ITALIA OI!: FROM THE FIRST SKINHEADS TO THE END OF THE 80s

From "Une vie pour rien ?" n°5

Introduction

It is not often that we can talk about facts, events and people that helped create something as fascinating as the Italian oi!/skinhead movement of the 80s. I'm saying that because now, in 2001, according to the people who were there at the time, everything the 80s created, be it in a positive or negative way, has disappeared. Some also tried to minimise or even discredit its influence and turned things to their advantage.

By writing this, I am not trying to judge the actions of those who lived through these years of Italian "skinheadism". Since I only got into all of this at the end of the 80s, I am too young to give an objective judgement on what was happening at the time.

Anyway, I'd like to thank my mate Benjamin who gave me the opportunity to publish this article in his fanzine...even if it took two years more than what was expected!! (Ben: that is one issue...). But as we say : "better late than never".

The origins : "They're coming from all sides, the east end is everywhere!!"

Following the British punk explosion of 1976/77, the punk phenomena, like in the rest of continental Europe, also took place in Italy. It started as an extreme but short-lived fashion and then, at the end of the 70s/early 80s, the people involved in the movement clashed. It definitely was the post-77 generation that gave birth to the first true Italian scene to which succeeded the growing skinhead revival. What was happening in Britain arrived almost immediately and directly to countries like France, Belgium, Holland or Germany. In Italy, things arrived much later and they did in a confused or even distorted kind of way.

One could notice as early as 1979/80 the first cropped heads in the main Italian towns but the feeling of belonging to a movement was visible from the end of 1981/early 82, at the same time as the oi! explosion in England.

The Italian situation was different in many ways from the situation in other countries because of the extreme political involvement of an entire generation - terrorism and the "bullet years" were left behind. This legacy was a burden for some punks. The evolution of the most political wing of punk, inspired by Crass and co (non-violence, pacifism, freedom, anti-nuclear power, animal liberation), represented in Italy by the Bolognese of R.A.F. Punk, made some punks, by reaction and frustration, go towards a scene similar to the newly born English oi! movement.

Saying that, I admit that some aspects of this anarcho-pacifist scene could be positive. But at the time, the oi! movement was a real alternative to everything that had existed before. There were things you could not find in anarcho-pacifism (which got very big in some towns) like pride, having a laugh and being in a united group.

When you talk about this period, you have to thank Nabat for all the work they accomplished. Thanks to their singer Steno they managed to build a great movement even compared to the English one. It is Nabat that became a rallying-point for all the kids (from Bologna and then from all over Italy) who were, at that time, slowly moving away from the anarcho-pacifist crowd and quite a lot of post-77 punks also turned to Nabat. They showed the way for those who were looking for a new identity. At the beginning, the evolution had no other goal than to imitate what could be found on British skins on the records, in the fanzines and in the few specialised magazines that existed. It didn't take much time to convince ourselves that in Italy too, we had to have less talk and more action.

Nabat

The first festivals and the dreams of the first generation of Italian skinheads

A meeting point had to be given to all the Italian skins and oi! fans to prove that the oi! and skinhead scene in Italy was starting to become a united group. It's with this spirit in mind that the first Italian oi! gathering was prepared and organised at the "Art. Nouveau" (north of Milan) on Saturday the 13th of November 1982. The bands that were asked to play for that festival, besides the obvious Nabat, were A.R.R.M. (from Como), Rough (from Turin), Banhof (from Milan), Stress (from Monza), Irah (from Bologna) and Dioxina (from Rimini). Rip-Off (also from Bologna) cancelled at the last minute because they were not ready on time. It was a good start even though the punk wing of oi! was a minority and especially because it was difficult to find a venue : the date was found on the last day and a lot of people came on the previous Saturday.

The second gathering which was better organised was held in Bologna two months later, on the 22nd of January 1985 thanks to the extremely active C.A.S Records (we might as well say Steno from Nabat!) which asked seven bands to play that evening. The bands were Banhof, Dioxina, Nabat, Rip-Off and Urban Fight from Bologna and to start it all off C.C.C. (Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers) from Pisa who initially were not supposed to be playing.

At that time, the new Italian oi! movement had the possibility of creating a more concrete and lasting organisation that could compete with the scenes of the other European nations. The specialist press (especially the monthly magazine (Rockerilla") even supported the Italian bands and its scene. Even though the start was quite promising, things didn't go so well and the hopes and illusions of all the young Italian skinheads were shattered. Everything that took so long and that was so hard to build disappeared long before Steno and co could ever have imagined.

