Skinheads and skinhead bands in America grew out of the punk and later the hardcore scene. The very first White Power skinhead band was undoubtedly the Bully Boys. The band was formed by Scott Lessig and lead guitarist Rusty Primrose in November 1983 in Orlando, Florida. Scott had become a skinhead at an early age. The band started to gig in early 1984 and quickly gained support and respect from the Orlando underground skinhead/punk scene. In the beginning they were helped by a friend who owned a store that would showcase Sunday hardcore matinees. By 1985 the Bully Boys were playing all the time. That year alone they notched up a dozen gigs just playing around Florida. And yet the band was still not satisfied with this and made the decision to relocate to Los Angeles and try their luck there. Because of their political stance, they were not well received by the Southern California punk scene. Even so they stayed in L.A. for over a year, playing some gigs, before deciding to return to Florida. The original line-up broke up in 1987. Scott moved to Dallas, Texas where Rachel met him, becoming best friends. This is Rachel’s story of her upbringing, her life as a skinhead and her pathway to embracing White Power:
I grew up in Tyler, about 90 minutes east of Dallas. Smallish (50k back then), famous for rose-growing and being a hot spot in the East Texas oil boom in the early 20th century. It’s more old South, and Tyler is a fairly affluent city. It was still pretty segregated when I was growing up, the only black people I knew were maids and gardeners. I went to Catholic school there (somewhat of an odd thing in the area), so we only had a few (seriously, less than ten) black kids in our school, and their parents were like doctors and college professors and such. I did not have much knowledge of ghetto niggers, although we moved to the country for a couple of years and there were a lot of country niggers out there. My parents were divorced and my dad moved back to Dallas, so although I was familiar with Dallas, I didn’t live there all the time and my father was very strict so I never got to go out and run in the streets. I found the Ramones in 1981 on a TV show from Jersey I saw on cable, and scoured every record store I came across for their albums. I fancied myself a punk rocker, but only had what information I could find in the public library to base it off of. I learned about skinheads and Oi music during this time, but there wasn’t much skinhead representation in the U.S. at the time. I bought albums that I found in the markdown bin at our local record store, and I was really into the Ramones, the Dead Boys, X, the Clash, the Damned, etc. When I got to Austin I realized that I was seriously misinformed on punk rock, and spent the time I should have been in class learning about punk rock and the scene, ultimately becoming embraced by the Austin punk rock scene and flunking out of school. I met a couple of skinheads, and realized that was what I wanted. To me, skinheads were the ‘11’ of punk rock (Spinal Tap reference). They were the top of the food chain in the scene. Also, some punk rockers called me racist because I wouldn’t date out of my race. (Yuck!)
Drugs were rampant back then, we were doing speed, acid, and cocaine (it was the ’80s is my only defense). Skinhead in America was a bit different from the UK, I imagine. For example, it was about race for us, not nationalism because we are a raceless nation. Although America was founded by white people, there are no indigenous people (even the Indians came from Asia), so we have no native race and heritage to defend, unlike in the UK. We didn’t dress so proper (Ben Shermans were impossible to find over here, only a few shops sold Doc Martens back then, and we just wore cheap bombers from the army-navy store, not Alphas) because we didn’t have English fashion in our stores and we were POOR! Docs and jackets were often stolen from someone else (taxing). If you knew someone going to London, you begged, borrowed or stole to give them money to bring you back something, ANYTHING, haha! Over here, I think we were scruffier, more of a gang. The violence was insane, just insane. Skinheads started in the U.S. in NYC, Harley Flanagan was the first one who brought it over and it spread from the NYHC scene through the country. Every skinhead I met in the ’80s didn’t like blacks, but had the odd Mexican or Jew because they were part of the crew before they were skinheads. It’s hard to explain, but it wasn’t until around 1987–1988 that skinheads here got serious about racialism. The drugs stopped, the old non-white friends were sent packing.
I moved in with my dad after dropping out of college and was in Dallas in 1987. I met Rusty and Scott from the Bully Boys straight off the bat. We had mutual friends in Austin, and I ended up hanging out with them. Rusty got extradited to Florida so it was pretty much Scott and I until we were brought together with the other white power crew in Dallas. There was also a crew we called the slob skins that were sloppier and grubbier than we were and kept their random non-whites and collected our castoffs. We didn’t like each other much, but we were brought together by a girl from CASH (Clark Martell’s crew in Chicago) and we all became Confederate Hammerskins. The original CHS crew was about 10–15 people.
Musically, I personally went from old punk to hardcore to Oi to white power rock ‘n’ roll. The Bully Boys were the first white power band over here, and actually played with mainstream hardcore bands like Agnostic Front. We didn’t have great access to skinhead music as English bands were all imports and a Skrewdriver album was $20 in 1987. We had lots of tapes that we would copy off of a friend’s records. Sometimes you would have a fourth-generation tape and it was virtually impossible to hear the music. I remember when one of my friends moved from Austin to Tulsa in 1987 and he told me that some of his new friends were putting together a new band called Midtown Bootboys!
In late 1988, I got the opportunity to go to San Diego, California, when a friend from Austin moved there, and his family invited me to come and stay with them. I stayed out there for about a year. I went to Tom Metzger’s meetings. I knew who Tom Metzger was from reading WAR papers (I used to have a big box full of them, but chucked them out about ten years ago after lugging them around forever, wish I still had them!), and my friend had hooked up with the SD WAR skins, so they took me to meetings at Tom Metzger’s place up on a mountain northeast of San Diego. I think that is really when I came into my own as a racialist. To me, Tom was a terrific mentor and I learned so much from attending those meetings. I learned an awful lot about being a skinhead and white power while I was there.
I returned to Dallas wearing another crew’s patch, and was told that I was considered a part of the original CHS crew and should never wear another patch. The American government had been preparing a case against some of our members, and it became the first time our government prosecuted skinheads, and the basis of the federal hate crime laws that are now in place. One of the charges was ‘conspiracy to violate the civil rights of an unknown black man,’ which is just an example of the ridiculous bullshit that the government pulled out of their hat. Our guys got convicted and most sent to federal prison for ten years.
Also of note is that because of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, elements within the White Power skinhead scene took on a far more militaristic bent than elsewhere, often morphing into ‘militia’-like activity, which has yet to be discussed and documented in any great detail for obvious reasons.
Tom Metzger was one of the first to forge real links with skinheads and shape the White Power skinhead scene throughout the ’80s. A television repairman by trade, Tom Metzger had had a long career in the extreme right, starting with the John Birch Society, then the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, then the new Christian Crusade Church and then his own Californian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He then tried his hand in the world of politics, running for the House of Representatives, but failed to be elected. He then created the White American Political Association which was followed by White Aryan Resistance (WAR). As well as publishing his WAR tabloid five or six times a year, he used emerging technology like community access cable television, bulletin boards and computers to spread his message. He pioneered the use of recorded telephone messages by White nationalist groups.
WAR now regularly featured approving news about skinhead achievements. It published letters and articles from skinheads, advertised skinhead organisations and carried cartoons of neo-nazi skinheads indulging in racial violence. In this way, according to one source, ‘Metzger allowed his tabloid to become a forum for skinheads.’ Metzger also recognised the importance of music when attempting to draw skinheads into his white power movement. As early as 1983, his tabloid was promoting Skrewdriver and ‘Rock Against Communism.’ He tried to demonstrate that skinhead music is thoroughly white and attacked the idea that it’s tainted with black strains. Tapes of Skrewdriver and the Midtown Bootboys were sold through WAR.
The Midtown Bootboys
Nationalist skinhead band the Midtown Bootboys formed in late summer of 1986 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The original line-up was Chris Jones on vocals, Tony on guitar, Danny Roush on bass (nicknamed RIP), and Richard on drums. David Hoover replaced Richard on drums. Skrewdriver had a major influence on everyone in the band. Interviewed in 1993, Tony said of Skrewdriver, who influenced his choice of political path:11
I first heard Skrewdriver about seven years ago. I was already a young skinhead, but I had no ideology or direction. I had contacted some local Klan groups, etc. but most of their literature was reactionary and without substance. Then I got a copy (of a copy of a copy) of Blood and Honour and soon after discovered true National Socialism. The music of Skrewdriver and the message of Ian Stuart inspired me to get off my ass and truly educate myself in my identity, my European heritage and history of my Folk. It was the first exposure I had to a sound, true, Aryan racialist ideology.
