...HE HATES THE WUURLLDA!!!!" OR DID HE? OR, AS IT HAS BEEN CLAIMED, WAS IAN STUART REALLY A SECRET, LOW DOWN, GROOVIN', 'FUNK SOUL BROTHER'? AND, WAS THE OLD ADAGE THAT 'GROOVE IS IN THE HEART' THE REAL SECRET BEHIND THE HATEFUL APPEARANCE OF THE ORGAN PUMPING AWAY INSIDE HIM, KNOCKING OUT HIS HEART BEAT AT A CROWD STOMPING 'B.P.M', IN MIX-TIME TO STUARTS GROOVY, MELLOW, AND (ahem) LOVABLE, CUDDLY PERSONALITY?
AND THE REASON HE GAVE OFF SUCH A VIBE OF FUNKIN' CALMNESS, AND BEING AT ONE WITH PEOPLE OF THE WORLD HE LOVED SO MUCH?
(well, as the title from the single 'Anti-social' claimed, he hated the world, and he seemed to sing it with conviction, as he also did with his later songs. But, did he really? and was he really serious when he warbled along about how he "hated the world?", Including other bitter lyrics like the self explanatory one stating that he was also "anti-social".
Both were odd claims to have made from a person who liked travelling to different places, both 'home' and abroad, to be cheered at for his performances, by crowds of people he didn't know. But now, as he had previously expressed and hoped for publicly, he is (like his mentally defective acolytes hope) sitting at the dining table of the ancients with Odin and Thor, drinking away inside Valhalla's great hall with all the other Norse 'heroes' of old. Although I actually imagine that his real destination is nearer in its nature to one like those of Dante's scarier, Hellish levels where Demons anus's are on their faces, or have no heads and outsized genitalia, ones that are used to getting their way, specially with those macho Boneheads and their faux-cockerney would be fuhrers. Who sit naked, and agonised by the pain caused by their own bodyweight upon pitchforks, held there by their own gluttonous bellies, fat man legs and chubby chins.
His being dead means we are unable to ask him personally what the truth was, and so he cannot answer what, if either meant more to him, was it groovin' funky beats, or Nazism? Nor can we find out anything of insight into him or anything useful to our Funk lovin' quest either.
So, who are we to argue? and, what is there to argue about? (He isn't worth the anger and bitterness of friends divided that an argument could cause. He would enjoy that, us divided over a shallow song, of deep, psychotically personal lyrics, a song recorded years before he died in..... 'that car accident'.
THE SIX MILLION RUPEE MAN
But, was he really involved in a car accident? could his life have been spared if he'd reached an nearest Aryan only hospital sooner?(of which I am sure there is no shortage of, especially in Derbyshire where he died) or, was the truth more like the rumours circulated among some of the more...disillusioned 'members' of the 'unconquered race' of perfectly created Aryan warriors, followers of national socialism, and its warped Odin loving creed.
The one 'informant' who gave us some info that said he was really sacrificed in a hurried pagan ritual because he was secretly found to be, a "traitorous, groovy, N***er' loving, 'Funk soul brother'".
He was said to be a full on secret pilgrim of the road travelled by his 'high five', funk lovin' 'Y' chrome brothers from other mothers, so 'the council of eighteen' hastily decided that Odin needed pleasing in the form of a great human sacrifice and piggy Stuart was picked (for various reasons).
The thought struck me while flicking through my records, idly looking for something to play that I haven't listened to for a long time. It was when I came across my copy of the first/original Skrewdriver LP that the thought struck me - now, before you get upset, call me nasty names and start blasting me, there was a time when Skrewdriver were just another band, and their only LP was just another standard punk LP with no overt political attachments or declarations (apart from the vague 'working class' ethic taken up by many bands), The nearest it has to a 'call to arms' being the quote in a large space on the back cover that was taken word for word from a Jamaican ska record by the black band 'Symarip' (the spoken intro for Ska classic 'Skinhead moonstomp').
No sign of Neo-Nazi sympathies or racism was evident, which is why I, like many, got their records in all innocence. As well as the couple of singles the original band released on Chiswick records at the time (77), the band also had a few tracks featured on mixed LP compilations (Chiswick records compilations 'odds on and even favourites', and the 10in double LP set 'catch a wave').