The third Italian oi! gathering took place at the "Theatro Tenda" in Certaldo, about 40kms from Florence, on the 18th of June 1983 and was organised by the members of Basta (a young local oi! band) in collaboration with Nabat. It must be the festival where there was the biggest crowd. Some people talked about more than 1000 people who came from all over the country but, as we'll see, things didn't turn out as they should have. Basta started and were followed by UDS (from Turin), SS 20 (from Cagliari), Dioxina, Gangland (from Genoa), Rip-Off, Nabat, F.U.N and Bratz from Rome, Traumatic from Livorno and Rough. These three last bands didn't play to protest against the fights that happened during the sets of Gangland, of Rip-Off, who irritated some people in the audience by doing Roman salutes and other stupid stuff, and also during the Nabat set. There were fights between skins and punks, skins and skins because of football and manhunts in the surrounding countryside took place. It was a real disaster!

As you can imagine, the situation got worse and worse and all the efforts and hard work put in practise up to that time were completely fruitless. Later, Steno made a statement in "All Out Attack" : "We, the members of Nabat, are also very disappointed because we had prepared everything including the venue. Some people might not know that, after that gig, someone lost his job (the manager of the theatre). In Certaldo, the punks and skins had a place where they could organise gigs, now they've got none left. From the time being, there will only be classical music in the theatre...We've always struggled to create an oi! scene in Italy but things like that just kill you! When we see what happened, we can't say that it's the authorities that divide us but it's us who chose it. I don't want to criticise anyone in particular or to argue but I believe that there are too many people in Italy who try to be what they are not, even within skins : they have to disappear! They talk about nationalism. I'd like them to really be nationalists because, at least, they might manage to stop copying the English. I also wanted to say that in September in Certaldo, we were planning on organising the only Infa Riot Italian gig. Now it's impossible because no one in Italy wants to put up skinhead gigs anymore!".

After a lot of aborted attempts, things briefly started getting back together during the autumn of 1986 in Genoa where the Savona and Genoa skins organised a non-official festival which the Business were supposed to headline but things happened differently. This gig took place in the "Chiamata del Porto" venue close to the Genoa harbour. The following bands were scheduled to play : Dirty Joy (Mestre/Venice), Tiratura Limitata (Milan) who didn't turn up, Klasse Kriminale (Savona), Herberts and U-Bats from Genoa. All these bands played instead of the Business, Klasse Kriminale, Herberts gig that got cancelled at the last minute. That's why a lot of disappointed people started fighting inside and outside the venue leading with them, at it is often the case, quite a few people who were just trying to break up the fights. The next oi! festival took place 3 years later and, once again, Bologna was the town which hosted the event. The fourth oi! gathering happened at the "Capolinea del '97" in S.Giorgio Di Panio, near Bologna, on the 2nd of December 1989 and there were only three bands but that was more than enough since this gig was a positive experience. The locals Ghetto 84 started and were followed by Klasse Kriminale and the ska band Strike, from Ferrara.

As I've already said, the other attempts to organise festivals were cancelled but, to be more complete, it is important to talk about the role of certain venues (clubs and self-managed social centres) and one in particular : the "Victor Charlie" of Pisa - two major events that happened in the second part of the 80s confirm this.

On the 15th of September 1984, Cani from Pesaro organised a gig that pretty much looked like an oi! festival and people had been talking about it in the fanzines for quite a while. That evening, the excellent Stigmathe from Pesaro played first and then played Cani, F.U.N and Hope & Glory (Trevisa). The gig ended earlier than expected because of the rain (it was an outdoor gig) and because of the police that forced everything to stop claiming it was too late.

A few weeks later in Bologna, an openly antiracist festival was organised by W.C.K skinzine, C.A.S records and Linea Dura skins in order to prove that Italian skins were not all stupid clowns only capable of imitating the pseudo-nazi poses of the London skins. The bands that played were Cani, F.U.N, Hope & Glory as well as the hosts, Nabat. The gig was in a place called "Caserne Rosse" (the red barracks). The only outcome of this festival was roman salutes and threats coming from idiots. That resulted in another disillusion for those who wanted to build a real scene, stronger and different than the one that was destroying oi! in England.

The Italian oi! contingent and its bands

In the following list of names which made transalpine oi! famous all over Italy and abroad, I also included all the bands that are not usually quoted but that had to be here for this article to be complete and also to show that they're not forgotten by everyone!

