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Written in response to the riots of the early 1980s, and to a worrying rise
in neo-Nazism in the same period, Trevor Griffiths' Oi For England (ITV, tx. 17/4/1982) is arguably as relevant today as it was in 1982.
The 1980s riots, in Bristol, Liverpool, Brixton and elsewhere, had disparate
triggers, but all were fuelled by seething anger at mass youth unemployment,
poverty, hopelessness, oppressive policing and racism, all of which were blamed
on Thatcherite economics.
Set in Moss Side, Manchester - scene of its own riots in July 1981 -
Griffiths' play gives voice to this tinderbox of disenfranchised youth in the
form of four skinhead would-be musicians, who gather in a dusty basement to vent
their frustration in violent, angry songs played on ripped-off instruments:
wired, hot-headed Napper (Neil Pearson), gormless Swells (Ian Mercer), Landry
(Richard Platt), the eldest and group peacemaker, and quiet, thoughtful Finn
(Adam Kotz), the group's singer and songwriter. Calling themselves Ammunition,
the band play Oi! music, a raucous skinhead variant of punk frequently
associated with neo-Nazism.
The lads' undirected fury makes them easy prey for arch-manipulator The Man
(Gavin Richards), who brings news of the race war raging above and offers them
the chance to play at a 'skinfest'. But the offer is vetoed by Finn, who alone
sees the ugly fascist behind The Man's smooth mask of respectability. Finn,
proud of his Irish roots and mindful of his grandfather's stories of the Nazis,
is no fascist. The others, however, are far less politically aware.
Napper, justifying his beating and robbing of an Asian worker, complains,
"I'm eighteen and I've never 'ad a job in me f***in' life!", and it is his kind
The Man is thinking of when he identifies a constituency "sick of being kicked
around, ignored, shat on, pushed to the bottom of the midden, up to their necks
in brown scum, the diarrhoea their leaders have seen fit to flood this England
with." It is a frighteningly potent speech, which Finn's expression of
opposition, based on his grandfather's memories of liberating concentration
camps, cannot match. In the end, Finn's reaction is articulated without words,
as he smashes the band's instruments and, in a cautious alliance with black
landlord's daughter Gloria (Lisa Lewis), prepares to take to the streets.
A reworked Oi For England had an afterlife touring youth clubs and community
theatres in an attempt to unite working-class audiences against fascism.
Mark Duguid
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1. The offer (4:43)
