Roi pearce biography for kids

Last Resort is probably the skinhead/Oi! band par excellence. The reason might be the name associated to the crucified skinhead logo. But in fact, the main reason is their album  ‘Skinhead anthems': the sleeve, THE Oi! sound -a mid-tempo sound with the British touch -and the lyrics in which many people recognized themselves.

The band has been recently reformed with Roi Pearce as a singer and some musicians from Anti Nowhere League. They played in Berlin at the  ‘Punk and Disorderly' festival. A show that mixed the songs of Last Resort and 4-Skins (the Roi Pearce period). Not so bad! The songs were well played and true to the original ones. But to tell the truth, I really prefer the first period of 4-Skins, with the singer Gary Hodges, to the Roi Pearce period. And it was a bit frustrating to listen to the 8-9 songs of the Last Resort repertoire they only played at this festival. On the other hand, a date was forecast in Paris in January. While everybody in the local scene was looking forward to seeing them play, the gig was finally cancelled after an anonymous denunciation. Even so, the members of the band decided to come and spend a day in Paris where they had never been before. A good occasion for me and Daniel, from the zine Cheribibi, to interview Roi Pearce, the founder of the band. But before starting, let's come back to the band story...

Roi Pearce used to be a roadie for Menace and a hooligan in Milwall. In the beginning of 1980; he was present at a rehearsal of the punk band The Rivals in his local pub. It triggered something in his mind and he decided to form a band. He learnt bass with Arthur Kay and met Charlie Duggan (guitar), Saxby (singer) and Andy Benfield (drums). As he used to hang around the skinhead shop ‘Last Resort' and knew well its keeper, Micky French, a Milwall's supporter too, he asked him to use the name of the shop for his band. The band Last Resort was born! This name also referred to their hometown ‘Herne Bay', a seaside resort and the last stop before the sea when you came from London. Micky French became their manager. Arthur Kay, an old rock firebrand, quickly showed interest to the band and allowed them to play their first gig just before his ska band The Originals in the ‘New Dolphin' pub. He took them then to the ‘Europa' studios in Falkestones where they recorded 3 songs which were released on the single cassette ‘Violence in your mind'. Their reputation grew and Gary Bushell, and so Sounds, started to pay attention to them. At this moment of the story, Saxby left the band because of his girlfriend...finally for the best because Roi became singer and Arthur Kay bassist.A chance for this band to have this good and experienced musician, even if Arthur Kay, 31 years old and always wearing his legendary cap, is not skinhead. The new formation played its first gig on the 4 th of March 1981 in the ‘Acklam Hall' at the Nothing Hill gate in London (look after the Sounds article).People enjoyed the show. The next band, Infa Riot, couldn't play a long show due to a bunch of skins and soul boys from Ladbroke Grove which entered the club to find and kick West Ham supporters (but they weren't there, that evening West Ham was playing...moreover Last Resort members supported Milwall). The gig ended with a general fight and the bad reputation of the band started that evening (Most of the Oi! bands had already won a bad reputation before). Two weeks after, they recorded 2 songs for the ‘Strength thru Oi!' compilation and started their English tour.Southall was one of the date with 4-Skins and Business. I don't really want to develop the event, everybody knows it... Quickly...The gig was in an Asian suburb and the local kids burnt the pub with Molotov cocktails because they thought there were some National Front supporters inside.

That was the beginning of the end for the band. The ‘Strength thru Oi!' compilation was withdrawn from the sales and Oi! bands couldn't find any dates. Waiting for better days, Micky French made them record their album in two week-ends on a 4 tracks in the same studio. Chris Ashman, Arthur Kay's producer, produced the album. By the way, the sax on the record was played by Arthur Kay. The album had a large success in the whole European skinhead scene. It was re-released many times. The original release was red with the ‘Last Resort' shop catalogue inside, then a blue one and a few copies were in black and white. Around 10000 to 15000 copies were issued. In fact, it's quite hard to know exactly how many have been sold since, because there has been many re-releases (Captain Oi! for instance, in CD, LP vinyles and Picture discs...) and the sales may be far more important. After the recording, the band played two times. In the last gig in the ‘King's Lynn', many fights occurred. That was enough for them. They stopped and the LP came after the split. They tried a bit later a reformation under the name The Warriors (The drummer was the only change in the formation), played two gigs and recorded 3 songs. Two of them appeared on ‘Oi! that's yer lot' and ‘United Skins'. We think the third one, ‘War Widow' was lost. Then they splitted. After, Roi went to the 4-Skins as a singer. In 1985, he played in Taro, an heavy metal band. In 1988, Link called them in order to re-release their records. Roi took this chance to reform a band, The Resort, with new musicians and they recorded ‘1989', an album with covers of Last Resort, 4-Skins, Warriors, but with a quite heavy metal sound. Then he formed The Heavy Metal Outlaws with Steve Whales from Business and released two single CDs. A few years ago, Arthur Kay reformed The Warriors with Saxby. They played in France in Creil the 13 th of September 1998 !Do they still exist ?To tell the true, this formation didn't convince lots of people. The one with Roi and the Anti Nowhere League musicians was much more convicing. They played in Berlin and will play in the Oi! en France festival.

Sources : ‘Un monstre est en moi', ‘Teenage Warning', ‘Sounds'.

Ben : Bon par quoi on commence ?

Dan : Heu, je ne sais pas...What about this evening ?

Ben : Yeah, what were you looking for in Paris ?

Roi : This evening? It's really a bad news the gig was cancelled! They spent so much money with tickets and side-sales...We don't know exactly why, but something's fucked! It's not our fault! But it was nice to come, meet the people and have them meet us, it was a nice place and we will definitely come back to play another gig!

Ben : It was quite fun to see you in Berlin last month. When did you reform the band? Where did the idea start that reformation?

Roi : We started a couple years ago. Many people were obviously looking forward to seeing us coming back.

Oh! This is Keith! He's a magic player; he's the guitar hero! An old friend of mine for years! We both played in the Heavy Metal Outlaws in the early 90's.He also played in Anti Nowhere League with our drummer John!

Keith : Yeah! I had never played any gigs with the Resort, so we decided to play...

Ben : When I saw you in Berlin, you looked really happy to play in front of punks and skins !

Roi : Yeah, we really enjoyed the whole thing !

Ben : In the 80's, you didn't play with Last Resort in Germany or Europe ?

Roi :No, because the way things had gone after Southhall was wrong! We were disgusted and everybody refused to book us. It wasn't worth carrying on! But now, we're motivated!

Dan :The events in Southhall are now well in the past. Do you still have problems about them ?

Roi : Southhall still remains in people's minds. It is still an element that comes up and brings us a bad reputation. When it comes up I remind them how long ago that was, but we are infamous for that!

Keith : I think it will always remain in people's minds...

Ben : About Southhall, the official version was that hundreds of skinheads came into Southall and there were National Front supporters among them...What's your version?

Roi : Here's what really happened! There was a disagreement (grabuge) between the organisers of the gig - Business, Last Resort, 4-Skins – and the local Asian community leaders. They didn't want an Oi! gig in their area. The managers first tried to find a solution but the Asian community would not have it! The result was that the place was blast with everybody in, they came straight into the pub and they took it! There was no trouble on the streets; it all was in the venue!

Ben : I know, but the media said that some skinheads provocated fights in the area!

Roi : Perhaps! I can't really say! We were inside before the gig, doing the sound-checks. We didn't know what people were doing on the streets!

Dan : I think, it's incredible that this particular gig had such an impact! Even Margaret Tatcher mentioned it and said all those things about crucifying all the skinheads!

Roi : Exactly! The gig was the beginning of the end! After that, everybody thought we were nazis! And it's a horrible misconception to get rid off! Even today, I still have this reputation! People don't give you a chance!

Dan : And after?

Roi : We carried on about 6 months, but as we didn't get any gigs, we called it quits. We released our album ‘Skinhead Anthems' after the split because the manager at the time fucked about with it with the record companies.

Dan : And after the Resort , what have you done?

Roi : I joined the 4-Skins during a year from 1983 to 1984, then I moved on to the Heavy Metal Outlaws . I left them after awhile because I didn't like the way it was going. There wasn't enough rock! But now, everything seems much more accessible and we play for a new young generation. It's a fresh start!

Dan : Don't you think that English people now recognize skinheads as a part of their culture more than they used to? In London, I even saw an advert for Ben Sherman with skinheads on the poster!

Roi : Yes, it's more acceptable now than it used to be back then!

Ben : Ok. On the back of the album, there's a line: ‘This is the age of the old young man, 10000 chapters have been already written, yet much for the truth still forbidden'...

Roi : It wasn't on the original album. It was added on the re-release. I don't really know about that line... (nbr : after verification it is on the original pressing)

Dan/Ben : Why did you form the band at the beginning ?

