Don't Forget Rucktion...Don't Forget LONDON

Bizzle from Ninebar. This guy
was always half the appeal of seeing 
Ninebar play live. 50% for his dress
sense and 50% for the mysterious way
he'd just appear on stage seconds before the
set began.

As things have relaxed and eased up, the same could definitely be said for my work output on the blog. Real life has kicked back in with a ferocity as scathing as abuse hurled at restaurant staff during the eat out to help out scheme and with it has come an untimely ending to many extra-curricular fantasies. My ulterior motive with this article is just a complete refusal for everyday life to kill a passion I’ve cultivated during this stagnant year whilst at the same time, providing for some not so light reading material in preparation for the rumoured second lockdown (which my wife’s auntie swears blind is going happen).

What is it about the UK that just seems to churn out sensationally bizarre subcultural phenomena? America starts up Punk rock in a rudimentary format; it makes its way to the UK and gets spiked up, sucked in and spat out by the local crazies into something almost unrecognisable. Britpop takes a smattering of ex-skinheads, mods and ASBO level nutjobs; gives them amphetamine on top of a tambourine and some of the most culturally impactful music of all time is produced. I could go on with example after example (one of my personal favourites being how the evolution of garage to grime can be pinned almost solely to a Playstation game) but what I want to do is put a microscope on the most relevant musical scene to my development. London’s own…RUCKTION RECORDS...

PRE-WARNING: This is by no means a historical cataloguing of the Rucktion scene or an event-by-event documentation of the entire movement. This is for two reasons: 1. I was not around for maybe 70% of the timeline I’m writing about. 2. I don’t usually find factual breakdowns of events such as this that interesting as someone has usually done this already much better than I ever could and these types of documentation normally do not present any scope for argument, debate or demonstrate what I do find most interesting about musical history which is cultural impact; social groups and knock-on effects in shaping how things are today. My attempt with this article is to analyse what makes Rucktion such a novel happening and how the work of the label has resonated cross-generationally within the UK underground music scene and maybe even beyond…
 

Knuckle-what?!

KD singer, Pierre with the almighty Raybeez (1997?).
Everything about this photo is perfect, from the schoolboy
I-just-met-my-hero look on Pierre's face to the graff
in the background. Stellar. 

“Before that night and still to this day I thought Knuckledust was the coolest thing in the world and the singer was showing me where to put my stuff and just being a normal person, which I think to this day is a real strong point of UKHC, that no matter how big certain bands might be or whatever you can probably still find those guys putting on shows, moshing, doing distro etc.” – Sam Ellis-Thompson (Solemn Promise, Climate of Fear, Cold Hard Truth, Last Wishes)

Considering the number of sneers hardcore punk gets as a genre due to its so called “juvenile nature” from people clued up enough on music to know what hardcore is (or sometimes ex-hardcore kids themselves), Knuckledust are one of the few bands across all genres that seems to only get better the older I get. This is just as much for what the band achieved as well as what they represent to anyone who devoutly chants the iconic opening lyrics to Dust to Dust. What I increasingly feel the more I play back this band’s records is a resonance with four people fighting against all odds the only way they know how: by spewing their adversity, diversity, geography and testosterone all over what was perhaps a tired and sluggish canvas in the late 90s for hardcore music in the UK. In the process, KD managed to tap into the latent potential of a sleeping fandom that became just as much participants as they were adorers of the music that awoke them from their slumber.

“The moment I realised that our music had a power was at the Warzone show we played in London. Somehow these kids got hold of our music and must have learned the lyrics cos they were singing along, they were younger than us, from the complete opposite side of London, but their attitude to hardcore music was like ours and they were into the same obscure bands too, those guys later started Ninebar. It felt like our home town scene was growing. I haven’t always felt I have put my best into my song writing on all of our past albums but I am very proud of the overall message KD carry, it wasn’t intentional but translating a lot of my personal emotions into lyrics really helped me as I didn’t have any other outlet for it growing up. my family wasn’t really the type to share feelings or even thoughts with each other so it wasn’t something I knew how to do. by writing the lyrics I did back then it was almost like I was telling myself how to behave or working out things that were in my head.” - Pierre Mendivil (Knuckledust, BDF, Bun Dem Out)

'Uphold' were Knuckledust before Knuckledust with all but 
one member being the same. Check out their video
HERE for pure college hardcore gold. seems these lot
always had serious chops, even back in 1995.

