After their
great debut cd “Out of Control” from 2009 the English/German RAC combo is back
with a bang. A great pack of 13 brand new songs in the very same spirit of catchy
and fast rock tunes with even a touch of saxophone in the intro of one of the
songs. The lyrics are dealing with everyday life in the modern sick society,
corrupt medias and politicians, football violence, booze and glory and the memories
of the good old times “when skinheads rule OK”. Compared to the first album the
sound of this one is not that rough, but I can still nominate songs such as "Rule
O.K.”, Best of our Times", “No beer Here” and “Skinhead girl” for a future
everyone favorite’s anthems.
What I can
state as a minus is the booklet of the cd – both from the bad quality of the printing
paper and low pixelization of the images displayed inside as well. Despite this
you can find all the songs lyrics plus a Statement from the band concerning
some important issues which need to be clarified.
The information in advance to all the IC 1 supporters is that the bands 3rd
album is starting to take shape and has a working title of 'We are the Boise'.
For all of you who like to be up-to-date with the band’s activity you can
follow them on IC1 FaceBook page at:IC 1 Fanpage
At last but
not the least - don’t hesitate to buy this cd and support one of the last bands
who stick to the true skinhead sound!!!
Hello Gigi, welcome on the pages of
Revolt NS. My first question should be quite typical…how and when you get
involved into the skinhead scene? What or who influenced you mostly to join the
movement?
Before to become a
skinhead I was a typical street gangster… I was a member of a gang named
Criminality Commune, then when I was 18 years old I decided to start to be a
nice boy…. So in 1993 I became Skinhead! I thought to go out from the troubles
but I was wrong, the troubles have changed but I never gone out!
Your band is famous enough, but please gives us a brief
presentation of it – history, band members, discography, etc?
My band has born in
1998, members have changed many times during the years, only I remeined as the
only original member. We had recorded a lot of songs during the years ,
throughout we have: 1 demo, 4 CDs albums, 2 mini albums on vinyl and 4 singles
out on various compilations. To get knowledge of our history I invite you to
visit our website where you can to find many interesting facts: www.legittimaoffesa.com
Legitima Offesa played in Bulgaria
at 2010. What are your most striking memories from your visit to my Motherland?
We had so much fun
and has been much better than I expected, we made new great friendships and I
have been fascinated by Sofia and the great hospitality from my Bulgarian
friends!
Tell us about you home city –
Bologna, the scene there (both political and music)? It’s well known left wing
city, if I’m not wrong.
Bologna it’s a city
with a grat skinhead tradition, there been few skinhead generations (we can count
three generations at least), I’m belong to the second generation, the most
politically and the most musically active, there is (or there has been) many famous
bands in Bologna, since time of “Nabat” and “Rip Off” till nowadays. This city
it’s famous to be a leftist, but I can garantee that there are many young
patriots, comrades, anticommunist or streets friends that are with us. To be a
skinhead in Bologna isn’t easy, you need to have balls! If you aren’t dare to
do it’s useless to be a skinhead (in my opinion…)
Who is the guy getting arrested on
the front cover of your album “Skinheads a passeggio”? Is there any special
story behind this photo?
In this picture
there are two skinheads with handcuffs, one is close-up and the other is below.
The first one guy in close-up with Legittima Offesa’s t-shirt is our old
drummer, the guy below is one of our best friends, one of our crew.
They’re transfered
from police station to the jail where they’ll spend one month cause of a big fight
with antifa. They was with other 5 guys in the pub while outside there was 30
antifa who waiting them to attack them with bottles, knives and belts. When our
guys went outside a big fight broke up but luckily they were a fucking
motherfuckers which grew up on the street and in few seconds they got on the
heads of antifa… in the end, 8 antifa went to the hospital with serious wounds
and our guys was sent to the jail. Of course journalist wrote thai it was our
fault, the same old story…
Who are the “White Kriminals”and why you have decided to
entitle your album from 2006 with this name?
White Kriminals
it’s a title of our song and one of our albums. White Kriminals are all those people
who identify themselfs with this song, this isn’t just a song but it’s an attitude,
a way of life, there are skins, punks, rockers, hooligans and crazy
revolutionaries… rebels! Exept this there is a “White Kriminals Crew”,
supporters who follow our band on gigs and they are our best friends who we
have same problems, street life, we share same beleives and dreams. We’re a
Crew!
Your future split with Brutal Attack will be released
only on vinyl. What is the reason for this?
I love vinyls, the
split will be just by one song of each band,so it doesn’t make any sense to do
a CD, vinyl is eternal… the CD is not!
Are you a music collector yourself? What are the rarest
items in your collection?
Yes and I’m a
fanatic. Above all I love vinyls, I can feel a different emotions than CD. I’ve
a great vinyls collection with some rarities as Skrewdriver, Cockney Rejects,
4-Skins, The Cramps, Peggior Amico, Caterina Caselli, ADL 122, Plastic Surgery
and many Oi!, Punk, Beat, Rock’a’billy,….
In what other music
projects are you involved? Tell us a bit about your cooperation with Antoanella (Klasse Kriminale)?
Actually I’m
playing in Legittima Offesa and The Kriminals. With Antonellina we played together
two times, the best Klasse Kriminale’s songs was (in my opinion) written by
her. I grew up listening her songs. I’m very happy about about the fact he’s
coming back to skin and punk scene, and I’m really happy to contributed in her comeback
to Italy after many years of absence! My ex-bassist played with them in their
two italian gigs and in their first gig in London, but we don’t have a common
project for the future….
While skins around Europe changed their outlook, Italians
kept the “original image” from the 80’s. Do you have some special reason to do
this?
I don’t agree with
you. There are many skins around all Europe whoo keep to dress like a skinhead,
and there are gigs with more than 1000 people where they’re dressed in old
school style. I remember my last gig in Germany with Endstufe, Faustrecht, Les
Vilains, Brassic Oi! and Legittima Offesa, there was around 1500 people,
everyone old school skinhead and some punks not red… this is for all Europe, I
played everywhere and I found traditional skinhead in Germany, Spain, Belgium,
France, Finland, Estonia,… Everywhere! Nowadays in gigs you can to find guys
who don’t dress like a skinhead but they joined the skin scene. Mixing
skinhead’s culture with politic, sometimes happens that there are bands who
play hardcore or metal and you find boys dressed in different way, they aren’t
skinheads, I don’t want to offend no one but if you’re skinhead you must dress like a
skinhead, if you don’t to dress like a skinhead you aren’t skinhead,it’s
simple!
ZetaZeroAlfa and SPQR played a gig in Bankok at 2011.This
is very untypical for a band from our scene. Please, comment?
I know they had to
play there but I don’t know if they are really played did, in other hands it’s
not a big matter to me, so, I’m happy for them if their music reached till
there! One of major aims of musicians is to their music to be heared by much
people as possible! Each one does his choice and decides to play whenever he
wants, where he want to reach and to spread his messages.
They chosen to play
there, they have their good reasons!
You play often home and abroad. I had the chance to see Legitima
Offesa live at “European Skinhead Party” in Germany last May when you shared
stage with top bands like Endstufe, Faustrecht and Les Vilians. What are your
impressions from this great concert?
This is the gig who
I meaned above, it was a great event, great organization, nice bands and nice
people!
Do you have a lot of girls involved in the skinhead scene
in Italy? I bet you have a ladies “fan club”?
Ha ha ha… Nice
question… Luckily there are a girls in our scene, will be sad if they aren’t!
Legittima Offesa’s female fun club exists! Around hundred beautiful girls who are
in love with me, we are doing a big parties but i can not go into details, can
be an underage people who can read this interview, but believe me, we have a
big fun… unfortunatly this fan club is private and very secret, and you can not
come!!! I’m sorry… ah ah ah ah ah
Italy is famous with big ultra’s scene. Do you follow any
football team? What is your opinion about football violence between skins?
Once a time I
followed ultras scene, I followed Bologna. Nowadays I haven’t much time to go
to the stadium and I’m tired to get punishments, I have a son and I need to be
a nice guy, if I must to go to the stadium just to watch the game I can do that
from home on sofa and with a cold beer in hand!
Please tell us a few words about your last album “Spacca
Tutto”. Are you satisfied with result? You have also made few professional
video clips of the songs, which I like a lot. Is it easy to create such a
video?
I’m very satisfied with
our last album, I’ve done what I wanted to do and worked hard on the audio
quality without to be far away from our old Oi! Style.
Video are a lust
who I wanted to satisfy, I think a band after 15 years of activity deserves a few
nice videos and our supporters as well! I would like to make other videos in
future, better and professional (I hope).
Thanks for the interview mate, what are your final words?
Your massage to the readers of our blog?
Thank you for
giving us oportunity to speak and for your patience, (you have waited for our
answers a long time)... keep following us and listen our music! We are playing
for you!
Hello fellow
readers of our blog! It’s time to tell you the story about the latest gig in
Poland….it’s all started when I was personally invited by one of the gig
organizers in the middle of Febuary. Headliners of the concert was one of my
favourite bands I.C. 1 so I didn’t hesitated too much before booking the
travel. So finally at the 5th April the long awaited day came and I took a flight
from Sofia to Berlin, which took me less then 2 hours. Straight away from Tegel
airport I continued my trip with a car to the city of Szczecin located in North
West part of Poland where my comrades were already waiting for me. A crew from
Slovenia plus Andy – the singer of I.C. 1 was also on Polish soil. We started
our Friday night in a rock club with few drinks, which exactly for me was 3
fast shots of vodka given me by my hosts – a really warm Polish welcome and
kick ass start of the evening J Later on our tour continued to some nice night
clubs, having some fun and more drinks and meals enjoying the company of pretty
Polish girls J
Somehow we managed not to get too drunk, keeping our strength for the next day
of the gig.
