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Italian OI! History
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In
Italy , the Skinheads emerged out of a branch of the Punk movement
, with roughly fifteen years of delay compared to the originally British
cult of the late 1960s. The look was somehow inspired by pictures
on the record sleeves. Lucky the one who owned a Fred Perry, luckiest
who managed to put the hands over a pair of Dr. Marten boots. This
embryonic phase lasted, at least in the big metropolitan centres ,
not for a long time. From 1982 on, the kids were more or less aware
about the gear to put on and this contributed to the new born style
the consciousness of being different to Punk. In these times of politics
getting more and more important to Punk, the first Italian Skinheads
opposed themselves, often in open polemic ways, to the local Punk�s
hypocrite pseudo-intellectualism. When finally also Italian bands
took over to follow proletarian streetpunk under the label of Oi,
the feed back was somehow enthusiastic: local working class youths
beginning to sing about � work without future �, beer, girls, absolutely
about daily life problems, which do not differ that much in London,
Genoa or Bologna. All this which originally happened only to be a
small faction inside Italian Punk finally went on to give life to
a vital and quiet important movement over the mid 1980s, well noticed
for its confrontation with the anarchist wing of Punk, which always
would remain a relationship of dedicated hatelove. The birth of the
very first Italian Oi bands went parallel on with the formation of
some small cores of Skinhead gangs in every important town of Italy.
From 1981-82, cities like Savona, Bologna Genoa, Rome Turin, Milan
and a little later both the Toscana and the Veneto saw a huge growing
of the Skinhead movement. The first national Oi bands were Nabat and
Rip Off from Bologna, Rough from Turin and Dioxina from Rimini , all
of them having well mixed audiences to play to, with Skinheads always
as the most dedicated followers but far from being the crowds majority.
Very few of these Skinheads were into reggae and ska. Fanzines reported
that the cult was derived from Mod, imposing a problem in cities like
Bologna to the first Skins which almost all were former punks and
were, still related to this subculture, seeing red when it came down
to Mods and ska. The decisive influence on the creation of an Italian
Oi movement has been contributed by both bands Nabat and Rough (who
later as a consequence of the far rights rising went back to reggae
), and a few fanzines like Savona issue "Working Class Kids" . This
one besides was the first of all to deal with Skinheads in an original
sense, with reggae, but giving also space to the new reality of Oi
in England and Italy. Unrenounceable for every Italian Skinhead is
its playlist of reggae 7�es. Working Class Kids fanzine was run by
Tiziano Ansaldi, a fanatic collectionnist of ska and reggae. Also
a writer for music review � Rockerilla� seeming to be the voice of
Italian Oi, Tiziano was for a good time Nabats manager as well. The
importance of his effort to revive the original Skinhead subculture
in Italy cannot be overestimated. Sadly, Tiziano recently died of
apoplexy and these pages here intend to contribute to the memory of
the man that in a certain sense was the father of Italy�s Skinheads.
After this first explosion, marked by two national Oi rallies at Monza
and Bologna which passed over without riots and very well commented
by fanzines and the independent music press, the Skinheads number
increased considerably. The relationship to official Punk , already
most difficult , turned into argy bargy. Like elsewhere, Italian Oi
bands saw themselves accused of having a violent following, stupid
and simplistic leaders and, as well, of searching commercial success
( ??? -Mass�). The first selfproduced records, � Torino e la mia citta
- Turin Is My City � by Rough and Nabat�s " Scenderemo nelle Strade
- We �ll Go Out In The Streets " having been sold very well got both
a good receiving from Rockerilla review, to be noticed that these
times an independently produced record was selling well when depassing
a 1000 copies output. Of course, the then Oi bands of Italy were unable
to earn their living through their music. The third one of the rallies
happened to be at Certaldo near Florence in May 1983. This last one
of the � Raduni nazionali Oi � showed more and more the increasing
of violence and far-right politics in Italian Oi. Township rivalry
broke out between Roman and Toscan Skinheads and left a lot of tensions
during the concerts. Parts of the audiences started provocations and
things went off the rudder. Now, the days of weak unity of skins and
punks were over. And Rough was the first band refusing to play in
front of stiff arms. On the other side , Rip Off started to do Roman
Salutes ( aka Sieg Heil ) on stage and Nabat on their turn then played
their gig but manifesting their outspoken opposition. The stage then
got bombarded by anything that could be thrown ranging from full cans
to open razor knives. The infamous night at Certaldo ended up in fighting.
