We forgot to mention Nicky Crane in the article Gay Nazis but he caused the Nazis considerable embarrassment which is worth recounting.
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Crane was for some time a Nazi poster boy and very prominent in the Nazi movement in the 1980s. He was a member of the fascist British Movement Leader Guard and had something of a fearsome reputation on the cobbles. He was mates with Ian Stuart Donaldson of Skrewdriver etc. and did the security for their gigs. Crane was featured on the cover of one of the Oi! albums, looking very butch, much to the embarrassment of Gary Bushell who was promoting the music and was desperate to convince people that Oi! wasn’t involved with organised fascism. This was despite the fact that Gary Hitchcock of Combat 18 was the manager of the Oi band the 4 Skins. The 4 Skins played in Southall, a predominantly Asian area (and much recommended for cheap and delicious restaurants), which resulted in a mini-riot and the boozer being torched.
Incidentally, Chris ‘Chubby’ Henderson of the band Combat 84 also came out of this scene. Henderson has written a book called Who Wants It? which is an extremely selective account of his days as a hooligan with the Chelsea Headhunters and massively glosses over his far right connections with Combat 18 and the Headhunters fascist leanings. There is a direct connection between Oi! and the Blood & Honour movement which should be documented…
Anyway … Nicky Crane outed himself in the early 90s which caused a quandary amongst his fascist contemporaries: Nicky is a hero and alright, but he is gay? Experience clashes with prejudice and it’s meltdown time! There was mass embarrassment for the rampant homophobes of the Nazi movement who had previously held him up as an Aryan role model and street-fighter to be emulated. Oh dear! We can only assume he was instantly marginalised from the likes of Combat 18, BM and Skrewdriver. There was a rumour that Crane had done some hardcore gay porn but how true this is we do not know. There was also some connection with Genesis P. Orridge/ Temple of Psychic Youth, possibly an appearance in a video, but we have never seen any visual evidence for either of these. Crane was working the doors of London gay clubs and eventually contracted and died of AIDS. It is unclear if Donaldson attended the funeral.
Gay Skinheads
There is some interesting research to be done on the appropriation of the skinhead image in the 1990s gay scene. This has largely died out now but there are still 1 or 2 gay skins knocking about at various Pride parades. The skinhead look is obviously butch – the tight jeans, shiny boots, and muscles are obviously attractive. There is also the possibility that given the ‘effeminate’ image imposed on gay guys, the skinhead look reverses this and provides an aggressive counter-image. It is a powerful look: skinheads have earned a reputation for violence, justified or not, and it has consequently become a much feared image, particularly in the media. Wearing skinhead clothes and walking into a pub causes a few heads to turn. Perhaps gay skinheads stopped wearing the gear because they did not want to be misconstrued as Nazis, and Nazis stopped wearing it because they did not want to be construed as gay. Who knows? Given that the 1990s were a period of heavy irony perhaps the appropriation of the skinhead look by the gay community was simply a massive ironic gesture.
Tighten Up!
Skinhead was a genuinely working class movement and the skinhead phenomenon was not appropriated by the middle classes, unlike punk and other youth cults. It started as a reaction to the awful hippies in the 60s and focussed around ska, football and ‘aggro.’ Beer not drugs, football not festivals and tight 3 minute reggae not extended guitar solos. It was also a prescribed look from the boots up and like all youth movements very fastidious about detail and unlike youth movements of the time, very attentive to branding: Levi’s, Ben Sherman’s, Fred Perry’s, DMs. If you turned up in Tesco jeans you would be laughed out of the disco. There are still skinheads who keep the tradition going by toning down the DMs and half-mast Levis and acknowledging that skins were originally ‘hard mods’ and apart from the boots, wore similar clothes, i.e., Sherman’s, Perry’s, tonic suits etc. However, mods were always more bespoke whereas skinhead was very label conscious.
