Patrick Skinflick, former bassist of the Luxembourg legends, talks to Ball Breakers Media about his experiences in the Oi! scene, all things Skinhead, and his steel- toe capped career in The Skinflicks!
How did The Skinflicks become such an integral part of the Skinhead scene?
It only took a few months of intensive rehearsals and song writing. We had a friend who introduced us to the scene in Bruges, Belgium and it was there that our demo was so well received. We found ourselves to be an overnight phenomenon! We were soon to play in England and on the ferry over we finished assembling our first demo “Steel-toe Anthems” by hand! It was limited to a mere 300 copies and almost instantly sold out… it’s kind of funny when people write to me today asking if they could get a copy of that record now- ten years after the band split!
Did you feel accepted by the Skinhead community?
More than accepted; the worldwide Skinhead community has secured a place for our music and name in the Skinhead hall of fame by offering us gigs and tours the world over, showing us love and respect and making us feel important! I still regularly get offers for gigs now- just last week I had to decline another one. It’s amazing. So, yeah, the scene has treated us well and we are grateful for it.
What about the Skinhead scene did you love in particular?
I liked the whole networking idea which seemed to be even stronger than in the punk and anarchist circles we grew up in. With the Skinheads, a little band from Luxembourg can produce a demo on their own, release it, and become an overnight hit in somewhere like Australia, for instance. Isn’t that just great? We’d never have thought such things possible. The scene is so well- connected the world over that word-of-mouth promotion can be overwhelmingly efficient. Also this scene has a lot in common with the past. Knowledge and preference is passed on by an “elder”- a mentor if you like- to younger people in the gangs. Everybody looks up to an “old” working class local hero and if THAT guy listens to your band and recommends it, you will soon have a whole scene of new kids who are into your band, know all of your lyrics by heart, and turn up to your gigs! So, yes, if you gain the respect of the bald fellows, they can make you known all over the world in a matter of months! This scene is independent from record critics, labels and billboard charts; it creates its own heroes right out of its own ranks! That’s beautiful, isn’t it? On a more romantic and personal level, I myself could always identify with the “Spirit of 69”- thing, being a misunderstood rebel in my local gang, hanging out with my mates on the weekend and making every Friday night count as much as Christmas. It was a wonderful time.
What about the Skinhead scene did you dislike, if anything?
Some of the individuals I encountered were a teeny-tiny bit closed-minded sometimes and even took pride in that. There is no pride in being ignorant and wanting to remain that way! This attitude sometimes saddened me and led to disappointment in my romanticized view of this way of life. Luckily some of the other individuals I have met re-ignited my faith in the scene. Those guys weren’t always new additions to the scene or youths, some of the most open-minded views came from well-known veterans in the scene I had the pleasure and honour to meet, such as Frankie “Boy” Flame, a great man, whom I adore as much as I admire.
What do you think has been the biggest problem for Skinheads worldwide and who do you blame, if anyone?
Politics. Definitely. Politics ruined everything and it continues to do so every single day. That is the precise reason why The Skinflicks always were and always will be an apolitical band. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find a more apolitical band than The Skinflicks. Since the late 70’s, politics have had a disastrous influence on Oi! music and spoiled the fun for nearly everyone, allowing the great political extremes to infiltrate this scene which was doing so well without them and corrupting it ever since. It was a great mistake. As long as I stand and breathe I will not stop blaming politics for ruining music. Don’t get me wrong, though: I am not against politics. On the contrary, I believe it is very important for any person to have a political opinion of their own and to stand by it. Could we just please LEAVE IT OUT OF THE MUSIC once and for all? The two have never mingled well and, blame it on my Punk roots, but I will forever stick with Crass when they sang: “left wing, right wing – you can stuff the lot!”
Did you receive any bad reception for your lack of political messages?
Yes, the usual. If you are a resolutely apolitical band, the left-wing find you ambiguous and dubious and prefer to keep you at bay, while the right-wing find you too mellow and accuse you of being political for not wanting to raise the right arm with them at gigs- or threatening to stop the gig and leave the stage if the right arms won’t leave the air. Bollocks to all that. Those people never understood what we really meant by insisting on the “non-political” aspect, which was extremely important to us, not to be subverted by anyone and being no one’s slave or subservient to any kind of ideology. It was indeed slightly anarchic to refuse to bow our heads to anyone, but we found a strange kind of freedom for ourselves in this. We were on OUR side, no one else’s!
What do you think of groups such as SHARP?