I personnally believe this right wing inspired behaviour of some parts
of the audience came from the strong wish to imitate the British skinheads
of the time. But still, like before, the nazi-skinheads here were
a minority, in large parts an imaginary enemy. Above all, watching
the rise of the far right , the historic Italian Oi bands turn left:
their political views become more and more accentuated. Nabat�s first
LP " Un Altro giorno di Gloria" has been dedicated to Nelson Mandela
and Benjamin Moloise, and one of their last gigs before disbanding
went on at Forte Prenestino in Rome, a former military castle now
squatted by Roman autonomes. This is far from meaning that Nabat and
other Oi bands were on propaging some ideologies to their followers:
their lyrics, as always, are made out of social arguments and stories
from everyday life and not political sloganeering of the likes The
RedSkins were ranting about during these years. Nabat refused to control
anything happening in people�s heads, their aim was more to help confused
kids of 17 to see through clearly. In cities like Bologna, Genoa,
Savona or Pisa the skinheads stayed in line with the bands and the
presumed origins of the cult but cities like Milan and Venice began
to give home to bigger crowds of White Power Skins. Another point
of rivalry between various skinhead groups was coming out: football.
From 1985 till 1990, Football is probably the most important thing
of interest for Italian Skins . The chapter of Oi is almost finished
or finishing, and football gives room now to get rid of the chains
of boring daily life to live an almost epic adventure. During the
second half of the 1980s, Oi music�s perspectives are quiet foggy.
While the right wing goes getting organised , left wing Oi has gone
down with Nabat�s split and the loss of importance of Bologna�s once
big Skinhead mob. In all that an important part is to be played by
the media: stigmatising not only the nazi-skins but the whole movement
in general. Consequently the decline of Oi means a big turn off for
non racist skinheads , going along with some changes of style and
the rediscovering of the skinheads musical roots, reggae and soul.
For these people the Mods become the focus of the movement and after
a first moment of tension this alliance will last a long time . The
beginning of the 1990s shows the expansion of S.H.A.R.P. and the return
of Oi and Punk bands like Nabat , The Business or The Lurkers while
the media concentrate themselves entirely on the character of the
nazi-skins. The network of social centres has given an opportunity
to the skins in Italy: to give a vision of themselves more close to
reality. Like Livello 57 in Bologna organising The Business� gigs,
the Leoncavallo club of Milan promoting Cock Sparrer and now veterans
of Italian Oi like Klasse Kriminale gigging as well in self organised
centres.. Main Oi bands come back to play live again: in 1995 Nabat
played at Leoncavallo and Livello 57 , together with Ghetto 84 and
the omnipresent Klasse Kriminale. And new bands came up: Concerning
bands of the far left, Banda Bassotti, motor of the Roman Redskin
branch , brought out their second longplayer Avanzo de cantiere in
1995, after a tour in El Salvador they did with Basque country fellows
Negu Gorriak ( ex Kortatu ), a milestone of contemporain political
punk rock. Unfortunately they disbanded about summer 1996. Already
disbanded as well are Erode, red Oi/Punk outfit from Como , having
done in 1994 the great record " Orgoglio Proletario - Proletarian
Pride ", followed later by the 7� " Stalingrado " and the LP/CD "
Tempo che non ritorna - Time That Does Not Return " , which seems
to me as one of the best Oi releases ever published in Italy. Always
active are Los Fastidios from Verona, authors of a couple of 7�es
and a very good split LP with Parmese Oi band F.F.D. titled � Hasta
la Baldoria �. From Rimini comes new outfit Reazione, with some members
of Klasse Kriminale. Reazione has already brought out one CD on Passatore
Records, a CD that shows as a guest singer Rudy, the front man of
almost mythical Dioxina. |
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for comments, suggestion etc: Marco - last update 23 September 2001
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