ALBUM REVIEW: Crown Court – Heavy Manners (Randale Records)
For a band who’ve been around 10 years or so, Crown Court don’t have an awful lot of records to show for it.
This is just their second album, following 2016 debut Capital Offence and a handful of singles, but good things are worth waiting for, right?
The North London crew are rightly regarded as one of the UK’s top streetpunk bands, and Heavy Manners shows just why, as they’re a band who are improving with every release.
There still seems to be a deep mistrust of Oi! music by the mainstream press in this country, harking back to the dark days of the ’80s when skinheads = racists = trouble.
But from the off it’s clear Crown Court are a band who deserve to be taken seriously. Their music packs a powerful punch, and frontman Trev Taylor brings the skinhead attitude in fucking great barrowloads.
He’s joined by Ronny Hamersma and Danny Swan on guitars, Ralph Orton (bass) and Jack Lewis (drums), who have all served their time in other bands. Together they’re a formidable unit.
They come from the sort of council estates and tower blocks which tourists to this septic isle never see, and their anger and frustration hit you like a brick to the head followed by a swift kick in the bollocks.
Crown Court have all the swagger of ’80s bands like The Last Resort, The Business and The 4 Skins, but put a very modern stamp to their take on Oi!/streetpunk/punk ‘n’ roll/whatever you want to call it.
Some ex-members are now in The Chisel and Chubby And The Gang – both fine bands, but leaning more towards hardcore than Oi!, but there’s no doubting the credentials of Crown Court.
Ugly music
Taylor describes Oi! as “violent, tough, ugly music made for and by people from that background”, and there’s no doubting Crown Court are the real deal.
His voice is a gruff streetpunk growl and his band play punked-up rock ‘n’ roll, with lyrics emphasising the gulf between the haves and have-nots in British society today.
After a gentle orchestral intro to opening track Left for Dead the guitars open up one minute and 30 seconds and all of a sudden it’s going off, like a group of away supporters being sussed in the home end.
Crown Court are fiercely working class and the middle classes are a regular target for their ire; Taylor sings of “dreams not schemes” on Rich Boy and warns “fuck them toffs, we’re not them” on pacey lead single Kids Of The 20s.
Nothing Known bears more than a passing resemblance to the Slaughter & the Dogs classic Where Have All The Boot Boys Gone? – not that that’s a bad thing.
And if Pavement Duties sounds a bit football-y that’s because Taylor is a proud member of Tottenham’s ‘firm’. Powered by chugging guitar, it warns “it’s a long way to Seven Sisters, it’s a long way to run“.
Two O’ Clock Hero is another banger, which seems to be calling out closing time gobshites who fancy their chances: “Don’t be a hero, it ain’t your day“, as well as containing my favourite lyric on the entire record – “you’ve got too many fingers and not enough teeth“.
Striped Up, Sent Down and No Face No Case are both about getting into bother, while Sect 59 is about nicking cars and taking them for a joyride.
The Scum, which slows things down a bit, sounds like prime 1980s The Last Resort. It’s one of the standout tracks – not that there’s a bad one – with Taylor raging: “Scum, you know the score, you’re worth fuck all.“
Mad In England is the oldest song here, released as a single all the way back in 2018. It starts off as spoken word, in the style of punk poet Garry Johnson from the original Oi! albums, lamenting the gentrification of the places where you grow up, before exploding in righteous fury.
If it sounds like this is an angry album you’d be right. It’s also absolutely magnificent. 9/10.
The first pressing of Heavy Manners sold out in a day, but there’s another on the way. Don’t delay, order yours from Randale Records now, or try Oi Oi The Shop in London.
