Shaved For Battle

Before you read this post one issue that I seem to share with Phil Templar is the bullshit and rumors people will spew about you and you so called politics when you are black in this scene. How people will go out of their way to label you as a self loather if you arnt flying with only your left wing. I’ sure a lot of non white skins deal with this shit. The rumors i’ve been hearing about myself are fucking silly and i’m glad i’m not the only one who’s dealing with this bullshit. Its also funny how the ne0- nazis seem to have such a hard on for the blacks in the scene. People need to relax and get off our dicks.

The Real Deal… by Phil Templar on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 7:03pm

First off I’d like to thank all the Templar die-hards out there who have stuck with us since day one and refuse to buy into the exaggerations & witch hunt conducted by certain jealous people who happen to live in our town. First off, the band has never been racist or supported such ideals… We have songs denouncing racism. We’ve been featured on Oi! Against Racism released by Marco Klasse Kriminale. Played Anti-Racism shows in left-wing squats. Played AIDS benefit shows. Openly declared that racism is idiot and shouldn’t be tolerated ON STAGE! We have never played with RAC/White Noise bands or played RAC venues anywhere. None of our lyrics are racist or promote racism. The majority are about everyday struggles of life and tongue-in-cheek/sarcastic songs about scene bullshit, drugs or our ever so clever government and it’s ridiculous policies.

You’ve got one particular person who obviously has a hard-on for the band, especially me. It seems to me he has the “jungle fever” because he seems obsessed with all the Black men in the scene and what they do. Sorry to say, none of us are gay and we are in committed relationships and have no time to give him the dick he so craves. All kidding aside… I will address all these “accusations” being made against us and you can make your decision after that:

*I am not a gang-leader… I did NOT lead a party of people to a gig to fight. The gig was at a public venue/squat. I was there with another black skinhead to see the Street-Troopers. We played with them in Montreal in 1997. And a few years later I saw them again when I was playing drums for Oxblood. We actually crashed at one of the member’s house that weekend. If people who turn up to a public gig have alterior motives and want to settle old scores, then that’s their problem. I didn’t throw a punch nor receive a punch so there goes that argument. As a matter of fact, we stayed some minutes after the fracas and still were able to at least say hello to the band.

*I did not crash a party and wreck shit in 1993 either. I’m starting to wonder with all these distortions in the truth whether or not people are living in a fantasy world. I was INVITED to spin some reggae/ska music at an event the night before a Bad Manners gig. If you get your ass handed to you, I’m not the reason why or the one who orchestrated the ass whooping you got. For the record, “Mr. Jungle Love” got his ass wrecked because a few guys objected to paying the 3 dollar cover charge at a Reggae/Ska Party organized by Socialists… and he tried to collect. Fail!

*Another song we constantly get criticized for is the “Glory It Once Was”. Which is a tongue-in-cheek song about the great country we live in and all the bullshit our government puts us through with it’s ridiculous & racist policies that it creates. There’s a line that states “fuck immigration, we’ve got our own population”. I am the product of two immigrant parents as are a lot of the people in this country. But when you have a country that allows certain ethnic groups in based upon how light their skin color is, that is racist as fuck as shouldn’t be tolerated. Fuck all immigration until we sort out our racial problems. It’s all or nothing… not some ethnic groups getting priority over others and racial profiling etc etc. It doesn’t make sense to let people in the country so we can dick them over with racist laws and other bullshit that people shouldn’t be subjected to. That’s the idea behind the song… nothing more, nothing less.

*We’ve never advocated seig-heiling at our gigs at all. We don’t invite nazi dickheads to our gigs. If silly peckerwoods want to listen to our music and be on the Black man’s dick then that’s their problem, not ours. If they love a band with 2 black members then they need to get their ideologies straight. We don’t promote that shit and never will. We are skinheads and we play skinhead rock. On a side note, whenever I’ve gone to see Cock Sparrer in England, you always get idiots seig-heiling when they play “England Belongs to Me”… why? That is fucking retarded and I never understood that. If you’re British, why are you seig-heling? Whatever… It’s not my band, not my problem. Idiots will be idiots. Early on we were always compared to early Skrewdriver and I’ve ALWAYS said there’s more to life than Skrewdriver. What about Count Bishops, Little Bob Story, The Clash, Chelsea, The Rejects, Last Resort, Menace, Red Alert, The Upstarts, The Jam etc etc… bands we were influenced by directly. We even did tongue-in-cheek covers like “Black With A Bang” or “Black StreetKids” to piss off the nazi dumb-dumbs. Obviously, some didn’t get the joke. Nazism is a joke. For the record, we haven’t played that shit in years… it got tired. And idiots who wanted to hear it I’d tell ‘em to fuck off and improve their record collection.

*For the record, to this date… we have NEVER played Condemned 84… ya gotta love those reliable sources.