Skinheads & Film
There have been several films featuring skinhead characters but few of them have got these details right. Romper Stomper is appalling as they are so scruffy and live like tramps. They look like tabloid versions of skinheads and their jeans are ragged, boots scuffed and Crombies tattered. Made In Britain again does not get the details right but gives over the charismatic and contradictory nature of skinheads. The scene where Tim Roth half naked runs through the Blackwall tunnel is very butch indeed! Meantime sees Gary Oldman as a mainly incoherent bully but his clothes are fairly accurate if a bit scruffy. American History X suffers from the same crap clothing as Romper Stomper and is not worth a look. This Is England got very close. The clothes are pretty exact and only the use of language lets them down: they say ‘man’ which skinheads would construe as hippy talk! Hopefully the TV series will continue to observe the sartorial demands of traditional skinhead.
Nazi Skins
The media connection with far right politics was the undoing for skinheads although there were always left wing skins and skins who just don’t care as it got in the way drinking, dancing and having a good time. Some skinheads were Nazis, some Nazis were skinheads, but most skinheads, like everyone else, quickly got bored with meetings and marches. After all there are other things to do when Saturday comes …
Just so’s you know!
‘Malatesta’
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Comments
Hide the following 19 comments
Really?
03.09.2010 12:23
How do you KNOW there was if you've never seen any evidence?
Gossip is fine but please don't try to pass it off as facts.
anon
Info for Malatesta
03.09.2010 13:33
Having said that I'm none too impressed by Malatesta's research skills. Yes Nicky Crane did make gay porn, although I cant prove that now, but a quick Google search would have instantly taken Malatesta to Psychic TV's "Unclean" video on You Tube, where Crane is clearly visible 52 seconds in to the video...
As for the more general issue of gay Nazis - Jorg Haider, Ernst Rohm, Pim Fortuyn, Martin Webster, and the BNP recently visited Japan to meet with followers of the gay Fascist Yukio Mishima. As for the band Combat 84 the similarity between this name and Combat 18 speaks for itself, C84 and C18 were all friends, and Chris Henderson of Combat 84 was seen in the semi-famous "Skinhead" TV documentary not only admitting that he and his dad went to Charterhouse private school, but also admitting that in Southall skinheads and police fought TOGETHER against Asians. One fact that Henderson has been less than frank about is the fact that Combat 84 were offered a deal by the NF's "White Noise" record label, but then rejected by the NF (under the stewardship of Nick Griffin) because Combat 84 (in their hatred of the peace movement and CND) supported American bases and nuclear weapons, which (bizarrely) contradicted NF policy. Henderson claims he and his mates weren't really racist (yawn), but page 135 of his stupid book describes them chucking 2 black street cleaners into the Seine in Paris to see if black people can swim, dismissing this near murder as a bit of a laugh rather than as a potentially fatal racist attack. The book also describes C18 / Chelsea Headhunter types punching a woman unconscious for refusing a dance in a nightclub, and one Headhunter taking a shit on the table of a Paris restaurant - hmmm... White Pride World Wide!! I'd like to stress I read Chris Henderson's stupid fucking book for research purposes only and it's worth every penny of the 10p I paid for it at a jumble sale.
As for M's claim that "skinhead was a genuinely working class movement and the skinhead phenomenon was not appropriated by the middle classes" as I said Chris Henderson went to Charterhouse, and in the same documentary Combat's Depford John freely admits to being middle class and describes how angry he was at being refused service in the Army officer class and his disgust at being asked to enlist as an ordinary squaddie alongside (quote) "cannon-fodder". Ditto Ian Stuart-Donaldson also went to private school. The idea that skinheads are all working class is literally a myth. Good in places, but please check your facts a bit more carefully before publishing Malatesta!
Photos: Ian Stuart Donaldson with Nicky Crane / Chris Henderson in "White Power" T-Shirt
Forklift
More info for Malatesta
03.09.2010 14:16
1; Better shot of Chris Henderson's "White Power" T-shirt (lettering still blurred though)
2; Screen-shot of Nicky Crane in Psychic TV video
3; Last Resort + Skrewdriver Security (Nicky Crane in photo) in Nazi fanzine
4; BNP billboard opposite the rebuilt Hamborough Tavern last year
Good videos about the Southall...
As for the old-skool 80's boneheads, I'd put good money on at least 50 of the older EDL who showed in Bradford being actual Southall "veterans"
Forklift
Thanks Forklift!
