Rip Off from Bologna are mainly known for one fateful event today: their performance at the Certaldo Oi festival in 1983, which became notorious as the ‘Italian Southall’. Vocalist Rozzi delivered a speech threatening to “hang the punks and the communists”, while two members of Rip Off’s crew stood on stage giving fascist salutes. All hell broke loose in the crowd. The whole night turned into one continuous mass brawl, and in the aftermath, Oi bands in Italy struggled to get gigs for years.
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