Ian Stuart's Skrewdriver ~ The Strong Survive (album review) ... But, that doesn't include you!

Style: protest, hard rock
Label: Rock-O-Rama
Year: 1990
Home: England

Members: Ian Stuart ~ vocals/guitar
Stigger ~ guitar/keyboard
Jon Herson ~ bass
Jon Burnley ~ drums

This might just be one of the best albums by Skrewdriver, featuring cult frontman Ian Stuart. It's the same under-produced highly distorted non-melodic guitars against an non-descript rhythm section that marks much of their output. The secret being Stuarts's distinct crunchy voice & biting social commentary. Skrewdriver started as a typical anti-social angry punk band before a change of membership, predominantly in guitarist Stigger, brought a more hard rock sound. While Stuart's obsession with the British Nationalist movement & later his becoming a father figure to the White Supremacist movement turned his lyrical content from just anti-social to racial, eventually leading to his untimely murder. It put Stuart & Skrewdriver into the British & international spotlight & gave them a distinctiveness they hadn't had & probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but it also shrunk their fanbase & isolated them in the music community, let alone any community. Skrewdriver would be an on/off affair, while Stuart formed many side groups, such as work with Stigger, Rough Justice & the Klansmen, that would experiment with metal, rockabilly & folk or cracked country as its come to be known. The lyrics, though, always the focus over musical development. The problem is that most people, if they know Stuart & company at all, only tend to know him for his racialist views, the term used by the community versus the more common racist, but much of his recording output actually is not racialist at all. His beliefs on race were just one part of his personality & one thing to protest. Yet, people think that's all he knows & sings about & hate him fiercely for it. It's no different than saying everything George Harrison sang was related to Hare Krishna, even if "This Song" & "When We Was Fab" & "Sue Me Sue You Blues" have nothing to do with spirituality, while Hinduism has often been seen as a backwards pagan religion. The difference is nobody hates Harrison but many hate Stuart, so it doesn't matter if what they say about him is based on what he actually did or what they think he did. It's a case of not separating the stereotype from reality. But, then, those people are never going to listen to anything Stuart has done, no matter what, & its their loss. But, considering we iconize rap musicians who kill others or superstars who act like embarrassing jerks in public, but yet Stuart who did neither is ostracized & murdered for his beliefs. This is sad how fame works, because much of his output, particularly with Skrewdriver, & certainly with the one-off Rough Justice, was actually aimed at universal problems, particularly the big brother government & the more modest disillusions of failed friendships. On this album there's not a single racialist line, while his pointed & unabashed criticisms are as powerful as Dylan, Baez & Guthrie, if not far more direct. His lyrics should be floated out at every protest. This is the album to float out. This album doesn't necessarily have the most poetic lyrics, the one album with Rough Justice is my recommendation for that, but the album congeals in a way that Skrewdriver albums don't always do. Stuart doesn't necessarily get as explicit on who he is talking about on some albums, but hits big themes such as pride in one's ideas & even teachers. In "The Strong Survive" Stuart sings: "However they hit us/we'll be back again/the strong survive/look at us baby/we're still alive". Or, in "Shining Down": "Don't tell me nothing can be done/with that attitude/nothing will be won." As for education, in "Voice Of Evil" he sings: "Crime in the classroom ... some call it a teacher/they'll try to tell you that north is south/they're making up stories ... they never stopped trying/to make you feel bad." There's also a cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", which is a nice little inclusion & feels like it lyrically matches though I haven't considered if it really does or not & far better than his take of "Back In Black" on another album. "Backstabber" & "Warzone" are Stuart's take on bad personal relationships, thus rounding out the album with some personal notes.

Ian Stuart's White Diamond ~ The Reaper (album review) ... Living on the edge of hate!