When you talk about the "public enemy number 1", their name always comes back; yes, you got it, we're talking of the legendary Nabat from Bologna - a guarantee of authenticity within the movement. No one can contest that Nabat gave a major boost to the punk/skin scene of those years and influenced dozens of other Italian bands. Among the local bands that got quite popular were Rip-Off whose members changed a few times and that didn't end in a very glamorous way. The very young Uxidi were one of those skunk bands that didn't last long but in which well-known people from the Bolognese scene played (Maniaco Anfe, Tex and Uiui, who played in Nabat later on and who also played the bass for a short period of time in Rip-Off). Youth always stayed a studio band and with a few members of Rip-Off, they were on the "Quelli Che Urlano Ancora" compilation with their song "Ghetto" and a text that was pretty much ripped off a very famous alternative magazine called "Frigidaire". Urban Fight which played at the second oi! festival of Bologna (January 1983) were a punk/metal band that sounded more like The Blood than GBH but they didn't release anything. Ghetto 84 that started playing in the mid-80s are still to date one of the best Italian oi!/street r n' r bands.

The most famous punk/oi! Band from Romagna is without a doubt Dioxina which was created in 1982 and that grew out of two local bands : Konats and Antispot skinx from Faenza (in which played Fabio Pantera who went on to drum in Skinarmy and Rip-Off). From Milano Marittima on the coast of Romagna, there was a band called Wasted Glory and the excellent Fault Revenge (ex Unsung Heroes) from Cervia played between 1981 and 1982 and then, disappeared without a trace. The most famous Dioxina line-up was the second one. Even though it's the name of their first guitarist that appears on "skin e punk = TNT", on the photograph we can see it's Red from Cesena who then joined Nabat as a guitar player at the end of 1984. Before that, all of the Dioxina members were skinheads and in 1985/86, they turned towards a metal/hardcore style that was much faster than what they used to do at the beginning.

Skinarmy are still considered as one of the most brutal bands and their singer, Calboz, got in trouble every time he could...even on holidays in London (Combat 84 rules!)!!

Hydra, an all-girl band, came from around Modena. They didn't last long but they managed to appear on the "Quelli Che Urlano Ancora" compilation because one of the girls was going out with a member of Stigmathe (legendary Bolognese hardcore/punk band), mates of Nabat!

In Parma, my hometown, we all remember the streetgang Boito Kids, a gang of madmen, skins, mods and Teddy Boys. The oi!/skin band Boito Kids (82/84) that got its name from the gang changed its name and formation when the singer went to do his military service. They called themselves Bela goes to Bardi and then Donald Duck's skins and finally split up around 1986. Another very young skinhead band from the Parmesan scene was National Service with the future guitarist of Peggior Amico (1992/95 period).

The oi! phenomena especially took place in the northern and in the central parts of Italy. That is why there have never been any oi!/skinhead bands in some regions even if, as the years went by, there has always been quite a few isolated individuals and groups of skins in plenty of other places.

Turin is the town of one of the most legendary oi! bands, Rough, which turned towards some kind of dub/reggae with a black singer between 1984 and 86. Because of Piero's (the first singer) provocations, the band was wrongly classified as a nazi-leaning band, this reputation darkened one part of this band's history. Their friends in Turin were UDS (Uscita Di Sicurezza- Emergency Exit) which existed for quite a long time and then disappeared. In Biella, the not as well-known CBA (Come Back in Anger) appeared in 1983 but this oi!/skinhead band didn't really leave its mark.

There were a small number of pretty good and original bands coming from the region of Milan. Banhof was one of them and just like Rough they were accused of fascism by the Milan anarcho-punks, as usual. Anyway, they are one of the best Italian street-punk bands of the beginning of the 80s and, unlike many others, they used to sing in English. Tiratura Limitata lasted longer and split around 86/87 when the different members joined other bands (Gino, the bass player, went on to play in the Investigators!).

Talking about skinhead hardcore, some bands between Milan and Como really stood out : Tanks with Fabione singing, Orda (ex Orda Massacrata) with Stiv Valli (TVOR and Zabriskie Point record shop) (Ben: and Twins rds in the 90s) singing and then playing the bass and Giuliano Palma as the guitarist (who then played in Casino Royale and now in the Bluebeaters). There also was ARRM from Como with one skinhead in its formation and this band was on the "skin e punk = TNT" ep compilation. Fuorilegge, a skinhead band from Monza, emerged in the mid-80s but there is no further information on them unlike the Monza skins' crew. They got a strong reputation because they were considered as one of the most violent gangs at the time.

There were loads of bands in Liguria. Firstly we shall talk of the brilliant Gangland from Genoa. They existed between 1983 and 1984 but because of the bad quality of their recording, they did not appear on the "Quelli Che Urlano Ancora" compilation. Their singer, Gufi, tried to reform the band in 1986 but didn't manage to. Gufi and Tonino (the drummer) died soon afterwards because of their drug addiction.

