock scene has died far too young and it’s a loss.”

Billy Bragg told the radio station that Oh Bondage Up Yours! was a “slap in the face” to male punk bands and rock journalists.

“It’s always hard for women in rock music but it was particularly hard in the 70s,” he said. “I think she cut right through that. The work that she did and the things that she produced always stayed true to that original spirit of punk.”

TV presenter Jonathan Ross said his first concert was an X-Ray Spex gig, adding that the singer had “changed lives”.

Poly Styrene occasionally re-emerged into the limelight, holding a sell out 30 year celebration of xrasy spex live at the Camden Roundhouse in 2007 and released her third solo album, Generation Indigo, in 2011

“I know I’ll probably be remembered for Oh Bondage Up Yours!” she told 6 Music last month. “I’d like to remembered for something a bit more spiritual.”

 From Concrete Jungle Festival to Xray Spex

What 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.I 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.

Continue reading Poly Styrene Xray Spex a legend of Punk Rock
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TKRS Radio

20/01/201228/01/20122012Time22:00 – 01:00EventTKRS: Out On The FloorVenueACE RADIO: www.aceradio.co.ukEvent DescriptionAs a result of the recent news that Ace Radio will soon be bidding it’s “Last Goodbye” at the end of January this will be my last show on Ace Radio.I’ll be playing a great mix of Motown, Stax, Atlantic and Northern Soul from the very early pioneers through the decades to the present day.Listen ‘LIVE’ on Saturday 28th January 2012 on Ace Radio – The Sound Of The Internet.
Time19:00 – 22:00 20/01/12
EventTeenage Kicks Radio Show
VenueACE RADIO: www.aceradio.co.uk
Event DescriptionTeenage Kicks Radio Show is sponsored by Eazeybeat Music, great CD’s at great prices at www.eazeybeat.co.ukWe’re really rocking here at the TKRS Studios at the moment and this weeks show is definitely going to reflect that mood. With some new CD’s supplied by the wonderful people at Eazeybeat Music, along with some amazing tracks sent in by some new unsigned artists, we’ve got some fantastic music to share with you.This is where the Teenage Kicks Radio Show comes into it’s own, this is what sets it aside from all the other shows broadcasting on the internet at the moment. This is “The Best” mix of Scootering sounds around, so don’t miss out!Tune in and join me on Ace Radio.ACE RADIO: www.aceradio.co.uk
TKRS Radio: www.facebook.com/tkrsradio
Eazeybeat Music: www.eazeybeat.co.uk27/01/20122012Time19:00 – 22:00EventTKRS: One Step BeyondVenueACE RADIO: www.aceradio.co.ukEvent Description”HEY YOU! DON’T WATCH THAT, WATCH THIS!”Let’s have one last skank before Ace Radio goes off-air!This is the best mix of Reggae & Ska, from the early days of Jamaican Calypso, to the Trojan Explosion of the 1960’s and the British Ska Revival of the late 1970’s, right through to the new bands keeping the sound alive on the live circuit today.Featuring the “Double-Shot”, two tracks from one fantastic artist! And not forgetting the “Totally Trojan!” section, thirty minutes of classic tracks from the Trojan archives.
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Indonesia Punks

Police in Indonesia‘s most conservative province have stripped away body piercings and shaved off mohicans from 65 youths detained at a punk-rock concert because of their perceived threat to Islamic values. The teens and young men were also stripped of dog-collar necklaces and chains and then thrown in pools of water for “spiritual” cleansing, the local police chief, Iskandar Hasan, said on Wednesday.

After replacing their “disgusting” clothes, he handed each a toothbrush and barked: “Use it.”

It was the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, the only province in this secular but predominantly Muslim nation of 240 million people to have imposed Islamic laws.

Here, adultery is punishable by stoning to death, gay people have been thrown in jail or lashed in public with rattan canes, and women must wear headscarves.

Punk rockers have complained for months about harassment, but Saturday’s roundup at a concert attended by more than 100 people was by far the most dramatic.

