Album Review: The Redskins – Neither Washington Nor Moscow (reissue)


8.5/10

The Redskins Neither Washington Nor Moscow artwork




It was then (and remains now) the greatest mission statement any band has ever had: fronted by hip shooting polemicist Chris Dean, Motown punks The Redskins’ declaration of intent was simply, ‘To sing like The Supremes and walk like The Clash’.

From York not Detroit, the trio – Dean (Guitar), Nick King (Drums) and Martin Leon (Bass) first came to the attention of The Mekons’ Jon Langford at a 1981 Against Racism gig in Leeds. Known then as No Swastikas, Langford recalls they made quite a first impression; ‘Left wing skinheads, brilliant!’.

The seeds of the RAR movement came from a recognition that music could unite disparate strands of youth, a power belatedly also understood by the oppositional and often violent extremists of the far right.

Openly socialist, and with lyrics that articulated what they saw as a society locked in a class struggle to the death, Dean & co. soon found themselves battling not just street thugs but also, even more predictably, the music industry itself.

Some of that was consciously self-inflicted; moving south to the capital, Dean got a job at the NME, writing under the pseudonym X.Moore. Having released their first single Lev Bronstein/The Peasant Army though Langford’s CNT label, the trio then signed to London Records, a part of the establishment they were simultaneously vowing to tear down. The singer justified the decision with: ‘I’ve always hated rebel bands who want to stay in the underground…Get your hands dirty and get in the charts.’

Talent was to win out over cries of hypocrisy, but hits remained frustratingly elusive. Released at the peak of the Miners’ Strike in late 1984, the soulfully anthemic Keep On Keeping On was as good as it got by way of commercial success, stalling just outside the Top 30.

Frustrated by the apathy of their suit wearing overlords, the next conflict was to prove almost terminal as the band ‘acquired’ the master of Kick Over The Statues and then released it independently .

With that relationship now as frosty as a Siberian winter, The Redskins’ debut Neither Washington Nor Moscow was a fiery proof however of what they were capable of. This would be the only in-depth chance the listening public would get to hear if their lofty ambitions were fulfilled, and for their patience they were hugely rewarded.



From the gruff but soulful first notes of opener The Power Is Yours, the necessarily delicate tightrope walk of educating and entertaining was delivered with passion and sincerity.

If the messages were explicit and deliberately never far from the surface on songs titled Go Get Organized! It Can Be Done and (Burn It Up) Bring It Down, they were cleverly wrapped in exuberant music designed to engage audiences as opposed to repelling them.

One of the most poignant tracks remains Hold On, written as an exhortation to the striking miners and the working class communities who would in its aftermath be ravaged by the Thatcher government.

Afterwards, in an atmosphere of bitter recrimination and defeat, they continued until late 1986 but, rather than splitting up, seemed instead to dissolve, with Dean withdrawing completely from music, a total firewalling he maintains to this day.

This mammoth four CD reissue puts the C in comprehensive, alongside the album featuring reams of live work, sessions for the legendary John Peel, remixes and demos.

It tells a story of good intentions and ethical dilemmas, of how a band used soul, punk, blues and jazz to prick up people’s ears in a doomed attempt to change a system rigged against them from the start.

That these songs are just as relevant forty years later says as much about us as it does them.

Andy Peterson

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