In June 1988, the Midtown Bootboys played the first ‘Aryan Fest’ organised by WAR in Catoosa, Oklahoma. Over one hundred skinheads from around the country turned up to hear the Midtown Bootboys as well as political speeches from Tom Metzger. [Hakenkreuz may also have played.] WAR now sold a demo tape by the Midtown Bootboys called ‘Bootboy 88.’ The tape was the subject of Tom Metzger’s recorded telephone message on 20 September 1988: ‘This is a hot tape. They are great! Don’t be cheap, let’s make sure this red-hot band has some traveling money so they can come visit our Aryan Festivals.’ The demo tape was later released on CD as The Time Has Come in 1994.
Doc Marten
Meanwhile, Doc Marten formed in New Jersey during the winter of 1984 with Paul Link on drums, Tore on bass and John Devine on guitar and vocals. Tore left the band when he moved to Nevada and in June 1985 Mike was recruited to play bass. They played Oi music which had first come to their attention via a college radio station back in 1981. Paul and John had gone on to play together in a number of hardcore bands but the more they heard of Oi, the more they became convinced that Oi was where it’s at! Their sound was inspired by British Oi bands like the 4-Skins, the Cockney Rejects, the Last Resort and the Angelic Upstarts. Such was their reverence of British Oi bands that they covered ‘Bad Man’ by the Cockney Rejects, ‘Wonderful World’ by the 4-Skins and ‘Police Oppression’ by the Angelic Upstarts.
Claude Rains from NYC played bass after they kicked out Mike. However, he quickly grew disenchanted with the long commute from NYC to Point Pleasant, NJ. Also he was a guitar player and not really a bass player, although he was thrilled about the notion of playing bass. Lastly, it was inevitable that he would weave his way into a band from the Lower East Side, already being friends with Youth Defense League. He described it as ‘a seamless transition and good fit.’
Doc Marten started to play regularly even though they were a skinhead band playing Oi. They did a lot of parties but they also played with the likes of T.S.O.L., J.F.A., False Prophets, Mental Abuse, Social Decay, Sheer Terror, X-Men and F.O.D. They even played CBGBs in NYC. And, perhaps unfairly, their shows became synonymous with violence. The band blamed the mixed bills and went back to playing parties and rented halls. ‘Copping’ the label of Nazis did not help their plight either. From 1986, they found themselves ‘banned from any official public appearances within the Tri-State Area.’ It was a ban they defied, playing the High Tide Café in Ashbury, NJ in September 1986. And then, in late 1987, the ADL stepped in and ‘changed the game.’ Turning to politics, curiously, singer John Devine stated in one interview that the band did not hold any strong political views.22 Their lyrics were ‘more on a social level’ as he put it. However, there’s no disguising the fact that the band was right-wing, patriotic, and anti-communist. In another interview newcomer Brent Eaton is photographed wearing a White Power T-shirt with spinning swastika, but that statement may not represent the band as a whole.33 The band blamed the government for instigating terrorism, as well as bringing drugs into the U.S. and not dealing with the takers because most are black, which would be seen as ‘too racist.’ They supported apartheid in South Africa: ‘It will never fall; it’s stronger than everyone really thinks.’ How wrong they were.
They recorded a demo which featured a number of covers of classic British Oi songs. The demo was sold through Clark Martell’s mail order operation Romantic Violence. In 1988, with the help of Ian Stuart, the group secured a three-year deal with German label Rock-O-Rama Records, which was the ‘biggest contract ever offered to a U.S. skin band.’ The group explained how this deal came about:44 ‘We were in Germany staying with some ‘friends’ and we got in touch with Herbert Egoldt. I met Ian Stuart on the phone about one week before we went to Germany and he said he’d speak to him for us and so Herbert offered us a contract, so we signed for three years, came back to the U.S. after the elections and started recording.’
ROR released their one and only album One Land to Care For in 1989 as well as a two-track single through their subsidiary label Street Rock ‘N’ Roll Records. The line-up on the album was Paul Link on drums, Brent Eaton on rhythm guitar, Stephano Morisi on bass and saxophone, and John Devine on vocals and lead guitar. The album is an odd mix of Oi, rock ‘n’ roll and rock music, which sounds weak. It was overshadowed by more aggressive, powerful and hard-hitting albums from their contemporaries.
Doc Marten started to record their second album but it remains unreleased, strongly suggesting it was not finished because the band was no more. Nothing else was ever officially released by Doc Marten. Singer John Devine committed suicide a few years after the album. Brent Eaton went on to play in Aggravated Assault.
Moonstomp
One skinhead band that continues to confuse and divide commentators is Atlanta-based Moonstomp. Some have labelled the bands as nazi and, in contrast, some have defended this band with a ‘legit attitude.’ Atlanta-based, the band formed in late 1986 or early 1987 ‘for a bit of fun and to spread Oi! through Atlanta.’55 The line-up was Townsend Sullivan on vocals, Gary on guitar, Allen Sullivan on bass and Dacian on drums. They recorded a four-track demo. No other details are known about the demo.
Their first ever interview after some seven months together came courtesy of fanzine British Oi and the interview is revealing. First off, the interview is accompanied by a band photo and two of the group are wearing Skrewdriver T-shirts, while a third wears the Celtic cross. Secondly, when asked what topics Moonstomp sing about, singer Townsend replied matter-of-factly: ‘Moonstomp sing about a vast number of ideas and these include the way skins always get shitty jobs, police oppression, and our pride in our race and nation.’ Townsend went on to say that the crowd’s favourite song is ‘Streets at Night’ whose first verse goes:66
Well you’re walking down the street
Just had a few beers
Boots and braces, got nothing to fear
Turn around the corner
And there’s 25 blacks
Should you walk on or should you turn back?
‘Strong Free Nation’ starts with: ‘Capitol Hill’s been overrun by Reds, we’ll fight those commie bastards till they’re dead.’ The song also has the lyrics: ‘Cuz the Right wing is the best!’ Such evidence places Moonstomp politically on the same page with Doc Marten and yet they managed to continue playing with the help of fellow Atlanta band the Anti-Heroes, whose help they acknowledged, even though ‘we always have disagreements as we don’t believe in the same politics.’ Stranger still, Moonstomp supported two high-profile UK punk bands in Atlanta: the Exploited at the Metroplex in February 1988 and Sham 69 at the Metroplex in October 1988. Moonstomp also played with NYC skinhead band Youth Defense League at the White Dot in Atlanta. [The author does not know the exact date of the show, but it was probably 1988.] Mark Magee, who played with the Glory and Condemned 84, reviewed it for British Oi. Parts of the review are of particular interest when it comes to the debate of Moonstomp’s politics:77
A smaller good-looking chap with greased-back hair climbed behind the drums and the so-called bouncers picked up their guitars and started to play the musical tune Moonstomp now open their set with. ‘Interesting,’ I thought and decided on a closer look. As I got nearer to the stage all the skins and various other subcultures were taking in the music and were definitely starting to move! After this tuneful intro Townsend, the singer, King Kong with a crop and braces, takes the stage and announces ‘White Riot.’ CHRIST! Was he giving an introduction or was that the name of the song? The dance floor became a mass of electrified bodies. Townsend ran backwards and forwards throwing his fists to the brilliant rendition of the Clash classic demanding the crowd’s attention. The last time I saw something this tight it was glued to the toilet seat! The band continued to reel off brilliant songs for the rest of their set, the best being for me ‘Strong Free Nation.’ Now wait a minute though, this band are no way nazis or right-wing, just ask Townsend’s flatmate Rob cos he’s the blackest skinhead I’ve ever seen. The band also did a few other covers all being excellent renditions like the great Resort (Moonstomp) Bootboys. Well that really tied up their set and I would’ve loved to sit through the whole occasion again. Well all I can say is that someone (Link Records?) should grab them quick while they’re available, as, as far as I am concerned out of all the U.S. bands Moonstomp are top of the scale, and it would be a shame if they went to an inferior label.
