Album Review: Oi! The Album
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Originally released by EMI in 1980 this seventeen-track compilation was put together by then-Sounds contributor, Gary Bushell, who also coined the phrase “Oi!” as a reference to the new breed of working-class punk rock that was emerging at the time, dealing with themes specific to the creators, played over relatively simplistic progressions, and featuring gang, or “terrace” vocals. A friend of mine’s ex-wife used to refer to Oi! as “Nursery rhymes for hooligans.”
As Gary Bushell had managed the Cockney Rejects for a time – and their titular song is almost a rallying call for the genre – it is on them to open the show with Oi! Oi! Oi! from the band’s sophomore album, Greatest Hits, volume II. Fast and aggressive with Jeff Turner’s distinctive vocal delivery, it set the blueprint for how Oi! should sound and where other bands could push and feel at the edges. A second Rejects song is included, this time Here We Go Again, a slower and more measured example of how Oi! works, with a solid guitar line from Micky Geggus.
Fellow East Enders, The 4-Skins also get a couple of tunes, both of which would feature as live version on their 1982 debut album The Good, The Bad and The 4-Skins. Wonderful World stomps away on the foundation of a prominent bassline, as Chaos charges with unapologetic menace, telling tales of possibly nefarious street activity.
Showing that the genre wasn’t restricted to the capital, South Shields shouters, the Angelic Upstarts are given a couple of tunes too. Guns for the Afghan Rebels and Last Night Another Solider both concern themselves with the combative state of the world in the early Eighties, dealing with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Troubles in Ulster respectively. Whereas Guns conforms more closely to Oi!’s aesthetics, it’s the mellow sounding …Another Soldier that mixes an upbeat – even jaunty tune – with the dark and serious subject of the army on the streets of the United Kingdom.
Having been featured in Sounds the same year as this compilation, Peter and the Test Tube Babies were also granted a brace of tracks, Rob a Bank (Wanna) throbs with a pulsating bass before the drums smash in and rapid vocals spit bile – The Clash’s Bankrobber, this ain’t. Plenty of Oi!s in the mid-sections of Intensive Care as the guitar replicates the sound of an ambulance siren while the subject matter of street violence is addressed.
Before The Exploited went full-on UK’82 their sound sat closer to the era’s Oi! bands and in both Daily News and I Still Believe in Anarchy you can hear the buds of the hardcore band they would become.
Postmen might not be a familiar name to many, even in the Punk scene, but their inclusion here is through the Cockney Rejects link. Have a Cigar – not a Pink Floyd cover - and Beardsmen are both rather short vignettes, almost experimental featuring the brothers Geggus and are probably unlikely to attract your attention after a few plays.
Five bands only feature on a single song: the mighty Cock Sparrer have Sunday Stripper from the 1978 self-titled debut. While, like a few others on this record, it might not have aged like fine wine due to its subject matter, the laconic bluesy beat more than makes up for any lyrical shortfalls. Again, showing Oi! wasn’t restricted to London, Manchester’s Slaughter & The Dogs crash in with the less than subtle Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone, the opening salvo from their Dog It Dog Style album of 1978. It’s snotty and confrontational and is just what the genre ordered.
Isubeleeeene from Max Splodge & Desert Island Joe has an Alvin & The Chipmunks vocal, so it’s likely, like the Postmen tracks, to be skippable, unless you’re into that short of thing, in which case, you’re in luck!
The remaining two are bands who have fallen into history: first is Terrible Twins’ Generation of Scars, which sounds more like ‘conventional’ punk with Oi! elements, but it’s driving and again has a connection to the Rejects. Finally comes the appropriately titled, Bootboys from Barney & The Rubbles – do not mistake this band for the still-operational functions band who are available for weddings, birthdays, pubs and clubs. No, this Barney & The Rubbles’ aggressive delivery and simplistic tunes might not get granny dancing, but if you’re that way inclined, will garner a similar (but different) reaction.
This new version comes with liner notes from Mr Bushell himself and was the first disc in a series that ran for another five collections between 1981’s Strength Thru Oi! and The Oi! of Sex in 1984. Hopefully those albums will be following soon.
