Fighting In The Dancehall

Our Pride is Our Loyalty: Right-Wing Post 1980

White Supremacy in a Once Racially United Culture

The ever-increasing hostilities between skinheads and authorities were driving the Oi scene to anything that opposed them. The skinheads and punks that formed the scene were anti-police and authority but at the same time they were proud British people. This culture that was passionately patriotic and yet so disgruntled by their country became a perfect platform for radical right wing/white supremacist political parties to spread their message.

There has always been racism in music, sport and anything else that involves different races of people. “Between 1969 and 1971 Britain’s Asian population, especially young people, came on the receiving end of racist violence meted out by gangs of skinheads. This violent activity was known as ‘paki bashing’ and some cases lead to racist murder”[1] A small minority of skinheads at the time took part in racial abuse, though considering the time in which the attacks took place, skinhead fashion was one of the more popular trends for youths in Britain and therefore for many of the attackers; being a skinhead was just a phase that would soon subside. As the skinhead scene had evolved from Mods and rudeboys in the mid 1960s some skinheads were black which eradicates any white supremacist actions but does add to the bad press the 1960’s skinheads received along with football hooliganism. Journalist Ian Walker wrote about a football match in 1968, commenting on the skinheads attending; “They looked like an army, and after the game, went into action like one”[2] The skinheads were gaining a bad reputation for violence and it is a reputation that has never left them, however; it is impossible that every skinhead was a ‘paki basher’ or a hooligan and as always it was the ones who made themselves noticed by choice who brought the others down with them.

As the skinhead culture became quiet in the early to late 70s there was still violence in football as there had always been and racism was still occurring around the country, even the police were accused being racist towards black and Asian citizens. Skinheads gained a bad name from their actions, while police officer’s indiscretions were not as widely reported. By the time Punk culture had begun in the mid to late 1970s it is no wonder that British youths were anti-police. The fact that skinheads were working classes, they may have also felt unfairly accused in comparison to the police. “Class was a major factor in skinhead thinking. They hated bosses, the rich and the middle class”[3] partly due to the more privileged members of society giving a worse name to a ‘bad’ group of people. This judgment would in turn create a backlash from skinheads who felt their punishment for committed crimes was unfair in contrast with police and also those who were being grouped as a nuisance simply due to the skinhead image and no behavioral recklessness.

In the mid 1970s the hate towards ‘the system’ was turning the skinheads against Britain; the country they were so proud to be a part of. The growing hate towards authority and police in particular was driving the skinheads to seek alternative acceptance, somewhere they felt they could help restore Britain to its ‘former’ glory. Where better to appeal to a proud group of British people who felt change was necessary, the Oi scene. This sub-genre of punk had always been associated with heavy aggression, raw brutality and adoring patriotism and fraction of the skinhead scene had found an answer to their countries problems in the National Front. The skinheads had something they could believe in and the National Front had an intimidating and willing to fight army behind it.

As some skinheads started putting their actions and faith into right wing politics like the National Front and British Movement there was uproar within the skinhead scene. The majority of skinheads were none, or anti-racist and this caused alienation within the skinhead scene. The skinheads who affiliated themselves with these political organizations were anti-black, anti-Jew and it went further to the lengths of also condemning homosexual people. The right-wing skinhead scene was rapidly becoming a neo-Nazi society in Britain. Garry Bushell mentions, “It would be fair to surmise that whichever political side ruled the streets in any area, also ruled the skins”[4] This shows that the left-wing nickname for right-wing skins; ‘Boneheads’ is suitable due to their lack of free thinking. “Many other skins that were members of NF or BM knew so little about the policies of the organizations, apart from their views of immigration”[5], this re-enforces the arguments that ‘boneheads’ knew nothing about politics and just fancied getting into fights whenever they could. Though the greater part of skinhead culture did not turn to the National Front, the ignorant minority who did were once again representing the scene in a bad light, much like the 1960s football hooligans. Examples of information about Nazi skins read “Filling out the format was ‘Oi’ music, which meant the threatening sound of White Power”[6] While this website is extremely informative, it condemns the Oi scene as a whole until reaching a disclaimer at the bottom in small text.

By the mid 1980s the right-wing skinhead scene was larger than ever, with an international following. 1987 marked the founding of far right organization ‘Blood and Honor’ founded by infamous and renowned skinhead Ian Stuart Donaldson, front man of possibly the most well known pro-white power band, Skrewdriver and active member in the National Front. Blood and Honor was an underground network, created to link the politics of fascist parties with the up and coming white supremacist Oi scene. Along with Donaldson leading the British Nazi movement, was Nicky Crane who was an influential figure.  Crane had been involved with the British Movement for a number of years but by the mid to late 1980s it was barely active as far as activism was concerned. He became involved with Donaldson after being released from prison (On race related charges) and working as a roadie for Skrewdriver. Crane was a crucial member of whatever right-wing party he joined due to the fact he was feared. “Nicola Vincenzio Crane was a psychopath whose psychical appearance was that of an archetypal skinhead”[7] As far as violence and intimidation go in the skinhead scene, he was one of the worst.

Bands promoting National Front ideologies such as Skrewdriver, No Remorse, Brutal Attack and Squadron were finding it increasingly difficult to stage shows due to the nature of the music. Because of problems arising due to musical content, the National Front started ‘White Noise Records’ for white power bands to record their music and also create links within the right-ting music scene, also linking in with Blood and Honor, which was promptly growing in popularity within the scene. As time passed the National Front started to loose its following. New, younger leaders like BNP leader Nick Griffin, Patrick Harrington and Derek Holland were bringing in new ideas of a united struggle with other races of similar objectives. The National Front was now distributing Colonel Gaddafy’s ‘Green Book’, little money made from White Noise was being put back inand what was a purely white-British organization was now working with ‘the enemy’. Blood and Honor cut their ties with the National Front, though this came at the cost of yet more internal violence. Donaldson’s terminally sick mother was sent a wreath by White Noise supporters and Blood and Honor started referring to the National Front Party as the ‘Nutty Fairy Party’, supposedly due to the closet homosexuals in leading positions. Ironically Blood and Honor follower Nicky Crane was himself a homosexual, though he never ‘came out’ until less than a year before his death from AIDS in 1993. He worked as a bouncer at many gay bars in and around London.

Combat 18 (Adolf Hitler’s initials are first and eighth in the alphabet) were extremely violent organization with ties to the British Nationalist Party (and later working autonomously) The ‘organization’ “made its name in the early nineties with a series of fire bombings and psychical attacks”[8]. This group of thugs was lead by Paul Sergeant who had a long history with right-wing politics for many years and a longer list of criminal convictions. Combat 18’s main objective by the late 80s and early 90s was to gain control of Blood and Honor. Sergeant had met Chris ‘Chubby’ Henderson in the 1970s through fighting and dealing drugs as part of a Chelsea firm, The Chelsea Headhunter. Together they met Gary Hitchcock, former manager of prolific Oi outfit The 4 Skins, this is where Sergeant had learnt how profitable Blood and Honor could really be. At this time Donaldson had been closely working with German record label Rock-O-Rama to release Skrewdriver’s music and helping other bands make the trip to Germany as the skinhead scene was becoming a huge market internationally, Europe in particular. By the mid 1990s the Nazi skinhead scene had diminished, much like the skinhead in general, though much like at the end of the first skinhead period those faithful continued to dress and act like skinheads and Blood and Honor still exists, though activism is near inexistent. By the mid 90s the Nazi skinhead scene had generated millions of pound and while the scene may be silent in Britain, some European countries are still home to active Nazi skins and Russia happens to be home to the largest population of right-wing skinheads who stil participate in regular ‘paki-bashing’ and racial attacks.

Borstal Breakout: 1977-1980 

Skinhead Culture and the Punk Explosion

The genre Punk Rock began in the mid 1970s in the garages and bedrooms of teenagers. Like the skinhead culture of the 1960s this was also a predominantly white male’s culture, which does not mean women were not a part of the movement. The idea was to rebel against normal mainstream fashion, politics and ideologies and take everything to the extreme. As everyone well knows, the attitude and image punks adopted was just that. The hairstyles and safety pin piercings were at the time and are still now considered anti-fashion, but formed a new fashion in it’s own right. Artists such as the now extremely famous Iggy Pop with his band The Stooges and MC5 who are now considered ‘Proto-Punk’ were the ‘godfathers of Punk’. Many have been influenced by their personas. Iggy for example is remembered for “fighting with the audience, as opposed to his creativity and electric dynamism as a front man”[1].  This goes to show that punk was as much about attitude and image as it was about the music itself, which is one of the key elements of a punk act and the culture itself. Proto-punk acts evolved throughout the mid 1970s, punk made its biggest impact on mainstream Britain in 1977: widely recognized as the Punk Explosion. This year was to punks what 1969 meant for the skinheads.

The influence of proto-punk had obviously caught on. 1976 saw punk attitude in one of its most defining moments, The Sex Pistols appearing on British television with Bill Grundy. This interview is one of the best displays of punk attitude; swearing (when at the time this was considered extremely inappropriate) and what may be an attempt at intimidating the audience. Though, at the same time the questions being put forward to the band as well as Siouxsie Sioux could be perceived as mocking the culture in general it was an overall success in showing the British people what punk was all about. By the 1977 Punk Explosion people were ready for the punk movement and an incredible number of teenagers across the country became affiliated with punk culture. Like skinheads bad press in the 1960s punks were too becoming seen as public nuisances, an anti-social group of bored youths. The fact punk had its own image, reputation and was ‘supposed’ to be working/lower class linked it very much to the skinheads from the previous decade, in turn this created a revival of skinhead culture. The skinhead revival produced followers who were more fans of Punk rather than the soulful ska sound of the 1960s skins, but by 1979 the skinheads had made their own ways in this new era though this new direction did not entirely keep the culture united.

A record label had been founded that dealt purely with a new wave of ska. Jerry Dammers of The Specials started 2 Tone Records; it began in Coventry, which is not as an unnecessary piece of information as it may sound. “The Coventry of 1978 had the feel of a typical sixties northern town”[2] which made it perfect for a revival of 1960s culture. Along with bands such as Madness, The Selecter and Bad Manners the second wave of ska gained the name 2 Tone due to the work of the record label. This revival of ska music was an understandable hit with skinheads; it had the essential ska sound that was part of skinhead history as well as a punk DIY ethic which the revival had taken a liking to. Albums from this label such as The Specials debut and Ska’n’B by Bad Manners had a punk ethic in its political and social messages of racial equality, but had the infectious, upbeat, syncopated rhythms that made ska so enjoyable, though it must be stressed that the second wave of ska was faster than that of the 60s and had little or no influence from American rhythm and blues. 2 Tone was very much a British sub-genre.

The most vocal band in 2 Tone was The Specials. The band had the founder of 2 Tone (Jerry Dammers was the organ/keys player) and they openly spoke out against the Iron Lady, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as well as right wing political organizations such as the National Front and the British Party, evident in the songs ‘Do Nothing’ and ‘(Dawning of a) New Era’. The coming together of ska and punk had created “incredible, infectious, angry-yet-happy-at-the-same-time dance music” [3] and shaped a way of being politically active, or at least it was helping form personal opinions on things that mattered. Baring this in mind, 2 Tone wasn’t just a platform in which to provide political opinion. Bad Manners primarily wrote songs with little political influence, dance floor classics such as ‘Lip Up Fatty’ and their rendition of ‘The Can Can’ are considered a couple of ska favorites and a collection of their songs even earned them a number of appearances on television chart show Top Of The Pops in the late 70s and early 80s. Whatever the topic of song, 2 Tone gave skinheads a reason for a good ‘knees up’, which is partly how the culture began between rudeboys and Mods just over ten years beforehand.

Another reason for 2 Tone’s affiliation to the skinheads was fashion itself. In the early days of The Specials they were named ‘The Special A.K.A’ and before that they were ‘The Coventry Automatics’. By the time they went by The Special A.K.A. they had already released the single ‘Gangsters’, which borrowed its musical hook from Prince Buster’s song ‘Al Capone’. Straight away the band were emphasizing their ska roots but felt they lacked image. Guitarist Roddy Byers claimed “We all dressed in whatever we fancied: Me – Punk, Terry – Bowie-punk, Horace – student/casual”[4] The band was a group of friends compiled by their love of different kinds of music; the group was racially mixed and had many influences. Byers, goes on to say “Paul Simenon would sometimes wear a tonic suit, Dr Martens and Fred Perry, so I guess he was to blame!”[5] This would explain another link between 2 Tone and skinheads. The second wave of ska had used musical influence from the 1960s skinhead’s genre of choice and also taken the image along with the well-dressed approach, which also links into the suedehead variation of the early 1970s.

The Specials had gathered their style, reminiscent of the early skinhead and suedehead scene, but had come across the idea from Paul Simenon, bass guitarists of The Clash. Punks were therefore wearing skinhead choice brands, though not necessarily in the same fashion. This goes to show that the skinhead scene had made an impression on the punks in the 1970s. With the fashion still in place and the emergence of 2 Tone ska, the skinhead scene was ready for a comeback.

Due to the skinheads re-emerging into British social culture and supposedly not socializing with punks there was a good deal of conflict. The revival of the skinhead scene had visibly brought back the aggression from the 1960s; this went hand in hand with the bad attitude the punk scene was accumulating in bad press. The two scenes were therefore closely bound, though not closely interacting. Of course this would have given onlookers the impression that it was one culture and they couldn’t even tolerate their own peers, giving it yet more bad press. This bad representation was not something that skinheads or punks were concerned with, like the days when skinheads ruled football hooliganism. “It was time to join the lads behind the goal in your home end and be somebody”[6] As long as you were part of a gang, had your mates back and were intimidating, it didn’t matter what people thought of you. This was typical skinhead and punk attitude.

The similarities between skinheads and punks were mounting up. Uniting the two cultures was inevitably going to happen. In late 1979 (Coinciding with 2 Tone) the Oi sub-genre of punk began. This was the perfect way to unite the two similar, but conflicting scenes. The name itself told people what it was all about, a direct and aggressive name for a direct and aggressive group of punks and skinheads. The genre combined the speed and aggression of punk with football terrace chants and the British pride that the skinheads possessed. “It was about being young, working class and not taking shit from anybody. It was anti-police, anti-authority but pro-Britain too”[7] The Oi scene was punk taken to even further extremes, but this time it had the fury of the skinheads behind it. Bands affiliated with the scene were The 4 Skins, The Last Resort, The Business and the more popularly known Sham 69.  Songs such as ‘Hurry Up Harry’, ‘Hardcore Hooligan’ and ‘Plastic Gangster’ all display the Oi musical agenda: Football, Drinking and life as a working class British individual, be it good or bad.

A revivalist and chief influence in the Oi scene was ’Hoxton’ Tom McCourt, bass guitarist of The 4 Skins. Throughout the 1970s he had kept the skinhead image despite its lack of popularity, then making the transition to suedehead in early 1978. “Many disillusioned Punks as well as those who disliked the scruffy image looked back to the fifties and sixties for inspiration”[8] The fact that McCourt was a member of The 4 Skins put him in a place where he could influence and shape the image of the Oi scene. The 4 Skins became one of the favorite bands in the movement. They became so influential that most famous song is tattooed on the knuckles of many Oi fans across the country. ACAB is a common abbreviation in the scene and expresses skinheads’ feelings regarding the police. ‘All Coppers Are Bastards’ is extremely blunt in the way it attacks the police force:

“Coppers come up & say what’s the matter with you?

Now they see what we can do

Next thing I knew I was in a cell

All my mates are in there as well

ACAB, ACAB, ACAB

All coppers are bastards!”[9]

These lyrics are of course stereotyping, while vocally attacking the police. It is a perfect example of naked aggression on behalf of the Oi scene and also expresses a biased story as in a previous verse it explains the character in the song was in fact involved with a fight, which was broken up by a police officer. This love of fighting and hate for the country’s law enforcement provokes the skinheads to go even more extreme and condemn the law and find other places in which to put their beliefs.  Combining the aggression of skinheads and punks with fast, hardcore sing-a-longs, the scene made it easy for followers to pick up on song topics and due to catchy tunes made the topics extremely enjoyable. The infectious sounds of Oi chants could rally thousands of people and create political and social ideas and spread them with ease, due to this they were also open to ideas from outside parties.

Oi skins are considered amongst the most anti-social and the movement later broke into ‘hardcore punk’ (Not meaning that Oi ceased to exist). Bands such as G.B.H. and The Exploited were fast and very aggressive but had a sound more reminiscent of the 1977 punk scene. Hardcore was well received in the United States, which is where the skinhead scene began for America. Bands such as Black Flag performed songs such as ‘Police Story’, which unsurprisingly was an anti-police anthem. Needless to say the Oi, but primarily the hardcore scene was spreading internationally and therefore, so did the skinhead. Though original 1960s skinheads were still in existence in numerous countries, ‘skinhead punks’ bore little resemblance to 1960s skinheads.

Train To Skaville: 1969-1976

The Dawning of the Original Skinheads

In the mid to late 1960s a new fashion began for the working class youths of Britain. The skinhead image was new, exciting and above everything else, it was a way of standing out against the Hippies, like the Mods a few years previously. Skinhead culture was purely working class youths and “purely of British origin”[1]. The image was heavily influenced by the Mods and the rudeboys; well dressed Jamaican immigrants. This new fashion came about from the Rockers violent rivalry with the Mods. The Jamaican rudeboys would invite Mods to their events, nightclubs and social gatherings in order to protect them from racial attacks from the rockers at the time. The Mods therefore would naturally socialize and start a friendship with the Rudeboys through this alliance and over time the skinhead culture began. The majority of the original skinhead scene was inevitably Mods and Rudeboys as this new style borrowed heavily from each culture. Brands such as Ben Sherman are still well known for being a Mod culture brand, especially its British air force logo, but the skinheads were adopting them and like Fred Perry, Brutus and Doc Martens it became a skinhead clothing staple. Of course, a skinhead wasn’t a skinhead without the trademark-shaved head. The shaving of the head came from the fact skinheads would work in factories and short hair was ideal for safety on the job. The look caught on and became typical of the style. The clothing and haircut made the person a proud skinhead; where like Mod culture, image was everything, if you didn’t have the brand shirts, Levi drainpipes and Doc Martens you weren’t anything, definitely not part of a skinhead gang and you were never taken seriously.

Through the joined influences of the Jamaican rudeboys and British Mods the music of choice for the skinheads were reggae, ska and rocksteady.  These genres were traditional Jamaican and were brought over by the rudeboys. In the 1950s and 60s the Jamaicans would put on parties; the streets of Kingston and the music was played by the sound system. Sound systems were a group of about three people; the DJ, a selector and an engineer. Together they played music on huge speaker systems called ‘Houses of Joy’, sometimes made out of old wardrobes and cabinets in order to hold the speakers. A number of sound systems cropped up over Jamaica and people started running them like businesses, charging admission to their parties in exchange for good music, good food and a good time. Soon after, DJs started producing records and printing one copy of some releases; called exclusives, to make their business stand out against rival sound systems. At this time, artists such as Prince Buster and Count Ossie, who historians believe wrote the first ever ska song; Oh Carolina, ruled the sound systems with their infectious songs written with influence from traditional Jamaican style mixed with American rhythm and blues. One Step Beyond by Prince Buster is a perfect example of this as the song has an obviously strong blues influence but it is set apart from that genre by classic ska musical techniques such as the upstroke, syncopated guitar patterns and toasting vocals which was common in very much of the early ska songs.