The next
morning I did some sightseeing downtown Szczecin with two Polish comrades,
showing me best sides of this beautiful and full of history city. Afterwards we
went to a restaurant to meet the mighty
Slovenians who have already started they holiday marathon with their best mate
“Jack Daniels” J
Shortly after a German crew joined our ranks including the rest of the members
of I.C. 1, guys from the well known band Carpe diem. We had some hours of talks
and great fun together, laughing loud on various jokes told by Andy… I must
admit that this bloke has a great sense of humor. In other hand you all well
know that Poles and German nationalists have some issues so it was really nice
to see people from those two nations having a good time together forgetting the
problems and breaking the stereotypes.
Around 5 p.m.
we headed to the gig venue which was located on “x” kilometers from the city.
It was kind a disco club with a small stage for the bands. I have to mentioned that originally announced Russian band Truvor failed to come due to some problems with the authorities, so they have been replaced by some Polish bands. After sound checks
and other preparations concert have started around 7.30 p.m. with the first
band for the night – Nordica. It’s a new local band, but their members are well
known musicians from the Polish scene, playing with melodic metal influenced
skin band Aggressiva 88. They performed as a four piece acoustic unplugged
band. It was two acoustic guitars which was leading the tunes plus bass and
drum supporting them slightly on the back. They played some own songs from
their debut album “Akustycznie” plus covers of the most well known Polish bands
such as Konkwista 88 and Honour as well as “Behind Blue eyes” by “The Who”. On
one of their last songs the band was joined by Sadko from Russia who replaced
the singer. I know very well that ballads are not the favourite style for some
people, but I’m quite big fan of this kind of music so this performance pleased
me a lot. The set was really professionally done and lasted for about an hour.
After a short
break it was time for the second band of the night Blackauts (not to be
misunderstood with Blackout from Wales) another new Polish band. Band is
consisted by ex members of The Analogs and The Junkers and I can describe their
style as a rough RAC with a sharp vocal. They played full material of their
debut album "Jak w Stanach" and cover of Pitbull Farm’s “Army of
Assholes” which made me mental and I joined the slam in front of the stage. They
did a well played 45minutes set which warmed the crowd for the main event of the
evening…
So finally the
moment that all of us were waiting for came!!! The headliners of I.C. 1 were on stage warmly applaud by the gig attenders. For those of you who are
not familiar with this brilliant band you should know that this is a project by
Andy (ex Razors Edge) and German guys from Carpe Diem . Their first cd was
realized in 2009 and it was a kick ass debut which made them extremely popular
in no time. This album was followed by “Loud and Proud” which saw the light of
the day at the fall of last year. I bought and copy of it (plus T-shirt) to
support the band and the “PC Records” label that were on the gig selling stuff,
so you’ll have a detailed cd review in next days. So back to the topic... I.C. 1
made a fantastic performance playing songs mostly from their debut cd “Out of
control” such as “Friday night”, “Stick together”, “Where you belong” ( I adore
this one), “Out of control” etc. plus a few top tunes from the new album as “No
Surrender”, “Rule O.K.” and “I wont Pay”. The party atmosphere reached it’s
climax so security guys were busy to stop exalted fans to invade the stage J
Unfortunately the band’s set was not that long as we all wanted, so some great
songs such as “ Skinhead legends”, “Undercover journalist” and “Skinhead girl”
was not played… but I really hope I will listen to them on some of their next
gigs. For a “dessert” the band did some covers such as “England belongs to me”
and “Argy Bargy” by Cock Sparrer, “White Power” and “Poland” by Skrewdriver as a special “thank you” to
the gig organizers. Right after the performance Andy was chased by some “fans”
who wanted to take a photo with him, but he was too shy to stand all this glory
so he fast find a secure place on the bar J
The last band
for the evening was The Invasion, which in my opinion are the best and most
well known bands from Poland for the last few years. Kuba and the guys did just a
few own songs and vast majority of covers from the top bands of our scene. I
was really impressed by the way they did a rock version of the Nemesis song
“Pride and Purity” and the Polish “evergreen” of Honor – Narodowy Socjalizm”
which was the perfect final for the gig.
To summarize
it – it was a great gig with four may be not so famous, but really professional
bands. Sadly the concert was visited by just 100-120 people, some of which
traveled 600 + km. to reach the venue. But I must admit there was great
atmosphere, not even a shadow of a problems between Poles and Germans and apart
from some individuals who wasn’t able to stand the effects of vodka ( Polish
vodka is second to none, I’ve tasted it) the whole event was trouble free and
what is even more important without the presence of the fucking coppers.
Firstly I
would like to thank my Polish comrades for the hospitality and for the fantastic
weekend we had – don’t need to mention names, you know who you are!!! Cheers to
Andy and the Germans for the great time we spend together, I was really honored
to meet you guys!!! Comradely greetings to Slovenian crew for the fun we had!!!
Hope to see you all very soon!!!