Baton-wielding police broke up the concert, scattering young music lovers, many of whom had travelled from other parts of the sprawling archipelagic nation.

Dozens were loaded into vans and brought to a police detention centre in the hills, 30 miles (60km) from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, for rehabilitation, training in military-style discipline and religious classes, including Qur’an recitation.

They will be held there for at least 10 days, after which they will be returned to their parents.

One 20-year-old detainee, Fauzan, was mortified.

“Why? Why my hair?” he said, pointing to his clean-shaven head. “We didn’t hurt anyone. This is how we’ve chosen to express ourselves. Why are they treating us like criminals?”

But the police chief, Hasan, insisted he had done nothing wrong.

“We’re not torturing anyone,” he said. “We’re not violating human rights. We’re just trying to put them back on the right moral path.”

However, Nur Kholis, a national human rights commissioner, deplored the detention, saying police must explain what criminal laws were violated by the youngsters.

“Otherwise, they violated people’s right of gathering and expression,” Kholis said, and promised to investigate it.

Aceh was given semi-autonomy as part of a peace deal with Indonesia’s central government after the province agreed to end a separatist struggle in 2005.

were you there? if so we would love to speak to you, to get the real stories of what happened

anda Aceh. Rizal Adi Syaputra says he is a proud punk, but still prefers to hide his dyed red hair under a cap.

The 20-year-old is a member of one of the Aceh capital’s five punk communities that have become the latest target of the province’s Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah Police, and Public Order Agency (Satpol PP).

He spent 10 days in detention after being picked up by the Shariah Police, until his parents were able to secure his release.

“I was released recently,” Rizal said. “The officers did not shave my head because my mother told them she would cut my hair off herself. This is why my hair is still intact and not shaven off like my friends.

“There are punks whose heads have been shaved clean by these officers, possibly with the consent of their parents.”

Rizal said his parents were forced to sign a contract with the Shariah Police promising not to repeat his offense. But he said he still had no idea why he had been detained.

Marzuki, who is the head of investigations at Satpol PP and the Shariah Police in Aceh, told the Jakarta Globe that the raids on punks in Banda Aceh were in accordance with existing regulations in the province

“These raids have been verbally sanctioned by the Aceh governor and police chief, and we have received permission through writing from the Banda Aceh mayor,” he said, adding that young punk communities were a public nuisance.

“The presence of punks bothers the general public,” he said. “They are involved in theft, brawls, attacks and assaults in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. They are criminals. Their actions are against Acehnese culture and violate Islamic Shariah law.”

At least five punks are currently being “rehabilitated” at the Satpol PP offices through religious studies, Marzuki said.

“They will only be released if their parents pick them up and sign a contract promising that they will not continue what they are doing now,” he said.

“Parents have thanked us because they have been unable to knock sense into their kids who have been influenced by this punk culture.

“If we catch someone three times after having undergone rehabilitation with us, we will hand them over to the police. We only arrest those who have committed crimes.”

Rizal told the Jakarta Globe that he and five friends from the Museum Street Punks community were arrested while they were hanging out at the Blang Padang field near the city center one Saturday night.

He said he joined the punk community in 2009 because he wanted more personal freedom and an outlet to create art.

“We asked the Satpol PP officers why we were being arrested; we were just sitting there,” Rizal said.

He was speaking on the side of a demonstration on Thursday protesting the Shariah Police’s targeting of punks.

“We asked them why we were being arrested, but the Satpol PP officers stayed silent. They did not tell us anything,” he said.

“We, as members of the Museum Street Punks, have never committed any of the acts they have accused us of. We are only involved in social activities,” Rizal said, adding that he and his punk friends had even raised money for the survivors of last year’s Mentawai tsunami.

At the demonstration on Thursday, members of the five punk communities sat together and sang in protest.

The demonstration’s coordinator, 19-year-old Juanda Syahfitrah, said they were angry about the accusations by the Satpol PP and the Shariah Police that punk communities were criminal groups.

