Skins Standing Strong @skinsstandingstrong - Tumblr Blog

Back with a bang!

Hi! This page is slowly but surely becoming up and running again. We are working on new content and hopefully soon will have something to share!

Head over to the Facebook page @ facebook.com/Skinsstandingstrong and give us a like.

Cheers!

SSS.

Sabotage Interview

Hello lads, can you start by introducing yourselves for our readers? We're Sabotage from South Stockholm, founders Erik (guitar), Matte (drums) and Robert (vocals) (we're all between 30-40 something), bassist Slebbe (about 30 perhaps?) and for live gigs Silvio on complementary guitar, who's a real young one, early twenties. We started out in 2013 with the ambition to record a few songs that Erik and Matte had laying around since many years as a studio project only, and then one thing lead to another. Besides music we all have quite ordinary working lives with wives and kids etc.

So who would you list as your main influences? Robert - Punk and Oi!, mainly english and french 80's stuff but I listen to punk and skinhead music of all eras, political colours and from most countries that produces those bands... That's my own influences and for favourite bands Slebbe likes psychobilly like Mad Sin and Demented Are Go aswell as classic british punk and oi! When it comes to what actually influences the sound of Sabotage though, Erik (who is the main writer and sound dictator) refers to The Templars, early Skrewdriver and random 80's punk and pop music. Matte's drum heroes includes Bill Ward (Black Sabbath), Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Phil (The Templars).

Has everybody in the band got a history of playing in other bands too? Yes, I (Robert) was in The Righteous (1996 - 2001), Contemptuous (2003-2006), Antipati (2006-2013) and am also in Agent Bulldogg since 2008. Slebbe was in Cunt Sucking Cannibals (2002-2006), Zombie Space Pirates (2007-present), Ghouls Of Graceland (2008-2010), Scarecrows (2009-2011), Bubba Ho Grave (2010-2011) and Toothless Mike (2011-2012). Mostly psycho- and rockabilly and a few punk outfits - usually as a contra bass player. Erik played with Frontlash (hardcore, 1996-2009), Contemptuous (2003-2005), Sleepless Nights (hardcore, 2003-2007), Abjektt (hardcore, 2006-2007) and Vindicate This! (2007-2009). Matte was a vocalist in hardcore bands Frontlash (1996-2009) and Sleepless Nights (2005-2007) and played drums for black metal band Aifur between early 90's and 2013.

Your first release was been well received by people, are you happy with it? and is there anything you'd do different if you were to release it again? I am very happy with it, still think it's a very strong release. If we would do anything different it would probably be work on the drum sound a bit more. But we got that part covered well with the new release "Faderskap I Gråzonen" (six song 12" that was released 1st of may by the same label that released "Betrasktelser Från Staketet" 7").

Plans for the future? More releases? More gigs? Are we going to see Sabotage attempting to conquer Europe anytime soon? Well, we just released this 12" and played our very first gig at the PSK festival supporting great acts like our friends East End Badoes aswell as Anti-Nowhere League and The Exploited (which I'd say is quite a good first gig line-up). We've just decided to keep Sabotage a live act too. So basically this summer Erik and Matte will write music for our third release, a four song (?) 7" hopefully to be recorded this autumn. And there are a few gig offers we have to think about, also for the fall.

Do you have any final words for our readers? First of all, thank you Jakob for the time and interest. If any of you would like to get in touch with the band, please do so through [email protected] or our facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/SabotageSthlm https://www.facebook.com/southsidedistro (for t-shirts etc) Take care and skål to all true punks and skinheads!

Massive thanks to Robert and the rest of the Sabotage lads for a nice interview.

We hope to hear a lot more from you in the future lads and all the best, cheers!

#skin #skinhead #skins #skinheads #sabotage #sthlm #stockholm #sweden #punk #punks #oi #Oi!#SSS #skinsstandingstrong

First Assault – “Our Way” 7” on THIS IS WAR Records.

Whenever I mention First Assault to people from the UK and ask if they know of them the answer always seems to be the same, “no”.

Now this could be for a few reasons, but I think it’s probably down to a lack of material. It seems that for the amount of time they’ve actually been playing music they just haven’t released a lot. Don’t get it wrong though by thinking this is me criticising them, afterall, we all have families, jobs etc. Right?

Any fan of FA can take comfort though, from the fact that everything they have released has been undoubtedly top drawer. There’s the self-released cassette and the split with Doc Evil, both of which are great listens. But this latest one in my opinion takes them up a notch, and although the other 2 releases are really good, this is even better.

4 songs that are all brilliant in their own right, maintaining the FA sound that is very similar to that of early 80’s Oi! And at times, the better RAC.

Really nice artwork and an excellent insert that is also included make this a really nice package.

All in all I would say this is right up there with the releases that have come out of Australia in the past few years, right up there with the stuff that Doc Evil and Marching orders have produced, and I’m really looking forward with hope and anticipation for anything we might see from First Assault in 2015.

First Assault Interview

First assault are a band from New South Wales in Australia. These lads have a sound very similar to classic 80's RAC, and they do it damn well!

Hiya Boothy, cheers for agreeing to this interview for SSS mate. First of all, can you introduce FIRST ASSAULT for our readers?

Righto there’s James and Doug both on guitar, Jimmy on drums, Robbo on bass and me having a yell. First Assault started because we would all get on the piss together and see bands, there was and still isn’t any bands around Australia that are doing straight up British oi or RAC so we thought we would give it a go as its what we all listened to. We all range from early to late twenties in age and pretty much all work as tradesmen in one form or another. All living around the same area in Lake Macquarie New South Wales Australia makes getting together for a few beers and a jam easy.

Is the lineup now the same as it's always been?

The lineup changed in the second half of 2014, Doug joined as a second guitarist and Robbo replaced AT on bass. AT has played on all of our current releases, he left the band cause he has been seeing and playing in bands a lot longer than any of us and has had a gut full of it, he also has a family to take care of. AT and Jimmy sort of introduced me to oi and RAC music i suppose. I was more into HC stuff when i was a bit younger.

You lads don't pretend to be politically correct like it's so popular to be today, with a lot of bands doing so. Do you think that effects the number of gigs you get booked for in Aus?

The last thing an oi band should be is politically correct. We take influence from early British and also older Australian bands that weren’t to worried about what people thought of their lyrics or album art. US HC had a similar take on this i suppose in the 80’s but has lost any of that these days. Oi should be simple and rough like the first wave of British oi and RAC, what people pass off as oi today is a joke. Not being PC doesn’t really affect the amount of gigs we get booked id say, we don’t seek out shows or anything and if we get asked to play a show with bands we won’t watch we don’t play it.

Your recent 7" release on THIS IS WAR records was well received, but what are your personal thoughts on it? If you could release it again is there anything that you would do differently?

We all couldn’t be happier with how the 7’ turned out, the four songs we had for it where the best we'd written and they seemed to fit well together. I think we hit what we wanted the band to sound like with those songs. Toni from WAR records was a top bloke to work with also and did a ripper job with the cover/insert art and sound quality of the vinyl. All of us were just happy someone wanted to put it out because if we had to self release the record it probably would of never happen. I wouldn’t change anything about it, we recorded it in around five hours then left the bloke to master it and hit the pub across the road. We gave him an hour or two, came back and had a listen, said to the bloke he’d polished a turd and gave it the thumbs up.

From the shows you've played can you pick a favourite?

We have played a few backyard shows which have been good fun, they are always the wildest. I threw a few punches at one mid set, Jimmy fell in a fire a heap of times at another. Two shows we played in Canberra have probably been the best gigs, the first we were on pretty early and I ended the night with a hospital visit after my head coming off second best with a table. Bands that played got free or cheap beers so that suited us. The second we played a bit later on the bill and it ended up being the best time to play as everyone had a good shine up by then. Bastard Squad who have been around for over twenty years played that gig, the singer did time for murder and was involved in writing the Romper Stomper soundtrack. AT was picking at him about the scene in the 80’s and the bloke had some mad stories, we both can’t remember them but haha. Also at this one James "golden gloves" Mcniel had a barney with Doug Evil out the front of a kabab shop which was a fight for the title of Australia's best skinhead haha, words were said, punches were thrown and someone got a towl up.

So what can we expect to see from First Assault in the future?

At the moment we are writing new songs for a 12’ on WAR records, we have about five new songs ready and need around three more for the 12’. Doug the second guitarist has added a fair bit more punch to the bands sound, the new songs have more of a early RAC feel to them compared to the 7’. Don’t have any solid gigs lined up for this year, it’ll probably be just practices to get these new songs ready.

How'd you like to play in the UK some day?

Yeah mate resurrect ISD, Chubby Chris and get Kev Turner to get the boots tattoed again and we will be over there tomorrow. It would be mad to play a gig in the UK, looks like you guys still get some good gigs going on but i don't think it's a reality for us blokes at the moment. A few of the blokes have young ones, i'm getting married this year and we all have solid jobs so there's not much spare time.

do you have any final words for our readers?

