YOU
WERE ACTUALLY IN PRISON SERVING A TWELVE MONTH SENTENCE, WHAT’S THE STORY
BEHIND THAT ?
Well, we were attacked by a mob of blacks after Searchlight had been giving out
leaflets with my face, my address, where I drink on them, we used to get trouble
most weekends from gangs of blacks going past my house on the way home from collage,
and one particular night we got attacked by about eight or nine of them, we fought
back, the police arrived and we got arrested. The blacks didn’t even turn
up at court for three days in a row and the police had to go out and bring them
to the court. Searchlight has tried to smear me on several occasions, I’ve
been called several things in their pages, child pornographer, arms delaer, conspiring
to murder Patrick Harrington (one time National Front/White Noise frontman –
Club28 addition), a drug pusher and an acid house party organiser. I’ve
even been accused of printing Swedish nationalist magazines. God knows where I
keep this printing press, under my bed probably! I can’t even understand
one word of Swedish! I must be a busy man!
YOU
ARE THE FOUNDER OF BLOOD AND HONOUR, DO YOU THINK THAT IT HAS BEEN A SUCCESS AND
WHAT DO YOU SEE HAS BEEN ACHIEVED BY BLOOD AND HONOUR ?
Blood And Honour has took off so well because of its idea. There has been no other
magazine that promotes the advancement of the White race and that does not tie
itself to any political party. B&H is not tied to any party, it is mainly
run by the bands. The bands are popular so the magazine is popular. Its main achievement
has been to get more people involved in the White cause and to push the music
of the bands over to a lot more people than would be possible otherwise. Food
for thought, that Blood And Honour has got at least five times the circulation
of Searchlight. Thatīs a fact.
WHAT
HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE TO THE WHITE DIAMOND LP ?
Well, it hasn’t been out that long, but the people that I have spoken to
about it seem to like it. As far as I’m concerned the guitar could have
been a little bit louder and the vocals a little quieter. The original mix of
it, the guitar was too loud and you couldn’t hear the vocals, so we took
it back to be remixed and it went the other way around.
IS
THERE GOING TO BE ANOTHER WHITE DIAMOND LP ?
Oh yeah, definitely.
DO
YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR THE KLANSMEN TO PLAY LIVE ?
I haven’t got any plans at the moment, but we could well do one day. There’s
been plenty of people asking if we would. We have had several requests from Germany
for the Klansmen to play over there. We normally do a couple of Klansmen songs
at most Skrewdriver gigs anyway. The Klansmen haven’t actually been a steady
line up anyway, we tend to use musicians from other bands. It’s good for
them, as they get to record, which a lot of bands don’t manage to do, and
it also gets more people inolved in our cause. The first LP we used musicians
from Demented Are Go, the second was with The Krewmen and the third was from some
local rock band from around this area.
WHAT
WOULD YOU SAY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST GETTING INTO NATIONALISM, BUT ARE PUZZLED
BY THE WAY THAT THE AUTHORITIES ARE HARASSING THEM ?
I think that you’ve got to expect it, it’s the way that the people
above run things. You’ve got to be very dedicated to become a nationalist.
It is better to educate people at a younger age, some of the old parties used
to leaflet schools. We must use every way that we can to get our message across,
through music, leafleting houses, town centres, postering, we must use every way
we can. The odds are against us, but it is important.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON RELIGION ?
I don’t really belive in it, I don’t go to church or anything. I
think that my religion is my race. I’ve got nothing against Christians
or Odinists, but I think that Christianity is being pushed into being very weak
at the moment. I’ve lost a lot of respect for the Christians, but hopefully
they’ll rise up one day and become powerful as they once were. I agree
with all of the Norse God mythology, and there is something in it, but personally
I’m just fighting for my race and I’ll work with all of these people
so long as they’ve got the same views as I have
WHAT
ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE UNITY MOVEMENT AND THE RAVEN ?
