Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Thu, 30 Jul 1992 09:37:43 CET
From:         Sebastian Welton <SWELTON@ESOC.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Just found a big pile of religion, is it yours?

>Of course, it works both ways. There's a band in England called Skrewdriver
>that plays songs about white supremacy. They used to help suck impressionable
>youth into the ultra-rightist National Front, although I am told they decided
>they were being used and have since disassociated themselves from the party.

First off, I'm not defending this band but not every song was about white
supremacy (you need to hear a band like The Klansmen for that) but was more
in line with let's keep our country great. Admittedly a lot of their songs
were in the fascist vein but quite a few were about other subjects. Mr. Nine
To Five as you can guess from the title is 'dissing' your average persons
boring life. Poland is about the struggle there, and so on. They cover The
Green Fields Of France (written by the Englishman who also wrote Waltzing
Mathilda), a very poignant anti-war song. They cover Sweet Home Alabama,
god knows what this is really about but presumably they relate it to those
good 'ol boys down south somehow. They broke away from the National Front,
which is now not as right-wing as previous years due to monies from
sales not being paid. Formed their own organisation which is politically
music based called Blood And Honour. (As a point of interest I supported
them many years ago without knowing who or what they were. The gig was
arranged by our bassists brother, a squaddie based in Germany, who also
acted as Skrewdriver Security. Never again!) Recently they played a gig
in Leipzig, and as you all know fascism is rearing it's ugly head once more
in this part of Europe, where some band members were arrested for racist
related violence. All the gigs they play are in secret and details are
passed by word of mouth. Although I vehemently disagree with their political
motives, surely they still have a right to be heard? In the same vein there
was a similar muso/politico organisation in Britain some years ago called
Red Wedge which took the opposite stance, Socialist. Because they were seen
as anti-fascist the violence and the extremist politics that they preached
were deemed okay, even fashionable. Similarly, the Nation Of Islam and it's
corporate religious subsidiaries use the same tactics and words as any
extremist movement to get their point across, yet are they censored? No,
because liberal, middle-class white people have a guilty conscience which
allows for this form of reverse fascism to go on. And I always thought that
music was the food of love:-)

Seb


+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sebastian Welton, Operations Analyst, C.S.S.G., ECD/CS, Serco Space,  |
| Meteosat Ground Computer Support, European Space Operations Centre,   |
| Darmstadt, Germany.  SWELTON@ESOC.BITNET or OPSUPP@ESOC.BITNET        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
  Rock and Roll adolescants storm into the streets of all nations. They
  rush into the Louvre and throw acid in the Mona Lisa's face. They open
zoo's, insane asylums, burst water mains with air hammers, chop the floor
  out of passenger plane lavatories, shoot out lighthouses, turn sewers
  into the water supply, administer injections with bicycle pumps, they
shit on the floor of the United Nations and wipe their ass with treaties,
                        pacts, alliances.                            W.B.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic