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Posted on October 26, 2022October 26, 2022 by admin — Leave a comment

Ron Watts Wycombe Punk Rock promoter legend remembered

Ron Watts – 1942 to 2016
(Obituary researched and written by Paul Lewis – First published 16th July 2016)
Ron Watts in the green room at The Nags Head High Wycombe Legendary music promoter Ron Watts passed away on 20th June 2016, aged 73, following a long illness. Watt’s spent much of his life living and working in High Wycombe and brought world wide fame to The Nag’s Head, a former HQ of the Wanderers.

Watts is best known for his involvement in the rise of the punk scene in 1976 and 1977, promoting gigs at the famous Nag’s Head venue in High Wycombe, in addition to the legendary 100 Club venue in Oxford Street, London. However, it be an would be an insult to his legacy to leave unmentioned his part in bringing top Blues acts to venues in the UK during the late 1960’s and beyond, plus his front man role in legendary Cajun Blues band, Brewer’s Droop.

Watts, born in wartime Slough in 1942, schooled at Langley Grammar School but had moved to High Wycombe with his family by his later teenage years. His love for music came from an early age – his initial taste was jazz but he soon got into the Blues, buying his first single in 1957 when he picked up a 78 rpm version of Chuck Berry’s School Days.

After passing his A Levels he worked at Midland Bank, High Wycombe and used some of his wages to attend R&B gigs in London – taking in early performances from Alexis Korner and Charlie Watts and mixing with the likes of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, well before they had become household names.

In his 2006 autobiography, ‘100 Watts, A Life in Music’ he recalled that High Wycombe at the time was ‘terminally uncool’, although he attended gigs at the Town Hall, plus jazz evenings at Court Gardens, Marlow. Watts also got the bug for live performing following an impromptu singalong during an R&B gig in West Wycombe featuring John Mayall.

He married for the first time in 1962 – tying the knot at Terriers Church before moving into a flat in Farnham Road, Slough with his wife Pauline. The couple had a daughter Terri shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, his work life took him to the Mars factory in Slough. It was in his early 20’s that he saw The Beatles take the stage in Slough, while his love for live music saw him help out at The Star and Garter pub in Windsor.

Having split from his wife in early 1966, Watts first ventured into music promoting in the summer of 1967 when he put on a show at Farnham Village Hall. Another gig in January 1968 at High Wycombe Town Hall would prove another significant step in his musical career. Watts would take to the stage again to sing with Wind of Change but the news got back to his employees at Mars and he was given the ultimatum on whether to quit his job or quit his on stage antics. To his employees surprise he chose the former and his serious promoting days were about to begin.

Within weeks of handing in his notice at Mars he had arranged his first concert promotion – an R&B night in the upstairs room at The White Hart pub in White Hart Street, High Wycombe. He would dub the venue ‘The Blues Loft’ – a title that would travel with Watts over the years ahead. Shakey Vick would be one of the first acts he would promote at The White Hart, along with Jack Dupree.

The impending demolition of The White Hart forced a brief spell of gigs at Ye Exchange, also in High Wycombe, but it was when he found The Nag’s Head on the London Road that he knew he had the venue he craved for – a relatively small (300 ish capacity) upstairs venue with its own bar.

His first gig there came in March 1968 and his Blues nights quickly gained in popularity. He would bring in the legendary John Lee Hooker to the Nag’s Head at a cost of £125. With tickets set at just 7/6 (37 ½ p), it was a risk that paid off. Other names that followed, included Howlin’ Wolf, plus in May 1968, an early live appearance for Jethro Tull – six months before their debut album had hit the top ten of the charts.

Status Quo and Thin Lizzy also performed for Watts at the Nag’s Head as the 1960’s drew to a close, while Marc Bolan, playing in the then folky Tyrannosaurus Rex, was another name that would become household during the 1970’s and as they became Glam Rock monsters T.Rex.

Despite moving to London in September 1968, the following years saw Watts continue his association with the Nag’s Head, although his attention was now the formation of the National Blues Federation (NBF), along with Chris Trimming. The pair also took on the ‘quiet’ Tuesday night slot at The 100 Club, quickly gaining high regard in the Blues world and seeing BB King take the stage one evening for a jam session.

Then in 1969, another impromptu singing performance, this time during a Blues Festival on Wycombe Rye, proved the catalyst for Watts to make the decision to form a band of his own.

Brewer’s Droop were formed and played a mixture of Blues R&B and Cajun (swinging jazz). Watts took on the role of lead vocalist, while other band members included Steve Darrington (pianist), John McKay (guitar), Malcom Barrett (bass) and Bob Walker (drums). Brewer’s Droop played almost 300 gigs in 1970 and close to 1,000 in the following four years the band were on the road – sometimes playing three shows in a day. Record company interest grew and an album ‘Opening Time’ was released on RCA in the summer of 1972. The album cover featured a picture of the band standing outside The Antelope pub in High Wycombe town centre – a regular drinking and performing haunt for the band. A single followed called ‘Sweet Thing’ and just failed to make the top 50.

With Brewer’s Droop regularly on tour and Trimming offered other opportunities in the music industry, the NBF folded. However, despite his busy schedule, in April 1970, Watts promoted an early Mott The Hoople gig at The Nag’s Head, while he kept connections with the London Road venue by using the ‘Blues Loft’ for rehearsals with ‘The Droop’.

An eager Watts also started promoting gigs at High Wycombe Town Hall, initially assisting the Broom & Wade apprentice association with a Savoy Brown and Wild Angels gig. Elsewhere, he would keep in touch with the local scene by helping to promote gigs at the newly opened Twylight Club – described by Watts as a ‘concrete bunker’ – under a new flyover built in High Wycombe around 1969.

Meanwhile, back at the 100 Club, a highlight for Watts was putting on Muddy Waters in May 1972. A visitor to ‘in crowd’ at the time also included a young American student called Bill Clinton. Watts recalled in his autobiography: “He swore to me he was going to be President of America one day. He had the biggest beard you have ever seen. He was a good kid, bucket loads of charisma.” Colonel Gaddafi, as a younger man, was another regular at the ‘Blues Loft’ and the 100 Club. Watts said: “We had a couple of drinks and he seemed like a good bloke. He said he was planning to ‘go into politics’ when he returned to Libya.”

Watts married again in February 1973, wedding Maureen at Priory Road Methodist Chapel in High Wycombe. The couple had first met around late 1968 when she had interviewed Watts for a Bucks Free Press article.

A second Brewer’s Droop album was recorded in late 1973 that included the relatively unknown guitarist Mark Knopfler (later of Dire Straits) on some of the tracks. Produced by Dave Edmunds, it remained unreleased until 1989 when RCA released they had a potential seller on their hands and released it under the title of The Booze Brothers. Watts made no income after the rights had been sold off years earlier.

Brewers Droop split in 1974, leaving the way open for Watts to concentrate again on the promoting side. Now living in Lane End, he kept open his local connections with a short stint of gigs at The Crown, in Marlow. Meanwhile, he was now promoting 2 or 3 nights a week at The 100 Club as the mid 1970’s ‘pub rock’ scene began to break with the likes of Ian Dury’s Kilburn & The Highroads, Dr Feelgood, Eddie & The Hotrods and the 101 ers – the latter led by a youthful Joe Strummer.

However, with Watts starting to become bored of the live music scene, he took on a job with G.D. Searle in High Wycombe and dabbled again briefly with playing live again with the short lived Jive Bombers. Towards the end of 1975 Watts recalls that he saw an article in Rolling Stone magazine about the US ‘punk’ movement. It sparked an interest that would come to a head in the following months.

It was a chance viewing of a Sex Pistols gig on Friday 20th February 1976, at what was when then known as High Wycombe College of Higher Education, that changed his life dramatically. A 33 year old Watts was apparently at the Screaming Lord Sutch gig to see the college social secretary about a stripper he was booking for them. He popped his head into the gig to witness The Pistols creating chaos but was interested enough to think it would be worth putting on what he described as a ‘bunch of scruffs’.

Pistols Manager Malcolm McClaren would later seek out Watts at The 100 Club. McClaren said he wanted his band to play the Oxford Street venue. Watts, recalling his memories of the High Wycombe gig a few days before, agreed. The Pistols would appear for the first time at The 100 Club on Tuesday 30th March 1976. The eventful period in Watts’ life also saw the birth of his first son Stuart. The toddler would spend some of his early life being bounced on the knee of the punk rock bands.