Well I haven’t even seen the Raven at all yet so I can’t really comment
on that, but I presume, going by the name that it’s an Odinist thing. Unity,
when it first came out I wasn’t so sure that it was a good thing because
I thought that it might be distracting from Blood & Honour a little bit, but
when it got off the ground, it was good. It worked alongside Blood & Honour.
It’s a good thing to have different organizations all working together,
as long as there is no rivalry. Kev Turner is a dedicated man, he’s been
in jail a lot of times, but he has never even considered giving it all up. He’s
doing a great job up there and has quite a lot of influence.
WHAT
ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE IMPRISONMENT OF TWO PEOPLE FOR BASICALLY SELLING SKREWDRIVER
MERCHANDISE ?
Well, it’s just unvelievable, being put away just for selling records. As
far as I’m concerned and as far as anybody I know is concerned, there has
never been anything to say that you can’t sell records, whatever they were.
I mean, there’s bands going around singing songs about killing God and loads
of these anti-religion groups, they’ve all got a bit of stick, but there
has never actually been any courtcases trying to stop them selling records. Take
American rapper Ice T, some stores said that they wouldn’t stock it, but
most stores do still stock it. It was all a publicity stunt and has sold more
records because of it. He’s never been charged. Obviously there is nothing
wrong in singing about killing White people and police. No-one was ever done by
the law for selling Ice T records, and no-one has ever been arrested either. Our
records do not incite violence at all, our lyrics are basically about being proud
of your White race. If it’s illegal to be proud of your race, why isn’t
it illegal to be proud to be Black, Asian etc...?
DO
YOU PARTICIPATE OR WATCH ANY OTHER SPORTS ?
Not particulary. Boxing is quite good. Rocky Marsiano was my favourite boxer,
he was a European that beat everybody in the world and always could have done.
Alan Minter was good, I liked him until he got beat by Marvin Hagler, and then
I went off him.
YOU’VE
RECENTLY GOT A FEW MORE TATTOOS, AFTER BEING SO LONG WITH THE TWO, TELL US A BIT
ABOUT THEM ?
I don’t like being lop-sided, so I make sure that I’ve got one on
each side. Every time that I have one I have to get another one on the other side.
I’ll have a couple more on the back of my arms and that’ll be it.
I won’t get them sleeved. I wouldn’t like to say who does mine, in
case he got attacked. Letīs just say that it’s a biker from the Midlands.
Every single tattoo I’ve got is of a political subject.
WHAT
SORT OF READING MATERIAL ARE YOU INTO ?
Since I’ve been in prison I don’t read anything, all I did in prison
was read books and listen to the radio and that’s put me off. I used to
read a lot of books at one time. If I want to read a newspaper, I read, would
you believe, The Sun, they are the ones who done a full page story on me the last
time I was in prison. The only reason I read the the Sun is because I do the crossword
and because it’s not labour. But I don’t really take any of what’s
in it seriously, it’s as much crap as the others. In the past I’ve
read a lot of David Irvings books, they’re very good, but I reckon that
my favourite author has got to be Tolkien, The Lord Of The Rings is the best book
that I’ve ever read. I’ve read it over ten times.
WHAT
ABOUT THE FANTASY BOOK THAT YOU ONCE WROTE ?
I’ve lent it to so many different people that I can’t get it back,
so I can’t write it out again. Unless I re-wrote it all, but I can’t
even remember most of it. It was basically a fantasy story about a land that was
being invaded, all of the tribes fought against each other, but in the end they
all united to fight the invaders. I was hoping to publish it one day, but I lent
it out to so many people that I’ve lost track of where it is. We could even
have done a concept LP to go with it. The book was called The New Dawn.
Ian Stuart Donaldson Interview Part 2
TELL
US YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT THE SUBJECT OF NICKY CRANE, ONCE A CLOSE FRIEND, AND THEN
TURNED OUT TO BE A GAY.
I feel more betrayed by him than probably anybody else, because he was the head
of our security. I actually used to stick up for him when people used to say that
he was a queer, because he convinced me that he wasn’t. I always used to
ask him why he worked at these gay clubs, telling him that he’d get a bad
name. He used to say that it was the security firm that he used to work with,
that they used to give him the jobs there. I accepted him at face value, as he
was a nationalist. I was fooled the same as everybody else. Perhaps more than
everybody else. I felt I was betrayed by him and I want nothing to do with him
whatsoever. He’s dug his own grave as far as I’m concerned. He has
actually been in touch with me after the program was aired, he wanted to assure
me that he wouldn’t sell out the nationalist cause, which I wouldn’t
expect him to do anyway, considering that he went through so many things for nationalism.
It’s a big shame that he turned out to be a homosexual because he could
have been a good nationalist. It just goes to show that nationalism and homosexuality
do not fit in together, because Nationalism is a true cause and homosexuality
is a perversion. Nicky Crane left, and I think that it was the best thing he could
have done, but he should have left a hell of a lot earlier. He was living a lie
for all of them years. I’ve got no respect for the bloke anymore. (Bottomboy
Crane died of an aids related disease in december 1993 Rot in peace – Club28
addition)
WHAT
CAN YOU ENVISION YOURSELF DOING IN 5 OR 10 YEARS TIME ?
Probably being in prison. They’re bringing in so many new laws in this country.
Or dead !
IF
IT CAME TO THE CRUNCH, AND THE LAWS WERE REALLY STRICT, WHAT WOULD YOU DO, WOULD
YOU CHANGE ALL OF YOUR LYRICS, OR CARRY ON REGARDLESS ?
I would probably change all of the lyrics. Change them completely. In the end
I’d probably do songs about white rats and black rats, and see if they can
change things about that. I mean, where is all this going to end ? Alright you
can sing about the dove and the crow, so the dove’s going to have to win
a fight in the end instead of being the bird of peace. In the end it’s going
to get to the stage where you’re going to have to sing like that to get
a song out. Everyone’s still going to know what you mean. They’re
making it so pathetic now.
SO
WHAT WILL STOP YOU CARRYING ON ?
Either put me in prison or kill me, there’s no other way that I’m
going to give up.
IF
THERE WAS ANYTHING THAT YOU’VE DONE IN THE PAST THAT YOU COULD CHANGE NOW,
WHAT WOULD THAT BE ?
Nothing, there’s nothing that I would have changed, nothing at all. Obviously
I would like to have made a lot of money and been on Top Of The Pops and all that,
what other person who’s been in a band wouldn’t ? But I’m singing
the wrong sort of lyrics aren’t I ? I would never changed my songs just
for the fame, though. There has never been any major thing that I regret, maybe
a few minor things, nothing to do with politics though, except I should have joined
this and I shouldn’t have joined that.
RUMOURS
ARE RIFE THAT YOU ARE GOING TO MOVE OVER TO GERMANY TO LIVE, IS THERE ANY TRUTH
IN THAT ?
No, that’s a load of rubbish. It’s not even crossed my mind. I like
Germany though.
IF
IT CAME TO A STAGE WHERE YOU HAD TO MOVE OUT OF ENGLAND, WHICH COUNTRY WOULD YOU
CHOOSE TO LIVE IN ?
It’d have to be a country where you wouldn’t get so much hassle being
a nationalist, and I think that at the moment Germany is far from that. I’d
probably go somewhere like Antwerp in Belgium. It’s a nice city, there is
a hell of a lot of Vlaams Blok MPs in the Antwerp city itself. It’s probably
the most right wing city in Europe at the moment.
YOU
ARE QUITE A WELL TRAVELLED MAN BECAUSE OF MANY EUROPEAN GIGS WITH SKREWDRIVER,
WHERE ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES ?
I loved Sweden, the country is brilliant. Germany is brilliant.
WHAT
IS YOUR FAVOURITE BAND AT THE MOMENT ?
Manowar, I change my opinion now again. But it’s them at the moment. I have
always liked the Rolling Stones, I like the Almighty, they’re quite a new
band. AC/DC I’ve always liked.
CHANGING
THE SUBJECT ONCE AGAIN, BACK IN THE 1977 DAYS, SKREWDRIVER SOUND WAS VERY DIFFERENT
TO NOW. WHAT WERE YOUR INFLUENCES BACK THEN ?
I had a lot of favourite bands before the punk bands came along. I saw the Sex
Pistolsī first gig in the north in Manchester. I thought they were brilliant.
But we still weren’t influenced by them, Skrewdriver were at that time still
called Tumbling Dice and we used to cover Who, Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, Deep
Purple and all of the rock type numbers. Then we started to play the punkier stuff.
I couldn’t play guitar at that time so our guitarist wrote most of the songs.
I started to learn to play guitar about then, obviously you get better as you
go along.
SUGGSY
WAS YOUR ROADIE BACK IN 1978, I KNOW YOU DON’T KEEP IN TOUCH, BUT DID YOU
WATCH THE MASSIVE MADNESS COMEBACK GIG ON TELI OVER CHRISTMAS ?
No, I’m not interested. I think that they’re a crap band. I can’t
stand that sort of music. I like heavy rock music. Madness were the best of those
type of bands, they were the only White one, and a lot of their fans were rightwing.
They chose to sell out for money. We never did that. It was the same with Sham
69. I remember seeing Sham 69 playing to 7 people down the Roxy, I enjoyed them,
they were great. Now Jimmy Pursey hangs around with Rastas and all sorts. He’s
totally gone in the head. He’s never been a great singer, he had a bit of
a stage presence cos people identified with him. The thing about all that is that
I saw Jimmy Pursey turn up at gigs wearing baseball boots, change into DMs for
the gig, then change back into baseball boots after the gig. The geezer has never
been a skinhead, he sings about it but he’s never been one. There was only
one skinhead in that band ever, and that was their first bass player, Alby. He
was the only skinhead that’s ever been in Sham 69.
YOU
PLAYED WITH A LOT OF BANDS THAT BECAME BIG NAMES, WERE YOU EVER GOOD FRIENDS WITH
THESE NOW BIG NAMES ?
We played with Motörhead, this was a lot later, they were really decent blokes.
We would always have a drink with the other bandsī members if we were at
one of their gigs. We often had drinks with Jimmy Pursey and the likes. One person
that we were very good mates with was Stick Smith, he was in a band called Shag
Nasty, who used to support us all of the time. I used to let them support us mainly
because their guitarist looked like Keith Richards! Anyway, he went on to play
for X-Ray Spex, we had a few arguments about it, but he was a decent sort of bloke.
When we played with the Police we had a drink and chat with Sting, they borrowed
our P.A at that gig. The Damned were really good blokes, we supported them a lot.
MUSICALLY,
WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE 1977 DAYS TO BE BETTER AS FAR AS THE ATMOSPHERE WAS CONCERNED
?
When Punk started in London it was great atmosphere. It was a new thing, it was
shit hot. We used to go to a club every night, get in free because we were in
a band. It was really a good time to be there. We didn’t get hardly any
hassle except perhaps a little bit of the teds. I used to get on with most of
the teds anyway, especially when we turned skinhead, when we were punks they used
to hate us, though.
Skrewdriver - Live Marquee '77
YOU’VE
DONE A LOT OF COVER VERSIONS IN THE PAST, WHAT MAKES YOU DECIDE TO DO A COVER
VERSION, IS IT THE GROUP, THE LYRICS OR THE TUNE?
All of those. I wouldn’t do a cover version from a band that I didn’t
like. Obviously the lyrics mean a lot but I do normally change them slightly to
go with what I’m singing about. We’ve thought about doing an LP with
all cover versions from nationalist bands songs, we were going to do Brutal Attacks
”Ocean Of Warriors” and ”For You” by Public Enemy, amongst
others, but nothing’s ever came of it, I’d like to do somehting like
that one day, though.
WHAT
DO YOU THINK ABOUT BRUTAL ATTACK REFORMING ?
The more nationalist bands the better, they were always a good band, they were
always popular. If they get back together that’s great, it’s an extra
band. Ken is a good frontman, and now they're going to be an additional band to
the Blood & Honour circuit.
