SKREWDRIVER-FACT AND FICTION

Ive been wondering if it was possible to write an article about the band SKREWDRIVER without being labelled a 'commie' or a 'nazi'. being neither, and not being familiar with ian stewerts music, this is my attempt to try. and the thought that struck me was that most people think of them dropping right out of the sky with blood and honour bringing up their rear, a fully formed band of stormtroopers, but the truth turned out to be much more interesting and suprisingly easy to find, yet its little told if at all. so here i go with my hopefully unbiased 'on the fence' article.
i think it would be fair to say that no band that emerged from the punk scene, or for that matter, any scene at all that has earned such a terrible reputation and gained so many violently loyal followers and haters both here and abroad as skrewdriver has.
their reputation has grown so large and had been to some such a threat that people have devoted themselves to either defending them or trying to kick their heads in with a passion that often ended in terrible violence and injuries on both sides. their reputation reached a point where even the rumours about them were overblown, blaming them for every race hate crime sinse president lincoln was said to have been shot by one of their roadies! their situation wasnt made any easier when the music world refused to carry any promotions or press releases from the band, so it was natural for rumours to flourish in the vacuum of accurate information about the band. and no band has had as many outlandish claims made about them as this one.
What is known about them is easy to find out about if you do a little digging, but no one ever seems to bother finding out about the band who, could have become a band in the same league that cocksparrer, menace and sham 69 were in, instead, most concentrate on the later skrewdriver's career.
the original band were from blackpool and were then very different in line up as well as in their politics. to start with in the mid 1970's they were a band that played rolling stones covers and were known and gigged by the name 'tumbling dice'. it was in november 1976 that the band turned on to the pistols and co, except the drummer who was replaced for being 'a hippie', plus singer stewert later said of the time that he "was sick of singing other peoples songs as well". and they decided to become a punk band, but before they could do that they had to change their name, and 'skrewdriver' was chosen. (the band later paid 'homage' to their 'stones period' in october '77 by recording the jagger/richards song '19th nervous breakdown' as the b-side to 'anti-social', their 2nd single for chiswick records).
at first the bands look hadn't changed a great deal from their 'stones covers period', on the cover of a fanzine from north england ironically entitled 'vive la restistance' from mid 77 the main force of the band is pictured on the cover along with the rest of the early line-up, ian stewert (for it is he) is sporting a fine head of shoulder length hair as is another member while yet another (the new drummer) sports a very looked after suave mostache, and the band seem to favour those big sunglasses that were popular in u.s cop shows and films of the period.
it was after only two gigs in their home town before they were banned from performing there anymore, probally as a backlash from the sex pistols/anti punk 'bally hoo' that was gripping the nation at the time.
they were not very sad to leave their home town and move to london for a place to play gigs, quite the opposite in fact, in no time they had got a foot in the door and they were soon getting regular gigs at venues such as the boringly famous 'roxy club' playing with bands as diverse as SHAM69 (ironic given their later spat), WAYNE COUNTY'S ELECTRIC CHAIRS (imagine!!) and A.T.V as well as at venues like the marquee, dingwalls and the vortex. they also supported the DAMNED, and the WASPS among others. they played support and headline gigs all across the south east and soon, across the country. in what must have seemed like no time they were signed up by upcoming indie record label 'chiswick' in the april of 1977, and in june they released their first single 'your so dumb'.
funnily, during may the 31st 1977 skrewdriver played a gig in a putney pub sharing the stage with a band who would go on to conquer the world with their shit pop, but who were then celebrating the release of their first punk single. released the day before, it was called 'fall out'. ive tried to contact the police and also logged on to sting's website to see if he or the band have any lasting memories of the gig but to no avail, oh well!
in november of 77 the band released their debut lp 'all skrewed up' which contained a cover version of the who's 'wont get fooled again'.
despite the setbacks caused by going through some line up changes along the way, they had the LP, a couple of singles and tracks on various compilation lp's to show for their efforts. not too bad for relative new comers to london (especially for a northern band in a southern city already oozing punk bands from every window), also they were now skinheads, having lost their appitite for punk,
an incident that was said to have had the biggest impact on stewert during their first punk time period was after a roxy gig when the band were loading up their gear into their van when they were set upon by a gang of teddy boys, as the band fought to protect themselves and their gear the roxy regulars just stood there and looked on without helping, the out numbered band ended up quite badly beaten and sustained lots of stitches and a few lost teeth, the 'hardcore' regulars just standing there watching left an image in his head of slacked jawed 'cowards' not helping him and the band, and it left a bit of a bitter taste in his mouth, i dont know how bitter but he could taste it.