In keeping with what I just said I cannot fully approve of these groups. SHARP was a great idea in the beginning, some sort of emergency brake for this train that was racing full speed ahead into this political schism, this 80’s type arms race between the left wing and the right wing who both tried to recruit a maximum of baldies for their respective type of bollocks. And along came Roddy Moreno and The Oppressed who popularized this idea in Europe that you can say "NO" to politics and not only be a good Skinhead without them, but actually a BETTER, more traditional, old school type of Skinhead. That was great and absolutely necessary… however, over time the SHARP opened up a tolerance towards the left while retaining a zero tolerance towards the right, which unwittingly polarized it politically and strayed from the initial idea, which was to abort and separate all forms of politics from the scene- a cutting out of the cancerous tumour that is politics in music.
How about RASH?
As far as RASH is concerned I never approved of them for a second, sorry lads! First of all, it all leads towards politicizing an inherently non-political youth culture again and was, as such, counter-productive. The anarchist part of RASH was non-political mostly, but seriously, I met a handful of these guys and my impression was that they were little more than bums and hobos with shaven heads. I have yet to be proven wrong on this! The Reds of this organization are just another attempt to subvert the scene I love with obsolete communism and boring politics that were dead before most of the members of that faction were even born, much less shaved their heads for the first time. So I wouldn’t have any of that, thank you.
Did you ever feel the need to apologise for your image in the fear that you may have been misunderstood due to negative portrayals of skinheads in the media?
Not personally, no. I stick with the 4-Skins who sang “I won’t say I’m sorry...” but as a band the pressure from left-wing paranoiacs as well as right-wing enthusiasts who just didn’t get it forced us to include a statement in our first record declining any affiliation or sympathy towards any political institution from the band. It’s a sad thing that the most apolitical of all the bands should see themselves forced to proclaim such a thing. We asked ourselves what would be next. A "Parental Warning" sticker for “explicit lyrics”? Bollocks! As for the portrayal of Skinheads in the media, I think our song called “Media” says it all.
What's your favourite Skinflicks tune?
I guess “The Pride of our scene” as that is the only song I ever wrote for The Skinflicks! Ha! I even played the guitars as well as the bass on the recording since we were under pressure in the studio and unfortunately there was just no time to rehearse the song with our guitar player. I wanted to express my admiration for the lovely ladies of Oi! in our scene after I met some truly lovely and impressive girls whose dedication, spirit and attitude left a great impression on me. Also, classics I will always love include “What I am” (that’s my old hair-cutter you hear in the intro, RIP!), “Lionhearts” (both songs clearly spoke about what we were about instead of boring politics) and also newer songs like “Media” which had a loud and clear critical message while retaining some of the most beautiful melodies Jerome, our singer and band-leader, ever came up with.
Songs like "I Hate Hippies" were hugely entertaining, the lyrics seem both humorous and sincere. Did you take those lyrics literally or is comic effect at work here?
You see, now you are turning this into my favourite interview EVER! No one before noticed the comical aspects of that songs and pointed them out to us like this. The problem with that song was that way too many people took it far too seriously! When people tried to corner us into the right wing end of the scene, they mostly would use this song as one of the main arguments. A couple of months ago someone even pointed out to me personally that anyone who would write a song like this must be right wing. It is not fair that when someone like Geza X yells “Kill all hippies” it is considered funny whereas when The Skinflicks even just point out they don’t like Hippies, they must be fascist pigs. That will never make sense to me. Oooohhh, probably because he is a punk rocker and by definition left-wing oriented, thus beyond any level of suspicion, and OUR hair was just too damn short?! Give me a friggin’ break!
Yeah, people do seem a little sensitive to say the least with regards to things like this… Especially when it’s clearly a humorous endeavour…
It is, like you correctly pointed out, nothing but a spoof. We wanted to write something outrageous against the hippies and all the stereotypes associated with that particular subculture. One afternoon on rehearsal we had this powerful song but no lyrics yet, so Jerome and myself launched some kind of competition to find some abrasive and obnoxious rhymes about that subject. It would be two lines from him and two lines from me and in between we just basically laughed our heads off. Jerome won the game with the un-top-able “John Lennon’s dead, now what you gonna do? ‘Cause the next in line will be YOU!” I mean come on, that is quite hilarious, right? Or is it just Skinhead bad taste spilling over into the humour department? Anyways, this song features some of the most criticized lyrics by the broad public out there and has been adored by the Boneheads for all the wrong reasons on the other hand. We would almost feel sorry to ever have written it at all, were it not that it is one of the finest damn Oi! songs you might find and that we simply do not CARE about if anyone likes it or not, hahahaha!
What is Oi! about and what does it mean to you?
Oi! is working class rock music made by the working class for the working class. It spoke clearly to me about my life back then and what I saw on a daily basis. There was no bullshit- unlike in pop or metal. It meant the world to me.
Who are your favourite and least favourite Oi! bands EVER?
