No Remorse are an English white power rock band formed in London in 1985. They were one of the most prominent neo-Nazi skinheads bands of the Rock Against Communism scene. The band was led by Paul Burnley between 1986 and 1996, and by William Browning and Daniel "Jacko" Jack from 1996 onwards, following a factional dispute within British white nationalist politics.
No Remorse | |
|---|---|
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1985–1996 (Burnley) 1996-unknown (Browning) |
| Labels | |
| Past members | Nigel Brown Paul Burnley |
History
editThe first iteration of No Remorse formed in 1985, and comprised Mark Vince (guitar), Stewart Baile (drums), Paul (bass), and Jason (vocals); this line-up disbanded without having made any performances.[1]
The band reformed in November 1986, after Vince met Paul Burnley (real name Paul Bellany) at a Skrewdriver concert in Surrey in October 1986. The son of Scottish painter John Bellany,[2] Burnley had previously fronted the Oi! band Public Enemy before being fired due to political differences, and was also editor of white power skinhead fanzine The Truth at Last.[3] With Burnley as vocalist, Vince and Baile reprised their roles as guitarist and drummer respectively, and the new line-up was completed by a Northern Irish bassist called Archie.[4]
In 1987, No Remorse were closely involved in the founding of Ian Stuart Donaldson's neo-Nazi music organisation Blood & Honour.[5] Paul Burnley was interviewed in the first issue of Blood & Honour magazine and in that interview called Adolf Hitler "the greatest man in history".[6] Blood and Honour also advertised No Remorse merchandise, including a t-shirt that read "One day the world will know Adolf Hitler was right".[7]
The band's debut album, This Time The World, was released on French RAC label Rebelles Européens in 1988, its title a reference to American neo-Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell's autobiography.[8] The lyrics featured on the album are significantly more extreme and unabashed in their racism and calls to violence than precedents in the Rock Against Communism genre.[9][10] The final track, for example, celebrates white nationalist terrorist Robert Mathews, while "Six Million Lies", another song from the album, denies the Holocaust, and "Bloodsucker" proclaims that "one day the world will realise Adolf Hitler was right".[11][12] The album's cover, designed by Nicky Crane, prominently features a Celtic cross and SS insignia, while the rear of the sleeve is a picture of white children Nazi saluting over a flag featuring the Celtic cross.[8]
The band switched label from Rebelles Européens to Rock-O-Rama Records in 1988, and released two albums through Rock-O-Rama subsidiary RAC Records in 1989—See You in Valhalla and The New Stormtroopers.[13] RAC Records also released the band's fourth album, Blood Against Gold, in 1990, which included a cover of Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction's "High Priest of Love".[14] During this period, Rob Emes was the band's drummer and Gary Smith had assumed bass duties.[15] In 1990, No Remorse also played their first North American shows, performing at Canadian Aryan Fest in Metcalfe, Ottawa and at Tom Metzger's third annual Aryan Fest in rural Oklahoma.[16][17] In 1991, Will Browning joined the band as second guitarist, and in 1992, Australian musician Nigel Brown (formerly of RAC band White Lightning) joined the band as their bassist.[18]
In 1992 they accompanied the Swedish RAC band Dirlewanger at a festival in Brandenburg, Germany. In September they travelled to California, USA with Dirlewanger, where they performed together and recorded the album Desert Storm. The band recorded Farewell Ian Stuart in April 1994, and they signed for to Movement Records and Nordland Records. They recorded the album Under The Gods for Nordland Records, and Movement Records released Skinhead Army. Later that year, they performed at A Tribute to Ian Stuart in Racine, Wisconsin, USA accompanied by Bound for Glory, Centurion, RaHoWa and Berserkr. Following the concert, Joe Rowan, singer of Nordic Thunder, was murdered at a gas station.
In 1995, Nordland Records released Under The Gods, and Resistance Records released The Best of No Remorse. Movement Records encountered economic troubles and sold the rights to European Skinhead Army to Nordland. The Winning Hand (the renamed version of European Skinhead Army) was released in 1996.
