BOXSET REVIEW: Oi! The Albums Vol 2 (Captain Oi/Cherry Red Records)
After the success of their Oi! The Albums boxset, which gathered the six original albums released between 1980-1984 (reviewed here), Captain Oi! are back with another monster set.
For while the original series might have run its course, Link Records, the label run by The Business bassist Mark Brennan and manager Lol Pryor, played an important part in breathing life back into the scene.
Between 1987-1993 it released another seven Oi! albums, and they’re all brought together here in a clamshell boxset, with detailed liner notes giving the story behind each album.
Disc one is, fittingly, Oi! The Resurrection, which features some of the biggest names from the scene which was in the process of re-inventing itself as streetpunk in a bid to shed some of the less savoury connotations with which Oi! had become associated.
It features classic cuts by The Business (though the fake crowd noise detracts from a fine song in Mortgage Mentality), Cockney Rejects, The 4 Skins, The Last Resort, as well as lesser-known names like Major Accident (known here as Accident, with possibly the first recorded use in Oi of a sax solo!), Intensive Care and Section 5.
Menace’s song I’m Civilised (the B-side of their classic single G.L.C., is one of the standout tracks, but I’m not sure they were ever an Oi! band, even if Millwall Roi Pearce was one of their roadies.
The Sound Of Oi!, disc two, kicks off with a stone-cold classic from The Business with Coventry, and Vicious Rumours (with the awful Surfin’ in Newquay), Skin Deep, Renegade, Condemned 84, The 4 Skins, Section 5 and under-rated Dutch punks The Magnificent return from the album before.
The Rejects contribute a superb previously unreleased song, Beginning Of The End, while the mighty Cock Sparrer are a notable addition with (What’s It Like To Be) Old, and there are a couple of new names in the promising Five O and Close Shave.
Disc three is Oi! Glorious Oi!, originally released in 1987, and returnees include The Business (the wonderful Do A Runner), Section 5, Bad Manners wannabees Burial, the Rejects, Vicious Rumours (with the enjoyable One Thing On Our Minds) and Close Shave (who sound like The Partisans).
The Rejects track is a lacklustre demo of The Greatest Cockney Rip Off, while Sham 69 make their first appearance with a live version of Lost On Highway 46. It’s a great song, but Oi!? Never. The Angelic Upstarts, stalwarts of the original series, contribute one of the best tracks in I Wanna Knighthood, though Indecent Exposure give them a run for their money with the pacey Bank Holidays.
Oi! That’s What I Call Music, disc four, sees The Business (with the glorious Mouth An’ Trousers) and Section 5 retain their ever-present status, and there are more familiar names like The Magnificent, The Glory, The Blood and Condemned 84.
Sham 69 appear again, this time with a live cover of the Sex Pistols’ Pretty Vacant, and there are debuts for Moonstomp, Judge Dread and Splodgenessabounds, as the parameters of what counts as Oi! are stretched more than a little. The opening track, The Crack’s Don’t Just Sit There, is a standout, very much in the vein of The Professionals,
Disc five is Pop Oi! (was there ever such a thing?), which kicks off well with Slaughter And the Dogs – veterans of the first-ever Oi! album way back in 1980 – while The Business, The Crack, Five O, Moonstomp and The Strike are again represented. There’s a special guest appearance from over the pond, too, as American Eagle from Brooklyn, New York, show Oi! isn’t just a UK movement.
South East London face Frankie Flame contributes a couple of covers, of Cock Sparrer’s England Belongs To Me and The Business’s Harry May, but neither of them hold a light to the originals, and you wonder if the compilers are starting to run out of material?
Oi! Oi! Oi!, the sixth in the series, seems to reaffirm that notion. Only 12 tracks, bookended by a pair of Section 5 songs, and The Last Resort apart, suffering from a shortage of big names. Yes, there’s a Blitz track, but from the later incarnation of the band, not the one whose early work united punks and skins.
The collection does feature the series debut of the excellent Guitar Gangsters with Nothing To Shout About, but again calling this most melodic of outfits an oi! band just isn’t right.
Disc seven is The Joys Of Oi! from 1984, and it’s good to see the return of some big names, including (proper) Blitz, The Business, Cock Sparrer and The 4 Skins, as well as Prole, featuring Garry Bushell and The Business guitarist Steve Kent.
Elsewhere, things sadly turn a bit silly, with the Orgasm Guerrillas, Alaska Cowboys, Legalise Rape and Sober Cyril And The Oi! Oi! All Stars – a sign, if any were needed, that the series had, once again run its course.
Overall, this is a good set for anyone looking to replace or protect old vinyl copies (some of which are quite hard to find in decent nick these days), and you might just find some new-to-you or long-forgotten bands among the classics and the odd clunker. 7/10.