I will not give you a list of least favourite bands- that’s not fair to these people and every artist deserves respect for their efforts…but some of my all- time favourites are: the 4- Skins- for writing some of the best skinhead/punk music on the planet, The Oppressed- for being rough and tough and proving you did not have to be politically inclined to be a real skin, Infa Riot and Blitz- for their great, violent punk tunes, Anti- Nowhere League- for being an overdose of misanthropy and a band who really said it like it was, The Business- for being there, being real and going from strength to strength over the years, Cock Sparrer- they elevated Oi! music to an art form, doing for Oi! what Queen did for rock- they made it EPIC! Listen to those melodies, those football chants, those heartfelt lyrics, they’re about so much more than stomping heads and guzzling beer. I will forever love them for giving us that! Evil Conduct- mates of ours, probably one of the bands we played with the most, and we never got tired of their brilliant sound- something like the Ramones of Oi! to me….I always admired them for the dead-on simplicity and efficiency of their song-writing, Superyob- Frank Flame’s Oi! outfit, which still does not always get the recognition they deserve: excellent raw melodies from one truly veteran craftsman in the business. There are tons more, of course!
Do you feel that you have contributed in a positive way to the Skinhead scene?
Well, yes, of course! The aim of The Skinflicks was to pay tribute to the music we loved, growing up. We wanted to be a band who were as no-bullshit as The Oppressed, as tough and street-wise as the 4- Skins, as persistent and relevant as The Business while eventually growing up to write beautiful, hard melodies like Cock Sparrer…a great and difficult goal, certainly, but if we only achieved one tenth of this, which I firmly believe we did, it was a success!
What do you think of the modern Skinhead scene and its future?
I cannot say too much about the state of the scene today as I haven’t been an active part of it since almost six years now, but I am sure this type of music will always be relevant and will always find an audience, since the Skinheads will never die, as they so often correctly say.
Is there anything you'd do differently if you could go back to the days of The Skinflicks?
Well, I guess I personally would have joined the band earlier, instead of waiting until 1999, since I was asked to be a part of the line-up in the beginning. I declined, being too busy at the time…I came to regret this, bitterly… so when I was asked again, two years later, upon the departure of their original bass player, I did not hesitate for one second! Also, if I could do it all over again, I might not decline the attentions of so many fine birds. I was offered some wild prospects over my time in the band and, being young and shy, I turned most of them down again…maybe that wasn’t so wise! I would also love to tour more, if there was another chance, but oh well…
Why did The Skinflicks split? Do you regret it?
Personal differences between some members of the band. The situation escalated almost to a point of physical confrontation. It was unbearable and the end seemed unavoidable. After losing the drummer, it was impossible to find a decent replacement right away and Jerome, who after all was the vocalist and main songwriter, had moved on to other things musically and felt that whatever he had to say in Oi!, he had said. Oi! is about having a laugh and having a say. The say we had and the laugh was getting smaller as the violence at the gigs grew. They were strange days. Of course everyone regretted this, but it could not be changed at the time. The worst part is that we had just recorded the best album we would ever write, "Beyond Good and Evil", and the band split right after the record was released, so we never got to tour this album, most of the songs remain unplayed live to this day, which I deeply regret.
Is there any chance of The Skinflicks getting back together, lacing up their boots and touring again?
They say you should never say never, but then again it is highly unlikely, seeing as all of the members of the band have moved on, gotten older, got responsible jobs and family, kids to look after and other musical projects….all of this make the possibility of a reunion a very slim one, but you never know…we have gotten some incredible offers over the years, gigs, tours, records, the works. Only recently we were approached with a dream-offer for a single gig…that is very tempting…but in the end, most of these ideas have to be declined because of external factors…the internal differences I mentioned before have been clarified, there is no more trouble on that side of the spectrum, but it IS difficult to separate everyone from their current lives and projects to send them again on a venture with a project from their youth. I would be the first in line for a small reunion, I guess, and I know some of the lads would be there as well, but we would/should only do it as an entire band with all of the members from the line-up present or not at all, know what I mean? The Skinflicks is not just about the bloated ego of a bass player and the likes! Ha!
What do you do now? Are there any other projects in the making?
Well, we all have our musical projects going on, Jerome and Tom have their projects going strong and Gilbert is singing in a Punk Rock cover band- he has quite the voice you know! Some of us have kids and family, others have steady jobs…it seems we are all grown up now, or at least appear to be! I have my own musical projects as well, my Ska band is still going strong, as well as my 60’s Surf- instrumental Retro band. I reckon you can say that we are an active bunch, all of us, in some way or another and none of us ever quit making music…which is a good thing!
Cheers and Beers to Patrick Skinflickof The Skinflicks!