In 1996, Will Browning, who had previously played guitar in No Remorse, wrested control of the band from Paul Burnley.[19] This followed a tussle for control of Blood and Honour between Burnley, who edited the organisation's magazine, and Combat 18 members led by Browning and Charlie Sargent. Browning selected Daniel Jack ("Jacko") as the band's new vocalist, while ex-bassist Gary Smith rejoined the band; Chingford Attack drummer Jean-Charles Tanzi completed the new line-up.[8][20]
This new iteration of No Remorse recorded Barbecue in Rostock in 1996, the album's title a reference to the 1992 Rostock-Lichtenhagen race riots where neo-Nazi rioters set fire to a hostel housing refugees.[21] Barbecue in Rostock was more virulently racist and violent than Burnley's No Remorse and other earlier RAC bands, with ten out of the eleven songs on the album unabashedly encouraging violence against minority groups.[8][22] Browning's label ISD Records, who had released the album, were forced to shift their address to Denmark to avoid prosecution in the UK, and in 1998, a British man was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for having manufactured Barbecue in Rostock CDs.[8][23]
In 2006, Browning and Jon Denny-Mallen were charged with trying to incite racial hatred for allegedly attempting to import CD copies of the band's 2006 album Deutschland into Jersey from Poland.[24] In November 2009 Denny-Mallen was acquitted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court, while the jury failed to reach a verdict in the case against Browning.[25]
Browning's No Remorse continued to release albums into the 2000s,[21] and have performed as recently as 2018.[26]
Discography
editOfficial Productions
edit| Image | Labels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Demo | Own production | MC | ||
| This Time The World | ??? | Demo MC | |||
| 1988 | This Time The World | Rebelles Européens | LP | RE 33 04 88 | |
| 1989 | Blood against gold | LP | ROR | ||
| See you in Valhalla / Take what's ours | Street Rock`N`Roll | 7-inch EP single | SR 008 | ||
| Son of Odin / Daily news | Street Rock`N`Roll | 7-inch EP single | SR 009 | ||
| The New Stormtroopers / No more brother's war | Street Rock`N`Roll | 7-inch single EP | SR 020 | ||
| See you in Valhalla | RAC Records | LP | RAC 5 - UK | ||
| Smash The Reds | Rebelles Européens | 7-inch single | RE 45 12 89 | ||
| The New Storm Troopers | RAC Records | LP | RAC 8 - UK | ||
| Time Will Tell | Rebelles Européens | 7-inch single | RE 45 11 89 | ||
| Blood Against Gold | RAC Records | LP | RAC 9 - UK | ||
| 1990 | We Rise Again / Fate dictator | Street Rock'n'Roll | 7-inch single | SR 032 | |
| 1991 | Blood Against Gold | Rock-O-Rama Records | CD | RCD 118 | |
| 1992 | Demo 92 | ??? | MC | ||
| This Time The World | Rebelles Européens | CD | RE CD 04 92 | ||
| 1994 | Farewell Ian Stuart, A Tribute By No Remorse | Motstånd 88 / Nordland Records | miniCD | CD003 - Sweden | |
| Under the gods | Nordland Records | CD | 88CD013 | ||
| Under the gods | Nordland Records | CD | 88CD006 | ||
| 1995 | Best of No Remorse | Resistance Records | CD | CNR-002A - USA | |
| 1998 | Heroes Never Die | Destiny Records | CD | DSR 0811 - Germany | |
| 1999 | Rare Remorse | Midgard Records | CD | MIDCD013 - Sweden | |
| 2000 | This land is ours | Nordland Records | CD | NORCD 001 - Germany | |
| 2001 | Shadow of Death | Nordland Records | CD | NORCD 001 - Germany | |
| 2002 | See You in Valhalla | No Remorse Records | CD | ||
| 2006 | Deutschland | ISD Records | CD | ISD05 | |
| ???? | The New Storm Troopers | No Remorse Records | CD | NRCD03 | |
| Farewell Ian Stuart | White is Back Records | LP | |||
| Son of Odin Bootleg | Nordland Records | NO 1 - Germany |
Bootlegs
edit| Labels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | This time the world | Last Resort Records | CD | Sweden - bootleg |
| 2012 | No Remorse - Rarities | Blood & Honour USA Records | bootleg | |
| ???? | Son of Odin | Bootboy Records | ???? | bootleg |
Live albums
edit| Labels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Live London RAC | 27.08.87 | ||
| 2000 | No Remorse & Svastika - We play for you | Midgard Records | CD | |
| ???? | Live at Aryan Fest 1990 | Oklahoma, USA. |
Split
edit| Labels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | No Remorse & Dirlewanger - Desert Storm | Rebelles Européens | LP | RE 33 40 92 |
| 1993 | No Remorse & Buldok - First strike (Live) | Bohemia Hammer Skinheads | MC | |
| 1994 | No Remorse & Svastika - We play for you (Live) | Nordland Records | CD | 88CD004 - Sweden |
| 1996 | No Remorse & Division S – Live in Brandenburg 1992 | NS Records | CD | CD20 - Germany |
| ???? | No Remorse & Freikorps - Live 1994 / Live 1987-1992 | ??? | CD |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Forbes, Robert; Stampton, Eddie (2015). The white nationalist skinhead movement : UK & USA, 1979-1993. Feral House. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-62731-024-6. OCLC 908072099.
- ^ Shaffer, Ryan (2017). Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism: The Transformation of Extremism. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 149. ISBN 978-3-319-59667-9.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 235.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 235.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 253.
- ^ Shaffer (2017), p. 127.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 256.
- ^ a b c d e Raposo, Ana; Bestley, Russ (1 November 2020). "Designing fascism: The evolution of a neo-Nazi punk aesthetic". Punk & Post-Punk. 9 (3): 467–498. doi:10.1386/punk_00039_1. ISSN 2044-1983. S2CID 226680220.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 281.
- ^ Gorrell, Adam C. Sound and fury : skinheads, neo-Nazis, and white-power punk rock. OCLC 1032830523.
- ^ Cotter, John M. (1999). "Sounds of hate: White power rock and roll and the neo-nazi skinhead subculture". Terrorism and Political Violence. 11 (2): 111–140. doi:10.1080/09546559908427509. ISSN 0954-6553.
- ^ Demsky, Jeffrey (2021), "Why All the Swastikas?: UK Rock Stars' Nazi/Holocaust Encounters, 1960s–1980s", Nazi and Holocaust Representations in Anglo-American Popular Culture, 1945–2020, Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 47–66, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-79221-3_4, ISBN 978-3-030-79220-6, S2CID 238923137, retrieved 12 March 2023
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 285, 334.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 372.
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 334.
- ^ Forbes and Scrampton (2015), p. 391.
- ^ Burke, