Skinhead

[D B Disco]

OK, so I was listening to this track and thought I would pop it into the Punk thread,

particularly as the band includes Lars Frederikson from Rancid, but it got me thinking about other Skinhead bands/music, and as to whether they should be labled as "Punk" or whether they are a whole different Genre.

There are certainly a lot of similarities, the music/the lyrical sentiments/both have an affinity with Reggae and Ska. But it seems to me that being a skinhead is more a way of life rather than a fashion statement, and in a lot of ways skinheads seem to be more "Punk" than punks are. (Well, I know what I mean by that!)

For those into this type of music I'd be interested to know your thoughts?

Anyway, here a few more skinhead bands that are worth a listen.

 

[D B Disco]

And a couple more.......

 

[Leo]

When the skinhead era was on the go in the 70's a pub in a local village featured a 5 piece group called....Bobby and the 4 skins. True!

 

[Leo]

Never listened to that type of music but had a go at the first video...not bad.

 

[D B Disco]

When the skinhead era was on the go in the 70's a pub in a local village featured a 5 piece group called....Bobby and the 4 skins. True!

Back in the early 80's there was a band called The 4 Skins. No idea whether they were one and the same?

 

[Aber gas]

 

[Aber gas]

 

[D B Disco]

 

[Nils Holgersson]

I love skinhead punk. Ska can be allright if I'm in the mood.

As for clothes it's a cool style. Most skins around here were very political though and although I did have the same hate as everyone white being constantly picked on in early school I was never really a national socialist, not even as a kid. That ideology seems very wrong to me if you look at the actual ideas, yet the same goes for lefties.

 

[Red]

OK, so I was listening to this track and thought I would pop it into the Punk thread,

particularly as the band includes Lars Frederikson from Rancid, but it got me thinking about other Skinhead bands/music, and as to whether they should be labled as "Punk" or whether they are a whole different Genre.

There are certainly a lot of similarities, the music/the lyrical sentiments/both have an affinity with Reggae and Ska. But it seems to me that being a skinhead is more a way of life rather than a fashion statement, and in a lot of ways skinheads seem to be more "Punk" than punks are. (Well, I know what I mean by that!)

For those into this type of music I'd be interested to know your thoughts?

Anyway, here a few more skinhead bands that are worth a listen.

Love the first and last of these songs.

 

[Red]

Love the stage bottles one mate.

 

[Red]

I love skinhead punk. Ska can be allright if I'm in the mood.

As for clothes it's a cool style. Most skins around here were very political though and although I did have the same hate as everyone white being constantly picked on in early school I was never really a national socialist, not even as a kid. That ideology seems very wrong to me if you look at the actual ideas, yet the same goes for lefties.

What do you take umbrage with about the 'lefties'? I'm sure you know that the very first skinheads were Jamaican working class 'rude boys'. Over here in England it took off in the mid to late 60s when white and black working class kids mixed together at dance halls around rocksteady tunes from bands like The Pioneers, Symarip and far too many others to mention. It wasn't an overtly political thing, nor was the music, it was just kids hanging out together, not caring about each others' skin colour and enjoying the music and times together. Moving into the late 60s / early 70s the neo nazis attempted to adopt the look and such was their notoriety for causing trouble it shaped a lot of people's ideas about who and what a skinhead was. In an attempt to try and restore the perceptions of skinheads, back to to what it originally was groups like SHARP emerged. An ever present theme in all skinhead culture is their working class identity. I'm not sure why you think the actual ideas and ideology around left wing skinhead culture is wrong, unless you mean the incitement to violence.

Here's a few old time skinhead anthems I like

 

[Red]

This is a cover of Roland Alphonso's Phoenix City

 

[Red]

The 2 tone movement that started in the late 70s played a big role in responding to the far right's attempt to highjack skinhead culture.