Band Spotlight: Cockney Rejects

What better way to launch the "Band Spotlight" section of this brand new, fancy blog than by kicking it off with English punk band, Cockney Rejects (East End London, 1978).Their song "Oi, Oi, Oi" (1980) played a role in the development of the term Oi! & its known music genre. The band formed in 1978 by brothers Jeff and Micky Geggus, their brother-in-law Chris Murrell on bass and Paul Harvey on drums. "Flares n' Slippers" was their first single and immediately caught the attention of the owner of Small Wonder Records, Pete Stennett, who in turn introduced the band to Bob Sergeant who recorded "Flares n' Slippers" and sold out its first pressing. Murrell and Harvey were eventually replaced by Vince Riordan (bass) & Andy Scott (drums), from The Tickets. These guys are recognized as Cockney Rejects' classic lineup.The Cockney Rejects' debut show at the Bridge House in Canning Town (June 1979) was a significant turning point for the band. In September, they signed with EMI and released their album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (February 1980).Their biggest hit single in the UK "The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off", was a parody of Sham 69's song "Hersham Boys". Interestingly, the majority of Cockney Rejects songs were way less commercial, as they tended to be about hard to swallow issues topics like street fighting or "football aggro" (they were huge fans of West Ham United). Other 1980 singles that rose to UK-fame were "Bad Man," "We Can Do Anything," and "We Are the Firm".The violence in their lyrics was met with violence at their shows, and the band often found themselves fighting to defend themselves (often from supporters of opposing football teams) or breaking up fights between the show-goers. Not to say that the boys couldn't rise to the challenge... Jeff and Mick had both been amateur youth boxers, fighting at national levels and bass player Vince Riordan's uncle was Jack "The Hat" McVitie, a Cockney gangster who was murdered by Reggie Kray.  Cockney Rejects were extremely expressive in regards for their contempt for all politicians in their lyrics. They strongly rejected media claims that they had a British Movement following (who in one interview they refer to as the "German Movement"), and that the band members supported the views of that far right group. In fact, Jeff Turner's autobiography Cockney Reject recounts an incident in which the band (and their supporters) had a huge brawl against British Movement members at one of their earlier shows.
The band is still active in terms of touring and recording. Though it was sadly reported that Tony Van Frater died of a reported heart attack in October 2015, at the age of 51.

A Cockney Rejects movie, East End Babylon and album (of the same name) were released in 2013. And EMI records released a definitive Rejects retrospective in 2011, entitled Join the Rejects, the Zonophone years '79-'81, a 3-disc collection of all their EMI recordings which also includes all the Peel sessions and rare demos, a color booklet with an amazing account of the best band tales as told by Micky Geggus.