By the mid to late 1960s the classic sound of Jamaica had reached British shores with the immigration of Jamaican people into Britain by invite to fill jobs in factories amongst other things. “Many of them went to work in London’s docks and lived in working class communities”[2]. This music was that which was played in the clubs, enjoyed by the Rudeboys being protected by the Mods. The Mods grew to enjoy Reggae as well and as the skinhead culture was born the obvious music of choice was Reggae and Ska. Jamaican Reggae and Ska was a perfect choice of music this movement. The influences on fashion from British Mods and music taste of Jamaican Rudeboys ensured a fellowship between these two cultures. The skinheads had taken elements of each culture and produced something new as a result. Black Jamaicans and white British citizens were dancing side-by-side enjoying the joining of two cultures. Through this, the skinhead scene became huge throughout Britain and the year of 1969 was to skinheads is what the 1977 ‘explosion’ was to punks.

A huge part of spreading Jamaican music to the country’s new skinhead scene was that of Trojan Records. This record label was started in Britain in 1968 by Lee Gopthal and exclusively dealt with all music Ska, Reggae, Rocksteady and Dancehall. The main selling point of this record label was their compilation albums, entitled – ‘Tighten Up’. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s these compilations were huge for the skinhead scene and allowed the people of Britain an easy and cheap way to access their new favorite music. The record label’s logo is a Trojan soldier’s helmet. The left-wing skinhead organization S.H.A.R.P. (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) later used this logo in the early to mid 1980s, with the image reversed. This was most likely in honor the time when racial prejudice wasn’t part of the culture. Skinhead culture was at it’s biggest in 1969. Reggae and Ska was selling in huge numbers everywhere and the skinhead image was incredibly popular. It was not long before bands started using the image as a marketing strategy; the band Slade best shows this. Their music in no way represents the skinheads of Britain but in promotional photographs of 1969 Noddy and the gang are seen wearing drainpipe trousers, tank tops, Doc Martens and loafers.

In the early 1970s a new offshoot of the skinhead image grew, Suedehead. “The Suedehead of the early Seventies wasn’t so much a separate entity as a continuation of the smart Skinhead”[3]. As the new decade began the skinhead fashion of the late 1960s was fading and this new generation of the culture began. The suedeheads grew their hair longer than the skins of 60s and had a much more formal appearance. They were still very much working class but many of them held down white-collar jobs. Suits were seen, usually in a check pattern, as well as Crombie jackets and large collared shirts. The music suedeheads preferred was the more soulful side of the 1960s reggae but later branched out to listen to genres in the glam rock scene. This may have partly due to image Slade had used years earlier in the late 60s.

Although this new scene had emerged from the amalgamation of the Rudeboys and the Mods, fighting was still happening around the country and the skinhead name was being stuck to it. The beautiful game, football, as it had always been was the cause of many fights and in the 1960s skinheads were a major part of this. The shaved head and Doc Martens were perfect for fighting; no hair to pull and heavy boots that were more than good enough for stomping on the rival teams firms.  Skinheads would take the appearance of different town’s and county’s skinheads as a judgment on their character. Scruffy looking skins that took no pride in their appearance were brushed aside and looked down upon.

Though most firms insist they never acted in racial hatred the majority of hooligans were white British men and boys. Micky Smith claims this when talking about West Ham firms by saying “The National Front tried to get West Ham involved but never succeeded, there were many blacks at West Ham, in fact we had one playing for us”[4] Many skinheads would go to their team’s home games on the weekend, have a few beers, watch the game and look for a fight afterwards. The main idea of this was to humiliate the opposing team and gain reputation amongst Britain’s top ‘firms’. Well-known firms were the ‘ICF’ West Ham’s Intercity Firm and Tottenham’s firm ‘The Yids’ who regularly fought due to being in close proximity of one another. The ‘ICF’ got their name by travelling to away games via intercity trains rather than the ‘football special’ trains organized to transport fans to games cheaply. To take firms by surprise and also in some form of comfort, West Hams top firm would travel by Intercity to different stations and attack opposing firms by surprise looking to gain the upper hand. Though not racially motivated, there is no denying that this was one of the main causes of the skinhead’s bad name in the country at such an early stage of its movement.

In the early to mid 1970s the skinhead culture become thin in numbers and after a good number of years activity in the 1960s, the scene like many others had passed. Apart from number of people still faithful to the culture there was no growth within the scene, until the later in the decade.