Above the Ruins | |
---|---|
Origin | England |
Genres | Post-punk [1] [2] |
Years active | 1984 | –1987
Past members | Tony Wakeford |
Above the Ruins were an English post-punk band. They were controversial for their association with the National Front (UK). Although the band's membership was unknown at the time, it was later discovered that it had been formed by Tony Wakeford, who subsequently distanced himself from right-wing politics and formed Sol Invictus in 1987.
In early 1984, Tony Wakeford had been a supporter of the National Front (UK), and was fired from the band Death in June for "bringing his 'right-wing leanings into the group'". [1] He subsequently formed Above the Ruins, named after the book Men Among the Ruins by Italian philosopher and fascist Julius Evola. [1] In October 1984, Above the Ruins recorded their nine song demo album Songs of the Wolf "somewhere in East London" and subsequently released it on cassette, which was distributed through the London-based P.O. box BCM Grimnir, and from the National Front bookshop in Croydon. [1] The band's lyrics denounced communism, capitalism and liberalism. [1] The demo received a favorable review from Nationalism Today, the journal of the National Front. [1] The following year, Above the Ruins contributed the song "The Killing Zone" to No Surrender, a compilation LP of white nationalist bands, [3] and in late 1985, announced that their demo would be "soon to be available on record". [1] In 1987, Wakeford distanced himself from right-wing views, and formed Sol Invictus. [2] Years afterward, Wakeford denied ever having been a member of the National Front or Above the Ruins, but later admitted to having been a member of both. [1] The rest of the band members' identities is unknown, despite much speculation and rumors. [1] In 2007, Wakeford described his National Front membership as "probably the worst decision of my life". [4]
Ian Stuart Donaldson, also known as Ian Stuart, was an English neo-Nazi musician. He was best known as the front-man of Skrewdriver, a punk band which, from 1983 onwards, he rebranded as a White power and Rock Against Communism band. He raised money through white power concerts with his Blood & Honour network.
Blood & Honour is a neo-Nazi music promotion network and right-wing extremist political group founded in the United Kingdom by Ian Stuart Donaldson and Nicky Crane in 1987. It is composed of White Nationalists and has links to Combat 18.
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Sol Invictus are a British neofolk band formed by Tony Wakeford in 1987. Wakeford has been the sole constant member of the group since its inception, although numerous musicians have contributed and collaborated with him under the Sol Invictus name over the years.
Anthony Charles Wakeford is a British neofolk musician, who primarily records under the name Sol Invictus. He is also a member of the punk rock band Crisis and a co-founder of Death in June.
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American Front (AF) is a white supremacist organization founded in San Francisco, California by Bob Heick in 1984. It began as a loose organization modeled after the British National Front. Heick began working with Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance (WAR) in 1988.
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Skrewdriver were an English punk rock band formed by Ian Stuart Donaldson in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, in 1976. Originally a punk band, Skrewdriver changed into a white power skinhead rock band after reuniting in the 1980s. Their original line-up split in January 1979 and Donaldson reformed the band with different musicians in 1982. This new version of the band played a leading role in the Rock Against Communism movement.
Crisis are an English punk rock band formed in 1977 in Guildford, Surrey. An openly left-wing and anti-fascist band, they performed at rallies for Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League, and at Right to Work marches. British music magazine Sounds used the phrase "Music to March To" to describe their controversial and radical left-wing form of music.
Rebelles Européens was a French independent record label that operated between 1987 and 1994, specialising in white power rock and Rock Against Communism. Based in the port city of Brest, the label was founded by Gaël Bodilis, a member of far-right groups including the Front Nationale Jeunesse, Troisième Voie, and PNFE. Rebelles Européens was, alongside German label Rock-O-Rama Records, a key player within the international white power skinhead music scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike Rock-O-Rama, whose owner was apolitical and commercially minded, Bodilis primarily conceived of Rebelles Européens as a means for spreading neo-fascist ideology, and denied any interest in the profitability of his enterprise. Rebelles Europeéns was notable for its brazen inclusion of Nazi and white-supremacist symbols on album covers; Robert Forbes and Eddie Stampton suggest that the label "seemed to operate without regard to the law". After a pause on production in 1993, Rebelles Europeéns went out of business in 1994, with Australian label White League reissuing a small number of their releases on CD in 1995.
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No Remorse are an English white power rock band formed in London in 1985. They were one of the most prominent neo-Nazi skinheads bands of the Rock Against Communism scene. The band was led by Paul Burnley between 1986 and 1996, and by William Browning and Daniel "Jacko" Jack from 1996 onwards, following a factional dispute within British white nationalist politics.
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