Knuckledust are an encapsulating band, full stop. Like how most music scenes begin, a majority of ingredients are usually already in place, just waiting for that extra special band (or person) to align the stars and become the catalyst. I don’t think many will disagree when I say that KD did this exact thing in such a stark unveiling that having umpteen London hardcore kids sing along to their lyrics at the above-mentioned Warzone show was like pulling up that aging wooden shed at the end of your garden and puzzling at just how much life teams out from the mud foundation. Suddenly - In the words of Carter, TheUnstoppable Sex Machine – “the greebos, the crusties and the goths” (actually more like the skins, the skaters and the hip-hop kids) in London had one uniting band that would not only rally their battle cries together but grow with them as contemporaries to propagate and maintain something much bigger in the nation’s capital.  

“Knuckledust was definitely the main inspiration for us to start the band. We had been checking out gigs by American bands like Sick of It all, Madball and Slapshot for a little while and got hold of Pierre's Time 4 Some Action newsletter. I didn't catch the first KD show but not long after I saw them support Warzone at the Underworld and they were already tight as fuck. That gig in particular is significant because a lot of people in attendance would later become friends and form bands together or start zines and labels. Anyway, after that show it was just sort of mutually assumed that we were doing a band.” – Matty Bar (Ninebar)

 

Why Knuckledust are the kings. The level of bedroom adrenaline that kicks in when

this set starts reaches astronomical. 

Stand Up LONDON.

Something of any worth has to start and develop somewhere. It’s often location that is one of the ingredients that I spoke about in the previous paragraph. There has to be some type of sustainability in an immediate place that can harbour a scene at all before anything can start to grow. Said scene will have a strong cultural identity that will bind its inhabitants; shape the way they approach art and then be the place that art is created and reaches its full potential (in the embodiment of live shows, festivals, video/photo shoots etc).

“London is one of the most unique cities in the world. There’s such a mash up of different cultures and backgrounds that spill into your life either musically or personally. As wealthy as it is, it’s also got its deprivation and in them areas characters are built and people grow strong cuz they need to. It’s a romantic idea coming up hard but I definitely wouldn’t want my son to come up the way I did.” – Dave C. (Bun Dem Out, 50 Caliber, Ironed Out LBU, BDF).

 

A Pakistani and Indian in one band?! 
Being from an Indian background myself, I could
always count on the Rucktion scene to reflect my own
diversity back at me. Above is my personal
favourite from the label catalogue, Crippler LBU.

There’s a reason why a distinctly London flavour doesn’t always hit you where you’d expect. The city is one of the most diverse capitals in the world and I still continue to meet people from different backgrounds; eat food I could never prepare my taste buds for or just undergo a completely bizarre cultural experience that you really couldn’t make up. Forgive me for going on a personal tangent but a few months ago I was working in High Barnet for a Pakistani builder with two Afghans, one Sri Lankan and one Roma Gypsy, all shouting in broken English at an Albanian skip van driver trying to unload a skip at a near impossible angle to the utter disbelief of all the White English scaffolders on the site across the road. That is London, no ifs and no buts. Now apply that setting to hardcore music and just envisage the delightful chaos that type of melting pot could have boiling inside of it.

 

“We've got heads who like jerk chicken, tikka masala and egg, chips & beans. We're a mixed bag from different backgrounds and cultures. Shabba Ranks X Chas & Dave. We're also immensely proud of where we come from and what we do. Rucktion is London and London is diverse as you know yourself growing up in this great city. That's why people know and feel the different sound from say other places in the UK because we have so many cultures, vibes and a real gritty spirit. I know mans who are into grime, oi, reggae and other genres of music. It's a London thing.” - Louis Gino (Proven LBU, Last Orders, Ironed Out LBU)

 

Whether it’s the graffiti sprayed sounds of painting trains coming from Ninebar; to the dancehall annunciation from Bun Dem Out, there’s a certain type of pride that ensues from a group of people just embracing their differences and not trying to churn out an unconvincing gloop of their transatlantic contemporaries that earlier UKHC often fell into the trap of doing. When making a lasting impression, it really does not pay to just rehash the same shit over and over again. I don’t think any other music scene internationally could boast of having a band that opens its first record with a sample from the film 'Shottas' (also used by N.A.S.T.Y. CREW, thank you Pete Dee for clearing up the origin of this legendary sample) into a slew of metallic beatdowns coveted with Peruvian Spanish spat out in a decidedly dancehall-style delivery over the top. Remember the building site example I used earlier? Bun Dem Out could quite easily be that same analogy - in terms of pure unpredictable diversity - translated into hardcore punk music…and that’s just about all I have to say about that.

 

Golden nugget AKA I didn’t know where else to put this fact so here it is: Matty Bar mentioned to me when discussing his interview segment that the song “Read These Boks” was written based off of a dancehall song with the culprit riff being what plays over the "STOMP STOMP LEFT" lyric. Unfortunately for me, Matty couldn’t remember the song title or the compilation that the song appeared on, only that it contained a sample of someone screaming "Wesley Snipes and Michael Jackson" at the top of their lungs over and over.

 

 

Is there ever a reason not to post this music video? 

“To me, a lot of London hardcore has always had it's own distinct vibe, not even just Rucktion / LBU bands. I think your surroundings rub off on you and bleed into your art. A lot of our people come from some very rough areas that you could say are forgotten parts of London. When you've grown up in rough, impoverished, dangerous, anger filled, grimey, dirty areas... well, an applicable style of music will usually come out of you. It seems very easy for the new generation to forget (or not even know at all) that this music originated from the streets. That won't change, no matter what anyone says.” – Richard Wooding (Proven LBU, 50 Caliber, Ironed Out LBU)

 

Kidulthood to Culthood

Thus far we have a flagship band that’s going to lead the way and a solid breeding ground for them to make it happen. Now all that needs to be done is for the bands and individuals to get their hardcore arses in gear for a spark to go from ignition to an uncontrollable blaze.

Insert from the 'Urban Legends' CD by Ninebar.
Matty and I talked a lot about the hip-hop influence
on the band, especially everything Cash Money records

"We made friends with bands from all over trading gigs and travelling a lot, many had got into it through the same gateway bands as us so things clicked as we were all hungry for more of this sound we all loved. Rucktion came about because of all the creative heads involved loving hxc and we were all fiercely DIY, there is a strong rooting to the ethics at the foundation of Rucktion a lot brought to the table by Tom Brandon. So, we release our bands and our friends band’s music. The Ninebar boys were designing the whole product packaging while I would advertise through my network built from tape trading and newsletters and we would  promote the bands with local shows and every band we worked with has made us proud that they represent us worldwide and we continue to influenced and inspired each other. I think when Time Won’t Heal this got an American version release, we realised we were in unknown territory. The UK was home and we could play most places here but playing America, the home of a lot of the bands that inspired us to play was never an option for us as kids but then all of a sudden, we felt like it could be possible. When we worked on that split with Indecision they were getting a really strong following all over the UK and the world. It marked a time in UKHC history where the south had a scene, midlands had a scene and the north had a scene all united and strong and growing stronger.”  – Pierre Mendivil (Knuckledust, Bun Dem Out, BDF)

 

I couldn’t count the amount of shows I’ve been to where a singer of either an LBU band, someone on the Rucktion roster or just a band completely unrelated has bastioned how important this specific scene is to the UK’s hardcore history – and so they should! But, and it’s a BIG but, it’s easy for self-righteous statements to become dogmatic mantra and in doing so, these heart-felt messages just lose all meaning and context. What I’ve waffled on about for the past five lines is that over the generations, the importance of Rucktion might be recognised but it is not fully understood. Call me stupid but I certainly didn’t start to the connect the dots of the network Rucktion, Knuckledust and LBU had cultivated until I saw Indecision play at the Underworld in 2013 where I distinctly remember the singer dedicating the set to their old friends in Ninebar. It was a sort of local hero moment for me where these seeming untouchable New York hardcore legends just dedicated a whole set to the boys from down the road, our very own forest-fire-setting-South-London-style-spray-can-slingers that I’d been listening to and seeing play near enough to the point I got into hardcore music. It suddenly all made SENSE.