03.09.2010 14:44
As for researching the porn thing, that is simply too unpleasant an, err, avenue to go down but thanks for pointing out the song though, we didn’t fancy sitting through an hour or 2 of Mr. P. Orridge’s finer noodling to make a singular point. Godstar? Please, no!
Further to gay Nazis, there’s a fruity threat on revleft which continues this theme.
Skinhead was a working class phenomenon and just because there are a couple of exceptions does not make it less so. There were no skinhead students or trendy skinheads like there were punks or hippies or mods. Thanks for the info on Henderson and Charterhouse though – that’s hilarious! You mention the skinheaddocumentary do you mean the 1 with US, German and UK skins on it? And I think Charlie Sergeant speaking on it. The one that George Marshall had something to do with? Some good early footage on that. As for Henderson’s book, simple cross referencing with anti-fascist literature shows how disingenuous he is over his fascist connections. The other one is Steven Hickmott’s Armed For The Match on the Headhunters trial which denies any links with Combat 18 or the BNP. Best books that feature early skinheads though are Hoolifan by Martin Knight and Martin King (great on the clothes) and Want Some Aggro by Cass Pennant and Micky Smith especially p36-7 which illustrates the fastidiousness of the original skinheads.
Malatesta
'Malatesta'
Thanks ;)
03.09.2010 16:40
I've been meaning to make a video about Southall etc but more pressing business (fucking up the BNP and EDL) takes priority most of the time
UK Forklift
Thanks Forklift
04.09.2010 09:27
Incidentally, the other fairly decent representation of skins is in Richard Jobson’s 16 Years Of Alcohol film (yes, he formerly of the Skids). They get the clothing right – the sta-prest, crombies, Sherman’s and very tight Levis! – and a pleasant day in Edinburgh can be had finding the locations and bars where it was filmed.
Malatesta
Posh boys in Skrewdriver and No Remorse
04.09.2010 09:50
These 2 wankers were bailed out by mummy and daddy after going on an armed racist rampage in Cottbus, Germany, I wonder of the family's largesse extended to bailing-out any of the brothers' working-class comrades?
Photo: Paul "Burnley" Bellany with Ian Stuart-Donaldson
Forklift
Hmm...
04.09.2010 10:31
I am consolidating this thread on Revleft as there are several Redskins/SHARP skins who post there.
all input gratefully received! 'Malatesta'
'Malatesta'
minor correction
04.09.2010 14:42
...
Correction
05.09.2010 06:45
JG Ballard
Aussie TV got it wrong shock
05.09.2010 12:35
The semi-detached in a very nice suburban area is evidence enough of his class origins to those of us who know. Errors perpetuated by anti-fascists, or even deliberate mistruths in the name of black propaganda, only serve to entrench the far right in their bunker mentality and raise questions in the mind of fence-sitters - see the atrociously error-riddled 'turn it down' database of supposed far right music which has actively damaged the anti-fascist cause by making people say 'hang on, my mate Carl Abrahamsson (or Ulex Xane, or take your pick) isn't a nazi in any sense of the word - these antifas are wankers just like the nazis!". There is a great deal of true and damaging information in these posts and a very minor error like this serves to potentially discredit other info from Malatesta and Forklift for the collation of which they should be thanked.
The bloke was a fucking bellend whether he went to Eton or Grange Hill, let's face it. He had no real mates left in his hometown by the end of his life, he lived in fear of developing schizophrenia to the point where he thought he could catch it, and he knew about but never got to meet his daughter - who incidentally ended up dating a black guy for a bit a few years ago.
...
Photos of Ian Stuart Donaldson with Nicky Crane
05.09.2010 19:41
Photos - Ian Stuart Donaldson with Nicky Crane
Karl Popper
Southall
19.09.2010 19:08
Bob
e-mail:
bobsyouruncle@hotmail.co.uk
Utter nonsense
03.10.2010 22:41
Qsbam
e-mail:
qsbam@yahoo.co.uk
Bob + Qsbam
09.10.2010 00:04
Forklift
Bob + Qsbam
09.10.2010 00:06
Forklift
Research
09.10.2010 00:21
Research
Research
09.10.2010 00:36
Research
Fascists back-stabbing
09.10.2010 00:52
The Hod