Style: hard rock
Label: Rock-O-Rama
Year: 1991
Home: Britain

Members: Ian Stuart ~ vocals/guitar
Stigger ~ guitar/vocals

For what one might expect coming from IS he - yet again - shows us that our expectations are to be disappointed. Sometimes he'll do good on our expectations but other times, more often than not, he blows them all away. A small much hated minority will probably be upset at this as IS is the unofficial lyricist Laurette of the skinhead movement & the father of its boots & braces hard rock/punk look, but that's not the image or ideology shared here. IS came to fame singing & writing for the the Stooges-esque punk band Skrewdriver before getting into & becoming an out-spoken advocate of British Nationalism & Nazi-bred racialism that soon took over his work. Skrewdriver went from being another noisy British punk band to one of the first & certainly the most famous Neo-Nazi punk/rock bands in the world ... which led to even more fame & getting banned from performing in numerous places, even if on the other hand they were also activists against communism & putting the average person back in charge of their country. But, it's the negatives that outweight the positives for most people, preventing them from seeing the bigger person or bigger message. Lost underneath what many people will consider a perverse ideology is a poet as great as any other in rock music. Knowing his role in the skinhead movement one might expect an album laced with racist ideology & hate filled spewing along the lines of G.G. Allin. But, the truth couldn't be more opposite. IS sings of everything but. Dylan probably refers to race more in his entire career than IS does on The Reaper. If there's hate of anything it's hate of people who won't let him be himself (i.e. "Hands Of A Stranger), which for him is cause of rebellion, & those who judge others who judge (i.e. "Judge"). Or, as he says in "Living On The Edge" in the game of life "They say that one man is a savior & the next day he falls/no one can tell me how to lead my life." As for Allin similarities, outside of their fringe element identities & untimely deaths it's as poor a pairing as Frank Yankovic & Tupac Shakur. Unlike Allin's blasphemy for the sake of it & his noisy overdriven punk IS cared about the music & putting together enjoyable songs that honored the music forms of the past that best work towards telling his story. IS also knew that the worse the music the less people would be interested in listening. IS was not afraid of exploring different musical styles over his short career & ventured with different ad-hoc bands into folk rock & rockabilly, while with WD he finds himself with lo-fi 80's hard rock. But, even where it's production fails IS turns out another great straight from the gut basic rock album with nothing to fall back on but his lyrics of social insight, which is why anyone should & would turn to an IS album. Though, having given all that small print ... The Reaper might be IS's lyrically simplest albums, as if he was just looking to sing a bunch of straight ahead rock songs versus sharing a message. This is where one returns to not meeting expectations. The poetic quality he often displays is toned down here for straight ahead rock. IS is famous for writing about the working class, the Reds, capitalism & other topics, with race being something that is just one of many topics. But, here he stays away from political songs for much more basic ideas, common to any other musician but abnormal for IS. "Bright City Lights" tells the story of Billy who has a hit record & becomes a star as "Billy had what it took" until alcohol brings his life to an end, while "A Friend Is A Friend" basically lists what a best friend is. IS may not be ranting against the government here, but he is still a man of moral convictions & laces his songs with advocating moral solitude. It ends with the interesting "Wishing Well" that features guitarist Stigger from Skrewdriver on vocals turning in something that could be found in the Dio catalog. This was the first of two albums with WD. 1991 would also see him release albums by the rockabilly tinged Klansmen, a solo album & folk songs with Stigger called Patriotic Ballads. The Klansmen is an overtly racialist band so WD the other side of the coin. The next year he'd continue his prolific output with four more albums & an unfinished Skrewdriver album before he'd be killed at age 36 ending just over a decade of under-appreciated music.

Ian Stuart & Rough Justice ~ Justice For The Cottbus Six (EP) (album review) ... Singing the early warning signs!

Style: alt rock, punk, hard rock, skinhead
Label: Rock-O-Rama Records
Year: 1992
Home: Britain

Members: Ian Stuart ~ guitar/vocals
band ~ n/a

I love the diversity of metal & hard rock, which is what initially inspired me to start writing this blog. If it's not the most diverse genre of music ... well, I dare you to prove it. But, while you're working on that fruitless task let me tell you about this album that I originally picked up for it's diverse nature, which I'll explain later, & was surprised to find the music was far better than any stereotype I had in my head. I knew about Ian Stuart & Rough Justice, RJ being one of his many backing bands, & deliberately set out to find the music to uncover this fringe hard rock band. It was a worthwhile effort. Fuzztone guitars largely reminiscent of the Stooges over a simple bass/drum rhythm, though all sounding like they were recorded in a reverb-heavy wind tunnel due to some poor production values, or maybe its deliberate as the focus is really the vocals which stand out incredibly clear. A southern drawled construction worker is the best I can describe the singer Stuart, or on the other hand he could be the British Springsteen. What makes this more than just another garage band is the clear message of social protest through some well-crafted poetry. Stuart, due to a troubled reputation, has probably some of the most underrated lyrics of the past 30 years. "Once upon a time in a land so true, the land of milk & honey for me & you ... now you're just another beggar in a long long line & then they wonder why there's a rising rate in crime" is in the highlight "Can't Spare The Time" with the great chorus. This is probably one of the least cliched & most ear-catching social songs I've heard in awhile. I'm waiting for this song & all that follow, all in the same social commentary vein, to appear on a movie soundtrack. While "Early Warning Sign" cries "Do you believe the lies they teach on MTV & in papers ... we are free spiritually" or "He says every man is equal, every man is the same, but one man is rich, another's poor, life's a funny game, we're having a good time" from the ironically titled "Having A Good Time". But, let's go back to my note of diversity before I find myself quoting every song which I want to do. Socially relevant lyrics are not new. But, it's whose singing them that's diversity. The late British poet/singer/social activist Ian Stuart is largely considered, or I should say more accurately iconized as, the father of the hardcore music scene of the Neo-Nazis, Skinheads, KKK & White Nationalists/Supremists, particularly through his bands White Diamond, the Klansmen & the more popular Skrewdriver with their seminal albums Freedom What Freedom, Blood & Honour, Boots & Braces & the classic White Rider. The album titles themselves give away all you need to know, though it should be said that Stuart started his career as just another punk rocker before taking up the White Supremist cause so these titles only reflect his later career. When you're listening to Stuart you've hit the hardcore area of White Supremist music, one of the greatest fringe elements of hard rock & punk. Stuart is the stereotypical bald, boots & braces (suspenders) wearing Neo-Nazi & I'm pretty sure created the look now adopted by many of his musical protégé. Yes, his songs are laced with racist ideology, but throughout his career one will find an equal number of complaints against big business, the Reds (largely dating his recording output) & a largely Marxist cry of consolidation for the working class amongst other causes. Justice For The Cottbus Six is largely absent of anything but the Marxist cry as it was recorded in Germany in protest against the German government that arrested six British nationalists for crimes they didn't commit but their dress make them guilty. A racist singing about defeating the Reds? Big Business? Crying against the lack of social welfare? Unjustified arrests? If you don't believe me you probably haven't done your research of the Skinhead movement beyond the stereotype. Sadly, his social protest songs - as good as anything by Joan Baez - will never be heard because of his racial beliefs that most people will probably find horrid. Considering Stuart had a career that spanned punk, rockabilly, rock & folk with some great albums, never to be heard by the general public, one wouldn't wonder if it hadn't been worth it to follow the advice of the heads of the Nationalist movement who asked him to censor his lyrics & tone down some of the hate speech. Is that not ironic? It's as if they were embarrassed by their own beliefs! For those reading who support freedom of speech except when it goes to what they label as hate/racist speech, even though there's nothing hateful or racist on this particular album, you'll be pleased to know Stuart's band was banned from London & he even served time in prison ... though for defending himself against a gang of British blacks who didn't like his hairstyle. He died in a car wreck when his car was said to malfunctioned?