ALBUM REVIEW: The Oppressed – Complete Oi! Studio Recordings 1981-2018 (Captain Oi!/Cherry Red Records)
The Oppressed are one of those bands who often don’t get the kudos they deserve, maybe because they were from Cardiff rather than London.
Proudly working class and fiercely anti-fascist, their brand of oi! told it like it was – “no bullshit, no compromises, just plain, honest truth”, as long-time frontman Roddy Moreno puts it in his sleeve notes for this 4CD collection.
They had a track, White Flag, featured on the original series of Oi! albums (reviewed here), and have spent 40 years spreading their message far and wide with an impressive array of singles, EPs, and compilation appearances.
This collection starts right at the beginning, with five rough and ready tracks from their 1981 Demo, before Moreno had even joined the band, but he was on board by the time they made Oi! The Tape in conjunction with famous Cardiff record store Spillers. It includes Joe Hawkins, which became one of their biggest songs.
The story kicks off in earnest with their 1983 debut EP Never Say Die, and first album Oi! Oi! Music early the following year. The latter includes re-recordings of three tracks from the EP, five from Oi! The Tape, covers of The 4-Skins’ Chaos and Symarip’s Skinhead Girl, and five new tracks.
Like all good Oi! bands, aggression was at the heart of their music as they railed against the authorities, and particularly the police, in songs like Ultra Violence, Violent Society, Riot and Magistrate (“magistrate, magistrate, you’re the cunt that we all hate”).
Their fondness of a cover version is perhaps part of why The Oppressed weren’t taken as seriously as they should have been. Over the course of their career, they wore their influences on their sleeve by covering other bands’ songs, instead of pushing their own.
A quick check of the tracklisting here proves the case in point, with 50 of the 113 songs in this set either straightforward covers or Oppressed adaptations of well-known songs.
Cover versions
A 1984 demo features covers of the Cockney Rejects’ Bad Man, Sham 69’s Angels With Dirty Faces and The 4-Skins’ ACAB, classics one and all.
In a scene which became notorious for right-wing connotations, Moreno showed actions were louder than words by forming SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) to fight back against those who tarred all skinheads with the same brush.
This meant The Oppressed taking a back seat for a while, returning after a 10-year hiatus in 1994 with the Anti-Fascist Oi! EP, which saw them re-work songs by The Who, Menace, and Sham and the Rejects again.
Big in Europe
Second album We Can Do Anything, released in 1994, is more of the same, containing faithful and enjoyable covers of four songs each by Sham, The 4-Skins, the Rejects and The Last Resort. This kar-oi-oke style is probably what made them a big draw on the European scene.
CD3 kicks off with 1996’s Music For Hooligans LP, which delivered their anti-fascist message louder and clearer than ever with songs like Nazi Nightmare and Fuck Fascism, alongside covers of The Clash’s Garageland, Toots & The Maytals’ Pressure Drop and Newtown Neurotics’ Living With Unemployment.
It also gathers tracks from three EPs which saw them cover Prince Buster, Nancy Sinatra, Slade, Eddie & The Hot Rods and the Angelic Upstarts, among others, as well as nailing their true blue-bird colours to the mast with Cardiff City FC eulogy CF3.
By the time we get to CD4 we’re in the noughties, and it kicks off with three new original tracks, before it all goes a bit footbally. The S.H.A.R.P. As A Razor EP brings things back into focus with a fine version of the Los Fastidious anthem Antifa Hooligans, The Maytals’ Monkey Man and Hot Chocolate’s Brother Loiue!
The Ramones (I Wanna Be Sedated/Blitkrieg Bop) are covered on the 2 Generations split EP with German band Wasted Youth, while seven tracks are taken from a split album with Canadian band The Prowlers.
The latter includes a new version of early track White Flag, with Moreno on vox, and things are rounded off with four tracks from 2018’s Fck Fscsm EP, which, to date, is their last release.
Only Moreno and his bandmates know if that draws a line under their career, but if does turn out to be the case, this set stands as a fine reminder of how good The Oppressed could be. 7/10.
