SPIRIT OF '69 - A SKINHEAD BIBLE -
GEORGE MARSHALL
Published in 1991, Spirit Of '69 - A Skinhead Bible by George Marshall is essentially a scrapbook of cuttings centred around skinhead culture from its birth in the late Sixties to its globalisation in the Nineties, all woven around its story as seen through the eyes of the author. Apparently it's a highly collectable book nowadays and can go for silly money on eBay...
Marshall is a skinhead enthusiast and writes passionately about all aspects, all phases and all off-shoots of skinhead culture. He knows his stuff and it shows, marking out music and clothes as primary factors though also giving equal attention to other aspects such as violence, violence and er... violence.
Does anybody remember the Millwall Brick and knuckledusters made from coins? George Marshall does. Does anybody remember hippy-bashing, queer-bashing, and paki-bashing as racially aggravated attacks were once called? George Marshall does and this was all long before skinhead morphed into Oi! and skinheads became boneheads. This was back when skinheads listened only to reggae, ska and maybe a bit of soul. Long before the advent of Sham 69 and the intervention of right-wing political parties into the scene.
So, skinhead violence has always been a tradition right from the get-go and whilst it's enabled the culture to maintain a pariah status and engendered it with a sense of danger that repels the casual observer, it's also acted as an attraction to some and interestingly as a great indicator of class background and position.
There's nothing wrong with skinhead violence and the potential for it per se, it's just when it comes loaded with ignorance, prejudice, discrimination and right-wing politics that it becomes a problem and the intersection where class consciousness and violence divides. None of these aforementioned traits are implicit within the working class and are in fact diametrically opposed to actual and genuine working class values such as community and solidarity - the very values that Thatcherism sought to put an end to and that all right-wing politics of whatever extreme ultimately betray.
A personal gripe of mine with skinhead culture is its embracement of the Union Jack and all that comes with that flag - the monarchy, subservience, empire, and conservatism. The England that the Union Jack represents is the England of the Old Guard that belongs in the dustbin of history. It's the England that views its inhabitants as fodder. A regressive, repressive England that died in the trenches of Flanders but continues to stumble around like a zombie blinded by mustard gas.
A much truer England is that of Albion and is one that won't be found on the playing fields of Eton or in the mansions of the rich, nor in the fox hunts, the Cambridge Balls, the boardrooms of big business or behind the gates of Downing Street. It's the difference between Rule Britannia or God Save The King and William Blake's Jerusalem. Albion, however, is the country that's been thrown to the dogs, strangled with fences and stuck with knives. Fuck the Union Jack I want my country back, as the Irish rebel song goes. I want Albion back.
Nazis became skinheads rather than skinheads became Nazis, Marshall writes and to a point he's not wrong though it's a lot more involved than that. You have to wonder why the extreme Right made a play for skinheads and why they had so much success, particularly as a lot of the skinheads they attracted weren't even old enough to vote? Was it because the extreme Right saw skinheads as being a representation of the white working class constituency they were gunning for and that skinheads were potential shock troops? The idea being that if they controlled the streets then control of the ballot box would follow? Well, Anti-Fascist Action successfully put paid to that by physically attacking any attempt at Far Right organisation on the streets and making it near-impossible for them to congregate.
And talking of Shock Troops, if only more Oi!/skinhead-type bands had taken the stance of Cock Sparrer as expressed in their song Watch Your Back where they sang "All they want is total power, climbing on the backs of the working class. Well we don't wanna fight because you tell us to, so watch your back when you attack cos we might just turn on you."
Saying that, however, it must be stressed the vast number of the bands that fell under the Oi! umbrella were really good and not racist or fascist in the slightest. Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, The Business, Blitz - all good, solidly anti-racist bands, all covered by George Marshall along with less savoury coverage of the blatantly racist bands such as Screwdriver. It's a fine line he treads. A delicate balance he tries to strike though whether he succeeds is debatable and probably decided on where it is you're coming from.
'Politics has never done the skinhead cult any favours and it's doubtful it ever will,' Marshall writes 'And that goes for the Left and the Right. Somehow it has managed to worm its way into the very heart of skinhead, and by doing so has bastardised the cult. And the media's constant portrayal of skinheads as extremist political animals has simply reinforced the fallacy that to be a skinhead you've got to either be a fascist or a fascist hater.'
Spirit Of '69 - A Skinhead Bible makes a bid for a middle ground though without any thought given to how easy it is in doing so to enable fascism. Mensi of the Angelic Upstarts would physically fight fascists. The Cockney Rejects would beat fascists up. Sham 69 stopped playing live altogether at one point so as to put a halt on fascists gathering at their gigs. If there ever was a so-called middle ground I'm sure these bands would have taken it but the cost, unfortunately, might well have been too high.
For all this, it's not to say of course that these things shouldn't be written about and in fact it's probably important that they are, hence why a book such as this as written by George Marshall is of some importance. Some relevance, even, because as they say - those who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
John Serpico
