Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Naked Raygun ,Straight Edge vs Nazi Skins






Back in the late eighties before I had discovered rave, I was a skater and used to attend some hardcore gigs put on by the Kronstadt Klub, one of the most memorable was in a crypt of a church! the Headliners were Naked Raygun supported by No Means No and a local British punk band.
When we arrived at the venue,there were bus loads of British straight edge skinheads from Birmingham who had come to support No Means No.There were also a large contingent of far right skins with Nazi symbols dubious tattoos. Me and my small group of skaters mates stuck out like a sore thumb in our with our skateboards and wearing skate rags and caps.
As No Means No begin to play the straight edgers began to slam dance but soon enough the Nazi Skins began to attack them and the straight edgers refused to fight back. Very soon the straight edgers had all left dancefloor, blood flowing bruised and blackeyed.My friends and I were in shock at what we had witnessed.
The local punk band followed and the nazi skins continued to slam dance but even they were unsure of what to make of the steadfast commitment of the straight edgers to non violence.
By the time Naked Raygun had taken the stage the lead singer sporting Rupert the Bear tartan yellow trousers the all the skins were slamming away together having achieved an uneasy truce, even we skaters joined in.

Click for more on  Redskins  (anti racist skinheads) and, Black Female skinheads




Tuesday, 26 November 2019

Rays

Ray Eden (ToPY)

 Ray Grace











 Ray Clemence


Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
















Click for more  X Ray Spex and Naked Rayguns


Saturday, 16 November 2019

Sunday, 10 November 2019

Innocence/innersense


Innersense - laserdrome


Return to innocence - Enigma




Saturday, 9 November 2019

Steve Double Steve

 




I blogged about the Double L previously, however for some time a Double Steve thing has been  reoccurring in my conciousness. Perhaps the first time I noticed it was in relation the writer who uses the name Stephen King .Stephen means "crowned one" in Greek so his pen name is essentially "King King" (King of Kings) . 
In an interview I was listening to today with Rowetta of Happy Mondays by Carl Loben of the Drum Monkeys. I was made aware of two Steve Mac's with a Bristol connection; one (a white guy) & record producer the other (a black guy), house DJ and record producer. 
 Kiss FM in its heyday had a a number of "DJ Doubles".  On the Black & White tip were ; Colin Favour/Colin Dale and Matt Black/Matt White. 
  Steve Jackson  was a dj/producer on kiss fm not to be confused with  Steve Jackson (Fighting Fantasy / Electronic Frontier Foundation) 
 I've blogged elsewhere on my own "White Steve" alias  given to me by my Kung Fu  teacher to differentiate me from "Black Steve".
In regards to my real name, I've never actually met anyone who shares both my names.
But in the aforementioned Rowetta interview they  mention the well known music journalist named "Stephen..." who shares my surname. I have always beenaware of him as I was a regular reader of NME in my teens, but he never really impacted my life.
Which leads  to the next event. I sometimes wonder if it ever really happened it felt so strange. I was in my 1st year of University. It was the early nineties, and around the time I settled on the use of my JSteveKane alias.  I had been to a club night entitled "innersense" at a place called the lazerdrome in Peckham Rye with a friend. We had just got back to East London after quite a hard night partying when we were stopped by the Police. We had done nothing wrong but were nervous and even more so after the initial questions had been answered , checks carried out yet we were still not free to move on. There was much talk on the police radio and the focus was clearly on me. Eventually we were allowed to go, but not before the Officer explained that the reason for the hold up was I apparently shared the same name as a "political dissident" of interest in regard to the delicate situation in Northern Ireland.
 Years later my Steve/Laserdrome connection came back to haunt me. After a particularly heavy night out I caught a night bus home that terminated in Peckham Rye, meaning a walk to Forest Hill. As I stumbled off into the night, I looked up to see the long since derelict laserdrome, the security screening surrounding it with signage reading "secured by Stephen Kane".
 Strange indeed!  I've blogged elsewhere in relation to the Double Steve / Stephen Strange.
Recently the BBC TV series Small Axe directed by Steve McQueen reminded me of the movie legend of the same name who I only ever watched in "The great escape".