Despite the contrasting opinions of the band’s politics, which must have reached Link Records, the politically sensitive UK punk label included two of their tracks on the U.S. of Oi compilation LP (1988) and then released their one and only album They Never See (1989). And what a stormer it is! Angry yet melodic music drawing influences from the sound of the early ’80s English Oi scene and ’80s American hardcore. The two cover versions are adequate enough: ‘Head Kicked In’ or to give it its full title ‘Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight’ by Fleetwood Mac and ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’ or to give it its proper title ‘The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.’ The highlights are ‘Nothing at All,’ ‘Too Proud to Beg’ and ‘Stars N Stripes.’ The front cover is nothing special, just a photo of the band, but Allen Sullivan’s badge on his jacket was changed from a Celtic cross (or a Skrewdriver button depending who you ask) to an ‘Oi!’ badge.
Ed Wolbank, who later found fame and fortune with Bound For Glory, played with Moonstomp for a short while before they called it a day. Rumour also has it that the Anti-Heroes asked Ed to play for them, but he declined because he was busy with Moonstomp.
CASH and Romantic Violence
Founded by Clark Martell in late 1984, Chicago Area Skinheads or CASH became the first organised White Power skinhead gang in the United States. Clark Martell was a longtime racist. Aged only nine, he joined the National Socialist People’s Party but ‘quit because they didn’t have any women members, and women are vital for ensuring survival of the white race.’ In 1979, now aged 19, he was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated arson against a Hispanic family in Chicago. However, prison gave him the time to read Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Converted, he now described himself as a ‘born-again Nazi.’ Upon his release in 1983, he joined the Chicago-based American Nazi Party and started to do cartoon work for the party’s newsletter, Public Voice. He now recycled himself as a skinhead. One skinhead recalls the first time he met Martell:88 ‘I was in a bar, and Martell was there, dressed in purple cord flares, a sleeveless, leopard-skin shirt, and a little mohawk. Funny shit! I was a skinhead, and he was passing out white power literature.’ He did not stay out of trouble for long and, in September 1984, he was arrested again for painting swastikas on public property in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. Despite being on parole, he was soon released from custody.
Martell ran a small mail order White Power operation called Romantic Violence out of two P.O. boxes, one in Blue Island, Illinois, the other in Cicero, Ilinois. He progressed from selling ‘Death’s Head Muscle’ T-shirts to unauthorised Skrewdriver tapes. He would later import and sell Skrewdriver albums. He also promoted home-grown talent, selling compilation tapes with material from the Bully Boys and Doc Marten, another with White Pride, U.S. Chaos and his very own White Power band Final Solution.
Martell had formed Final Solution in early 1985, along with other members of CASH. The band proved short-lived, but managed to play a couple of times in and around Chicago. Flyers were distributed to promote the band. One such flyer, under the heading ‘White Power Rockers Unite Against Communism in Chicago,’ boasted: ‘A new breed of heroes have sprung from the Midwestern soil, brave skinhead patriots ready to fight for race and nation. These talented musicians and courageous warriors have put together white power lyrics with an energetic beat to produce the best American skinhead anthems.’
Martell and his crew also produced a fanzine called National Socialist Skinhead:99
One well-circulated comic strip from that publication shows a black mugger, dressed like a Zulu warrior, taking a yuppie’s wallet: ‘Han ova dat wallet honky mutha!’ The yuppie complies, and the mugger goes to his next victim, only to discover that it’s a gruesome-looking skin; the skin slugs the mugger. In the last frame, the skin’s girlfriend says to him, ‘Ah, thank you, Randy, just what I always wanted, a grease and blood covered nigger necklace.’ National Socialist Skinhead often contains references to ‘Jewish Communists’ and long dissertations on the importance of skinhead women. ‘Some of the Chicago Area Skinhead girls,’ reads one photo caption: ‘These beautiful white girls are working hard to keep the holy white race alive, bringing forth children of good race, excited about getting pregnant and giving life.’
In June 1985, Martell and members of CASH participated in a march sponsored by the American Nazi Party objecting to Chicago’s annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Day. This was just the start for Martell the activist. ‘He was a magnetic recruiter,’ says Chris Picciolini, who was recruited by Martell, adding: ‘This is what he was born to do.’ In 1986, Martell attended a training camp run for right-wing extremist groups by Robert Miles, former Grand Dragon of the Michigan KKK, and reportedly stated: ‘I am a violent person. I love the white race, and if you love something, you’re the most vicious person on Earth.’ Again and again he would prove he was the most vicious person on Earth. In January 1988 he was arrested again. The Chicago Reader reported over one year later:
Romantic Violence flyer circa 1986
Martell has the distinction right now of being accused of no fewer than seven felonies stemming from four different incidents. Three of the incidents involve violence or intimidation against Hispanic women; the fourth, which has kept Martell in jail for a full year on a quarter-million dollars bond, stems from an alleged terrorizing attack on a former follower, a woman, who left his group. According to press accounts, Martell and five of his followers (including his girlfriend, her brother, his girlfriend, and another couple) were accused of breaking into the woman’s house, beating her severely, pistol-whipping and macing her, and trashing the place, leaving several swastikas painted on the wall, including one in the woman’s blood. So effective was their alleged persuasion that the woman didn’t even call police; it was only some months after the attack allegedly occurred (in April 1987) that police, investigating anti-Semitic vandalism on the 49th anniversary of Kristallnacht, heard rumors about it. They tracked the woman down and got her story, and last January the CASH members were indicted. Martell’s friends were all released on bail, but he, as the ringleader, was charged with home invasion, a class X felony under Illinois law. His $250,000 bond would require a 10 percent cash payment, and this Martell has not yet been able to raise.
In June 1989, Martell was convicted of home invasion, aggravated battery and robbery, and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Many commentators thought this was the end of CASH. How wrong they were! It was the end of one chapter. Another had already begun.
Lockjaw
Punk may have also had its very own bad boys, Portland band Lockjaw, who have often been accused as white power racists. In 1982 Lockjaw self-released the Shock Value EP single, a prime slice of edgy hardcore punk, but it featured songs ‘Nazi Dentist’ and ‘Go Back’ jointly written by guitarist Del Murry and bass player Eric Couch:
Fuck you — Go to hell
When I’m on the bus
Fucking gook that you can’t trust
On her back was a brat
Fucking slopehead ate my cat
Walking down the street today
Kill boat people in my way
Go back to Vietnam
The record review of Shock Value in Maximum Rock n Roll #3 stated ‘Unfortunately the lyrics are really stupid, being sexist, violence-prone and despite their protestations, racist as hell.’ Rumour has it that local record shops smashed their copies of the single. Guitarist Del Murry later argued that ‘Go Back’ was done ‘in the Meatmen vein but everyone thought we were racist for it and we said fuck it and played up on it. We liked being hated. We liked fighting, drinking and gun play… After Dead Friends came out [drummer] Rob quit the band and we found Garret and Jeremy. Me and Garret were Skinheads and the bad boy rep got bigger and that’s when we said “Drink hard kick and beat and thrash there is nothing we like more than to kick some rocker’s ass.”’
Released in 1983, Dead Friends has one or two shocking moments, like the lyrics to ‘She’s a Slut’ which are written by Del Murry, but there’s no hint of racism. Interestingly, the lyric sheet states: ‘Fuck off Maximum R&R.’ This may have been in response to their damning review of Shock Value, but the band was also pissed about a Portland scene report in Maximum Rock n Roll written by Courtney Love where she called them a ‘Nazi band.’
Vocalist Tony Arcudi would later admit that Dell ‘was or seemed to be’ right-wing conservative, excusing most of what he did as a means to ‘shock people and get attention for the band.’ There’s absolutely nothing wrong with such shock tactics, but they have to be considered and measured. Arguably, ‘Go Back’ is not considered or measured. In fact, it reinforces the notion that they were dumbass young kids trying to shock. However, for many in the punk and hardcore community, the fact that Del Murry had a swastika on his guitar and used to go down to L.A. and hang out with the WAR skins cannot be dismissed so readily.
Labeled ‘Portland’s most hated band,’ Lockjaw continued to play on, but shows became increasingly few and far between. The band broke up in 1987 (if not earlier). The reasons are not known, but one commentator believes that the band could no longer get shows because of their skinhead following and secondly the band was politically divided and at war.
In conclusion, there is much to be considered, but on the face of it Lockjaw was not a Nazi band openly preaching a White Power and nationalist socialist message in the same way as Skrewdriver (or some of the American WP skinhead bands that followed). However, question marks still remain about the actions of one or two of its band members.
There is one possible final twist in the tale. In November 1988, an Ethiopian immigrant was beaten to death by three White Power skins in Portland. Well, one former member of the band was heard bragging about giving the three skinheads a pep talk before the incident. This may just be a case of tasteless bravado or perhaps something much more sinister.
Arresting Officers
1987 saw the birth of three new nationalist skinhead bands in Philadelphia who changed everything. The most important and outspoken was Arresting Officers. After dispensing with the services of their original bass player, the line-up became Paul Hawthorne on vocals, Ron B and Bob Belcher on guitar, Bill M on bass and Brian Haughton on drums. They decided to start the first pro-White skinhead band because they were fed up with ‘all the jew commies and anarchists, upper-class suburban punk scum who ran the local underground music scene’ and they wanted to put ‘the voice of the white working class to Oi music.’1010 They cited their musical influences as Skrewdriver, Last Resort, Infa Riot, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer, Combat 84, the Business and many other early ’80s Oi bands. All band members of Arresting Officers were white nationalist skinheads or national socialist skinheads. They realised the enormity of the task before them:1111
Well as for life in our city (and much of the East Coast) we are surrounded by the enemy, especially in Philly where whites are the minority. We see threats from Marxists and militant Jews, the corruption of our government, the decline of our neighborhoods from the influx of non-white immigrants, the evils of drugs and the treason of our people by the growth of race mixing. As racial warriors we take pride in our culture and stand up for Aryan survival, the precious gift of our Nordic blood will not perish. The life of the stormtrooper skinhead is not an easy one, but with our faith we stand determined.
The band recorded an eight-track demo which was well-received. The following year (although its release may have been delayed to February 1989) Rock-O-Rama Records released their debut album called Patriotic Voice which made an impact, not so much musically, definitely lyrically. The opening track, ‘The Evil Has Landed,’ attacks the ‘invasion of our country by illegal aliens’:
They don’t fly the flag or speak the language
They take our jobs and they don’t pay taxes
It’s an act of war when they cross the border
So pledge allegiance or be deported
The evil has landed we gotta fight back, the border patrol will take care of that
The evil has landed we gotta fight back, close the border to the immigrant attack
They set up shop and sell their drugs and their murder
Or they stand in line to have welfare serve them
They don’t join the nation, they try to divide her
They take from the pockets of their only providers
They storm the cities and bring the poverty disease
And blame the nation not the land from where they came
It’s not give and take, they’re taking over
It’s time for the White man to stand
Parasites hold the country hostage
With Affirmative Action they know they’ve got us
We built the Nation that they wanna take away
They undermine the culture of the home of the brave
The catchy ‘Get the Reds Out’ deals with the ‘haven for Marxism in Nicaragua and how we want to smash Communism in our hemisphere.’ Nearer to home, ‘Falling to Bits’ bemoans the decline of Philly ‘due to drug dealing and crime-infested ghettos,’ as well as ‘lenient sentences for pushers and other scum.’ ‘Disorderly Conduct’ captures the unbridled insanity of a night out as 30 drunken Philly Boot Boys make their way to a party. ‘Disarm Never’ remembers that ‘a cry from the left was all it took to lose the Vietnam War’ and rejects the Reds’ argument for complete disarmament. ‘13 Stars and Stripes’ recounts, as the band put it, ‘our pride in the glorious birth of our homeland.’
The next vinyl outing from the Arresting Officers was the three tracks on the No Surrender! Volume 3 comp LP released in 1989 (RRR #86). All three songs are up-tempo, well-played and well-produced Oi classics. ‘The Hammer and the Raven’ celebrates the Norsemen, Odin and the Runes. ‘Stop Red Action’ rages against the terrorist ideals of the Reds who want to bring down their country:
You tread on Old Glory, but you’ll never tread on me
The only place you can exist is in democracy
And if you flew subversive flags in your Red homeland
You’d disappear into a cell and never be seen again
Red Action, Red Action, the writings on the wall
Red Action, Red Action, you’re headed for a fall
You’d give away my home to the homeless if you could
You side with all the traitors and the enemies of good
But a skinhead lives to save his land from the communists at hand
We’re proud to wear the flag and the world should understand
That same year, the Arresting Officers also contributed ‘Deserve to Die’ and ‘Changing of the Guard’ to the Spirit of Oi! American Style compilation LP on Oi!Core Records. Both songs had previously appeared on their debut album.
One year later, Rock-O-Rama Records released the Arresting Officers’ second and final album entitled Land and Heritage (RRR #91). By now Sean had replaced Bill on bass. The final cover may not have been the one the band wanted.1212 This album is a disappointment for many reasons. It only features nine songs and it feels as though the album was stripped of three songs to fill out the compilation LP. Admittedly the songs are better produced and fuller than those on the first album, but now they seem measured, even safe. The pick of the album is the up-tempo rock-tinged ‘Victory in Our Time’ and ‘Your Money or Your Life’ which is reminiscent of Martin Cross’ best work. Once again the lyrics are flag-waving, militaristic, anti-communist, anti-leftist, anti-capitalist and anti-gay. Some deserve special mention. The last verse to ‘Defend Us in Battle’ states:
Father Coughlin was a glimmer of great White hope when he proclaimed
That the banker and the Bolshevik must be driven from our land
The sun will rise and three sevens will mean perfection for our home
And we’ll put fire to subversive lies and the books that don’t belong
Father Coughlin, or Charles Edward Coughlin, was a humble Roman Catholic priest who became an increasingly outspoken radio host whose audience numbered tens of million at his peak in the early 1930s. Venturing from religion to politics, he started to attack Communism and criticize ‘the capitalists in America whose greed had made Communist ideology attractive to many Americans.’ After the election in 1936, he became a sympathetic supporter of the fascist policies of Hitler and Mussolini as an antidote to communism. He blamed Jewish bankers for the Russian Revolution and cited that an ‘international conspiracy of Jewish bankers’ caused the Great Depression. His attacks against Communism and the Jewish people would continue for many years until he was taken off the air in 1939. The Arresting Officers dedicated this album to ‘the works of Rev. Charles Coughlin…’
‘Your Money or Your Life’ also exposes the antics of the international Jewish banker. ‘Victory in Our Time’ weighs in with the lines: Look at Ben Franklin two hundred years ago/Warned us of the semites and their evil power goals. This refers to the so-called Frankin Prophecy, an anti-Jewish speech attributed to American statesman Benjamin Franklin, arguing for the expulsion of the Jews from the nascent United States because of the great danger they pose. The Prophecy describes Jews as ‘vampires who cannot live among themselves and must live among Christians and others who do not belong to their race.’ The Jews are accused of depressing the ‘moral level’ of the lands they have settled and of attempting to strangle nations financially, citing Portugal and Spain. The Prophecy continues:
If they are not expelled from the United States by the Constitution within less than one hundred years, they will stream into this country in such numbers that they will rule and destroy us and change our form of Government for which we Americans shed our blood and sacrificed our life, property and personal freedom. If the Jews are not excluded within two hundred years, our children will be working in the field to feed Jews while they remain in the counting houses, gleefully rubbing their hands.
I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude the Jews forever, your children and your children’s children will curse you in their graves. Their ideas are not those of Americans, even when they lived among us for ten generations. The leopard cannot change his spots. The Jews are a danger to this land, and if they are allowed to enter, they will imperil our institutions. They should be excluded by the Constitution.
The Prophecy has been exposed as a forgery, but many within right-wing circles still embrace it as the genuine article.
The Arresting Officers remember the victims of the attacks on the American embassies in Tehran and Tripoli in 1979 and call for revenge in ‘Terrorist Bombs.’ Not all of the songs are political, though. There’s the knockabout ‘Another Blackout’ about having a good time and getting blind drunk again. And ‘She’s a Warrior’ about a skinhead girl proud of her race and her country who is prepared to fight her corner. Truly ‘The Red White and Blue is her design’!
The band broke up that same year. Gigs had been few and far between, the best were with the Uprise, also from Philly. The Arresting Officers are still held in high regard and many cite their records as the blueprint for all subsequent nationalist American skinhead releases.