The Pistols would appear a further 10 times at the 100 Club in 1976, including the famous Punk Festival held on 20 and 21 September 1976. Before then, on Thursday 2nd September 1976, Watts would bring the Pistols back to High Wycombe for an appearance at The Nags Head – a venue Watts was now back promoting gigs at.

Violence at the punk gigs at The 100 Club bought a ‘punk’ ban at the Oxford Street venue – the infamous Sid Vicious bottle throwing incident at the September 1976 ‘Punk Festival’ being the final straw. But London’s loss was High Wycombe’s gain as Watts brought the up and coming ‘punk’ bands to The Nag’s Head. Following the summer heatwave of 1976, Watts promoted gigs from the likes of the Stranglers, The Damned and The Clash – all before they had signed deal with major record labels.

Watts’ gigs at The Nags Head would play a significant part in the rise of ‘punk rock’ and also helped wake up the ‘terminally uncool’ High Wycombe to develop a punk movemenet of its own, putting on many local bands as support acts to the wave of artists that exploded onto the national music scene at the time. However, a brief foray into band management in 1976 with The Damned ended on a sour note when he objected to the band swearing at the paying punters, shouting from the back of the loft venue at The Nag’s Head, “Keep it up and I’ll fetch my shotgun. We’ll see how much of a punk you are then.”

In 1977, UK ‘punk’ went viral. Watts continued to put bands on at the Nags, showcasing acts like The Jam, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Generation X, The Police, Tom Robinson Band, Elvis Costello and XTC – again, in many cases, before they had signed record deals. When some of the acts out grew the London Road venue, he complimented the Nags with the more central High Wycombe Town Hall. The Stiff Tour of 1977 played the opening night at The Town Hall in October 1977 featuring one of the first ever performances by Ian Dury and The Blockheads. That same month, Watt’s second child with Maureen, Marie Watts was born. However, the marriage would not last and they split up in 1979.

Regular gig promotions continued at The Town Hall through the late 1970’s until the cloud of violence (at a non-Watts promoted gig) resulted in a draconian council ban on ‘rock concerts’ in the summer of 1980. But gigs at The Nags carried on, with the regular Thursday rock nights including a performance from ‘Top Irish Rock Act’ U2 midway through 1980.

However, a culmination of the Council restrictions and a landlord unenthusiastic for live music, saw limited opportunities at The Nag’s Head leading to Watt’s adding the Alexander’s Disco at Cippenham to his CV of music venues. It would host an early outing for new romantics Spandau Ballet but it was not Watts’ scene to see bands more interested in their hair do’s than the music.

Now back living with his parents in Slough, Watt’s tried to save the flagging fortunes of the Nag’s Head by arranging music sessions in the downstairs bar. It was around this time that a 29 year old Tony Blair would visit the venue – the then Labour MP for the ‘safe’ Conservative seat of Beaconsfield.

Never one to shy from work, Watts started working as a Quality Engineer for British Plastics in Slough in order to boost his income from the now even more risky promoting business. Some gigs at The Nag’s would be packed while others would see just a handful in the audience. A residency by local favourite John Otway proved particularly popular. Elsewhere, Watt’s gave some of their first gigs to local uprising stars Howard Jones and Marillion. Southend Blues rock act The Hamsters, also played some of the debut gigs at The Nag’s and continued to return to the Wycombe area until their retirement in 2012.

Watts’ association with promoting gigs at The Town Hall eventually came to an end in the early to mid 1980’s after the local Council decided to seek out a sole promoter for the ageing venue. The aspirations of the Council never came to fruition and the venue was effectively lost from the live music circuit.

By this time Watts had returned to High Wycombe to work as a Quality Technician at Broom and Wades. He also lived on a house boat on the Thames, near Bourne End before the leaving the area completely, residing briefly in Ffestiniog, North Wales before a move to Tamworth, Staffordshire.

Some of his final gigs at The Nag’s Head saw performances by former Cream bassist Jack Bruce, cult early 1970’s psychedelic band, The Pink Fairies, plus several more reunion night’s with Brewer’s Droop. A 20th anniversary of his time at The Nag’s came in 1988 when Shakey Vick returned with his Blues Band for an evening that Watt’s described as a ‘great night’.

After being made redundant by Broom & Wade in May 1991, Watt’s finally severed all promoting ties with High Wycombe and moved on to team up with Jim Simpson with the running of the Birmingham International Jazz Festival. Watt’s continued to confirm his love of the Blues by promoting gigs at The Bear in Bearwood (three miles from the centre of Birmingham). Within two years it had built up a membership of 5,000. He was also heavily connected with the organisation of the Birmingham Blues Festival during August Bank Holiday 1992. Gigs continued at The Bear until the summer of 1994.

Realising that the live music scene was not going to make him a living, Watt’s finally settled in Tamworth working for TNT before fulfilling one of his dreams of retiring to the South Coast by moving to a village close to Weymouth, Dorset in 2008.

During the intervening years, Watt’s was occasionally asked of his musical history and turned back the clock to be a guest of honour at a Sex Pistols reunion gig in Brixton in 2007. A year earlier he published his autobiography, Hundred Watts – a life in music, revealing much of the detail of his musical history that would have otherwise been lost. His comments at the time still rang true at the time of his passing in 2016: “Technology has taken a lot of the fun out of gigs. Too many bands today think that they can sit in their bedrooms and do it all from there. They need to get out there like we did and shake their arse.”

For those who went to any of Ron’s gigs, you will remember that he never tucked himself away from the spotlight. At The Nag’s Head he would regularly sit at the top of the stairs, taking your small change for entrance and checking your membership card. At the Town Hall he would sometimes come out onto the front steps before letting in the punters, with a warning that he didn’t want any trouble at that evening’s gig.

And the final word goes to Ron, again from a 2006 interview where he reflected: “I have had a blessed life. I didn’t have any special talent, I was just in the right place at the right time. Things just kept landing at my doorstep. Every day was Christmas.”

Also see:
Wanderers into the record books and the night Ron Watts first saw The S*x Pistols
The Nags Head – former Wanderers HQ and legendary venue lost to developers
Hundred Watts – a life in music – at Amazon.co.uk

Posted on August 1, 2020August 4, 2020 by Subcultz — 1 Comment

Life for the ‘feral thugs’ who killed a girl Goth Sophie Lancaster

A JUDGE attacked the “feral thuggery” blighting Britain yesterday as he jailed two yobs for life for the murder of a student.

SOPHIE: Kicked to death in a park after being picked on by a gang because of her Goth clothing

Sophie Lancaster, 20, was kicked to death by two drunken 15-year-olds as she tried to stop a “merciless” gang battering her boyfriend unconscious in a park.

Three other youths were jailed for assaulting him.

Judge Anthony Russell QC said tough sentences were necessary to curb increasing attacks by youths roaming the streets.

Fuelled by cheap alcohol, a gang of yobs set upon Sophie and 21-year-old Robert Maltby just because they wore distinctive Goth clothing.

Judge Russell said: “This was feral thuggery of a kind that is quite unacceptable. It raises serious questions about the state of society which exists in this country at the beginning of a new millennium which was heralded with such optimism.”

He added: “At least wild animals when they hunt as a pack have a legitimate reason for doing so – to obtain food. You had none and your behaviour on this night degrades humanity itself.

“Regrettably, cases where gangs of youths attack others viciously, sometimes using weapons, sometimes using their own brute force through their feet, are becoming more prevalent.

“Where such crimes are proved, severe punishment will follow.

“I want the message to go out loud and clear that cowardly thugs who resort to kicking others senseless are sentencing themselves to lengthy custodial terms.”

Preston Crown Court heard how Sophie and Robert were attacked last August as they walked home through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancs.

Brendan Harris, 15, felled Robert with a punch before the others set upon him “like a pack of wild animals”.

Harris told how – as Sophie cradled Robert on the ground and urged them to stop – Ryan Herbert, also 15 at the time, kicked Sophie’s head “as though he was volleying a football in full flight”.

The pair continued to stamp on her head before leaving the couple for dead.

Their injuries were so severe that paramedics could not tell them apart.

After the attack the gang bumped into a witness, who said they were behaving in a “giddy way, hyperactive and bouncing around doing silly things”.

He added: “It was as though they were boasting about what they had done.”

Herbert told him: “You wanna see them, they are a right mess.”

Sophie, a gap-year English degree student who enjoyed writing poetry, slipped into a coma and died two weeks later.

Robert, a Manchester University art student, survived horrific head injuries. But he has been left psychologically scarred and is afraid to leave his house.

In a statement he told the court: “I have regressed to a child-like state and I am finding the world a terrifying place.”

Sophie’s mother Sylvia, 52, told the court: “Their actions are so heinous I can’t bring myself to think about it.

“My daughter’s last moments on Earth must have been a living hell. Not only did she witness Robert being kicked and stamped upon, but she died not knowing whether Robert lived or died after the vicious attack on him.”

Harris, who was found guilty of murder, was jailed for life and must serve 18 years before he can be considered for parole.

Herbert, now 16, who admitted murder, was given life with a minimum of 16 years, three months. Neither showed any emotion as they were led away.

Joseph Hulme, 17, his brother Danny Hulme, 16, and Daniel Mallet, 17, were handed indeterminate sentences after admitting causing grievous bodily harm with intent by attacking Robert.

The Hulmes must serve a minimum five years and ten months each. Mallet must serve at least four years and four months.

Outside court, Mrs Lancaster, who works with problem children, said: “No sentence could ever be enough.

“I feel I have a life sentence. They will be out before the end of their 30s.”

Posted on April 2, 2020April 2, 2020 by Subcultz — Leave a comment

The Casualties and the trouble with punk rock

‘I just wish that more energy were used to protest the real culprits of misogyny and sexism, rather than punk bands,’ one fan wrote, as if the two are mutually exclusive

When I was a teenager, I often went to see a friend’s punk band play shows at an all-ages basement bar in Guelph.

He was a year younger than me, played bass, and had a bright green mohawk that stood about a foot high. The singer was a bit older and went to a different school; he wore his hair in liberty spikes. Most of the kids who went to these shows had the types of hairstyles that required Elmer’s glue to make stand on end, but not me: I had blonde highlights and a bob.

When you’re a teenager, the way you style yourself assigns you membership into a tribe that usually corresponds with what type of music you like, but at the punk shows I went to, this coding didn’t necessarily apply. As soon as I paid my cover and walked downstairs, I belonged. Punk rock is good like that, or at least it’s supposed to be: as long as you categorize yourself as some type of outsider, you’re part of the scene. Punk rock is always there for you. So it’s not hard to declare an unwavering loyalty to the scene, the fans and — most importantly — the people in the bands that comprise it.

On Thursday, Toronto’s Mod Club announced that it would be cancelling an upcoming show by punk group The Casualties due to allegations of rape against the band’s singer, Jorge Herrera. The cancellations are nothing new. A couple months after The Casualties announced a Canadian tour, 13 dates in total have been scrapped.

Allegations about Herrera have circulated for years, most notably in the form of a blog post on the website Put Your Damn Pants On by a woman named Beth who claims she was raped by Herrera when she was 16 years old, and he was about 26. Since then, a number of websites and blogs have been flooded with the comments and responses of those who claim similar experiences with Herrera; one Tumblr page compiled a list of 28 victims.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

The backlash to these allegations has been toxic. The band’s management has used a particularly heinous line of defence, claiming that it’s NOT VERY PUNK ROCK to believe the women accusing Herrera of rape: “Unfortunately, people have been quick to judge and have not taken the time to think that they are not only slandering a singer from a punk band, but also a father, husband and family man,” a statement on the Casualties’ Facebook page read earlier this week.

“The mob has lit the torches and wants to see blood. Not a thought is wasted that it could hurt an innocent,” the band said in a statement in February. “We will not stand by while an innocent man’s life is being ruined. The only thing Jorge can be found guilty of is playing in a punk band.”

The fans are right there with them, maintaining that there’s a difference between being punk and being capable of rape. “Stay strong and stay f–kin’ punk y’all,” wrote one fan, while another assured the group that “The real punx we gonna stay with you guys!” Worst of all: “I just wish that more energy were used to protest the real culprits of misogyny and sexism, rather than punk bands,” a commenter wrote, as if the two are mutually exclusive.

A similar rationale permeates the discussion surrounding Bill Cosby. In her defense of him, Cosby’s former co-star Phylicia Rashad evoked the comedian’s “legacy” as a champion of diversity. Jill Scott did the same (though she distanced herself from her remarks recently), as did rapper Chuck D just a few weeks ago. Surely, hundreds of thousands of people who grew up with Bill Cosby thought the same: that a childhood hero, a moral arbiter, a beloved comedian with a proud legacy as a Black entertainer could not also be a monster, because if he is, what does that say about all of us who loved him?

When a scheduled NXNE concert by rapper Action Bronson was yanked off a public stage in downtown Toronto due to a petition crying foul over his misogynistic lyrics, the outcry was similar, but more simplistic: if you don’t want to hear it, just stay home. “It does seem like you’re trying to placate a bunch of soccer moms instead of your actual target demographic by booking the cleanest rapper you could think of,” a comment under NXNE’s announcement of Shad as Bronson’s replacement during the fest. “What the hell,” another said. “This is Toronto. It’s music. It’s art. If someone is offended well … f–k em. They don’t have to be there.”

The comments aren’t just an attempt to silence those standing up against misogyny and sexism, but a shaming: how dare you call into question something I believe in? How dare you take this away from me?

I don’t really like The Casualties; my experience with punk rock was always a little wimpy. But growing up, I drifted in and out of the punk scene in my hometown because even if I never felt quite like I was part of it there was no sense that I was unwelcome. Everyone I ran into at shows was a little bit of a weirdo like me, and they were there because it was a supportive environment. And I knew a lot of people who liked The Casualties.

But you can be an outcast — and speak for outcasts — and still do garbage things. Punks aren’t just punks; they’re people. And anyway, it’s not like the punk rock community is immune to the pratfalls that pervade every other community.

It can be difficult to reconcile that our heroes, mentors and idols do terrible things, not least of all because of a sense that their wrongdoings are somehow reflective of ourselves. And so the impulse to doubt or lash out against accusations is sometimes born of an impulse to keep ourselves comfortable. It’s an impulse that is, by definition, harmfully closed-minded. And that’s not very punk rock.

Rebecca Tucker

The Casualties were formed in 1990, with original members Jorge Herrera (vocals), Hank (guitar), Colin Wolf (vocals), Mark Yoshitomi (bass) and Yureesh Hooker (drums). The members aimed to return to what they viewed as the “golden era” of street punk, embodied by bands such as The Exploited and Charged GBH which they believed had disappeared by 1985.^[3] During the early years, the lineup was fluid, with several changes.

In early 1991 Hank left the band, to be replaced by Fred Backus on guitar to record Political Sin in March 1991 for the Benefit for Beer compilation.^[4] Soon more changes were in the works, with new guitarist Fred heading off to school. C Squat’s Scott temporarily filled Fred’s shoes until he returned a short time later. During this period, guitarist Hank filled in for a couple of shows, and Steve Distraught also played briefly with the group on second guitar. The Casualties stabilized long enough to record the first demo in the fall of 1991 and the 40 oz Casualty EP in the spring of 1992, and was building up a fan base in their hometown of New York City. At the end of 1992, Mark and Fred left the band and were replaced by Mike Roberts on bass and Jake Kolatis on the guitar, followed by the departure of Yureesh and Colin in 1994, to be replaced on drums by Shawn, while the band went down to a single vocalist.^[1994 sees the recording of the 4 song EP, Drinking Is Our Way Of Life, however it would not be released. The songs would later appear on the Casualties “early years 1990-1995” CD in 1999. In 1995, the band’s second release, the 4 track A Fuckin’ Way Of Life E.P. was released on Eyeball Records. After recording A Fuckin’ Way of Life, Shawn left the band, and Marc Eggers (nicknamed Meggers) of the Rivits became the regular drummer. The line-up of Jorge, Jake, Mike and Meggers continued until 1997.

In 1996 the Casualties became the first American band to appear at the “Holidays in the Sun” Festival in London. 1997 saw the release of the band’s debut album, For the Punx is released on Tribal War Records, and the band embarks on its first American tour with The Varukers. Mike (the bassist) left the band in 1998, to be replaced with Johnny Rosado, from The Krays. They released their second LP that year, Underground Army, and begin a world tour.