"CZECH HIM OUT NOW, ZE VOLK SOUL BRUDDER"
They were not at that time thought of as Neo-Nastie hate mongers. A second rate punk band maybe (the NME's 'not a London band' attitude of arrogant dictatorial policy towards bands not from London or the south east, who were not playing in the 'new musical style' -whatever that happened to be at the time), but Nazis no.
Don't forget the war was only past 30 odd years and was still a big topic in the media and in schools, and any known band with Nazi sympathies would of been put through 'trial by media' just as the 4Skins were, after the not too bright decision by someone a few bricks short of a hod to book a gig in the Hanworth tavern in Southhall.
So no Nazi sympathies relating to the original band were known about, if there were any to know I'm sure, but there was no known connection with the members of the originals, one of whom is now a well known BBC radio 'pop' music presenter (Mark Radcliffe). During that era, London was still full of bomb sights (my generation were the last to have bomb site playgrounds over here, a dubious but fun honour to be sure), while the TV and films favourite enemy 'everyman' was still the shiny booted Nazi maniac. From The Guns of Navarone, to the Great escape, which were both on TV at any opportunity, it was always Nazis as the enemy.
The many then still young and healthy(ish) ww2 vets were not yet quite old and doddery, and were always keen to tell us they didn't fight ww2 so that we could laugh and joke about while on a tube train (once, a mate said in reply "yes you did! Do you think the Nazis would let us have fun and laugh about on a train"? this bought hoots of laughter and shut the bloke up, while we did thank him for giving us an opportunity to have fun (we did, we said "thanks for making it easy for us to have fun", we meant it seriously but the old codger probably thought we were taking the piss - but my mate did have a point). But we laughed, and yet now 'they', our enemy are back and being welcomed on a chat show. the first of many I'm sure now the Rubicon has been crossed, soon we will see him on insipid day and tea time shows, ones that are instructed to not 'antagonise the guest' which really means 'don't ask them any serious questions'.
GET TO THE POINT YOU'RE RAMBLING.
The later emergence of the Nazi band with the same name came some time after the original band split, its 'new' line up only included a single member from the other, older band. This new group adopted the name because it was already known and gave the new band a helpful foot in the door by using the old name as a bargaining chip to get gigs.
Originally they played the role of being a part of the same 'oi' scene as that of Infa Riot, Upstarts, Sham, U.K Subs and the other bands who hadn't gone down the 'arty-muso' route taken by bands like The Banshees, P.I.L, and the (original, proper) Ants, or the 'Anarcho route' that many new bands went in. But Skrewdriver soon moved away from the OI scene stating it was "too left wing" and, with No Remorse and a couple of other bands who's names are lost to the used bogroll of history, their own Blood and honour' label and 'security' crew. This was after they founded after they discovered they had been used and taken for a idiot mugs by their brothers in race and mind in the NF, who were managing the gigs and keeping most of the cash (to pay for more kiddie porn no doubt).
The original band had played with many well known groups during it's time and at many well known venues, such as the Vortex, 100 club, Roxy and Marquee, as support and as head liners, with some of those supporting bands having multi cultural/racial members. They even supported The Police, at a party to celebrate the release of The Police's first 45 called 'Fall out' (for all the geeks out there, it was at the Putney rail hotel, May31st 1977)-(don't ask me how they got that gig, but The Police were trying hard to prove how wrong their detractors in the music and press were, calling them "plastic punks" and so forth (how right they were it turned out).
I SAID GET ON WITH IT.
But the pre-political musical road that the original Skrewdriver rambled along isn't the point of this article, the real purpose is the subject of Valhalla's most talented singer, Mr Ian Stuart Donaldson to give him his full title, and the on-going personal clash between his avowed, dogmatic, Neo-Nazi ideals, worship of ye olde Troll battling Norse Gods of the 'old faith'. And his personal battle against his love for the racially, and culturally mixed music he loved, inspired by the influence of the peace'n'love Hippie scene of the 1960's, and its later, rocking incarnations, as well of course, as music ranging from tear jerker's by the 'King' Elvis Presley of course, to the pop of the 70's.
Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way trying to find a sympathetic chink in the armour of our Aryan, Viking-uber warrior, chieftain, and petty king to his own knuckle dragging army of Neolithic throwbacks, no no.
My only interest is in taking the piss out of the man's contradictions.
