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The 4-Skins more than any other band were probably "too real". They didn´t say one thing, and do another. They just lived their lives, and transferred it on to disc. But before you could say "What a wounderful world it is..." the arty-farty trendies were on the war path claiming that "This band is sexist...", "This band is rockist this band is this that and the other...", "This band preaches violence...". Let´s just for once get the facts right... The 4-Skins didn´t preach the glory of violence. They were just singing about what their inner city lives were surrounded by... violence! Remember what they said on their debut album "The Good, The Bad and The 4-Skins"... "We don´t incitate violence we only sing about what happens". But thats hard sentiments for a suburbian middle-class trendy to understand. This bands first vinyl release came via tracks on the two early Oi albums. It was after the success of these records the band were offered a lucrative publishing dead with a major publishing company of which one of the minor conditions was a name change to the "Skins 4" or whatever. Obviously, this was not on, and consequently nor was the deal. A small gesture some might say, but a good example og how The 4-Skins never compromised unlike so many of their so called peers!Secret Records stepped in and signed the band, and released their first single "One law for them". It wasen´t and instant success, which was no surprise due to distribution problems, caused mainly by paranoid record shop owners, who still had Southall in the back of their minds. Maybe they thought anyone who would buy a 4-Skins record, would instantly run amok, and smash up the shop in true "mad skinhead" Fleet street Fashion. Amazinly, this threat to record store owners never quite emerged, and the single, along with all the bands following releases sold by the truck load. At last the band was happening, people were beginning to take notice. None less than the scandal sheets and the rest of their bandwaggon... and guess who was top of their hit list? Gary Hodges fed up with all the nonsens that followed the quit, as did Steve Pear. An end of an era?
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