 

Among those areas not mentioned Matty is my wife's
home of Walthamstow (I concede that I sold out my
South London roots to join here in E17) To see this round the
corner from our place is just inconceivable in today's world

“The label Black Up Records basically happened at the same time as the zine. The whole DIY aspect was really celebrated at the time and we wanted to do as much as possible. Heavy flyering and word of mouth brought in more people to the shows and eventually it started to gain momentum. When Pierre started up Rucktion, we put BUR to bed and joined forces. Putting on shows came about as a necessity as we needed somewhere to play. We did a few more in Herne Hill but it was too far for some and numbers dwindled. We would book venues anywhere that would have us in Tottenham, Harrow, Stockwell, Camden until we eventually got involved with the 12Bar. So, I wouldn't say any particular one factor was more important than the other – they were all different elements of one thing and it all sort of happened at once.” – Matty Bar (Ninebar)

May is one of those whom I would
loved to have received an interview
but it just wasn't possible at this
 time. Absolutely hats off to her though for 
putting that monster of a fest together.

In essence, the Indecision show was just my little internal moment of realisation but if you take the time to just do a bit of digging, it shouldn’t take Tom Sheehan saying it right in your face to realise the facts. the evidence is everywhere (just take a look at how STACKED this Ninjafest line up is). I only use the engineered word “culthood” at the head of this section due to the amount of conversations I’ve had with all sorts of hardcore kids around the UK about their interactions with the Rucktion roster. I can only speak for my generation (very late-00s to mid-2010s) but it’s almost a rite of passage to recite your very own Rucktion themed story in glacial smoking areas and dilapidated backstage rooms among peers.

“Watching videos from any old LBU/Rucktion shows you could see how insane and violent they could be in terms of crowd reaction, something which I now see as crucial in hardcore to keep things interesting. I was unlucky to only be able to go to the old 12 Bar once. Ninebar was playing along with a few others and it was complete chaos. Anyone that ever went to that venue or has seen videos of it on YouTube knows how small it is. You would look at it and think it must only be able to fit about 30 people but it used to cram in so much more, and almost everyone there knew each other. That was when I really saw how close that community is and always has been. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think the same.” – Niall O’Reilly (Blind Authority, Payday)

 

The Goldsmiths Tavern not too far from my neck of
the woods in SE London. Pierre and Matty both mentioned
how much nutty shit used to pop off here. One story
even includes a punter actually bringing knuckle dusters to
a knuckledust show and the whole affair descending into
chaos (pree @rucktion_recs insta for full story)

Pieces of the puzzle never fit so well; the more I learned about my contemporary’s routes into hardcore, the more the vivid image of a crowded Denmark Street housing an outrageously over-capacitated 12-bar venue seemed to be the common denominator for the overwhelming majority. I can even remember practicing at the now closed Enterprise studios opposite the old 12-Bar and spending two or three minutes of each weekly practice just mentally collecting all of the LBU tags littered around the walls of the studio. What those tags represent to me now is - as Pierre put it - a network. The work of people like Popi, Matty and Pierre did act as the UK’s very own social hardcore network before Zuckerberg could do it all for us. Whether it’s those three letters on a huge throw-up, to a Rucktion logo on the back of a CD, these are insignia illustrated by people who knew just wanting to be heard wasn’t enough. Urgency motivated years of letters, newsletters, mail-order, phone calls, zines, consignment, record shop adverts and DIY tours all at some degree of risk which provided for the ease at which we click the “share” button today.

 “Rucktion has reached that legendary kind of status and I think it’s as deserved as it is cemented. I really don’t know, or am not educated enough to know who’s done more than Rucktion for UKHC. We should never lose sight of what this is supposed to be about, and Rucktion is always an example of how to do it right.” – Joey Drake (Splitknuckle, Bun Dem Out)

 I’ll close this penultimate chapter with a video representation of what I mean by Kidulthood to Culthood. First is a basement show from ’96 showing many of our local heroes in their salad days and second is the Knuckledust set at Outbreak Fest 2012 – where pretty much every single USA hardcore band had to drop due to what I can only think was a unilateral fuck-up by the booking agents. Quite literally EVERYONE went twice as hard to all of the UK bands on the bill for the whole two days (this was perhaps my second or third r33l hxc show and I would highly recommend watching all of the sets from this gig). Looking back, it was perhaps the single biggest turning point in my almost ten years of hardcore where the power of UKHC was finally recognised in an almost hive-mind effect by everyone on our tiny island. We didn’t need Yanks or Europeans, everything we needed was right here. It was just a shame that it was the godfathers at Rucktion Records who'd envisaged this premonition of a solely independent UK hardcore scene long before most in that room (including myself) were old enough to speak.

From kids just messing around playing Judge covers in a basement...

 ...To unifying all genre and regional divisions by showing everyone that the UK can stand on its own two feet (and a Bulldoze cover).

Is it still Time for Some Rucktion?!

So, the wasteland became teeming with life. Knuckledust released probably the best UKHC album ever, went on to tour with Madball and perform various other great feats; Ninjafest become a European crowd-drawing fest with some of the biggest names in the genre on the line-ups; the Rucktion scene as a whole forged international links (most notably with Philly's BFL and others); TRC broke into relative mainstream success (my first ever exposure to Knuckledust was them being played on a TRC takeover of Kerrang! Radio) and Ninebar went from not needing the internet to STILL not needing it (apart from Matty who I believe works in IT). But what does all of this mean to the Youth of today? There are plenty of bands cutting their teeth in a time better than probably ever before in the genre’s history so, have the lessons, stories and ethos of Rucktion and LBU been passed down in any meaningful way?

Bobby is probably one of the youngest and most 
enthusiastic hardcore kids I know in London.
Here he is, fronting his cataclysmic band,
The Annihilated. Check them HERE

“The UK is killing it with great Hardcore bands for a long time now and Rucktion, LBU and, most recently, the Ready Eye Collective are some of the key player in propping up homegrown Hardcore. No matter what style or no matter what different scene, the LBU family have always been there to provide a platform to great bands. That’s an amazing thing and when the Hardcore and Punk scenes have been spitting up into more and more frankly useless and meaningless sub-sub-scenes, I think that’s something we need a lot more of. Rucktion’s role in the story of UKHC is definitely pivotal. I think the most important thing about LBU for me is the unapologetically London/British cultural aspect to it. It’s a perfect representation of young, working class communities in London in the 2000s and beyond - a snapshot. The prominent scene participation of ethnic minorities is another very important aspect of it to me as well. Rucktion and LBU really helped bring minority voices to the forefront of British Punk and Hardcore when it wasn’t as prominent there before.” – Bobby Cole (Sterilization, The Annihilated)

Too much on your fucking menu!! Its about time
someone from Rucktion or Ready Eye got Gordon
on a shirt or flyer.

Bobby is maybe 18/19 years old, from Dagenham (not at all far from the old Knuckledust HQ) and he gets it. In Bobby’s responses I see a kindred spirit as well as him just being a young hardcore kid hitting the nail on the head better than I ever could. Referencing an interview with John Olley  (xRepentancex), a regional sub-scene is something that has really died on its arse due to the internet and the power it invests in people to be exposed to more and more information. This has led to a subtle breakdown in being influenced by your own local contemporaries to the same degree a band might be influenced by a miscellaneous youth crew record from 1989. One can access a blogspot or spotify playlist forged in the flames of the holy gatekeepers and is thrust straight into the hands of the sounds the community perceives as good. The knock-on consequence (especially for a city as big as London) is that too much choice is sometimes a bad thing. Ever been to a restaurant and the menu is just HENCH (for lack of a better word)? The funnel of the internet now allows so many individuals to be propelled towards their niche tastes that the entire underground music scene in a single city has become fragmented by those very same niches. Take London for example, there are shows for punks, d-beat kids, NYHC lovers, youth crew heads, squatters, crusties, PC DIY spacers and probably many more but I can’t help thinking that all of these shards need each other more than they know...

It doesn't get more British in hardcore than this video.
The only picture on this blog I've left in full colour.

Bobby and John's point really got me thinking; Rucktion is perhaps the only scene to come out almost unscathed by the “regional sound” era and is still largely unaffected by the intramural tensions harboured by inner-city scenes. It’s almost an oxymoron that the very factor leading to the demise of most other regional hardcore sounds - and scenes - around the UK is actually the chemical compound which preserved the Rucktion and LBU scene over the years. The uncompromisingly tough London sheath of armour; a widened gene pool due to the city being the biggest melting pot in the world; a unified work ethic and being proud to just be fucking British are what makes up the quintessential and outlasting regional UKHC sound that absolutely put us on the map.

“They’ve left a legacy to graft, work hard, persevere in your challenges and you will overcome and win. Rucktion built their legacy and UKHC from the ground up. From nothing in the beginning to a legendary status in the world of Hardcore. If you believe in something and are passionate to succeed in it, you can do that. That’s what Rucktion has taught me personally, that if you graft for something and put in the work, you can reach your goal. That’s what they did, they built UK Hardcore to what it is today through hard work and dedication to the scene.” – Dane Barker (Mantlet)  

 

Parting Shots

Londons Black Up

Done justice or not, whether I managed to paint gracefully in renaissance style or jaggedly butcher with a rusty-handled meat clever; this was an article I just had to get off my chest. At best, what I hope this article serves to function as is a "pamphlet for dummies" that can be thrown straight at any punter who questions the relevance of this subgenre. At very worst it is the ode of a London hardcore kid who is just as excited about the genre as he was when he first discovered it and has decided to publish his gleaming acclaim of his elders to the bygone pages of his dusty blogspot.

There isn’t really much I can say that I haven’t already said so I will close this article with words that are anything but my own. The most enjoyable part about doing this article was conducting the interviews referenced throughout, simply because everyone I spoke to underwent a shared excitement that a topic such as this is sure to ignite.

Below are some highlights from those same interviews. There are those who I still want to hear from and I may even publish the full interviews completely unedited if there is demand so, please rest assured, this chapter is definitely not closed and there will be a return of…

 

“Grime and HC came from the same type of estates and areas that the Rucktion/LBU sound came out of. We speak the same language and we would also to an extent listen to the same garage/hip hop songs as they’d be all over the estate and house parties etc. Another thing is as big as London is, it’s very small, We’d have guys in the scene that would know grime MC’s and producers personally.” – Dave C. (Bun Dem Out, BDF, 50 Caliber, Ironed Out LBU)

 

 

“The KD guys who had grown up in East London definitely schooled me in punk and oi and with so many bands having roots in the east end it was easy to see why they took influence from it. The working-class rebellious message and sound that is like no other but growing up in London, you’re exposed to many sounds and cultures. Community radio stations and pirate stations opened my eyes to Ragga Jungle then reggae and dancehall music. I looked deeper and learned it had a huge output then I found many record shops in my area and as I was already hooked on 7 inch records because of hardcore and punk, I was quickly hooked on dancehall because 7 inches were the preferred format for them too.” – Pierre Mendivil (Knuckledust, Bun Dem Out, BDF)

 

 

“Ready Eye Collective started as an offshoot of what Rucktion were/are still doing, but with the family ties very much there to see. We originally only set out to do four set shows a year, with other stuff inbetween if we felt it worked. It was kind of to 'fill in the gaps' between Rucktion and other London shows. It's safe to say that it's grown into a whole other beast, and I can say with my hand on my heart that our approach of just wanting to put on quality, fun, DIY shows has stayed the same. I guess the difference between us and Rucktion is that we work with booking agents to secure international bands, whereas Rucktion stick to direct booking through the bands. Hey, if we can book a band direct, we'll always take that route. Booking agencies are a part of the game, that's how it is, but you'll find that they're in/have been in bands, so we feel that it's still a part of the wider community.” – Richard Wooding (50 Caliber, Proven LBU, Ironed Out LBU)

