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)

Just in the Nick of Time: A Closer Look at the Immigration Bill 

Credit: The Independent (AFP)

So here we find ourselves again amongst the chaos, with even more lunacy and ill thought out policy being brought into the stream of public consciousness by this hap-hazard government. I’ve tried to hold back my extremity of language on the reservation that I don’t want to come across as undermining. I believe in times of deep public crisis, the best approach is to helpfully point out errors or areas for improvement without being the brandishing hand that slaps those in control with such brazen ideological firmness. However, the sheer half-baked perception of public opinion via the pushing through of the dreaded Immigration Bill has got me thinking if Boris and the gang have really thought about if they want to keep any sort of majority in four years’ time.

Priti Patel sure is tough isn’t she? Or at least she’d have us believe that her toughness will extend to the tightening up of border controls on either side of The Channel to avoid migrants entering the UK illegally during the period of lockdown. Whatever your views may be on illegal immigration (which I’m sure will vary among my extremely limited readership), I can assure you that 550 migrants turning up on a dinghy at the White Cliffs of Dover is most certainly not the primary focus of this Immigration Bill despite a certain division of the public wanting it to be (I assure you I only link The Sun to demonstrate who will connect this bill to asylum law as the most central issue). Whilst this type of illegal immigration is an issue that warrants attention in its own right, I will not be dealing with it in relation to the Immigration Bill as legislation on how the asylum process will be reformed is extremely far down the pipeline (on Patel’s own admission) and is not at all pressing in comparison to the central implications of the bill at this precise moment.

Priti Patel could have been pressured
just that bit more by Nick Ferrari on LBC (video still)

Whilst there is not presently much information on bill specifics, what we do know is that we’ll be embracing the oxymoron that by closing up the free movement of EEA citizens, we will be opening up our borders to the world. This means the current EEA regulations dictating free movement of migrants around the EEA area will end and all those who now wish to enter the UK will have to do it either on the Points-based system or on a settlement route. Of course, if you are unable to find a British spouse to get your feet on English soil then it’ll have to be the PBS-system which is the prime reason for confusion and uproar in light of the new bill.

Let’s be clear, the PBS system is nothing new as many gun toting Australiaphiles have harped on about during the Brexit referendum. Being in force for non-EEA migrants since 2010, the system has several routes, sectioned into Tiers. Now most people won’t be coming in as minted investors or exceptional talents under Tier 1, and Tier 3 has been suspended since its implementation due to the fact it was drafted to account for mass low-skilled labour shortages if an abundance of workers were ever required (funny that). So, that leaves us with the most frequently used visa tiers: Tier 2 for overseas migrant workers, Tier 4 for students and Tier 5 for anyone else (Tier 5 is a reasonably niche category and will be mentioned in more detail at the foot of this article with regards to touring musicians). 

The so far silently operating Tier 2 (General) route has now finally taken centre stage and has revealed itself in all of its civil service jargon that has not only shown how the government determines who is able to come and work in the UK from overseas but perhaps how the everyday jobs we carry out are perceived by the powers that be. To be as brief as possible without getting lumped down in technicalities of the Immigration Rules, to be hired under the Tier 2 (General) category is no easy feat. One must have the relevant skills required for the high-skilled role as set out in the list of jobs eligible for this route and meet the specified salary shown on the same list as well as lots of other bureaucratic processes, fees and documents. In accordance with the policy statement, the bill will likely relax this “high-skilled” list to include a whole load more roles that currently do not quality under the Tier 2 route, resulting in perhaps more non-EEA immigration. However, the government have been a clear as day on their approach to low-skilled workers where there will be no exceptions. Click here and select the “Table 5” drop-down option for the list of all roles deemed as low-skilled to see for yourself how these terms are defined and exampled in the Immigration Rules (I would strongly encourage you to view this section of the Immigration Rules and spend some time trawling though just how many jobs are understood as low-skilled).

Matt Vickers in the Commons giving
a no nonsense speech on ending free-movement

So far, so good? The borders are being loosened as oppose to restricted and the government is still able to follow through with getting Brexit done on perhaps the single most crucial motivator in the Leave camp, immigration. A “firmer, fairer and simpler system.” However, In the words of Nick Ferrari, the world has changed (see the previously linked YouTube video). Migration from EEA countries has steadily increased since 2004 with over a million EEA migrants (Table 3, ‘Largest Occupations by Skill Group and Place of Birth’) taking up “low-skilled” roles currently. Since the impact of Covid-19, the British public have endured a reassessment of values of which skills have been the most dependable in keeping our lives moving day in day out. Unlike the pre-corona consensus, the corona enduring world has seen before their very eyes which sectors have been neglected (most notably care workers, who you will find on the low-skilled list) and the risks people are willing to put themselves through when carrying out their employment duties. In other words, by the choice of the British people, we have recognised the low-skilled as being essentially vital to our economy in current circumstances. Conservative MP for Stockton South, Matt Vickers asserted in the Commons that this new system will allow us to effectively select who is most useful to our economy by ending free movement but the situation indicates that a great deal of the most useful have been entering on none other than free movement regulations.

The silver bullet in the pushing forth of the Immigration Bill is not what it contains but is found purely its timing at a more delicate time than ever. A debate about British workers filling low-skilled roles through a phasing in scheme to adequately make up the EEA deficit can and should be had but not right now. It would seem Priti Patel is still on a full throttle beaming of Brexit floodlights which has only exposed her detachment from contemporary public opinion by still believing the public is driven by a “tightening up” of infinite inbound European migration. I can imagine her logic goes something like this: “If I push this through now, I will show the public how tough I am on the issue; how committed the Conservative party are to their election promises and will appeal to the “get-on-with-it” attitude harboured by much of the Conservative electorate with regards to the Coronavirus.” What bringing this bill to the forefront of debate has in fact done is open many people’s eyes to the how a PBS immigration system really functions. Low-skilled in terms of the Immigration Rules does not only include a lot of jobs but now British citizens themselves will think twice about how their government views British jobs resulting in a redefining of the terms “high-skilled” and “low-skilled” and how they now apply to a society under siege of infection.

Fruit pickers in Hereford
Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images

The government have been relaxed in allowing EEA migrants to fill the low-skilled labour market for years, just look at the fruit picking story to see the EU migrant support network that we often fall back onto in clinch moments. Even the Tier 3 visa category was suspended upon implementation on the basis that mainly freely moving EEA migrants will always be able to cover a deficit of low-skilled workers. It would seem the low-skilled are now those who are most valuable in our predicament with the Immigration Bill only making us aware of the spite directed at this labour group by our government. Coronavirus has indeed become the elixir enabling us to view our comrades in a different light on all sorts of issues. That light has now been steered toward fellow European citizens and the contributions they have made since their arrival in our land. What the Conservative party don’t realise, is that by firing on all pistons to keep a promise to the public, they are preaching to the converted, except this mob of converts are those of a new faith entirely.

On a slightly related note

There has been some talk in the DIY music community about changes to concert performances and tours in that of non-UK artists touring or performing in the UK. In an NME article it was suggested that the policy will require Tier 5 performance visas to be made to play in the UK. The implications to our community are not too drastic in scenario where a band comes into the UK on a visit visa and plays maybe one or two shows with borrowed equipment. Even larger US bands who may be on booking agencies are still required to apply for similar visa types when undergoing a more high budget tour but this is usually sorted out by the booking agent and won’t be too different to how things currently stand for groups being big enough to have to make these types of applications.

My main concerns are twofold:

• EU bands will now be faced with the Tier 5 route which will provide solid barriers to a fluidity of movement enjoyed by a whole European hardcore scene (including the UK) for many years. It is pretty common practice these days for European bands to drive freely around their continent annually/biannually with no limits on logistical arrangements. In short, you can mostly definitely expect European bands to be touring with UK bands less and hitting the UK as a location on their route even less often.

• There still isn’t at all much clarity on how the EU will take to UK bands touring the mainland. If they choose to implement a similar system to what we are imposing on them then every single logistical nightmare of booking a tour will become ten times worse. Bands will scrabble around to gather funds for visa fees, documentary evidence and whatever else comes with the tediousness of visa applications. Those who wish to take the change can still always fly into Europe with NOTHING and borrow all their stuff as many have done so when touring the US but believe me, this requires an infinitely more careful touring plan on where merch is printed and where vans/gear is collected from etc. This creates a direct dependence for UK bands to tour alongside a European act as British bands will require the unlucky European sods who opt to tour with them as those responsible for arranging all the aforementioned logistics when meeting the British band at the airport. This directly contravenes the current trend which is for two UK bands to team up in a van and hit the EU coast line with a shared boot of equipment.

Ultimately, none of this will stop people from either following the rules or finding ways around them but you can bet your bottom dollar that frequency will decline and less international acts will head to British shores. A good time to become nationalistic champions of our own acts for sure but I really do accept this begrudgingly as at the end of the day, hardcore and punk are international phenomena that prosper most when exposed to audiences across borders. 