The second of the two nationalist skinhead bands formed in Philadelphia in 1987 was New Glory. The original line-up of the band was Fran Sherlock on vocals, Todd Forkin on guitar, Tom Sullivan on bass and Rob Daly on drums. Rob had served time in the Uprise. Tom was replaced by Matt Andrews on bass, who had also served time in the Uprise. Musically New Glory was influenced by the likes of Condemned 84, Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack, the Last Resort and American band U.S. Chaos. As for politics, the band was nationalist, anti-communist and pro-white. Asked if he considered New Glory a white power band, Fran replied:
We are White Nationalists. Subsequently, we hold our beliefs of white power for white people. The Aryan people must forge their own destiny, free from the rule of an alien occupational government that serves no representation to the white American masses.
The band recorded a demo, which they mailed to Rock-O-Rama Records. Herbert of ROR liked the demo, contacted the band and offered them a record deal. The band signed a ‘two-year contract with the label’. The ‘first born’ was the Backlash LP, which was originally titled From the Ashes, with a rather splendid full-colour cover of a skinhead carrying the Stars and Stripes in one hand and a torch in the other. New Glory play spirited Oi but manage to avoid sounding formulaic evidenced by the clapping hands in ‘Red, White and Blue,’ and the unexpected acoustic guitar in ‘Loyal and Brave.’ This really is something different! The lyrics are not as outspoken as, say, the Arresting Officers. None are overtly racist. Rather, there’s a lot of praise for the white power skinhead movement and patriotism. ‘We the People’ was explained as ‘about today’s struggle for the true America, not the leftist-infiltrated nightmare the U.S. is quickly becoming.’1313 The best song is undoubtedly ‘Sarge’ about a decorated war veteran who finds himself homeless and ridiculed after the end of his service:
They used to call him Sargeant now he’s living on the street
A medal for his honor but no food for him to eat
Time is getting tighter, hope is growing slim
We all know what he did for us and what did we do for him?
The Sargeant led his regiment through an Asian hell
He’d seen his share of heroes, the stories he could tell
Once he was respected, an expert with his gun
But that was then, this is now, today he’s called a bum!
The well-to-do look down on him, they turn away and laugh
But they don’t know still in his pocket is a soldier’s photograph
And when they laugh he rolls his sleeve for all the rich to see
A broken man’s last tattered pride, his tattoo U.S.M.C.!
American Oi band the Anti-Heroes used one verse of ‘Sarge’ in the intro of their song ‘Murder One.’ All things considered, New Glory was relatively satisfied with the album.
For a nationalist band, New Glory managed to play regularly. They supported the Uprise a few times. Gigs became more difficult after they lost their drummer, but the drummer of Elite Terror was drafted in for live work.
New Glory hoped to record a live LP and then a second studio LP, but these plans came to nothing. They did contribute two new tracks with a new sound to the Gods of War volume 3 compilation LP, ‘Afghanistan’ and ‘New Era.’ What a shame they sound so horrible. The guitar solos screech uncontrollably and overwhelm. Furthermore, both songs seem to fade out prematurely. The only redeeming feature is the vocals but they are not enough to vindicate the appearance of these substandard songs, a sad legacy for such a promising band. Of real surprise, however, are the lyrics of ‘New Era’ which embrace the Third Way:
Conservative criminals they are the reason
We are the victims of economic treason
They have their reason, their reason is greed
It’s their blood money and it’s us who bleed
We see the dollar signs in their eyes
The rich get richer while the nation dies
Now the U.S. people begin to realize
Monopolies kill free enterprise
Standing on the edge of a new era
We are working for a new day
A nation’s pride, a people’s vision
Our only future a true third way
The third band out of Philadelphia was United Noise who formed in November 1987. The band’s name is unusual but they felt it suited them because they played a combination of Oi and rock ‘n’ roll. The line-up was Steve Spagnola on vocals, Gavin Perry on guitar, Sam B. on bass. The drummer’s name is not known. At the start of 1989 the band changed name to Elite Terror when they added two new members. Garret Kress joined on lead guitar and Rob D. became the new drummer. Rob D. had previously played in the Uprise and also drummed for New Glory. Most of their songs were about the skinhead way of life, white nationalism and other issues of concern. United Noise recorded a five-song demo tape. However, when the band changed name, they also changed the name of the demo tape and sold it with the same songs under the name of Elite Terror. The band was pleased with the demo and the reaction to it: ‘It took a long time to put it out. The engineer we had was great. The people who have heard it seem to like it. I’ve got letters from people who’ve bought it and they seem to like it.’
The band desperately wanted to get signed by Rock-O-Rama Records. Their wish came true when ROR released their one and only album called Flame of Pride in 1990. The cartoon-like cover of a skinhead slaying a dragon in the middle of a street is warning enough not to buy this album because only disappointment awaits you inside! Only nine songs are on offer here and one of them is an instrumental. The vocals are nondescript and mediocre. The songs lack energy and impact, making them quite forgettable. The lyrics are political, though not as hard-hitting as their contemporaries. ‘Working Class Man’ is about as extreme as it gets:
Get up in the morning and out of bed
Your gears are turning but you wish you were dead
And if you’re feeling funny you won’t have a job
And half your money goes to ZOG
Immigrants are coming to make their stay
But it’s the working class that will have to pay
Equal opportunity will work for us all
But affirmative action must take its fall
Searching for our future, but there’s a doubt
Feels like torture so you have to shout
Being a minority is your only chance
But freedom for all is such a sham
Like in Europe, skinheads in America were also proud of their working-class heritage, which they saw as under attack from immigration and affirmative action. ‘Elite Terror’ talks of the appearance of ‘a new breed,’ ‘fighting for the truth,’ who will ‘give our race a proud new start.’ Undoubtedly, skinheads are this new breed. ‘Flame of Pride’ flies the red, white and blue of the Stars and Stripes high. ‘Fall of This Nation’ and ‘Justice Is Dead’ require no explanation. The other lyrics are indecipherable, but it’s no great loss. There’s mention of the reds a couple of times. This band was anti-communist.
Overall, this is not a great album, which might explain why some 25 years after its release that this is one of the easier ROR releases in their extensive back catalogue to pick up and why it also continues to command an affordable price, unlike the Arresting Officers. The price of an item is not always a sure sign of quality, but it’s a good indicator! ROR also released a single through Street Rock N Roll, featuring songs ‘Elite Terror’ and ‘Flame of Pride.’ [The author does not know if these two songs are the album versions.] The band promptly disappeared without a trace. Was it out of embarrassment?
Youngblood
The first rumblings of skinhead nationalism could also be heard on the West Coast. The Bootboys formed in Southern California in late ’87. The band went through many line-up changes, leaving vocalist Lee Stewart as the only original band member.
The band recorded and released a demo the following year with eight songs: ‘Blitzkrieg,’ ‘Survival of the Streets,’ ‘Soldier Boy,’ ‘Richard Cory,’ ‘Skinhead Pride,’ ‘Fight for Your Right,’ ‘Violence in Our Minds’ by the Last Resort, and ‘American Heritage.’ ‘Richard Cory’ is a narrative poem by Edwin Robinson about a rich man, who is admired and envied by those around him, and yet he unexpectedly takes his own life.
That same year, the Bootboys appeared on the U.S. of Oi compilation LP released by UK punk label Link Records. The line-up was Lee Stewart on vocals, Hans Molnar on guitar, Doug Fatone on bass and Eric Davenport on drums. Their contribution was ‘American Heritage’ and ‘Richard Cory.’ Eric Owens joined on bass. He had played previously in the California Oi band Lion’s Pride who had a Filipino drummer. Eric Owens was a self-proclaimed Nationalist Socialist, which he described as an ‘ideology for the preservation and expansion of the White Race.’1414 Like many people in the movement, Skrewdriver had led him down the path to National Socialism:1515
Well of course, I thought this country was crazy, and I thought it was self-destructing, and I thought there had to be some kind of order brought to the whole mess. Initially I had come into contact with the John Birch Society. I was looking for a way to make a difference, to correct the mess, I wasn’t ready to take the big leap because I felt that, ‘Oh there are still some nice Blacks, and some nice Mexicans, Asians, etc.’ It didn’t take me long to realise that the right wing was going nowhere. Their rhetoric about the ‘Communist threat’ to democracy was meaningless to a youth growing up in the multi-racial mess they were talking about defending. Through the underground Punk scene, I had discovered Oi! music, which in turn led to Skrewdriver. I heard it and I liked it! It seemed to have a more intelligent message. It promoted violence, and the working class. The message was stronger than the Punk rock music, which promoted anarchy and pacifism, neither of which work when you get out into the real world. Oi! music was saying ‘Fight for what you believe in!’ So I gravitated towards it.
Plans to record an album entitled Brighter Tomorrow never came to fruition.
The band later changed their name to Youngblood (or Young Blood) and came out as a National Socialist band. Youngblood recorded an album for Rock-O-Rama Records called Final War which was released in 1989. The band listed on the album was Lee Stewart on vocals, Dave Van Voorhis and Hans Molnar on guitar, Eric Owens on bass and Chris Bewick on bass (which was the same line-up for the Bootboys at the time of the interview with Blood and Honour in late 1988 or early 1989). The band’s sound on the album is raw, even a bit amateurish, but powerful and surprisingly tuneful at times. The vocals are shouted. The choruses are chanted. This is Oi strongly reminiscent of early Brutal Attack with the occasional guitar solo. Think ‘Stronger Than Before’ and ‘As the Drum Beats.’ The streetwise lyrics are not of the same stature, though. Some are horribly clichéd like ‘Skinhead Pride,’ ‘Skinhead Rebel,’ ‘Fight for Your Right’ and ‘Working Class.’ The jingolistic ‘Frontline’ honours those who served and died in Vietnam, Iran and Lebanon and brands as traitors the anti-Vietnam War protestors with long hair waving their red flags. The chorus proudly and defiantly boasts:
We want to win this time we send our boys to the frontline
We want to win this time we’re not going to stand at the back of the line
The slower-paced, brooding ‘The Storm’ foresees a rising storm which will make the reds pay for all their actions and their words. Once again the chorus proudly and defiantly boasts:
A storm is rising and we’re growing strong
We’re not going to let them take this country cos it’s ours
The world is full of contrasts and so is this album, but the ‘good’ outweighs ‘the bad and the ugly’! The highlights are ‘Working Class,’ ‘Frontline’ and ‘Skinhead Rebel.’ If the band had stayed together it would have been interesting to see what might have been. This album has become one of the harder records on ROR to find. It was later rereleased on CD. ROR also included Youngblood on No Surrender! Volume 3 released soon after their album. The compilation LP features two lively numbers, ‘Blitzkrieg’ and ‘Terrorism,’ which unfortunately struggle to compete against the two preceding offerings from Skrewdriver. ‘Blitzkrieg’ is foot-stomping, fist-pumping Oi, sounding more Brutal Attack than ever, whereas ‘Terrorism’ is more hardcore with a short guitar solo. Never was a lyric sheet more needed, though. After the band broke up, Eric Owens decided to record as a solo artist playing folk music with a National Socialist message.
Famously, in November 1987, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish organisation, published a special report on the upsurge of Skinhead and Nationalist Youth movements in the U.S. The six-page report, which lists the names of skinhead groups and their associations, was alarmed that more and more young White kids were being drawn to nationalism and to a ‘type of hard-driving rock music called “white power” music.’ The report added ‘the lyrics of skinhead or “white power” bands promote White Nationalism in a form that young people like and understand.’ Doc Marten was the only U.S. band to be mentioned in the report who now found themselves banned from playing anywhere in the U.S. The band complained: ‘Well now we don’t even bother with playing in the U.S. It’s too much of a bother, great country [though]. We can’t even play in our hometown. It’s amazing what freedom of speech really means these days!’ They would not play again for two years.
The Allegiance
In mid-April 1988, the Allegiance from Columbia, Pennsylvania reformed with a new agenda to play nationalist rock ‘n’ roll. The band was a three-piece with Dave Stallings on vocals and guitars, Brian Carlson on bass and Joe Gerlitzki on drums, who also produced fanzine Boots Brigade. All three of them had previously played in other bands. Joe remarked: ‘I played in a band called Warrior’s Pride, but I left as the other members started getting into drugs. Dave and Brian were also in a few other street punk-type bands, but that was a long time ago.’ They considered adding a second guitarist, but decided not to because they were happy with this three-piece line-up. Asked about their band name, Joe replied:1616
The Allegiance was the best way to sum up the band in a couple of words. We are loyal to our great country, and we pledge full allegiance to the flag that represents our land. We have a song about this and it’s called ‘Old Glory.’ This song is basically how we feel as patriots and nationalists.
Their musical influences came from the likes of Skrewdriver, Condemned 84, Brutal Attack, No Remorse, 4-Skins, the Last Resort, Skullhead, Indecent Exposure and old Sham 69. Sadly they did not sound as original or hard-hitting as their influences. Proud of their race and nation, they wrote songs about ‘things that working-class people can relate to.’ Things moved quickly for the Allegiance. They recorded two demo tapes in 1988. The first was called ‘New Noise’ with seven tracks, which sounded weak and thin, the second ‘Is This Justice?’ again with seven tracks, featuring the Arresting Officers on backing vocals. Herbert of Rock-O-Rama Records really liked their second demo and wanted to press it onto vinyl. He offered the band a record contract and they duly signed on the dotted line. And yet their first vinyl exposure was on the Oi!Core Records compilation album called The Spirit of Oi!… American Style. Two albums on Rock-O-Rama Records followed in quick succession, Rough Justice (RRR #80) and Don’t Bother Me (RRR #84), which had a tentative working title of ‘We Pledge Allegiance.’ So Herbert got his way with the second demo which was remixed and repackaged as their debut release Rough Justice.
The release of two albums is a worthwhile achievement for any band; alas, there’s not that much to celebrate. The songs are dull and boring. Rough Justice is the better of the two albums, but that is not saying much. The covers are remarkably uninspired too. The lyrics are mostly lightweight and even the more serious ones lack real bite. And yet curiously the band was much more outspoken when it came to talking about what they sang about and their songs. Joe said in one interview:1717 ‘Some of our songs are against the death penalty, junkies, the liberal treatment of the AIDS problem, homosexual faggot scum, etc.…’ Similarly, in a second interview:1818 ‘We sing about a lot of different subjects like social issues, pride, nationalism, beer, the skinhead way of life in America and our hate for the liberals and communists.’ In a third interview Joe stated:1919 ‘We are not race haters, but we believe in race separation to solve the racial problems of this country.’ More specifically, the title track of the first album Rough Justice was about ‘our hate for judges, lawyers, politicians etc… It is also about how we want to see rapists, muggers and murderers get what they deserve… DEATH!’ Some of the new songs which all appeared on the second album Don’t Bother Me were described as follows:
‘America for Sale,’ this is about how the U.S. is slowly being brought up by foreign big business and our tax dollars are really nothing more than welfare for the politicians. ‘Under My Skin’ is a song all about tattoos. ‘Power and Glory’ tells the story of our utter hate for the red scum communist rodents in our country. ‘Rise Above’ is another song dealing with corporate America. ‘It Won’t Work’ is about how total unity in our society will never work. Racial unity just will never work. And this song is our feelings on those that think it will.
‘Rise Above’ was written by Joe who felt it had a good message people could relate to:2020 ‘“Rise Above” is about how the working class in America is being shut out. It’s either filthy rich or dirt-poor poverty. As soon as we put the boot into foreign big businesses then we will really have a working class in the USA. I’m sick of American plants and factories being moved to Japan and the Japs buying my land, a good example of a Capitalist society, eh? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.’ It was one of his favourites.
Once again the anger, injustice and pride of a skinhead singing for race and nation are just not conveyed in the lyrics and vocal delivery. This is one more reason why there really are better albums to spend your dollars on! The Allegiance hoped to do a mini-tour of the East coast with their ‘close mates’ in the Arresting Officers, but it came to nothing. The band broke up after the release of their second album.
Hakenkreuz
In late 1987 or early 1988, a new nationalist band started in Detroit, Michigan. They were called Hakenkreuz, certainly a name to conjure with, but in actual fact it’s the German name for the symbol of the swastika used by the Nazi Party in Germany and later by the Third Reich, making it a bold opening statement for a band. Then again Hakenkreuz was no ordinary band. They did not hide their politics. They were proud of what they were and that was a national socialist white power band. As a political band, they wanted to mix politics and music ‘as people can listen, enjoy and at the same time get our strong message of N.S. White Power.’ The band was influenced by the likes of Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack, No Remorse, the Glory, Vengeance, Skullhead, White Noise [Australian RAC band], AC/DC, the Who and Lynyrd Skynryd.
