The Redskins - Lean On Me
So for this post whipping through a few musical styles of my youth with a band that I caught back at the time on 'The Tube' on Channel 4 and also 'No.73', but didn't really follow any further, perhaps more because I didn't appreciate their sound at the time however, their political stance was certainly welcomed.
At the time this band were formed and active Britain was a 'bit of a mess' (nothing changes really!😞). There was high unemployment, the Miner's Strike was about to kick off, the Tory Party in the UK where in a strong position as after a heavy election defeat and re-grouping the opposition in The Labour Party were fairly weak at the time, all that along with the crowning turd 💩 of 'The Cold War' which in those days felt like a very real threat. In response to right wing politics in the UK acts such as Billy Bragg (the founder) The Communards and The Style Council became part of 'Red Wedge' amongst many other artists including comedians e.g. Ben Elton all 'championing' the Labour cause although not actually affiliated to The Labour Party.
All of them came with a strong voice and differing musical sounds against the government and policies of the day. Some of the more 'left leaning' bands at the time like The Housemartins, Easterhouse and the band featured here weren't part of the 'Red Wedge Movement', they distanced themselves from it and aimed to be a 'force for change through music', whether they fully fulfilled that ambition I don't know? but they certainly had stronger views...
Skinhead Socialist Sounds
Strong viewed socialism and music combined with the band The Redskins from their second single released in 1983, have a listen to 'Lean On Me' at the the youtube link. You can get some of their conviction through the lyrics in 'Lean On Me':
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The track also appearing on the album 'Neither Washington Nor Moscow' released on the major Decca Label in 1986. A label they stayed with for their other well known track 'Keep On Keeping On!' released on Decca in 1984.
Band And Formation
They were formed in York in 1982 from the demise of the punk band No Swastikas, the band moved to London and changed their name to The Redskins, although as a band No Swastikas didn't formally release any records as such some of their demo material appears on an album 'Epilogue - The Redskins' released on the 'Insurgence Records' label in 2010. Several of the band members belonged to the Socialist Workers Party and the band wore skinhead clothing styles and helped inspire the 'redskin movement'.
Although as mentioned, they may have been skinhead in appearance their music seemed to traverse many 'genres' including soul, funk, punk and alt rock. They were:
- Chris Dean - Vocals/Guitar
- Martin Hewes - Bass/Backing Vocals
- Nick King - Drums
Paul Hookham was to take over from Nick King in beating the skins for the band from 1985 although for the release of their track 'Bring It Down' the band pulled in Steve White from The Style Council. Evidently Chris Dean wrote for NME magazine under the name X. Moore!
Releases, Controversies & Split
The band released their first single, 'Lev Bronstein', on the Independent CNT record label in 1982. They released one more single, 'Lean On Me', on CNT before signing to the major labels London/Decca Records. 'Lean On Me' was ranked at number 6 among the top ten 'Tracks of the Year' for 1983 by NME.
Catch them above with 'Bring It Down' on 'No. 73' a kid's Saturday Morning T.V. program.
As a band they were fairly short lived and by 1986 had split but seemed to pack in quite a bit whilst active by performing at the Greater London Council's 'Jobs For Change Festival' where they ran into trouble with bunch of white power skinheads who gate-crashed the gig. They appeared on The Tube on Channel 4 where they invited a striking Miner to give a speech which somehow got 'censored' with his microphone being 'mysteriously' switched off, I remember seeing this performance! Their track 'Kick Over The Statues' was evidently rejected by Decca (it was apparently related to support of the anti-apartheid movement) and it was quickly released by the band on the Independent Abstract Dance label instead.
I guess all in all although the album 'Neither Washington Nor Moscow' was, for me at least, surprisingly not 'punted out' by an 'Indie Label' given it's overall content and it did manage to capture a 'political mood' of it's day, perhaps a mood that will have it's own 'resurgence' given current political climates?
Photo Thanks
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
Video Source Thanks
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