SKINHEADS: 40 YEARS OF HISTORY.



The first skinheads appeared in England in 1969. They are born of the encounter between the Jamaican rude boys and the hard mods (1). Thanks to these Jamaican rude boys, while immigrants in England, they discover the bottom ska (2), rocksteady (3) and the reggae which are rapidly becoming the musics of the movement. It's the skinheads who are really spread reggae in England, particularly through the production of Trojan label whose symbol is a Trojan warrior helmet. Under the influence of hard mods, skinheads will create their own style, both marked by their working class membership but also very accurate: high doc martens , jeans, Ben Sherman shirts and Fred Perry polo, braces and shaved heads ( for not getting caught by the police, or to avoid accidents at work in factories).



The spirit then prevailing in the movement has absolutely nothing to do with politics and is a spirit of celebration (often summarized in beer, kisses, fighting) all on the bottom of ska to rocksteady and skinhead reggae (4) (also called early reggae). Then there is no problem of racism within the skinhead movement and it is not uncommon to see black skinheads. The movement on these bases will live for 10 years of steam in the mid-1970s, then revived thanks to the revival and ska bands like Madness, the spacial or Bad manners.

1980: Margaret Tatcher has been in power for a few months. If his liberal politics globaly redress the country's economy, but it has disastrous consequences for the working class. Actually the "Iron Lady" reduces the role of the state, it is pass laws against trade unions in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1988 (5), the entreprises privatization of which has the consequences to the fail of the smaller, taxes are increasing (including VAT at 15%) as the unemployment rate reached a record 5 million in 1982. During her tenure she has always wanted to marginalize the youth since banned rave party and said, in one of his most famous speech "we must crucified all the skinhead crucified". This last sentence more or less give birth to the "crucified skinhead". I must mention that Margaret Tatcher always supported General Pinochet ...




The disastrous social climate allowed the development of the national front. This eager to find new activists for the sound of youth went to the place where she often met the football stadiums. A part of skinheads were then seduced by the ideas of extreme right forever staining the movement .... But these considerations can't explain the drift of the skinhead movement towards the extreme right ...

In 1977 the punk storm sweeping the United Kingdom. But in 1978 the bandss of the "first wave" (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones ...) splittent or turn to a more "commercial" music. The skinheads will then create their own style of punk, and back to where it all began: in the street. Their punk is more brutal and heavier than the 77 punk. It is characterized by a voice éraillée,football hooligans chorus, guitars slow but powerful and ultra interjection Oi! (meaning "hey you" in cockney slang) that very often. This interjection to give its name to this new genre. If music is radicalizes skinhead style dress too as they would shave the hair even more pronounced, and military clothes and heavy coats dockworker come gradually replace the jeans and shirts. If the first groups of Oi! (Sham 69, Cock Sparre, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, UK Subs) already exist in 1978 (or earlier), the Oi! develops especially after 1980, thanks to Garry Bushell, a Sounds magazine journalist. It was him who created the first Oi ! compilation , "Oi! The album, released in November 1980.


At that time, skinhead bands shows often turn to confrontation between different gangs of hooligans supporting differents football teams, or between apolitical skinheads and racist skinheads. Things get worse still, when on 3 July 1981, a concert bringing together The 4 Skins, The Business and Last Resort turns to riot after the cops who try to calm the fights between skinheads and Pakistan, during which Molotov cocktails were thrown (we don't know do that). In addition, the Oi! band Screwdriver, formed in 1977 and reform in 1981 after having split for two years, but meanwhile its leader, Ian Stuart has become a neo Nazi militant activity, bringing with him a skinhead in the audience. In the early 80s he founded Blood and honor international organization, bringing together the fascist skinheads, who also has an armed group, C18 (meaning Combat Adolf Hitler). The same year Garry Bushell publishes a second Oi! compilation "Strengh through Oi!" On the cover of which you can see a gay and Nazi skinhead kicking.



These facts, very relayed by the press and ruin the movement and music to the general public who hastily conclude that all skinheads are Nazis.

Between 1980 and 1987 raids carried out by Nazi skins against Pakistani immigrants in England, as well as violence in the concerts, which grows more and more. Real networks are created racist skinheads and the first RAC (Rock Against Communism) (6) shows are organized. The RAC is a fascistic version of Oi! with homophobic, xenophobic and racist lyrics ... The first alternative for halting the recovery of movement by the extreme right, is created in New York in 1987. This first group of anti-racist skinheads is called SHARP: Skinhead Against Racial Prejudice. SHARP skinheads claim fundamentally anti-racist and anti-fascist, yet there are among them some patriotic pride. The SHARP skins were created with the intention to embedded the movement in anti-racism and the need to bring the movement of black Jamaican roots. That is why they claim apolitical, like the the first hour skinheads . However, a major difference is noted between these two approaches to the apolitical. If the first skinheads did not care completely of this polics, SHARP them have political views but they do not want to mix with the skinhead culture. To differentiate them to nationalist skinheads they create the term "Bonehead" because they do not recognize the right for them to say skinheads because they deny the roots of the movement. Their first logo was a Doc Martens that overwrites a swastika. But the logo they use today takes the sign of the Trojan label (7) with the initials SHARP at the top of the helmet.




SHARP movement will quickly grows, particularly in England where it was popularized by Roddy Moreno, singer of The Oppressed very committed to the extreme left. Today there are SHARP skinheads in the world (USA, England, Canada, France ...)







Created by a small group of people, the mayday crew, formed by dissidents of SHARP, the RASH (Red & Anarchist Skinheads) is a group of red and black skinheads, which emerged in 1989 in New York. This movement is based on the fact that if the skinheads of the late 60s were apolitical, they claimed they belonged to the working class, which indicates that the class consciousness has always been present among them. The RASH is formed in response to the racist movement, but also SHARP patriotism. Indeed, the Redskins are much more radical deal with boneheads and patriotic and nationalist ideas, which explains many disputes between RASH skinheads and skinhead SHARP, sometimes displaying the American flag on their bombers. The RASH skins are often very close to political parties and unions such as the revolutionary CNT, the SWP or the CP. RASH today is a global network more or less formal. There are "fields" RASH everywhere: USA, Canada, South America, Colombia, Romania, Spain, France ...

The skinhead movement landed in France in 1978-1979 with the ska revival. The first french skins are usually of old punks. They first appear around the school and St Sulpice in the neighborhood of the station Colombe. A few years later the first bands of Oi! are created : Trotskids, Kommintern Sect, Wunderbach ... Among them, RAS (clearly marked on the far left) and Snix or Tolbiac Toads (first groups Oi! French nationalists). The Tolbiac Toads is a band of music, but also one of the first boneheads crew in Paris. In a move to better organize, Serge Ayoub (aka Batskin) form the Nazi Klan (first micro skins Nazi organization in the country), including Evil skins members in their ranks, in the early 80's, which will birth to JNR (Nationalist Revolutionary Youth) in 1987. The JNR are made up of members of different boneheads crews (Halles, Luxembourg, Clignancourt ...) It is in this tense atmosphere that the first redskins crew is formed. (8) Between 1985 and 1989 they multiply. However only few of them have marked the french antifascist landscape. The largest is called the Redwarriors: it was created in 1985 to end of the healthy plant, Squatter and self Mecca of alternative rock movement. Each band member did a fighting sport of , to fight foot by foot with the bones. At their first face-to french nationalist skinheads, they return their bombers . Thus was born the legend of urban bombers returned to the skins. The Redwarriors had a solid reputation in the french radical antifascist scene and form a few years later the security order during Bérurier Noir shows. Other important band: The Ducky boys. This is a band of rockers, some twenty people, which is formed at about the same time as Redwerriors. On their bombers they fly the American flag in tribute to the Black Panthers and the As-NAYS. They focus their actions in neo-Nazi shows, where they do battle with the audience. Finally 1988-1989 to french racist skinheads are found in healthy pitbull cop in the PSG stadium . In response to the reunification Ruddy fox is created. This crew consists of members of Ducky boys and young cities that are becoming more involved in the battle against fascism. Then in 1989 the SHARP Beauvais is created, and some years later, in 1993 the Paris-Banlieue SHARP was born. By the mid-90's rash appears Paris-Banlieue . Finally one evening in 2002, where "there were two moons in the sky" International Situationist Skinhead was founded by Chéribibi ( old french skinhead who realized the magazine with the same name). Although a joke when it created the ISS is becoming increasingly important. But behind the creation of the ISS, is witness to a bitter conclusion: the skinhead scene is divided*. This is the story common to all skinheads. But this scene is difficult to identify because in each country it has different specificities. For example members of the Colombian RASH are required to be Straight Edge, that the drug market is very active there, in Romania on RASH means Radical Anarchist Skinheads, SHARP in France are mostly not patriots ... ect . "First, to be a skinhead you must love your Doc Martens, you must love ska music, yu must have the right attitude from the heart and the brain, you must like football, you must like to dance harder than anybody else of any subculture and most of it who need to be antiracist "(Buster Bloodvessel - Bad Manners) Everything is said ...

SOME GOOD MUSIC :

The Oppressed :Oi! Oi! music . Last resort :A way of life (skinhead anthems). The 4 Skins :The good the bad and the 4 skins. V/A :Oi! The album. Toy Dolls :Dig that groove. Cock Sparrer :Shock troops. V/A:Chaos en France (vol.1 et vol.2). Hors Contrôle :Enfants du charbon . Sham 69 :The aventure of Hersham boys.

Toots And The Maytals :Funky kingston. V/A :Trojan skinhead reggae boxset. V/A :Trojan rocksteady boxset. Bob Marley And The Wailers :African herbsman.

Notes:

*I wanted to translate the ISS manifesto but ut's to hard because there's a lot of trick word and humor
(1): Mods have radicalized their appearance to show their reject of the hippie ideals to which more and more mods in the first hour is running.
(2): Music before rocksteady emerged in Jamaica in 1960, with industrialization, a mixture of rock n 'roll, soul and rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, gospel, mentoring, jazz of scat, calypso, merengue, African music and Cuban ... First stai stai then called ska, some argue that these names are born of sound produced as dry plates agreements on the guitar. His times are very marked by the rhythmic bass / drums and a brass section very much. The syncopated rhythm based on the setback is marked by a highlight on the second and fourth measures. The upbeat guitar playing is the setback of the R & B and boogie piano. The brass are added to the solos of jazz bass and a very forward, like merengue, calypso and mento. Often, songs are played instrumentals, frantic and supported. Punctate over the years by onomatopoeia from the scat, it is also anger in the sound system where people come skank.
(3): The ska evolution is a rocksteady whose golden age was from 1966 to 1968. It is slower, and have strong soul accents. In this style the third time is punctuated by the snare and ska contrbasse is replaced by electric bass. The brass are less present than in the ska. The texts of rocksteady artists mainly speak of love. One of the most important musicians of this style was Alton Ellis, who died in 2008.
(4): The early reggae (or skinhead reggae) denotes a style of reggae nervous tempo that developed between 1968 and 1972. In this style the guitar skank is often doubled by the Hammond organ, which then becomes a very important instrument (the organ solos are not uncommon). In the texts of the artists there are many references to skinheads (ex "skinhead moonstomp" or "skinhead a message to you") and social grievances.
(5): "Winter of discontent" is the name given to a miners' strike which lasted from winter 1984 to winter 1985. The miners have not been successful. You can see images of his strike in the film "Billy Elliot" and the first images of "This is England."
(6): The name RAC was chosen referring concerts Rock Against Racism (RAR) which participated Sham 69. (7): Founded in 1967 by Chris Blackwell, who signing Bob Marley 6 years later on Island records, Trojan Records is a label specializing in black Jamaican music whose first skinheads especially appreciate the productions, so that they are sometimes called the "Trojan skins ".
(8): The first crew of " skins hunters skins "in Paris (a term invented by the Ducky Boys), were called in reference to redskin music band of the same name, but also the face of provocation by boneheads. However, these crews have belatedly adopted the skinhead look (circa 1988 -1989).

SPIKE (2009).

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