Racists rock to a beat of hate

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 24

Racists rock to a beat of hate

By

DAVID BROWNE

Fascist rock bands, formed around a breakaway skinhead faction of

the National Front, are emerging from the shadows of secret underground concerts and winning new converts to their cause of racial hatred. A neo-Nazi musical organisation known as Blood and Honour, which already has close ties with far-Right European political parties, is also developing strong links with the Ku Klux Klan and South Africa’s extreme nationalist Afrikaans Resistance Movement.

Led by lan Stuart, who was jailed for 12 months in 1986 for a street attack on a Nigerian in the King’s Cross area of London, Blood and Honour is planning to tour the Netherlands Belgium, France, Sweden and the United States later this year.

Stuart, aged 30, born in Poulton-le-Fydle, near Blackpool, was the NF’s Central London organiser and a member of the party’s directorate until he was ousted in a bitter dispute over alleged impropriety soon after his

release from Wayland Prison in Norfolk.

This year, in a marked escalation of their activities, Stuart’s band, Skrewdriver, and other groups, which boast names such as No Remorse, Brutal Attack and Sudden Impact, have played in several pubs in London, Stoke-on-Trent and other English and Scottish cities. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We are aware of this group and the fact that they attract a Right-wing skinhead element. We are aware of their activities and they are being monitored.” Speaking at his bedsit in Argyle Square, King’s Cross, surrounded by pictures of Nazi luminaries and fascist memorabilia, Stuart said: “Our music is for white people. If people want to call it racist then I suppose it is. We sing about pride in your race and nation, pride in fighting for what you believe in.” Blood and Honour was

in close contact with the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan and Californian extremist Tom Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance, he said. “The Klan finds our lyrics appealing because they concern pride in one’s race, which is what they believe in. They have used our lyrics in their papers as a way of getting their message across to young people. A squat, powerfully built man with a Musso-lini-style bonehead haircut and a taste for paramilitary clothes, he added: “People come to our gigs because they like our music. Our songs are about things we believe in. But we are not a political party.” A recent concert at The Star public house in London Road, West Croydon, was attended by more than 200 skinheads. Racist insults, denouncing blacks and Jews, were hurled across the dance floor, and vendors did a brisk trade selling fascist literature, badges and records. Copyright London “Observer”