Drinking with the swamp krauts: The Young Ones

Despite their band name, the Young Ones are actually in their thirties like all of us. Unlike most of us, they are a band from the Oi capital of Maastricht, which is run by them and their elder peers in Close Combat (who we interviewed before). They have finally started doing some new music after being out the game for some eight years. Their sound is like sped-up Cockney Rejects with a smattering of Hard Skinesque humour. Girth spoke to their bassist Merijn, whose interest in conspiracy theorist David Icke is second only to ours. Continue reading

Close Combat: local dialects and misbehaviour

I’ll be honest: there’s one aspect of skinhead culture I never liked: subcultural self-pity. OK, Mick Furbank’s famous ‘crucified skinhead’ design looks cool and always will. But the whole “misunderstood & blamed for everything” victim complex does get on my tits. How many more documentaries and Vice articles where we whine about being misrepresented as racist thugs? Come on. No black person ever gave a shit what I wear. Only white liberals eye you with suspicion. And so they should – because that’s what keeps them from co-opting our culture wholesale. After all, would you want skinhead to become as acceptable as punk is today? Continue reading