Line-up
David Rodriguez – lead vocals (2017–present)Jake Kolatis – guitar (1993–present)Rick Lopez – bass (1998–present)Marc “Meggers” Eggers – drums (1995–present)

Past line-up
Jorge Herrera – lead vocals (1990–2017)Colin Wolf – vocals (1990–1994)Hank – guitar (1990–1991)Fred Backus – guitar (1991–1993)Mark Yoshitomi – bass (1990–1993)Mike Roberts – bass (1993–1997)Johnny Rosado – bass (1997–1998)Yureesh Hooker – drums (1990–1994)Shawn – drums (1994–1995)

Posted on February 29, 2020October 26, 2022 by Toria — Leave a comment

Punk Rock Promoter Ron Watts

RON

RM) Were the early Punks, like Siouxsie, middle class students? If so, how did they feel when Punk was taken up by the masses?
Ron) No. The early Punks were solidly working class. There was the art college mob, they weren’t numerically very strong, but they were the most vivid people, because of their appearance. They set the standard, the tone, you know? But immediately behind that, by the time of the punk festival of ‘76, the bulk of the audience was being formed by young, working class people and they took it to their hearts at once. RM) Were the movements roots biased towards the fashion element or more towards the music side, or was it one package?Ron) The fashion and art side, you know, was where Siouxsie was coming from. They took it very seriously, it was a new movement and they only had the one band to start with. It was very arty, but it was an art movement that worked. If you’d been there the first night I put the Pistols on, I think it was March 30th 1976, and you saw the Bromley Contingent coming in! They didn’t all come at once, they come in dribs and drabs. Each time, it was breathtaking and jaw dropping just to see them walk through that door.RM) Were contemporary Londoners shocked by the appearance of the early Punks?
Ron) Initially, yeah. They’d got used to it by the end of that year. But initially, like in the early months, absolutely.RM) The summer of ’76 is famous for its heat wave. I bet you’ve great memories of it?
RW) In that summer, and remember that it was the hottest, the best summer in living memory, it was the summer, people still talking about it now, and nothing was happening, everybody was asleep, you know. Anyway, this New Zealand film crew turned up to capture London. They’d been dispatched from Auckland to film London, in the summer. They were bright enough to cotton on to the movement, and they were haunting me! I mean, they got so many yards, so many miles of film, some of it’s not even been seen yet. All the main punk films, like the Rock ‘n Roll Swindle, The Filth and the Fury, were relying on their footage. They were amazed when they got their first, full on, Bromley Punk. They could not believe it. They said “You guys are 200 years ahead of New Zealand!” RM) Were you interested about the politics in Punk?
Ron) I tried to keep it at arms length. I wasn’t interested in sub-divisions.RM) What about The Clash?
Ron) Didn’t know that they were! (political). I think they were just trying to make it, I mean, they latched on to it. The Pistols had got a lot of the market wrapped up with their attitudes, so The Clash had to find some attitude, and they probably cooked it up with their manager, I reckon. What attitude can we have? Well, the Pistols have got this, that and the other and they found the one that they could go for. RM) I’ve read that the purists hated them, but I loved The Jam. They flirted with politics early on, and then really got involved, with Paul Weller joining Red Wedge later.
Ron) The Jam were some of the biggest winners out of Punk. There was such a lot of talent in that band. That band was so tight.RM) Did you get more involved with them once they’d started to get bigger?
Ron) They wanted me to help them with their American tour, by going ahead from city to city publicising it. But this was ’77, and I was amazed that their manager John Weller had asked me, and I would’ve loved to have done it. But, I was at the height of my promoting career, and I realised that. So I said “No, I’ve got to stick with this.”
RM) The Jam always felt like a band that, as a fan, you had a stake in.
Ron) I tell you what, they did a show for me at the 100 Club, when they’d been doing really huge venues like the Hammersmith Odeon. They’d always said, when we get there, we’ll come back and do one. They ended up doing three for me. One at Wycombe Town Hall, one at the Nags Head, which is a pub, you know! And, the 100 Club. They were really good like that, and I appreciate what they did for me and I love ‘em to bits.RM) It’s weird that there was all that acrimony between those people, and even stranger that Rick, and now Bruce, are playing in a Jam tribute band. (The Gift).Ron) Good drummer. I think, and this is my opinion, as I’ve no proof of it, that the girls all used to go for Bruce Foxton. The band was great, and they knew the band was great and they loved Paul Weller. But, in their hearts they all fancied that they’d get off with Bruce Foxton. When I did the box office at the 100 Club, there’d be all these girls turning up in school uniforms. I’d be saying “How old are you?” and the answer was always “19!” Am I really going to sell these girls tickets?!RM) I read somewhere, years ago, that Sid Vicious and Paul Weller had a fight after arguing about the Holidays in the Sun/ In the City riff. Did you hear that one?
Ron) No. I can’t see that. Paul Weller was from a tough, working class background. A fight between him and Sid Vicious would have lasted about 8 seconds. He would have dealt with Sid in no time at all. It didn’t happen. Sid would need to have been tooled up, and I’ve had to fight him 3 times when he was. And I’m still here. Sid came at me with a chain, once. I confiscated it, and wish I still had all these weapons, as I could put them up for sale at Christies, couldn’t I?! And I saw Sid with a knife, threatening Elle, the singer out the Stinky Toys with it. I took that off him and gave it to Malcolm Mclaren. Wish I’d kept it. RM) Ron, did you have much to do with Rock Against Racism (R.A.R)?
Ron) Only in as much as I endorsed it. And, I wouldn’t have any racist behaviour, as it says in the book, in any of my venues. I just wouldn’t. No way, I mean my bouncers were black, a lot of my acts were black, and I wasn’t going to have it. There were a few occasions when it surfaced, and I did the natural thing and let the black guys sort it themselves.RM) Empowerment?
Ron) Yeah. At Wycombe Town Hall, the British movement guys were having a go at my bouncer, Gerry. One black guy against twenty or thirty of them, so I said to him “I’ll take your position, don’t be long, go down the pubs and get your mates.” And he come back in with a dozen big black lads. I said to them, “Look, you’re here to look after Gerry, not to kill these white guys.” So, Gerry stood in front of them, and there wasn’t a word out of them again! They moved out of the way, and went down the other side of the hall, these bullies. They saw the odds evening up a bit, and given the other 8 or 9 bouncers I had stood in the hall, we would’ve murdered them.
RM) Jimmy Pursey went on-stage with The Clash at R.A.R in Victoria Park. Was this damage limitation on Pursey’s behalf? He seemed to get his fingers burned when the Skins affiliated to Sham 69.
Ron) Exactly. And I don’t think he liked that one little bit. See, now, Jimmy Pursey is another guy, like Paul Weller and Joe Strummer, probably all of them at that time. Underneath he was a much nicer person than the media, and the world, would realise and portray. He was an alright geezer and he caught the wrong end of the backlash. People were believing what he was portraying and singing about, and that wasn’t necessarily him!RM) Did Sham 69 dance a bit to close the flame? They could be perceived as “rabble rousing”, if you like.
Ron) They were looking for something to hang their stick on, if you like. The Pistols found it in one. Joe Strummer looked around with The Clash and thought about it and did it, you know. The Jam done it through their potent mix of soul and punk, and I think Jimmy Pursey thought he’d go with the hard boys in the East End. The skinheads, and the mobsters and the ruffians, you know. RM) Musically, Sham 69 were similar to the Pistols…
Ron) Yeah, closer than some. I liked Sham 69, they were alright. I think Pursey is another guy who hung his hat somewhere, and that hat got on the wrong peg.

