Oi!
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement was ...
compilation album, featuring various artists and released by Decca Records, released in collaboration with ''
Sounds
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
'' magazine.
The album was the sequel to ''
Oi! The Album
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement w ...
4 Skins
The 4-Skins are an English working-class Oi! band from the East End of London, England. Originally composed of Gary Hodges (vocals), 'Hoxton' Tom McCourt (guitar), Steve 'H' Hamer (bass) and John Jacobs (drums), the group was formed in 1979 a ...
# "Gang Warfare" - The Strike
# "Riot Riot" -
Infa-Riot
Infa Riot is a punk rock band formed in 1980 in Wood Green, North London, England by vocalist Lee Wilson and guitarist Barry D'Amery.
The name Infa-Riot is an abbreviation for "In for a Riot".The Toy Dolls
# "Best Years of Our Lives" - Barney Rubble
# "Taken for a Ride" -
Cock Sparrer
Cock Sparrer () is an English punk rock band formed in 1972 in the East End of London. Although they have never enjoyed commercial success, they helped pave the way for the early '80s punk scene and the Oi! subgenre., Their songs have been c ...
# "We Outnumber You" - Infa-Riot
# "The New Face of Rock'n'Roll" - Garry Johnson
# "Beans" - Barney Rubble
# "We're Pathetique" -
Splodge
The Topper was a long running anthology comic which ran from 1953 to 1990. Mergers with two other comics, Buzz and Sparky in 1975 and 1977, respectively, added characters from those comics to The Topper's roster. The Topper eventually merged w ...
# "Sorry" - 4 Skins
# "Running Riot" - Cock Sparrer
# "Johnny Barden" - The Last Resort
# "Isubaleene (Part 2)" - Splodge
# "Running Away" - Criminal Class
# "Skinhead" - The Strike
# "Deidre's a Slag" - The Toy Dolls
# "Harbour Mafia Mantra" - The Shaven Heads
Controversy
When ''Strength Thru Oi!'' was released, it was controversial because its title was alleged to be a play on a Nazi slogan ("
Strength Through Joy
NC Gemeinschaft (KdF; ) was a German state-operated leisure organization in Nazi Germany. Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p. 197, It was part of the German Labour Front (german: link=no, Deutsche Arbeitsfront), the national labour or ...
"), and the cover featured
Nicky Crane
Nicola Vincenzo "Nicky" Crane (21 May 1958 – 7 December 1993) was an English neo-Nazi activist. He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993.
Neo-Nazism
Nicky Crane joined the British Movement (BM) in the late 1970s ...
, a British Movement activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Rock critic
Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell (born 13 May 1955) is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Cockney Oi! bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York C ...
, who was responsible for compiling the album, said its title was a pun on
The Skids
Skids are a Scottish punk rock and new wave band, formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jo ...
' EP ''Strength Through Joy'' and that, as an active anti-fascist in the 1970s, he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by the '' Daily Mail'' two months later. The intended cover model was bodybuilder
Carlton Leach
Carlton Leach is an author, occasional actor, and a former criminal.
Early life
Leach was born in Canning Town. A fan of West Ham United F.C., he became involved in the Inter City Firm, a gang of hooligans who followed the East London club. ...
but the pictures, taken at the Bridge House pub in Canning Town, East London, weren't good enough. A cover drawn up by the record label showing a young skinhead from above with the title on his head was rejected. The Crane image was taken from a Christmas card pinned to a wall in the Sounds office.
It was not so easy to deny the album cover's glorification of violence and the sinister tone of its sleeve notes: "A mass of boots, straights, and combat jackets, skins and boot boys, grins and hoots and oy-oy's, young blood on the prowl.... Getting nicked for wearing steel caps, a flick blade flashing in the moonlight." However, this was meant to reflect the reality of the lives of the British working class, as opposed to glorifying the violence faced by them.Jones, Peter. "Do Music Acts Incite U.K. Violence?" ''Billboard''. July 25, 1981. p. 63.
See also
* ''
Oi! The Album
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement w ...