Album Review: The Oppressed – The Complete Oi! Recordings (1981-2018) 4CD Boxset on Cherry Red Records

Of all the iterations of “punk rock”, it’s “Oi” that probably divides the fans more than any other genre. Whilst the biggest hitters from the scene, the likes of Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer and Angelic Upstarts have always been crowd pullers and led from the front, there has always been a darker underbelly on the fringes, tagging along, dancing around the margins tainting the main body with their obvious and not so obvious Right Wing leanings. Terrace culture was inevitably a working-class movement, evolving from the skinhead bastions of The Shed and The Chicken Run, subverted by the Bulldog News selling National Front activists, in the mid to late 1970’s. The sheer violent energy of a very basic form of music, contributed to the excitement and danger at Oi gigs. However, throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s bands like Cardiff’s The Oppressed and York’s The Redskins, harnessed skinhead culture with anti-fascist activism, taking on the racists in the streets and concert halls. Ultimately the Socialist Workers Party lines did for The Redskins, but their legacy lives on through bands like Italy’s Los Fastidios, who The Oppressed cover in this 113 track collection.

Sprawling over 4 CDs, this box set contains every studio recording made between 1981 and 2018.  It features their 4 albums ‘Oi! Oi! Music’, ‘Fatal Blow’, ‘We Can Do Anything’ and ‘Music For Hooligans’ plus the singles ‘Never Say Die’, ‘Victims’, ‘Anti Fascist Oi!’, ‘Fuck Fascism’, ‘Strength In Unity’, ‘The Noise’, ‘The Insurgence’, ‘Football Violence’ and ‘2 Generations 1 Message’.

Also includes tracks culled from rare split compilation albums and EPS, many of the songs getting a UK release for the first time.

The booklet features detailed liner notes, pictures of every release and an overview by vocalist Roddy Moreno.

Over the years The Oppressed have become synonymous with the anti-fascist skinhead movement, being closely tied to SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) through singer Roddy Moreno’s role in its development, bringing the New York organisaton to his native Wales and eventually Europe. The SHARP logo – based on the Trojan Records label image, was even designed by Moreno.

He even started his own record label Oi Records, back in the 1980s, with early releases by Oi Polloi and The Blaggers, and the Skins’n’Punks series of split albums.

The first CD starts of with the 5 demo tracks recorded by the original line-up in 1981, which never actually got released until 1984 as part of the The Fatal Blow mini-LP. They are the only tracks on the collection not to feature a Moreno as both Roddy and Dom (Bass) had yet to join the. For a considerable chunk of their existence the band has consisted of three Moreno brothers as drummer Adrian joined the line-up in 1996 after a decade long hiatus, on the 4 track Anti-Facist Oi! EP, which includes The Who’s “Substitute”, whose influence can’t be underestimated on the whole punk/street punk/oi movement as so many bands including the like of Sex Pistols and The Jam chose to augment their sets with Daltrey/Townsend compositions. CD1 is completed by the debut album Oi! Oi! Music LP, notable for itscovers of Symarip’s Skinhead Girl and Menace’s Chaos as well as original compositions “We’re The Oppressed”, “Riot”, “Government Out” and “Ultra Violence”. One thing that separates The Oppressed from a lot of their peers of the time is the role the drums play in their music, often given plenty of bandwidth to sound loud and spacious, akin to early Ruts recordings.

CD2 brings together the aforementioned Anti Fascist Oi EP as well as several other singles and EPs, including a rather raucous acapella rendition of Evil In Magaluf, which apparently features backing vocals from the members of the Llanrumney Rugby team! The bulk of the CD is taken from their second album, We Can Do Anything With no original compositions it includes covers such as Sham 69’s “Borstal Breakout” and “Hurry Up Harry” and Cockney Rejects “We Can Do Anything” and “Police Car”. Other tracks from Last Resort and The 4 Skins complete the set.

CD 3 sees more covers of classic punk originals on their Music For Hooligans LP including tracks by The Clash – (Garageland and Pressure Drop), The Who – Substitute (rewritten with new lyrics), The Farm’s – All Together Now, plus a mash up of The Members “Solitary Confinement ” and Newtown Neurotics “Living With Unemployment”, show why the band have attracted a bit of a punk rock karaoke tag in the past. 70s bovver boys Slade feature with covers “Cum On Feel The Noize“, “Mamma We’re Al Crazee Now” and “Gudbuy T’ Jane“.

