‘The Music of the Nightmare: “Sounds of Hate” revisited’ is the title of an article by Allon Lee, published in the December 2007 issue of the Australia/Israel Review, the monthly publication of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. It’s a re-examination of neo-Nazi trends in contemporary music, based on an earlier article by Tzvi Fleischer called ‘Sounds of Hate’, published in the August 2000 issue. What follows is a brief commentary on Lee’s article in which I make a number of criticisms and corrections.
And now the end, the end is near / It’s time to say our last goodbyes
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
Is it reality or just a nightmare / Nightmare, nightmare
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide / No escape, no escape
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
Is it reality or just a nightmare / Nightmare, nightmare
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
While a little on the lurid side — “neo-Nazi and far-right wing music is designed to lure, inculcate and brainwash impressionable minds to hate in the name of blood, honour and the supremacy of the white man” — Lee’s description of the purpose of neo-Nazi music is fairly accurate: it’s a propaganda tool. Further, like fascist doctrines generally, it appeals (like music generally), on a non-rational, emotional level, as well as a conscious, ‘political’ level. The $64,000 question, of course, is what kind of a society is it that produces young white men for whom such ideological and emotional posturing is, in fact, appealing…
Roots
On the history of neo-Nazi muzak, Lee is on some fairly shaky ground. For example:
1) “Punk music grew out of “Oi!” music which was itself influenced by Reggae and Ska, and was a manifestation of British working class culture”; in reality, the reverse is true — ‘oi!’ grew out of punk. And in terms of influences, Lee appears to be confusing the musical genre of oi! with the skinhead subculture as a whole. Thus skinhead predates oi!, and while oi! is usually defined as being a skinhead genre — while reggae and ska music are also very popular among skinheads — oi! owes far more to punk than it does the latter two genres, to which it owes very little.
2) “The attraction of “Oi!” bands like Sham ’69, the Angelic Upstarts and the Cockney Rejects for neo-Nazi skinheads was not necessarily a desirable outcome for many of these bands, especially when racist slogans [were] chanted by audience members. Eventually the skinhead movement produced their own authentic bands like the 4-Skins”; an odd statement, in some ways. Thus while it’s true that bands like Sham ’69 (1975–1980…), the Angelic Upstarts (1977+) and the Cockney Rejects (1979–1985…) didn’t appreciate racist sloganeering at gigs, the fact is the presence of neo-Nazis caused all sorts of trouble for the bands, both at gigs and in general. In their early years, this — rather than any principled opposition to fascism in the guise of the National Front (for example) — is what appears to have caused the most tension. Secondly, by any measure that I’m aware of, the 4-Skins (1979–1984, 2007+) are no more nor less authentically ‘skinhead’ than any of the other bands mentioned; in fact, one of the former members of the 4-Skins (1983–1984) Paul Swain later joined Skrewdriver.
3) “An anti-skinhead initiative in the late-1970s by British punk bands called “Rock Against Racism” provided a united front against the skinheads and the rising influence of the neo-Nazi National Front political party, prompting the latter to establish its own record label called White Noise Records in the early-1980s”; in reality, RAR was not initiated by British punk bands, nor was it ‘anti-skinhead’. RAR was what it’s name implies — Rock Against Racism (not British Punk Against Skinhead). Its formation was prompted not just by racist skinheads, but racism in the mainstream of the music industry; famously, remarks by Eric Clapton (against immigrants and for Enoch Powell) and David Bowie (in support of Nazism). Their dickheaded tirades prompted others to organise a series of concerts in which not just punk but reggae and ska bands, with black and white musicians, played together on stage. Why the NF established White Noise, on the other hand, was so it could make money from the racist skinheads by selling them B-grade rock ‘n’ roll with racist lyrics. And that’s exactly what it did.
4) “Skrewdriver’s first album, “All Skrewed Up”, released in 1977, received favourable reviews in mainstream music magazines, including New Musical Express, Sounds, and Melody Maker, emboldening [dead bonehead icon Ian Stuart] Donaldson in his view that the far-right was his spiritual home”; not really. All Skrewed Up contains none of the retarded outpourings on race and nation that characterised later Skrewdriver recordings.
5) “By making the transition, Donaldson made it seem cool for many people to accept the message of white power”; arguably… but again, not really. What made it ‘cool’ for young white men to celebrate white racialist politics was not just poor old boneheaded Ian, but the economic and political circumstances of late ’70s and early ’80s Great Britain, especially those confronting the losers in Thatcher’s class war — the working class. His ‘transition’ also sparked a backlash against the far right’s corruption of skinhead and working class culture more generally.