From Savona, there was the more than famous Klasse Kriminale but there is not much to be said about them besides that, for a while, at the end of the 80s, the Gangland drummer played with them. More to the east, from La Spezia , were Holocaust, a band of hardcore skins who often played with the much more famous Fallout (also from La Spezia ), a legendary hardcore/punk band that still exists nowadays.

Before the birth of the sadly well known Veneto Front Skinhead, there were a lot of bands that we still remember with nostalgia and pride in the Three Venetos. Dirty Joy was from the Mestre-Venice area and after a ska-punk phase, they turned towards hardcore/oi! when Eros, a local skin, joined them. They sticked to that style up to 1987/88 when the band split up. They played among other places in the Basque country in 1986 and with Kortatu during their Italian tour in 1987.

The oi!/punk bands Diserati and Antisbarco came from the Venice area. They both were from Chioggia and played with Nabat, Rough and Dioxina at the famous Padova gig in April 1985. There are no Diserati recordings left but some Antisbarco songs can be found on an anti-militarist hc/punk compilation called "Senza Patria". From the town of Verona, everyone remembers Plastic Surgery that started off as a hc/punk band in 81/82 but became famous world wide as a skinhead band from 85/86. Their guitarist, Mauro, later on played in Peggior Amico (88/91) and in Korova Milkbar, a streetpunk band from Verona. Rommel Skins and Dark Rebels were not as long lasting and were among the first Italian fascist punk/skinhead bands. The R.S bassist then went on to play in Plastic Surgery.

There were also quite a few good bands in the Veneto region, in particular in the area of Treviso and its province (north of Venice) between 1982 and 86. Like most bands at the time, those bands, at the start, were closer to the hc/punk scene than to oi! and skinheads. That hc/punk phase didn't last long because in 1982 were created Guerriglia Urbana and Rascal (which became Legge Marziale) and both bands joined forces in 1984 (the bassist and the guitarist of G.U and the bassist and the singer/guitarist of L.M) to form the well-known Hope & Glory, that started off with the temporary name of Working Class. They split up in a kind of unexpected way during the spring of 1986 after a big fight which happened in front of their rehearsal studio between right-wing skins and other skins who were mates of Hope & Glory. During the fight the singer was lucky not to get hit by a lorry jack. The fact that Massimo Bellini (who went to to play in Peggior Amico!) played in the last formation of the band has got nothing to do with the political views of the band even if that's what some people claimed for quite a while. (Ben: It'd quite funny to know that the singer, Valentino, who at the time was more into ska/skinhead reggae, lived in Paris at the beginning of the 90s before hanging up the boots and moving to Mauritius to...fish shrimps!).

Shortly afterwards, the Power Skins were created in Monfalcone, near Gorizia and Trieste but that's another story just like it is for bands like Peggior Amico, Nomina Destra, etc...These bands have got nothing to do with the oi!/skin scene we're talking about.

In central Italy, in Tuscany, the Nuclei Skins were as mad as they were funny. In Sweet Baby Oi! from Lucca, there were some members of the mad Wardogs, a devastating ultracore band. In the Pisa area there were no bands but there was one of the most popular self-managed venues in the whole Italian scene (that was in 1984) : the Victor Charlie. It was managed by G.D.H.C (Gran Ducato Hard Core), an organisation in which took part all the Tuscanese hc/punk bands, labels and fanzines. Besides a whole contingent of national oi!/skin/hardcore/heavy metal/mod rock bands, some bigger names like Youth Brigade, Toxic Reasons, etc, played there. Nabat said that one of their best gigs in 1984 was at the Victor Charlie when they played with F.U.N. Unfortunately, the Town Hall closed down the venue, even though there were some protests, during the 1984/85 winter because of the noise and the neighbours complaints.

Certaldo, in the Florence area, is famous not only for the author of "Decameron", Giovanni Boccacio, but also for its great number of punks and skins that managed, between 1981 and 85, to boost a scene dominated by heroin. They put a few groups together - the only band that managed to release a record was the famous Basta whereas others like De Gaeta or Cagioli disappeared in the chaos of those years.

On the Adriatic coast, everyone remembers Cani from Pesaro, a perfect example of Italian oi! and hardcore from that period. They still are without a doubt one of the most appreciated bands in Italy and abroad and have got quite a few releases out unlike Rebelarmy. Rebelarmy from Grottamare (Ancona area) are still known for being composed of two hard mods, a skinhead and a metalhead. The skinhead is Riccardo who later on played in the 2nd Dioxina formation, played the bass in Skinarmy and, as you might know, was the guitarist in the 90s of Klasse Kriminale and Reazione. One of the mods, Alfred "The Mod", was famous at the beginning of the 80s because he wrote the zine "Faces" and played the bass in Spider Top Mods.