Hakenkreuz went through a number of damaging line-up changes, but one constant band member was vocalist Shawn Suggs. They played Oi and recorded an eight-song demo. There was talk of an album deal, but nothing ever materialised. Their songs described the problems the white race faced and a need to battle for white honour, white heritage and the destiny of the white race to reign supreme:2121
Our songs are about our problems over here, all the immigrants, the Zionists, commies and any other scum. We also sing about our love for our land, our brothers and sisters etc.… Our songs are ‘White Knights,’ ‘New Order,’ ‘Now is the Time’, ‘Fight for the Flag,’ ‘On the Rise’ and ‘Traitors Beware.’
Also of interest is the band’s closing comments at the end of one fanzine interview: ‘Cheers also to all other skinhead bands who fight for the cause. Thanks to the branches of Hammer Skins everywhere (Northern, Western, Confederate), and all skins that are true. Thanks to the prisoners of war, Clark Martell, Holin Lange, Sean Tearant, Dean McKee and everyone who’s in jail or given their lives to the cause. Thanks to our idols, especially Robert J. Mathews, Rudolf Hess and George L. Rockwell. Keep the faith, HAIL THE ORDER!’
Despite their choice of name, Hakenkreuz managed to play live a few times. The first time was in Detroit with a speed metal band. The second time was in Muskegon where they headlined and were supported by a punk band. The third time was in Detroit in their singer’s house. The group would claim Z.O.G. prevented them from playing the WAR-organised ‘Aryan Woodstock’ in March 1989.
Hakenkreuz broke up before they released anything on vinyl. Vocalist Shawn Suggs went on to form Max Resist and the Hooligans, who were just as outspoken as Hakenkreuz.
Canada Arise — Warhammer
In January 1989, Warhammer formed in Canada just for fun but soon became more serious. After losing their first bass player due to personal reasons, the line-up consisted of Jay on vocals, Ian on guitar, Bob on bass and Terry on drums. Politically, all were members of the Canadian Social Movement which was the sister movement to the British National Front and believed that ‘the Third Way is the best way.’ Their songs were overtly political as Jay explained: ‘We sing about the decaying state of the nation and other White Nations around the world. We also sing about the solutions to the problems that cause this decay like crime and drugs. We are to get White people everywhere to see the light and join the cause of National Revolution.’2222
Warhammer released the ‘Political Soldier’ demo with seven tracks in 1989. The demo is also called ‘Cry Revolution.’ Musically, this is not a good listen. In fact, it’s instantly forgettable. The band was not ready to record together, not even a demo. It would have helped if they had learnt how to play their instruments first! The vocals are shouted. Not all of the lyrics can be heard. To keep society strong, ‘Law & Order’ advocates the return of capital punishment: Murderers and rapists should all have to die/Tighten up the noose, string them up high. One of the more interesting song titles is ‘Meibion Glyndwr,’ a Welsh nationalist group responsible for fire-bombing English-owned holiday homes between 1979 and 1993. The campaign of resistance had started in protest at the growing trend of wealthy English people buying rural holiday homes, making it difficult for local people to buy one property, thereby destroying Welsh culture and language.
Besides the demo, Warhammer had a number of other songs: ‘No Pride’ about the ‘scum that sell and do drugs’; ‘Segregation Now’ which the band believed was the only solution to the problems that faced Canada.
Warhammer did not stay active as a band for long.
Aryan Woodstock 1989
After the ‘success’ of the ‘Aryan Fest’ the year before, WAR and the American Front organised a two-day ‘Aryan Woodstock’ rock concert on a site in Napa County, California, which had been specially leased for the occasion. The concert was planned for the weekend of 4–5 March and would feature live performances from the Midtown Bootboys, Hammerhead and Hakenkreuz. The event became a leading local news story after Metzger claimed it would attract as many as two thousand people.
Napa County officials sought to ban the neo-Nazi gathering by invoking a 1971 ordinance requiring a county permit for public outdoor rock concerts. The judge issued a restraining order prohibiting the concert because organizers had failed to obtain a permit required by county ordinance, but allowed a public gathering, rejecting the county’s argument that the assembly would be a public nuisance and saying it ‘demonstrated no clear and present danger to the public.’ Heick, the San Francisco head of the American Front who represented the concert organizers in court, said: ‘We can sing. We just can’t play instruments.’ In light of the ruling he now down-dialled attendance estimates from two thousand to two hundred.
No more than one hundred white radicals and skinheads actually showed up, where they were met by police and protestors picketing along the roadside into the area. The rain-lashed event proved a miserable experience for those that attended. Tom Metzger spoke to the assembled mass, bragging that ‘we, the Aryan movement’ had defeated ZOG simply by holding the event. Not forgetting the presence of the skinheads, he added that they had ‘helped him show that the Jew Police were afraid of the greater Aryan movement. He concluded with the words ‘the final solution is White revolution.’ Arno Michaels of the band Hammerhead remembers the festival quite differently:2323
My one foray out that way was in 1989 for a white power music festival called ‘Aryan Woodstock.’ My band Hammerhead was supposed to play, and we rolled round-trip from Chicago to San Francisco on a Tom Metzger-financed Greyhound ride, along with a small entourage who had managed to scrape up the $99 each to join us. We ended up having 16 skinheads on a 52-hour-each-way bus ride. Once we got out to Napa, the local government leveraged an ordinance loophole that barred us from playing music, though we were still allowed to gather. In true Aryan Warrior fashion, the only reasonable course of action was to get royally shitfaced and commence beating the hell out of the hotel rooms and each other. The debacle is known to this day by racists and otherwise as ‘Aryan Woodflop.’
After the festival, Tom Metzger satirized the police and judicial actions in WAR as a means of turning defeat into victory for true believers. WAR managing editor Wyatt Kaldenburg, one of the security guards for the event, claimed in WAR: ‘The great lesson learned from our first Aryan Woodstock is that Rock ‘n’ Roll is the way to go. Our enemies have taught this by the way they over-reacted. Anything that scares the creeps this bad has to be good.’ Many had already learnt this lesson and learnt it well. Music is a particularly useful propaganda medium for achieving the white revolution.
Bound For Glory
In late March 1989, Bound For Glory formed in the St. Paul area of Minneapolis. B.F.G. became one of the best-known and most respected American white power bands. Guitarist Ed said of forming B.F.G.: ‘We formed due to the need for a white racialist viewpoint to counter the anti-white elements of punk rock, new wave and worst of all rap music.’2424 Moreover, Ed again: ‘We felt that there weren’t many bands in the U.S. singing from a racial point of view and we set out to spread our music to the white working-class man of today.’2525
The original line-up was Eric Banks on vocals, Sean M on guitar, Ed Wolbank on guitar and bass, and Dan H on drums. It was this line-up that recorded the ‘Hear My War Cry’ 1989 demo with songs ‘Red, White and Blue,’ ‘Hear My Battle Cry,’ ‘Solitary Warrior,’ ‘Off the Cross’ and ‘Capital Punishment Now!’ British fanzine Hammer of Thor belatedly reviewed the demo and liked what it heard:
This tape reflects the sound of an early line-up of the band. While the lyrics are strong, stirring nationalist wisdom the music is more in the Oi!core style, a point somewhere between Vengeance and Agnostic Front. If you like your music fast, yet deep then this is the tape for you. My favourite tracks are ‘Hear My War Cry,’ which is an open challenge to the evil drug barons, and ‘Off the Cross’ which is a disturbing subtle look at the oppressed world of the white and proud skinhead. Not too bad at all…
Eric Banks was replaced by Joel on vocals. On 29 May 1989, Bound For Glory with new singer Joel and Hakenkreuz played the Oklahoma Festival organised by White Aryan Resistance (WAR). The Festival was held on the property of Joe Grego, the Midwest WAR organizer.