 

“The history between the two (hip-hop and graffiti) is well documented now and we've met writers from all over London, the UK and abroad through hardcore. The guy who designed the first Rucktion website knew, and had worked with, a few London writers who have moved into the the art world. The Rucktion logo itself was definitely influenced by getting the train past one of Zomby's characters every day. One of our sadder memories was discovering a good friend of the band had died on the day of the release party for Urban Legends. RIP VIZO.” – Matty Bar (Ninebar)

 

“I wanna categorically say I have experienced zero encounters of racism here in the UK and abroad. Apart from the obvious stares on the mainland in some places I've not had to deal with any personally. My experience has been better than say some of my peers from the early days but that's their story to tell and not my place. Let's be real even back in the mid 00s there wasn't a great deal of black, brown and asian faces at shows but coming from London no one really pays attention to that. I do make jokes with friends sometimes by saying “oh look, I'm the only black guy at the show…. Again” but that's just it a joke. I still get people here who do double takes or get shook when they see say myself and Ammo (Crippler LBU, Tirade, Life Betrays Us) for example. Maybe they're scared of our presence I don't know? If they are they tend not to say anything so that's their problem I guess.” – Louis Gino (Crippler LBU, Proven LBU, Ironed out LBU, Last Orders)

 

“The Rucktion/LBU vibe was a bit intimidating before I’d ever been to a London show, but that was more the fault of ill-informed heads back home making wild claims which seemed to make sense when my only reference points where the music and lyrics and imagery. From the second I set foot inside the 12Bar I felt more welcomed than I had at any other hardcore or metal show I’d played, aged 17 I had been to London maybe 3 times in my life before that, it sounds stupid to say now but London is like a weird mythical place when you grow in the Midlands around people who never leave their own county. Rucktion heads have backed and welcomed every band I’ve played in since then, they were the first people outside our own town to let my other band Solemn Promise come and play when we were starting up, when I messaged Pierre and asked if we could get on a Rucktion night he hooked it up straight away, and I think that’s a pattern that continues to this day for a lot of new young bands of all different styles.” – Sam Ellis-Thompson (Solemn Promise, Climate of Fear, Last Wishes, Cold Hard Truth)

 

“I got into graffiti through friends I met through hardcore, and as a young enthusiastic kid finding myself indulged in another passion, I loved when the two crossed paths. Graffiti really grew as a subculture in NYC which had a huge influence on England, especially London. A lot of hardcore kids in New York were also writers or hung out with writers so it was only natural that the same would happen over here. Finding out that older UK bands like Crippler and Ninebar were into writing was massive for me because it took their influence beyond hardcore. I loved seeing old photos of LBU graffiti on the walls or on trains, it made their music even more relatable for me.” – Niall O’Reilly (Payday, Blind Authority)

 

“I think it’s gritty, unfiltered and real which reflects their personalities. There’s no gimmicks and it doesn’t sound like every new thing that comes out, it’s genuine and authentic and that’s why it can’t be copied.” – Joey Drake (Splitknuckle, Bun Dem Out)

 

“Yeah, I certainly take pride in the fact that all these great musicians come from my general area, in this case being East London. There’s just something extra special about knowing that people who have came from your area have made such great and influential music. I think it helps me take more pride in where I come from even. I think it does indeed help contribute to my musical efforts as well.” – Bobby Cole (Sterilization, The Annihilated)

 

“They built UK Hardcore, they’re the life and soul of UKHC. Without Rucktion there would be no UK Hardcore, without them it wouldn’t be what it is today! That’s why I care, cause they’re the godfathers of this scene and I have the most respect for them and what they’ve done for this scene.” – Dane Barker (Mantlet)

All Photos used were taken from the Rucktion Records
and UKHC History instagram accounts
(@rucktion_recs, @ukhc_history)