Thanks for the interview and interest, it blows us away people overseas are interested in FA. Also thanks to anyone who has picked up any of our releases and Toni from this means WAR records who does a top job with his label. Don't be a stranger to the truth, love your land and fly your flag.

Again, massive thanks to Boothy and the rest of the First Assault lads for a interesting (and detailed!!!) interview.

Go give them a like here: https://www.facebook.com/FirstAssault?fref=ts

And we hope to here more of them in the future!

Lionheart Records

I'll get straight to the point with this one, Lionheart Records are one of the best at what they do. Not just releasing records from some established bands, but giving more new bands a boost on the Oi! Scene than any other label over the past 10 years.

With some releases that are now extremely rare there's no doubt that in years to come Lionheart Records will still be the name on many people lips, but for all the right reasons!

Hi christian, can you give me a history of Lionheart Records?Hi Jakub. After some gigs I organised with some friends (some real, some not) in Belgium back in 2003 and 2004 I decide to start my own small diy vinyl label in 2005.I lend some money from my brother and it took a year till the first 7“ was released. This was “The Young Ones – This is 4 the young hearted“.I gave the label the name Lionheart Records, called after the Skinflicks song, not the Last Resort song as many think. The Young Ones were a really young band, the oldest was 17 and did some nice weekend tours, that was a great time. I continued with 7“ vinyls of Oi! And hardcore bands, you can check the whole list on discogs hehe! 2014 I stared with 12“ vinyl, that changed a lot. I released some full length albums of bands I really love like the Lovely Lads. All records are pressed in Germany for some years now, something I am proud of, because most of the labels in this “scene“ press at GZ in CZ.

What made you go into pressing and selling records?Back in 2005 most of the bigger labels stop producing vinyls and newer labels never started.....they couldn't make much money out of it. I wanted to keep that alive and I wanted to be part of the scene (today I really don't care at all anymore haha) I had some serious discussions with some people back than about it. I was (and still am) kind of a hardliner when it comes to vinyl and many people called me an idiot back than. The same people that are selling tons of vinyls today like the owner of Sunny Bastards. The “market“ changed and now they are all into vinyl. The flag flies like the money blows...

From talking to bands to selling the records, is it a stressful process?

Not really! Most of the bands I did were really nice guys (as you were) and it's really fun setting up a record. I do around 50% of the artworks too, I learned a lot in the last 10 years of layouting and stuff. The pressing plant is only 70 km away, I know that the owner and collect my records with my car. The most stressful part is the packing and shipping, I would need a roboter to do that, cause it's really annoying!

Obviously your system of doing smaller runs of pressings makes the Lionheart records more sought after with you selling out more often that not, is that something you do on purpose?I startet with bigger pressings about 500 copies. That was ok for the first 7“ (Young Ones) but I still got some copies of the seconde release, that was “2 Fatties & Bloody Beerbois“. They splitted some weeks after the release, what makes it really hard to sell records. With the 6th release (“Olde York“) I started to press only as much as I can sell for sure in the first weeks. There is no need for a band to press 500 copies of a 7“ and after years the mailorders sell them for 1€ or something, cause they are still available and everyone got a copy and to be honest it is nice feeling to sell out the record that fast and see some bigger “player“ sitting on their releases for years. Another advantage is that when I press only 200 copies, I have only 200 records to ship and as you remember from the question before, shipping and packing really sucks!

In your opinion, which release has been your favourite on Lionheart?A hard one! I like most of them, even after years. The Young Ones 7“ is a special one because it was the start. But I really like them all but one. If I would have a flux capacitor I wouldn't do the Vanilla Muffins anymore. I don't even own a copie of it, because I started to dislike that band so much! If I could choice I would delete it out of the catalogue!

What are the plans for the future, what will we see from Lionheart?2015 is the 10th year of the label and I try to do some really great releases for that anniversary! Already fix are: The Lower Order (us) – 4 track MLP 12“Occupation (rus) – MLP 12“Headcase – Old Glory Boys LPBut there will be some more I can't really talk about yet! Some bombs, believe me!

Any final words for our readers? Don't do drugs and be nice to your parents haha! No, only thank you for the interview and good luck with your zine!

Again, massive thanks to Christian for taking out some time and answering our questions.

Support Lionheart Records!

A link to the Facebook page for the fanzine, if you use it please give us a like.

Interviews and record reviews coming soon with Aachen's LIONHEART RECORDS and Australia's finest FIRST ASSAULT.