“Punk kids are not criminals. We detest the stigma that has been laid on us,” he said, adding that Banda Aceh was home to more than 100 members of different punk communities.

“We have been here forever. Why are they [the Satpol PP] only now arresting us through no fault of our own?

“We are just young people who want to create art, but not for money. We have every right to organize and express ourselves.”

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Infa Riot

STILL OUT OF ORDER!

There aren’t many bands that appeal to both Punks & Skins equally but Infa Riot certainly crossed both genres and have equal amount of respect from both camps. A lot of people nowadays think Oi = Skinhead, but a closer look at the early Oi albums will show that there were more non skinhead bands on them than there were people with shaved heads. It was a working class thing. Terrace bootboys, Punks, Skins, Herberts – Oi! was an ATTITUDE and Infa Riot had plenty of that.

Originally formed in early 1980 by vocalist Lee Wilson and his bass playing brother Floyd, together with guitarist Barry Damery and drummer Mark Reynolds, they soon impressed with their brand of boots and braces punk.  So much so, they found themselves in ‘Sounds’ with a glowing review of their fourth gig at Hornsey community centre, courtesy of Upstarts vocalist Mensi.

Mensi said “Every time I see them I think, yeah! This is what it’s all about, ordinary kids getting together for a bash.  Gutter level, a garage band, no pose, no shit, just get on with the job.  Protest, hate, love, all bottled up and let out in a stream of catchy energetic songs.  Punk. What it’s supposed to be”.

By November 1980 they managed to blow both Chelsea and The Dark off the Lyceum stage and earnt themselves the tag the ‘new boot boys sensations’ in the endless fanzines they managed to appear in.  Lee Wilson enamoured himself with the eighties punks declaring “our crowd are the same age as us.  Pursey’s nearly thirty, he’s got no relation with the crowd.  The time is right to kick out all the has-beens.  It’s time for a new generation of bands.  Punk’s about ordinary geezers – punks, skins, bootboys”.

Catching up with Lee now he might not remember saying that (he loved Sham back in the day) but he concedes, “Floyd and Barry were still at school when we started out. The drummer and I were a bit older at 17”. So what were the gigs like for these kids of the eighties? “They were brilliant gigs” Lee reminisces, “I particularly remember Liverpool and Edinburgh as we did an afternoon gig for the under 18s and then went back on again in the evening. All the gigs were brilliant, apart from the spitting which they did back then if they liked you”.

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Mexico

Mexico

Compared to European and North american, the emergence of Mexican Skinhead Culture is more recent, but we consider it one of the largest and most established in Latin America

There are no clubs dedicated to Jamaican music regularily, but the gigs are held in various locations tailored just for the night. Despite this, we had the oppertunity to see international dj’s such as Alphonso Sacristan and Lola Diez, Jim mFox, Tommy Rock a shacka, Ryan White, Mark Morales and Hot Sound System, Ash Aquarious, Tiny T, Malene Soulful and jurassic Sound System, sharing the stage with our own Mexican DJ’s who are increasingly building their collection of Jamaican music for our entertainment.

The mexican scene is not only limited to sound systems, live shows with a long list of artists who continue to visit our country, playing their songs in the largest venues in the country, or in small clubs adapted for the event, giving a nice intimate event for a loyal following.

Artists thast have performed in Mexico range from the Jamaican classics, like the Skatalites, Desmond Decker, Max Romeo and Uroy, british 2tone bands The Selector, Babmanners. third wave  bands like the Aggrolites,Toasters, Los Intocables, The Slackers, Skalariak, Tokyo ska Paradise Orchestra, Skaparapid and many more.