And contradictions was what the man had in spades (no pun intended). Not only was there the frequent visits to a certain East Asian country, where it's rumoured, is in certain parts populated and frequented by a community of mixed ex-pat Europeans, North Americans and South Africans, some, if not all, wanted for involvements in a variety of pathetic, cowardly acts such as gang related racial violence against lone individuals, murderous arson attacks on sleeping children to murder in the street at daylight (none too clever these boys), some 'guests' are rumoured to be on the run from sexual accusations, made by youngsters who should be too young to know that kind of evil exists. They, and other 'guests' are also said to be quite happy to repeatedly sample both the many willing - and unwilling delights that the young, native, under age, nubile 'untermenschen' of both genders are able to provide. But of course, this is just rumour you understand, just rumour, it can't be true can it? people don't ever commit acts of horror do they?
And, as well as being somewhat of a handful, Ian was never the one to sit in a corner quietly even when in hiding, he would prefer to sit in the middle of the bar, while wearing an SS Totenkopf logo T-shirt. Fame can only protect a person up to a certain point, but if the 'anti's' start to play differently and begin to spend their time thinking about quietening people down, then it usually ends in tears, on both sides.
But most of this is nothing but rumour, and only rumour, it's not proven.
It also isn't what I'm interested in either, good gossip though.
WELL?....
No, what is of more interest to me is, as I said before, Ian Stuarts love of Hippie music.
It seems that no matter how hard Stuart, and after his death his acolytes- have tried to rewrite his story from that of an average, but always 'racially aware' Joe Bloke into that of a modern day Aryan superman and the voice of disaffected hate mongers the world over, but, he/they (his acolytes) couldn't shake off his long haired Hippie loving past, not least because of the photos of a long haired groovy Stuart in his 'cool' 70's shades and hair lovingly centred along the middle that are in the public domain, thereby making it impossible to suppress them.
Even while he was writing and performing songs that called upon the old Gods of the North to come back and save its European subjects with Norse hammer blows and lightening bolts, he was still being drawn back to the songs and music he loved most, his old guise as the singer in a Rolling Stones cover band seemed to forever hang at his shoulder whispering into his ear suggestions to put Hippie cover versions into his set lists and on his records.
It wasn't only the Rolling Stones who used to drag him back to his long haired, flares wearing cosmic past, The Who and their revolutionary Hippie anthem 'Won't get fooled again' kept popping up throughout his career along with other covers of Who and Stones tunes.
The peace and love era wasn't his only 'love' though, Stuart also harboured a secret liking for the one white man responsible more than any other for popularising Black music, The King himself, MR Elvis Aaron Presley no less.
No doubt, Stuart's version of 'In the Ghetto' is every bit as evocative, emotional, tear jerking and heart warming as the Elvis original.
Another old familiar Rock'n'Roll standard Stuart fell back on was the music behind the tune by the ol' Duck walker (and peeping tom) himself, Chuck Berry, and his famous R'n'R classic 'Johnny be Goode'. Stuart, along with one of the guitarists from the band 'Demented are go' (with a drummer I don't know the name of) played and recorded under the subtly named moniker 'The Klansmen', who re-recorded the Berry R'n'R standard with some of the bands own unique brand of lyrics added no doubt.
Stuarts love of Hippie and rock music wasn't just confined to the older bands, he was also a listener to the later and harder acts as well, the heavy industrial, proto-Metal blues rock sound of Black Sabbath being one example of a band he covered, AC/DC was another Rockin' blues/metal band he 'dug'. He was also a fan of recent rocking, racially mixed 'Guns and Roses', all of who he'd covered songs by, their brand of 'dirty electric heavy blues was obviously a great attraction to Stuarts musical ears.
HE WAS A SECRET WHAT??
Moving away from the head banging and the 'love-ins' of the heaver acts, Stuart also displayed a penchant for chart busting pop as well, one tune in particular caught his ear, the tune was the catchy song 'Radar Love' by 1970's pop/rock act 'Golden Earring', this snappy chart topper is, I'm told, a favourite among the Karaoke crowd and an assured crowd pleaser every time its sung by all accounts.
The Hippie and/or Rock songs featured and the bands who wrote them, are just a few of the ones that you can imagine the famous Aryan uberman poster boy jived to while alone, in his bedroom in front of the mirror playing air guitar with his nail studded baseball bat.
It may come as a shock to some of his more ignorant 'hardcore', knuckle dragging fans, but it seems that the soul of black music was this particular Superman's Kryptonite.
P.S. any insult taken by readers of this article is deliberate. It is the point. You Nazi scum.
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