A few years ago, i flew over to USA to see friends in California. But also, to go see one of my friends bands, called Cock Sparrer. As we drove down from LA to The Great American Music hall in San Fransisco, listening to the car radio, it really struck me, how important British music is to the world. Here i was heading down to a sell out show, by an obscure punk band, in the cool capital of the world. The average British person, would have never heard of this band.
Everywhere you go, you will find it playing. its not only The Rolling Stones, Beatles and Elton John, or Oasis, but Punk Rock, Indie, 70’s, 80’s and every other decade of popular music. The same in Argentina, Brazil, Scandinavia, all across western Europe and beyond. Gone are the days that Britain is known for military, or railways. Whatever Governments have come and gone, British music has found its way to every corner of the Globe. A major export, not only for financial benefit, but for British cultural benefit. The welcome you get as a British person, in so many countries, is due to the love affair many nations have to our, British Music. Many of those music fans making a pilgrimage to the UK, to see where it all began.
But before it reaches those places, it is a seed in a kids garage, then a local pub. if they get lucky, they step up to the next town or city, playing their songs, working, promoting, and slogging away. One in a thousand, then get a bit of radio play, a larger gig, a record deal. One in 20.000 get BBC acknowledgment. A hard , hard career to follow. With no support from the UK Government. There are many reasons why live music, is in such a bad state. No more Top of the pops, no financial support, a lack of imagination with record labels. But the extremely high price of beer, is killing pubs at a rapid rate. Every town, is being raped, of the grass roots venues. Venues being sold off for development, for a fast profit.
Symond Lawes.
Independent venues are more than just places to see bands – they’re at the heart of their communities. But if the music industry doesn’t step in soon, we’ll be writing even more obituaries for these vital outposts of culture
What makes a great venue? From the perspective of musicians, it’s when owners realise that good customer service is at the core of everything they do. Give the musicians the basics so they are able to do their job. That includes a comfortable and warm backstage room, plenty of time for a sound check, a respectful crew and a good sound system. Most of these things can be achieved with common sense more than money. But can owners of venues really raise the bar if all they offer is a fridge stuffed with Red Bull? Sadly the lack of resources is keeping standards too low for independent music venues in the UK, compared with, say, the rest of Europe.
Often, venues don’t feel like an artist’s home any more. They’re treated as normal, independent businesses rather than being valued as centres of culture in their communities. Venue owners are often former musicians and they are passionate about live music. But even the best of them are forced into dark alleys to survive, making compromises and potentially killing their passion for the music as it’s dragged down into the shit with them.
Last week, I was a panelist at Venues Day, a conference that was organised by the Music Venue Trust and Independent Venue Week about the future of independent music venues in the UK. I was asked to represent the point of view of the artist, discussing what makes a good venue great.
Mindofalion Live and raw in 2014. The grass roots of music, which becomes a worldwide export
Madame Jojo’s Placards outside Madame Jojo’s nightclub in London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images The event took place at the Purcell Room, in London. It was the first time I’d taken part in a conference. Venue owners from all around the UK had filled the room, and someone had told me the participants were “very angry”. I had no idea what to expect, although I knew very well that many small, independent music venues have been in crisis for a long time.
I got involved with the issue the day my favourite venue in London, the Luminaire, shut down in 2009. That day, I lost more than just a place to see live music – I lost my second home. As I walked into the Purcell Room, it was even more clear to me that the owners of such venues need help. They need money, and they need it now, or more of the hundreds of venues that are essential to the culture of the UK and the music business in particular, will follow the fate of Madame Jojo’s and the Buffalo Bar in London, which are each soon to become extinct.
“This has to be addressed at the very top of Government, Live music venues are the training ground for one of Britain’s largest exports, and Icon of pride, which excludes, no class, age or race“
The disastrous financial situation of independent music venues has direct consequences for everyone, including musicians. Take branding. No artist should have to play with a Jack Daniel’s logo on the stage if they don’t want to, or a Vodafone sticker on their monitors if they don’t want to. Artists should not become vehicles for advertising if that’s not how they choose to run their business. Don’t get me wrong, I am not 100% against branding; I understand the need to raise money. But the stage is a sacred place, and if a venue makes a deal with a beer company, it should not involve the musicians.
Let’s take another example: during Venues Day, many owners acknowledged that club nights are how they’re able to survive these days, which means they book two events in one night. Who can blame them? They need money. But what does it mean for the artists? Well, it means that even if they sell out a show, the promoter might book a club night to start after you finish. They eject you, your crew and your fans at 10pm, then a DJ comes in and a whole new crowd invades the premises. Instead of playing at 10pm, your show needs to start at 8.30, which means support bands have to play at a painful 7.30pm. Obviously, there is no time after the gig to sell your merch or to meet your audience. Not only does it kill the band’s small chance of making extra money, but it also kills guitar music. Who wants to see rock’n’roll at 8.30 at night?
Another iconic Music venue, the 12 Bar, on Denmark Street, London. Right in the heart of Britains world famous Tin Pan Alley. Been handed the death sentence, at the end of 2014, by Westminster council, In favour of commercial short term property speculators.
It is urgent that we find solutions to finance independent music venues which respect the spirit of live music and musicians. Artists are their customers, too, and we know that branding and club nights are not enough to keep some of our venues afloat.
How can we achieve this? One solution became apparent during the conference, where owners were joined by promoters and booking agents. Let’s do the maths: the venue owners need money and the large agents need to make a healthy profit. Got it? The last panel of the day, entitled What’s Next?, was supposed to address solutions available to venue owners. I took the mic to suggest that the industry itself should fund small venues. Agents, big promoters and venue groups should reinvest part of their annual profits into small venues. This is an idea my friend Andy Inglis, who used to co-run the Luminaire, has been talking about for years. After all, they belong to the same industry, don’t they? Just because small venues are the grassroots of the industry, that doesn’t have to mean they can’t benefit from the profits the others make.
I was surprised by the audience’s lack of response. The Music Venue Trust cautiously expressed its intention to create a charity system to support small independent venues, but I didn’t get the feeling it would pick up the funding idea and make it a priority. From what I understood, the two main ideas taken from the day were the need for tax cuts for small venues and an online resource for venues to share ideas and advice. Although it is important to begin with a couple of rallying points and get recognition from government, I still believe that music industry support is essential for the survival of independent venues.
At this point in the conference, I didn’t get a sense of much anger or desperation in the room. I could only assume people were too scared to speak up. Or maybe I’m totally wrong and most venues don’t want funding to come from the industry. I believe the idea is more popular among professionals than we think, but maybe it demands a bigger effort – or someone, a hero, to fight for it.
Next January, The band Savages and I will settle in New York City for three weeks to play a series of club shows. Sold out all nine shows in just one hour, which has never happened to us so fast before. Could this become a new model? Audiences love to see live music in small venues. Let’s hope they survive before we realise how much we needed them.
Find more information about Venues Day 2014, the speakers and partners on venues-day.com
CHESTERTON, IND.—Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music by Heather Augustyn has been published by Half Pint Press and is now available. The book is a comprehensive look at Jamaican vocalists, instrumentalists, record producers, dancers, wives, mothers, and deejays who helped to shape the course of Jamaican music on the island and worldwide. Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music is the fourth book from Augustyn on Jamaican music and culture.
The book features dozens of interviews with women who found a way share their talent in a culture and industry that was marked by brazen displays of masculinity. They endured harassment and received little or no pay to perform as backup or alongside or in front of the male musicians. They sacrificed family and home for a life in the spotlight, or they brought their babies with them on the road. They took over the studio and made it their own, or they suffered unimaginable violence, even murder. They changed the course of music all over the world. The book also features over 100 exclusive photographs and memorabilia that supplements personal narratives and archival material.
Heather Augustyn spent two years researching and talking to such women as Millie Small of “My Boy Lollipop” fame who rarely grants interviews, and she obtained photographs from her personal photo album. Others include Enid Cumberland of Keith & Enid who is now in her mid-80s; Janet Enright, the country’s first female guitarist who performed jazz in the 1950s; Marcia Griffiths of the I-Threes, Bob Marley’s backup singers, and vocalist for the Electric Slide, the staple of every wedding reception; members of the first all-girl ska band, the Carnations, featuring the parents of Tessanne Chin, winner of The Voice; Doreen Shaffer of the Skatalites; Patsy Todd of Derrick & Patsy and Stranger & Patsy; Althea & Donna, and dozens of others.
Augustyn is also author of Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World’s Greatest Trombonist, McFarland 2013; Ska: An Oral History, McFarland 2010; and Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation, Scarecrow Press 2013. She is a correspondent for The Times of Northwest Indiana and an adjunct professor at Purdue University’s North Calumet campus. She lives with her husband and two boys in Chesterton, Indiana. Songbirds Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music is available at Here and amazon.com.
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
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.
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.
Can you imagine grabbing a Red Stripe and heading into this dance at Shady Grove in 1956? Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd, Admiral Comic (or here, Kosmic)–what a night this must have been! It was 1956, before ska, so these sound system operators were spinning “rock ‘n roll” as the advertisement states–rhythm and blues secured from American. We know that Duke Reid and Coxsone traveled to the U.S. to obtain their records, but others purchased them from the sailors coming from the states in the ship yard. I wanted to take the opportunity in this blog to talk a little bit about Duke Reid, the one who helped to start it all, and share some advertisements I found from the Daily Gleaner that I find fascinating and hope you will too.
First of all, let me give a little background on Duke Reid, for those who might not be familiar with this Jamaican music hero. This passage from the Jamaica Gleaner, October 1, 1995, was written by journalist Balford Henry:
Arthur Stanley Reid was born in Black Rock, Portland, May 14,1923 [most accounts have his birth as July 21, 1915] . Although his birth certificate shows his mother’s name as Catherine Pearce, there is only a dash where his father’s name was supposed to be. After school, Reid moved to Kingston and joined the police. While in the force he met Lucille Homil and they married. He was kicked out of the police force when his superiors realised that he had moved in with his mother-in-law and was helping to run a grocery on Beeston Street. However, the 30 pounds they paid him off with, turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as he bought a couple of speaker boxes and started playing music outside the store. Friends encouraged him to go into music fully, and he eventually challenged and beat the then sound system King, Tom, the Great Sebastian. Tom moved uptown to the Silver Slipper Club in Cross Roads after this, leaving downtown at the mercy of the new champion sound system -Duke Reid, The Trojan.
Reid beat back the challenge of numerous other sounds, until he was humiliated by a young upstart named Clement “Sir Coxsone Downbeat” Dodd, who had travelled abroad as a farm worker and returned with some exclusives, including Roscoe Brown’s “Mr. Berry,” Coxsone’s virtual theme song. But, Reid also went on a hunt for the songs in the United States. It was difficult because, like other sound system operators, Dodd had scratched the name from the label. This meant that Reid had to listen to thousands of songs until he found it. Anthony (Duke Reid’s son) said that when his father, eventually, found the record in a Philadelphia shop, “he jumped in the air and laughed like a baby.” When he returned to Kingston, Reid threw out a challenge to Dodd, that he could play all his exclusives. The showdown was planned for Forrester’s Hall. Dodd turned up feeling that Reid was only bluffing. At midnight when Reid played “Mr. Berry” eyewitnesses said that Dodd fainted.
Reid returned to the top of the heap, but a disastrous attempt to develop a construction company, which was supposed to have received a contract to help build the Norman Manley Airport but never did, resulted in him having to declare bankruptcy in 1961. Anthony said that his father lost everything, including his sound system. But, he rebounded with a loan obtained through a home owned by his wife on Mountain View Avenue. Reid returned with a vengeance, formed his own labels, built his own studio, and reopened his liquor store after repurchasing 33 Bond Street. When Tab Smith’s “My Mother’s Eyes” was brought to his attention by a friend named “Cho Cho Mouth”, he made it his theme song.
The name Duke Reid and Treasure Isle are still very much identified with the instrumental. Reid died leaving one of the richest local musical legacies, which was still providing entertainment for millions world-wide, excepting that his family isn’t earning anything from all this success.
Duke Reid’s sound system, and Reid himself, was called The Trojan, after the make of his imported kit van he used to shuttle his equipment. Reid hosted his dances at the corner of Beeston Street and Pink Lane in the early days and then on Bond Street and Charles Street, as well as at other venues like the Success Club and Forresters Hall. It is to be noted that in the story relayed above by Anthony Reid to the journalist that Coxsone’s theme song was “Mr. Berry.” Other accounts, which have been corroborated, have that song being “Later For Gator” by Willis “Gatortail” Jackson, which Coxsone renamed Coxsone’s Hop,” and the event is to have taken place at Kingston Jubilee Hall with Prince Buster luring him there.
Reid was flashy and attracted attention everywhere he went. He frequently wore a crown on his head along with a red cape trimmed in ermine, bandoliers crisscrossing his chest and two guns at his side, one a shotgun on his left hip and a .45 on his right hip. Sometimes he even arrived to his dances being carried aloft on a gilded throne by his posse. He was known to fire his guns into the air at his shows in a display of his prowess as well as when he liked a song. He was also known to occasionally play with a live grenade. He presented a radio show on RJR called “Treasure Isle Time,” supplying the records from his sound system, promoting those from his studio, and paying for the airtime. The show was actually hosted by Adrian “Duke” Robinson, a J.B.C. disc jockey. From 1956 to 1959, Reid was the “King of Sound and Blues,” known for his rare, even exclusive 78” tunes he played at the sound system dances.
The sound systems had one function in these early days–to sell liquor. Duke Reid and his family owned a liquor store, so too did Coxsone Dodd and his family. Here is an advertisement that shows the duality of the liquor industry which birthed the music industry. Record collectors, what would you give to travel back in time to go to this sale!!?
I haven’t even talked about the legacy that Duke Reid has left us in the way of recordings, but instead focused here on his early days. Reid produced hundreds of recordings, helping to establish the careers of such greats as Alton Ellis, the Skatalites, Derrick Morgan, Eric Monty Morris, John Holt, Justin Hinds, the Melodians, the Paragons, Phyllis Dillon, the Silvertones, Stranger Cole, the Techniques, Tommy McCook & the Supersonics, and the list goes on and on. Share your memories and thoughts on the legacy of Duke Reid by commenting below. I leave you with this popular photo of Duke Reid in all his glory.
And below is an advertisement for Trojan trucks from the Daily Gleaner, 1959. Duke Reid’s had “Duke Reid – The Trojan King of Sounds” painted on the sides. He not only hauled his sound system equipment and records, but of course, his liquor.
The Xtraverts formed in 1976 at the outbreak of the punk movement. Creating music in a garage belonging to the guitarist Mark Reilly (Matt Bianco).
Playing classic venues such as the Roxy, Clarendon, the Greyhound and all over Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire they created a massive following from all over the country with gigs selling out nationwide. The Xtraverts appealed to the skinhead and punks alike and garnered a reputation for clashing with the local hooligans, while often a deterrent, it was also a draw to those fans wanting to revel in the atmosphere and feel part of the Xtraverts Crew.
The Xtraverts played with many the bands of the time, such as 999, The Vibrators, The Damned, Visage, The Satellites, UK Subs, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and many more. They also were part of the emerging punk scene playing alongside bands The Lurkers, The Slits, The Banshees, in 77-79, were regulars in the crowd and sometimes onstage at the Roxy
They released three singles in their early career, Blank Generation, Police State and Speed, which are now highly collectable records (especially the limited edition “puke” pressing of Police State). Their first album “So Much Hate” was released on Detour Records in 1978, and is still available in digital format today.
Their unique sound also appealed to a more mainstream audience, with appearances on John Peel’s radio show, a TV feature with Danny Baker and a show called Twentieth Century Box with Janet Street Porter looking at the impact of independent bands and labels on the popular music scene.
Over the years, many of the band members ended up in prison, however through quick changes and substitutions, the band carried on regardless. The death knoll for the band finally tolled however when singer Nigel Martin was imprisoned in 1980, the band finally naturally grew to a close. Without its front man and driving force, the musical direction faltered and the band members went their separate ways.
Over their relatively short career, the band had underground success with the single “Police State” and were Number 1 in both the Sounds and NME independent charts. While the band was enjoying its indie success former member Mark Reilly was topping the National mainstream charts with “Get out of your Lazy Bed” with his new band Matt Bianco. The Xtraverts past and present were enjoying a heyday that dominated across the music scene.
The band often made the alternative and oi! charts in sounds magazine in the early 80’s, and picked up a huge following, but circumstances and perhaps major labels not picking them up, like contemporaries, the Clash and Sex Pistols, the world never got to see the band.
30 years later,and after the death of bass player Mark Chapman, the Xtraverts, After meeting up with an old mate Symond Lawes, Manager of X-ray Spex and Concrete Jungle promotions, have decided to release some of their material, at the moment busily digging through the loft and remastering, what will always be pure Punk Rock. There may possibly be a one off gig, sometime in 2014…… Watch this space
“The Xtraverts were such a major influence on my life. Of all the Punk shows i have attended over the last 10 years, i have always thought, i would just so love to see the Xtraverts up on that stage. Lets hope that dream comes true, and the world get to hear such classic tracks”
Agent Bulldogg Started rehearsing in Thomas bedroom (much to his parents’ enjoyment) back in March 1986 after about half a year or so of talking about it, recruiting members and getting hold of equipment through various ways. After another year of learning, and a move to the legendary – in Täby anyway – Vita Huset (The White House) for rehearsals we played our first gig in the early summer of 1987. We played a couple of more gigs that year and also recorded a demo before original bass player Micke were replaced by Jens in early 1988. That line-up continued to play any gigs we could get, and also managed to record some songs who found their way onto a compilation album as well as recording our debut album – “Livsstil” (A Way of Life) – in 1990.
It wasn’t actually released until 1992 (on our own label) and by then Jens had left the band only to be replaced by Jarl. With this line up we played in Germany, Finland and Austria and also recorded our second album “Ett Tusen Glas” (One Thousand Glasses) – again on our own label – together with the new member Johan on saxophone and keyboards. When we released it 1995, Jarl had left and was replaced by Olof. We continued doing gigs, in Norway for instance, before original guitarist Andreas – more known as Bogh – decided that enough was enough and left. A friend of a friend’s friend then joined briefly, but that didn’t quite work out so Daniel stepped in for a while. However Olof moved to Switzerland and original drummer Magnus became both disillusioned and pre-occupied with his new job so he decided to leave as well. Olof stepped in to do some studio work and together with some help from a couple of other friends two tracks for the compilation album Brewed In Sweden were recorded and released 2002.
Thomas and Johan continued to write a couple of songs but with no other members available it started to fizzle out. However the band never officially broke up, so when a friend asked if we could play a couple of songs for his 40th birthday, Thomas and ex-bass player Jens teamed up with 3 members of Antipati to do so.
We got a few more offers of doing gigs so it just felt natural to continue with that line-up, although Reidar decide to leave due to other commitments a couple of years later.
Since then the band has played in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Poland and Spain as well as some festivals and other various gigs in Sweden, and also released a split 7″ with The Templars, contributed to a four band split (with Gimp Fist, Sandals and Booze & Glory) and released a new EP “Vi Är Tillbaks” (We Are Back…) on tour own label – as always. The current line-up is: Thomas (vocals), Johan (guitar), Robert (guitar), Jens (bass) and Thobbe (drums)
Agent Bulldogg are special guest at The Great Skinhead Reunion, and we will be all be helping them to celebrate Swedens national day, in Brighton, England June 6th -8th 2014
Agent Bulldogg Started rehearsing in Thomas bedroom (much to his parents’ enjoyment) back in March 1986 after about half a year or so of talking about it, recruiting members and getting hold of equipment through various ways. After another year of learning, and a move to the legendary – in Täby anyway – Vita Huset (The White House) for rehearsals we played our first gig in the early summer of 1987. We played a couple of more gigs that year and also recorded a demo before original bass player Micke were replaced by Jens in early 1988. That line-up continued to play any gigs we could get, and also managed to record some songs who found their way onto a compilation album as well as recording our debut album – “Livsstil” (A Way of Life) – in 1990.
It wasn’t actually released until 1992 (on our own label) and by then Jens had left the band only to be replaced by Jarl. With this line up we played in Germany, Finland and Austria and also recorded our second album “Ett Tusen Glas” (One Thousand Glasses) – again on our own label – together with the new member Johan on saxophone and keyboards. When we released it 1995, Jarl had left and was replaced by Olof. We continued doing gigs, in Norway for instance, before original guitarist Andreas – more known as Bogh – decided that enough was enough and left. A friend of a friend’s friend then joined briefly, but that didn’t quite work out so Daniel stepped in for a while. However Olof moved to Switzerland and original drummer Magnus became both disillusioned and pre-occupied with his new job so he decided to leave as well. Olof stepped in to do some studio work and together with some help from a couple of other friends two tracks for the compilation album Brewed In Sweden were recorded and released 2002.
Thomas and Johan continued to write a couple of songs but with no other members available it started to fizzle out. However the band never officially broke up, so when a friend asked if we could play a couple of songs for his 40th birthday, Thomas and ex-bass player Jens teamed up with 3 members of Antipati to do so.
We got a few more offers of doing gigs so it just felt natural to continue with that line-up, although Reidar decide to leave due to other commitments a couple of years later.
Since then the band has played in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Poland and Spain as well as some festivals and other various gigs in Sweden, and also released a split 7″ with The Templars, contributed to a four band split (with Gimp Fist, Sandals and Booze & Glory) and released a new EP “Vi Är Tillbaks” (We Are Back…) on tour own label – as always. The current line-up is: Thomas (vocals), Johan (guitar), Robert (guitar), Jens (bass) and Thobbe (drums)
Agent Bulldogg are special guest at The Great Skinhead Reunion, and we will be all be helping them to celebrate Swedens national day, in Brighton, England June 6th -8th 2014
Scores of youths have been given prison sentences following a Whitsun weekend of violent clashes between gangs of Mods and Rockers at a number of resorts on the south coast of England.Yesterday two youths were taken to hospital with knife wounds and 51 were arrested in Margate after hundreds of teenagers converged on the town for the holiday weekend. Dr George Simpson, chairman of Margate magistrates, jailed four young men and imposed fines totalling £1,900 on 36 people. Three offenders were jailed for three months each and five more sent to detention centres for up to six months.
Obscenities
In Brighton, two youths were jailed for three months and others were fined.
More than 1,000 teenagers were involved in skirmishes on the beach and the promenade last night.
They threw deckchairs around, broke them up to make bonfires, shouted obscenities at each other and at passers-by, jostled holidaymakers and terrified elderly residents.
At about 1300 BST Mods and Rockers gathered at the Palace Pier chanting and jeering at each other and threw stones when police tried to disperse them.
The teenagers staged a mass sit-down on the promenade when police, using horses and dogs, tried to move them on.
In Margate, there were running battles between police and up to 400 youths on the beach early yesterday morning. Bottles were thrown and two officers were slightly hurt.
Later, on the high street, around 40 young men smashed council flat windows and vandalised a pub and a hardware shop.
Last night, hundreds of young men and girls were still wandering around the resort long after the last train had left.
Police stepped in to prevent further violence and dispersed about 30 youths in leather jackets who marched up the promenade shouting “Up the Rockers!”
There were further clashes at Bournemouth and Clacton.
From the early to mid-1960s young, mainly working class, Britons with cash to spend joined one of two youth movements.The Mods wore designer suits protected by Parka jackets and were often armed with coshes and flick-knives. They rode Vespa or Lambretta scooters bedecked with mirrors and mascots and listened to Ska music and The Who.Rockers rode motorbikes – often at 100mph with no crash helmets – wore leathers and listened to the likes of Elvis and Gene Vincent.Inevitably the two gangs clashed. The 1964 Whitsun weekend violence in Brighton was famously dramatised in the film Quadrophenia (1979).In August that year police had to be flown into the Sussex resort of Hastings to break up fights between the two gangs.
But two years later, most Mods had turned their attentions to the burgeoning, more laid-back, hippie culture. While the harder working class Mods created the Skinhead Subculture
Jamaican producer and musician Harry Zephaniah Johnson, 67, credited with producing what is widely considered the first reggae single “No More Heartaches” by the vocal harmony trio The Beltones, passed away on Wednesday, April 3 in his Westmoreland, Jamaica birthplace, succumbing to complications from diabetes; Johnson leaves four children and three grandchildren.