Recently we have had Roy Ellis and Los Grenadians participating in a festival to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Skinhead Subculture. a very  Memorable show last December by The Stranger Cole. This festival was organised by, and for skinheads

Many people throughout the whole republic come to enjoy the great events, as there are fans all over the country. The Majority of shows happen in the Capital, Mexico City

Thanks to Daisy Uribe, aka Jamaican Jukebox

If you heading for the sun stop off in Mexico City

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Other Subculture Websites to check out

England

http://punk.meetup.com/

http://www.ukskinheads.co.uk/

http://www.captainoi.com/

http://www.rebellionfestivals.com/

http://www.warriorclothing.org/uk/shop/

http://johnrobb77.wordpress.com/

Brazil

http://skarevolution69.wordpress.com/

Scotland

He-who-cannot-be-named Interview

http://www.scottishskinheads.co.uk/

France

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001818067028

Germany

http://www.mad-tourbooking.de/pages/tour.html

czech

http://bootsandbraceszine.blogspot.com/2011/07/gig-by-twisc-skins.html

Sweden

http://www.kjellhell.se/

usa

http://www.mohawksrock.com/

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The Last Resort

The Last Resort are a name synonomous with the Oi! movement both as a shop catering for those of the skinhead persuasion and lifestyle in the ‘80’s. One of the iconic bands of that era, whose reputation far outweighed their recorded output, this has resulted in the band being given legendary status despite only being together originally for little over a year between 1980 and 1982, with their first gig being as support to the Originals, featuring soon-to-be Last Resort bassist Arthur Kay at Acklam Hall in West London on March 4th, 1981.

Following this gig, the band put out the first ever cassette-only release on the Cringe Music label, which was sold over the counter of the aforementioned shop and whose tracks featured heavily in Garry Bushell’s Punk and Oi! Charts through Sounds, the music paper of its day. The band got together originally in 1980 after Roi had seen a band called The Rivals rehearsing, following this, he met up with a guitarist called Charlie Duggan. Graham Saxby was then recruited on vocals, and at a Rivals gig they found a drummer called Andy Benfield.

As stated, the name Last Resort came from a shop owned by Micky French who happily agreed to let the band share the name. Following on from the first gig and cassette release, Saxby left the band in early 1981, with Roi taking over on vocals and Arthur Kay being recruited to take over bass duties. This line-up played on the “Strength Thru Oi!” and “Carry On Oi!” album tracks and recorded the band’s first album, “Way Of Life – Skinhead Anthems”, which was originally released on their own Last Resort records in 1982.

The band then split-up as a result of getting blamed for violence at or near their gigs, which were nothing to do with the band; and were blown-up out of all proportion by the anti-Oi! media feeling at the time. The band along with The Business and the 4-Skins (who Roi later joined as vocalist) were playing at the Hamsborough Tavern in Southall when it was attacked and burnt to the ground by misguided locals.

Following this split, there was a reformation of sorts in 1988 when Arthur and Andy, contacted Roi to reform the band, bringing in Mark Edwards from The Rivals on lead guitar. However when Arthur and Andy dropped out, Roi recruited Dean Wilkinson on drums and Mick Melville on bass to complete the band, which was called The Resort. This line-up released the “1989” album, before splitting-up at Christmas 1990.

The current line-up of the band featuring Chris Jones on drums and former Anti-Nowhere League personnel, John “J.J” Pearce on bass and Keith “Beef” Hillyer on guitar alongside Roi of course, got together in Millennium year, 2000 and immediately recorded an eight track demo, featuring both old and new songs including “Working Class Kids” and “Held Hostage”, originally released on the first cassette!

This line-up was originally going to be called Millwall Roi and they released the first fruits of the line-up via the track “We’re Gonna Get You” on the “Addicted To Oi!” compilation through “Captain Oi! Records”. They also contributed “Wonderful World” and “Chaos” to the 4-Skins release, “Secret Life of the 4-Skins”, again through Captain Oi!, and covers of “Gotta Go” as Millwall Roi and “She’s A Skinhead Girl Warrior”, actually as Last Resort to the “Worldwide Tribute To The Real Oi! – Vol 2” compilation on Triple Crown Records.