when the lp arrived in the shops there was no doubt that this band were now a skinhead band, they even had the famous quote from jamica's studio 1 houseband 'symarip's ' skinhead moonstomp across the back cover ("i want all you skinheads to get yourselves on your feet, get your braces together, an your boots on your feet..." ect. -that one.).
not long before the lp's release ian stewert had said "we have no political interests at all" and that "no matter what we do we know we cant change the state of the country".
by the spring of 78 the band had become embroiled in a letter writing argument with jimmy pursey of sham 69 after pursey had complained about the fighting and rising number of skinheads and neo-nazis going to his gigs and that he "wished they would go back to skrewdriver" the obvious fact that the sham 69 'fans' were the same as ones who went to skrewdriver gigs seemed to be lost on pursey (he was too busy crying im told). stewert replied in a letter sent to the NME, in it he said that "skrewdriver is no longer a skinhead band due to the violence at our gigs" and stewert further remarked via the same letter " i do not mind who attends our gigs whoever they are as long as they are here to enjoy the music and not to beat the crap out of each other, we are making a concious effort to stop any violence at our gigs and i wish the audience would do the same"(!) (why not put unruly fans in kz camps ian?-sorry, sick joke).
once the violence at gig's had stopped getting headlines, the bands name didnt pop up a lot in the music press who were ignoring any band who professed to being a skinhead band (despite stewerts hair growing efforts), like cocksparrer who once said to the music press in 1977 that they were "definetly not a punk band" and that they played "skinhead rock". already the 'short hair equals master race' idea was taking hold in the minds of a britain that was becoming more divided by the politics and living conditions (power cuts, strikes, riots, body clogged morgues, closed hospitals and no bin men which meant rats as big as your forearm, ect) of the times, but by the end of the 1970's came the end of skrewdriver who like other bands were finding it hard to get gigs because of their reputation, so the band called it a day sometime in late 78 to mid 79 (the timing is hazy), despite not every skinhead being a new neo nazi, not by a long chalk, politics was still largly ones own choice within the skinhead cult and not a subject that was bothered about other than the grass roots politics of work, but the country had changed since the times of the 1960's-70's skinheads, now with britains highest ever unemployment and the ending of apprentiships and such, skinheads no longer had working gripes, instead they were given, via older men in pubs and cafes, fascist propaganda, and a ready made target for their feelings of uncertainty, nicely packaged in easy to digest soundbites designed to blame and alienate minorities for the on-going fuck ups that were actually made by the governments of the times. but it was easier to take the anger and fear widely felt out on the helpless and voicless.
i wonder how the band would have looked like with hindsight if stewert had not formed a later band using the SKREWDRIVER name, ive a feeling they would of become one of those bands who's tunes would of turned up a lot on 'oi' and punk compilation lp's like the 4 skins, last resort and the uk subs. (no disrespect)
it was the original skrewdriver line up split, that gave ian stewert the time to return once more to being a skinhead, only this time he was to become a 'bonehead' proper, while another ex-member went on to have his own popular daytime radio show with radio 1, (he was presented with evidence of his time in the band once on a TV music show- i recall how his face went bright red, as he muttered some gibberish and hurried off looking very embarrased (i wish i could remember his name).
the bands myth was to beginning to grow and was sometimes as outlandish then as it is now.
stewert also took to wollowing deeply in the loving embrace of total hypocracy with relish despite his earlier pleas for peace, now he surrounded himself in the company of violent thugs. and, he (allegedly) embraced the ideas of the nazi idealogues like the mad alfred rosenberg and his global germanic theories (rosenberg believed that the germans had not only been the catalysts for the roman empire and european culture, but were also responsible for everything sinse the wheel, ("DER WHEEL IST ALSO DEUTSCH!") while another, one 'kurt willigut', (given high ss rank just...because.) told of a hollow earth and an underground dwelling place where there is an ayranian master race who rule has lasted 1000's of years.
back to reality and the band there was silence. it wasn't for a year or two that the name skrewdriver was to be seen again on gig flyers, but twhen they did, his time there was no doubt that this was a skinhead band, soon they had a popular residency on thursdays at the 100 club, home of the famous 76 punk festival, and before long their fanbase was growing fast and they were beginning to attract likeminded bands influenced originally by the 'street bands' such as cocksparrer, sham69, slaughter and the dogs and of course skrewdriver who, by the way now only contained singer ian stewert from the original line-up,.
it was some time before the new political aspect of the band came to be widely known to the public, and that stewert, in contradiction to his earlier claims had embraced politics, but instead of embracing the politics of peace (not so suprising when you have seen and been involved in as much violence as stewert had in such a short time period) it was being said that the new band were in fact all members of the national front, and it soon became news that the NF had organised a music 'department' to spread the message by the way of bands and their gigs.
(this was old news to the bands and fans) at first the NF drew many of the neo nazi bands to them but after a while the bands started to feel that the NF was just using them and then NF leader martin webster got caught with his trousers down along with a young man (hee hee) and that was the last the bands saw of the NF, who were now a laughing stock after websters sexual unsubtltly.
so the bands between them decided to start up their own orginasation to handle the bands and the politics, the orginisation took its name from the title of skrewdrivers roadies/body guards- 'blood and honour' (it was around this time these bands distanced themselves from the oi or punk tags and began to describe themselves as 'white rock', 'oi' depending on who you talked to was either too 'right wing' or 'commie' lover's music).
another interesting event that happened around the height of the medias interest was a front page spread in britains biggest newspaper of stewert and suggs from madness, both were pictured sitting on a bed as stewert shone his boots, this was accompanied with the headline 'suggs, my nazi mate' the story became the next days chip wrapping and not a scoop as hoped, finding out about famous peoples personal past is the papers way of working and suggs or madness didnt suffer at all from the front page while skrewdriver probally enjoyed the publicity.
due to several line up changes skrewdriver essentionally slowly became just stewert who kept the band going with a pool of musicians who helped the band depending on the area stewert was in at the time, but who played with their own bands for the rest of the time- or so the rumour says.
from here on the facts and myths of the band become mixed and im only repeating what ive heard, i make no petentions to be telling the truth, just what ive heard.
it wasnt long before blood and honour were up and running and records were being released by bands from all over europe and america. and the cloak of rumour started to spread itself around reality. certain english bands were even being followed by mi5 to make sure they didnt plan a nazi take over (as if!), skrewdriver themselves felt it prudent to leave the country and travelled around gigging in europe where they always got a raptious reception (when ever you see gig photos from that time the audience always looks identical what ever the country, i wonder why?) finally after tiring of being chased around and having to hide himself in europe he went to live in the far east, yes thats right- the far east! the land of rice paddy fields, yellow skinned buddist peasants and a very un ayryan government.
this is where the story gets really wierd (and unbelievable in places), it was said that stewert had gone to the far east variously to escape the attentions of the governments of europe, mossad, the anti nazi's, retiring to join a community of neo-nazi expats, to gun run, drug deal, deal in child and prostitute slavery, and my favourite was the one in which stewert had been a serious member of an odin worshipping pagan religion like a latter day himmler and a modern 'thule society'and had moved east to practice his pagan faith unmolested and summon up the aid of 'dark beings' to help his cause- just like in 'hellboy' in fact!, these religious rituals were said to include the sacrifice of babies and virgins- one of the reasons for his moving to the far east it seems, because it was easy 'in those countries' (this rascist statement came from a so called 'anti-rascist') to steal babies and young ladies and remain undetected, in some accounts stewert was the head druid in others not. but stewert was said to have cut the still beating heart from a victim and held it aloft as an offering to the norse god thor (someones seen too many films, even i dont believe this one.)
another reason stewert was said to have moved to the far east was because he was a kiddie fiddler and he was involved with other leading neo-nazis in the child porn industry, kidnapping kids for the sex market or using them for making porn or snuff movies. depending on who does the story telling.
these stories and rumours abounded while the anti nazi world saw him as a threat and it was his death that produced the last load of tales, from innocent dodgy brakes on his car failing to murder (point your finger and think of a name for the killer/s), and (my favourite) to him being killed as a pagan ritual sacrifice to the god thor (though why the killer pagans would want to kill their main cash cow pretty much rules that out in my mind). and so the skrewdriver story ended with stewerts death, but not the rumours which still do the rounds, like a musical version of a grimm brothers folk (volk?) tale, thus keeping the bands myth alive. some have spent the last 30 odd years guiltly playing their old chiswick punk singles wishing people could tell the difference between the non political skrewdriver in 77 and the later band who led the nazi music scene as their most famous band and inspiration. and there was a difference, quite a big one if you look at it closely, their only connection was both bands shared a singer but at different times.
ZERO HOUR would like to point out that we are now and were not fans of the 1980's skrewdriver and feel that the views of the neo-nazi band do not share any ideal's common with the punk scene and are not in agreement with them.
(christ, i didnt realise how hard it was sitting on a wobbling rickety fence trying to keep politics out of the blogzine is, i only wanted to try and write an unbiased article about a group who had gained the status of musical 'evil demi-gods' and show that they were decended from apes just like the rest of us).