Born on July 6th, 1945, Johnson, better known as Harry J, initially entered the music business as a bass player with The Virtues prior to becoming the group’s manager. Shortly thereafter, he took a job as an insurance salesman but his love for music continually beckoned. He booked time at producer/sound system owner Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One in 1968 and recorded The Beltones. The resultant debut release on Johnson’s Harry J label, “No More Heartaches,” is considered a defining record heralding the emergence of the reggae beat as distinctive from its rock steady predecessor. (“Nanny Goat”, a 1968 song produced by the better-known Coxsone Dodd and sung by the duo Larry and Alvin is also cited as a transformative record, moving the rock steady tempo into a reggae rhythm).
“At the time we were under contract with Coxsone Dodd but he wasn’t doing anything for us so a member of a popular group The Cables took us to Harry J; Harry was new to the business and happy to record us so we broke away from Coxsone and went with him,” recalled The Beltones’ former lead singer Trevor Shields told Billboard.biz. “The driving sound on “No More Heartache” was totally different; we were like outsiders starting something new but didn’t know it at the time. The song was No. 1 on the Jamaican charts for about four weeks, which was no easy feat in those days.”
Harry J’s next big hit “Cuss Cuss” by Lloyd Robinson, released in 1969, boasts one of the most recycled reggae rhythms in the voluminous Jamaican music canon. The same year Harry J released a succession of reggae instrumentals credited to the Harry J All Stars, a revolving cast of musicians that included pianist Gladstone “Gladdy” Anderson, keyboardist Winston Wright, bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Winston Grennan and guitarist Hux Brown. “Smashville,” “Je T’Aime” and “Srpyone” an assortment of Jamaican originals and reggae adaptations of international hits, are just three of the Harry J All Stars’ instrumentals that garnered steady play from Kingston’s sound system selectors.
Their most successful was “Liquidator,” led by Winston Wright’s spirited keyboard solos, which peaked at no. 9 on the UK Singles chart and became an unlikely skinhead anthem there. The song’s opening bassline was subsequently featured on the introduction to The Staple Singers’ 1972 Hot 100 chart topper “Ill Take You There” (Stax Records). According to an April 7 report in the Jamaica Observer newspaper by Howard Campbell, based on a 2000 Observer interview with Johnson, drummer Al Jackson (of Booker T and the MGs, Stax’s in-house band) visited Kingston in 1969 and met Harry J who gave him a copy of “Liquidator”; Johnson was shocked to hear the song used in the Staple Singers’ hit and took aggressive steps to collect royalties from Stax but made little progress.
Following “Liquidator’s” UK success, British reggae label Trojan gave Johnson his own Harry J imprint; his instrumental productions never again reaped the popularity of “Liquidator” but Johnson triumphed working with several of the island’s vocalists commencing with Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy: their 1970 duets covering Nina Simone’s “Young Gifted and Black” and Crispian St. Peters’ “The Pied Piper” reached the upper tiers of the UK singles charts.
In 1972 Johnson opened a sixteen-track studio at 10 Roosevelt Avenue, Kingston, which revolutionized the reggae capital’s recording industry. “Back then, we were recording two-track and four-track sessions so it took great foresight for someone to go all the way to 16-tracks, which brought us on par with the rest of the world,” engineer/musician/producer Stephen Stewart told Billboard.biz at Harry J studios; there Stewart learned audio engineering in the 1970s while still a teenager, working alongside the late Sylvan Morris. “Because he had the latest in technology Harry J attracted the best artists of the day,” Stewart noted.
A sampling of the classic 1970s roots reggae recordings done at Harry J studios includes: The Heptones’ “Book of Rules,” The Melodians’ “Sweet Sensation,” Toots and the Maytals’ “Reggae Got Soul,” Burning Spear’s “Days of Slavery” and Dennis Brown’s “So Long Rastafari.” Bob Marley and The Wailers also recorded their first four albums for Island Records at Harry J (“Catch a Fire,” “Burnin,” featuring Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, “Natty Dread,” and “Rastaman Vibration” with the I-Threes); presently, framed gold copies of those Wailers albums adorn the walls of the studio’s main room.
Harry J Studios are featured in the 1978 film “Rockers” (directed by Theodoros Bafaloukos and starring Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, Gregory Isaacs and Jacob Miller) in a scene that spotlights singer Kiddus I recording “Graduation In Zion” there.
Although the 1970s were Harry J’s production heyday he continued to produce and release hit singles throughout the 1980s including Sheila Hylton’s cover of The Police’s “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”, which reached no. 38 on the UK singles chart. Harry J responded to the massive “Sleng Teng” rhythm released by the King Jammys label in 1984, which jumpstarted Jamaican music’s digital revolution, with his aptly titled “Computer Rule” rhythm that spawned numerous hits for various singers and toasters including Daddy Freddy, Charlie Chaplin, Uglyman, and Little John.
Following a seven-year dormancy during the 1990s, Harry J studios reopened in 2000, under the management of Stephen Stewart who refurbished and re-equipped the facility, with Johnson retaining ownership of the premises. “Harry J pushed the business aspect of the industry, putting deals together and cataloguing his songs (including releases on the Jaywax, Roosevelt, 10 Roosevelt Avenue and Sunset subsidiaries), which were separate from the studio operations,” Stewart offered.
Countless reggae veterans including Toots Hibbert, Burning Spear, Sly and Robbie and Luciano have recorded at Harry J studios in recent years while upstart Jamaican groups Raging Fyah and Di Blueprint Band and an abundance of European reggae acts have each sought out its authentic roots reggae sound. “People come here to capture that live session chemistry where recording is more than just one person using a computer program,” observes Stewart. “The legacy of the musicianship that has come through here makes Harry J studios really special, it’s part of the vision Harry brought to Jamaican music.”
Jamaican producer and musician Harry Zephaniah Johnson, 67, credited with producing what is widely considered the first reggae single “No More Heartaches” by the vocal harmony trio The Beltones, passed away on Wednesday, April 3 in his Westmoreland, Jamaica birthplace, succumbing to complications from diabetes; Johnson leaves four children and three grandchildren.
Born on July 6th, 1945, Johnson, better known as Harry J, initially entered the music business as a bass player with The Virtues prior to becoming the group’s manager. Shortly thereafter, he took a job as an insurance salesman but his love for music continually beckoned. He booked time at producer/sound system owner Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One in 1968 and recorded The Beltones. The resultant debut release on Johnson’s Harry J label, “No More Heartaches,” is considered a defining record heralding the emergence of the reggae beat as distinctive from its rock steady predecessor. (“Nanny Goat”, a 1968 song produced by the better-known Coxsone Dodd and sung by the duo Larry and Alvin is also cited as a transformative record, moving the rock steady tempo into a reggae rhythm).
“At the time we were under contract with Coxsone Dodd but he wasn’t doing anything for us so a member of a popular group The Cables took us to Harry J; Harry was new to the business and happy to record us so we broke away from Coxsone and went with him,” recalled The Beltones’ former lead singer Trevor Shields told Billboard.biz. “The driving sound on “No More Heartache” was totally different; we were like outsiders starting something new but didn’t know it at the time. The song was No. 1 on the Jamaican charts for about four weeks, which was no easy feat in those days.”
Harry J’s next big hit “Cuss Cuss” by Lloyd Robinson, released in 1969, boasts one of the most recycled reggae rhythms in the voluminous Jamaican music canon. The same year Harry J released a succession of reggae instrumentals credited to the Harry J All Stars, a revolving cast of musicians that included pianist Gladstone “Gladdy” Anderson, keyboardist Winston Wright, bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Winston Grennan and guitarist Hux Brown. “Smashville,” “Je T’Aime” and “Srpyone” an assortment of Jamaican originals and reggae adaptations of international hits, are just three of the Harry J All Stars’ instrumentals that garnered steady play from Kingston’s sound system selectors.
Their most successful was “Liquidator,” led by Winston Wright’s spirited keyboard solos, which peaked at no. 9 on the UK Singles chart and became an unlikely skinhead anthem there. The song’s opening bassline was subsequently featured on the introduction to The Staple Singers’ 1972 Hot 100 chart topper “Ill Take You There” (Stax Records). According to an April 7 report in the Jamaica Observer newspaper by Howard Campbell, based on a 2000 Observer interview with Johnson, drummer Al Jackson (of Booker T and the MGs, Stax’s in-house band) visited Kingston in 1969 and met Harry J who gave him a copy of “Liquidator”; Johnson was shocked to hear the song used in the Staple Singers’ hit and took aggressive steps to collect royalties from Stax but made little progress.
Following “Liquidator’s” UK success, British reggae label Trojan gave Johnson his own Harry J imprint; his instrumental productions never again reaped the popularity of “Liquidator” but Johnson triumphed working with several of the island’s vocalists commencing with Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy: their 1970 duets covering Nina Simone’s “Young Gifted and Black” and Crispian St. Peters’ “The Pied Piper” reached the upper tiers of the UK singles charts.
In 1972 Johnson opened a sixteen-track studio at 10 Roosevelt Avenue, Kingston, which revolutionized the reggae capital’s recording industry. “Back then, we were recording two-track and four-track sessions so it took great foresight for someone to go all the way to 16-tracks, which brought us on par with the rest of the world,” engineer/musician/producer Stephen Stewart told Billboard.biz at Harry J studios; there Stewart learned audio engineering in the 1970s while still a teenager, working alongside the late Sylvan Morris. “Because he had the latest in technology Harry J attracted the best artists of the day,” Stewart noted.
A sampling of the classic 1970s roots reggae recordings done at Harry J studios includes: The Heptones’ “Book of Rules,” The Melodians’ “Sweet Sensation,” Toots and the Maytals’ “Reggae Got Soul,” Burning Spear’s “Days of Slavery” and Dennis Brown’s “So Long Rastafari.” Bob Marley and The Wailers also recorded their first four albums for Island Records at Harry J (“Catch a Fire,” “Burnin,” featuring Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, “Natty Dread,” and “Rastaman Vibration” with the I-Threes); presently, framed gold copies of those Wailers albums adorn the walls of the studio’s main room.
Harry J Studios are featured in the 1978 film “Rockers” (directed by Theodoros Bafaloukos and starring Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, Gregory Isaacs and Jacob Miller) in a scene that spotlights singer Kiddus I recording “Graduation In Zion” there.
Although the 1970s were Harry J’s production heyday he continued to produce and release hit singles throughout the 1980s including Sheila Hylton’s cover of The Police’s “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”, which reached no. 38 on the UK singles chart. Harry J responded to the massive “Sleng Teng” rhythm released by the King Jammys label in 1984, which jumpstarted Jamaican music’s digital revolution, with his aptly titled “Computer Rule” rhythm that spawned numerous hits for various singers and toasters including Daddy Freddy, Charlie Chaplin, Uglyman, and Little John.
Following a seven-year dormancy during the 1990s, Harry J studios reopened in 2000, under the management of Stephen Stewart who refurbished and re-equipped the facility, with Johnson retaining ownership of the premises. “Harry J pushed the business aspect of the industry, putting deals together and cataloguing his songs (including releases on the Jaywax, Roosevelt, 10 Roosevelt Avenue and Sunset subsidiaries), which were separate from the studio operations,” Stewart offered.
Countless reggae veterans including Toots Hibbert, Burning Spear, Sly and Robbie and Luciano have recorded at Harry J studios in recent years while upstart Jamaican groups Raging Fyah and Di Blueprint Band and an abundance of European reggae acts have each sought out its authentic roots reggae sound. “People come here to capture that live session chemistry where recording is more than just one person using a computer program,” observes Stewart. “The legacy of the musicianship that has come through here makes Harry J studios really special, it’s part of the vision Harry brought to Jamaican music.”
Thought this bunch of clips might be of interest to you, a short movie around the Fred Perry 60th anniversary event and if you missed them, the Subculture movies themselves.
The Fred Perry event took place last week, a showcase for the clothing label and its heritage and the Don Letts-directed mini movies, throwing in some live performances and DJs, headed up by The Charlatans.
You can watch it here…
Episode 2: This Is A Modern World
Episode 3: Made in England
Episode 4: Soul Power
British youth culture and style has gone around the globe, but there is a growing number of events back on home soil. The Great Skinhead Reunion in Brighton, cant be missed for any self respecting Skinhead, People travel from across the World to the Mecca annual event
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.
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.”
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.)
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.
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.
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.
Watford (in red) and Harrow (yellow) skinheads at Butlins, Clacton, in 1968.
Philip Ellisdon has sent in this picture of the Watford and Harrow skinheads on holiday at Butlins, Clacton, in 1968.
He said: “There were 20 of us – ten from Watford, ten from Harrow and Wealdstone. I am the one on the floor in the centre, third from the left with the striped shirt on.
“I had just won a reggae dance competition sponsored by Trojan Records, the big reggae record company at the time.
“The local guys are there, red are Watford, yellow are Harrow and Wealdstone. Next to me was Steve Hickman, behind with the white braces is Keith Munday and to his right is guy called John Warby who was a last minute replacement.“Keith and I were born next door to each other, nine days apart, and are still friends today.
“In the front are Nicky and Charlie, and with the jacket and white socks is John Galley or Layo as he was called then. He was from Ruislip, but a friend I met at Butlins two years earlier. The rest of the boys were not in the photo – they were all at the bar.
“In the early days, all skinheads wore white socks. One day I went to the Co-op at Gade House with two friends, Barry Preston and his girlfriend at the time, Linda Howarth, to buy a new pair of white socks and they had sold out.
“I bought red socks, just to be different on the dance floor, then a few of my mates also bought the red socks and that was our Watford identity, not always welcome in some places like Wembley or Golders Green, as they knew where we came from and we were not always welcome.
“The prize at Butlins was a lifetime membership to the Trojan Record Club, a big gold medallion, a certificate and an invitation to dance in the next round at a club in London – but I never went.
“I used to dance in many clubs around our area and got to know loads of people from all over the place. Sometime we were welcome, sometime you could be classed as being ‘too flash’ and someone would take exception and start trouble. Time for us to leave.
“We use to dance in clubs in Hemel, Harrow, Greenford, Kingsbury, Ealing, Slough, Windsor, Wembley, Golders Green, Tottenham, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden and, of course, our own stamping ground, the Watford Top Rank, as it was in those days.
“The Top Rank was a safe haven for us, we could wear our red socks, be as ‘flash’ as we liked and dance all night with very little trouble. I had many regular girl dance partners who were great friends. I even met and married one, my wife Lori, and we can still mix it at a 60s/70s disco.
“In the skinhead days, you would never go out with a hair out of place. Tonic suits, Ben Sherman shirts ironed, Levi turn ups measured and pressed, Florshiem Imperial shoes shining, Doc Martin boots polished – everything immaculate, everything ready for The Top Rank. For us, this was the centre of our the universe in those days, a place where all the factions of Watford council estates congregated and because they either went to school, played football or supported Watford FC together, mostly they became friends and were Watford Boys as one.
“People used to travel from all the aforementioned places to spend a Saturday night “up the Top Rank”. It was amazing, how we all became friends, and my wife and I are still friends with many of the people we first met there.
“Many of the ‘faces’ from those days are still around the Watford area. A few are members at my golf club, West Herts. They have not changed, still smart, still looking like a ‘face’.
“The ‘ace face’ at the time was a guy called Roy Rumble. He was the best dancer around by a mile. People use to stop and watch him dance long before John Travolta could even walk.
“He was an inspiration to all those people who wanted to dance, me included, and for such a small guy, he could also look after himself if anyone started on him for being ‘too flash’.
“The Top Rank was open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights. They even opened a club on a Sunday night in later years after the skinhead era.
“The good days were gone and 70s music and clubs diversified into the suedehead and glam rock eras, so we all grew our hair down to our shoulders and moved on, an era gone, but certainly not forgotten.
“The music still lives and the memories flood back.”
Watford and Harrow skinheads, Philip Ellisdon has been in touch with more information about the skinhead and mod scene in Watford during the 1960s, and how it started.
He said: “This is a photo of Mick Colvin and myself at Butlins in 1967.
“Butlins was like Spain is now. It was fun and affordable. Too many stories to be told now, but a great era, lots of style and lots of fun.
“Notice the small turn ups on the Sta-Press trousers, another skinhead fashion if you could not afford Levis, but the obligatory braces and haircut – which was expensive till a mate of my Dad started to shave it for me.
“In this picture it’s grown a bit and the skinhead haircut did not compliment my forehead, as in the song Dr Jimmy from Quadrophenia: “You have to move with the fashion or be outcast”.
“Great film, the Who are my favourite group, great words from Townshend and an understanding of a generation that I think most can relate to, no matter what era they grew up in. All the generations have had the same growing pains.“There was a mod scene. The Trade Hall in Watford, which has been featured a few times in the Nostalgia section over the years, was famous.
“Many of the groups, The Who, Small Faces and the like, played there. I watched them through the windows with my mates, standing on beer crates as we were either too young or too skint to get in.
“There has never been a lot written about the skinhead days, only bad stuff, but it was a brilliant era, we had the Motown on one side and the reggae on the other. We liked both. The dancing was varied and everyone danced as you did not need to be a gymnast to dance in them days.
“We had the skinheads, hippies and rockers, all three factions and Watford had a place for them all – the Top Rank for the skinheads, Kingham Hall for the rockers and the Watford Tech for the hippies.
“We use to race around Watford on Vespas and Lambrettas. I was born and lived in Waterman Close, as were my friends. There was 12 of us all around the same age, born in or around Waterman’s, all living within a few yards of each other. Keith and I were next door neighbours and we had council garages at the bottom of our gardens where we kept our scooters and where all the others in the Close with a scooter would hang out.
“Watford had some infamous characters during the skinhead era. The first skinhead I knew in Watford was a guy called Gary Armstrong, who unfortunately is no longer with us.
“We were up the Top Rank one Thursday night when someone came in and said that Gary was down the Red Lion (now the Toby Carvery, where they use to have a disco sometimes) with a load of skinheads.
“We had no idea what a skinhead was, so we jumped on scooters and went to see what it was all about. When we got there, Gary, a style guru and a mod, (a Small Faces lookalike with glasses) was now a shaved head skinhead. Unbelievable.
“We were all basically young mods, seeing Gary and these guys from London’s East End, with all these smart clothes and shaved heads, some in Levi’s, Doc Martins, Ben Sherman shirts and Harrington jackets, some in tonic suits, Fred Perry’s and Florsheim shoes with white socks.
“These guys were so cool, we spent all night talking to them about the clothes, quickly realising that to become a skinhead was not cheap. Most of the gear was from the USA and no way we could afford it, but a shaved head we could.
“The next day, being Friday, pay day, Steve Hickman and I went to the A1 barbers in Carey Place, recommended by Gary, for a No1 haircut. The place was packed, but five minutes later, we were in the chair and in the blink of an eye, we were skinheads.
“My Mum went mad, my Dad thought the short, back and sides was a bit extreme and I got a lot of stick back at work, where I was a trainee panel beater.
“Within a week, Watford Top Rank was full of skinheads and pretty soon, during the late 60s, the Watford Top Rank became a infamous venue, with people coming from all over the place to spend a Saturday night ‘Up the Top Rank’.
“There were many “faces” during that time. Some became known for their style, others for their ability to take care of themselves, should the need arise of course, which, on a Saturday night, it did.
“There was always a chance of some “aggro” taking place, especially when gangs from outside Watford chose to visit and try and claim territory within ‘the Rank’.
“Roy Rumble danced and people watched. Outsiders would usually make some comments and it would all kick off, but as with generations before and since, this ended in trouble and being a skinhead meant you had to stand your ground.
“Watford Peace Memorial Hospital, as it was then, always had a busy Saturday night, especially being so close by. Many of the nurses who lived in also frequented the Rank, so sometime you got the personal service and an escort to the hospital.
“But in those days, there were very few knives, hardly any killings and in many cases, friendships were born out of the ‘aggro’ and I can speak from experience there.
“Getting blood down your white Fred Perry and your Tonic mohair suit was not part of the evening’s plans. You don’t look so cool with a nose bleed. It’s the guy who gave it to you who is the hero.
“Hope this gives you a brief insight to an untold era in Watford.”
Patsi Whelan-Archer, formally from Whitwell Road, in Garston, read Mr Ellisdon’s letter about Roy Rumble last week and has sent in some more information.
The 61-year-old, now living in Sutton Coldfield, said: “I remember him very well. As your article said, he was an amazing dancer.
“I used to go to the ‘Rank’ on Thursday and Saturday nights and Roy was always first up on the floor and always last off.
“We all loved him and looked up to him because he really had an amazing presence; he was his own man.
“I remember him stepping forward to help me when a lad was trying to force me to dance with him when I’d said ‘no’.
“Roy decked him and there was no more problems, even the bouncers respected him as they, and everyone, knew he was a trouble stopper, not a trouble starter.
“All Roy wanted was to dance and for everyone to be happy around him. I will never forget Roy Rumble – a lovely, lovely man.
“I now live in the Midlands and when I read your article it brought all the wonderful memories of the 60s flooding back. Does anyone remember ‘The Trade’?
“I saw the Who and many, many amazing bands there, and was asked out by Rod the Mod aka Rod Stewart, but thought he was a bighead and refused! Oh well, no regrets eh?
hello, over the last few days a lot of groups have gone, these are all related to the skinhead, fashion and music subculture. This is a serious issue as its effected thousands of people. As a promoter of events in England i use Facebook to promote and interact with bands, fans, media and many other aspects. Nobody has been given a reason for this. The groups have no political or aggressive nature, but more a nostalgic and bonding use. people get together from all over the world and follow events. we have The Great Skinhead Reunion weekend party booked in Brighton England, which attracts old jamaicans in their 70’s to young english 15 year old children, people attending from many counries. we have a very warm friendly environment. this culling of groups and people profiles has broken alot of communication links relied on. please contact me as soon as possible and let me know what has happened. has this been a facebook action, or that of a hacker?
We are aware that the skinhead subculture, over its 40 year life span has been abused by the media. but as active skinheads, many of us around the world have fought to kill off the political extremes attached from both left and right. to make it a celebration of music, style and friends. as an example, my next event has a band from ethnic singapore, english/polish band, ska and reggae dj’s. Women , children and every type of person, black and white, coming along for the third year.
an example of the groups which have gone are classic skinhead photographs. traditional skinheads and many more, which have the name skinhead in the title.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz_63cTrlxg We believe we have the right to know what has happened to our networking groups, personal photographs. and friendship links made across the Globe If you have been effected by this please register with subcultz and place your name in the comments below. please put your country and town, so we can show facebook what a worldwide family we are
Being a skinhead or skinhead girl in a country like Venezuela hasn’t been very easy, even though we are a tropical country and especially multicultural, here few subcultures are appreciated and followed, although punk subculture has had more relevance in Venezuelan youth, the skinhead subculture has left its mark on some of the Venezuelan’s youth, but today few remain in that lifestyle.
How did begin the skinhead subculture in Venezuela?
It is said that began in the mid-80s. At the time, in Venezuela, it was difficult to find music from other countries, especially from other continents; the music was coming rather late, as the news about the birth of new subcultures which by then some had over 20 years runs and others had more than 10 years. For this reason, the Venezuelan tried to obtain, anyhow, this type of information. Jamaican rhythms known as Ska and Reggae were heard at Venezuela by the mid-60s thanks to groups like “Las Cuatro Monedas”, many of our grandparents and parents fondly remember as part of their youth and good times. It is said that some young people began keeping Skinhead lifestyle in the mid-80s, but due to misinformation and bad reputation that the skinhead subculture had to the time (because they were identified as Nazis or Fascists) it became difficult to be a skinhead in Venezuela. Many of the Venezuelan’ skinheads couldn’t say that they were Skinheads because people confused them with Nazis and also it was known that were some groups of fascists and national socialists who claimed to be “skins” but they always were minority and lived hidden because it didn’t know more about them. In the 90s, the skinheads in Venezuela were few and numbered due to this situation.
By early 2000, the skinhead subculture took some notoriety among Venezuelan youth; this boom began after 2004, we were still few but far more than previous decades. The bad reputation was gradually eradicated, it wasn’t so hard to say if someone was a Skinhead, because this subculture was a symbol of beer, football and violence in some cities, for others it was to belong to certain groups such as SHARP and RASH and for some (very few actually) was a symbol of ska, reggae, beer, loyalty, friendship, tradition and pride.
Today the situation is different than used to be about 4 or 5 years ago, in the years 2007 and 2008, where it could be said that the skinhead scene in Venezuela was significantly higher than it was and what it is nowadays. They were good years for the skinheads of our country, we knew each other, there were events and there was presence. The skinhead scene began to losing ground by 2010, this mostly because of a personal nature. Although between 2011 until nowadays, events of ska and reggae have grown like wildfire in our country, this hasn’t affected in any way the interest in the scene. In fact, by this moment, we are a small number of traditional and Oi! Skinheads those still remain true to the lifestyle. Some people stopped living the skinhead lifestyle to continue with their lives from other perspectives.
Those who still continue living the skinhead lifestyle, we keep living life as each day goes by, it is something we own, something personal, when we can we enjoy excellent events of Venezuelan ska and reggae or some occasional party among friends. We are few in comparison to other Latin American countries but we are faithful and true to the skinhead lifestyle and every year we see more of it.
As I said before, it wasn’t easy to be a skinhead in Venezuela, far less being a skinhead girl like me, but that didn’t affect us negatively. On the contrary, this difficulty makes us true and faithful to the feeling.
Essay made by Mary GunsFever Montilla.
NOTE: Referential Photos of some Venezuelan Skinheads
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We announced ourselves for the first time as Soul Radics at an Atlanta ska fest in the summer of 2011. That’s the easiest way to say it I suppose.
As a band we’re unanimously fans of the Jamaican classics of ska, reggae, and rocksteady… Though I’m very favorable to Dekker, Toots, and Derrick Morgan, it is a endless list of inspiration. Opinions obviously differ for the whole band, but I’m a fan of a ridiculous amount of music that mostly came before I was born. It’s hard to break it down without yammering on forever, but it starts somewhere around Django Reinhardt, Charles Mingus, Otis Redding, The Beatles, The Animals, Chuck Berry and ends somewhere around Early punk, Devo, The Stray Cats, and The Squirrel Nut Zippers. But above all my heart lies in ska, reggae and soul. I like music with feeling… That’s my thing.
I moved to Nashville, Tennessee from a smaller town in Northwest Indiana that bordered Chicago. I have collectively spent most of my life there after moving young from my home state of Florida, but also lived in New York and oddly enough some obscure places in Nebraska.
I met Jay back in ’09 soon after I’d moved to Nashville. I was looking to play guitar in some kind of punk group, as it’s what I had messed around with prior to, and he said “how about sing in a ska/reggae band?” I immediately got more excited about the idea since the concept of ska thriving in Nashville didn’t even occur to me as a new resident. Jay was from Canada and moved to Nashville specifically for music…. I had never worked with anyone so passionate about it before; it was refreshing. Long story short, and trust me, it’s long…. Jay and I have reformed this group 3 times to get what we have now. We’ve had a great writing relationship since day 1. We picked up our bassist Jamie early on and he’s been with us the longest. Jamie was from Michigan and had played much heavier music before joining up with us, but beyond him it had seemed like a revolving door before we actually became Soul Radics last summer. I think what ailed us the most was our constant drummer situation…. I’m sure most musicians can relate. We had always had a hard time keeping horns on but Nels (Nebraska) came along on sax and held it down for a long time on his own… Rob Hoskins (from Murfreesboro) was in a.k.a: Rudie which is a flawless, long running rocksteady band in Nashville. I had collaborated with them a little bit and was a huge fan, even though in almost 20 years they had never gotten far out of Nashville. Rob and Kevin (also from a.k.a.) came to our show one night, at which point we were basically all leaning to play traditional ska. We played a song for the first time live that night called “Down to the Hall,” which is a more upbeat ska tune, and they wanted to help us track it. Rob then began producing what quickly went from an E.P. to a full album, and also playing organ for us. He opened the floodgate for seasoned musicians. We finally got a professional drummer (Dave from Nashville), and second guitar (Shane from Pittsburgh) that we kinda smuggled in from a.k.a: Rudie. Most recent is Chuck from Cali on trombone, and that’s our current line up. Sorry if that was long winded… big bands are high maintenance, ha.
i read you are in nashville, obviously world famous for music, but how does the soul/ skinhead reggae sound fit in there. i thought the town was very much based around country and western.
Nashville is one of those towns where everyone you bump into is a musician. There’s usually a good show every night but truth be told it’s a small demographic in comparison for what we do. There’s not a lot of pats on the back here for carrying the torch in our town. The people that love us at home base support us dearly… that’s our crew.
listening to ‘hey skavoovie’ it had good production on it. are you signed to a major label.
Cheers! We’ve been recording in a.k.a: Rudie’s studio (which actually happens to be the 2nd floor to their guitar player Kevin’s house). Kevin has engineered the album and the wonderfully talented Brett Tubin is mixing it. As of now and we’re set to release it on both vinyl and cd through Jump Up Records, and our record release show will be with Stranger Cole in Chicago on November 17th. I’m very excited for it! We’ve all poured a lot of blood and sweat into it and I can’t wait for the finished product.
how is the skinhead scene where you are?
Small in Nashville, but they represent. Our buddy Matt Gray DJ’s ‘Sunday Moonstomps’ and the scene brings in some good bands as often as possible. We do a free monthly Nashville gig in the summer and that’s where I see most the crew. Sometimes we’ll get an iconic band through and it’ll draw everyone out of the woodwork.how are your live shows, are you starting to pick up a following?
While Nashville shows are always personal and fun, I live for playing out of town shows. Hell, liveshows in general are my thing, but I love an adventure. I feel like we convert so many people when they see us live… that’s how we’ve gotten our biggest fans up until this point. A good Radics show leaves me high for days. It seems like every time we go back to Atlanta there’s more supporters, and I have to admit I feel a buzz around us right now which makes the record release all the more anticipated. I’m grateful for the shows we’ve been invited to play this year, supporting bands like the Aggrolites and The Toasters as well as a plethora of amazing regional bands. We’ve been fortunate with the opportunities and fans we’ve gotten without yet having an album out. Dani Radic
One of the longest running Indonesian Oi! bands is No Man’s Land. Founded in 1994 they are one of the pioneers in the skinheadscene overthere. Band based in Malang – Indonesia. Their music, started taking on a different direction and influence, after Didit (Vocal/Guitar) introduced them to Oi! music such as, The Last Resort, The Oppressed, The Strike and The 4skins, Cockney Rejects, The Business etc.No Man’s Land : Didit (Vocal/Guitar) Didik (Drum)Catur (Bass)Ferry (Guitar) Once before the three boys formed the band, fery and didik were friends in same high school, but not for didit. He knew them both as playmates at the age of 13 until they were in high school.Didit was the one who always had musical ideas or direction not commonplace and were sometimes considered extreme to some parents in local community, but they all have the similarities in outlook on social development in which they live. All three friends liked pretty much the same music. And most of all, punk and Oi!, they liked different music too and all three were music lovers. They did not like popular music,-pop music .But liked underground music that tended not be popular music listened too by other youth around them at the time. He was always more critical of the lyrics and music of other bands that might have an influence on them. And after they graduated from high school, they formed a band called No Man’s Land. They took this name from a war movie they had liked and all seen. No Man’s Land was a punk band they formed which was more of an upbeat, faster and more of a singa long punk rock style. Their music, started taking on a different direction and influence. After Didit introduced them to Oi! music such as, The Last Resort, The Oppressed, The Strike and The 4skins Cockney Rejects, The Business etc.The first time they recorded it was on very basic, simple equipment. The results for the first time weren’t what they wanted. Determined to make better recordings and sound better, they kept trying, and recorded once more with some additional tracks.
In 1996, they made recording of their new songs in a better studio with better equipment. Each of them would collect a little money for the new recordngs. They all had to utilise their time very well, and work out songs faster and more efficiently. As they could not afford to many recording sessions at the new studio. the personnel at the time have become four. is Catur who encounter at the first time when No Man’s Land played in some gig, then didit offered him to join. after the master tape was completed,. They took it to a studio which was commonly used to record/press traditional and folk songs. They made 200 copies and distributed them all friend to friend . In a true DIY punk/Oi way. It was extremely rare and unusual for a band to record and distribute their tapes without a label at that time in Indonesia. Some was merch or music from other punk distro’s etc, from other countries.No Man’s Land formed many good friendships/relationships, in other areas of Indonesia and abroad aswell. Didit corresponded with many friends and fans. Usually writing in the letters, first by introducing his band No Man’s Land. Didit was very diligent with correspondance and keeping up with his fans letters. On average the letters would take about 2 weeks to be delivered upon receivership etc. He was diligent because letter writing was still a main source of communication. As the internet, and internet access for the common people, was still fairly rare at the time. he did it also to make sure , No Man’s Land was given some attention by other scenes, by introducing it to people around the world. And wanted people to know, there was a good and growing punk and Oi scene coming from out of Indonesia. In 1997, a label from Malaysia offered to make a split tape album with No Man’s Land and a punk band called Karatz from Malaysia. The album was produced in Malaysia, and then distributed to various countries.For the Indonesian market , No Man’s Land would be given royalties.After the sale of 200 copies of the album. The label sent 200 printed covers of the album to No Man’s Land. Then they would make copies of the tapes in a DIY way, and then sell those copies themselves. In 1998, No Man’s Land recorded their new album. The studio was better and more proffessional than what they had been used to before. The LP ” Grow Away From The Society ” was recorded all in a live session. In this new album they had a faster and more aggressive sound and more intense lyrics, the lyrics were alot to do with social and racial unrest at the time, commenting about riots etc. The album was released by local label, Confuse records. They took no royalties from album sales, but instead passed on the finances to friends who would later construct a record label-distro, and so develop and build it up. To later pay the recording cost of the next album. The distro serves to distribute stuffs such as tapes-cds-t shirts-button pins etc. Which would be made available for anyone to buy, also became a place for the boys to hang out, and socialise etc. A year after that, No Man’s Land recorded for a new album once again.Called ” All Together Now “. In that album, there was alot of lyrics about the local scene in Malang. The scene was growing bigger at the time, many more punks and skins seemed to be coming up in the scene. No Man’s Land played and average of weekly gigs, but never left town. Due to work commitments, No Man’s Land only played in Malang for a while, but their merch and lp’s were sold all over by friends distro and DIY. And then in 2001, Didit got married and so did Ferry and Didik. Didit got work out of town. Times changed, the scene seemed to slow down, and No Man’s Land were only playing on average a gig/show a month. Didits mates rarely went to see shows after a time. And Didit barely had time to go see a punk show himself anymore. His work was that full time, that he only got back to home to Malang once a week. But inbetween his and their hectic shedules, they still found a little time to get some band practice in and hang out together.
In 2005, Didit resigned from his out of town work, and started and built up a business with his wife. So then he had plenty of time to get together with his mates again. Then in 2008, No Mans Land went to record some new material after a fair hiatus, of just jamming and prac and no recording. Lyrically and musically they felt they had improved, and seemed they had improved on their sound quality. They were kind of veterans in their scene by now. They took 3 tracks from and old lp, to record on the new material. They didn’t change their sound too drastically, kept it much the same. But just made some subtle adjustments and improvements. The latest lp is scheduled to be released on a European label, and will be out at the end of 2011. No Man’s Land’s expectations for the new album will be realised against the feedback and sales from the current international skinhead scene. Didit and the boys have faith that old fans of No Man’s Land will not be dissapointed, as No Man’s Land has kept true to its lyrical and musical roots, pure , straight up Indonesian Oi!. And at the end of the day, No Mans Land are just happy to play the music they love, and have a laugh and a say. And happy that the Skins/Punks scene is still alive and kicking.
http://youtu.be/xg46V7ZKGDQAlbums + Separatist Tendency (Demo Tape Self-release) 1995+ P.A.A.S.D.O (LP) KDHC Recs 1996+ Punk Hey Punk (split cassette) Phisik Scream Ent. Malaysia 1998+ Grow Away From The Society (LP) Confuse Recs 1998+ All Together Now (LP) Rawtape Recs 1999+ Scattered Around And Buried (CD) OiShop Germany 2012+ The Best of 1994-2012 (next on Aggro Beat Recs Compilations + Saudara Sebotol (RawTape) 1998+ Anti Disco League Vol.1 (Templecombe Recs 2006+ Skins And Punks (CD) M2 Bootboys Recs 2008+ Work Together vol.1 ( Virtual Comp.) Work Together Recs 2012+ Made In Indonesia (next on Agrro Beat Recs late 2012 (From: http://www.last.fm/music/No+Man%27s+Land+Oi!)Indonesia is one of the countries with a growing skinhead scene. there are Oi! bands from this country. One of the longest running Indonesian Oi! bands is No Man’s Land. Founded in 1994 they are one of the pioneers in the skinhead scene overthere. Band based in Malang – Indonesia. Once before they formed the band, fery and didik were friends in same high school, but not for didit. He knew them both as playmates at the age of 13 until they were in high school.Didit was the one who always had musical ideas or direction not commonplace and were sometimes considered extreme to some parents in local community, but they all have the similarities in outlook on social development in which they live. All three friends liked pretty much the same music. And most of all, punk and Oi!, they liked different music too and all three were music lovers. They did not like popular music,-pop music .But liked underground music that tended not be popular music listened too by other youth around them at the time. He was always more critical of the lyrics and music of other bands that might have an influence on them.
And after they graduated from high school, they formed a band called No Man’s Land. They took this name from a war movie they had liked and all seen. No Man’s Land was a punk band they formed which was more of an upbeat, faster and more of a singa long punk rock style.
Where the fuck is Soho¨? Jack said to Gav studying the tube map on the wall,
I am sure it’s in the west end¨
A bit to shy to ask adults, as Soho was known for sex shops and sleaze, not really the sort of place to encourage teenage kids to go hang around.
But where ever there was danger, there was always fun
The first time the lads had gone looking for Soho, they had studied the tube map looking for Soho station. But to no avail. Being street wise 14 year old skins, they didn’t want to have to ask a stranger and risk embarrassment, but just managed to find it by chance, wandering up through china town behind Leicester square, the shops changed from Chinese restaurants to small shops with the words ,Adult shop’ on the window. Handmade signs saying ´Model upstairs, above a shabby unpainted doorway, a bell hanging on the frame with exposed wires. Not really the place for a twiggy jack thought to himself. More like a model zeppelin he imagined.
Designed for ripping off rich Americans or drunks on a stag night, famous for sleazy shops and overpriced drinks in basement strip clubs. Porn cinemas and prostitution.
A few streets down, in Leicester square were the large theatres showing the Hollywood blockbusters, the caricature artists, painting pictures of ugly kids, whilst throngs of Japanese tourists photograph everything that moves, and most things that dont . The street buskers singing the same old Beatles and rolling stones songs to passing tourists. Well behaved London police officers playing the part of ´Bobby´, giving directions to the tourists, desperately trying to keep the image of nice London safe for the US Dollar and Japanese Yen. Smiling kids posing by red telephone boxes, in their plastic bowler hats.
But for the young skinheads it was a different world.
I´m bursting for a piss¨ jack announced to his mates, just gotta go to the loo¨
In the middle of Leicester square by the small garden there are some public lavatories. Walking down the steps the smell of disinfectant hits the nostrils mixed with the rancid smell of human waste. The tiled black and white chequered tiles, as you enter. The shiny polished copper pipes. Jack wondered to himself, who took so much pride in cleaning toilet water pipes. But any pride is a good thing he reckoned. All the lads piled down the steps to go for a pee.
But even in such a public functional place, there lurked danger.
Like rats, you are never far from a nonce in the west end, and like rats they scamper around looking to feed their hunger. A lot of runaways head for London. The bright lights, the romantic notion of a better life, the anonymity of the big city. Escaping some form of child abuse or unhappiness.
Like Ying and Yang, there is the Salvation Army and churches which are there to help and support. There is also the anti Christ waiting to feed.
When jack was 10 years old he had gone to the seaside, to Selsea Bill, on a very rare trip with his family.. Jack had been so excited, as lots of his mates had been there on family holidays, and had come to school telling stories of the sea and riding donkeys on the beach. Jacks town was about as far inland as possible in the UK, and it took hours to ever reach the ocean.
It was late autumn, and the place was almost deserted, a cold wind coming in off the sea. A closed fair ground and shuttered fish and chip shops, but any trip with his family was a great thing for jack and his sisters, and to see the ocean was almost magical.
Almost as soon as jack got out of his dads car, he needed the bathroom, his dad went crazy if his kids ever asked to stop for a toilet break on the journey, and the excitement of a glimpse of the sea, kept all the kids in anxious excitement anyway. His mum fed them boiled sweets for the journey, which was a lovely treat.
On the edge of the closed fair ground was a public WC. So jack headed straight for it, leaving his sisters and parents to wander along the promenade admiring the view, his sisters dashing down onto the beach to look for sea shells. The seagulls screaming overhead searching for washed up fish.
Jack was so excited to explore the seashore, he thought nothing as he ran into the toilet. Straight into a cubicle he slammed the door behind him, slipped the bolt across and took a seat on the toilet.
As he sat there, a piece of toilet paper flew under the gap beneath the door, and some footsteps walked away. Glancing down, jack noticed there was something handwritten on the piece of paper.
IF YOU WANT A WANK OPEN THE DOOR. The paper read.
Jack was absolutely frozen with fear.
Öh my god, he thought, what can I do, I have to open the door to escape, but if I open the door, then he will get me. He had only just about heard of the word ´wank´ . It’s something Pitwell often talked about, but jack was a lot more interested in collecting football cards and climbing trees for conkers, than anything vaguely sexual. But he realized he was in serious danger.
He understood the danger from his father’s tempers, he got at home, the canings and beatings from school teachers, even the bullies in the street of the council estate. But this was a whole new danger. Something that even scared adults. There were often rumours around the streets about strange men in red Austin mini cars. His mother always told him, never to speak to strangers. Kids talked about this danger, but never in detail, no one really knew who they were, or what they did to kids, when they kidnapped them.
What was he to do, he sat frozen, unable to breath, as it might let out a noise, holding his heart trying to hide the sound of the beating, he let out a slight uncontrollable murmour of fear. Where was he to go, he would have to open the door at some point. Perhaps his dad would come looking for him. But maybe not. Maybe this man will kick in the door. Thinking about it, he realized that as he had came into the building, there was a whole group of men in the toilet. Why were they all there? Were they all bursting to use the bathroom, as he was, maybe they would help him. But then a thought hit him. Maybe they are all together, maybe they are all kidnappers and perverts.
He slowly stood, pulling his belt tight. Raising his courage. Very slowly, he pulled the bolt on the lock, trying desperately not to make a scraping sound of metal on metal, mustering every bit of courage he could in an attempt to allow his escape. The door slowly opened. With every ounce of strength, every piece of energy, he ran. Not looking at anyone, not giving anyone a chance to grab him, he darted for the door to exit. Within a few seconds he was outside. He ran straight into a car parked outside, and as he looked into the window he saw the face of the devil. A thin old man in bottle glasses, with greased hair, staring at him. The look chilled his bones, as he ran for safety towards his sisters and parents. He could feel the eyes of the demon on his back, but he wasn’t going to look behind him.
Making the promenade, he saw his family down on the beach, his sisters bending over and searching the sand for shells, by the edge of the tide, jumping waves and running to escape them. His parents walking along further inland.
His anxiety dropped as he reached safety. Running down the otherwise deserted beach, his sister called him,
¨jack, look I’ve already found a shell fish, as she held it to her ear, listen you can hear the sea inside¨
Instantly he decided not to mention the toilet experience to anyone. His dad would only get angry, his mum wouldn´t know what to say. And it would at the very least, ruin the day for the whole family.
Instead he picked a flat stone up and threw it as hard as he could into the sea, trying to make it skim the surface of the sea. It went up twice then disappeared into a large white rimmed wave of the ocean. Jacks dog ´George ´chased the stone straight into the ocean, which filled jacks heart with joy. The dog had never seen the sea before, and had been howling on the entire journey from home.
´George had endless energy for chasing sticks, balls and anything you threw for him. He was jacks closest friend. One of the few kind things his dad ever did, was to save George from being killed by the vet. He had been bought as a German shepherd, but had not grown. He was just a mongrel, so the neighbour had taken him in the pub and asked if anyone wanted to save the young dog from its death sentence. He soon became one of the biggest personalities on the estate, being Jack, the paperboys dog.
Walking along the beach, the kids were all having the best fun ever. As usual feeling starving hungry, but otherwise loving it. Along the side of the ocean road were lots of shops, all looking tatty, selling rock and postcards and one large one with red flashing lights and music blasting out. It was an arcade filled with amusement and gambling machines. Oh how jack wished he had a few coins to go inside.
¨right that’s it we´re going home!¨ jacks dad barked
What, why? His mother asked quite shocked
¨Bloody Wogs¨ his dad barked with hatred in his eyes, staring at a group of black teenagers who were in the amusement arcade. ¨
So that was the end of the family holiday.
Leicester square was buzzing with crowds of people as the young teenage skinheads entered the toilets. Jack eyeing up the situation, looking for an empty cubical. Most people would be oblivious to the parasitic nonce. They don’t look very different to any man you could see on a Sunday watering his garden lawn, they don’t wear anything different than anyone else. They could be a school teacher or a bus driver, married to a fat wife with blow dried hair. But hidden behind that mask is the sexual deviant, who prey on young boys in public lavatories.
As Stuart entered the toilet, he went immediately to the standing urinal, undoing his jeans zip. Richard a bit further along. Jack was on watch, and sure enough, a man came running up beside Stuart from one of the wash basins. As Stuart was going about his personal business the man stood and looked down at Stuarts hands .
¨Stuart, there’s a fucking nonce next to you¨ jack screamed as loud as he could.
Stuart, bewildered, looked to his side, to see the man of about 45, wearing a sports jacket and backpack, looking at him, trying to get his kicks.
The pervert realizing very quickly he had been noticed ran for the door. This was jacks chance.
¨ let´s do the fucking scum¨ he cried to his mates.
Racing forward. He wanted this piece of scum before he could make the street outside.
Stuart and Richard joined in the chase, but were slightly to late, as the nonce made the crowds of Leicester Square. He went immediately into hiding behind the tourists. But Richard chased straight into the crowd, throwing a can of coke which had been discarded on the litter bin.
´clang´. It bounced off the side of the nonce’s head, sending its contents splashing over the pervert, and some other people in the crowd.
¨fucking nonce¨ Richard called after him.
¨Bloody Yobs ¨ a voice came from the crowd
Yes did you see what that thug did to that poor man?¨ came the sound of his wife
Bloody skinheads, where´s the police¨?, another startled onlooker called out¨.
Quickly coming to his senses jack realized they were in a volatile situation. The west end is crawling with police, and the skinheads would be the first arrested.
¨leave it he cried out to his mates, there´s old bill about ¨
Yes I hope they lock you away¨, came the voices
¨Aww bollocks to you fucking lot, what do you know¨. jack shouted into the crowd.
As the lads got together and mutually decided to leave the scene sharpish, running up the side of the theatre into Leicester place.
Bring back national service¨ came a comment as jack stuck up the V´s to the onlookers as the young skins made their escape into china town.
Another statistic for the newspaper reports
SKINHEAD THUGS ATTACK INNOCENT MAN IN LEICESTER SQUARE, WITNESSES REPORT.
Jack thought to himself as they trotted north into Soho. Sexual perversion and child molesting was a lesser crime than parking on a yellow line in the British court system. For the parking offence the driver immediately gains a fine. For the nonce the most he could expect was a few hours counseling if he ever made it to court.
The courts were full of nonce’s anyway, judges and barristers all had attended private schools and been buggered by rugby playing elder kids as part of the normal initiation. So they didn’t understand what crime had been committed. They would often go to whores in the back streets of kings cross to have their arses spanked by some sexually abused runaway and pay them money for the service.
Whilst Mrs. Judge was at home in Twickenham worrying about the colour of the curtains, as little Harriot and Bartholomew were away at school studying law and sociology in the hope of following their father into chambers, or failing that, getting a high paid job at the BBC, or in the media to write about the menace of the lower class thugs in British society.
Soho peep shows were always good for a laugh. The darkened hallways and the row of booths, a little like confession boxes in a catholic church. Only instead of getting father O´Reilly, when the flap opened after inserting 50p you got a naked girl sitting on a bar stall touching herself for the gratification of anyone with a few spare coins. Sometimes she would be so excited she would be sitting there reading a book, with her lily white skin, cellulite and stretch marks visible to anyone with a few spare coins.
Amongst the sex shops and porn cinemas, Soho was also a place for the drugs trade, it was not uncommon to see a few smack heads lying in the gutter, or spaced out in shop doorways, pallid white skin with blackened eyes. Pupils like pin dots. The living dead, covered in cysts and boils, from too many poisoned needles. Resorting to thieving or begging for any spare change, once the good looks had gone and there was no room left for them on the peep show stool, when the curb crawler kept driving, the nonce onto his next victim. The wheels of the sex industry, ploughing on through the harvest of human destruction.
Jack wondered why in this day and age with all the information out there, people would still take that first puff of opium. That first chase of the dragon. Was Sid Vicious or the rock stars of the 1960´s so cool as to want to follow them to a lonely end. Did they really believe that they were immune to addiction. Or was it just a death wish that would soon be granted, their bodies being found in cardboard city under waterloo bridge. another victim to the paupers grave.
Late night cafe, for a hot mug of tea, or a Spanish omelet. A place to escape the cold night air, or to wait for the morning trains to start. A few drunk clubbers, some musicians sitting for an after work coffee. Late night whores on a break. Old school gangsters wearing the immaculate fitted suites of a bye gone era, after spending too many years behind bars, cooped up in wormwood scrubs. Undercover vice squad with yellow fingers, from too long sitting on stake outs smoking players number 10. The proprietor watching over his flock of misfits.
On the wall are pictures of beautiful Spanish hillside villages, the sunsets over the Mediterranean, white painted buildings and tango dancers, all slightly faded and worn, a tea urn sitting on the edge of the surface, with a steady flow of steam escaping from the top rim.
Family photos of children in Sunday best clothing, posing with their mother and father, proudly hanging on the wall behind the service area. Jack wondered what brought this guy to London, the city of thieves. Maybe he had got on a boat to seek excitement of the most magical city on earth, His own business feeding the English people Spanish food. Sending regular letters home about the great business in London, hoping one day for his Spanish sweetheart to join him, or to one day return a rich man to the village he had come from.
Furniture from 1960´s square melamine tables with wooden chairs. A yellow glow from too much cigarette smoke and cooking fat, creating a warm homely atmosphere, the transistor radio playing wonderful world by Louis Armstrong.
A politeness and courtesy to the night owls of Soho. Two young skinheads feel welcomed as they take a seat, resting the tired feet from the constant walk around the streets of the west end.
Two overdressed and over made up girls stand, the smell of perfume hanging over them mixed with cigarette smoke. One wearing tight leather dress and leopard skin coat. The other in a bright red micro mini skirt short enough, it almost reveals her panties. Her boob tube squeezing the breath out of her chest, pushing her ample breasts to bursting point. Bright red lipstick and almost red blusher on her face.
¨see you later Luca, back to work¨ one says as she blows the proprietor a kiss walking out of the late night omelet café.
¨stay safe darling¨ replies the Spanish guy behind the counter
Jack and Gavin sit by the window sipping mugs of tea. Jack watching the Mercedes outside with the Arabic looking guy behind the wheel.
¨mind if we sit here?¨ a strong female northern Irish accent asks.
Yes sure you can¨ jack says, looking up to see two pretty punk girls standing smiling at him and Gavin. Jack offering a big smile to the girls as they take their seats.
¨god I could murder a cup of tea¨, one of the girls remarks as she looks at the menu written on the wall.
¨I think you have to go ask at the counter, Jack says, I’ll come with you, I need a refill, thinking it a good excuse to talk to the girl.
The proprietor , a thick set man in his mid 50´s with jet black hair and dark brown eyes, a few too many hairs sprouting from his nose and ears, wearing a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, an apron not hiding his petruding stomach very well, a tea towel laying over his shoulder.
¨how can I help you kids¨, he asks the couple as he places some clean plates on the shelf.
¨two cups of tea, please Mr.¨, the young punk girl asks
Holding the silver aluminium teapot under the water boiler, he pulls the handle and a high pitch hiss comes as the boiling water squirts into the open pot. Swirling it around in circles, he pours the thick brown tea,
¨And what about you son?¨ he says to jack without looking at him, preferring to concentrate on the boiling water.
¨I´ll have two teas as well please¨, he says placing his two cups on the surface.
Rejoining Gavin and the other girl, who had already struck up a conversation, the two friends placed the tea cups on the table and sat down opposite each other.
Where you two from¨? Gavin asks, my mum is from Ireland.
¨really, where from, asks the girl, we are from Belfast¨
Port Louth, by the prison¨ Gavin replies.
¨Wild place that, all the families from both sides go and live there, to be near the old man in jail, the girl says with a laugh, having their own private war¨.
Gavin continues ¨my mum hates it in Ireland, she has been here since she was about 18, got out as fast as she could, my uncles also moved to England, so we don’t really have any family there at all nowadays, I have never been there, but my uncle was a champion hurling player.´ Billy Dargan .
¨Oh that’s grand, I hope to move away from Ireland too, maybe we will stay in London, we just got here today, so we don’t know yet. London scares me.¨
Ha-ha jack laughed, you are scared of London, and you got the IRA blowing the fuck out of your town?
¨Oh it’s not as bad as that, don’t believe all the news reports, if you don’t get involved with it, they leave you alone¨.´ The IRA blew up the police station down my street once, but that’s about it¨. London is full of muggers.
¨Yes I guess so, Jack said, my brother was in the army over there, but he was stationed down in south Armagh, a place called Crossmaglen¨
¨Oh yes that’s called bandit country, they have shite going on across the border down there.¨
¨I´m Mary by the way, and this is Bridget, nice to meet you´.
¨My brother is a Belfast skinhead, but he´s over here now, living in Kilburn, do you know him, he´s called Mickey Doyle¨.
¨No can’t say I do know him, there’s a lot of skinheads in London´, but might have met him at some time or other,¨ Jack replied.
So what brought you to London, you just visiting your brother and shopping¨?
Well , something like that. Bridget here thinks she is in the family way, so we had to come over here, you know how it is being catholic in Ireland, she is going to the family planning clinic tomorrow, her ex boyfriend doesn’t want to know, he´s a waste of space, the feckin ejit¨.
¨Oh well I am sure you will be ok in London, there´s more Irish here than in Ireland.
Is that a fact, I was a bit worried we might get a hard time here, because of all the political shite.
¨No, like you say, don’t believe the media, our estate has loads of Irish, I don’t think the average Englishman blames all Irish for a few fucking scumbags, Gavin said, when my mum came over in the 50´s there was a bit of ignorance to the Irish, they used to have signs up in lodging houses, saying no dogs or Irish, but that’s ancient history.
So what brought your brother here, work¨? Asked jack.
Ha-ha, our brother, she said with a big smile. Biggest fool of them all, wherever there is trouble , our brother won’t be far away, he decided one night to steal a car, to get home from the pub, him and a few ejit mates of his.
The next day we get a visit from the ´Boys´, they tell our brother he has one hour to leave Ireland, turns out the car belonged to them. Luckily for him our Dar knows a few people, so managed to sweet talk them into agreeing not to take my brothers knees, if he left, and my father paid for the repairs to the car.
Silly fool, he parks the car a few streets away, thinking no one would notice, the local skinheads, in their big boots and no brains. You can´t blow your nose in my street without all the neighbours knowing how many tissues you use¨. ´
´so of course the Provo’s were round the house before breakfast, knocking me Ole Fella out of bed in his Y fronts
Hahahaha, so he moved to safe London, full of muggers, hahahaha, Jack said with sarcasm.
Yes, something like that, she said, he has to send me father money every week. He got a solid leathering from me Dars belt, to send him on his way. ¨she said, as all the four new friends laughed together.
A man came into the café, immaculately dressed in a sharp 3 button Italian suite, with a full length Crombie style overcoat draped over his shoulders, a pair of smooth’s, so shiny you could see your face in them.
¨hey Peter! The man behind the counter called out, in a very pronounced Spanish English accent, a huge smile across his face and an outstretched hand. The two guys hug, and the proprietor kisses the man on the cheek.
¨how’s the lovely clean air of free London my friend,
¨just great Luca, but the air is not so clean these days, with all these cars about¨.
¨what you want my friend? anything you like on the house, my home is your home¨ he continues
With that, the two old friends went into conversation about old times, dropping the volume levels gradually to a quiet talk.
Jack watched them as they spoke, imaging the stories those two guys could tell. Men from a different era, The jazz clubs of Soho, the swinging 60´s of the Mods . And The London underworld. Judging by Peters clothing, the way he held himself, with confidence, and the fact he wore a deep scar down the side of his face. Not a Chelsea smile, but a sign of an old street fight and a cut throat razor.
¨jack stop staring, Gavin’s voice broke through jacks thoughts¨.
¨Ur ur yes, shit, jack stuttered realizing he had been eyeballing someone who could take it seriously the wrong way, and returned his attention back to the girls.
¨so how’s the punk scene in Ireland¨ jack asked Bridget.
¨Yes pretty good, I like the English bands more. I love Sousxie and the Banshees, X-ray Specs¨ she said.
Yes they are good bands answered jack, but I love Stiff Little fingers and the Undertones¨.
¨Yes they are good an all, but all the best music, comes from London, you have so much here, most of the Belfast punks have turned skinhead now, they all love madness and the specials¨.
The conversation carried on about the punk and skinhead scenes in London and Ireland. As peter the sharp dressed guy crossed the room towards three other older guys of similar age who were sitting in the corner. As he passed the young skinheads table he smiled.
¨Tut tut, what’s this town coming too, he said, bloody skinheads
Hey Luca you don’t want these trouble makers in here, he called over to the proprietor, who was in the process of washing some blue and white striped mugs.
¨Get them all a hot drink on me, he said with a wink and a smile, as he took his seat with the other three guys.
Jack gave a shy thank you smile, in recognition of the generosity shown by the charismatic stranger, the 4 fresh cups of tea arriving soon afterwards to the table.
¨see London’s, not so bad¨ jack said to the Irish girls, who seemed enthralled by this new city.
Gavin pulled out his camera and took a few shots of the girls, which sparked conversation.
¨ I wanted to go to college to study photography , remarked Mary¨. But I couldn´t afford it, I had to get a job, so I ended up working in Woolworths, but at least it was in the photographic processing department ha-ha¨ she laughed.
¨ I never studied a thing, Gavin said, just got hold of a camera off my old man and started taking pictures.
Gavin often used his camera for opening doors, got him free into gigs as well as a good tool for chatting up women.
¨Great fun printing the pictures in the bathroom, as well, interjected jack, then turned his attention back to Bridget and the conversation of music. Jack loved punk music, and also liked punk girls, as they tended to be feminine and wore more revealing clothes than the skinhead girls.
Bridget was a small framed girl, her hair dyed black, with bright green Irish eyes. She was wearing tight fitting black jeans, destroy shirt which was torn across the chest to reveal a slight cleavage and black bra. Her leather biker jacket with love hearts and anarchy sign painted on the lapel in Tipex, with a few band pin badges, one saying Belfast punks, Sousxie and the banshees badges., alternative Ulster, oh bondage up yours, Her skin was crystal clear with a natural beauty. A soft gentleness about her. Small petite hands with manicured nails painted black, with a few silver rings, silver bracelets and pieces of material tied around her wrists.
¨Fancy going for a walk¨? Jack offered the girls
¨Yes sure, why not, can we go see Trafalgar square¨? Asked Bridget.
¨ I thought you said you´d been sightseeing today¨?
¨well we have, but London´s massive, we seen all the shops in Oxford street and Covent Garden¨ laughed Mary.
Yes bet you did¨, jack said with a raised eyebrow and frown, thanking god he wasn’t mugged into that sightseeing trip.
Taking the last mouthful of tea, jack stood and slipped on his prized Crombie, doing up the three buttons, adjusting the red handkerchief in the top pocket and brushing it off with his hand, he walked towards peter, the sharp dressed guy, but as he did he noticed the guys all stopped talking, on his approach. Jack sensing not to step to close, stopped and just nodded at peter.
¨thanks for the tea mate¨!
Peter rose his eyebrows. Don’t mention it , enjoy your girls. A short pause as jack turned away,
¨Keep your nose clean son,¨ Peter chipped in,
As jack walked away, ¨ if you can’t keep it clean, don’t get caught! ¨
Walking through Soho at night was a different experience than during the daytime. Gone were the shoppers and city workers, the black cabs and motorcycles couriers. Replaced by drunken clubbers wearing this week’s trendy clothes, staggering about looking for a kebab to wash down the alcohol, homeless sleeping in shop doorways, sheltering from the wind and rain, the scruffy dog sleeping at his feet, dirty clothing and one bag to hold the worldly possessions, making a bed on piss a stained pavement.
Piles of rubbish waiting collection from the council workers dustcart leaning against lamp posts.
Red lights flickering in upstairs windows above closed video shops.
¨If the Nuns could see me now, Bridget laughed, as she read the posters pinned to the porn cinema windows. Debbie does Dallas ¨she said as she tucked her hand around Jacks arm
Gavin and Mary were walking in front, probably discussing the meaning of life, knowing Gavin, he was always deep in thought about astrology, karma, from the latest hippy book he had read about metaphysics.
Through the streets of Soho the gay rent boys at old Compton street, the Chinese restaurants of china town surrounding Gerard street, on the edge of Soho, bordering Leicester Square and theatre land. Who knows where they all come from, rumours of human trafficking, stuffing people in container s on ships and backs of trucks, all the way from small villages in China, to work the restaurants and sweat shops of London and Europe. Controlled by the Chinese Triad gangs of Hong Kong. But no one really knows, they don’t mix with English people, live a parallel life within the city. But they don’t cause any public concerns. There are never stories of Chinese muggers or street riots, so they go un noticed, so long as the Peking duck stays cheap and tasty.
Maybe due to Bruce Lee movies nobody fucks around with the Chinese, as British kids are well aware that every Chinese person is a trained killer, who can take the biggest man down with one flying kick or karate chop.
Old Compton Street looks like any other West End Street, but Jack felt glad to have Bridget on his arm as they walked along. This strange group of bikers standing around, dressed in too much leather, with no obvious signs of motorbikes about, and even less females for comfort.
Jack felt eyes on him, as he walked, but kept his eyes on the path in front, his conversation with Bridget, perhaps subconsciously pulling her a bit closer to him, as he passed along the road. Bridget seemed unaware of anything odd about these people.
Reaching Charring Cross road unscathed, jack felt a sigh of relief. Relaxing slightly.
¨they give me the creeps¨, he said to Bridget, who was busy chatting about something , which had become a blur to jack, his mind was otherwise engaged.
¨who do, the Buzzcocks? ¨ Bridget answered, a bit confused.
¨No, said Jack, Fucking Queers¨
¨Are the Buzzcocks Gay?¨ She said
¨No, I don’t think so, said jack, but all those Poofs in Compton Street are¨
¨Who…. Those bikers¨? She remarked, looking back over her shoulder, I thought it was a hells angels club or something¨
¨Yes but with a few too many moustaches for my liking¨, laughed Jack
¨Aww leave them, they do no harm¨, She said tugging on Jacks arm
¨Idon’t want to know the harm they do to each others arses¨, Jack joked back
¨Urrr you´re disgusting, she said, screwing up her face.
She giggled a little and rested her head on jacks shoulder, as they walked, jack was worried slightly that her makeup would smudge onto his prized coat, but thought he wouldn´t mention it, he was quite enjoying the feminine touches coming from Bridget. He wasn’t sure if he was on a result here with the girl. Was she putting out inviting body language, or was it was just her friendly Irish nature.
Walking down Charring Cross Road, jack was giving Bridget a bit of a history lesson.
¨Denmark Street, they call Tin pan alley, because of all the musical instrument shops. The sex pistols used to rehearse in an upstairs room above a shop there, McLaren paid them 25 quid a week, before they made it big.
And that’s the National portrait gallery, where they have all the old biscuit tin classics, Constable, or whatever his name is, you´d know his paintings, countryside stuff, with horses and carts etc. the Heywayne or something like that.
That church is St Martin’s in the fields, weird to think this was all fields, once upon a time. The actual city of London, is only one square mile, and was once walled, its where the tower of London is and all the banks. It used to have gates likes Bishops gate etc.
They got a doss house now at St Martin’s for all the homeless, and a lot of those big buildings are embassies, like Canada and south Africa. And there is Trafalgar square, jack announced as Nelsons Column came into view.
¨You know a lot about this stuff Jack, I am very impressed, the perfect English gentleman tourist guide, did they teach you this at school?¨ Bridget asked.
HAHA jack laughed, they teach us fuck all, apart from how to bend over for a whack on the arse from a wooden cane. And especially nothing about British history, its politically incorrect. We have the industrial revolution, all about the toll puddle martyrs and who gives a toss who invented the fucking safety lamp. They teach us nothing about our culture or political history. I just like it, my ancestors were undertakers in Drury Lane, which is just up the road there, at the time the first white settlers were discovering America ¨.
♪have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man♪ Bridget began to sing.
¨Maybe you are the muffin man Jack hehehe¨ she giggled.
♪yes I know the muffin man the muffin man♪ she teased and kissed jack on the side of his cheek.
¨My family have always been Boggies, Bridget laughed, don’t think we ever had anyone as grand as the muffin man. I think a lot left during the famine, to England and America, and ever since then we have tended to leave Ireland, I don’t want to go back, there´s nothing there, in the North with all the guns, bombs, army and police everywhere, it’s no place to bring up children¨ she said with a sad sort of sigh, her mind drifting back to home for a short moment.
¨What about the south¨? Jack asked
¨Never live there, it’s all farmers and cows¨ she said, you don’t get much Rock n Roll in Cork¨. She laughed out loud to herself, putting on some sort of accent, as if laughing at people from Cork.
¨So you gonna be a born again cockney girl now then¨. Jack asked
¨yes something like that, I will start my own band and become the next Souxsie Sue¨
¨Irish Irene and the screaming Fenians¨ Jack suggested
¨sounds great, where the Albert Hall¨ she laughed.
♪ I came a long way from Tipperary, to the streets of London Town♪ jack began singing to make up a song
♪ Where I met a crazy English clown ♪ she sang
Up ahead Gavin and Mary had stopped and were talking to a guy in the street, who looked like another skinhead.
¨seen any skinheads knocking about?¨he asked
¨No not since earlier on¨ Gav replied.
¨You got any fags?, I’m gasping. He asked.
¨no mate sorry, jack answered, we don’t smoke¨
¨I got some rollies, Bridget piped in, as she opened her satchel which was covered in writing from a marker pen, and decorated with pin badges of mainly British punk bands, anarchy symbols and a CND patch.
Searching through her makeup and other things, girls carry around in bags, she pulled out a packet of Golden Virginia.
The guy looked a bit worse for wear, as Bridget handed him the tobacco, jack noticed his hands were black and bruised, visible sores across his knuckles, covered in dry blood, covering the Indian ink tattoos, blood was also all over his green flight jacket. Jack didn’t really want to ask him, what had happened to him.
¨That’s great.¨ He said raising a smile across his face, taking the tobacco and searching for some papers inside.
He stuck a paper to his lip and hissed a little, as he touched a cut , putting his fingers in the pouch to get a few strands of tobacco.
¨that’s looks a bit painful¨ Bridget said, as she curled her eyebrows.
¨ Oh its nothing, I just got out the cells, the old bill gave me a right good hiding. Look, he said as he poked out his tongue, to reveal that is was torn almost in two, from left to right.
Shissssshh, Bridget let out a sound, as she peered at him, touching the side of his face gently. Jack and the rest of the guys also stared in horror.
¨fucking old bill punched me in the face and I bit into my tongue¨.
It looked horrifically painful, jack thought almost cringing, as he felt his own tongue in his mouth, imaging the pain this guy must be feeling.
¨Oh you poor love¨, Bridget continued, as she looked at his mouth, in a caring almost motherly way, as if speaking to a young child who had just fallen off of his bicycle.
¨Why did they do that¨? she asked,
¨I got in a row with some Gooners up at Finsbury Park, and the fuckers nicked me, gave me a right pasting in the cells, but at least they didn’t charge me¨: he said with half a smile.
Jack noticed the skinhead was wearing a London Yids badge and a Tottenham Cockerel. Arch rivals to North London team Arsenal FC.
The guy handed back the tobacco to Bridget, but she held her palm up, and pushed his hand away.
¨No you keep it dear, it looks like you need it more than me, you have had a bad day, she said with a caring soft voice and smile.
¨oh if you insist, the guy returned, quickly pushing the Golden Virginia into his jacket pocket before Bridget changed her mind.
He then tapped his jeans and jacket, whilst holding the unlit cigarette in his mouth.
¨Got a light?¨ he asked from the corner of his mouth, with a raised eyebrow and a little boys cheeky grin, feeling really happy, with the generosity shown to him by Bridget.
¨Here you are, now go on with ya¨. Bridget passed a disposable lighter, closing his hand around it, with her hand.
¨You´re a sweetheart ¨. He said giving Bridget a hug, and a kiss on her cheek.
¨Hope you don’t mind mate. He said to Jack, you got a cracking bird there, make sure you look after her¨.
Bridget giggled slightly and looked at Jack for a split second, which in turn he felt a blush sweep across his cheeks
¨Have a great night¨! He said as the flame lit the end of his cigarette, allowing him to inhale a large lung full of relaxing tobacco smoke.
He took Jacks hand and shook it, and with that, walked into the London night, with a slight stride in his walk.
¨what’s a Gooner¨? Bridget asked Jack as they began to walk.
¨ An Arsenal football hooligan, Gooner is the name for Gunners firm. That guy was a Yid, which is Tottenham Hotspur, they are the big north London rivals, a bit like West Ham and Millwall in East and South London.
¨ha ha, you boys all want to be hero´s, always have to have something to fight about, thought you had a bit more education here, you are as bad as the lads back home¨.
¨Don´t look at me, I’m a nice boy¨. Jack said, giving his most angelic smile possible.
Bridget smiled, like a teacher does, not believing a word.
¨Besides, I come from High Wycombe, we got a shit team, made up of butchers and bakers.¨
¨and candlestick makers¨. Bridget added, giggling to herself.
¨ha ha you know the team then Bridge¨?
Jack paused to let the joke have some time.
¨No I never really been a big football fan, I think my dad put me off it, coming in pissed on a Sunday afternoon and turning the movie off we had all been watching, for the start of match of the day. I am much more into music and having fun. All that running about and millions of hours talking about 90 minutes of pretty boys kicking a bag of wind around, then getting in the bath together afterwards, doesn’t do it for me¨.
¨hahahaha you are funny Jack, she said. My sort of boy¨.
Trafalgar square was empty, just a few people standing on the road above the Square waiting for a night bus, and one guy in the far corner sweeping up discarded litter..
The four teenagers just messing about. Gavin leaned against the big grey stone held his hands together and gave the girls a bunk up onto the surface surrounding Nelson.
Jack jumped up himself, and immediately climbed onto one of the four brass lions, which sat at Nelsons column´s base.
¨pull me up jack¨. Asked Bridget, as she desperately tried to be the tom boy and join jack on the climb.
Jack leaned over and took her hands, pulling her up to join him. The both sat astride the lion, as if riding him, jack felt the closeness of Bridget against his body and smelled her perfume and the beautiful fragrance of female, as she looked out over London.
¨That’s Whitehall down there, where Maggie and the Government do their stuff. At the End is Big Ben, I think you can see that from here. And the next street over there is The Mall. We can go visit Lizzie if you like¨.
¨Who´s Lizzie¨? Asked Bridget.
¨You know, Lizzie, The Queen, Elizabeth¨! Jack Explained
¨Oww got ya, Bridget said, as she got the joke, Yes lets go see the Queen at Buckingham Palace, do you think she will make us some tea?¨
¨I am sure she will, we can tell her some loyal subjects are over from Ireland, maybe we will get some Digestives, or scones¨. Jack added.
¨I want to meet the Corgi’s, I love dogs¨, Bridget said as she slid down off the Lion.