It wasn’t until 2002, however, that the band finally began to use the Last Resort moniker as German Festival Organisers M.A.D. assured the band that this name was the one that the fans would more readily identify with. So Last Resort were officially reborn, playing the “Punk and Disorderly Festival” in 2002. Since that gig, the band have also played in France, Belgium, Sweden, Spain and England, playing their first home country gig in 21 Years at the Hounslow Rifleman in 2003.

Other notable appearances since that time, have seen the band play at the “Beer Olympics” in Atlanta USA, without Roi!!!, the “Full Force Festival” in Germany, “Wasted” in England on a number of occasions, “The Fury Fest” in France and “Punk and Disorderly” a further couple of times. The band have also announced their intention to the Punk World by releasing their aptly titled comeback album “Resurrection” through “Captain Oi! Records” in February 2005, which was far more powerful and hard-hitting than their earlier releases, featuring old Resort songs re-worked, prime covers and some great new material.

* The Last Resort is says that the Worldwide Tribute To The Real Oi (vol 1&2) were Triple Crown releases. These actually weren’t. Both these releases are I Scream Records releases which (at the time) were licensed out to Triple Crown for North America.

In 2009 I Scream Records signed The Last Resort and released “You’ll Never Take Us; Skinhead Anthems II”.

Thank you.

* Kindly added by

Laurens Kusters
I Scream Records
PO Box 310344
Brooklyn, NY 11231
USA

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Antipati

Antipati is:

Radar – Vocals & Guitar

Robban – Vocals & Guitar

Pelle – Vocals & Bass

Johan – Drums

The band started in 2006 with members from Contemptuous, Dobermann Cult, Östermalm Boys, Sthlm Celtics, Headed for Disaster, The Righteous etc. We are influenced by punk in most forms and of all colours, friends, beer, working life, nostalgia, commieblocks and life in general. Antipati sounds like classic Stockholm skinhead punk played by people with great record collections, brains, muscles and attitude

After the Sleepless EP (which featured also as a bonus songs on last full length album Frågor som rör almänna) is out another EP of Swedish streetpunk band Antipati, now with Italian pizza title Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons). In band is vocalist Roban who you may know from The Righteous and the other members play also in reunited Agent Bulldogg. Band has two guitars and in two songs keyboards were used. On EP you will find four songs which are in relationship with the title of the EP so on A side there is Sommarpsalm (Summer Psalm) and Hösten (Autumn) and on B side Vinterhymn (Winter Anthem) and Våren (Spring). Antipati is based on melodiousness of their songs which is reflected in refrains and vocals time to time sang without musical instruments (like in summer song for example) but also on guitar solos (the good one is in autumn song and at the end of the spring song). I winter song you can hear a melody taken from refrain part of summer song. It reminds me little bit Booze and Glory in some ways. All songs are played with amazing ease which shine from the whole music. To EP is no paper with lyrics which is pitty because I want to know what can streetpunk band sing about four seasons. Cover is done as a gatefold with thankslist and band line up on the back side. The cover has very original graphic design and it is done by Sergio from BSOi! Records. EP is limited to 500 copies like other EP´s from Swedish Streetpunk Collective Series. It´s a pitty, that on cover is no band photo. Instead of this EP band has released also this year 10´´ split with Last Rough Cause on Randale Records and I have to buy it somewhere and you, who like quality and melodic stuff, you should do it also. 

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Peter and the Test Tube Babies

Make no mistake! Peter And The Test Tube babies have written some of the best punk songs ever. In the early ’80s they stood out, above all other bands to emerge, with their tales of the hazards of being young punks in Brighton – “Banned From The Pubs”, “Intensive care”, “Run Like hell”, the list goes on…all had the Test Tubes hallmark, combining personal experiences, real cool tunes and, most important of all, maintaining a great sense of humour.