If we go down south to the capital, we can notice that the Roman scene in the first part of the 80s was quite good in plenty of different styles of music, be it 77 punk, hardcore, oi! and even heavy metal. The very good and original F.U.N from Cento Celle (east Rome) played a unique and electric mix of oi! and ska-reggae with a lot of saxophone parts. According to people who know them in Italy, only Nabat are better than them. Klaxon, also from Cento Celle, are also another famous band and one of the oldest of the capital since they formed in 1979. Typical clash sounding punk with a few oi! influences (their song "Skinhead oi!" is absolutely brilliant!). If they didn't get very famous, it is because the most popular style at the time was hc/punk. Marco Skin's Bratz was among the lesser known bands and didn't record anything unlike Klaxon and F.U.N.

In the south of Italy, there were a few (non-skinhead) bands that had a street-punk sound like Last Call and South East Rebels from Bari. Last Call released a record.

I'm going to end this chapter with a brief overview of the oi!/skin scene on the main Italian islands : Sicily and Sardinia. Nothing happened in Sicily up to the beginning of the 90s but in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, there has been an oi!/skinhead scene since the early 80s with SS 20 which played, among others, at the 3rd oi! festival in Certaldo and were on the "Quelli Che..." LP thanks to Steno. In 1985/86, they changed their name to Claptrap and finally managed to release an album. Donkey Kong formed itself at the end of the 80s in the north of the island but didn't have much to do with the original spirit of oi!

It is important to underline that many oi! bands, like in the other European countries at the time, only lasted a few years. Like in England, very few bands managed to resist to rac in the mid 80s and to the influences, that were more theoretical than anything else, of bands like the Redskins and co. We had to wait for the 90s to witness a revival of oi! in Italy. Even if everything was not over and that bands like Klasse Kriminale and Ghetto 84 were still going on, the second half of the 80s was not the best.

Politics within the Italian oi! movement

As I said at the beginning of the article, early 80s oi! was a real alternative to this kind of mental oppression : it was an obligation to be into politics. It also was an alternative because of the growing hippie culture that was trying to create its new identity by jumping on the post 77 and anarcho-pacifist bandwagon. What represented spontaneity and believing in no ideology whatsoever was what the early Italian skinhead movement was all about. Since oi! meant never having been involved in politics and being against traditional political parties, very soon the kids became nihilists. The bands and fanzines used to put forward one motto : "No Politica". Nowadays this slogan might sound a bit naive but, at the time, it meant a lot and influenced all the first generation of Italian skinheads.

However that didn't last long because what was happening in England in 83/84 also got as frightening in Italy. Dozens of Italian skins used to go on summer pilgrimages to London, which was considered as the Mecca of punk and skinheadism, and came back to Italy brainwashed by the British Movement and the National Front's propaganda and extremism. These political groups used to organise gigs for their right-wing skinhead bands and these were the only possibilities to go to gigs.

On the other side, the left-wing and its organisations didn't leave any room to any kind of alternative.

In Italy, the non-political (or anti-political) message and the one of street-kids unity did not have anymore impact and the anti-racist skins didn't manage to change that. The disappointed people who wanted to create an alternative were forced to wait for better days while the extreme-right gained more and more importance within the European skinhead movement.

During the 80s, the punk wing of the oi! scene gradually separated itself from this scene and quit the movement or, by reaction, went on to join the anarcho-punk scene and the self-managed social centres which played a great role in the revival of the Italian underground movement.

In one of his books published not too long ago, Riccardo Pedrini, the bassist of Nabat, wrote with obvious bitterness and disillusion that if there had not been the 1983 Certaldo incidents and the wave of the brainless fascist London skinheads (who influenced the kids' ideas and actions for quite a few years), the Italian oi!/skin scene wouldn't have needed to organise gigs during the 90s in the social centres and other far left-wing venues (that accepted to do oi! gigs simply because 1000 people meant a lot of money).

Like elsewhere in Europe, there was a revival in 1986/87 which was influenced by the comeback of the Business on an international level and by the second British revival that partly brought back the skinhead movement towards its origins as well as a new generation of cropped heads in the Italians streets.

The joy of noise and 80s Italian records

If you compare the Italian oi! discography with the British or even the French discography, you'll immediately realise that many very good and original bands had very few possibilities, or sometimes none at all, to make a record or just appear on a compilation. The only tools the kids of the early 80s had were a few independent labels or total self-production.

