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RASH: An Oral History of Red and Anarchist Skinheads NYC
I was booking shows at ABC No Rio [an alternative community centre in Manhattan] in 1990 when I met Dan Sabater. At the time, he was a skinny anarcho-punk fresh out of high school and heavily involved with the political squatter scene on the Lower East Side. He was funny, charismatic, goofy and simultaneously deadly serious about his beliefs and told some scary tales of being chased in his Brooklyn neighborhood for looking ‘punk rock’; especially some encounters with the notorious Sunset Skins.
Imagine my surprise three years later when he pops up with a bald head, boots and braces, into boxing, soccer, reggae and all things related to being a traditional skinhead. I knew a lot of skins from growing up in the NYHC scene that came from different backgrounds but what made Dan stand out is him keeping his radical anarchist beliefs, combine them with socialist ideology inspired by European entities like the Redskins and start a group that synthesise these ideas, layering them onto a new skinhead identity.
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Heads Turned: Skinheads on Canvas by Khana Evans
Skinhead has always been a highly visual culture, and photographs of skins from every period are plentiful – yet it has rarely been the subject of painting. Khana Evans, an English painter in her twenties, has begun to fill that gap with a growing body of portraits centred on subcultures, especially skinheads. Her figures, often female, are frequently shown from behind, or turned away from the viewer. What struck me immediately about Khana’s work, but also about her social media posts and her face in photographs, was a sense of sincerity. While it isn’t easily defined, it’s a quality you can sense at once. Her replies to my interview questions only reinforced this impression.
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Where the Boot Boys Went: Wayne Barrett talks skins, punk, glam and Slaughter and the Dogs
This interview feels special to me on several counts. First, I caught up with Wayne Barrett during what he says is his farewell tour under the Slaughter and the Dogs banner, closing exactly 50 years of this seminal punk outfit’s history. Second, Wayne chose to play the band’s final dates in my adopted homeland, Italy – a country he feels a special connection to (the band’s last album even bore an Italian title).
Third, it’s December, and with my birthday approaching, I’m reminded of the gift I received on my fifteenth: a record called Punk – A World History Vol. 3, which ranks high among the albums that shaped my taste in music. Part of a dodgy bootleg compilation series, it introduced me to a handful of ‘second-tier’ – but actually more enjoyable – figures of the original punk wave, such as The Boys, Chelsea, and of course Slaughter and the Dogs, who remain among my all-time favourites. Sitting somewhere at the intersection of bootboy, glam and punk, they were in some ways the perfect band.
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Letter: Paul Burnley’s Skinhead Diaries Parts 1 and 2
An interesting reader’s letter regarding our review of Paul Burnley’s Skinhead Diaries has reached us this week. It discusses the first volume of the book, which we reviewed HERE, but also the follow-up:
I read both volumes.
I agree with what Crombieboy wrote about the first one.
On one hand, there’s an obvious right-wing bias, selective memory, and what looks like revisionism and exaggeration – probably with the intention of normalising his particular take on skinheads. Basically: “Well, everyone was actually a nazi, and the ones who weren’t secretly wanted to be but didn’t have the guts.” This frames nazis as the ultimate skinheads, rather than just one specific subset within the broader scene.
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Review: The ‘Bruiser’ shirt by Head’s Threads
Head’s Threads and Heavy Treads is a one-man operation from Florida, run by Samuel Leiro, that has been around for a few years. What began as a page largely trading vintage boots and the like eventually expanded to include its own designs – if I’m not mistaken, this shift happened shortly after we all emerged from the pandemic.
I followed the Facebook page for a while and grew sympathetic to Samuel’s personality, which he was never shy about bringing into his posts. In his teenage years he ran afoul of the law, and jail was one of the stops along the way. After turning his life around, he became an Orthodox Christian – while remaining a skinhead – got married, and started Head’s Threads.
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Head Held High: Gabi Delgado-López on pride, strength and dignity
DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, meaning German-American Friendship) were a post-punk, post-industrial, proto-EBM band that emerged from Düsseldorf’s early punk scene, active mainly in the early ’80s. They weren’t skinheads, but their singer, Gabi Delgado-López, had multiple encounters with skins while the band lived in London – some positive, some negative, all of them memorable. He retained a soft spot for the subculture.
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The London Skinhead History Walk
In 2017 I unexpectedly fell on hard times and had to take on a second job fast. It was a shit job, frankly, but one that had me walking all over London for long hours. By the end, I knew London’s streets, alleys, and corners, its whole geography, better than ever.
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Rude Awakening: A Quick History of Jamaica’s Toughest Kids
Following our recent article on the mysteries of rude boy fashion, we decided to dig a little deeper. While searching for material on rude boys in general, we found a 2006 piece that struck us as the best primer we’d come aross. Ironically, it wasn’t written in Britain – let alone Jamaica – but by a self-described ska fanatic from Italy, Sergio Rallo, for Skabadip.it. That site was a direct offshoot of Skabadip.com, the first Italian website devoted to ska and related genres, founded by Alessandro Melazzini.
A couple of notes before we begin. First, bear in mind that this piece appeared 23 years ago, and new information may have emerged since. Second, in Italian the term ‘rude’ is used much more freely than in English, referring to a broader attitude and scene rather than to rude boys in the strict sense. For example, Italian skinhead bars where reggae and Oi are played are known as ‘rude bars’ – the Sally Brown in Rome and the Bluebeat in Lecce being notable examples. Hence, towards the end of his article, the author applies the term ‘rude’ to all manner of things. What follows is our translation of Rallo’s piece:
Some time ago, a devoted reader of SkabadiP wrote to me asking about rude boys. He wanted to know what they were really like, what they thought, what their lifestyle was like and if they had a philosophy. As usual, I replied at length, within the limits of what I know. However, I also made the mistake of forwarding my email to Alessandro, the boss, who immediately seized the chance to order me to tidy up my reply so he could turn it into a nice little article for SkabadiP, that fine purveyor of ska culture – probably just to satisfy his own mischievous curiosity. After adding some more information following further research, here’s my article:
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Rude Boys, Rival Crews, and Boxcutter’s New Book
Our mate Jabari Adisa, aka Corky Boxcutter from Chicago, has recently published his first book, Jackpot: The Dread Skinhead. He also commented on our article about the rude boy style, and we think his take is worth sharing as a standalone piece:
“A few thoughts.
1. Rude Boy has always been a counter-culture and not a subculture. Rude Boys in both Jamaica and in England were a scorned, distrusted class (as you correctly call out in regards to the music), but at a certain point, being a rude youth became a badge of courage / defiance, a culture of resistance onto itself. That’s when you start to see ‘Rudie don’t fear’ and other pro-rude, proud rude tunes. And by the time Rhygin comes along, it’s a legitimate mentality.
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Squinting at the Rude Boys: A Subculture Rarely in Focus
When the picture below popped up on social media, some commented that it showed a bloke called Bubbles and his crew from Brixton. Apparently, it was taken circa 1968/69 at the top of Granville Arcade (now known as Brixton Village), which is located at the junction of Coldharbour Lane and Atlantic Road. I liked the photo, but I couldn’t tell whether this lot were rude boys, skinheads, or neither. Clothes-wise, nothing strays too far from the original skinhead look.
Then it occurred to me that, although rude boys are mythologised in reggae songs and often mentioned in passing in retrospective accounts of the original skinhead era, they remain photographically under-documented – which explains my considerable ignorance of their style, and why I can’t really place the lads in the picture.
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Creases Like Knives 