S.O.C.A - Stomp Out Child Abuse.

Taking a step away from interviews for a moment...

we have a post to promote a group who we feel are trying to make the world a better place.

This isn't some type of post to promote religious or political rubbish, and it's not a post to try and preach to anybody; it's a post to promote a group of people who are trying to rid the world of one of it's biggest evils.

S.O.C.A - Stomp Out Child Abuse are a group based in the USA with 15 "chapters" and growing week by week. Not only that, they are now expanding over borders and overseas by starting groups in both Canada and the UK, with a view to growing into even more countries in the future.

From their website, in their own words;

"S.O.C.A is a LOUD VOICE for victims that will not back down and will shine a BRIGHT light on abusers and whoever else fails these victims . We will provide any assistance the child or family needs...whether its a visit , a ride to therapy , train victims in self defense or accompanying victims to court as support . A lot of groups talk about helping victims , our actions will speak for us . We are always looking for members & supporters ! If you want to donate,please find a local abuse shelter and donate to them . The only thing we want from you is your time and desire to put an end to child abuse & see abusers be prosecuted.Please join us in this fight for children".

A quote from Dennis, founder of the group, on an upcoming project;

"Never Surrender Records in conjunction with S.O.C.A is going to be doing a benefit comp. All funds raised are going directly to SafeHorizon.Org . They are an amazing organization who does work with abused women & children. So far, we have over 30 oi & punk bands have offered tracks to this comp to help get the word out . We hope that someone seeing this will open their eyes and see whats happening in this world and either step up or lend their voice to the growing army of people who have had enough and want a change from the way things are being done".

T-shirts, pins, hoodies and other merch with the S.O.C.A logo will be available from the S.O.C.A official website very soon, the link to which will be posted on the bottom of this post, with the proceeds being donated to a number of Child abuse charities.

https://www.facebook.com/chesterstomp?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/UKSOCA?fref=ts

http://www.soca-org.com/

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for supporting a group that is doing such important and life changing work.

SSS

Last Crusade Interview.

-Hi! Please I introduce Last Crusade to our readers We’re an Oi! band from the north of England. We all live in different cities but we practice in Leeds. My name is Karl and I’m the singer and guitar player, we got Mike on lead guitar, Ralph on bass and vocals and last but not least Ben behind the drum kit. We’re all in our early 20s except Ben whos in his late 30s. i’m originally from Montreal, QC of French-Canadian lineage and Mike was born in Victoria, BC from English parents. So technically half the band is Canadian but in reality I’m the only foreigner haha. - How long have you been together? The idea of doing the band was rooted before I moved over in March but we had our first practice in early June 2014 and came up with the name in September. -has the lineup changed at all in that time? Our first practice we had one of my friends named Marco to play bass. Unfortunately it didn’t work out due to circumstances and other commitments. I’m still very good friends with him so it’s obviously nothing personal at all. I met our current bass player, Ralph at a gig in Sheffield and we immediately clicked and I asked him to hop on board. It’s been the line up since and i’m pretty sure it’s gonna stay that way.

- what are your main influences? If I had to name a few bands, I’d say The Templars, Rose Tattoo, Negative Approach and Camera Silens. We’re pretty across the board in terms of influences. While we have a lot in common, we also listen to different stuff from each other which I think makes us more interesting than your average lot. - how would you describe your music? Good music to brawl to. Haha no but seriously it’s a big melting pot of all our influences with our own style thrown in the mix. The idea is to have a catchy, hard yet melodic sound and to do it as well technically as possible. Even though we’re not the most skilled musicians we want to show that we can actually (sorta) play our instruments!- what are your releases so far? We recently put our demo online and we will release it in various formats, namely tape and CD 7” on Rebellion Records. We’ve got a split or two on the way, and a few more things too.

Massive thanks to Last Crusade for being the first interview we put out on here.

Make sure to look out for their debut release out soon on Rebellion Records!

https://lastcrusade.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2014

https://www.facebook.com/LastCrusadeSkins?fref=ts

SSS

The first feature on here will be an interview with British/Canadian band "Last Crusade".

Here's a link to their band camp to whet your appetite:

https://lastcrusade.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2014

SSS

New Online SkinZine.

This is a new blog that will act as an online Skinhead Zine, interviewing bands, reporting on gigs, reviewing records etc.

The aim is to eventually make this into a paper Zine, but for the moment we have limited resources so we figured we'd start it as online only and advance at a later date.

So follow, share and spread the word!

SSS

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