A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youths in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in the late 1970s. Motivated by social alienation and working-class solidarity, skinheads are defined by their close-cropped or shaven heads and working-class clothing such as Dr. Martens and steel toe work boots, braces, high rise and varying length straight-leg jeans, and button-down collar shirts, usually slim fitting in check or plain. The movement reached a peak at the end of the 1960s, experienced a revival in the 1980s, and, since then, has endured in multiple contexts worldwide.
Oi Polloi are a punk rock band from Scotland that formed around 1981. Starting as an Oi! band, they are now generally more associated with the anarcho-punk genre. The band has become notable for their contributions to the Scottish Gaelic punk subgenre. The name comes from the Greek expression "οἱ πολλοί", Anglicized hoi polloi, meaning "the masses" or "the common people".
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) are anti-racist skinheads who oppose white power skinheads, neo-fascists and other political racists, particularly if they identify themselves as skinheads. SHARPs claim to reclaim the original multicultural identity of the original skinheads, hijacked by white power skinheads, who they sometimes deride as "boneheads".
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 1982 onwards, he rebranded as a White power and Rock Against Communism band. He raised money through nationalist concerts with his Blood & Honour network.
Angelic Upstarts are an English punk rock / Oi! band formed in South Shields in 1977. AllMusic calls them "one of the period's most politically charged and thought-provoking groups". The band espouse an anti-fascist and socialist working class philosophy, and have been associated with the punk and skinhead subcultures.
Iron Cross was a punk rock band from Washington D.C. They played a rough form of street punk and the first band in the US to adopt the skinhead look and the Oi! musical style. Some of its members had close ties to the Washington hardcore punk subculture, due to its relationship with other hardcore bands, with Ian Mackaye, and with Dischord Records. Singer Sab Grey was one of the many roommates in the Dischord House in Arlington, Virginia. The band's name, and the fact that most of its members were skinheads, led to accusations of fascism, which Grey and others in the band and the original D.C. skins, always denied, declaring that they "hate Nazis".
Böhse Onkelz, sensational spelling of böse Onkels is a German rock band formed in Frankfurt in 1980. The band reunited in 2014. Despite mass-media criticism concerning their past as skinheads, several of their later records topped the German album charts. E.I.N.S. was their most successful album, with over 510,000 copies sold.
Peter and the Test Tube Babies are an English punk rock band, formed in the small town of Peacehaven, Sussex, England in 1978, by Derek "Strangefish" Greening and Peter Bywaters. Due to their humorous tongue-in-cheek lyrics, they have been considered part of the Punk pathetique subgenre.
Rock-O-RamaRecords was a Cologne-based German independent record label that operated between 1980 and 1994, established and run by Herbert Egoldt. Though initially dedicated to releasing and distributing left-wing or apolitical German and international punk and hardcore, Rock-O-Rama became a leading label for white power rock and Rock Against Communism from the middle of the 1980s. Following a 1993 police raid, Egoldt closed the label in 1994 under the threat of legal action from German authorities.
Skullhead was a nationalist Oi! band from the Newcastle area. It was part of the Rock Against Communism (RAC) movement.
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 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.
The Business were an English punk band formed in 1979 in Lewisham, South London, England. The band lasted for four decades until their frontman Micky Fitz died from cancer in December 2016.
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.
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 partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic... and losing touch."
Combat 84 were an English punk rock band active during the early 1980s. Formed in 1981 in Chelsea, London by skinheads 'Chubby' Chris Henderson and 'Deptford' John Armitage, Combat 84 rose to national prominence after being featured in a controversial 1982 BBC Arena documentary about the skinhead movement.
Razors in the Night is an American punk rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2009. The band was founded by Troy Schoeller (Vocals), who recruited four friends, Todd Wilson, guitar (ex-Beware!), Ian Clark, guitar, Swid, bass (Acrobrats). The band name is taken from a Blitz song. Their sound is somewhat anomalous, fusing hardcore, Oi!, and a touch of garage rock.
Oi! The Album is a 1980 Oi! compilation album, released in 1980 by EMI, then re-released by Captain Oi! and Cleopatra Records on CD in later years. It was conceived and compiled by then Sounds columnist Garry Bushell who had coined the phrase "Oi!" to denote what he called a new breed of working class punk rock with "terrace" or mob choruses. Of the bands labelled 'Oi!', Bushell had managed the Cockney Rejects and went on to manage the Blood.
Strength Thru Oi! is a 1981 Oi! compilation album, featuring various artists and released by Decca Records, released in collaboration with Sounds magazine.
Endstufe is a German far-right rock band from Bremen.
Booze & Glory is a Polish-British Street Punk band from London, formed in 2009.