At the time, their gigs were fun filled events with electrifying tunes and plenty of entertainment. Harmless humour of those early gigs was captured on their debut album, “Pissed And Proud”. From those early gems, the Test Tubes just got better and better. The next crop of songs, “Jinx”, “Blown Out Again” and “September” all featured on “The Mating Sounds Of South American Frogs”, which stayed at number one for four months at the top of the independent charts. A US tour followed, climaxing with a 4,000 capacity sell out show at the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium.

The Test Tubes first US domestic release, “Soberphobia”, is probably one of their finest moments. The use of keyboards and sax on some tracks may not have been what people expected but it worked a treat. The much sought after CDs “Cringe” and “The $Hit Factory” again proved the Test Tubes unpredictability in the early ’90s.

The mid ’90s saw the release of “Supermodels” and the departure from the band of Trapper and Ogs (bass and drums). The band brought in fresh blood, the young and dynamic Cave man Dave and ‘H’ known to the band and a Brighton stalwart on drums and bass respectively.

On their 20th anniversary in 1998 the band flew to Germany to record the “Alien Pubduction” album.
Peter, Del, H and Dave hit the studio again in the twenty first century in 2005, after a seven year hiatus, the band released “A Foot Full of Bullets”, recorded at Ford Lane Studios, Ford, West Sussex. The album was definitely worth the long wait demonstrating a familiar core sound matched with smart self assurance gained from decades of experience. Storming on with characteristic vigour, the Test Tubes gained praise as “the best band of the weekend” (Lars Friedrickson) at the WASTED festival before closing the year with the annual German Xmas Tour 2005.

A remix of “A Foot Full of Bullets” was produced with contributions from Campino (Die Toten Hosen) and Olga (The Toy Dolls) at the start of 2006. “For a Few Bullets More” was released in August.

2010 and the band are back at at Ford Lane Studios in the midst of recording their latest offering ‘Grandad’s House’ (working Title).

The Test Tubes remain one of the best punk bands to come out of Europe. See them live if you get the chance !

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Buenos Aires Punk

It was not long after an adolescent called Pedro came back from a holiday in London in December 1977 that punk started in Buenos Aires. He had travelled with his parents to visit his European family and came across with punks in the streets and the Sex Pistols and The Clash first albums in the record shops.

He was amazed by the style and raw sound, and since Argentina was under a brand new Military Dictatorship –fortunatelly the last that the country suffered- he realized that the setting was ideal and inspirational to import and create the most rebel kind of rock ever to exist on Earth that had just been born in London.

He soon learned to play the first chords on a guitar, adopted the nickname Hari B and Los Violadores, the first and most succesfull Southamerican punk band was on stage very soon.

Songs about repression, against the Government and its involvement in the Falklands War marked them as subversives and revolutionaries and almost all concerts ended with both musicians and the audience spending the night in cells.

“We were very influenced by Stiff Little Fingers music and lyrics, we thought that them coming from Belfast, they felt the same way as we did. They had Land Rovers, tanks and armed soldiers in the streets just like we had Black Marias and uncovered police waiting outside the venues we played to nick us”, he said in an interview.

In 1988, I was 14 years old and had been listening to Los Violadores and the local releases of
Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones, Madness and PIL for more than two years. A compilation of local punk bands called Invasión 88 was released and out of it came Comando Suicida, an Oi! band, and Attaque 77, both recognized among punks worldwide.

Another successful band, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, bursted that same year and brought ska and two tone on every radio station so we learned about Mod and Ska as well.

I was hooked and amazed. I realized that this was the music I really loved. Suddenly, most of my friends were into it and we became a gang of teenagers leaving childhood behind, going to concerts, roaming the neighborhood streets and parks, making a racket with instruments and trying to look the part, in contrast to normal kids or those who chose other musical styles (Metal or Hippie were very popular back then).

Thus, getting clothes was very important . The boots came from the National Service surplus, the braces from our Grandparents wardrobe and the Fred Perry´s from a tennis or golf shop from a High Street.

mport records were hard to get and expensive, but a trip to a record shop downtown was typical on a Saturday afternoon or on weekdays after school. We would check out the layout
of the album covers meticulously to see how Jimmy Pursey had painted in white
the collar of a leather jacket in Live And Loud Vol 1,  what brand of shoes The Business wore on Welcome To The Real World and how long was Wattie´s Mohawk on The Exploited On Stage.

Import records were hard to get and expensive, but a trip to a record shop downtown was typical on a Saturday afternoon or on weekdays after school. We would check out the layout
of the album covers meticulously to see how Jimmy Pursey had painted in white
the collar of a leather jacket in Live And Loud Vol 1,  what brand of shoes The Business wore on Welcome To The Real World and how long was Wattie´s Mohawk on The Exploited On Stage.

At that age, 14-16,  you hardly understood politics and you certainly did not care about it. All we knew, because of the songs we listened to, was that all coppers were bastards and all politicians had to be hated because they were liars, thieves and cheaters.

We liked to see ourselves as Anarchists because of the Sex Pistols and Crass thing so after painting a couple
of big As in circles on the walls we decided to go further and take it seriously. We tried picking up a couple of books by the likes of Proudhon and
Bakunin in the Anarchist Library, which was kind of a hippie- nerdie place full of pseudo revolutionaries. We understood fuck all of those books; it seemed like we had to study to be punk rockers.

We had too much school homework to do, so there was no way for us to read that. I even tried with Nietzche´s The Antichrist!!!. What the fuck???!!! After five pages, I was already reading again the only punk book written in Spanish at the time, Punk La Muerte Joven or kicking the football in the backyard with my army boots to make them look dirtier and older.

All we wanted to do was listen to music, buy records, go to concerts, get drunk, get stoned, fuck girls –we did not fuck but we tried more than a kiss or nipple touch- and fight against or take the piss of anyone who did not like us.

There was no Nazi / Sharp / Red / Anarchist nonsense at the time. Both punks and skinheads were seen as youth gangs who stood their ground and brought a new breed of music and image to a decadent and boring Argentinean rock scene. And we sure changed it.

Where were you in 1988?

Submitted by Mariano, Argentina

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LA Reggae

It all started with punk rock fever throughout Los Angeles.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and I was influenced at an early age, by the Punk Rock and Oi! Movement. I was introduced to the skinhead scene during the summer before I entered high school, that was my introduction to a brilliant well-respected culture.

The skinhead scene in L..A  is large and widely diverse, not all are united, but share the same passion for their culture and music. Before I was introduced by the older skinheads in my city, to the reggae and ska allnighters, I was drawn to the heavy reggae sounds and ska beats. The scene is, and was, very active, everyone dressed in their button-down Ben Sherman shirts and their freshly polished loafers or Doc Martens.

The heavy sounds of Reggae and Ska bursting through the sound system, caused a wave of euphoria through the crowd of sharply dressed youth. There is a variety of styles and cultures at our L.A. Reggae clubs ranging from Mods, to Rudeboys, and on occasions punk rockers. Our monthly clubs range from Reggae, Ska, Northern Soul, Rocksteady, and 60’s sounds. Some of the most popular clubs that have been around for many years are; Hotshot Sound system, Angel City Soul Club, Soulside, Trojan Lounge, The Long beach Sound Society, and Intensified.

We also have our weekly club. The Rocksteady Lounge known for its early Rocksteady beats and its young and well dressed crowd. Soulside hoste the Soul Invasion rally every year. The rally consist of rides , reggae , soul, ska and a friendly atmosphere , making it a place to meet new and old friends and create unforgettable memories. So if you are ever in mycity, come and check out our reggae clubs.

Everyone is welcome, leave your politics at home and bring you dancing shoes! Since the advent of ebay clothing has become a little easier to get hold of, we like to wear the British styles, like Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and take the more traditional look, rather than the American Hardcore version, popular among some USA Skinheads. The only shop we have here selling the stuff off the peg. is a shop called posers, which sponsors some of our events, its been around for over 20 years in name, but has changed hands once or twice in that time.
sent in by Mod Moi