6) “Although Skrewdriver aligned itself with, and, indeed, was promoted by the British far-right, Donaldson was instrumental in setting up Blood and Honour in 1987, as the National Front was collapsing. To a certain extent the Blood and Honour movement was a trade union for skinhead musicians, who often played gigs organised by political parties but would end up being paid a pittance of the takings”; Donaldson, alongside his good (gay) comrade Nicky Crane, was instrumental in establishing B&H not only because the NF was collapsing — both as a result of its own internal contradictions but also under pressure from anti-fascist activists outside of it — but also because he and other musicians were tired of being used by groups like the NF. In that sense, B&H was not just a union, but a workers’ co-operative (of sorts) for fascist rock ‘n’ rollers.
7) “In the early 1990s, the highly violent Combat-18 (the 18 stands for the position in the alphabet of Adolf Hitler’s initials) was the banner organisation of neo-Nazi ideals in the British music scene, and it was largely formed as a response to the aggressive and successful tactics of anti-fascist groups like Searchlight magazine”; er, no. Searchlight was a magazine which specialised in documenting the far right — true — but in and of itself played a minor role in squeezing the life out of B&H in Great Britain. Combat-18 was, in turn, established partly in order to protect BNP (and B&H) events from disruption by militant anti-fascists organised via networks such as Anti-Fascist Action (1985–2001) and, before that, other groups operating on the margins of the Anti-Nazi League.
Great White Records
Having examined some of the history of skinhead, and the emergence of a fascist current within it in the late ’70s, Lee then turns to the BNP and their much more recent attempt to put their Scheiße to music. The establishment of Great White Records (GWR) represents a further shift away from the crude racism of the BNP’s past, as well as its crude expression via oi! music. Its arrival in January 2006 was greeted not only by groans from music lovers but also an article in The Observer by Neil Mackay (White off the scale, January 22, 2006). The following quote gives some idea of its flavour:
The BNP man, dressed smartly in a pressed white shirt and suit trousers, is about to lay down his first track. He admits that he doesn’t have a strong singing voice. ‘With our swords and our cutlasses, we’ll fight until we die!’ he essays to an old military tune, before forgetting the lyrics and shouting ‘Bollocks!’ Later he talks about the type of music Great White Records will be releasing: ‘I personally quite like reggae but I draw the line at reggae [being released on the label], obviously. We’re not having any bhangra. Unless we turn it into a heavily Anglo-Saxon version, we’re not having any rap either.’
Bonkers, as the Brits like to say. The Lancaster UAF provides some more detail:
What the membership of the party doesn’t generally know is that the GWR studios in Leeds (shared with the BNP’s Excalibur books scam) cost over £1000 a month to run – roughly £12000 per year which is equivalent to the annual membership fees of 400 members. And what precisely does the BNP get for that large investment? A few third-rate songs penned by the Leonard Cohen of the far-right Nick Griffin, BNP councillor Colin Auty singing a racist song about how many Asians there are in Dewsbury and Lee Haggan droning another Griffin song ‘about the domination by foreign cultures of many of our cities and how one day we will reclaim them for the native people’. For God’s sake…
In short, GWR is unlikely to set either the charts or the world ablaze. Note that UK-based doomsters The Prophecy are doing their bit for the BNP and the promotion of racism by recording all their material at Performance studios in Huddersfield with Alan Smith acting as producer; along with David Hannam, Alan is the creative, er genius, behind the fishy label.
Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!
Lee concludes his survey by looking at the scene in Australia and New Zealand. Here he finds that things have quietened down, and he’s largely correct. However, Lee fails to note the role of The Birmingham Hotel in Fitzroy in providing a home for B&H and the Southern Cross Hammerskins for the better part of the last ten years, as well as the fact that the annual Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig — most recently hosted by the Melbourne Croatia Social Club — has been held every year since its inception. Further, not all of the musicians who were active in the ’80s and ’90s have simply gone away, and a number continue to perform in other bands. One prominent local example is Bulldog Spirit, a right-wing skinhead band whose drummer once played not only with Fortress but local neo-Nazi band Deaths Head on a tour of Europe. Another is that of the band THUG, whose lead singer once performed in White Lightning.
The most recent neo-Nazi gig (October 13) was a collaboration between elements of the local Croatian community and B&H and the SCHS. Final War did in fact play at the gig, as did Perth band Quick & the Dead; the gig marking their return to the scene, and with the support of local punk bands in Perth such as The Homicides, happy to share the bill with the aging (and some not-so aging) racists. It’s also worth noting that, just a few short years ago, B&H and the SCHS arranged for the Bully Boys, another US band, to tour locally. Further, that Newcastle-based band Blood Red Eagle, having played Adolf Hitler’s birthday celebrations in Wellington in April (at the HQ of the local branch of the Satan’s Slaves MC) rowed their way to Portland in October to play the abortive 20th birthday celebrations of the global Hammerskins franchise. (Unfortunately for the neo-Nazis, the Elks’ Club proved to be less amenable hosts than the Melbourne Croatia Social Club, and upon learning the true nature of proceedings, told the boneheads to piss off; MCSC, on the other hand, first lied and then agreed to allow the gig to go ahead.)
To be continued…
Bad WhiteBoys aren’t they ?
Let’s have a look at the YidCore website.
http://www.yidcore.com/
Apparently, “They tried to Kill us. They Failed. Let’s Eat”.
Subliminally, “We want you to attempt to Kill us, but will ensure you Fail, Let’s Eat”, in celebration of the use of our much publicised “intelligence” used to goad others into playing the role of the murderous Goyisch Amelek in our irreligious diatribes.
This from a people who would be first to whine that words turn into actions and then use the “law” and all its totalitarian instrumentalities to silence the opinions of others and then celebrate that freedom of speech does not include “hate” speech, but we should all have the courage to care for the inclusion of others as part of our exclusive religion that demands we remain a people apart who decide what is evil and what is good.
Who’s the Sicko ?
Clearly the Jew wants others to attempt to harm them if we are to believe their lie.
Pathetic really isn’t it. These coffin riding “Atheist” Jews are really closet religious extremists bathing in the blood of their kin and smearing the perceptive faculties of those societies they infest with it also.
The Jewish Memetic Symbiote encourages and even lusts that the Amelek (that’s all us non-Jews who won’t Kiss Kike Arse) kill its host, the “Jew”. It feeds on victimhood because it gives it the excuse it needs to make its killing of others a “moral” event. The Jew lusts to kill righteously and in ways that make him feel good about the job.
More than any other, Jews have blood on their hands, and hatred of others in their cold hardened and jaundiced lying hearts.
No person wise to Jewish duplicity would ever try to kill the Jew, for he, the Jew, is a “victim” of his Memetic Symbiote “G_d”, and the Symbiote knows that the death of each and every Jew is a profitable historical event to be celebrated in sacrificial terms and used to beat the other senseless and then to death with guilt.
The Jew is not to be killed… EVER, despite the fact that we Goyim are constantly baited and goaded to perform such a heinous act so that we manifest as the stoopid Goyim. Numerous attempts have been made to separate the biological entity from its Talmudic Symbiote, by banning, burning and prohibiting the dissemination of the murderous memetic virus of Talmudic, narcissistic exclusivism.
So to the Pharisees, your music is not far removed those you accuse, only much, much more devious and subtle. You abuse yourselves silly that the gullible Goyim are two dumb to penetrate your ruse. Your entire religion is framed in the “racist” terms that you accuse us of, and for this you have and will continue to be known as the existential manifestation of the Pharisaic Hypocrite.
PRESERVE THE “LIFE” OF THE BIOLOGICAL ENTITY THAT CALLS ITSELF “JEW”.
Perhaps even become a Gentile Jew ourselves.
I’m a Jew to now. Can someone, perhaps G-d, rubberstamp the event please, or perhaps a transfusion of ontologically exceptional blood may be required to make it so in a racial sense.
But if we were all Jews, who’d we goad into attempting to kill us ?
And tell us please, where are the religious codes of the Amelek that demand they kill you? The Amelek, the Goyim and all other lesser beings exist only in your religious scribblings. You create the very things you must despise, and goad others into despising you, because, as Dr Inanity has opined before… You Jews are NUTS !!!!!!
Ah, but can you sing it?
I think I lost the Amelek codes behind the couch cushions. I’ll check next time I vacuum the house.
has anybody ever been able to read through one of kinky’s posts before shaking their head and just skipping to calling him a fucktard? … and no it doesn’t count if you call him fuckwad instead
I already know what the punchline is so I don’t bother anymore. I am close to putting him in the “this has got to be a clever alias, there is no fucking way” pile with Peter Watson.
[Don’t bother.]
seriously i’ve tried like 5 times now (5 different posts) and none of them are even slightly readable … they’re even worse writing than the bible (and that’s saying something). it’s just plain incoherent
Both comrade Peter Watson and kinky are all right. Just get over your self.
shut up shit heel
Shut up Adam. You’re evil.
yeah well if the stupidity, anti semitism, sexism and totalitarianism of “comrade peter watson (you) and kinky” is good then spank my arse and call me lucifer
Name me one thing that Peter said that was sexist or anti semitic. There is nothing wrong about complaining about Israel.
Wow; I haven’t come across KinkyBoy before; he’s gotta be having a lend, and he should get points for the effort. He’s written 600 words in this reply.
Here’s a classic…
“the gullible Goyim are two dumb to penetrate your ruse”
Okay, after rereading, maybe this dude is just bonkers, but can anyone tell me what the fuck the “Jewish Memetic Symbiote” is?
and the punchline…
“You Jews are NUTS !!!!!!”
Now here’s a gentile with a great grasp of logical and rational thought.
“The Jews are nothing but ZIONIST FASCISTS” taken from statement listed below.
the lumping in all jews as being zionists, all jews as being adherents to the jewish religion and stating that all adherents to the jewish faith are “nothing but zionist fascists” apart from the fact that a hell of a lot of jews world wide oppose various aspects of the israeli state ranging from its domestic policies to the wall to the occupation all the way through to its very existence
if you wanna make a statement against a religion hey i’m all ears as i think they’re all fucked up lies that close the mind and restrict liberty … and that’s the lighter side of what they do! but it’s the same as me blaming the child of a catholic family for the vatican’s involvement in the holocaust or any of the other fun shit that “christians” have done
so i class it as bigotry. if anyone can show me where i am wrong then please do in the immortal words of propagandhi
“I’ll call you on your shit,
PLEASE CALL ME ON MINE.
Then we can grow together and make this shit-hole planet better in time.”
p.s. i don’t care if you are peter or not (reckon you are though) cause at the end of the day you’re just another childish fuckwit
oh and i know you didn’t ask for it but here is some of his/your homophobia for you
Peter Watson aka Stalinist, Nov 14th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
and some general showing your age sorta stuff
Peter Watson aka Stalinist, Oct 23rd, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I’m a self declared Jew now of a most important persuasion. Can’t you read ! Or are you to BatShit Crazie or something… fellow brother Yid with the FlipTopLid. I’m learning how to beat my head against the wailing wall so hard that it does in fact elicit wailing sounds post beating as part of my masochistic experience. I hope someone will be watching, otherwise, what’s the point ! With a bit of luck they’ll join in so I’ll have someone to blame for my pain.
You should learn to include, Dude. To exclude is just plain rude. I’m gonna reform and market your “religion” so much that the Gentiles’ll be the Jews and Jews’ll be the Gentiles.
Adam’s a Pussy whipped JewBoy who does exactly as he’s told to by Eve. Eve’s Symbiote is the Biblical serpent that slithered into her mind and still exists as the Jew’s historical narrative.
oh and there’s a new it’s the end of the world andy
ok kb i read the second one, first time i ever got all the way through one of your posts which you would’ve noticed if you had read mine where i started with
so yeah it’s not that i can’t read it’s that i find it hard to read the stupid shit you spew forth onto your keyboard … and as far as you being jewish and thinking that other jews are out to get you and the whole world and bla bla blady blah that’s where i call you a nutter and part ways … i don’t care if you’re a rabbi or some bald putz in red boot laces, bigotry is bigotry … though to be honest i don’t know if i would classify your ranting as bigotry. i would feel more comfortable listing them under insanity
and as far as
i don’t know any god damn eve so i’m not sure how i could be pussy whipped by her, don’t like snakes and don’t really read the bible
Kinky is going on a little holiday, and unfortunately won’t be joining us in any further discussion for the next little while.
I don’t gate [hate?] Jews. I only hate the racist zionists who own and run Isarel [sic]. All Jews profit from Israel. And so what if I hate gay people. They are shit.
[Congratulations on making such a fine last comment!]
well hating people cause they’re queer is 1 bullshit 2 the boss’s game 3 anti-socialist … and if all jews are profiting off israel can you call the international jewish conspiracy for me cause i didn’t get my god damn cheque
so what i’m getting at is peter you had it right before: you need to stay out of politics until you learn something about life shit heel
and yeah andy i hope that kinky’s holiday involves a strapping white vest (pun intended) and not just mere censorship … but hey either way it’s your house so i can understand not wanting some tosser ranting in it … guess i’ve only got about a week left
Inre KinkyBoy: I believe his pathological aversion to JewHissness is pretty well-established at this point, so yes, his ‘holiday’ is an enforced one, but it’s not his first. He’ll be back at some point I expect, just not any time soon.
fair enough i can’t really blame you as him and peter annoy the fuck out of me. admittedly peter is a bit harder to hate ’cause of the mentally disabled puppy thing going on
oh and as far as the whole “all jews profit from israel” it should be noticed that the most likely place in the world for a jew to be killed for the reason of being jewish is israel and israel’s existence is one of the main reasons for the renewed anti jewish sentiment in the west as well as parts of asia where jews have never had a community. and do i really need to point out what israel does for the opinion of jews in the middle east … in fact israel is about the worst thing that there is for a lot of jews
SlackBastard the site what is obsessed with a band which was barely heard of. But thanks to this there is a whole wealth of info and tidbits of a band what perhaps only garnered about 3 sentences in the press mustered in Skrewdriver’s 15 years of international infamy. This is kinda like going into some bastardised abstract time warp or back issue of some 1989 student rag. Baiting the phantom boneheads perhaps. Most RAC and Oi is shit I think most people know that. This just seems kinda basement dwelling pathological polemical about something which is dead and buried. Apart from a dozen terminal alcoholic 45-55 year old boneheads who are afraid to leave the house.