The first label to be mentioned is always the famous Meccano records from Turin that during the 1982 winter produced the first Italian oi! record, Rough's 7" called "Torino e la mia citta". The four songs on the 7" are not bad but they don't give a good opinion of the band which was far better than on this recording. It's around that time that was created the well-known label of Nabat, C.A.S records (Campane e Stormo). Nabat self-produced their first vinyl EP, "Scenderemo nelle strade", on this label in November 1982.

Again on C.A.S was released, in April 1983, the mini-compilation "skin punk = TNT" with 8 tracks of Italian hc/punk and oi! bands : Dioxina, ARRM, Nabat and Rappreseglia. The split ep of two bands from Milan, Tiratura Limitata and Shockin' TV, was also released in 83. This record is called "Milano 83". During the same year, the excellent Cani self-produced a 6 track ep with a threatening name : "Guai a voi!" (Watch out!) (Dischi Storti).

During the 83/84 winter, C.A.S produced two other records even if there were talks of 4 or 5 records that should have been released during these months. The first one is the memorable "Laida Bologna", the absolutely brilliant second ep of Nabat which even had a little recognition in England (where Italians are not usually very highly thought of). At the same time, Basta started and released their ep "Non posso supportare questa sporca situazione", five brutal tracks for all the Italian kids.

In 84, the magical Klaxon released their excellent ep "The kids today" while the very young Hope & Glory answered back from Trevisa with their "Senza Patria" 4 track ep self-produced on Yourself Records.

In the winter of 84/85 was released the long-awaited Italian oi! compilation "Quelli Che Urlano Ancora" produced by C.A.S. After a years' wait, 11 old and new Italian punk, skunk and skinhead bands were united on this compilation thanks to Nabat that was, a few years later, the only Italian band on the international compilation "Chaos En Europe" produced by Chaos Productions with a new version of "Laida Bologna". 1985 ended with the Veronese Plastic Surgery ep which had been postponed a few times. Their ep "Rivolta" became one of the major oi! records "made in Italy" and even got famous abroad.

Nabat's first LP, obviously called "Un altro giorno di gloria", finally got released in 86 and got good as well as bad reviews. In the same year the Turinese label Meccano Records produced the first Claptrap album (ex SS 20) from Cagliari which has a pretty ambiguous name : "This is the Italian sound". It's too bad because nothing, not even the greetings and the thanks list, are written in Italian. The 14 songs of the album are all sung in English so the least we can say is that it isn't the most typical example of Italian oi!

In 1989 Loveless, from Bologna, released their 100% street rock n' roll single "So wild/Sex addict" which is sung in English and was edited by Lakota Music. Also at the end of the 80s, Klasse Kriminale self-produced their first 7" "Costruito in Italia" on Havin' A Laugh Records. Their first album, "Ci incontreremo ancora un giorno", was recorded between 1989 and 1990 so was released "too late" to fit in this article.

It's also useful to mention a few compilations on which there are some tracks of bands that are of interest to us. Meccano released two records called "Raptus" (1983) and "Raptus- Negazione & Superamento" (1984) on which there are, amongst other bands, Last Call and UDS on the first record and Cani on the second. There are also two excellent Cani tracks on the compilation "Goot From the Boot" released by Spittle Records in 1984.

To end on a high note, we felt like mentioning some projects that were never carried out. C.A.S had planned on doing a benefit compilation for the "Victor Charlie" with some of the most famous bands that had played there but it was never done. The same thing happened with he first Rip-Off 7" - Steno decided not to produce it after what happened in Certaldo. However 30/40 copies of the test pressing apparently exist. There also were talks of an ep compilation around 84/85 with Rip-Off, Plastic Surgery, Skinarmy and Dioxina.

The most annoying thing is that about ten Ghetto 84 tracks were recorded at the end of the 80s at the TMB Studios of Modena and were supposed to be on a 7" and on a maxi ep. It is even more annoying when you know that in 94, Havin' a laugh Records were supposed to release all the Ghetto 84 songs. All of these are still in the TMB Studios archives but no one has yet taken the decision to release them! In the same place, there are also a few unreleased Nabat tracks intended to be on a 7" that was supposed to be given out with an issue of the "Rude boys are back in town" fanzine written by Tiziano Ansaldi, the former manager of Nabat.

Demos and oi! recordings of the 80s

For the article to be even more complete, here is a rough list of tapes that could be found at the time and that record collectors exchange nowadays.

