Album Review: The 4 Skins - The Original 4 Skins
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Back in the summer, Captain Oi! reissued the debut album from London hooligans, The 4 Skins, a record that was several years in the birthing and saw a band that had been through a number of line-up changes since their inception. For this new, vinyl-only, release the Captain has gone back to the band’s earliest days and gathered together all of the studio recordings lain down by the original band of Cumming, Jacobs, McCourt and Abbot, into one nineteen track platter.
Tracks previously available on the studio side of the debut are two versions of the more melodic Oi! of Yesterday’s Heroes which, in its Radio edit takes on a more aggressive and gritty tone. One Law for Them railed against the seeming disparity when applying justice, depending on social and financial status, making waves in the Independent Charts while doing so. Again, a song with a Radio edit which takes the anger of the original and appears to nudge it even further into the revolutionary with more urgent vocals and more of those gritty guitars. Rounding out the studio cuts from The Good, The Bad…. Is a Radio edit of the driving Jealousy, which finds the band in an abrasive mood.
The B-side of The Good, The Bad… is a collection of live tracks and it’s good to finally get to hear the original recordings of Wonderful World, Evil and Chaos, all raw versions made by a band whose message was more important than the finesse. Both Wonderful World and Evil appear again in Radio edits, filling the bottom end and giving the tunes a teeth-rattling bass sound and driving rhythms. And Evil appears a third time in another version, this one from the Carry On Oi! compilation, featuring a gang vocal chorus and more abrasive attack.
The anthemic A.C.A.B. also features in two variations, the first being the raw original and the second, more full-bloodied version, taken from Oi! The Album compilation; neither of which cast the thin blue line in a favourable light.
Other tracks featured on the debut are I Don’t Wanna Die, 1984 and Sorry, all of which are more polished than the other tunes from live section; 1984 being of particular note through its use of a church organ at the opening of the song and the very competent riff that looks to the far future of the titular year. “What are we going to get in 1984?”, indeed!
Songs not available elsewhere, Brave New World is a mature sounding call to arms, built around a compelling riff, and Clockwork Skinhead, which is featured in its original and compilation forms, is raw and, in its revised form, aggy and unapologetically powered by Stave Hamer’s bass lines.
Captain Oi!’s initial pressing of this release will be a thousand units on coloured vinyl in a gatefold sleeve adorned with lyrics, press clippings and unpublished photographs of the band. I only saw a few mocks-ups of the package, but they suggested it would be a must-have to any fan of The 4 Skins, or one with an interest in the genesis of one of Oi!’s major players.