RM) How fast did Punk spread throughout 1977?
Ron) Well, it got going in ’76. The Wycombe Punks, because they had me to promote at the Nags Head, got their first Sex Pistols gig there on September 3rd, which was actually 3 weeks before the 100 Club Festival. They were on the case really early. In ’76, Wycombe and the surrounding towns were full of Punks. By the end of that year, they even had a black Punk in Wycombe, a guy called Marmite. He had black hair, with a silver zigzag stripe in it. By ’77, it was all up and running everywhere. By January or February 1977 almost everyone under the age of 18 or 19 was a Punk.RM) When did the press really get hold of it?
Ron) Then. But they were on to it before the Bill Grundy Show, the Punk Festival was before that show and from then it was just….you know. I used to get phone calls, from NBC and CBS in America asking if anything’s going on, or coming off, could you let us know.
RM) That’s odd, being as the Americans claim to have invented Punk!
Ron) They were a year or two ahead. It’s like most things. It’s like the Blues. We had to take the Blues back to America for White America to know about it. Cream, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, those sort of people. RM) America’s too big and too diverse. It couldn’t host youth movements like Punk and 2-Tone.Ron) No. It had to come from somewhere else. I mean, in New York it was a club scene, in Britain it was a national scene. RM) What did you think of those American bands?Ron) Some of them were really good. I didn’t think New York Dolls were as good as bands like Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. They were probably the best Punk band I ever saw, actually.
RM) And Blondie?
Ron) Well, Blondie. The bass player, Nigel was a guy from the Nags Head. Tigger, we used to call him. That was his name round Wycombe. He played at the Nags Head before he was in Blondie. I’ve got to say that Tigger and Blondie didn’t get on. Maybe she fancied him, and he didn’t fancy her!

RM) He would’ve been the only British male in the late ‘70’s who didn’t, then?!
Ron) Perhaps he knew something we didn’t!RM) Back to the serious stuff, Ron. The Clash flew to Belfast, had some nice photos taken near some barricades and murals. Then they flew home. No gigs played. What do you think about all that?
Ron) Well, it’s up to them. Sometimes, promotional events can take over. You can be wise after the event, it might have sounded like a good thing at the time. Who knows, I mean, it might have been sincere. I didn’t see them as a band who had very political motives outside of the publicity. I’m not saying they didn’t have a heart, but sometimes publicity sows a life of its own, you know.RM) If they’d played, this would never have been an issue with people over the years.
Ron) No, but they would do benefits and things, R.A.R, and one just before Joe died, for a fireman’s benefit. RM) It’s ironic. The Pistols and Strummer/Jones last gigs in England were both strike fund benefits. And the Pistols, apparently, never cashed their cheque from that Christmas Day one.
Ron) I wasn’t a party to any of that, but yeah, that was a good gesture. A lesson. A guy came down to interview me, and he lived near Joe Strummer. Lived in the same village and he was a long time journalist. He said that he thought that Joe Strummer had a lot of heart, and it was very typical of him that he’d go out and do a benefit as The Clash, but commercially would only do The Mescalero’s.

RM) Back to the Pistols, now Ron. What was their early live sound like?
Ron) I’ll tell you something now that I’ve never told anybody before. Musically, when the Pistols started, I thought that they were, or sounded like, a youth club heavy metal band. Not the songs, or the vocals, or even the presentation but the actual sound of the band. It wasn’t a weak sound, but it wasn’t particularly pokey. Within three months, they’d perked it up a lot.
RM) How big an influence was Dave Goodman to their sound?
Ron) He brought a lot of stuff to them. He gave them a lot of advice. He’d make them sound a lot more pokey, he’d get them to do things. I spent a lot of time with Dave Goodman, as when you’re a promoter, you’re there to open it up. And Dave used to arrive early, you know, he’d arrive at four in the afternoon. I’d give him a hand in with some of the gear, and we’d spend some time together as we’d be the only ones there for a couple of hours. I’d be answering the phone and stuff, doing other things like that, but I got to know that guy. He never actually spoke to me about Punk. He mentioned the Pistols, but he never actually spoke about the Punk movement. I wish I’d recorded all those conversations!RM) Did you always fill the 100 Club?
Ron) Well, after the first couple of months, it filled out, yeah. I mean, the Pistols didn’t pull a crowd for about their first six gigs. We’re talking about 50 – 80 people, the Bromley Contingent and a few interested parties!

RM) Some people must’ve come in to watch the Pistols out of curiosity? Maybe just walking by the club, then deciding to see what was going on in there, and finding their lives would never be quite the same again?
Ron) Yeah, I think that younger people who come down to see it would change. They’d come down the first night with long hair and flares, and by the third night they’d seen them they’d come down in drainpipes and Punk haircut, you know?

RM) What about the other clubs, Ron, like the Roxy?
Ron) Went to the Roxy, yes, many times. It was a bit of a pokey hole actually. The Roxy didn’t last long. The Vortex I went to. The stories I used to hear about that place! It was more of a disco crowd, actually. Rent-a-Punk, you know? It wasn’t for the faint hearted, not very savoury! RM) Did you get to read many of the fanzines?
Ron) Yeah, I did. I used to see them all. We had one out in the Home Counties called the Buckshee Press, which is a piss take of the Bucks Free Press, of course there was Sniffin’ Glue, we used to see that at the 100 Club all the time. There were others, too, I came across them all over the place, actually, some of them were just one issue, you know, and just a couple of pages.RM) Did you know Mark Perry and the music hacks the time?
Ron) Yeah, I knew Mark. Caroline Coon, too. Caroline has been very kind to me in her books, and things, you know. In fact she blamed me, or congratulated me for the whole of Punk in one of them, special thanks to Ron Watts, and that’s nice! Caroline was the first dedicated journalist who wanted to see Punk happen. And, I’m glad in a way that it happened for her, too, because she put her money on the table, you know? Same as I did. She ran that Release thing, which got all the hippies out of jail for cannabis. She was ahead of her time, I mean seriously, you can’t lock someone up for 6 months for smoking cannabis! RM) Changing tack again, Ron. What did you think of Malcolm Mclaren?
Ron) I like Malcolm personally. No doubt, you know, I’m not just saying that. On first impressions he looked like an Edwardian gentleman. He’d got that off to a tee, I’d never seen anyone look like him, actually. I never had any bad dealings with him, and he was always very straightforward.RM) People either loved or loathed Mclaren. John Lydon isn’t a fan.
Ron) Yeah, I think it was more of a financial thing, but I mean, John Lydon should also remember that without Mclaren he probably wouldn’t have been in them. Mclaren set the scene going, I was the first to pick it up, from that, before recording deals, but he never stuffed me like he stuffed the record companies. They made a lot of money, initially.RM) Did the record companies drop the band so willingly because it was Jubilee year?
Ron) Well, the Pistols were full on and did it. I mean, “God Save The Queen” become one of the biggest selling British hit singles, didn’t it? It’s still selling now! And they wouldn’t let it on the shelves, would they. Bless ‘em! RM) You were on the legendary ’77 boat trip up the Thames, when the Pistols played and Mclaren got arrested. What was that like?
Ron) It was lovely! You should’ve been there, honestly. The band were ok, they just did their normal gig. I enjoyed seeing people that you wouldn’t expect, talking to each other. When you’ve got the boss of Virgin, that business empire, talking to Sid Vicious, can you imagine what sort of conversation they had?! I’d loved to have taken a tape recorder in there! RM) Do you think the police raid on the boat was planned?
Ron) I tell you what, I was amazed at that. I was actually on deck, and the boat was going downstream, back towards Westminster Pier. The Pistols were playing, and it got a bit jostley. You know, a bit of charging about in a small space ‘cause it wasn’t very big, the boat, really. So, I went out on to the deck by the railings, and a couple of other people come and joined me. There was plenty of food and drink, and I had a beer and a chicken leg or something, you know. And I’m looking and I can see these two police boats, and they were a way off. Downstream, I could see two more police boats, and they were a way off, too. I carried on eating the chicken and drinking the beer, looked round, and they were all there, together, at the same time! I mean, the degree of professionalism was just amazing! And then they were on that boat, in force, like about twelve or fifteen coppers, in moments. The boat was quite high sided, but they were up there. And you know what they were doing, they were up there and on that boat and we were escorted into the Westminster Pier basin.RM) Then Mclaren was nicked. Do you reckon he did just enough to get the publicity of an arrest without being charged with anything serious?
Ron) I saw that. He got a lot of press out of it, yeah. He knew. Everybody turned to me, to try and sort it all out. One of them was a Countess!
RM) Ron, you mentioned that no other bands were on the boat. Was there a real rivalry between these new bands at the time?
Ron) The Jam were the young upstarts according to the Pistols, you know. The Clash were their biggest rivals at the time. The Damned, they had no time for.RM) Why don’t The Damned get their due credit? In my opinion, they should.
Ron) I don’t know. A lot of people say they’re just a Punk cocktail act. You don’t see a lot about them, and yet they were the first to get a single out and they could play. Scabies could play. Brian James come up brilliant, but then he’d have done anything, if they’d have asked him to join Led Zeppelin he’d have done that, and Captain (Sensible), well I like Captain.RM) Buzzcocks were, from what I’ve heard on bootlegs, a bit rough to start with. They really hit a rich seam once they got up and running.
Ron) If the Buzzcocks could make it, anybody could. I wasn’t impressed, really. But what’s in the future’s in the future, you never know what is at the time. They blossomed.

RM) And Magazine? Did you rate them?
Ron) Yeah, I did. Brilliant guitarist, John McGeoch. And Penetration, they were a good band, and X-Ray Spex.

RM) Which bands are you the most pleased to have seen play?
Ron) Well, I mean, it’s all of them. But where do you start?! Alright, the Pistols and The Clash, definitely, yeah. The Jam – pleased to see them anywhere, anytime. I did enjoy the Damned at an early stage, but they’re not in the top 5. And Sham 69, and The Heartbreakers.RM) I heard “Pretty Vacant” on the radio in my car earlier today, and I got the old goose bumps. Does any of the music from that time affect you the same?
Ron) All the early Pistols stuff, yeah!RM) What’s your view on Punk and Reggae getting married?
Ron) Yeah, if people want to get together and cross pollinate ideas, then that’s alright. It was the underbelly, twice. You had the white working class and the black working class responding to each other at last! RM) Some Punk bands who had a go at playing Reggae were better than others. Ruts, SLF and of course The Clash all cracked it in their own styles…
Ron) The worst Reggae act I ever saw, were The Slits. Actually, probably just the worst act! RM) Do you think that Punk and Reggae blending in ’77 was the root of Two Tone?
Ron) Yes. I’m sure it came out of that. I used to have a lot of Reggae acts on in that club, aside from Punk and the Blues and everything. I’d put on Steele Pulse, or an American Blues artist like Muddy Waters, as long as it was what I liked.
RM) Your best front men and women?
Ron) I’m thinking about this one…The best oddball front man was Wayne County. Best front woman, from what I saw, Faye Fife.RM) You rate Faye Fife over Poly Styrene?Ron) You’re putting me on the spot there! I’d put them equal for different reasons. Faye used to put on a great act. They were perennially at the club and at the Nags Head. Because I had so many venues, when they were coming down again, I needed to know, because that’s three bookings to give them. It was always like, “get your diary out, mate, when you coming down?” If I gave them three bookings, they’d come down, and they could fill it out with other stuff, do the rounds. X-Ray Spex were good, too. Really good band. The Rezillos are still going, actually. RM) I watched a documentary on TV the other night about that Stiff Records tour. The one where they hired a train from BR.
Ron) They did the first night for me, at High Wycombe, yeah. There were some funny people there! Wreckless Eric was at the Punk thing I did in Blackpool this year. It took me about an hour to recognise him. I kept looking and looking and vaguely remembered him. Not a nice bloke. RM) Here’s the last one, Ron. Punk lit a fuse for many people. I’m one (albeit two years late), the other people who contributed questions to this interview are others and there’s millions more. As Ed Armchair puts it, his fuse is still burning to this day, and has affected virtually every aspect of his life since it was lit. Do you have the same feelings about Punk as we do?
Ron) Yes. I got going through that and it still survives. My first love in music was, and is, Blues. I see a lot of similarities between Punk and Blues. They both come from the underbelly of a society, and they’ve both triumphed against all the odds. They both spoke for their people of that time and place. They’ll reverberate forever. Punk freshened up a stale music scene and the Blues were the bedrock for twentieth and twenty-first century music.RM) Ron, thanks for your time and best of luck with your new projects.END

Posted on December 27, 2019January 30, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Modern Rap, The New Punk Rock attitude

There are few things more exhilarating than being stuck in the middle of a mosh pit during a JPEGMAFIA show.

On stage at this year’s Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, the 30-year-old US rapper’s topless body, dripping with sweat, contorts urgently as he channels the aggression of the crowd into brutal bursts of movement that sit somewhere between an intoxicated Iggy Pop and an irate DMX.

The big picture: punks and skinheads in harmony against Racism

The big picture: punks and skins in harmony against Racism, a point very rarely spoken about, especially when the name skinhead gets involved

The big picture Photography The photographer who captured the spirit of punk has released a book of her most arresting portraits

Black and white image of four young white men in leather jackets and ripped jeans sitting on steps smiling one with arm round the other. — Punks and Skins on the Steps, taken in Coventry in 1980. Photograph: Janette Beckman

If they weren’t a band, they should have been. Janette Beckman, who chronicled the early years of punk in the UK, took this photograph in Coventry in 1980. She had by then made her name on Melody Maker, with pictures of the Clash on tour and the Sex Pistols in a skip; she caught the moment when Paul Weller first met Pete Townshend, one modfather to another; she made the Police’s first album cover; she assembled the Specials on Southend pier.

Beckman, who grew up in north London, had left London College of Printing and walked into Sounds magazine one afternoon in 1977 with her student portfolio. She was immediately dispatched to photograph Siouxsie and the Banshees and never looked back.

She was as likely to turn her camera on the audience and the streets as on the stage and the tour bus. In those years the boundaries between music and art and style seemed unusually porous. Punk was above all an “irrepressible attitude” she has suggested of that moment. “It was about change, the idea that people should question authority and do it for themselves.”

The four lads in this picture capture that spirit. They have put thought into how they look but are not striking poses. The picture is included in a short monograph of Beckman’s work of that time, which also includes images of Sid Vicious’s funeral procession and the Saturday afternoon punks of King’s Road, Chelsea. In 1982, after the edge of that attitude had given way to the posturing of the new romantics, Beckman moved to New York, where she took similarly iconic pictures of pioneer hip-hop artists and their followers. “People were really happy to be photographed back then,” she says. “As it didn’t happen very often.”

Janette Beckman’s Raw Punk Streets UK 1979-1982(Café Royal Books, £6) is available atcaferoyalbooks.com

Posted on June 2, 2019January 30, 2020 by admin — 2 Comments

Getting to know my mother, punk icon Poly Styrene of Xray Spex

By Celeste Bell CULTURE GAL-DEM MUSIC 21st May 2019

My mother is the late British punk icon Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, better known as Poly Styrene. Before I came into the picture, she had been a leading figure in the UK punk scene as the first woman of colour to lead a punk band, X-Ray Spex. And, she was one of the first black women in rock in the UK. I had known this but didn’t fully comprehend the extent of her role as the creative force behind the band’s success. That isn’t the version of her that features in all my earliest memories.

What I remember is the warmth of her lap, the late night baths in the kitchen sink and the songs she sang to me before I slept. So many songs. Some were borrowed, most were her own. There was rarely a moment when mum wasn’t singing, writing, or creating. At times I was jealous of her art. She would sit at her little desk channeling her creative energy, while I wondered where ‘mummy’ had gone. My nan would come to visit and tell her off for leaving me to my own devices. I was half dressed with unbrushed hair, causing chaos in the kitchen cupboards while my mother was lost in her own world. When I complained that I was bored, she sent me off with some paper and crayons, telling me boredom was merely the consequence of an unimaginative mind. Mum often struggled to reconcile her art with her duties as a mother, and sometimes I resented her lack of presence when she was in the zone. Creative people don’t always make the best parents.

Celeste Bell, Daughter of Poly Styrene sings with her band Debutante Disco at The Roundhouse London 2008 Supporting Xray Spex

But, when she died in 2011, shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer that had already spread to her bones, I was inconsolable. As an only child, I was suddenly entrusted with my mother’s legacy. It was a position I had never imagined I would find myself in such a young age. I had boxes of her belongings that I was not ready to open. Alongside the boxes was a small vase containing her ashes, waiting to be scattered in India’s holy Yamuna river – as a devout Hare Krishna devotee, this was her only dying wish. It would take me several years to take the ashes to India. Even longer to open those boxes. Three years ago I began long the long process of archiving her artwork, lyrics, poems and diary entries. After so many years spent grieving the loss of my mother, this helped me to reconnect with her once again and discover a part of her life I had only known through stories, her life as Poly Styrene.

Through the archival process, I was able to piece together a snapshot of that artistically prolific period in her life. Not only did she write all the lyrics to the songs on the highly acclaimed album Germ-Free Adolescents, but she also created all the artwork for the band herself. This was a woman who took Punk’s DIY ethic to a level beyond that of most of her contemporaries, and she did it all as a working-class teenager whose formal education ended at the age of 15 when she dropped out of school and ran away from home.

My mother created X-Ray Spex as a musical vehicle for her alter-ego who she saw as a kind of plastic punky princess living in a dystopian future somewhat reminiscent of Huxley’s A Brave New World. She was inspired by postmodernism, science-fiction, and television advertisements. In songs such as ‘Genetic Engineering’, ‘The Day The World Turned Day Glo’ and ‘Arti-i-ficial’ she describes a synthetic, scientifically enhanced world where nature has retreated and consumerism is the state religion. An astute prophecy. While in others she is brashy. “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard. But I say… Oh Bondage! Up yours!” she sings in the now iconic punk single from 1977.

“After so many years spent grieving the loss of my mother, this helped me to reconnect with her once again and discover a part of her life I had only known through stories”

On my journey to memorialise her, I have co-authored Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story alongside writer Zoe Howe, which was published by Omnibus Press last month. Originally intended as a coffee table style art-book to showcase my mother’s visual artwork and writings, it has evolved into the definitive story of her life and work. Shortly after embarking on the book project we joined forces with Invisible Britain director Paul Sng on a documentary film, Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché.

As I reconstructed my view of who my mother was, it became clear that exhibiting her archive was the final piece of the jigsaw. Identity! A Poly Styrene Retrospective, which is currently showing, is the first exhibit of my mother’s work. It lays bear her status as a hugely significant yet under appreciated multidisciplinary artist. 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning is one of the only art spaces originally established to champion the work of African, Caribbean and Asian artists. And, the location was also significant as Brixton was where my mother had spent her formative years.

It took a year to plan and organise, but Mattie Loyce and I have put together an exciting program of events. I’m really looking forward to the Identity! Weekender on 1 June, which explores her legacy through panels and an evening of music curated by the DIY punks of colour festival Decolonise Fest. The program of events involves people who knew Poly, like Youth who produced her last album Generation Indigo. They’re joined by artists who found inspiration in her work such as Melodie Holiday, artist and lead singer of Art Trip and the Static Sound, and creatives who are continuing her DIY and radical legacy today like black feminist punk Big Joanie.

I am nowhere near the end of the journey I embarked on three years ago. The documentary project has taken a lot longer than I had initially envisaged. The stress of my first foray into filmmaking has at times had me questioning why I ever got myself into such an endeavour in the first place.

Ironically, now I understand the all-encompassing reality of trying to bring your creative ideas to life. Seeing my mother’s art exhibited in a gallery, art that had been lying in unopened boxes for so long, has been truly rewarding and therapeutic. The sense of achievement and overwhelmingly positive reactions to her work tells me that this journey has been worthwhile.

Identity! A Poly Styrene Retrospective will be exhibited at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning until 7 June. Find out more here.

Posted on September 30, 2013January 29, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

OI Music

Wikipedia version of Oi!

Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths (sometimes called herberts).

The Oi! movement was partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, “trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic…and losing touch”. André Schlesinger, singer of The Press, said, “Oi shares many similarities with folk music, besides its often simple musical structure; quaint in some respects and crude in others, not to mention brutally honest, it usually tells a story based in truth.”

History

Oi! became a recognized genre in the latter part of the 1970s, emerging after the perceived commercialization ofpunk rock, and before the soon-to-dominate hardcore punk sound. It fused the sounds of early punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, The Clash, and The Jam with influences from 1960s British rock bands such asThe Rolling Stones, the Small Faces, and The Who, football chants, pub rock bands such as Dr. Feelgood, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and The 101ers, and glam rock bands such as Slade and Sweet. First generation Oi! bands such as Sham 69 and Cock Sparrer were around for years before the word Oi! was used retrospectively to describe their style of music.

In 1980, writing in Sounds magazine, rock journalist Garry Bushell labelled the movement Oi!, taking the name from the garbled “Oi!” that Stinky Turner of Cockney Rejects used to introduce the band’s songs. The word is an old Cockney expression, meaning hey or hello. In addition to Cockney Rejects, other bands to be explicitly labeled Oi! in the early days of the genre included Angelic Upstarts, The 4-Skins, The Business, Blitz, The Blood, and Combat 84.

The prevalent ideology of the original Oi! movement was a rough brand of working-class rebellion. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers’ rights, harassment by police and other authorities, and oppression by the government. Oi! songs also covered less-political topics such as street violence, football, sex, and alcohol. Although Oi! has come to be considered mainly a skinhead-oriented genre, the first Oi! bands were composed mostly of punk rockers and people who fit neither the skinhead nor punk label.

After the Oi! movement lost momentum in the United Kingdom, Oi! scenes formed in continental Europe, North America, and Asia. Soon, especially in the United States, the Oi! phenomenon mirrored the hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s, with Oi!-influenced bands such as Agnostic Front, Iron Cross, Anti Heros. Later American punk bands such as Rancid and Dropkick Murphys have credited Oi! as a source of inspiration. In the mid-1990s, there was a revival of interest in Oi! music in the UK, leading to older Oi! bands receiving more recognition. In the 2000s, many of the original UK Oi! bands reunited to perform and/or record. The song T.N.T. by hard rock bandAC/DC features the interjection at the start and in various parts throughout the song.

Association with far extremist politics

Strength Thru Oi!, with its notorious image of British Movement activist and felon Nicky Crane

Some fans of Oi! were involved in white nationalist organisations such as the National Front (NF) and the British Movement (BM), leading some critics to identify the Oi! scene in general as racist. However, none of the bands associated with the original Oi! scene promoted racism in their lyrics. Some Oi! bands, such as the Angelic Upstarts,The Burial, and The Oppressed were associated with left wing politicsand anti-racism. The white power skinhead movement had developed its own music genre called Rock Against Communism, which had musical similarities to Oi!, but was not connected to the Oi! scene. Timothy S. Brown identifies a deeper connection: Oi!, he writes “played an important symbolic role in the politicization of the skinhead subculture. By providing, for the first time, a musical focus for skinhead identity that was ‘white’—that is, that had nothing to do with the West Indian immigrant presence and little obvious connection with black musical roots—Oi! provided a musical focus for new visions of skinhead identity [and] a point of entry for a new brand of right-wing rock music.”

Rightly or wrongly,The mainstream media especially associated Oi! with far right politics following a concert by The Business, The 4-Skins, and The Last Resort on 4 July 1981 at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall. Local Asian youths threw Molotov cocktails and other objects, mistakenly believing that the concert was a neo-Nazi event, partly because some audience members had written National Front slogans around the area. Although some of the skinheads were NF or BM supporters, among the 500 or so concert-goers were also left-wing skinheads, black skinheads, punk rockers, rockabillies, and non-affiliated youths. Five hours of rioting left 120 people injured—including 60 police officers—and the tavern burnt down. In the aftermath, many Oi! bands condemned racism and fascism.

These denials, however, were met with cynicism from some quarters because of the Strength Thru Oi!compilation album, released in May 1981. Not only was its title a play on a Nazi slogan—”Strength Through Joy“—but the cover featured Nicky Crane, a skinhead BM activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Critic Garry Bushell, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on The Skids‘ album Strength Through Joy, and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album’s cover until it was exposed by the Daily Mail two months later. Bushell, a socialist at the time, noted the irony of being branded a far right activist by a newspaper that “had once supported Oswald Mosley‘s Blackshirts, Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia, and appeasement with Hitler right up to the outbreak of World War Two.”

Another subsequent source for the popular association between Oi! and a racist or far-right creed was the bandSkrewdriver. Lead singer Ian Stuart Donaldson was recruited by the National Front—which had failed to enlist any actual Oi! bands—and reconstituted Skrewdriver as a white power skinhead act. While the band shared visual and musical attributes with Oi!, Bushell asserts, “It was totally distinct from us. We had no overlap other than a mutual dislike for each other.” Donaldson and Crane would later go on to found a magazine, Blood and Honour, and a street-orientated ‘skinhead’ club of the same name that arranged concerts for Skrewdriver and other racist bands such as No Remorse. Demonstrating the ongoing conflation of Oi! with the white power skinhead movement by some observers, the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations refers to these groups as “‘white noise’ and ‘oi’ racist bands”.

List of Oi! bands

Posted on December 27, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Bashing the Mods

It was a Sunny bank holiday Monday, early 80s , the early birds were gathering on Gt Yarmouth seafront …..we were just having a little wander seeing who was about and looking forward to some beers later and generally making our presence felt all day….so when we came across a small group of Mods I decided to have a go ,unfortunately for HIM I had brogues on which meant each kick would’ve hurt twice as much Bless him I gave him a right kicking and eventually he managed to runaway crying …….. a footnote to this story is that 30 years later I met my partner Drewy and one day quite out of the blue he says …I’ve just remembered a small blonde skinhead girl kicking shit out of a Mod on Britainia pier one bank holiday ….was that you ??? he was such an event he had stored it in his archive

Sindy Aldershot Skingirl

1965 in Aldershot Hampshire
Ashill, a rural village in norfolk ..the only skinhead in the village
In 1978
seemed to be overlooked as a kid and never got credit for doing well always felt that I didnt belong so became a Skinhead to fit in with the kids Id met in Newmarket when I visited my sister ….they took me in accepted me as one of them …before long was skipping schools to go to Newmarket 38 miles from where I lived …I accepted the rebel role it gave me an identity
originally it was two tone and oi ..but progressed to Trojan ….although these days I prefer Northern soul
highpoint ?? being part of something finally fitting in.
Low point, realising my glue habit had taken over and that I was wasting away.

Posted on December 14, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Indonesia Punks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on December 14, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Infa Riot

STILL OUT OF ORDER!

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

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

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

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

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

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Posted on November 25, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Mexico

Mexico

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to Daisy Uribe, aka Jamaican Jukebox

If you heading for the sun stop off in Mexico City

Posted on October 22, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Cockney Rejects

Cockney Rejects Biography.

The Cockney Rejects were formed in 1978 in London’s East End by Jeff Turner and Micky Geggus. Fueled by their love of old-school punk and seventies rock, they recruited then brother-in-law Chris Murrell on bass and Paul Harvey on drums.

Their first demo, ‘Flares n’ slippers’ caught the attention of small wonder records supremo Pete Stennett who put them into the studio with producer Bob Sergeant to record the song as a single with ‘I wanna be a star’ on the b-side.

The single was a huge success which sold out its’ initial pressing and went on to figure prominently in the indie charts for months.

Realising that the original line up was only ever going to be temporary, they recruited 21 year old Vince Riordan on bass, who in turn brought in drummer Andy Scott from fellow East End band The Tickets, and the ‘classic’ line up debuted at their regular haunt the Bridge house in Canning Town in June ’79 supporting the Little Roosters and life was never the same after that!

As the press went potty and so did the punters, so the record deal offers came flooding in and in September ’79 the band signed with EMI after which the classic ‘Greatest hits Vol.1’ was released in Febuary 1980.

Not a band to rest on its’ laurels, in between touring the U.K the band found time to record ‘Greatest hits Vol. 2’ which was released in October of that year, and had two hit singles with ‘The greatest Cockney Ripoff’ and ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ which celebrated the fact that their beloved West Ham United had reached the F.A cup final that year.

Unfortunately at that time the band were beginning to be associated with the burgeoning football hooligan movement that had arisen in Britain at that time, and because of their unabashed association with West Ham united, battles with rival factions at gigs effectively ended the band as a touring unit, and when then GLC supremo Ken Livingstone slapped a totally uncalled for London- wide ban on them (there was never any trouble in London!) the band seemed doomed.

A hastily-arranged live album ‘Greatest hits Vol 3’ was released in March 1981 and from then on the band went in to ‘Beatles’ mode and only released records. Shaping their sledgehammer sound into a more refined beast, the band released ‘The power and the Glory’ in August 1981, and after leaving EMI after 4 albums they released the full-on metal ‘Wild Ones’ on the NEMS label in September 1982.

At that point Vince decided to leave the band, and the remaining three incorporated bass player Ian Campbell for 1984’s ‘Quiet Storm’ which was released on the Heavy Metal records label, which was voted by Kerrang! Magazine the fifth best release of the year, alongside such greats as Deep Purple and Aerosmith.

However, the boys missed Vince and decided to call it a day, only briefly reuniting for the hard rock ‘Lethal’ album on Neat records which was released in April 1990, after which they went their separate ways again.

However, nine years later, interest in the band was awoken by young American bands such as Rancid, green Day and Blink 182 who cited the Rejects as major influences and after a Levi’s ad featured ‘Im not a fool’ Rejects mania seemed to be in full swing and demand for the band to reform, record and play live again reached fever pitch.

With Vince retired from the rock business, Mick asked his old friend from Sunderland’s Red alert Tony Van Frater to join the band on bass, and Tony in turn brought in Andrew ‘Lainey’ Laing on drums, and they recorded an album of Rejects covers called, well well well, ‘Greatest hits Vol.4’ which was released on the Rhythm vicar label in November 1999.

The new line-up also clicked fabulously live, and sell out tour followed sell out tour all over the world, and they released a new album, ‘Out of the Gutter’ in June 2002.

They followed that up with the mighty ‘Unforgiven’ which was released on G&R London in June 2007, and have gone from strength to strength ever since, playing to packed houses the world over with high energy shows which literally take the breath away and show the youngsters how it really SHOULD be done!

In May 2010 they realized a lifetime’s dream and played ‘Bubbles’ to 25000 people at West Ham’s ground in support of their friend Kevin Mitchell on his world title challenge to Michael Katsidis.

The boys are currently writing new material for their forthcoming 10th studio album, as well as working on the forthcoming documentary about the band, ‘East End Babylon’ which is due for release in 2011.

What with all this and new tours being planned all the time, it really is time for everybody to Join the Rejects…….And this time, nobody gets themselves killed!

Posted on October 22, 2011January 30, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Other Subculture Websites to check out

England

http://punk.meetup.com/

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

http://www.captainoi.com/

http://www.rebellionfestivals.com/

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

http://johnrobb77.wordpress.com/

Brazil

http://skarevolution69.wordpress.com/

Scotland

He-who-cannot-be-named Interview

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

France

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

Germany

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

czech

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

Sweden

http://www.kjellhell.se/

usa

http://www.mohawksrock.com/

Posted on October 17, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

The Last Resort

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

* Kindly added by

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

Posted on October 11, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Antipati

Antipati is:

Radar – Vocals & Guitar

Robban – Vocals & Guitar

Pelle – Vocals & Bass

Johan – Drums

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

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

Posted on September 11, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Peter and the Test Tube Babies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on August 14, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Feathercut, Skinhead Girls Kissing

My name Danna but in Los Angeles people know me as DJ Lady Busty Brown. This pic was taken at Rocksteady lounge by Robert old hardcore dude and the redhead is my best friend squeeks from Los Angeles.

Posted on July 26, 2011January 27, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

Buenos Aires Punk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where were you in 1988?

Submitted by Mariano, Argentina

Posted on June 27, 2011January 29, 2020 by admin — Leave a comment

The Griswalds

“Amazing, The Griswalds are what got me interested in Rock & Roll”
– Elvis Presley!

“To me they are the greatest band in the world”
– Mick Jagger!

“I always wanted to be an astronaut, but after seeing The Griswalds I knew what I had to do”
– Charles Manson!

These are just a few of the things that have NEVER been said about The Griswalds, but what can we say about these lovable rogues of psychobilly?

The band was formed in 1987 by 4 likeminded musicians who just wanted to make music and have a laugh. Now 24 years later, the band is still going strong with all the original members (apart from 3 and 1 extra guy).
Over the years, Gary Griswald has seen many people join and leave the band, mostly leave, and is now currently enjoying the company of 4 young duchies.
Accompanied by Ramone Griswald on Bass, Joost Griswald and Simon Griswald on Guitars and Erik Griswald on Drums, the band are currently in the process of recording a follow up album to ‘Who Framed The Griswalds’ which the band released back in 1989.
Asked recently about the new members of the band, Gary Griswald said “I’m just happy that they have the same surname as me”, When prompted for further quotes the singer just mumbled and held his hand out asking “do you wanna buy a big issue”
Now in 2011 and the bands 24th year in existence it is safe to say that they have never been busier, they will be touring Brazil and playing many festivals all over the world. So hopefully if you are in the vicinity of one of these shows, why don’t you pop along and see for yourselves what all the fuss is about, then maybe you can tell me!!