CD4 mops up the rest of their output between 2004 and 2018, with tracks from various EPs and split recordings.

It’s an interesting collection of songs from one of the longest serving bands in the Oi scene and their influence in the Anti Fascist movement should not be underestimated.

DISC ONE
1981 DEMO
1 Fatal Blow
2 Way Of Life
3 Last Orders
4 Local Constabulary
5 White Flag
Oi! THE TAPE
6 Riot
7 Leave Me Alone
8 Joe Hawkins
9 Government
10 It Ain’t Right
11 We’re The Oppressed
Oi! Oi! THAT’S YER LOT
12 White Flag (Version 2)
NEVER SAY DIE EP
13 Urban Soldiers
14 Ultra-Violence
15 Run From You
Oi! Oi! MUSIC LP
16 We’re The Oppressed
17 Leave Me Alone
18 Violent Society
19 Urban Soldiers
20 Chaos
21 Gun Law
22 Riot
23 Joe Hawkins
24 Fight For Your Life
25 Ultra Violence
26 Government Out
27 Run From You
28 Skinhead Girl
29 Don’t Look Back
30 Magistrate

DISC TWO
SINGLE
1 Victims
2 Work Together
1984 DEMO
3 Bad Man
4 Angels With Dirty Faces
5 ACAB
ANTI FASCIST OI! EP
6 Substitute
7 Nazi Nightmare
8 B.N.P. (Your Full Of Shit)
9 Nazi Skinhead
WE CAN DO ANYTHING LP
10 That’s Life
11 Borstal Breakout
12 Hurry Up Harry
13 Sunday Morning Nightmare
14 Evil
15 Sorry
16 Wonderful World
17 1984
18 We Can Do Anything
19 Police Car
20 Oi! Oi! Oi!
21 I’m Not A Fool
22 King Of The Jungle
23 Skinheads In Stapress
24 Rebels With A Cause
25 Violence In Our Minds
26 Llanrumney Chorus
FUCK FASCISM EP
27 Fuck Fascism
28 Sleeping With The Enemy
29 Work Together 1995
5 4 3 2 1 EP
30 Evil In Magaluf

DISC THREE
MUSIC FOR HOOLIGANS LP
1 CF3
2 That’s Alright
3 Living With Unemployment
4 Same Old Story
5 Skinhead Times
6 Garageland
7 When I Was Young
8 All Together Now
9 5 4 3 2 1
10 No Justice
11 Pressure Drop
12 We’re The Hooligans
13 Substitute
14 Nazi Nightmare
15 Sleeping With The Enemy
16 Fuck Fascism
STRENGTH IN UNITY! EP
17 Madness
18 Boots Are Made For Stompin’
19 Skinhead Girl (New Version)
20 CF3
THE NOISE EP
21 Cum On Feel The Noize
22 Mama Weer All Crazee Now
23 Gudbuy T’Jane
FAT SKINS EP
24 The AFA Song
25 Do Anything You Wanna Do
ANGELIC UPSTARTS TRIBUTE
26 Solidarity

DISC FOUR
SKINHEAD UNITY
1 United We Stand
2 Nobody’s Fool
3 Paedophile
THE INSURGENCE EP
4 I Don’t Wanna
5 Blue Army
6 I Don’t Wanna (Spanish Version)
7 Blue Army (Instrumental)
FOOTBALL VIOLENCE EP
8 Football Violence
9 Remember
10 Low Life
11 Tonight Tonight
S.H.A.R.P. AS A RAZOR
12 Antifa Hooligans
13 Monkey Man
14 Brother Louie
2 GENERATIONS EP
15 I Wanna Be Sedated
16 Blitzkrieg Bop
SKINS `N’ PUNKS VOLUME 6
17 Head Kicked In
18 Drunken Skinhead
19 White Flag (New Version)
20 The Greatest Cardiff Rip Off
21 Cardiff Born
22 Bluebirds Unite
23 SHARP Anthem
FCK FSCSM (THIS IS ANTI FASCIST OI!)
24 Crucify The Police
25 Enoch Power
26 This Machine
27 Fuck Em All