THE NEW BREED
A Teenage Warning
By Garry Bushell
(This article was first published in the UK
weekly Sounds magazine on November 1st 1980)
'Chaos in the city/Civil War now/
Skinheads know what to do/
Skinheads taking over/
CHAOS IS THE RULE/
CHAOS' CHAOS!
CHAOS! CHAOS! -
DON'T GIVE A TOSS!'
|
 |
GARY HODGES looks dead smart on stage, a walking epitome of skinhead sartorial elegance, but
his face reads murder, twisted into expressions that'd put Jack Nicholson in The Shining to shame.
Schizoid eyes stare demented and accusing, voice roars raw and abrasive, rasping like a power drill
smashing against solid concrete.
'Come back of the SKINHEAD/Come back of the BOOT/
People who we don't beat up/We're gonna FUCKIN' SHOOT'
Johnny Rotten wanted to destroy the passer-by. Gary Hodges is putting Doctor Marten's
apocalypse into words. Rotten wanted to be anarchy, Hodges is painting vivid visions of what that
really means.
The scene is a Damned gig at the Bridge House last year (1979) but the 4-Skins are on stage now, a
flaming molotov cocktail of sound, and the audience of cropped Michelin Men, belligerent
bootboys and sweat-stained spikeys are going seriously barmy. "We are the new breed and we will
have our say," Gal hollers. "We are the NEW BREED and we are TODAYYYY!"
At the time it looked like the 4-Skins along with the Cockney Rejects and the Rubbles were in the
forefront of a grass roots East End punk renewal, a New Punk upsurge that went partially off the
boil with the Rejects' overnight ascension to Top Thirty status.
The 4-Skins performance that night won them pride of place on Sounds' own 'Oi-The Album' but
that's not the reason I'm writing this. The reason is that the 4-Skins have seriously reformed and
along with younger bands See In fa-Riot from North London, Criminal Class from Coventry, the
Exploited from Edinburgh, Demob and Arson from Gloucester, the Blitz Boys from Manchester
and a host of others, they now more than ever really do constitute the vanguard of an exciting and
dynamic, but often disturbing new breed of punk bands.
SPRINGSTEEN SUSSED it with his vision of the hungry and the hunted EXPLODING in rock 'n'
roll bands. Born from the Pistols via Menace, Sham and Screwdriver, and in the pioneering wake of
the Rejects and the Upstarts, this new breed are blowing up in your face. They're bands for who
punk ain't dogma or religion but the fulfilment of a burning need for rock 'n' roll in its purest form,
raw, aggressive and threatening.
We're talking about music made by and for the hundreds of thousands of human hand grenades
primed by this middle class and middle aged controlled society which has guaranteed them NO
FUTURE and left them to fester in their frustrations. And this isn't an attempt to glamorise that, it's
simply saying it's happening. It's here.
"We're not advocating violence," Gary Hodges says, "We're Just saying what's happening. I don't
like it but it's about time someone told the truth."
'Down in East London/Trouble on the streets/
On the street corners the gangs all meet/Talking 'bout the weakend/
What we're gunna do/If you ain't careful/
Gunna do you' ('Chaos')
'Going down the boozer on your own for a night/
A gang of nutters try and pick a fight/
You can try and plead for your life/
They'll still cut you with a fucking great knife' ('Wonderful World')
'Had to go to court to plead my case/Jury didn't like my face/
Judge said he's gonna put me away/Asked what I had to say/
I said - ACAB/ACAB/ALL COPPERS ARE BASTARDS' ('ACAB')
"In a way it don't really matter what we think about it ..." bassist H (Steve Harmer) is talking now.
"It's what's going on. It's the way things are in the East End. We ain't against coppers cos you need
good coppers but round here the coppers are cunts. 'ACAB' is a true story and a true observation
of 70% of coppers in the East End."
We're sitting in a quiet pub two broken legs away from the Bridge House. Hodges, H, and guitarist
and legend in his own beer gut Hoxton Tom McCourt whose extensive knowledge of soul music
would put Dexys to shame. New drummer Gary Hitchcock couldn't make it.
Hodges is 21 and an unemployed brick layer. H is 21 and a building labourer. Hoxton's 19 and an
engineer. Gary Hitchcock is 23 and a plasterer.
All four were skins since the summer of '77 at the latest, following variously Sham and Menace.
But they didn't think of becoming a band till '79.
"We formed after the first Rubbles gig at the Wellington last year," Tom explains."
We wrote 'Chaos' virtually on the spot and just leapt up and did it. Most of the gigs we've done
have been spontaneous, playing with Untamed Youth and the Hubbies, just playing with our mates.
It's always been a good atmosphere and that's the way we wanna keep it."
IN ALL they've played a few more gigs than Spandau Ballet, most of them informal in places like
the Hartley, the Standard and the Crown in East and South East London. The only 'proper' gigs
have been with the Damned and the Rejects. But ever since I heard the tape of 'Chaos' I've been on
at them 'when are you gonna start playing seriously?'
"Have you seen the gear we've got?" Hodges is indignant. "It's crap. Would you ask a bricklayer to
build a wall without a trowel and a level? We've got to get decent gear and to get that we've gotta
have the money."
Maybe not that much of a problem. 'Chaos' (produced by Micky Geggus on the album, incidentally)
is already the subject of negotiations regarding a possible appearance as the A-side of a new EP. A
couple of majors are biting.
With the money that could bring the band would be transformed over night but if they were they
could also find themselves up against some serious problems.
What about the violence at gigs that's marred the Rejects' career?
"The football thing's got out of hand,' Hodges observes. "There's no way we're gonna show bias to
a football team. We couldn't, we support three different clubs. "
"But football is part of people's lives. Our way of life does or did revolve around it," H adds, "And
we've got to associate with our mates. We're still the same as them — 'cept when we get a 70,000
advance and go and live in America ..."
What about politics?
H: "We've got nothing to do with it. No way. There's nothing worth voting for. They're all the
same."
And the new punk?
Gary Hodges: "Y'got the new punk groups coming up and y'got critics saying they're not advanced
enough. They expect you to play 'Bankrobber' and shit like that. Two years ago they were raving
over raw thrash, now they expect you to 'advance' into pop pap. Well we're about punk. Raw
punk."
H: "It's great in Scotland, the movement's still alive up there."
Hodges: "Yeah, we really wanna play up there."
H: "Especially to the girls.
ANOTHER LEADING new punk band are Infa-Riot.Whereas as the 4-Skins cite Slade and Sham
as influences, Infra-Riot acknowledge only the Angelic
Upstarts — the sign of a five year age gap.
The Infa's are vocalist Lee Wilson, 18 and a kitchen worker,
bassist Floyd Wilson, 16 and still at school, drummer Gary
Mclnerney, 18 and "sacked this morning", and guitarist Barry
Damery, 16, and "supposed to be at school".
In their nine months of existence the Infas have built up a
following of about 800 kids in North
London. After Mensi's review in Sounds I saw them at the
Golden Lion Camberwell Green where
they drew about 250 kids at two days notice.
If anything Mensi's review erred on the side of understatement.
It's easy to see why he was so
impressed. The Infas sound and feel very much like the
Upstarts, they've got the same drive and the
same harshness. And they've also got a brilliant frontsman in the shape of Lee who like Mensi,
Turner and Hodges exudes an aura of commitment and stardom. He's a natural. Turns out that the
band's first ever gig was supporting the Upstarts at the estimable Lordship drinkerie in Wood Green.
Since then their progress has been encouraged and abetted by the '4 be 2's mafia', and enterprising
Jock McDonald recording their first single 'Five Minute Fashions'/'Riot-Riot' on his own
McDonald-Lydon label for release next week.
'Five Minute Fashions' is their best live number, a slower than frantic treatise on fickle fad
following, with verses akin to 'Calling The Tune' by the Skids interspersed with a titanic chorus of...
Infa-Riot
Hornsey Community Centre, London
THIS IS Infa-Riot's fourth gig and the third time I have seen them, and 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.
Infa have already built up a strong North London following and tonight the centre is filled with famous faces. Jock McDonald, Paul Young of the 48e2's, Brendan of the Longshots, Dave Smith of Bad Apples, John Stevens of Top Of The Pops fame, even Bryan Ferry turned up with his new flame, but he left in a hurry when Paul Thompson was spotted firm handed with the Upstarts. (Are you sure? — Ed)
The Infas take the stage, two 15 year olds and two 17 year olds. Lee (vocalst, Mac drummer, Barry (guitar), Floyd bass, and burst straight into 'Brick Wall', one of their strongest songs ('I'm talking to a brick wall cos you never listen to a word I say'). Next is 'Boring School' followed by 'Five Minute Fashions' which goes down well with the shaven headed punters who chant the chorus ('But you're a skinhead now!')
Then straight into a rabble rousing 'Riot! Riot!' dedicated to Jack Char/ton. 'Britain's Not Lost' is the next offering. The lyrics of this are heartfelt but somewhat misguided and confused, but then again who isn't confused this government and the opposition, the only ones who seem to have any time for today's youth are the SWP, NF and BM which isn't what Cadbury's would call Star Choice. But ' don't worry, Maggie reckons the situation is good for selling antiques.
'Boot Boys', 'Kids Of The 8O's', 'In For A Riot' are three other excellent songs and they all go down a storm. Three encores and Infa-Riot have finished their fourth gig. I recommend you to see their fifth. See them as they are, young, energetic, funny, serious and full of mistakes. See them before the music business sucks them in and blows them out in choc bars. Joe Strummer reckons he's seen it all before, John Lydon reckons it's all finished. But I prefer Jock McDonald's end of gig verdict, "Would you believe it...?"
(MENSI September 1980)
|
'A-A-A-A-AAAAA You was a punk too/
A-A-A-A-AAAA You was a mod too/
A-A-A-A-AAAAA But you're a SKIN-HEAD NOWWW'
The final verse pleads: 'Can you stay a skin for more
than just a day?/ Everybody says you look so good
this way/At least you're not a nothing in your boring
life/ So please don't change your skinhead fashions
over night'
"We don't mind having a hard skin/punk audience,"
Lee explains in his Cockney-tinged Plymouth
accent. "We won't use 'em and ditch 'em. There's
skins all over the country and they ain't got a band
who they can say this is the skinhead/ bootboy band.
But our crowd are the same age as us.
Pursey's nearly 30, he's got no relation with the crowd.
Even Mensi's 24 now. The time is right to kick out all the
hasbeens. It's time for a new generation of bands.
"Our name is an abbreviation of In For A Riot. We're
talking about skinheads not as fashion but as a way of
life."
High on anthem status is their song 'Kids Of The
Eighties' - 'Come on boys let's do a shop/ There's
nothing else for us to do/ There's no youth clubs/ We
can't get in pubs/ There's no future/ Nothing
for us/ So what do we do?/ We turn to crime/ There
ain't nobody who's got time for us/
WHO?/THE KIDS OF THE EIGHTIES/
We don't go to school/ We've given up'.
DO THIS to songs like 'School', 'Bootboys' and 'In
For A Riot' and you get a clearer idea of what
the band are about. But weren't they just inciting kids
to violence? "No." Lee is adamant, -"We're
just facing facts. It's what happens, we just ain't scared
to write about it."
And like the 4-Skins they're convinced their attitude
won't necessarily result in gig riots. "We're
gonna keep football out of it. The Rejects have built
themselves their own trap with the West Ham
thing. Now people are just going along to have a go at
them. They're OK in the East End but outside
it's trouble. We all support teams but we're not gonna
broadcast them. Our songs are for all kids.
"In our crowd we get Arsenal and West Ham all mixed
in and there's no trouble 'cos we're not inciting them.
Football and music don't mix. Nor does politics and
music. We're as much against politics as we are against
disco. We're making a stand but we're all about
enjoyment."
And all over ft seems that bands are springing up making the same stand. Most of them I've never
heard — the Exploited you know about. Criminal Class (who I hope to see very soon) are another
heavily Upstarts influenced band. The rest are vaguer, voices on the phone, heartfelt letters, grubby
tapes. Nonetheless it is possible to discern a genuine whole new wave of bands, young and
aggressive and locked into that same skin/bootboy/hardcore punk mentality.
The mentality is essentially male, though a lot of girls are involved. It's basically a celebration of
what John McVicar perpetually called machismo which means a lot more than its general insulting
wet/liberal/middle class usage implies. Properly defined macho is about honour, loyalty, courage,
strength and endurance — the sort of Hollywood hero idea of manhood which strikes me as being
an ideal far preferable to the introspective wimp advanced by the hipsters.
Trouble is in reality the noble ideal goes out the window as skinhead mentality translates far too
often into brutality, bullying and bigotry which is not glamorous or laudable in any way. There are
idiots and psychos in any movement.
But the real problem is that society in all its official forms chooses to ignore the powder keg it's
built, leaving the way open for less scrupulous crackpots, lunatics and demagogues to try and
exploit it.
UNDERSTANDABLY THESE kids detest politics because politics has done nothing for them.
Which is why extremist views that also despise conventional politics can find fertile breeding ground
amongst the kids. And whereas Mensi tempers his anti-politics with a rich humanism and populism
the more common reaction is a celebration of confusion, a dangerous and volatile violent nihilism.
Which is why if there is a new punk emerging it's the responsibility of the participants not to play
into the hands of the demagogues, but to keep their protest and righteous wrath untainted by power
games. It's a tall order because things are much worse than the media and society spokesmen would
have us believe.
Smug politicians and greedy bosses have destroyed whole communities and thrown an entire
generation on the scrapheap. They have created or overseen the creation of the seeds of a
Clockwork Orange future which carries within it the threat of the destruction of much of what is still
good about Britain.
The teenage warning is here for everyone to see. The scrap heap is starting to look suspiciously like
a funeral pyre. Who lights the match and which way the wind blows the flames is still a matter of
conjecture.
Either way the fury and resentment of an untamed youth, unwanted and rejected, could burn your
temples down, Mr Complacent, Mr Bloated, Mr See-no-evil. Maybe it's worth chewing that over
next time the unemployment figures shoot up...
SOUNDS November 1st 1980
More features from the Don't Care collection of Punk will be displayed here soon! - Peter Don't Care