Sham 69 the Original 77 line up LIVE a review.

For years I was envious on the Londoners and New Yorkers. They could pic and choose any classy band from any part of the world as entertainment. Stockholm is starting to get a bit of that nowday´s, a feeling of beeing where things happen. I didn´t go and see Black Sabbath on last friday, because I wanted so see Topper again, reed my gospel about them here. In true punk spirit they drag me into some late night jamming from hell after the gig, hahaha, with singers like me they don´t need enemies. On saturday there was one thing on the schedule, Sham 69.



The Band

Sham 69 was one of the single most important band for the development of the Streetpunk and Oi! movement. Sprung out of the original wave of bands in the late 1970ies they were the band that wave the punk banner when most other original bands turned into pop och post punk bands.

Unlike the Sex Pistols and The Clash rather sophisticated punk rock, Sham didn´t do more that put three chords together and in the chorus burst out in football crowd chants like the football fans did on the teraces. Mayby so, they came the true core of street punk much closer than the Clash did, for instance, with its more and more sofisticated pop. Today I find it hard to even think of a streetpunk and Oi! scene without the Sham 69 seventies adventures. Because adventures it seemed to be. Not only with the tension within the band as companion when singer Jimmie Pursey often refused to go on long tours.
Their leftish, working class aproach didn´t only gathered the poor no future kids and the outcasts in England. The ultra right wing party National Front decided as well make them their band. At least turn the Sham gigs into a platform for their nazi shit. The gigs turned into riots and the career of the Sham 69 would never see the heights that they deserved.
Besides that, many chritics and trendy know it all´s saw them as a vulgar hooligan band, not least in the Swedish music papers, where Sham together with UK Subs and the Exploited wasn´t given the same credit as other early punk bands. Sham wasn´t for the trendies, it was the real deal.

Sham 69´s football chants and underdog lyrics was the blueprint for the Oi! Movement and are so still today.

I saw Sham 69 (Pursey and some musicians) in the late 80ies where still the Swedish neo nazi skinheads (aka Boneheads) did turn up like a clockwork or Clockwork Orange gangs*. Just as the situation was when the band broke up in the late 70ies. For some reason Jimmy Pursey decided to be a rapper at the time and most of the gig was a musically breakdown. Pursey´s fighting spirit held top class. Through the whole show he mocked and humiliated the sieg heil skins so it must hurt, even in the mind of some boneheads. I saw some skins cry like babies afterwards, ripped out of an illusion that Sham 69 was their band. A pissed off Pursey did not include the boneheads in their anthem ” If The Kids Are United”.


The Crowd 2013

The Neo Nazi skinheads are almost gone in Sweden now. The ultra right wings have suits and being eager for power in the parliment now, not wearing Dr Martens and braces. The new skins in town are SHARPS, original or/and unpolitical*.
So therefor the wasn´t any core of Hitlerlovers infront of the stage as in 1988.
The crowd contained many familiar faces as well as others. Young and old, everyone there to show our affection and love to the classic band with their classic line up.

And possible was it the love and good response that made the dear old ranting singer a bit pale and numb in the beginning. Maybe he was so used to the animosity infront of the stage, so he might needed some of that to get him going? I don´t know, but when the security at the place did behave like morons, then Pursey transformed from a man on the job into a brilliant character and the true frontman of Sham 69. Was it a bit of the old punk that came out of the shadows?

The Venue

First of all, it was hard to get tickets, it was hard to even get information about the gig. It was poorly promoted. Possibly because it was a bunch of punks trying to put together their anual punk gathereing. Why on earth don´t people realize that punk legends shall play at Debaser Medis or Fryshuset with its capacity, so that more people can get tickets. On the other side it was cool to watch the band on such a small stage.
The place which I and many with me never heard of before was way under the standards of the regular clubs like Debaser or Strand. Enarena Globen was the name of it. If you live in Stockholm you understand the ridiculous in that, if not, we take that another time. The security seemed a bit taken of the amount of people and the people itself. Shaken and stired.
Inside, the 2 bars were real fast in serving thirsty punks and skins.
But I got a bad feeling about it all, not least the time it took to get all the people inside. And the bad feeling wasn´t wrong even if it turned out to be the right thing for the gig in the end.

The Gig

The band went onstage, the crowd roared like a hungry beast, eager for some Sham...
Unfortionately didn´t the security guys understand the basic concept of a punk gig and after a few songs they marched up on stage to make it look like an old The Doors show (you know where the worked up Jim Morrion having a go at the cops covering the stage). For most of the gig I saw some beefy, scared bouncers, where I should be seeing the bass player Dave Tregunna and Guitarist Dave Parson.
This was probably what Jimmy Pursey needed to be going. It was hillarious to see the psychodrama that was going on between the singer, the security and the front rows. For a moment I got the feeling that it was going out of hand.

”They gonna cut the power”, I tought, ”or there´s gonna bee a riot”,
In this hostile enviroment, Sham 69 where at their best. All of the sudden I could see that they weren´t here for the money and fame, They were the real deal.

After a while the security staff seemed to be learning their lesson, there wasn´t any situation going on, just a punk rock mosh pit having fun. Jumping and chanting like every song was a part of our DNA, which it were, at least mine.

This time we all sang along ”If The Kids Are United” even if a shitload of us were close to our 50ies and not kid´s anymore. They should change the lyrics to the more accurate ”If The Drunks Are United”.
”Bostal Breakout”, ”Hersham Boys”, ”Angels With Dirty Faces”, ”Questions and Answers”....you name it. Most classic tunes where there. Those five mentioned was, in my mind, the best**.

Mr Pursey didn´t lost the opportunity to praise Olof Palme, our murdered Prime Minister, our JFK. And praise Sweden and Stockholm as one of the coolest places in the world. So the Stockwell tune was suitable renamed Stockholm. I guess Tregunna felt good as well with our response compared to when he played in Stockholm with the Lords of The New Church in the 80ies when the crowd was legendary stone cold.

Without the tension between the band and the boys with security badges it would been like any other concert. They did their songs, the crowd showed their affection and blah, blah, blah.
Now the band could show how they worked back in the days without being sad nostalgia. Part of it because that their songs are still vital and their political stance is as important in our days as it was in the good old days. From where I stood (Jumped like a madman) the sound was terrific and the moshpit kept me alive.

In the end the bouncers smiled a bit and possibly understood that this was exactly like things should be.

Worth the money 300 SEK. Definately (I did go for free however, but would gladly have paid for it)


Oh I forgot, there was another band as support, Stilett, I didn´t see them and will give them a chance next time.

* Note Cicci Rehnström Suurna´s documentary about the 80ies STHLM´s skins.

**The Set List, the Anthology is the classic songs rerecorded and released this year 2013.