Oi!
Encyclopedia
Oi! is a working class
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
, skinhead
s 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.”
, 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 as The Rolling Stones
, the Small Faces, and The Who
; football chant
s; pub rock
bands such as Dr. Feelgood
, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and The 101ers
; and glam rock
bands such as Slade
and Sweet
. Direct precursors to the first Oi! bands included Sham 69
, Cock Sparrer
, and Menace, who were around for years before the word Oi! was used retroactively 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 socialist
, working-class populism
. 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 Asias. 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
, and 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.
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 Angelic Upstarts, The Burial
, and The Oppressed
were associated with left wing politics and 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."
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 band Skrewdriver
, a first wave punk act that had broken up in 1979. 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 obervers, the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations refers to these groups as "'white noise' and 'oi' racist bands". Yet at the same time the Cockney Rejects and the fledgling 4-Skins in 1980 were fighting and defeating the British Movement both on the streets in Barking and at concerts such as the Angelic Upstarts at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town .
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
subgenre
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
that originated in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
had the goal of bringing together punks
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, skinhead
Skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...
s 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
The Business (band)
The Business are an English Oi!/punk rock band formed in 1979 in Lewisham, South London. Their album Suburban Rebels became influential in the Oi! movement...
guitarist Steve Kent, “trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic...and losing touch”. André Schlesinger, singer of The Press
The Press (band)
The Press were one of the first Oi! bands in the United States. Formed in New York City in 1984, the outspoken anti-fascist band was associated with Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, of which their singer, André Schlesinger, was an early member. Schlesinger also supported the views of the British...
, said, “Oi shares many similarities with folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, 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 of punk rockPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, and before the soon-to-dominate hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
sound. It fused the sounds of early punk bands such as the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, and The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...
with influences from 1960s British rock bands such as The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, the Small Faces, and The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
; football chant
Football chant
A football chant or terrace chant, is a song or chant sung at association football matches. They can be historic, dating back to the formation of the club, adaptations of popular songs, or spontaneous reactions to events on the pitch. They are one of the last remaining sources of an oral folk song...
s; pub rock
Pub rock (UK)
Pub rock was a rock music genre that developed in the mid 1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement, pub rock was a reaction against progressive and glam rock. Although short-lived, pub rock was notable for rejecting stadium venues and for returning live rock to the small pubs and...
bands such as Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...
, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and The 101ers
The 101ers
The 101ers were a pub rock band from the 1970s, notable as being the band that Joe Strummer left to join The Clash. Formed in London in May 1974, the 101ers made their performing debut on 7 September at the Telegraph pub in Brixton, under the name El Huaso and the 101 All Stars. The name would...
; and glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
bands such as Slade
Slade
Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...
and Sweet
Sweet (band)
Sweet was a British rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s as one of the most prominent glam rock acts, with the classic line-up of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker.Sweet was formed in 1968 and achieved their first...
. Direct precursors to the first Oi! bands included Sham 69
Sham 69
Sham 69 is an English punk band that formed in Hersham in 1976.Although not as commercially successful as many of their contemporaries, albeit with a greater number of chart entries, Sham 69 has been a huge musical and lyrical influence on the Oi! and streetpunk genres. The band allegedly derived...
, Cock Sparrer
Cock Sparrer
Cock Sparrer are a punk rock band formed in 1972 in the East End of London, England. Although they never enjoyed much commercial success, they are considered one of the most influential streetpunk bands, helping pave the way for the late-1970s punk scene and the Oi! subgenre...
, and Menace, who were around for years before the word Oi! was used retroactively to describe their style of music.
In 1980, writing in Sounds
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...
magazine, rock journalist Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Oi! band The Gonads and manages the New York City Oi! band Maninblack. Bushell's recurring themes are comedy, country and class...
labelled the movement Oi!, taking the name from the garbled "Oi!" that Stinky Turner of Cockney Rejects
Cockney Rejects
Cockney Rejects are an English punk rock band that formed in the East End of London in 1978. Their 1980 song "Oi, Oi, Oi" was the inspiration for the name of the Oi! music genre...
used to introduce the band's songs. The word is an old Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
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
Angelic Upstarts
Angelic Upstarts are an English punk rock/Oi! band formed in South Shields in 1977. The band espoused an anti-fascist and socialist working class philosophy, and have been associated with the skinhead subculture...
, The 4-Skins
The 4-Skins
The 4-Skins are a working class Oi! punk rock band from the East End of London, England. Originally composed of Gary Hodges , 'Hoxton' Tom McCourt , Steve 'H' Hamer and Gary Hitchcock , they formed in 1979 and disbanded in 1984 – although new line-ups formed in 2007 and 2008...
, The Business
The Business (band)
The Business are an English Oi!/punk rock band formed in 1979 in Lewisham, South London. Their album Suburban Rebels became influential in the Oi! movement...
, Blitz
Blitz (band)
Blitz was a street punk band from New Mills, Derbyshire, England. They had success in the United Kingdom indie charts in the early 1980s. With both punk and skinhead members, they were enthusiastically championed by Sounds magazine writer Garry Bushell, though guitarist Nidge would later go on to...
, The Blood
The Blood
The Blood are a London-based punk rock band, formed in 1982. Led by Cardinal Jesus Hate and JJ Bedsore , the band formed in the early 1980s under the name Coming Blood. Their music is a blend of hardcore punk, Oi!, heavy metal, football chants and shock rock.Many of their songs criticize religion...