Walking down through Admiralty Arch into the Mall, the sight of thousands of parades over the last few hundred years.
Jack was giving Bridget the tourist guide, all about how the Royal Navy was controlled from here, and the Horse guards which did all the ceremonial stuff for the tourists. Reading a few plaques, under military statues. From days gone by, when the British establishment, honoured its fallen heroes, killed on a far way field. During the time Britain was building her Empire.
Jack felt a sense of pride, as he walked down the Mall, admiring the palace buildings. The architecture. The flag poles lining all the way down the road, one of the few places in Britain they still flew the union jack on occasions. The guardsmen outside the palaces, in their immaculate red tunics and bearskin hats, were just there to collect the tourist dollar. But as an Englishman Jack still felt a pride in his heart, and yearned to be part of a Britain which travelled the Earth, spreading education, designing and building railway systems and hospitals. Trading with tribes, in distant nations. Discovering amazing new breeds of animals and forests. Being feared and respected by all the other World powers, bashing the French and Spanish for Gold in the process.
But this was 1981, what future was there for today’s youth, what did this country hold for him. Unemployment and maybe a council flat if there are any left. Some shit job in a factory or supermarket.
¨ It’s a bit dark and quiet down here Jack, are you sure we will be ok¨?
¨ Yes, this is tourist central, you won’t get any problems here¨ Jack answered,
The two walking arm in arm down the road. Jack felt good. It was really lucky to meet Bridget in the café, she seemed a really nice girl. Jack was wondering how he could see her again, and was hoping she decided to stay in London. Maybe she would come visit Wycombe some time. Was he going to get a kiss at some point tonight, he was wishing.
The City was quiet, just the odd car passing along the Mall, it’s not a bus or truck route, and there were no other pedestrians.
The pair were just wandering along casually, enjoying the evening, when behind him jack felt the thump of running feet. Looking over his shoulder, he saw somebody in the distance coming towards him. Not sure who it was or quite what to do, Jack immediately thought it best to keep Bridget calm. His natural male protectiveness coming to the fore.
He carried on chatting, but was concentrating on the feet, bracing himself for some sort of confrontation. Gavin was up ahead. Jack wondered if he had noticed yet, but didn’t want to raise the alarm, because he didn’t want to frighten Bridget, but she had noticed, jack felt her pull a bit tighter on his arm. Maybe she was also thinking about not to panic.
Speeding up his step slightly to close the gap between himself and Gavin, bracing himself as the footsteps got nearer
Jack was on high alert, his muscles tightening, but he didn’t want to look at the person running, hoping he would keep on going. He pulled his hands out of his pockets, clenched fists.
The guy passed him, overtook Gavin, then in front he stopped the run, and went into a slow pace.
He was a young black guy.
Gavin had noticed and looked back to Jack, to see where his backup was. Jack was thinking the same thing.
Something made jack look over his own shoulder, maybe for an escape route, but to his major alarm he saw a big mob running towards him.
Shit! He thought, this is going to be a proper row.
This was definitely getting more serious by the minute. The guy in front was holding them pinned in, as the rest of the mob caught up. Jack stood his ground and turned. He was used to street fighting, and knew Gavin would be thinking the same thing. He weighed his options up in his mind.
Fight or flight. Well he wasn’t going to run for several reasons, mainly that Bridget would slow him down, and if he did run he would almost certainly take a beating, or his friends would. He had learned that its always best to front out a situation, however much it goes against nature.
Bridget had stopped talking, she must have noticed the impending situation. Jacks stress levels were rising, the adrenalin and rushing of blood to the head. His sensing becoming hyper aware, as all the sounds disappeared. Jack focused
In a situation like this jack always applied the same rule, just go for the biggest one, take out the leader, in a firm, you will have the fighters and the followers. If you are going to take a beating then at least inflict as much damage into one of them as you can. Get hold of him. Bite him, punch and gauge his eyes out, but whatever you do, but don’t let go. If they are going to kick the shit out of you, then use their guy as your shield keep your face and body as close to him as you can and cause him maximum damage, the more vicious you are, the less you should get hurt. Most attacks will be over in a few minutes, so just hold on. Unless they have a blade, you should only end up with a few cuts and bruises. But long gone were the days when Jack would let anyone rob him, without a fucking good fight.
The mob approached, but as they neared it became apparent that they weren’t looking at jack. They divided and ran either side, as if Jack were a lamppost. He didn’t feel any punches, and kicks, were they going to attack Gavin first?
A thought struck him. These were white guys, and not the black mob Jack was expecting. Who were they?
They all ran past Gavin, then like a pack of wild dogs tore into the lone black guy.
The game had changed, but both jack and Gavin were pumped and ready to fight. But instead of defensive, it turned to offensive. Without a word Jack and Gavin charged towards the mob to defend the lone victim. Gavin grabbed one by the shoulder, spinning him around as Jack sprinted in, his fist raised, lining it up for the first jaw to smash.
The guy raised his hand up from his jacket pocket, he was holding something.
Pointing it directly at Jack came the words
¨Old Bill, Fuck Off¨!!
Like a sportsman’s getting the whistle, Jack just sort of froze mid flight, as reality hit him. Maybe with a little help from Bridget who grabbed his coat tail.
¨NOOOOOO, JAAAAAACKKK¨
Perhaps it was the girls company or location, but for whatever reason. The police didn’t react to the Skinheads, but put their attention back to the black guy, who by now was spread eagled on the pavement, Two undercover policemen holding him down, knees pushed into his back, as they pulled his hands behind him, clipping the handcuffs on him. Cursing and swearing at him, as another stood over him, speaking into a radio.
The four teenagers were all silent as they walked for a few minutes, past the dramatic scene.
¨We should be getting back. Was the first words Bridget spoke, as she hung onto Mary. I don’t feel safe, let’s get back to the room Mary¨:
Another night ruined by the fucking Police. Jack thought, scratching an imaginary ACAB tattoo into his knuckles, as the two girls said their farewells, never to be seen again.
My name is Sara Silva and I am Portuguese. I am 29 years old and currently live in the south of Portugal in Faro. After finishing my degree in Graphic Design from the University of Algarve in 2007, started working as a freelancer in design and as a collaborator in the studio of tattoos and piercings Freak Shop, where i currently work as a full time as body piercer. I started drawing as a child, I studied art in high school and went into graphic design. In my illustrations use my main theme is skinhead culture composition, dynamic fruit of my artistic evolution and personal . My inspiration comes from the music I hear, the lifestyle I have, to my personal experience and artitist and my everyday struggle in life. I try to combine traditional design with more digital techniques to create a more personal and current mixture.
Plan B Photographed In Skrewdriver T Shirt The Quietus , July 22nd, 2012 05:18
Has Ill Manors rapper had an attack of the Morrisseys?
As reported on Brian Whelan’s excellent blog recently, UK rapper/neo-soul star Plan B was photographed last week wearing a T shirt bearing the band name Skrewdriver.
The picture was taken from the front cover of popular free title, Shortlist which has a circulation of over half a million copies a week. The The Defamation Of Strickland Banks star was giving an interview to promote his new album and film (both called Ill Manors). The photoshoot took place immediately on his arrival at the studio, but it isn’t made clear if the clothes belong to the rapper or were given to him by a stylist.
The T shirt appears to bear a picture of Nicky Crane, a violent Nazi skin who provided security for Skrewdriver and served several jail terms for racist assaults. Donaldson and Crane both fell out when the latter came out as gay towards the end of his life. For many, the white power, bonehead band Skrewdriver represented the absolute nadir of popular music’s interaction with the Fascist movement, given that their message was evangelical, unironic, violent, radical and, to a certain degree, popular. That singer Ian Stuart Donaldson died in a car crash in 1992, did nothing to hurt their standing worldwide among neo-Nazis. The band however started as a non-politically aligned punk group in 1976 signed to Chiswick, and this incarnation of the group still has many fans internationally including J Mascis and Pink Eyes from Fucked Up. (Pink Eyes, aka Damian from Fucked Up, delivered a righteous screed on the subject of being a fan of the band’s early recordings on the Guardian which is worth checking out.) The interview with Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew aka Plan B is still viewable on the Shortlist website where you can clearly see he is wearing the neo-Nazi band top. It seems highly unlikely that Plan B has accidentally revealed himself to be – or indeed is – a Nazi especially given his recent, left leaning and nuanced ‘Ill Manors’ single but it is ironic and doesn’t help him any that during the interview he praises Tim Roth’s acting in Made In Britain, Alan Clarke’s 1982 film about racist skinheads. He was asked: “Do you look at actors such as Winstone, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth and think, ‘I’d like to be at that level in 20 years’?” And replied: “Oh mate, Tim Roth in Made In Britain – f*cking amazing. In 20 years, I’d love to be at the level they’re at, but it depends how I look. Some people don’t age well for films. They lose that spark. Oldman’s still got it, Ray’s still got it. It all depends on what fate’s got in store for me.”Yet another example of a complete lack of knowledge or investigation by the media, but printed as fact.Well here’s the real story of the ‘T shirt’ the facts are Gavin Watson has done a bit of work with Plan B, and he loved Gavins skinhead photographs, he asked Gav could he use some, and Gavin gave him a whole box of images to choose from, which he then printed a few to t shirts, as a way of using genuine British street images, and also supporting Gavins photography.
But the picture in question, printed on the T shirt is one that Gavin Watson took of his younger brother Neville, who at the time was about 14 years old. Taken in the mid 1980’s on a council estate in High Wycombe at the height of the Skinhead Subculture. Posing against a garage, which has the word Skrewdriver graffitied on it. At that time it was very common for punk bands names to be graffitied all over the country.Gavins photographs have been printed worldwide and have come to represent Margaret Thatchers Britain. Gavin was given a camera as a kid and went about photographing his environment, family and friends, in a complete innocent love of photography. It just so happens that the time was when the British youth culture of Skinheads was at its height, of which Gavin was an active part. Films like ‘ This is England’ and many fashion designers and marketting people have used Gavins images as inspiration, but due to 21st Century political correctness, the actual era that the photos represent is something the British establishment would rather bury under a carpet. and even today, 30 years later the media are still spewing out their lies about the time and the young people involved.This obsession withbelittling council estate kids, and anyone that tries to inspire them. i think its extremely brave and sincere of Plan B to take genuine images of real kids from the council estates that he now represents with his music. In the USA people like Biggy Smalls did that, with his own environment, to huge worldwide success. Yesterdays Skinheads who listened to Oi music, are no different than todays youth, listening to Grime . The more young people feel attacked and written off, outcast, the more chance they will take to the streets, as was seen last year in British cities and in 1981, with the previous generation. July 22, 2012 13:34
Plan B responds to NME ‘neo-Nazi’ t-shirt criticism
Rapper apologises, says he was unaware of the existence of Skrewdriver
Plan B has responded to criticism for a photograph which shows him wearing what appears to be a Skrewdriver t-shirt. The most recent issue of Shortlist shows the rapper sporting a top with the band’s name written on it. This prompted some commentators to question his motive. The New Statesman asked why the rapper had worn the T-shirt and quoted journalist Brian Whelan, who wrote on his blog: ” It is very unusual that Plan B would knowingly wear this t-shirt and that Shortlist would stick it on the front of their publication. Make no mistake about it Skrewdriver were a nasty bunch, [founding member] Ian Stuart became a martyr for the far-right when he died in a car crash almost 20 years ago.” The rapper has now released a statement, which has been posted on The Quietus, explaining that the garment was not an official Skrewdriver t-shirt. He also apologised for not knowing who the band were, or what they represented. He said: “I was ignorant to the existence of the band Skrewdriver. I don’t listen to music like that so I wouldn’t know the names of bands that make that music. I was wearing a T-shirt I created using a photograph from the photographer Gavin Watson’s book Skins. “I asked him if I could print shots from his book on to T-shirts. I made a number of these T-shirts. Gavin’s photos are relevant to me because they represent the demonised youth of the past. Just like my generation of young people are demonised in the media to all be hoodie wearing thugs and chavs so were the skinheads in the 80’s.” Speaking about the person on the T-shirt, who some thought to be former Skrewdriver associate Nicky Crane, Plan B explained: “Most of the T-shirts I had made were of his brother. The boy on the image is Neville Watson. Neville is Gavin Watson’s brother. The graffiti behind him is graffiti. Neither Gavin or Neville put it there; it was already there when Gavin took the photo. Gavin did not know I had printed that image on a T-shirt and I was not aware of the significance of it.” He concluded: “The minute I found out what the words on the T-shirt meant I was angry with myself for not questioning them. The T-shirt is not official nor is it on sale anywhere. It was of my own doing and therefore it is my mistake, but that is all it is.” Skrewdriver were a notorious neo-Nazi “white power” group with links to the National Front. Founding member Ian Stuart Donaldson died in a car crash in 1993 and his death is celebrated every year by the far-right movement. Shortlist’s interview with Plan B can still be viewed on their website, where he talks about his favourite actors and movies as well as his own film, and accompanying album, Ill Manors.
(Reuters) – Security guards scuffled on Wednesday with masked protesters demonstrating outside Moscow’s main cathedral in support of members of the Pussy Riot punk band who are on trial for an irreverent protest at the same church.
Witnesses said 18 demonstrators in colourful balaclavas like those worn by the band mounted the steps of Christ the Saviour Cathedral and held up placards reading: “Blessed are the merciful”.
Guards moved swiftly to disperse the demonstrators and treated some of them roughly, Internet TV channel Dozhd reported. Ekho Moskvy radio said five people were detained.
A Moscow court is to issue its verdict on Friday in the trial of three women who sang a “punk prayer” on the altar of Christ the Saviour in February, calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin, then prime minister.
Prosecutors want the judge to convict Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentence each to three years in prison.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups called for protests around the world to support the jailed musicians on the day of the verdict.
Amnesty International in Washington said a senior counsellor at the Russian embassy refused to discuss “more than 70,000 petitions urging Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the women.”
“This representative of President Putin and his government not only rejected Amnesty International’s pleas to take our concerns to Moscow, he unceremoniously dumped the petitions on the sidewalk. If this and other actions taken by Russian authorities are any indication, Putin’s vision for the country is a complete breakdown of a free and just society,” it said.
The accused say they were protesting against close ties between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader supported Putin during his successful campaign in a presidential election in March.
They have been held in jail since shortly after their performance, which offended many people in mostly Orthodox Christian Russia. Kremlin critics see their trial as part of a crackdown on dissent as Putin starts a new six-year term.
(Editing by Timothy Heritage and Robin Pomeroy)
An international frenzy is building over the trial verdict that some are saying could decide the future of Russia. Artists in London and Berlin are organising protests. The European Union has accused Russia of intimidating judges and witnesses. Even stars like Yoko Ono and Madonna are getting involved.
Here’s what happened: Nadia, Masha, and Katya were arrested, denied bail, and imprisoned for months because they sang a protest song criticising Russian president Vladimir Putin. In just days, a judge will decide whether to sentence them to three years in prison on charges of “hooliganism.”
Nadia, Masha, and Katya joined the political punk band, known as “Pussy Riot,” to help raise awareness over government corruption. Together with a handful of other committed young women, they dress up in colourful clothing and sing about what they think is wrong with their country — like earlier this year when they performed outside a prison for political dissidents.
Their arrest and trial have drawn international attention. Musicians across the globe are rallying to the cause, with Madonna interrupting her concert in Moscow this week to voice her support, and Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky sewing his mouth shut in protest.
President Putin is starting to show sensitivity to the pressure, and the women’s defense lawyer has told the press that he thinks the judge may be moved by outside influence. To ramp up the pressure, supporters of the Pussy Riot defendants are collecting petition signatures from thousands of people around the world calling on Russian authorities to release the women.
Pussy Riot’s brief act of defiance last year helped lift the lid on some deep divisions within Russian society. August 16, 2013
Ayear ago, much of the world’s eyes were on a Moscow courtroom where three young women were on trial for a two-minute act of defiance in the Russian capital’s main Orthodox cathedral.The Pussy Riot case exposed deep divisions in Russian society — divisions the Kremlin was eager to exploit for its own purposes.In the latest “Power Vertical Podcast,” we discuss the implications of the cultural war and countercultural insurgency that has raged since the verdict.
Joining me is co-host Kirill Kobrin of RFE/RL’s Russian Service, a contributor to the online magazine Polit.ru, and Sean Guillory of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, author of Sean’s Russia Blog.
Enjoy…
Podcast: One Year After Pussy Riot, Culture War Vs. Countercultural Insurgency
My name is Cheryl Cole and I’m originally from Oakland, California, U.S.A. My interest in skinheads goes back to the early 80’s when I was very much into the second wave of ska and mod sounds. I was not a skinhead then, more of a rude girl/mod/new wavey type. I also listened to R&B and oldies, I loved Prince, I loved rap, Run DMC and all that, I don’t know how you would classify me! By the late 80’s I was obsessed with music, mainly punk, metal, glam, some Oi! ska, industrial, rap, soul, anything that was good I got into it. Most of the skinheads I would see back then were hardcore skins, which I love of course but my skinhead love affair was really with the ska end of it. During the 90’s I was very disapointed with the third wave and the new punk that was coming out so I basically spent that decade listening to the music I loved from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Just a few years back I got very involved in the traditional skinhead life and now I am happy to be a part of this amazing vibrant subculture.
I did not study art at school, I had high school art class, and I tried to take a figure drawing course at community college but I hated it so I walked out. My friends and I used to draw and paint all the time, I had friends in the 80’s who were incredible graffiti artists, painters, people who drew things with a Sharpie pen that were mind bendingly good with meticulous shading done with old pens which were half way dried out. I learned techniques from those friends, and from my love of comic books. I used to sit and draw from comic books and try to paint similar to the watercolor comic art like Havok and Wolverine and Black Orchid. my friends and I used to stay up for days on end, (if you know what I mean) and just draw until we could barely see any more! Now days I am straightedge, but I do think that those crazy days of my youth and the obsessive way I drew and drew truly shaped my style and abilities. I also learned SO much from the staff at an art store I worked at for 4 years. They were all amazing artists who had gone to school and knew so many techniques and they shared that knowledge with me and encouraged me to try oils, which I love now of course!
I would like to show the world through my art what a beautiful and diverse scene we have, I would love it if the name skinhead made people think immediately of Jamaican Ska, dancing and good times. Unfortunately, at least here in the USA, “normal” people tend to cringe when you say the word skinhead. Right now I live in San Diego, California. The skinhead world here is small, but very welcoming. I am fairly new to them and for the past few years, they have all been so great, I just love each and every one of them. There are a few excellent and knowledgeable DJ’s who have skinhead reggae nights around town, and we are very close to Tijuana, which has a big group of skinheads along with good shows and dos. Also we are just a few hours from Los Angeles, they have some GREAT shows up there, and lots of people doing events with amazing DJ’s and really good people.
I can’t think of one particular highlight to my artistic life, but I do really enjoy giving my art to my dear friends. They get so happy and there is really no feeling like it! I have had low points, where I just don’t want to paint or draw, and sometimes these low points will last for a few years. I will try to force myself to do stuff but if you are not feeling it, it will turn out bad. I’ve noticed that good positive friends who truly encourage me help immensley. Right now I am surrounded by people who truly care for me, and want to encourage me and all I want to do is paint and draw! My dry spells usually went along with stress and depression. I am currently in the process of some big changes in my life, I plan on taking big steps to forge a positive life for myself and my family, I am making an effort every day to be a good person, be a hard worker, be an honest and loyal friend. It takes effort to be positive and truly honest as much as you can, but it is worth it as you find good things around you and good people come in to your life.
I’ve given up trying to change other people, I just change myself and be what I wish other people would be.
The Great Skinhead Reunion 2Brighton Seafront 8th – 10th June 2012Live Performance from the Legend of Skinhead Reggae, Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip, plus a full line up of events from Friday afternoon until Sunday. The Ticket is for the Allnighter. Due to high numbers expected, this year we have incurred costs for extra security, and the all nighter is in a second venue, The View, Hove Beachfront, which starts at 10pm . The Wristband will also give you preferential entry to all free daytime venues, and to take part in the Quadrophenia tour
on Sunday 10thThe Great Skinhead Reunion is booked for the 8-10th june on Brighton seafront. the event kicks off on friday with a gathering at the volks club. Spirit of 79 will be focussing on the era of punk rock, oi and 2tone as well as the origins. CASE coming down from London on the Saturday, it will be all day at the volks, Madeira Drive,from 12 noon, which is the venue used in quadrophenia , where sting first shows up . Scooterists are parking for the day, Live performance from Ska’d 4 Life.Then after that is the allnighter, which will be two rooms, bands, dj’s and right on the beach. The Jamaican Reggae Legend Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip live. Then weather permitting a Quadrophenia tour and beach BBQ on Sunday. this event is for anyone who is, was and just likes the skinhead scene, all styles and eras of skinhead music will be played, from original ska and soul, to punk, oi, 2 tone and beyond, its strictly non political and non snob. everyone is welcome. we have people coming from ireland, scotland, the north and south of the uk, plus several contacting us from abroad as far away as USA and Singapore who are making the trip.You dont have to be a skinhead, nobody is excluded. its for fun. children and famillies are welcome. (very strictly non political)A full line up of The Uk’s top dj’sBands Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip meets the Moonstompers, Ska’d 4 Life, Case,. Dj’s ConfirmedSka ShackGrooverDarren (official Madness DJ) Hit the MoonOlas BossLee Evans, Direction ReactionBarrySabrina LatinaGegga, Skinhead Heaven Check out last years video if you missed ithttps://subcultz.com/2011/12/the-great-skinhead-reunion-review/SCOOTER PARKING AVAILABLEhttp://www.facebook.com/groups/SkinsUWW/
Published: Thursday May 3, 2012 | 9:05 am15 Comments
Lloyd Brevett (2nd left) in the company of his friends and fellow musicians.
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
One of the founding members of The Skatalites Band, Lloyd Brevett is dead.
Brevett died at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in St. Andrew this morning at the age of 80.
In October 2001, he was conferred with Jamaica’s fifth highest honour, the Order of Distinction and in October 2010, he was awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to music.
The musician’s son Okine Brevett was killed in February after collecting an award on his father’s behalf at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association Awards at Emancipation Park.
At that time, the former upright bass player of The Skatalites was said to be too ill to collect the award.
barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com
Lloyd Brevett, the upright bass player for the legendary Skatalites, has passed away at the age of 80 in St. Andrew’s Parish, Jamaica. Brevett had been hospitalized a few weeks earlier due to a series of seizures and a stroke. While he was already in poor health, Lloyd’s health began to decline following the tragic murder of his son, Okine, in February of 2012. Okine had just accepted an award on behalf of his father earlier that night, but the celebration was cut short after he was accosted not far from the Brevett home.
Lloyd Brevett’s musical legacy cannot be understated, although his name sometimes does not get as much mention as other Skatalites members. Lloyd was introduced to the bass at a young age, as his father was one of Jamaica’s first jazz bass players. His father taught a young Lloyd not only how to play bass, but also how to make his own upright bass. As a young bass prodigy, Lloyd would be exposed to many local bands and players through his father’s work, meeting other up-and-comers like future Skatalites drummer Lloyd Knibb, who was learning how to play drums from Esmond Jarrett, who was playing with Eric Dean’s band at that time. Both Knibb and Brevett would eventually go on to play with Eric Dean’s band (as well as many other club and hotel bands), and from there, both became highly sought-after musicians in Jamaica.
As the recording industry began to take off in Jamaica in the late 1950’s, Brevett found plenty of session work, where the best of the local musicians would find themselves doing many sessions together for various producers. It was at Studio One, however, where the core group of musicians that would eventually become the Skatalites recorded some of the most popular tunes of the early 60s. Sir Coxsone would play his Studio One productions at his Downbeat sound system dances, and as the local demand for buying these records grew, Coxsone figured that the people would want to know the name of the band that everyone was dancing to. Coxsone then assembled his finest group of session players, and attracted the talents of other in-demand players like Tommy McCooke (who was working in Nassau), Lloyd Knibb (who was working in Montego Bay) and Lynn Taitt (who was working with Byron Lee and Count Lasher, as well as his own groups), and thus the Skatalites were born.