It's impossible to start with another band than Nabat who, in March 82, released a split demo with Rip-Off. That officially started the great saga of C.A.S Records. At the same time the 4 song "February 82" tape by the Milanese Banhof came out and was produced by Claudio Serge and Electric Eye Records. During the spring of 83, the lads of A.O.A released the tape of one of the most famous gigs at the time, the "Live in Padova 30/04/83" with Dioxina and Rough. Undoubtedly some of the best extracts of this gig.

The Parmesanese band Boito Kids did a few recordings but the only one that as released was the 5 track tape (including their song "Poliziotto Mercenario") split with two local mod-rock bands (F104 and double Deckers) and that was given away with the fanzine "Boito Squad".

There still are from the 83/84 period the following recordings : Klaxon "Live in Padova 83" (with the dub/reggae band Clint Eastwood and with the General Saint), the SS 20 demo and the impossible to find second Rip-Off demo, "Tricolore".

A rehearsal tape with quite a good sound of the first formation of F.U.N also exists. It's got two singers (Sergio and Lorena) and ten songs, in Italian and English, but only a few dozens of lucky ones have got that tape. The self titled Guerriglia Urbana demo came out in March 84.

That leads us to 85, year of the Donald Duck's skins 4 track demo recorded in an real studio. Then came the live and studio recording "Bootleg Ufficiale 1984/85" of Dirty Joy. An entire Nabat live recording could even be found abroad, "Teatro Remondini di Bassano del Grappa (VI) 26/01/85" through a German skinzine. At the same time the skinzine Kriminal Klass produced a 90 minute compilation, "O con noi o contro di noi!", on which were Cani, F.U.N, H & G, Klaxon, Poeti di Scarponi, Gangland and others.

There is a huge amount of Nabat bootlegs but we'll only mention the live at the "Art. Nouveau" on the 8th of May 1982 without Abbondante's bass who had just quit. The recording was intended to be for the fanzine "Fuori Moda" but that was never carried out unlike the five live songs at the La Spezia public garden (05/81) of RAF Punk and Fall included in the "Punk United" tape released that same year by the La Spezia punks.

The sound madness of 1985 continued with Skinarmy and their two tapes, one live one and one of their rehearsal, the Combat 84 of Romagna! At the end of the 80s, rac bands like Peggior Amico, VBR and others released stuff but they've got nothing to do in this article. In a completely different style, there are also the demos of Klasse Kriminale (01/88) and the excellent demo " La Rumba " (11/87) of the original and true Ghetto 84 - one of the best Italian oi!/punk bands of all times.

There are also some tracks that are so unreleased that we don't even know if they exist or not. Those tracks are the ones of Sweet Baby Oi!, U-Boats and others.

Fanzines and other strong potential written stuff

I could start by telling you that I too used to write a fanzine but that wouldn't be very honest since "Pinhead Generation" only started at the beginning of 1994; let's then go back to Bologna in 1981 to see what Oddone "Skin bondage" was up to, he's also know as the "father of Italian skinheads".

At that time, Oddone, after having written a few punk zines like "Bronco Billy" and "Fuck Off" started, on his own, "oi!oi!oi!" ((March 81) that soon became "Oi! della tarchiatezza" (summer of 81). These were probably the first Italian oi!/skinzines even if I'm not completely sure of that.

At the same time in Bologna (81/82), other people stared fanzines like Steno's "Sabotage" which was mostly about oi! and hardcore, "Nazypunk" and "In for a riot" by Capt. Kirk and Keith who later on went on to write "Banzai" with Steno. It is said that at the time one of the two guys used to be a gigolo with older women in order to make ends meet! That's also what oi! is all about, my friends! Another fanzine, entirely dedicated to skinheads, was "Asociale oi!" - it was wrongly associated to Nabat and was written by Stiv "the Hyena" (their guitarist) and his girlfriend Susi Gottardi. She was one of the first Italian skingirls and made the artwork for all the C.A.S Rds records up to "Quelli Che Urlano Ancora" besides the Basta record, which was designed by Tiziano Ansaldi.

At the same time, Fabio Pantera from Faenza (in Romagna) and drummer of Antispot Skinx (with Rudy of Dioxina singing) used to write the oi!/punk fanzine "Antispot".

Since I mentioned the greatly missed Tiziano Ansaldi from Savona, let's talk about his superb fanzine " WCK" (Working Class Kids obviously!). He released 8 issues between 82 and 85 and "WCK" still is considered as the best zine by all the Italian skinheads. During the golden years of oi!, even Gary Bushell reviewed it in Sounds. Because of his jobs as a tattoo artist and then as Nabat's manager, he never managed to publish the sequel to "WCK" which was supposed to be more about ska and skinhead reggae and called "Rude Boys are back in town". He didn't release anything up to 1991, year of his excellent "Blue Beat Shuffle" which unfortunately did not go on for the reasons we all know of. (Ben : For those who don't know, Tiziano Ansaldi died in 94 of an apoplectic stroke and in 95, Nabat reformed to collect money for his paralysed mother).