Two bands in one photo (Blind Authority and Frame of Mind).
As just mentioned, doing a two timing tour with a UK sibling
band will be a trend that is less frequent due to the bill's implications

Brown Inbound Interview #3: Benny Farrar [CROWN COURT]

There are very few people in the world who upon meeting them for the first time, you simply cannot forget. If someone were to ask me a High Fidelity-style top 5 larger than life characters question, I wouldn't have to go any further than Benny Farrar to claim an instant spot on my list. Benny quite literally is larger than life and I seem to forget just how big the guy actually is, which I'm reminded by every time our paths do cross. The first time I met him, we were going home from some gig and were the only two pundits making the journey South of the river. Benny lights up a fag on the tube platform, as calm as you like, stamps it out once the train arrives and disappears into the Southside vortex. Crown Court were an important band, no question. They single-handedly brought Oi music out of the clutches of the old and deranged, plummeting back into a contemporary setting that the genre had long since been a stranger to. Benny was the final ingredient in bringing phenomenal lead guitar playing to the group and I've been looking forward to doing this interview ever since I started the series...

Hi Benny, thanks for agreeing to do this interview with me. I'm going to start with some quick questions about yourself starting with your family background, could you give us a quick history? 

Yes brav. Honour and a priv. My family background is rather standard issue for SE London. Caribbean father, Celtic mother. My parents met in N.I, both were in the army. My mother was stationed there and my father was boxing in the army. My mum comes from a family of police and coal miners and grew up in deep Yorkshire with Scottish parents. My father was a jack of many. Body builder/hired muscle/reggae musician. I have some(?) siblings and was raised entirely by women. 

Did your parents listen to a lot of music growing up at home? What kind? 

I was raised on my mum’s music. My mum has the worst taste in music but I have a soft spot for it all. We are talking Simply Red greatest hits on repeat for most of the early 90s spliced with the Beautiful South and KD Lang. My Father's musical influence was never far away growing up, at home I was pretty typically displaying weird only child behaviours from the get go and had taken to knocking about in the loft on me own from like the age of 6, 7 and 8. Early doors either way. Up there was a few suitcases and a couple of bass guitars. In the suitcases were many, many dubs. 7s. Many, many of which he’d laid down the wobble lines on. That's where it begins. That and The Strokes.  

Were they into alternative or punk music at all? 

Not at all. What so ever. Both equally as disapproving. My aunty, Carolyn is the punk of the family. She also served in the army with my mum but left early, moved down to London and dived straight into the squatting scene in Brixton and Camberwell. She was the one who used to come and collect me from the nick when I was unfit to interview, getting pinched out of my tree on trips at 14 and that. Silly bollocks. She had time for silly bollocks ha.

What was your perception of punk/oi if you had any as a child or adolescent before you fell into the subculture? Did you see it a certain way that clashed with your identity or place in your community before you came to know more about it?

 

Simply Red letting us know that the 'Greatest Hits' is
always the best album. The ginger star, loved nationally by mums,
has been spending his lockdown ranking the top "coolest cultures"

I used to bunk off school and mime playing these guitars to the music video channels. Only child init. This is like early days yeah, last year of primary school and going into secondary school so like 11/12? I liked the punk stuff more. Big up the P-Rock gang. I always saw the music as Either very British or Very American. I had and still do have a very binary outlook on life. Two simple choices. I liked guitar music so it was; Punk or Metal? Easy! UK or US? I know which I’ll be thanking you very much. 

You're a great guitar player what got you learning to play and were there any guitarists that influenced you? What were the musical, aesthetic and cultural influences that you have taken from most when presenting your art?

 Aw thank you mate I've just gone all hot on me ears and cold in me fingers at the praise. Playing instruments has always just come very easily to me without ever trying very hard or wanting it very much and I think it has showed! Played with some bad boy/gal musicians in my time and they all made me better. Some Greek fella after a show in Brighton one time said I played not with my head or my heart but with my balls. He came a long way with a friend just to see us. The accent lent a great deal of gravity to the statement but till this day that's still the case. Aesthetically have had fun with and been exposed to so many cultures, subcultures and revivalism too. Always had my own very black British, very South London take on things though. Steadfast and stout.  

What was your first and/or most memorable experience of racism?

Gonna have to cop out. But I will say this. I've been going up to Yorkshire and Glasgow with just my mum since birth. I know the difference between evil and ignorance. I wouldn't recall 80-year-old women at a bus stop in early 90s Barnsley as evil for cooing over and tussling my curly hair. Ignorant. But not evil. 

Being a lump has made me quite attuned to reading the unsaid and spotting people swallowing it for a quiet life. because I’ve never really been the one. By virtue of this I have to add, I would never baulk at another POCs experiences of racism and just accept that because of my gender and physicality I haven't had the rawest deal. Saying that something that's been fairly unique to my upbringing has always been equally accepted in black and white households of friends as family. I've heard what's said behind both doors. 

How did you eventually find out about punk and oi and what was the process that eventually got you going to shows and playing in bands?

South London. You know how it is man. 

What people did you gravitate towards when you began going to shows? Did the social aspect of it affect how you experienced the scene? The people you were surrounded by? 

It was more of a thing that all me pals just happened to get into music at the same time I guess nights out were going to watch awful local nu-metal bands at a couple of pubs in Bromley. Full of kids. It was mental they never got shut down. It was as organic as could be I suppose. Since those days it seems most friends I have been introduced to through playing music. Wild init. Ain't had to learn much new socially that I didn't already know. 

When you first started going to shows were there any bands with ethnic minority members or other people at shows that made you feel more comfortable in their presence or did you not really think about it?

Flirta D was a member of NW ogs, SLK.
The Hype! Hype! video is a pure Channel U classic.
Check out 'Warp Speed' for Flirta D's best solo song.

Just me though I didn't really think much about it to be honest. I knew where the black kids were. And I’d chosen not to be there. I used to go about with a grime crew in like 2005/6. I had bars ha. We used to do Cold.Fm up North and Ontop.FM in South the energy was wild. Went to a young man standing at Stratford Rex and I found out how much one of the top bikers on the event was getting paid and thought fuck this, am gonna do music that pays (LOOOOOOL).

But this was a time when the police were just locking off all the events so there really didn't feel like there was any future in that kind of music. It took another 10 years for people to learn how to squeeze a quid out of the British urban music scene. 

The top biller was Flirta D. Few of those boys used to cut about with are still doing variants of that music and doing really well, am proud. 

I'm not very well versed in all the non-musical elements of the oi scene but it goes without saying, it’s had its fair share of racial controversy over the years. I’ve heard several Crown Court stories regarding trouble at gigs to do with Nazis. Should we still be worried about the whole racist skinhead/Blood and Honour movement or does racism manifest itself in more dangerous ways at present? Did it ever affect your involvement in going to gigs or do people outside of the scene make a much bigger deal than need be? 

Oi music I thought was the buzz that I was missing from doing guitar music in safer spaces and the only time I’d felt anything near the edginess of early days grime. Grime was more punk than punk. As in it was a room full of angry young men in a smelly dingy room where you could very quickly get fucked up badly and all there because of the music. After that everything else felt a bit tame but the skinhead thing was a good time and has always spoken to my very working class values. Real life nazis are a myth. Haven’t seen one brave enough to ever pipe up to me but that being said I was told I have my own thread on that white power website/forum where Brian Bird and the other old duffers congregate. There’s been some scuffs but nothing to shout about. The Cavendish gig was fun. (white) Pride comes before a fall hahahha.

 (me kicking B-Squadron out of London)

 I would like to state very obviously that nothing about Crown Court was ever racial. I also want to recount the time I was being my usual loud self and regaled a story to one of me bestest boys up at New River In quite an excitable way because had just arrived and the timing and cadence of my voice made the word NIGGER carry really far and really wide and quicker than you could say Corbyn, there was like 50 bods spun round on the spot spoiling for some proper social justicing. The unspent energy and confusion was hilarious to me. 

There’s a lot of discussion among people about the separation of the art and the artist? Do you think it’s possible to consume and enjoy art made by people with political or social views that are ugly and in opposition to your own? Is it on a case by case basis?

Benny and Trev in Crown Court. I only ever saw CC
twice and both times it was nothing short of intimidating.

Tough one this. Truthfully, I’ll play Jackson songs until I die. And have never seen anything redeeming about Screwdriver. If its shit then its shit init. 

How have things changed for the ethnic minority involvement in punk and oi since you started going to gigs? Is there a noticeable difference, have things got better or worse? I know that you are a father yourself, would this scene be somewhere you would take your child? Could it be made safer? does it need to be?

It's safe as houses and probably something I'd encourage the boy to become interested in. A lot of people with open minds which is a long chalk better than the other sort. Alternative culture ain’t that alternative no more so it's not so much of a thing to nail your flag these days unless I'm wrong and I'm just that far indoctrinated. 

Tell me about the sketchiest/wildest gig you've been to that comes to mind.

Looooool we played some thingy bob in Bratislava. Mate. Hairy. I ended up drinking this evil syrup called borovica or something mental like that with this huge Polish bonehead covered in all the tatts. He didn't speak a word of English. But we couldn't stop cuddling each other. Homoerotic tae fuck. I had a good time. But don’t think I'd have been there as a punter. Me and Trevor ended up staying out out but I don't think the rest of the boys could have bounced any quicker, I don't blame em hahahah.

Lastly, do you have any new musical endeavours you will be undertaking in future? I know you have been focusing a lot more on your boxing career at present, will we see you pursuing this more full time and music taking a back seat?

I will one day sing. Like a fucking bird Ben. Like a bird. 

Any last words or anything you want to air, please do!

Stay strong cunts. They are trying to kill us.