Roi : There were so many things going on at the moment in the world of music. I was always seeing friends in the shop ‘Last Resort', so I said what about using the name of the shop? We wanted to form a band for street kids, and also to get into trouble! (Laugh)

Keith : No choice! I have no troubles so I'll start a band! (Laugh)

Ben : There are lyrics that says : ‘Football matches and rock'n'roll make us a little out of control...

Roi : ...and the only way I can make a stand'. It's in ‘Rebel with a cause'! That says hold your head up high. Don't care about what they can say about you...

Ben : ...and also ‘We've got nothing to hide'

Roi : Yes, we had nothing to hide, we wanted to show things how they were. We wrote about today's life in London, about the truth! When it was, the Oi! movement was really rude for people, very violent, bloody and with a lot of mess! The media found it frightening and they fucking fucked us!

Dan : It seemed to be a very bitter period! A guy like Garry Bushel, who had involvements in some labels and had been in the Oi! scene before he wrote for the Sun, spectacular stories about skinheads, he played on the two sides of the fence!

Roi : Yeah, he was a journalist with journalists' thoughts!

Ben : In the song ‘Violence in your mind', the lyrics are quite basic...it's only about punching everybody and violence. How do you see them now ?Was that the real life ?

Roi : That's the way it used to be! A violent culture, a violent time...Everybody needed money, everyone was pissed off!

Ben : There's also an other kind of violence in the lyrics, but this time more ‘social', like ‘taking to the rich and all the poverties on display' (from the song ‘Freedom').The social situation in those day was so...

Roi : ...not only in those days! England has still got its class system, it “officially” doesn't exist anymore but when you meet different people, you found it's still there! I believe there are still the working, the middle and the upper classes!

Dan : And do you think that Oi! was really a working class movement ?

Roi : Definitely! The early punk rockers, the Clash and all the others were all fucking college kids! They just wanted to be arties! For me, punk rock was only middle class kids playing rock!

Dan (Annoyed): But the Clash had many songs about the working class conditions!

Roi : Yeah, ‘White riot', ‘Clash City Rockers'...Joe Strummer was perhaps a good guy, but for me it was for rich kids... The music for and from real street kids was Oi! music!

Ben : And had you been in the punk scene before the Oi! scene ?

Roi : Yes, I went to some gigs sometimes... But later, with Sham , the Rejects and all those bands, it was something else!! The only bad thing was that politics should never have seeped into the movement. It's a fucking shit! It fucks everything up and it divides people! That's the same with the religion! Fuck them both!

Dan : About politic, it was mostly the right wing policy that fucks the scene! When you see a band like Angelic Upstarts , they were very...

Roi : They were very left yeah!! They used to hang around the Sham Army , then the Rejects and after, when it was over, they approached the next group of skinhead bands, 4-Skins and the Resort , with their ideas. So because they were around us, we get the blame for their actions. That's basically where the crux of the problem is! They tagged their messages to our fucking backs. Do you see what I mean?

Ben : You didn't say anything ?

Roi : No, we didn't want to say to anybody to behave one way or the other! We only hated all the upper class kids, that's all! After that, that band got labelled because of its followers...

Ben : I read you played in Anti Nowhere League . How do you see this band, because they were an other side of the punk scene...

Roi : Keith played with them...

Keith : That's different from the Resort ...

Roi : And I'm not talking about ANL , the Clash and the things of the early 80's, but about Upstarts and things...

Dan : And what do you think about the action of Roddy Moreno from the Oppressed . He did some covers of the Last Resort. What do you think about his involvement in the 80's with the anti-fascist scene and SHARP ?

Roi : After I played a year or so with the 4-Skins , I totally left the scene. I wasn't around the scene anymore and I don't know if that makes any sense, but I can't answer some questions.

Ben : Still with the politics, there's a subject that comes back in your lyrics :Thatcher !(‘We rule Ok')

Roi : Yes, she lead the country to the abyss, manipulating everybody. Politicians always lead countries into ruin! Someone told me today:‘Hey Roi, today in France, we have the same policy as you used to have with Thatcher and the Tories'. I think it's characteristic of politicians!

Dan : Do you think that England now pays the price for the Thatcher's policies? For example in the railways...

Keith : Yeah...

Roi (doesn't answer the question!?!): You see, the media destroyed the movement. They try to kill it, to black it out. But you can't ignore a band!!

Dan : During the miner strikes (1984/85) or the Dockers' movement, many skinheads got involved in politics...

Roi :Oh, the miner strikes...That's another thing. But I can't say, I wasn't in the music anymore. That was after the Resort and the 4-Skins ...

Ben : Well, still with the lyrics, because I asked you some questions about them and you... Do you think they are still current or up-to-date?

Roi : A lot of people now, feel the same way we used to feel. Especially the kids living in the blocks where I live. The lyrics are still accurate. They are about street kids, frustrations... All you have to rely on yourself... I realized the years have rolled on, but things haven't changed that much. It's not much different than 20 or 23 years ago! (Laugh)

Ben : I think it's true, because I can recognize me in your lyrics, ‘taking to the rich, all the poverty that display'...

Roi : Yes, it will never change, whether it's the Labour on the left or the Tories on the right. You can look at them side by side; there are not a lot of differences. And with Blair, I think the policies are probably more on the right than it used to be...

Dan : You have a lot of songs about patriotic pride of England. Don't you think it can be dangerous, for instance when the English government decide to start a war...

Roi  (quite aggressive) : And you, you're not proud of your country ?

Dan/Ben : Not for wars!!

Dan : I don't think you understood my question! I didn't mean the pride you can feel for the place where you live, I just meant the way your government can manipulate this pride!

Roi :I'm not proud of the British government with all their fucking lies. That's what they did with all their fucking massive destruction weapons. But I'm proud of my roots, of the place where I came from, whether it's good or shit! In England, we are more proud of our sports, our football or rugby games than our policies.

Dan : Proud of your local pubs ...

Roi : Yeah. But I hate politics! It's a mess!

Ben : There's a song about Johnny Barden. Who was he?

Roi : He's a guy who killed a family, he was 19 and I wrote a song about him.

Ben : Why didn't you sing the song “Skinhead in Sta-Press” in Berlin?

Roi : Let's be honest, this song is related to a period when everybody, the media and the journalists thought we were nazis just because we were skinheads...

Let's now talk about something else...

Let me introduce you the members of the band. It's more relevant!! This is Keith Hillyer, the guitarist. He was in the Heavy Metal Outlaws with me. Here, we've got John Pearce, bass player, not related to me, he played in ANL 7 years ago. And Chris John, the drummer. He's the best drummer the Resort ever had, better than the original one! He used to do a couple of gigs with me and Keith in America...

Dan : Did you record any new songs ?

Roi : Yes, but it's not out at the moment. They are scheduled to be out in March.

Dan : On which label?

Roi : It will come on Harry May Rec.

Ben : Ok! And how was it to sing in front of all these young and old skinheads from Germany and the whole Europe?

Roi : It was fantastic! Fantastic! Really fantastic!

Ben : Yeah! How did you get introduced to the skinhead movement? How did you become a skinhead? I know you were really fan of Madness ...

Roi : Well, we used to hang around the Last Resort shop...Maybe in the late 70's...

Dan : The older generation of skinheads was more into ska and rock steady while the new one was more into punk and Oi!...Is that true ?

Roi : It was mixed!

Keith : Many moved from bands like Sham 69 to ska bands like Madness , Selecter ...

Roi : Yes, when the things became irrational because of all the nazi stuff, people moved away from Oi! to ska, because there were black men in these bands...

Keith : Yes, black bands, You didn't see a nazi there.

Roi : I went in America 4 years ago and a black skinhead came up to me with the Last Resort album and told me ‘What a fucking good Oi! band!' For me, people are people, I don't care about their race or where they come from!

Roi (less and less attentive!) : Yeah, it's so fresh! It's great we have the chance to come back! I came back to the punk scene 4/5 years ago and hadn't gone to punk gigs since 10/15 years!

Ben : Really? During all this time, you were involved in football stuff?

Roi : Much! I will stay involved in football as long as I can!

Ben : Don't you think it's the same culture ? The working class pride...

Roi : Yes! Songs, lyrics, football...both are relevant, the violence...

Dan : How about reggae, I interviewed Steve Goodman (England belongs to me's writer), he was a skinhead since the beginning of the 70's, he spoke about the skinheads in Brixton in the 80's...

Roi : Yes, perhaps, but I'm more in rock'n'roll, I like some reggae and, I'm found of original ska- Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker, Lauren Aitken –classic bands, the Specials , but I'm more in rock'n'roll! I like the energy of rock! When I began, my influences were Slade , Gary Glitter ...I was in rock more than in ska!