Even if it isn't really a skinzine but more a chaos zine, "T.V.O.R." by Stiv Valli and Marco "Doorknob" from Milan/Como still remains one of the most memorable punk/oi!/hardcore fanzines. Only five issues of T.V.O.R were released between 81 and 85 but it was enough for it to become a myth that is still going on nowadays. I'm not exaggerating the influence of his fanzine by saying that the "worn-out" Valli should re-edit the five issues as a book or at least as a fanzine. Think about it mate!

From Milan, there was Moretti's "Fuori Moda" while in Bologna Capt. Kirk, Keith and Steno wrote "Banzai", a zine that was considered as the official organ of the Italian oi! movement and in which the whole Italian oi! committee collaborated. Unfortunately because of the Certaldo incidents and people getting disillusioned with what was happening to the scene, the fanzine was stopped after the second issue. Even Tiziano WCK wrote some street poems in the last issue of "Fuori Moda" which are still famous now!

"All Out Attack" from Vicenza was one of the main fanzines at the time and was centred around punk/skin/hardcore stuff because the guys who wrote the zine were all into different things. From the 9th issue, its format and contents changed and was only about skinheads (1985/86) and in the spring of 87, it only was about the growing rac/white power international scene. The fanzine was stopped at the end of 1989.

In December 83, Kriminal Klass was created and still continues torturing us. Thanks to the perseverance and passion of our famous Ballestrino, these 43 issues (!) of Kriminal Klass followed Italian oi! through to the years 2000. It must be one of the oldest European fanzines. At the beginning the fanzine was mainly written by Max Chiomenta, another Savona skin and friend of Marco, who is said to have been the first Klasse Kriminale bassist and who moved to London because, from what I've heard, of trouble with the justice.

The new publication of 84 was "La voce della Romagna" written by Pantera the madman but it ended after one issue (Paganini doesn't do any encores...).It still was considered as one of the best fanzines. One of the first fanzines in Rome was "Anfibi" (oi!/punk) but the first proper skinzine was "Joys of noise" (1984) written by Turbo who played in F.U.N and two issues only of this zine speak volumes of the legendary Roman indolence...Still in the capital, it is the mad Lupachinni who boosted the oi! and hardcore scene with Straight Edge first of all, then with "Gioventu Rasata" (100% skinzine) in the mid 80s and finally with "La nostra Europa" which was a total rac fanzine. F.U.N released in 83 one issue of their own fanzine, "FUN zine".

In Monza, between 84 and 87, there was the skinzine "Fuorilegge" and in Bologna, at the same time, Paolo Morisi wrote "Cittadino del mondo" (citizen of the world, he used to live in New-York with grand-parents in Bologna and Rome) and with other skins from Bologna, he wrote "A way of life", also known abroad.

During the second half of the 80s appeared a new wave of fanzines which participated in the confusion that existed at the time between ska, oi!, rac, spirit of 69, etc. We can mention "Linea Gotica" from Trento, "No Surrender" from Genoa, "Hated and proud" by F. Fabbri from Padova, "Ragazzi si strada" by Max (ex Los Fastidios) and "Runnin' Riot" by Bluto from Turin.

According to me, there were other better fanzines such as "Cannibal Safe" written by Ivano and Depla from Como (88/90), "Scooter front" from Genoa, a monthly fanzine, that besides mods and scooters was also about oi! and ska and in which collaborated Fabio Lai of "Fronte del Porto". A nice and original fanzine from Pisa was "Toscana stomping rude", written by Aldobrando and Roccina (89/90) while in Verona one of the most famous, nicest and most appreciated fanzines was "Enjoy yourself". Besides ska and rock steady, there also was a small part about oi!. From the beginning of 88 to February 90, 22 issues were released every month with sometimes a few brilliant supplements thanks to the excellent Tiziano from Savona ("ska doctor" for the occasion...).

Conclusion

I really hope that this presentation of the "early years" of Italian oi! has satisfied you, that most of the details listed here will be remembered and that it will help you understand some aspects of this scene which after 15-20 years had been forgotten.

Thanks a lot to good old Benjamin for having let me publish this article in his fanzine and cheers (Ben : ok for this time, you deserved it Falco!) to all my French friends (Manu and Cathy, Nicolas BDS, Philippe Wagner, David Lopez, Sacha "Beer Bellies" and all the others I've forgotten). Good luck to you all and keep your head held up high!