, and Combat 84
Combat 84
Combat 84 were an English Oi! band active during the early 1980s. Formed in 1981 in Chelsea, London by skinheads 'Chubby' Chris Henderson and 'Deptford' John Armitage, Combat 84 rose to national prominence after being featured in a controversial 1982 BBC Arena documentary about the skinhead...
.
The prevalent ideology of the original Oi! movement was a rough brand of socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, working-class populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. 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 Asias. 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
Agnostic Front
Agnostic Front is an American hardcore band. The band began playing hardcore similar to their contemporaries, and were thrust to the forefront of the burgeoning New York hardcore scene in the mid-1980s with their widely regarded 1984 classic Victim in Pain before evolving to incorporate thrash...
, Iron Cross
Iron Cross (band)
Iron Cross is a hardcore/Oi! band from Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C..They play a rough form of streetpunk, and is the first band in the United States to adopt the skinhead look and the Oi! musical style...
, and Anti Heros. Later American punk bands such as Rancid
Rancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
and Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys are an Irish-American punk rock band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996. The band was initially signed to independent punk record label Hellcat Records, releasing five albums for the label, and making a name for themselves locally through constant playing and yearly St....
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.
Association with far right politics
Some fans of Oi! were involved in white nationalistWhite nationalism
White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
organisations such as the National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
(NF) and the British Movement
British Movement
The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...
(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 Angelic Upstarts, The Burial
The Burial
The Burial were an Oi! band that incorporated ska, northern soul and folk influences into their music. Formed in 1981 in Yorkshire, England, they released one album, A Day On The Town in 1988, and worked with Bradford‘s anarchist rant-poet Nick Toczek on various projects under the name Britanarchists...
, and The Oppressed
The Oppressed
The Oppressed is a Welsh anti-fascist Oi! band that formed in 1981 in Cardiff. Most of the musicians in the band's various lineups were skinheads. Throughout the band's career, the members openly expressed opposition to racism and fascism — in their lyrics, interviews, on-stage comments and other...
were associated with left wing politics and anti-racism
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
. The white power skinhead movement had developed its own music genre called Rock Against Communism
Rock Against Communism
Rock Against Communism started out as series of white power rock concerts in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, and is also a name for the subsequent music genre. Despite its name, RAC song lyrics rarely focus on the specific topic of anti-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."
The mainstream media especially associated Oi! with far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
politics following a concert by The Business, The 4-Skins, and The Last Resort on 4 July 1981 at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall
Southall
Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt...
. 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
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
, 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
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
.
These denials, however, were met with cynicism from some quarters because of the Strength Thru Oi!
Strength Thru Oi!
Strength Thru Oi! is a 1981 Oi! compilation album, featuring various artists and released by Decca Records.- Track listing :# "National Service" - Garry Johnson# "1984" - 4 Skins# "Gang Warfare" - The Strike# "Riot Riot" - Infa-Riot...
compilation album, released in May 1981. Not only was its title a play on a Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
slogan—"Strength Through Joy"—but the cover featured Nicky Crane
Nicky Crane
Nicola Vincenzio "Nicky" Crane was a British neo-Nazi skinhead activist. He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993....
, a skinhead BM activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Critic Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Oi! band The Gonads and manages the New York City Oi! band Maninblack. Bushell's recurring themes are comedy, country and class...
, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on The Skids
The Skids
Skids were an art-punk/punk rock and new wave band from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, founded in 1977 by Stuart Adamson , William Simpson , Thomas Kellichan and Richard Jobson...
' album Strength Through Joy
The Absolute Game
-Strength Through Joy:All tracks composed by Skids.-2008 re-release:All tracks composed by Skids unless indicated otherwise.-Personnel:* Richard Jobson — vocals / guitar...
, 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
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
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
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
's Blackshirts
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
, Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
, 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 band Skrewdriver
Skrewdriver
Skrewdriver was an English punk rock band formed by Ian Stuart Donaldson in Poulton-le-Fylde in 1976. They later evolved into one of the first neo-Nazi rock bands, playing a leading role in the Rock Against Communism movement and becoming known as the most prominent white power skinhead...
, a first wave punk act that had broken up in 1979. Lead singer Ian Stuart Donaldson
Ian Stuart Donaldson
Ian Stuart Donaldson was a British Neo-Nazi singer, musician and songwriter, most known as the frontman of Skrewdriver, a British punk rock band that later became a white power rock band...
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
Blood and Honour
Blood & Honour is a neo-Nazi music promotion network and political group founded in 1987 with links to Combat 18 and composed of white power skinheads and other white nationalists....
, and a street-orientated 'skinhead' club of the same name that arranged concerts for Skrewdriver and other racist bands such as No Remorse
No Remorse (band)
No Remorse was a British neo-Nazi rock band formed in 1986 led by white power skinhead singer Paul London, aka Paul Burnley. They were associated with Ian Stuart's Blood & Honour group....
. Demonstrating the ongoing conflation of Oi! with the white power skinhead movement by some obervers, the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations refers to these groups as "'white noise' and 'oi' racist bands". Yet at the same time the Cockney Rejects and the fledgling 4-Skins in 1980 were fighting and defeating the British Movement both on the streets in Barking and at concerts such as the Angelic Upstarts at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town .
External links
- Europe Punk - Music for social change,not profit.
- Oi!—The Truth history of Oi! by Garry Bushell (archived)
- Punk and Oi! in the UK includes interviews and news about Oi! bands
- Oi! the Web Site includes information about the original Oi! compilation albums
- Oi! Oi! Music monthly updated news, reviews and interviews pertaining to Oi! music