*I don’t peddle RAC to kids like it’s drugs folks… let’s get serious. For the record, there are bands out there who can stay cleer of choosing political affiliations and still have common sense to be against racism. Check out our songs like “Pride” and “No Solution”. The RAC stuff is easily available via download on different blog sites and there are various people who distribute the cds. What people buy or download I have NO control over. My profile says it all about me. I don’t tolerate racism at all. People see that I’m Black a fucking mile away. I’ve told people on the Myspace thing that racists need not friend request me. I don’t/can’t change my personality/skin color to suit different crowds… never have, never will. If some dickhead who is racist or leans that way wants to be friends with a Black guy because his “music is cool” then he needs to check himself and stop being a mindless idiot.

*The DJ nights we do specialize in Black Music only. NO RAC shirt dress codes/NO racists come to our events, only Black music lovers and people who like to dance. If no one comes to your nighters it’s because you guys are corny as fuck and have no friends. So you might as well have it in your basement where you have privacy to jack-off on our cds and make up exaggerated stories. There was a time where i played more Oi/Punk & Hard Rock and my flyers would be ridiculous with graphics etc etc. I learned one thing doing that… playing aggressive music & drink specials don’t mix (fights). And besides, the punters that would show up wanted more music that would keep the girls around & dancing so i followed suit and keep it all Reggae/Ska & Soul Music. I never played racist music and for the record… “reich und roll” is taken from veteran bands like Motörhead, The Residents and not about some hidden agenda, just more tongue-in-cheek shit.

*With regards to the stabbing incident… that unfortunately happened AFTER the gig and I was one of the first people on the scene who called EMS and helped out until they arrived. This was an argument that had NOTHING to do with any of the bands that played or anything else. The show went on without an incident and this stupid stabbing happened 10 minutes before the venue closed. I even kept in touch with his friends making sure he was ok. A few months later his band (Buddha Bulldozer) played with ours in Toronto. Here’s another scenario that has totally distorted to suit jealous people’s alterior motives. Check this statement released shortly afterwards or better yet check with him and whether I’m telling the truth (https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=174046255986545).

*We have nothing against left wing skinheads coming to our gigs, never have. We give an open invitation to ANY anti-racist skinheads to come to our shows and see what we’re about. Whether in NYC or out of state… if you really want to get rid of the fascists then do so. There are some people in NYC that have tried but as “lover boy” said, he can’t do it alone, so come police the shows and get rid of the glue-sniffing idiots you feel are fascist or engaging in fascist activity. You won’t get any complaints from us at all… we are there to play a gig, our songs don’t promote that shit and we sing about real life hardships & struggles in life. Several people can tell you we’ve talked shit about racists on stage, refused to play shows etc etc. Read the various zine interviews we’ve done addressing that topic. As i said before, we’ve never been nazis or support that retarded frame of thinking. Take control of your scene and get rid of the idiots you complain about.

*Selling shirts through Waterloo was just that… selling shirts. I didn’t sell Nazi shirts and sold quite a load of Toy Dolls, The Exploited, Cock Sparrer, Deadline, Macc Lads, Blitz, Last Resort etc etc as well as Snix, Bleach Boys, Tolbiac, Onkelz and Index. The majority of the shirts I sold was dead stock from another store that had gone bust. They owed me money so I chose to sell the shirts instead of losing my money. 

Instead of alienating other skinheads in NYC and making up stories tying us with glue-sniffing non-whites with 88 tattoos, why don’t you set up anti-racist shows for bands to play, we’d play in a second. We’ve always been against racism and forever will be against that shit. Instead of making up shit about our DJ night, come down and see for yourself what we spin. If you can’t dance, I won’t say shit on Facebook I promise. But like I said before, I am married and will not dance with you despite your infatuation with me and the other Black skinheads that turn up.

We’re a skinhead band plain & simple. We ain’t angels and never will be. We’ve fought at gigs against other skinheads (some Nazis too for the record), punks, rockers, student types, jocks, whatever. Shit that happened a long time ago and doesn’t represent what we do or who we are now (which I can also say for MANY bands). For Christ’s sake, people are still harping on shit that happened almost 20 fucking years ago. Once again we’ll state the obvious, we ain’t Nazis, never have been and never will be (just repeating it to those who still think we are). We can’t be friends with everyone and we ain’t trying to be. If you don’t like our music cause it sounds corny or boring then that’s your opinion and you get my respect. If you don’t like the band because of “rumors” of us supporting RAC scenes and being self-hating Black people and all that other stuff that is circulating, then you are just misguided. Focus on the idiots who are in your backyard like KSS in Pennsylvania, the numb nuts in Atlantic City, Vinlander garbage in Maryland and the Northwest and the maniacs killing people in Russia and Eastern Europe. We’ll agree with you on that 100%… that shit is crazy and has no place in this scene or world. Rock Against Fascism is a cause worth fighting for and that’s NEVER been a problem for us simply because we’re NOT fascists. We just don’t agree with the current smear campaign. If anyone has a question all they gotta do is ask plain & simple… go to the source directly. We don’t shy away from answering questions at all. For the record, the people who are defending us so avidly are doing so because they know who we are, have met us and talked and gotten to know us over the years and know where we stand when it comes to that shit. They’ve seen us play, they’ve seen us put our words into action. We’ve played to thousands of people who know who we are and know what we’re about as well… and know who the “real threat” is. I guess they got the memo and some didn’t. Over & out people, fight the good fight. Happy New Year, Black skinheads still running shit in 2012!