Oi! 40 Years Untamed - 2020 Black Vinyl LP

After the 1980 release of Oi! The Album and the ensuing four decades of laughter, defiance and working class rebellion, Garry Bushell - who assembled that first compilation - teamed up with Pirates Press Records to mark its ruby anniversary with a brand new album called Oi! 40 Years Untamed.

This hard-hitting collection features exclusive, previously unheard songs from the Oi pioneers, and original tracks from younger, up-and coming bands from around the world.

Oi was a form of raw working class punk that developed in England as a reaction against the dilution of punk’s original ethics and energy. Socialist poet Garry Johnson says: “Oi wasn’t about fashions or hair-cuts or dodgy politics. Oi was the reality of punk mythology. It was the sound of the backstreets, of untamed hooligan youth carving out their own future in a system where the odds were stacked against them.”

Former rock press writer, Bushell says: “I saw Oi as Springsteen’s lyrics come true – ‘the hungry and the hunted explode in rock ’n’ roll bands’. It was fresh and exhilarating. That’s why I put the first Oi sampler together.”

The mainstream media never understood Oi. How could they? The Oi bands and fans came from places they didn’t want to go. As early as 1977, street punks were disillusioned with rip-off Kings Road boutiques and the fact that many punk heroes were living a lie. The new breed of street level punk bands were the start of something more raw, more authentic. Bushell called it “Oi”.

This New Punk percolated in backstreets, on football terraces and on building sites, in classrooms, pubs, tattoo parlours and police cells. Its songs were about workers’ rights, football hooliganism, police oppression and unemployment with a side order of beer and pilchards.

The Oi bands did not hate the first generation punk pioneers, but as those bands rose and fell on the pop charts, the Oi bands lived an authenticity that the old guard could only dream of. Consequently the Oi sound was harder, the choruses bigger, the anger more real.

Oi was of the streets, from the streets and for the streets....which is why it went on to touch a nerve all over the globe, inspiring scenes everywhere from Europe to Indonesia, via Australia, Japan, Russia, Canada, Switzerland and the USA.

40 years and beyond from the opening salvo of that original compilation, the music and the movement's message remains the same: The kids, united, will never be defeated. Includes a 4" vinyl sticker!

Includes a 4" vinyl sticker!