Solidarity

I guarantee that this will be my last bit of yearning for a bygone age,  for a while at least.

The Angelic Upstarts were a punk band who espoused socialist values and were also one of the first bands with an anti-fascist agenda. Their first single " The Murder Of Liddle Towers" concerned itself with the death of a 39 year old man from Gateshead from injuries sustained in custody at the hands of the police.

The band were grouped in with the Oi faction of punk, which I never understood as to me the Oi bands and the creator of the genre Gary Bushell were a bunch of fascist bastards, although this is supposedly not the case and the movements roots were in working class socialism. I never found much of a socialist message in the dross of the 4Skins,  Anti-Pasti,  the Exploited and others.

Angelic Upstarts have released 19 singles and 11 studio albums and as far as I am aware are still going strong. The track posted was a single in 1983 and can be found on the album Reason Why.

The title of the track,  Solidarity is in reference to the Polish shipyard workers trades union led by Lech Walesa which at the time were being repressed by the Communist regime in that country but who by 1989 led a coalition government and did much to contribute to the downfall of communism.

Angelic Upstarts - Solidarity

As a bonus here are a couple of the b-sides of the 12" single. The first is a spoken word thing from Mensi and the second is a surprising track from the band which sounds like it could be an early out take from the Redskins but without Chris Dean's earnest, political lyrics and soulfull vocals.

Angelic Upstarts - Dollars and Pounds

Angelic Upstarts - Don't Stop