Bound For Glory signed a record deal with Rock-O-Rama Records and the following year, with the help of Scott from War Cry on bass, recorded their debut album called Warriors Glory which featured versions of all five tracks on the demo. The splendid front cover artwork depicts Hermann’s triumphant procession after an alliance of Germanic tribes defeated three Roman legions in the battle of Teutoburg Forest in the fall of 9 A.D. Hermann was the chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci. The victory ended Roman expansion into Northern Europe. Asked about the image on the front cover, Ed of B.F.G. replied:2626
The title song, as well as the LP title, is ‘Warrior’s Glory’ and the song deals with the unmerciful ways of the warriors of the past. The cover Viking is Hermann. He united the German tribes to defeat the Romans who at the time were spreading their perverted, mongrelised tyranny across Europe. And it was a final victory for Hermann to save his land and people from the invaders. The final battle took place in the Teutoburg forest. On the LP, the second half of the song ‘Warrior’s Glory’ deals with the new defenders, the ones who must smash those trying to kill our folk, and those new warriors are the skinheads! There will never be an end to our story/We’ll carry on the faith of the Warrior’s Glory
Elsewhere Ed again describes Hermann as a ‘Germanic Viking that united all the Germanic tribes.’ As such Hermann was not a Viking and he only managed to unite five of the 50 Germanic tribes at the time.
For the most part, the music is intense, basic, mid-paced hardcore punk. The album sounds patchy in places. Guitarist Ed felt the album was okay. It is. He explained: ‘We could’ve done a few songs better though. My old amp was giving me problems in the studio and I felt due to this a couple of songs have a shitty guitar sound. A couple of the songs on the LP were written two days before studio time so it was a bit rushed.’
The basic lyrics deal with booting baldies,2727 white brothers behind bars, capital punishment for drug dealers destroying White Youth, racial pride, love of country and the restoration of the white race. The band was just as proud of its European background and heritage, more so Ed Wolbank who was of Austro-Croatian blood. The band was anti-federal government and recognised the negative impact that America and its ideas of a new world order was having in Europe.
Carl, who was Dan’s brother, joined on bass soon after. Ed would play second guitar on the War Cry LP, but shortly after its recording, the band broke up and the LP, which was due to be released by French label Rebelles Européens, was shelved.
1989 saw the release of the influential Spirit of Oi! American Style compilation LP on Oi!Core Records out of Morrisville, PA, run by Sandy Guzikowski. The album features some of the best up-and-coming skinhead bands America had to offer: New Glory, Mad Hatters, Immoral Discipline, the Allegiance, Forced Reality, Arresting Officers, the Uprise and Best Defense. Most were local. A few, as already discussed, were nationalist. The cover is glorious. There are two distinct pressings of this album: the first has a grey border on the front cover and comes with two inserts, the second has a white border and no inserts, which might even be a bootleg. Rock-O-Rama Records helped with European distribution. The tracks by New Glory, Arresting Officers and the Allegiance are not new. ‘American & Proud’ by Best Defense is the surprise package of the album. If ever ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was in need of a fitting replacement then look no further than this anthem, which says it all with such lyrics: We must fight for this land/Gotta fight to keep it free/Cos we love this land of ours/It belongs to you and me. The fight is against the Reds, the liberals and ‘faggots’ who Best Defence view as traitors.
Best Defense formed in Pennsylvania around 1987 with Greg Olsen on vocals, Tom Walkinshaw on lead guitar, Dave Baier on rhythm guitar, Shawn Moyer on bass and Jim Rogers on drums. They recorded a demo in 1988 which thanked ‘everyone else who believes in honor, equality, courage, loyalty, freedom and America!’ This was followed by a second demo of nine tracks called ‘Six Gun Justice,’ which was due to be released on vinyl by British label Oi! Records, but ultimately came to nothing. The band soldiered on, but broke up without a vinyl release to call its own. [This was rectified years later.] The band was patriotic and nationalist, but that’s as far as it went politically.
Youth Defense League
New York skinhead band Youth Defense League [YDL] caused a stir when they appeared on the New York City Hardcore The Way It Is compilation LP released by Revelation Records. Not only did they present themselves as ‘Rock Against Communism,’ but they thanked Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack. In this way, YDL stood out like the proverbial sore thumb because many of the other bands on this compilation were straight edge and played hardcore, not Oi. YDL recorded two tracks for this New York compilation, but only one was used. Their contribution, ‘Blue Pride,’ was dedicated to ‘working-class youth everywhere.’ Formed in December 1986, YDL was committed to spreading the word of patriotism. Years later, when interviewed by Blood & Honour magazine, the band was presented with a great opportunity to speak candidly about politics. Asked ‘do you see yourself as a nationalist band,’ vocalist Nick replied: ‘We are definitely a pro-American, Nationalist, [and] anti-Communist band.’ That was it. Their political influences ranged from the U.S. constitution and the founding fathers of America to David Duke’s National Association for the Advancement of White People. Yes, they were also White pride, not White Power and definitely not National Socialist. For Nick, Nazism was defeated in 1945 and should remain dead and buried. This definitely did not make YDL on the same page as, say, the Arresting Officers or Skrewdriver for that, even though Ian Stuart and Nick were good friends.
YDL released the ‘Skins for Skins’ demo in 1986 and the ‘Skinheads ’88’ demo in 1988. Their musical influences were Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack, Combat 84, Last Resort, Agnostic Front and early American hardcore acts like Negative Approach, D.Y.S. and Iron Cross. They played regularly in and around New York supporting fellow New York skinhead band Warzone and often performed a cover version of ‘Voice of Britain’ by Skrewdriver.
On Friday, 13 October 1989, Youth Defense League hosted and played the first officially sanctioned RAC USA show at Iron Knights Hall, Brooklyn, New York. The show was approved of, endorsed and encouraged by Ian Stuart. This came about by virtue of the close personal friendship between English Nick and Ian Stuart. The Mad Hatters and Sick Society supported.
In December 1989, Youth Defense League played with Doc Marten at Iron Knights Hall again. This was the first time Doc Marten had played in the U.S. for two years. According to Doc Marten, ‘we blew all the bands there away!’ Self-praise indeed.2828
The following year, Oi!Core Records released the YDL ‘American Pride’ single with three tracks recorded: ‘Youth of America,’ ‘Skinheads ’88’ and ‘Turncoat.’ The front cover, which features an American flag with the Statue of Liberty, celebrates once again the red-white-and-blue patriotism of YDL. The back cover depicts a figure tagged as ‘Eastern Europe’ ball and chain shackled to the hammer and sickle. These boys, who were proud of their land, heritage and way of life, hated communism as well! ‘Youth of America’ pledges loyalty to their homeland, praises the forefathers who ‘carved a great country’ and then calls upon the youth of today to ‘start the struggle’ to ‘rid our country of alien greed’ and ‘lead our peoples to new glories.’ The song ends with ‘Live free or die.’ ‘Skinheads ’88’ describes the growing problems this subculture faces and warns: ‘We will soon unleash our rage.’ Although the song was written in 1988, the use of the number 88 could be interpreted in quite a different way. Then again the song had previously appeared on the compilation album The U.S. of Oi released by Link Records, who would have rejected its inclusion if they had any doubts about its political message. ‘Turncoat’ recounts the story of Harry Webb, a former Korean War prisoner who was battling to recover his U.S. citizenship. According to the New York Times of November 1986:
The America of the 1950s branded Cpl. Harold H. Webb of the Army a traitor, labeled him an informer and gave him a dishonorable discharge from the military when he refused to return to the United States from a prisoner-of-war camp after the Korean War. Now Mr. Webb wants to come home. Mr. Webb is one of the 21 American prisoners of war who chose to stay with the Chinese nearly 33 years ago. And the State Department says he is not a United States citizen anymore. State Department officials said they could not discuss Mr. Webb’s case because of Federal privacy laws.
YDL did not approve of his return, arguing that he gave up the right to come home when he decided to stay behind and marry a communist wife. Overall, this is a great single. It has everything you could ever want from a nationalist skinhead band from that moment in time! YDL recorded new material shortly after the release of the single but it was not released until much later. The story goes that it was supposed to come out on Roger Miret of Agnostic Front’s label. By the time that material was released the moment, their moment had passed.
Another New York City band to thank Ian Stuart was the Cro-Mags on their 1989 album Best Wishes released by Profile Records. One person recalls that when he saw them on that tour in 1989 there was such an outrage that the local San Fernando Valley SHARP chapter protested outside the concert.