ITīS
BEEN SAID THAT YOU PERSONALLY ARE PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SKINHEADS
IN THE WORLD, PERHAPS MORE SO ABROAD, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT ?
I think that it’s because Skrewdriver have been going since 1977. We are
the longest running skinhead band. I never really think about it to be honest.
Sometimes it seems like that abroad, when there are hundreds of skinheads queuing
up to speak to me, because they’ve heard about things I’ve done, and
they’ve got all of your records. It mainly brings out to me how important
the whole movement really is.
TELL
US ABOUT SKREWDRIVER. I’M SURE THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE LOST TOUCH WITH
WHO’S IN THE BAND NOW.
Stigger is the guitarist, he’s been in for quite a while now, he’s
recorded both of the Patriotic Ballads albums, he’s also played guitar on
The Strong Survive, and my last solo LP Patriot. Sickly John came from Lionheart
and he’s been on bass since The Strong Survive. We’ve got a new drummer
now, Mushy, he used to play for punk band Resistance 77.
WHAT’S
YOUR ANSWER TO THE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT YOU ARE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY ?
If I didn’t belive in what I believe in I would go to the newspapers and
deny all of the stuff they put in about me. I could just as easily get out of
it. If I went to the press and told them that I’ve changed my ways I could
be on top of the pops. I could make a hell of a lot of money that way. If I was
only in it for the money I wouldn’t be as dedicated as I am to the nationalist
cause. I would have sold out years ago.
WHAT
ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY ?
I’ve always thought that the Royal family should be kept as a British tradition,
and I never think that they should ever of had a political voice. They’re
a hell of a tourist business, they’ve always been a British tradition. I
never think that we should get rid of the Royal family. It’s something that
people always think about when they think of Britain. They think of the Royal
Family when they hear about Britain. It seems to me that most of the people that
want to destroy the Royal family are either Irish or commies. I don’t want
to destroy them, but I wouldn’t let people like Prince Charles be telling
the people what they ought to do. My personal opinion is that it would be better
to have Prince Andrew as the King rather than Prince Charles. At least Prince
Andrew fought for his country. We should get rid of a lot of the cling-ons. I
feel strongly that we can’t get rid of the Royal Family. It’s always
been something special about Britain.
WHEN
YOU WERE AT SCHOOL, YOU OBVIOUSLY NEVER EVEN IMAGINED HOW YOU’D END UP,
WHAT WERE YOUR AMBITIONS, WHAT SORT OF CAREER WERE YOU TRAINING FOR ?
When I first left school I was an apprentice coach trimmer, I left that because
it was boring. After that I was a car washer, then I was a civil servant. I worked
as a clerical assistant at the Premium Bonds. I left there after a couple of years
and that’s when I went to London. I’ve got a couple of O Levels and
that’s about it. The first band, Tumbling Dice, started about a year after
I left school.
DID
YOU EVER IMAGINE AT THAT TIME THAT YOU’D BE STILL DOING IT NOW ?
I didn’t expect to be still doing it now, although I’m very glad that
I am. I think that if I’d been just playing music like when we first got
the contract, I don’t think we would have been doing it now. It was only
when I became politically aware that’s really kept me going. Bands like
Sham 69 who toed the line, basically ran out of things to sing about. But we can
sing about normal life and politics, and the way that affects us. That’s
probably why we’re still going. Plus the fact that they’re so hard
to stop us, that makes me think, well, fuck them.
WHAT
DOES IT MEAN TO YOU BEING A SKINHEAD ?
Although it’s a bit of a cliche, it is a way of life. I don’t actually
go around saying to myself ”I’m a skinhead”. But I’ve
been one since 1977, and before that I was one the first time around in 1971 when
I was at school. I do believe in what the rightwing skinheads have got to say,
and on and off due to various reasons, since 1977, I’ve been one. But that
doesn’t mean to say that everyone who comes to our gigs has to be one. We
get a complete mixed audience.
DO
YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS ?
No, not really, although I didn’t like being in jail much. But that wouldn’t
stop me defending myself from a gang of blacks again if I had to. But no, I’ve
no real regrets.