Lloyd Brevett’s bass work was quintessential to the Skatalites’ sound, even though his bass lines may not always be all that easy to define. That was really his genius coming through, though. Although he learned the instrument from his father, Lloyd had been developing his own style based on all of the styles he played in his earlier career, as well as his understanding of drumming styles like burru and mento, which were uniquely Jamaican. Listening to certain Skatalites tunes, it can be quite difficult to pick out just what Brevett is playing; at times he seems to be all over the place, but it becomes apparent that every note is exactly in its place.
Brevett was also crucial in the transition from ska to rocksteady, as he was the bass player for the Soul Vendors, the studio band that rose from the ashes of the Skatalites and the Soul Brothers.
This is Lloyd Brevett’s legacy; the sublime beauty of his musicianship, a crucial foundation of the ska beat, and a true Jamaican legend. His music will live on in his numerous recordings, from ska and rocksteady to roots and dub, and his memory will endure as one of Jamaica’s best known and most-beloved bass players.
If you would like to donate money to the fund for both Okine and Lloyd Brevett (for funeral arrangements and hospital bills), please see the information listed below. Even though Lloyd was a US citizen, he was unable to receive any health or social security benefits while being hospitalized in Jamaica. His wife (Ruth Brevett) and family would appreciate any assistance during this tragic time. Rest In Peace, Lloyd Brevett.
c/o Lloyd Brevett National Commercial Bank, Hagley Park Branch – Hagley Park Road
Acct # 174274584
Western Union – Ruth Brevett, Kingston Jamaica 876-850-4403 originaljamaicaskatalites@gmail.com
Protect Our Children has challenged the planned visit of a British sex offender scheduled to perform at a concert in May. Jimmy Pursey, a member of the Punk group “Sham 69″, is slated to appear May 25th, at a music festival called “Punk Rock Bowling 2012″, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 2002, Pursey received a “Caution” from police in Weybridge, U.K., for committing an Indecent Assault on a teenaged girl. The British “Caution”, which has no corollary in the U.S., allows offenders to avoid trial if they agree to admit guilt and register with the police. They are also listed on the United Kingdom’s “Registry of Sexual and Violent Offenders”.
Correspondence sent to John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), renewed the group’s objection to the practice of granting visas to foreign nationals who have been registered as Sex Offenders in their homelands. The March 14th letter calls the practice “a slap in the face” to victims of sexual abuse.
In a response dated March 26, Deputy Director Peter T. Edge, said the Department of Homeland Security takes the allegations seriously, and has forwarded the information to the D.H.S. field office.
In 2010, the Brevard County charity joined other child-advocacy organizations in protesting Pete Townshend’s performance at the SuperBowl in Miami. The group, which informs local citizens about convicted child molesters, mailed a sex offender advisory to residents living in the vicinity of the stadium in Miami Gardens.
Immigration officials were also notified that permitting foreign sex offenders to enter the U.S., is in conflict, with the “Moral Turpitude” clause, found in American immigration law. Townshend, a member of the British rock band: The WHO, received a Caution in 1983 after his arrest for paying to access child pornography.
15 hours agoOFFICIAL SHAM 69 STATEMENTA DISCLAIMERWE, THE OFFICIAL SHAM 69, WISH TO MAKE THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER STATEMENT:THIS IS DUE TO THE PERSISTENT EMAILS FROM BOTH FANS, MEMBERS OF THE UK/INTERNATIONAL PRESS, AND STATEMENTS MADE VIA SOCIAL NETWORK SITES REGARDING AN INCIDENT THAT TOOK PLACE INVOLVING JAMES TIMOTHY PURSEY (AKA JIMMY PURSEY) BEING ARRESTED FOR INDECENTLY ASSAULTING AN UNDER AGE GIRL. THIS INCIDENT DID TAKE PLACE, THE GIRL WAS UNDERAGE, THEREFORE LEGALLY A MINOR, AND SUFFERED TRAUMA AS A RESULT WITH LIFE LONG CONSEQUENCES NO DOUBT. THIS BAND FULLY AND UTTERLY CONDEMNS SUCH BEHAVIOUR AND WISHES TO MAKE IT KNOWN THAT JIMMY PURSEY IS NOT PART OF THE OFFICIAL SHAM 69 LINEUP IN ANY WAY. WE ALSO WISH TO MAKE IT KNOWN THAT HE IS NOT PART OF THE STAFF OR ANY SUBSIDIARY OF THIS BAND. ALONG WITH MANY FANS, BE THEY PUNKS, SKINS OR WHATEVER, WE TOO HAVE KIDS OF OUR OWN AND SOME HAVE GRAND KIDS TOO. AS SUCH WE DO NOT TREAT THIS AS A LIGHT HEARTED MISTAKE AND NEITHER DID THE GIRL’S PARENTS, ADDITIONALLY NEITHER WOULD YOU IF IT WAS YOUR CHILD OR FAMILY MEMBER. THIS GIRL WAS A MINOR, AND THOUGH SOME PEOPLE MAY BRUSH THIS OFF WITH A BLIND VIEW IN SUPPORT OF THIS MAN, WE WONT. SEEING AS WE DO HAVE SOME LYRICAL CONNECTIONS HOWEVER, WE, THE OFFICIAL SHAM 69, HAVE DECIDED THAT IN RESPECT OF OUR MORAL BELIEF AND SUPPORT WE WILL MAKE A DONATION FROM EVERY SHOW WE PERFORM, BE IT UK OR WORLDWIDE, TO THE NSPCC’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE, AND WILL DO SO UNTIL WE RETIRE AS A BAND. SO STAY TRUE AND STRONG AND WE’LL SEE YOU DOWN THE FRONT. SHAM 69however……
Hurry up Harry, get that Sham 69 plaque erected
1:46pm Saturday 23rd September 2006
By Yvonne Gordon
A plaque has finally been erected at The Watermans Arms in Hersham to seminal 1970s punk rockers Sham 69.
The band which which was formed in 1975 had several hits, including Hersham Boys, Hurry Up Harry and If the Kids are United.
Hersham residents association chairman, Andy Pinnick said the plaque was put up outside the pub, on Hersham Green, as a tribute to the band’s role in putting Hersham on the map. He said: “The band played there regularly when it was starting out in the mid-1970s, because all its members came from Hersham village.
“We originally wanted a blue plaque but found out from English Heritage that you had to be dead for at least 20 years! We thought green was the best colour.”
The plaque, which was funded by £200 from community donations and £100 from the residents’ association, is made of enamelled steel and is oval-shaped, 20ins by 14ins.
Pub landlord, Tony Blenkinsop, who went to school with the band’s frontman Jimmy Pursey, said although he didn’t live in the village any more, the group had made a big impact.
He said: “The cover of the band’s first album, Hersham Boys, was photographed outside The George Pub in Hersham Road, opposite our old school, Rydens. All the Hersham boys were in the picture.”
The residents’ association began discussions about the plaque in November but there was a delay after controversy caused by Pursey admitting he accepted a police caution in 2002 after forcibly kissing a 16-year-old girl in a Weybridge newsagents.
Pursey said the incident was “exaggerated”.
It’s no Sham: Hersham Boys honoured despite assault2:07pm Thursday 4th May 2006 inLocals will erect a plaque in tribute to Hersham punk rockers Sham 69 despite its controversial lead singer admitting to a caution for indecent assault.The work of frontman Jimmy Pursey will be honoured along with band members Dave Parsons, Rick Goldstein, Dave Tregenna, Albie Slider and Mark Cain.Their 70s hit Hersham Boys which contained memorable refrain “Hersham Boys, Hersham Boys, laced-up boots and corduroys” is credited with putting the town on the map.Plans by Hersham Residents’ Association (HRA) to erect the plaque were put on hold last month after it emerged police cautioned Pursey in 2002 after he admitted he was involved in an incident in a Weybridge newsagents with a 16-year-old girl when he forcibly kissed her on the mouth an incident which left her so traumatised she left her job.Pursey said the incident was exaggerated and added the plaque should be more about the music than the person behind it.Since a meeting of HRA last week, members and locals have come up with the cash to fund the £300 plaque.The plaque will go outside the Waterman’s Arms in Hersham Green and will be in place in the next three months.Andy Pinnick, chairman of Hersham Residents’ Association, said: “Some of the people in Hersham have known Jimmy throughout his life. “He is a little bit impulsive and over the top but he is not malicious.”His behaviour was inappropriate and we are not condoning it but there needs to be an element of understanding.”There is more to him than the negative headlines.” Pursey recently beat more than 600 entrants to win Virgin Radio’s competition to write the unofficial song for the England football team for the World Cup finals in Germany.His single, which will raise cash for the Teenage Cancer Trust, will be recorded later this month and released to coincide with the start of the tournament in June.More about the Walton Hop peodaphiles September 10, 2001. The Old Bailey trial of the pop mogul and former pop star Jonathan King, in which he is accused of a series of child sex offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, begins this morning. Back in July, Judge Paget decided, for the purposes of case management, to have three trials instead of one. So the jury will hear only the charges that relate to the years between 1982 and 1987. There are six within this time frame – one buggery, one attempted buggery, and four indecent assaults on boys aged 14 and 15.I have been having an email correspondence with Jonathan King for the past nine months, and last night he emailed me to say, “I think you know, young Ronson, that whichever way it goes for me you could have an award-winning story here, if you’re brave. You can change the face of Great Britain if you do it well. Good luck! JK”I have just returned from New York, and in the canteen on the third floor of the Old Bailey – in the minutes before the trial is due to begin – Jonathan King comes over to make small talk about my trip. “Did you bring me any presents back?” he asks. “Any small boys? Just kidding! Don’t you think it is amazing that I have retained my sense of humour?”He smiles across the canteen at his arresting officers. They smile faintly back. Jonathan has always told me about his good relationship with the police, how kind they were to him during his arrest, and he looks a little crestfallen at their evident withdrawal of affection. “The police are far less friendly than they were,” he says. “Quite boot-faced, in fact.” He pauses. “And there doesn’t even seem to be a senior officer around. I’m getting quite insulted that I’m so unimportant that only constables are allowed anywhere near the case.”He looks at me for a response. What should I say? Yes, his crimes are so significant and he is so famous that it would seem appropriate for a more senior officer to be in attendance? In the end, I just shrug.There are half-a-dozen journalists here today covering the case. In the lobby outside the court, Jonathan approaches some to shake their hands. “Who’s the gorgeous blonde with a TV cameraman?” he whispers to me. “Sorry if this ruins my image.””I felt terrible about shaking his hand,” one reporter says a little later. “I felt disgusting. I was standing there thinking, ‘What’s he done with that hand?’ I should have refused to shake it.””I just asked my solicitor if it’s unusual for the accused to make a point of shaking the hands of the press and the prosecution barrister,” Jonathan says as we walk into court. “He said it was absolutely unheard of!” Jonathan laughs, and adds, “You know, I fully intend to change the legal system just like I changed the pop industry.”And, at that, we take our seats. The jury is selected, and the trial begins.On November 24, 2000, Jonathan King was charged with three child sex offences, dating back 32 years. In the light of the publicity surrounding his arrest, a dozen other boys (now men) came forward to tell police that King had abused them too, during the 1970s and 1980s. Some said he picked them up at the Walton Hop, a disco in Walton-on-Thames run by his friend Deniz Corday. Others said he cruised them in his Rolls-Royce in London. He’d pull over and ask why they were out so late and did they know who he was. He was Jonathan King! Did they want a lift?He told the boys he was conducting market research into the tastes of young people. Did they like his music? His TV shows? Were they fans of Entertainment USA, his BBC2 series? He asked them to complete a questionnaire – written by him – to list their hobbies in order of preference. Cars? Music? Family and friends? Sex?”Oh, really?” Jonathan would say to them. “You’ve only put sex at number two?”And so they would get talking about sex. He sometimes took them to his Bayswater mews house, with its mirrored toilet and casually scattered photos of naked women on the coffee table. Sometimes, he took them to car parks, or to the forests near the Walton Hop. He showed them photographs of naked Colombian air hostesses and Sam Fox. He could, he said, arrange for them to have sex with the women in the photos. (Sam Fox knew nothing about this).Sometimes, within the bundle of photographs of naked women he would hand the boys, there would be a picture of himself naked. “Oh!” he’d say, blushing a little. “Sorry. You weren’t supposed to see that one of me!” (When the police raided King’s house, they say they found 10 overnight bags, each stuffed with his seduction kit – his questionnaires and photos of Sam Fox and photos of himself naked – all packed and ready for when the urge took him to get into his Rolls-Royce and start driving around.)He told the boys that it was fine if they wanted to masturbate. And then things would progress from there. Some of the boys reported that his whole body would start to shake as he sat next to them in the Rolls-Royce. And then he “went for it”, in the words of one victim. None of the boys say that he forced himself on to them. They all say they just sat there, awed into submission by his celebrity. The boys all say that Jonathan King has emotionally scarred them for life, although almost all of them returned, on many occasions, and became the victims of more assaults.Later, Jonathan King will spend his last weekend of freedom – the weekend before the guilty verdicts – recording for me a video diary of his feelings about the charges. At one point, midway through this 20-minute tape, he hollers into his camera about this perplexing aspect of the case. “They kept coming back to me again and again and again, although this vile behaviour was supposed to be taking place!” He laughs, as if he’s delivering a funny monologue on some entertainment TV show. “Why on earth would anybody do that? I’d be out of that house as fast as I possibly could! I’d make damned sure I was never alone with that person again. Mad!”When the police asked Jonathan why all these boys – who have never met or even spoken to each other – had almost identical stories to tell, he replied that he didn’t know. I am determined to ask at least one victim why he continually went back for more.The defence argues that the police actively encouraged claims of emotional scarring when they interviewed the victims, because, without it, what else was there? Just some sex, long ago. The danger, says the defence team, is that if Jonathan is found guilty, the judge will sentence him not only for the acts themselves, but also for the quantity of emotional scarring the victims claim to have. And how can that be quantified, especially in this age of the self, when the whole world seems to be forever looking to their childhoods for clues as to why they turned out so badly.”Jonathan King,” says David Jeremy, the prosecution barrister, in his opening remarks to the jury, “was exploiting the young by his celebrity.”When I first heard about King’s arrest, I looked back at his press interviews for clues, and found a quote he gave Music Week magazine in 1997: “I am a 15-year-old trapped inside a 52-year-old body.”I talked to some of his friends from the pop industry, and one of them said, “Poor Jonathan. We were all doing that sort of thing back then.”I attended an early hearing at Staines Magistrates’ Court. Jonathan King arrived in a chauffeured car. The windows were blacked out. Two builders watched him from a distance. As he walked past them and into the court, one of them yelled, “Fucking nonce!”He kept walking. Inside, he noticed me on the press benches. We had appeared together on Talk Radio a few years ago and he recognised me. On his way out, he gave me a lavish bow, as if I had just witnessed a theatrical event, starring him. Outside, the builders were still there. They shouted “Fucking nonce!” again.My email correspondence with Jonathan began soon after this hearing. In one email, he asked me if I would consider it fair if, say, Mick Jagger was arrested today for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in 1970. I agreed that it wouldn’t be. He told me that he was being charged with the same crime that destroyed Oscar Wilde – the buggering of teenage boys – and we perceive Wilde to have been unjustly treated by a puritanical society from long ago. I wonder if the reason why we look less kindly upon Jonathan King is because he sang Jump Up And Down And Wave Your Knickers In The Air , while Oscar Wilde wrote De Profundis.In another email, he wrote about Neil and Christine Hamilton, falsely accused of rape while being filmed by Louis Theroux, whom Jonathan sees as my great competitor in the humorous journalism market. He wrote, “Louis EVERYWHERE . . . but who on earth would want to cover the Hamiltons, famous for doing NOTHING. Still, I do hope The Real Jon Ronson will have the balls, courage and integrity to take up the crusade (whatever the outcome) that it is GROSSLY unfair for the accused person/people to be smeared all over the media. Over to you, Ronson (we don’t just want a Theroux treatment, do we?)”Later, in court, some of the victims say that Jonathan had a trick of making them feel special, as if they could do anything, as if they could make it big in showbusiness, just so long as they stuck with him (and didn’t tell anyone what had happened). Has King got legitimate grievances against the legal system, or is he simply trying to seduce me in the same way he seduced the boys?His Jagger analogy, I presume, was alluding to some covert homophobia at the heart of the case. But perhaps the real contrast lies somewhere else. Mick Jagger (or, indeed, Bill Wyman) wouldn’t have needed to pretend he was conducting market research into the tastes of young people. He wouldn’t have needed to have promised them sex with Colombian air hostesses. But Jonathan did not, intrinsically, have much pulling power, so he did need those extra little touches. Perhaps the real contrast, then, is one of aesthetics.The Walton Hop closed down in 1990. There were complaints of noise from the neighbours. But the Hop’s home, the Walton Playhouse, still stands. Jimmy Pursey, the lead singer of Sham 69, was one of the Hop’s most regular teenage attendees. He went dancing there every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night throughout the 1970s. One day, shortly before the trial began, Jimmy gave me a guided tour of the Playhouse. “It’s so hard to explain to people who see in black and white the colour that existed in this club,” he said. “The Playhouse was a theatre for fringe plays and amateur dramatics. But on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays it would become paradise.” Jimmy took me through the hall, and towards the stage.”It was inspirational,” said Jimmy. “This wasn’t table tennis. This was dancing. This was testing out your own sexuality. Normal people would become very unnormal. It was Welcome to the Pleasure Dome. It was everything.”He leapt up on to the stage, and took me to the wings, stage right. We stood behind the curtains. “This is where the inner sanctum was,” said Jimmy. “From here, Deniz Corday [the manager of the Walton Hop] would have the best view of the teenagers who were a little bit bolder, a little bit more interesting.””Bolder and interesting in what way?” I asked.”People like me,” said Jimmy. “If Deniz liked you, you’d be invited backstage and get a little bit of whisky added to your Coca-Cola. Backstage, you see. And you’d go, ‘Oh, I’m in with the big crowd now’. That’s all there was to it with Deniz.””And Jonathan?” I asked.”He’d drive into the Hop car park, and come backstage from the side,” he said. “And we’d all be going, ‘God! There’s a Rolls-Royce outside with a TV aerial coming from it! Ooh, it’s got a TV in the back and it’s a white Rolls-Royce!’ Because you’d never know if it was the Beatles.””But it wasn’t the Beatles,” I said.”No,” said Jimmy. “It was Jonathan King.” He laughed. “A very big difference there!”The Beatles lived on St George’s Hill, in nearby Weybridge, and were often seen driving around Walton in their Rolls-Royces. The Walton area, in the 1970s, was London’s playpen, full of pop moguls and pop stars, letting their hair down, doing just what Jimmy said the teenagers at the Walton Hop did – being “unnormal”. In fact, a disproportionate number of celebrities who are now convicted paedophiles hung around backstage at the Walton Hop, this popular youth club, during the 1970s and 1980s. There was Jonathan King’s friend, Tam Paton, for instance, the manager of the Bay City Rollers who was convicted of child sex offences in the early 1980s. (It was Paton who first introduced Jonathan King to the Hop – they met when Jonathan was invited to produce the Rollers’ debut single, Keep On Dancing.) Chris Denning, the former Radio 1 DJ, was another Hop regular – he has a string of child sex convictions, is currently in jail in Prague, and was friendly with King and Paton.For Jimmy Pursey, the trick was to pick up the girls who were drawn to the Hop to see the Bay City Rollers, while avoiding the attentions of the impresarios who orchestrated the night. “It was fun with Deniz Corday,” said Jimmy. “Deniz would say, ‘Oh Jimmy! Come here! I’d love to suck your fucking cock!’ Deniz was a silly, fluffy man. Then there was Tam Paton.I remember being back here having one of my whisky and Coca-Colas one night, and Tam turned to me and he said, ‘I like fucking lorry drivers’. Chris Denning was more reckless. One time he placed his penis within the pages of a gay centrefold and showed it to my ex-bass player, who proceeded to kick the magazine, and Denning’s dick, and yell, ‘Come on, Jimmy, we’re fucking out of here!’ But Jonathan King was more like a Victorian doctor. It wasn’t an eerie vibe . . . but Jonathan had this highbrow, Cambridge, sophisticated thing about him. The Jekyll and Hyde thing. There wasn’t much conversation with Jonathan. And with Jonathan, you’d always had these rumours. ‘Oh, he got so and so into the white Rolls-Royce’. And they’d always be the David Cassidy lookalike competition winners. Very beautiful.””Would he make a grand entrance?” I asked.”Oh no,” said Jimmy. “It was never, ‘Look at me!’ He never went out on to the dancefloor at all. He was much happier hiding backstage up here, behind the curtains, in the inner sanctum.” Jimmy paused. “The same way he hid behind all those pseudonyms, see? He’s always hiding. I think that’s the whole thing of his life. He always says, ‘That was me behind Genesis! That was me behind 10cc! That was me behind all those pseudonyms.’ But what do you do then, Jonathan? Who are you then, Jonathan?”Jimmy was referring to the countless pseudonymous novelty hits Jonathan had in the late 1960s and 1970s – The Piglets’ Johnny Reggae, for instance, and Shag’s Loop Di Love. These came after his hugely successful 1965 debut, Everyone’s Gone To The Moon, which was recorded while he was still a student at Cambridge. (Before that, he was a pupil at Charterhouse). It was a remarkable career path: a lovely, plaintive debut, followed by a string of silly, deliberately irritating hits.One of King’s friends later suggests to me that it was his look – the big nose, the glasses, the weird lop-sided grin – that determined this career path, as if he somehow came to realise that it was his aesthetic destiny to play the clown. But one cannot categorise his career as a downward spiral from Everyone’s Gone To The Moon onwards. In fact, he has sold 40 million records. He’s had a hand in almost every musical movement since the mid-1960s – psychedelic, novelty bubblegum pop, alternative pop, Eurovision, the Bay City Rollers, 10CC, the Rocky Horror Show, Genesis, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, the Brit awards, and so on.Within two years of leaving Cambridge, he was running Decca Records for Sir Edward Lewis, with his own West End offices and a Rolls-Royce parked outside. “Genesis,” he once said, “would have become accountants and lawyers if I hadn’t heard their concealed and budding musical talent when they were 15 years old.”He is at once seen to be the quintessential Broadway Danny Rose – the buffoonish loser who was forever nearly making it – and also a powerful multi-millionaire whose influence is as incalculable as it is overlooked. He’s hosted radio shows in New York and London, presented the successful and long-running Entertainment USA TV series for the BBC, written two novels, created a political party – the Royalists – and published The Tip Sheet, an influential online industry magazine that, he claims, is responsible for bringing the Spice Girls, Oasis, Blur, Prodigy, R Kelly, and others “exploding on to musical success. We find and help break new stars around the world.”In 1997, he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Music Industry Trust. In a letter read out at the ceremony, Tony Blair acknowledged King’s “important contribution to one of this country’s great success stories”. A galaxy of stars – Peter Gabriel, Ozzy Osbourne, Simon Bates – came out to praise him, although no galaxy of stars is willing to do the same now that he’s been accused of paedophilia.Nonetheless, he seems to delight in being the man we love to hate (theatrically speaking: he is mortified when he thinks his arresting officers really do hate him). “I love to infuriate,” Jonathan told me over coffee in his office, shortly before the trial began. “I deliberately set out to irritate.””Of course,” I said, “should you be convicted, people will hate you in a very different way. This is not a good climate in which to be accused of paedophilia.””Well,” he shrugged, “it’s not as though I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Oh I’m such a nice person. Will everybody please be nice to me.’I know I tend to provoke extreme reactions, so I’m not at all surprised when they arrive.”There was a short silence.”So you see what’s happening now as a continuation of your public image?” I asked him.”Absolutely,” said Jonathan. “And it is so. And it would be absurd not to regard it as so.””But there’s a difference between bringing out a novelty record that nobody likes and being accused of buggering an underage boy,” I said.There was another silence. “Let’s not discuss it further,” he said.September 11, day two of the trial, and things are already looking hopeless for Jonathan King. The first victim – now a painter and decorator from the suburbs of north London – takes the stand. I’ll call him David. Jonathan approached David in Leicester Square when David was 14 or 15. Although David had no idea who Jonathan was, he quickly told him he was famous. “It was exciting,” says David.Jonathan gave David the questionnaire, the one that ranked boys’ hobbies in order of preference. He filled it out. Jonathan invited him back to his house and asked him if he and his friends masturbated together. Jonathan showed him pornographic movies on a cine projector. “We were talking about masturbation,” says David. “He told me to relax. He undid my trousers. He tried to masturbate me, which didn’t arouse me at all. He told me to do it myself, which I proceeded to do. I felt very awkward.”David returned to King’s house on three occasions. Similar indecent assaults occurred each time. Later, Jonathan wrote David a series of letters. “He made it sound like I would be famous,” says David. The prosecuting barristor asks David to read one of these letters to the jury. “‘Maybe you will go on to be a megastar. Now I am in New York. I will call you when I next hit town. In the meantime, keep tuning in on Wednesday at 9pm for Entertainment USA, the greatest TV show in the world.'”David says that Jonathan King has emotionally scarred him for life. He says he cannot hold children. He says it makes him scared and uncomfortable to hold and play with his girlfriend’s little boy.After lunch Ron Thwaites, Jonathan’s defence barrister, begins his cross examination of David. His tone is breathtakingly abrasive. “We are going back 16 years because you decided not to make the complaint until nine months ago,” he says. “You’re not asking for sympathy for that, are you?””I was the one that was assaulted,” David replies, shakily.”Do you think it’s easy for a man to be accused of a crime after 20 years,” says Thwaites. And then: “Are you interested in money?””I am nervous up here,” says David. “You are putting me under pressure. I was sexually assaulted by that man over there.””You must have been fairly grown up to go to London on your own,” says Ron Thwaites. “You can’t have been a boy in short trousers, crying for your mother.”And so on.We are unaware that, during this cross examination, New York and Washington DC are under attack. That night, I receive an email from Jonathan: “Makes whether or not I put my hand on a teenager’s knee 15 years ago seem rather trivial, doesn’t it? Are you dropping KING for the World Trade Centre? Boo hoo!”What do you think of the jury? A lot of ethnic variation which,I think, is probably a good thing. Not Ron’s best day, but not terminal! See you tomorrow. Love JK.”A week later, Jonathan posts an extraordinary message on his website, kingofhits.com: “Well, it’s been a fascinating couple of weeks. Not many people are fortunate to discover first hand exactly what Oscar Wilde went through! This week is the crucial one for me – keep praying. And just one oblique thought . . . when you look at the teenagers from 15 years ago who grew up to be terrorists who killed thousands in America, wonder what changed them into mass murderers. Then wonder what turns other decent teenagers into mass liars.” Of course, they didn’t turn out to have been lying.King’s demeanour remains cheerful throughout our time together. “I am living in clouds and happy flowers and love and beauty,” he tells me one day. “And if I go to prison, I shall enjoy myself.”Even on the one occasion that Jonathan all but confesses to me – “I’m sure you’ve got skeletons in your own closet, Jon. ‘Honest guv! I thought she was 16!'” – he says it with a spirited laugh.When the Guardian’s photographer takes Jonathan’s portrait early one morning before a day in court, he is frustrated to report that during almost every shot Jonathan stuck his thumbs up – as if he was doing a Radio 1 publicity session – or grinned his famous, funny, lop-sided grin into the camera. This was not the image anyone wanted. We were hoping for something more revealing, sadder, perhaps, or even something that said “child sex”, or “guilty”. But Jonathan wouldn’t oblige.One day during the trial, I hear a story about Larry Parnes, Britain’s first pop mogul. He discovered Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde. Like many of the great British impresarios back then, he based his business judgements on his sexual tastes. “If I am attracted to Tommy Steele,” he would tell his associates, “teenage girls will be, too.” Parnes’s West End flat was often full of teenage boys hoping to be chosen as his next stars. If he liked the look of them, he’d give them a clean white T-shirt. Once he’d had sex with them, he’d make them take off the white T-shirt and put on a black one.Wham!’s manager Simon Napier-Bell – who was once invited by Parnes to put on a white T-shirt – has said that the great difference between the British and American pop industries is this: the American impresarios are traditionally driven by money, while their British counterparts were historically driven by gay sex, usually with younger boys – and that British pop was conceived as a canvas upon which older gay svengalis could paint their sexual fantasies, knowing their tastes would be shared by the teenage girls who bought the records. I wonder if the pop impresarios who seduced young teenage boys at the Walton Hop saw themselves not as a paedophile ring, but as the continuance of a venerable tradition.Deniz Corday is desperately worried that the Walton Hop, his life’s work, is about to become famous for something terrible. “Jonathan didn’t want me to talk to you,” he says, “but I must defend the Hop with all my life.” Deniz is immensely proud of the Hop. There is Hop memorabilia all over his flat, including a poster from a Weybridge Museum exhibition, “The Happy Hop Years 1958 – 1990. An Exhibition About Britain’s First Disco: The Walton Hop”.”Every day, someone comes up to me in the supermarket,” says Deniz, “and says, ‘Thank you, Deniz, for making my childhood special.’ Some say the Hop was the first disco in Great Britain. It was terribly influential. Oh dear . . .” Deniz sighs. “This kind of thing can happen in any disco. The manager can’t control everything.”Deniz says that he knows it looks bad. Yes, an unusually large number of convicted celebrity paedophiles used to hang around backstage at the Walton Hop. But, he says, they weren’t there to pick up boys. They were there to conduct market research. “Tam Paton would play all the latest Roller acetates and say, ‘Clap for the one you like the best’. Same as Jonathan and Chris Denning. It helped them in their work.”Deniz turns out the lights and gets out the super-8 films he shot over the years at his club. Here’s the Hop in 1958. Billy Fury played there. The teenagers are all in suits, dancing the hokey-cokey. “Suits!” laughs Deniz, sadly.The years tumble by on the super-8 films. Now it’s the mid-1970s. Here’s Jonathan at the turntables. He’s playing disco records, announcing the raffle winners and grinning his lop-sided grin into Deniz’s super-8 camera. He’s wearing his famous multi-coloured afro wig.Now, on the super-8, two young girls are on stage at the Hop, miming to King’s song, Johnny Reggae. “These were the days before karaoke,” explains Deniz.For a while, we watch the girls on the stage mime to Johnny Reggae. It turns out that Jonathan wrote it about a boy called John he met at the Walton Hop who was locally famous for his reggae obsession. David Jeremy – the prosecutor at the Old Bailey – says that Jonathan’s “market research” was simply a ploy, his real motive being to engage the boys in conversations about sex. But I imagine that the two endeavours were, in Jonathan’s mind, indistinguishable. I picture Jonathan in the shadows, backstage at the Hop, taking all he could from the teenagers he scrutinised – consuming their ideas, their energy, their tastes, and then everything else.The super-8s continue in Deniz’s living room. Here’s Jonathan again, in 1983, backstage at the Hop. He’s put on weight. He doesn’t know the camera is on him. He’s holding court to a group of young boys and girls on a sofa. You can just make out little snippets of conversation over the noise of the disco. He chews on a toothpick, looks down at a piece of paper, turns to a boy and says, “Who’s phone number is this?”He spots the camera. “It’s Deniz Corday!” he yells. “Look who it is! Deniz Corday! Smile at the camera!” He lifts up his T-shirt and Deniz zooms in on his chest.”In 32 years,” says Deniz, “we never had one complaint about Jona-than and young boys, and suddenly, after 32 years, all these old men, grandfathers some of them, come forward and say they’ve been sexually abused and it’s been bothering them all their lives. I think there’s something deeply suspicious about it. Jonathan’s a really nice guy and definitely not a paedophile. Anyway, I think it should be reworded. I think a paedophile should be someone who goes with someone under 13.”The clothes and hairstyles change as the decades roll past on the super-8s, but the faces of the 13- to 18-year-olds remain the same. They are young and happy. Deniz says that, nowadays, we have an absurdly halcyon image of childhood. He says that the youngsters at the Walton Hop were not fragile little flowers. They were big and tough and they could look after themselves. He rifles through his drawer and produces some of the police evidence statements. He reads me some excerpts. “‘There was a crate of Coca-Cola kept backstage, and it was people like Jonathan King and Corday who hung around there. If you were invited back there you would get a free coke with a shot of whiskey.'”Deniz pauses. “Now how ridiculous can you get? I’m going to give the kids of the Hop a shot of whiskey with a coke?” There is a silence. “Well,” he says quietly. “If I gave them a little bit of whisky once in a while, they’re not going to put me in jail for it. I used to call it ‘coke with a kick’. Anyway, we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about Jonathan. Have you heard of any charges against me?””No,” I say.”Exactly,” says Deniz. “This is about Jonathan. Not about me.”Deniz continues to read. The victim making the statement describes life at the Walton Hop and how Jonathan – a regular visitor – once went out of his way to talk to him. “‘I was obviously excited to be talking to Jonathan King. He offered to give me a lift home, which I accepted. This was the first of many lifts King gave me, and I recall that he always drove me home in a white convertible Rolls-Royce. It was an automatic car and the number plate was JK9000. We talked about music, and he often told me that he needed a young person’s point of view. King drove me home on a couple of occasions before he eventually assaulted me. The first assault occurred at a car park, which was situated on the left-hand side of the Old Woking Road. Next to the car park was a field and a wooded area. King seemed familiar with the location. I believe he had been there before. I was sat in the front passenger seat and King was in the driver seat. I noticed that King had started shaking, and I presumed that he needed the toilet.'”Jon Ronson
In 1979, I was 13 years of age, and like half the kids on my estate, I became a skinhead. Down the local youth club i would just love to hang about listening to all the 2tone tracks that were being played. Going to school in my 14 hole pair of Dr Martins, Sta press trousers, school tie turned around the wrong way, so that only the thin part was showing, made me feel like a somebody.
At the age of 16, in 1982 i left school and got a job on a fun fair which, had visited Bristol for 2 weeks. After about a year and a half of travelling around the country with the fair i left, and signed on the dole for around 6 months.
By then I was 18 years of age, watching the telly one rainy Saturday afternoon, some wrestling came on the box, i remembered watching it years before with my family, and thought that I’m sure that I could do that. I decided to contact the local venue that held wrestling shows every fortnight, and asked them who the promoter was. The phone call has stuck in my memory forever, like as if it were yesterday. The guy asked if i had a portfolio which of course i said yes too, and they also said if i had any experience which i followed with another quick lie about having done judo for the last few years,
I had two days in which to get a few photos done and to sort out what i will say to the promoter when i met him. The night came for the first meeting, i showed him my photos and just blagged it whilst talking, it was arranged to meet the following Sunday in Liverpool for my 1st bout which would be in Ayr, Scotland, Determined, the next day i ordered my 1st pair of wrestling boots and shorts.
I travelled up alone, arrived in Scotland and got changed ready for my first match, to tell the truth it went so quick i couldn’t remember much about it. My opponent was a Scouse guy Robbie Brookside, I was more excited than scared, he was about the same size as me. I don’t remember much about the crowd reaction, but due to the fact I am the villain character, they always bay for my blood. The promoter said that i was ok and that the match went well, which made me think that i could make a living doing this, so i trained hard, started to make a name for myself.
In the early days of my career, my wrestling name was Hammer Head, quickly became a villain which i didn’t mind, as there’s no way i could have been one of those good guys.
A few years later i watched a new film called Romper Stomper and thought, now there’s a good idea, being that i was a villain i decided to put my wrestling kit away and purchase some new jeans, Dr Martins and a pair of bracers to which i became The Romper Stomper. The next step was to choose the right piece of music in which to walk out to, deciding there was only one track which i could possibly use, and that was the skinhead moonstomp.
In the 26 years of being a pro carreer, i travelled all over the country wrestling 7 days a week , with only Christmas day off, becoming British heavy middle weight champion, appearances on World of Sport, cable tv, sky and the local news, when the Americans visited.
I wrsesteld non stop, working with a lot of my hero’s like big daddy, giant haystacks, Kendo, Dave Fit Finley, Rollerblade Rocco and Danny Boy Collins, who was in my class at school.
I must say, that as hard as the sport can be on your body, I wouldn’t have changed any of it .
I retired in 2000 from wrestling, after having 3 back operations, so for the next 6-8 months trained other people who wanted to get into the sport.
I enjoyed helping and training people, but missed the part of entertaining,
I decided to try standup, so went to a comedy venue for an open mic session.
The spot was only on me for 10 minutes, and to tell the truth, felt like 1 hour, but I caught the bug.
Robbie Twinkle was born and I started to travel the country once again. I’ve now been entertaining audiences with my comedy show for just over 10 years .
Staying a true skinhead, since my teenage years, I have proved to the finger pointers, who prejudged us as lazy, low life, wasters,.
When the teenage Roy Ellis set sail for a new life in the United Kingdom in 1959. He had no idea what to expect, his mother had left a few months previously, and made a home for her children to join her.
On arrival Roy settled in South London with many other Jamaican immigrants, and found it to be bleak and aggressive. Rife with racism and fear from the local people. Roy began his love of music, in church, like many other black people of the era.
“ I really started my music career in London in 1962, As a young man with full blooded music in me, not only I wanted to sing, but also wanted to play an instrument too. So I took up the Trombone. At the same time getting a few lesson from one of the masters Rico Rodriguez, In this time he just got to England,from there onI choose music as my career, singing and playing, and so it all started to where I am today.”
Reggae was finding its feet in the UK and artists were active and playing. Roy got together with some friends and set up his band, The Bees in 1964, and started to perform in small clubs around London. The Jamaican community being quite small at the time, gathered around its own culture and Reggae music. Roys band were discovered by Legendary Laurel Aitkin, who was leading the way in British/Jamaican Reggae in the early part of the 1960’s
The Bees breakthrough came with the chance to play backing band for Laurel Aitkin, who encouraged and helped this young band to climb the ladder, working as producer and promoter for his fellow Reggae musicians.
The new Reggae sound was picking up a large following from fellow council estate kids, who had created their own subculture, a fragment of the Mod culture, which came to be known as Skinheads. A mixture of white working class English kids, who loved the new sounds coming into their own area.
Although Roy, at first found it hard to find new friends, with strong racial barriers to cross. He was readily accepted within the Skinhead culture, partly because of his love of music, but mainly because he was a very good amateur boxer. Inter youth cult fighting was a big part of British youth culture during the 60’s. With the Mods and Rockers clashes on South Coast towns hitting the headlines in 1967.
“I got into the mods scene with the other english teenager who was already in it, So at last they accept me,
But why did they accept me? because I was a very good Amature boxer from Jamaica, And that`s how I got in to the mods and skinheads scene on till this day.
Someone is got to build the bridges so that we all can cross over doesn`t matter what colour we are.”
“I have very fond memories of Brighton, my mates and me would ride our scooters down from London every Friday night, go dancing in the clubs, kick some Rockers arses, well not me, I was always the guy making the others laugh, but you know, all the teenage things that people do”
With the hunger for new music in the boom years of British music, Reggae found its home and quickly swept the dance halls and charts, with people like Prince Buster, Desmond Decker, Laural Aitkin leading the way. With Infectious Rock Steady rythms.
Record labels, such as Trojan, Blue beat, Island were doing very well in the UK.
“ Actually I haven`t done any recording in Jamaica, As I said it all started in England,But as singing and playing in a band called The Bees in 1964. We got the luck to be discovered by the one and only late Laurel Aitken who had us as his backing band,and also as our producer, and a promoter. We were touring the UK with him.
Then we got the chance to back Prince Buster, The Ethiopians, Maytals, Earol Dickson, The Pioneers, Millie Small, Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards and Desmond Dekker. Then in 1967 we met Eddy Grant, he wrote our first two hits Train tour to Rainbow city, and All Change On The Bakerloo line.
Then in 1969 I wrote Skinhead Moonstomp and Skinhead Girl, and also we recorded the Symarip debut album, Skinhead Moonstomp that went to way up in the hit chart. then it all started
from there.”
Symarip, Skinhead Moonstomp album stormed the charts, which created a boom in the Skinhead Youth cult. The Vietnam war was in full swing. The hippy era began, which took the middle class mods into psychodelia and then flower power. The street kids went the other way into Skinhead working class fashion
A huge show was arranged for Wembley Stadium in 1970, which packed. One half white skinheads, the other half, Jamaicans.
“ Wembley was one of the biggest hightlights of my life, to see this unity of fans, black and white dancing to my songs”
But with the rise of violence associated, the start of football hooligans, it became impossible for Symarip to play anywhere, the press were hyping the violence as a modern menace.
“We were sent to Europe, to pioneer Reggae on the Continent. A completely new sound for them. I Moved to Switzerland, met a lovely lady who became my wife, where I still live”
In 1979 2tone bands like the Specials and Madness paid us the honour of covering some of my songs, which opened it up to a new audience and decade.
Since I`m back in 2005 a lot of great things been happening for me, I`ve been travelling the world knowing the different Countrys, meeting different people, making new friends and new fans, I got the chance to put out two albums, three singles,
Coming out in April my new single with my new video, a lots concerts, lots of media connections etc. It`s been all good for me, could be better, but I`m happy with what I`ve got.
Roy Ellis AKA Mr Symarip will be performing a very special live appearance on June the 9th. The event is titled ‘ The Great Skinhead Reunion’ To celebrate Roys life, The music and youth culture he Pioneered, which has spread the world, from its beginnings in London and Brighton to modern day Indonesia and Columbia. Everybody is welcome, young and old. You don’t have to wear Doc martens or be an active skinhead
GREAT SKINHEAD REUNION ACCOMODATION. i have found 2 more guest houses which are a stones throw from the venue. the first one is £65 per person for the entire weekend including friday and saturday night. there are 20 beds available for our event, so if you would like a full weekend wristband with a room , the total cost per person is £80 (nothing more to pay, this is NOT per night) The second one is double twin room. £70 per night (per room), Family room £75, this option includes breakfast, so add £15 per person for your weekend wristband per person. please contact me asap. as once these rooms are gone i will try and find some more, but dont leave it too late. for this deal please write to symond.lawes@gmail.com
Natasha Thompson – Singer/guitarist/songwriter (Founder of the Oi! band Bleach Battalion.)
Natasha is currently (2012) touring solo with an all-acoustic Oi! / Street Rock’n’Roll set including Bleach Battalion tunes and old school Skinhead & American classics.
Both Perry and I have been involved in the scene since the 80s and watched tons of shit being written about skinheads by people that had no idea what the subculture was about. I review book proposals for a publisher and I saw another series was being written about skinheads so I thought this would be a great chance to write the definitive book about skinheads in America. I was loathe to see another horrible book about skinheads written by people that had no clue what the subculture was about. I asked Perry because he and I had talked about writing a book before and this seemed like the perfect chance and so we wrote a proposal and got accepted.
2. how did you first discover the skinhead culture.
Perry:I first got into punk in 1980 while growing up in Chicago. I had seen a few TV reports on it and was fascinated. Bought the first Clash album and was hooked, the second or third punk album I got was “Tell Us the Truth” by Sham 69. That album had a huge impact on me and I remember reading an article on them in Trouser Press that mentioned the Sham Army and their large skinhead following. I met a kid at my high school that was really into punk as well as two-tone ska and he turned me onto a lot of bands and suggested I listen to a local radio show called the Big Beat. It was on for an hour every friday night and mainly consisted of new wave stuff. However the DJ always played a set or two of punk. I heard so many new bands on that show including the Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Blitz, Cock Sparrer, etc. After seeing footage of the Southall Riot on TV and all the coverage of Oi I’d been reading in Sounds I broke down and bought the Strength Thru Oi! comp. Loved It! Even though I was a punk I became more and more interested in skinhead culture over the next few years and finally got up the nerve to shave my head in late 1985. Have never looked back since.
Tiffini: I got into skinhead by way of hardcore and punk. I went to punk shows at Fenders in Long Beach and saw skinheads and discovered oi music by buying British compilations and started hanging out with skinheads and learned more about it and eventually shaved my head about a year after I heard about the subculture. What attracted me to the scene initially was how bad ass skinheads were at the shows. Back then they dominated and people were afraid of them. I also liked the sound of oi and the look. It was in 1987 so there was nothing in the news about skinheads just the different crews around the LA area. I didn’t shave my head immediately because I knew about right wing skinheads and nazi stuff was alive and well so I wanted to make sure I knew about the subculture before I shaved my head. A guy I was dating before I shaved my head handed me Skrewdriver’s Blood and Honour and said: don’t shave your head THIS is what skinhead is (and yeah he was skinhead). But I knew about the roots of the subculture and so I didn’t listen to him and shaved my head anyways. Later i discovered the original style of skinheads and the early reggae and ska stuff as well.
3. what is/was your involvement.
I grew my fringe out around 1993 but my friends and my lifestyle are still deeply tied with the scene. I still go to shows and travel to the UK to Rebellion festival and still own all my old gear and even my first pair of DMs.
Perry of course is in the Templars so he plays regularly and is active in the scene as well.
4. the book says ‘an american’ subculture, how do you think that wil go down around the world, or is the book aimed purely at an american readership.
I am sooo happy you asked this question. First to clarify the SERIES is called “American Subcultures” so every single title says that regardless of the subculture. Unfortunately for us that makes the books seem as if we are implying skinheads are an American creation which we all know it isn’t.
The first section of the book traces the origins of skinheads in the UK. The rest of the book focuses on the development of the subculture in America from its inception here in the 1980s until the present day. Because the subculture is British, we talk about the similarities and differences between the UK and US versions of the subculture throughout the book.
We hope that this title becomes one of many volumes people buy to find out the history of skinheads in general. The same way I have skinheads by Nick Knight and Spirit of 69, I am hoping it will become just one other title to have to document the history of the subculture. This one just happens to examine the history of skinheads as they occurred in the USA.
5. how important is the skinhead subculture in the usa, next to things which seem traditionally more american . like rap, rock n roll, blues etc
I think a better comparison would be skinhead subculture and punk subculture in the USA. In terms of alternative music, I think it has increased and decreased depending upon the scenes in different cities. The USA is huge geographically so it really depends on what year, region or strain of the subculture you are considering. Ska and Reggae are more popular in some cities while Oi and hardcore are the mainstay of the scene in others. To try to compare it other subcultures in terms of “importance” would be impossible to do.
6. when did skinheads first make its way to the usa, and why was it picked up there.
Skinheads started in the early 80s in USA. Definitely due to the popularity of 2Tone and Oi! and Punk music. It was picked up because the look and the sound were unique and different. Probably the same reasons skinheads in England got popular.
7. how has the skinhead subculture been treated by the american media over the years, has it always been seen as a political movement or a music, fashion based subculture.
Initially it was reported in the media as a British youth movement. At first when skinheads began popping up in the USA they were lumped together with punks. It wasn’t till a few years after skinheads was in the USA that they started getting labeled as Nazis by the press. Mostly because of groups that started distributing racist materials and marching for a political cause. Once the talk shows and the media portrayed skinheads in one way, the general population saw the subculture as a bunch of “nazi, thugs”.
Of course people in the scene always identified with the subculture based on the lifestyle and didn’t really pay attention or care what the media said.
8. without me reading the book, how do you start middle and end the book, is it just done as a dated reference to the spread of the skinhead subculture across america, with media stories propping it up, ie the geraldo show.
The book is organized by topics. There is a timeline at the beginning tracing the major events that shaped the subculture in the USA and after that its broken down into the following chapters: Origins of Skinheads, Being a Skinhead (for people that don’t know anything about the lifestyle), Media coverage of the subculture (mainstream media, skinhead publications, movies, television and internet), Music (Oi!, 2Tone, Reggae, Ska, NY Hardcore, American Oi! and Djs) Fashion (clothes, tattoos and hairstyles), and Politics (Rise of White Power and Antiracist groups). It ends with profiles of the major skinhead bands and crews, primary documents (interviews, scene reviews and research written during the 80s-90s) and a glossary of major terms used in the subculture (again for people that don’t know about the subculture).
Because this is a reference book it is written so people that don’t know anything about skinheads will understand how it developed, what shaped the subculture and how it was in the early days in the USA. For that reason we interviewed skinheads all over the USA and did extensive research in both the mainstream and underground media. The perspective of the scene is given from all parts of the subculture and all regions.
We collected so much information that we couldn’t fit into the book we could have literally written a second book just based on the interviews. But the publishers wanted a more general overview of the subculture so we couldn’t include everything.
9. from my own investigation into the american version of the skinhead scene, it seems from an outsiders view point to be very gang related, with ceremonies like, ‘shaving in’ ‘jumped in’, and various other terms, freshcuts, peckerwood etc. is there some form of organised gangs or crews with strict rules, if so where did that come from, and how does a skinhead differentiate from any other ‘gang’
Just like in the UK there were various factions of skins that developed. I think the longstanding existence of gangs in the United States made it much more aligned with traditional gang structure in some cities. For example Chicago and New York and Los Angeles were well known for having crews that resembled street gangs. Even the political groups were derived from gang structures and heavily influenced by pre-existing gangs. Probably due to the size of the US, every region had its own unique aspects which we explore in the book.
As far the “rules” or social structure of the subculture, I can’t speak to every one. But I know in my own experience these were things just passed down or generally “known” by skinheads. For example, girls were expected to cut their fringe really short when I shaved my head and the term “earning your fringe” was something you just knew you did. Who knows it was probably some rule made up by a girl that didn’t’ want anyone having a better cut than her! The same for the lace color rules. Every city was different but you heard about all the different ones. I always thought they were dumb and wore white laces (white power) in my boots because it looked good.
Skinheads in America basically made their own rules because they could. In the early 80s there was no manual, no older skinheads to define the rules so they just did what they wanted and made it their own.
10. do you think that the media version, of the political extremist is the actual reality of skinheads in usa. being a racially devided country, how does the skinheads cross communities. in the uk the scene was very much from the working class, is that the same in the usa?
Again, that depended on the geography. There is no denying that in some cities racist skinheads ran shit. Just like in other cities it was the opposite. In even more cities it was a constant war between the two factions. The media only looked at the side that sold the most papers. Even when they reported so called racists attacks they were talking about non-racist skinheads. I am sure you have plenty examples of the UK misrepresenting events that involved skinheads too. So in short I don’t think the media version of skinhead is the reality of the subculture (god help us if it was!).
I also think the assumption of the USA as being “racially divided” is a misleading statement. We are too large a country to make sweeping statements about- some cities and areas are different than others. As far as skinheads go, they basically reflect the populations they live in. For example there are larger Latino skinhead populations in states like Texas and California. In New York there were a lot of Italians, Puerto Ricans and Blacks. Chicago probably had the largest black skinhead population of all in the 80s and 90s.
Because our countries are different we don’t have the same “working class” as you do. We have the middle class as well which a lot of skinheads would probably be categorized as in addition to working class. To skinheads that we interviewed, “working class” meant working for a living and being self-sufficient – not existing on government handouts or other people. If you listen to the lyrics of a lot of American skinhead bands you can hear this same message. 11, which skinhead bands first became known in the usa, did they model themselves on the uk oi bands, 2tone or original Jamaican ska.
First bands that became popular were from the UK (ska and oi). A lot of early American bands emulated those sounds. But just like other areas of the subculture the bands integrated sounds that were popular in their areas with what the UK brought over. The first skinhead band in the USA according to our exhaustive research was Iron Cross from Washington, DC. Other US bands were influenced by the UK oi scene: Youth Brigade from LA, Negative Approach from Detroit and The Effigies from Chicago for example, but none of those bands could really be defined as ‘skinhead’ bands in the UK sense. The bands that really kick-started the skinhead scenes in the US were New York hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags. While they listened to British Oi!, they fused it with their own distinctly New York Hardcore sound. They were both dynamic live bands with skinhead members in their ranks and they really spread the skinhead idea through touring in the mid-1980s. Other American Oi! bands like the Anti Heros have a uniquely American sound. Later bands sounded more like traditional Oi! (Templars) and ska/reggae (Hepcat and Aggrolites). 12. how did Hollywood effect the skinhead culture, with films like American history x
Killed it. You had a whole definition of kids that ONLY knew about skinhead from that movie. Before that, the other shows also gave a very plastic view of the subculture. Luckily most of those kids have moved onto another cool subculture. Maybe they are all wearing black like Twilight movies or something.
13, when would you say the height of the skinhead population was.
Probably the late 1980s and the late 1990s. The scene has had its ebbs and flows. It was real small in the early 1980s, grew exponentially and peaked in the late 1980s, fell off in the early 1990s, grew big again in the late 1990s, declined in the early 2000s and now in the last couple years its really picked up again. Hopefully we can sustain the growth this time around! 14, how did the hardcore scene become part of the skinhead culture.
All roads lead to New York. The Lower East Side Crew was formed in NY and included most of the members of all the original NYHC bands (Cromags, Agnostic Front, Warzone). They adopted the skinhead look and sung about skinheads but to hardcore music. NYHC was an entry point for many youths into the subculture especially for the second generation of skinheads in the USA (after 1986). Because they toured they brought it all over the US. Eventually hardcore branched off and became its own subculture.
15 what do you wish to achieve with your book
We hope that anyone that wants to learn about the subculture will read our book instead of the other bullshit titles out there written by people that don’t know shit about it. Every “academic” book written about it is done by cops or scholars and not people that lived it. We are hoping to document our past so any future generations will have a story that isn’t twisted by whatever some dumb fuck makes up on the internet. We want to publish something that accurately portrays the subculture to the best of our ability. I am sure there will be people that say “you didn’t add this or you didn’t cover that” or “why did you put that or why did you quote that” but to them I say this: go ahead and publish your own book. This book took more than two years to put together and we interviewed skinheads from every generation and across the nation to make it as comprehensive as possible. It is impossible to include everything in just one volume but we hope this is a good start to covering the subculture we both love.
Hi Symond,Here we go with the answer to your questions!! For pictures, I`ve to look, By moving from place to place it seem to lost lots of them.My bestRoy Elis
where were you born ( I was born in Kinghton Jamaica 27 April, age I never tell, it`s not important for me,is how you feel It`s just another number.
when did you first get into music? (As you all know, most black singers started their singing career in the churches,and so did I
I really started my music career in London in 1962, As a young man with full blooded music in me, not only I wanted to sing, but also wanted to play an instrumant too. So I took up the Trombone,at the sametime getting a few lesson from one of the masters Rico Rodriguez, In this time he just got to England, And from there on I choose music as my career, singing and playing, and so it all started to where I am today.
how was life in jamaica, what studio’s did you work at, orange street, studio 1 etc. what musicians and people did you know and work with
actually I haven`t done any recording in Jamaica, As I said it all started in England,But as singing and playing in a band called The Bees in 1964.
We got the luck to be discovered by the one and only late Laurel Aitken who had us as his backing band,and also as our producer, and a promoter. we were touring the UK with him.
Then we got the chance to backed Prince Buster,The Ethiopians, Maytals, Earol Dickson,The Pioneers,Millie Small, Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards, Desmond Dekker, Then in 1967 we met Eddy Grant he wrote our first two hits Train tour to rainbow city, and All change on he Bakerloo line.
Then in 1969 I wrote Skinhead Moonstomp and Skinhead Girl, and also we recorded the Skinhead Moonstomp album that went to way up in the hit chart. then it all started
from there.
when and why did you come to the uk ( I came to UK between 1959-1960 as a teenage school boy.
how did you find life different in the uk, was it what you expected on arrival, did you come with family and friends.
I came to Uk alone, My mother was here long before me,in this time the Uk wasn`t a nice place for black people,It was too much discrimination giong on then, and it still is!!
for me it was very very hard as a teenager,no one to play with or to talk to me, but I was mentally strong, so I try to over come the problem by try to intergrate.how did you get involved in the mod scene, and how come you moved onto the skinheads. what was the difference in the two scenes.
Well been intergrate in the school, and learning to be a cook, I got into the mods scene with the other english teenagers who were already in it, So at last they accept me, But why did they accept me? because I was a very good Amature boxer from Jamaica, And that`s how I got in to the mods and skinheads scene on till this day.
Someone is got to build the bridges so that we all can cross over doesn`t matter what colour we are.
whats the story with symarip, who were the guys, do you ever see them, why did you write the skinhead moonstomp album, with many songs referencing skinheads
Well I was the only one the band as a black skinhead who believed in the scene at that time,and after Prince Buster tour we made meny fans and Laurel Aitkens gave me the idea by saying why don`t you write something about the skinheads, then come Skinhead Moonstomp etc.
Well The Bees,The Pyramids,The Symarip, The Seven Letters were the same people,and we allcame from Jamaica, some have been to school here in Uk, and some have been to school in Jamaica,The band broke up in 1988.and I went on my own to do solo as Roy Ellis aka Mr.Symarip and it`s been going well for me since, as solo singer and I`ve been traveling all over the world,t hey got very jealous, so right now we don`t speak to each other,It`s pitty thow, But that`s how it is with some people.
what significance has brighton to your life
Great remembrance as a teenager, every friday night riding down to Brighton beach on scooters with the other boys, kicking Rockers asses, dancing, drinking a little etc. You know what teenagers do. Its such a pleasure to be invited back to Brighton to play for the Skinheads in june 2012, i hope to see some old friends there and meet all the new boys and girls
how is your carreer these days. (Well I can`t complain, since I`m back in 2005 a lot of great things been happening for me,I`ve been traveling the world knowing the drifferent Countrys, meeting different people, making new friends and new fans, I got the chance to put out two albums, three singles, coming out in April my new single with my new video, a lots concerts, lots of media connections etc. It`s been all good for me could be better, but I`m happy with what I`ve got.
what has been the highlight of your musical life. (Well my highlights are all my hit records, Playing Wembley Stadium 1970, Been in a film with Sydney Poitier, Travel the world etc. there are so much more, but it goes on to long 🙂why did you go to switzerland.
In 1970,after the Wembley Stadium concert, our agent sent us to mittle Europe to Pioneer the reggae music,no one knew what reggae was then,So by touring around I`ve met a lovely lady in Switzerland in 1980, and she became my second wife in 1988, that`s why I stayed in Switzerland (The end !!
I keep being told to wrote a blog, so here are some thoughts that I thinked!There is no set topic, just my brain wave patterns expressed in words
I play drums so don’t be surprised if there are a lot of posts on the subject
Also tattoos … I have lots of tattoos.
Londoner
Twitter: @quinn_drummerSieg Heiling? Then piss off out of my gig!
Let me first of all get one thing straight. I’m a very liberal person. I believe whole heartedly in free will and that there are very few occasions that you should be told what you can and cannot do. I also believe whole heartedly that you are free to believe and think whatever you want to believe or think. This can be summed up in a famous quote by Voltaire, which I have tattooed on my back, “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”. I for one am not of any religious orientation what so ever and I’ll happily admit that I think anyone who holds any belief in a supernatural being that is solely responsible for the creation of an infinite universe with only one inhabited planet totally fucking nuts. But then those people will think exactly the same as me for believing, nay, knowing the opposite is true. However I won’t storm up to them and force them to try thinking the way I think or believe what I do, I will hold lengthy discussions on the matter come up on a stale mate and go home happy in the knowledge that I live in a country where I am free to do so.
I am exactly the same when it comes to politics. Absolutely everyone holds differing political views. Even if you are of the same political persuasion as someone else you are undoubtedly going to disagree on a number of things and how we should deal with them, which is why you can talk for hours down the pub with your mates on one issue and all throw up different ideas and opinions on it and leave pondering things that may never have occurred to you before.
The reason I write this is because I play in a band, well several bands actually, but this particular band I speak of today is the London Diehards. We are an Oi band, from in and around London (obviously) formed a few years back and I have been playing with them for about a year. In that time I have seen so much shit flying it’s like being stuck in a wind tunnel with 1000 diarrhetic elephants after a curry eating contest. It seems everywhere we turn someone is trying to convince the world we are right wing, Nazi loving, ethnic hating band that is intent on spreading our racial hatred where ever we go. This is simply NOT TRUE.
There is one individual that is famous for this that anyone with even the slightest of connections to the UK Oi scene will know by name. He seems to find joy in running Facebook groups and blogs and websites dedicated to smearing the name of many a good band on the basis of incorrect rumours, miscalculated and ill informed connections and general lazy fact gathering. Now it is not he that I am here to fire down, that’s why I haven’t put his name in print. The people I am here to fire down are the selfish, idiotic, racist scumbags that tarnish an almost unblemished UK Oi scene. I am talking about the unwelcome far right of our group that seem to find it acceptable to turn up at a show and start throwing Sieg Heils left, right and centre in front of a band while they are playing. Now personally I really could not give two fucks where your political allegiances lie, if you want to frog march every one of an ethnic background out of the country then so be it. It’s never going to happen, chances are if you tried you’d end up incarcerated quicker than you can say Islamic Fundamentalist, which is actually a very long time judging by some news footage of EDL members on demonstrations. Just remember this, chances are your GP, Doctor, Fire Fighter etc is of ethnic origin and chances are one day you’ll need him or her to save your life.
Anyway as always I digress somewhat. I am not altogether against anyone that leans heavily on the far right pillar coming to our shows, you have as much right as anyone else to attend. What I do object to is having you stand their throwing Nazi salutes wearing fascist symbols on your jackets and stomping around having your picture taken while we are on stage … or even while you are in the same venue as us frankly.
It’s hard enough for us to get gigs at the best of times because we’ve been tarnished and stigmatised with the far right. As it stands the venue for the show on Saturday was kept a secret to avoid it getting unwanted attention for ill informed left wing do gooders that think they are helping society by telling the venue owners that they had inadvertently given permission to the promoter to run the next Nuremburg Rally and even then the venue pulled the gig just a few days before it was meant to go ahead and we had to relocate everything from Hayes to Essex. And is it any wonder why? It’s not because the bands set to perform sing songs about our higher racial authority as White Brits, its not because we turn up to gigs to promote racial genocide of the masses of hard working foreigners that live in this country. It’s not because our singer used to be a member of the BNP (a rather ridiculous rumour started by same internet demon of the PC Mafia) and it’s not because we go on stage with a flaming cross as a back drop, because none of these things are true. It’s because a few selfish bastards who come to our shows, pay good money to get in and then stand at the front Sieg Heiling us and the rest of the crowd from the entire hour of our set. People take pictures at shows, these pictures end up on the internet and then because people see two or three small minded individuals throwing Nazi salutes around they put 2 and 2 together and make 5.
Apart from the fact it’s blindingly disrespectful to all the bands that play these shows, to the venues that are willing to put them on despite the rumours they hear and to the promoters that go out on a limb to put these shows on, it’s also making it more and more impossible for those shows to even happen. I nearly pulled the gig myself last night for reasons I won’t go into but that link to the content of this post. I assume you come to these shows to see us play, I assume you enjoy our music (most of you were wearing our band’s t-shirt so an accurate assumption I’ll presume) and I assume you want to continue for us to write and record music (music that if you actually bothered to pay attention to the lyrics and the context you’d realise were predominately working class, slightly left wing, anti-government, anti-terrorist [but not anti-Islamic or any other religion or culture], anti-hate songs) and play shows, then for fucks sake stop giving fuel to the internet trolls that sit at computers all day with a metaphorical magnifying glass trying to find evidence that we, or any other generic Punk and Oi band want to purge this wonderful, multi-cultural country of ours of all our non-indigenous population. Which is a completely bullshit phrase to use anyway because none of us are indigenous. Geography, History and Science would all seem to agree that we migrated over thousands of years starting our journey in Africa.
As I have said, believe as you wish, think as you will but please, if you want to Sieg Heil then piss off out of our gig and go and do it in front of Skrewdriver or Nick Griffin. You can all throw your hands into the air and praise Hitler in the sanctuary of your own far right meetings not at a Punk and Oi show and especially not at one I’m playing, because next time I might not be so forgiving and refuse to play meaning you’ll have blown £10 on a poxy arm movement.
Well, i definitely was in love with drawing and graphic arts since i was a little girl, so, art does exist in my life since my childhood. I did schooling in Fashion Design, so when i moved to México D.F. the center of México Country in 2006, i met some people involved in the tattoo art. With another 4 skinheads we started “Upsetter Tattoo Shack” in downtown of México City in December 2009, was a great time learning about tattoo art and mixing it with the skinhead subcult. Now the guys are separated and with different ways, but still tattooing, like me.
I’m originally from Guadalajara city, the 2nd city by importance in México, but i lived at different places around México, and now i’m living at the coast, inna beach named “Barra de Navidad”; a beautiful spot in Jalisco, where every year a lot of canadians and americans comes to have a good time with sun, beers and beach. I’m here since 2010 and i really love my place; i have work, friends, my boyfriend and serenity every time i need.
I started my project of a tattoo shop with clothes and mexican kitsch handcrafts, the name is “Old Skull” referred by the Old School, the good times when everything started and the Mexican Sugar Skulls, that visitors from another countries loves because they’re so mexican, and traditionals in México from the “Dia de Muertos” at November 2nd. Our icon is a Mexican Sugar Skull with moustache, a glass of tequila and a big cigarette, sarape and hat, doing his thing haha.
Well, in the beach doesn’t exist a skinhead scene, i’m the only skinhead girl over there, but i’m happy with my friends who are rastas and my boyfriend who are skater. My music and love for my way of live follow me to every place i’m. In my city, Guadalajara, are a little new scene of young guys from 17 to 22 years very involved in the Jamaican music and skinhead style, but i’m feel older sometimes haha, (i’m 25) because i’m skinhead since i was 16 years, so, sometimes i get bored with the same things, do u know?
When i lived at México City, i had the opportunity to see many international Dj’s and artists from Jamaica and many places of the world, like Alfonso & Lola Diez (Torpedo 17) from Spain, Ryan White from San Francisco, Ca., Mr. Symarip Roy Ellis, Granadians from Granada, Spain, The Selecter, Desmond Dekker, Tommy Rock-A-Shacka from Japan, Mighty Ash Aquarius from UK, and many more that i can’t remember at this time.
25 years old, proud Skinhead Girl since 2002, 9 Years and counting, and i really can’t imagine myself as another person, with different choices, because Jamaican music mainly, smart clothes and beer are following me since i put my first pair of Dr. Marten’s when i was a little girl.
I’m skinhead because after the choice by fashion or influence, it becomes to be part of your life, your ideas and identity. Now sometimes i get mad with some girls & boys who started in the “fashion way” because internet is the easier way to get the groove, but i remember the first persons that i met, like Rose from Colombia, Helena from Catalunya, Chema from México City and Iván from Guadalajara, because they was my first skinhead friends, and internet still didn’t exist, if u needed to make an article for a zine, u wrote letters from the other side of world and waited 3 weeks to get the answer. It was very tasty; wake up in the ,morning and see the postman in your door, knocking with a pack from UK or Spain in his hand. Now all is easier, but still have known good people around the world, like u Symond.
Thanx a lot for the space in Subcultz. com, thanx for keeping the torch alive, my best wishes from México, the dub side of the world. xoxo
If you are lucky enough to visit the beautiful Mexico, go find Glammy Gal and get some ink. she can be found smiling at her shop. Address is: Gomez Farías Street 59-3 in downtown of San Patricio, Melaque, Jalisco.
In early 90’s, it was the begun of our punk/skinhead scene, and it’s very hard to get stuff from abroad, like europe, usa or somewhere. some people got from abroad, because they had went from there, like for working or studied there. and they back to indonesia, and spread the stuff. and we copied it hand by hands to friends. and we did not got many information about punk/skinhead, so we must find it by ourself. because no internet at that time here.which are your favourite bands
all bands with positive lyrics, and great musicwhat do your family think about you being involved.
no problem with that, they know i running online shop, and i’m selling skinhead clothing.
i live in bintaro, closer place to jakarta.
Tell me about the religion in indonesia and how that effects the skinhead scene
its not really effects. we don’t have problem with that. me for example, i’m protestant, i go to church every Sunday with my family. for us in scene, religion is our choice. about case in aceh, its different, Aceh have special laws, in their provinces. they do Syariat Islam there. because the citizens want Syariat Islam there. so they thought, being punk is bad, and it’s western culture.did you go to see the Last Resort,when they played there?Of course i went. me and my friends was bring the last resort to play to Indonesia. you can ask them about us. we have great memories with them. good mates! and really humble!
what would you like to tell the worldwide scene about indonesia and your friends
Indonesia scene is great!! Punk, Skins, HC kids, Metal, etc so many here, spreading in many cities, and proviences. come and enjoy with our scene. and that is my point of view about indonesia scene.
REGARD FROM INDONESIA Oi! Oi!
-ENJI- PS: sorry with my english, please edit my english words.
Thankyou from England, i think its amazing that the skinhead , punk and many Subcultures have found there way to Indonesia. Keep the Faith
I had been browsing through facebook and stumbled on a page, which mentioned a Skinhead Reunion. I had long forgotten my youth, the music and times had been tucked away into the broom cupboard of my mind, the fading photographs in a weathered cardboard box.
But I have always liked Brighton, a bit of 2tone on the radio always brings a smile, as I sit stuck in London traffic, a welcome interlude from the usual Simon Cowell Karaoke imposed on me.
As the train rumbled out of Gatwick on the home run to the south coast, my thoughts were taken by the ‘shish’ of an opened can and the unmistakable Belfast accent of two very smartly dressed skinheads.
I didn’t know tonic suits were still being made, but these guys looked a million dollars, the brogue shoes shined to a mirror. Chattering like a pair of excited school kids they noticed I was wearing a fred perry
with close cropped hair, which was my subtle way of getting involved, I guess the skinhead culture has never really left me, a Ben Sherman or pair of Levis has been a permanent part of my wardrobe since 1978
“Alrite mate Eamon, where you from” the first skinhead said as he stretched out his hand, passing me a fresh can of lager.
Until that point I wasn’t even sure if I would attend the skinhead reunion, I hadn’t been to anything in years, even I had been aware of the media version of skins, and wasn’t sure if that was true or not, I know we were the bad boys in the school playground, and there were a fare few crazies involved back in the day, but these two guys were like stand up comics. I real breath of fresh air. Call it a mid life crisis if you like, but I felt great, I don’t think I have ever been welcomed by two strangers so warmly in my life.
Hitting Brighton we made our way to the seafront, the sun was shining, the gulls screaming. The fresh air of the English channel immediately started to wash the stale polution of London from my lungs.
First stop was to be the Friday afternoon meeting point. The Modern World Gallery on Madeira Drive,the scene from Quadrophenia movie was replaying in my mind as we walked along, the noise of the pier
and streams of tourists soon was replaced by the sounds of Jamaican Ska blasting over the Street. I small crowd of well dressed skinheads were already milling about. As we approached they all turned to see us.
Instead of the old style stand off that skinheads always used in the old days, once again the smiles were immediate. Everyone introducing themselves and eachother, more beer was handed over and the party began.
I was amazed to see several good looking ladies with feathercuts, perfectly styled clothing, dancing in the street, the tourists watching on, unsure of what they were witnessing,
The Modern World Gallery stocks some great art pieces and mod memorabilia, original silver disks hanging on the walls. T shirts, some great Lambretta panel art pieces.
2005 it all started. 4 friends from Bavaria that already had been playing German Oi!-Punk-Music together decided to start a new Band – with true and basic Skinhead music, Oi! like it used to be. During one of those nights full of music and booze the decision fell to have a go with the Name “Mummy’s Darlings”. Not a very sober decision but still the best we could make. There is no need for a wannabe badass name anymore. For us four our friendship, good music and having the best time of our lives is the most important thing – being on stage combines what we all love most. We don’t need to put politics into our lyrics cos being skinhead means a lot more to us.
It only took us two years until we were given the chance to record our first Album “Stormtroopers of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. We spent a lot of great nights on stage and at the bar. We had some very special gigs supporting great bands like Indecent Exposure, Condemned84, Skinfull and many others and our love for the good old skinhead-sound started to spill over to audiences throughout Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic…
Mummy’s Darlings live
In 2009 we recorded our second album “For the Bootboy’s Soul” in which we payed tribute to the cult we all love so much and due to this very special year we added a musical birthday present for the best scene ever. With songs like “40 years of burning hearts” we went ahead on our way to play smart, rude and very rootsy Oi!-Music in the good old English style. Our music led us to parties in Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and even England – everywhere we met great Skinheads and Byrds who love the music and lifestyle as much as we do. Small diy-Gigs – promoters and bands, everyone gives his best to make every weekend the best you ever had – can you imagine something better? We can’t – that’s why we play oi! Music – for the skinheads’ souls!
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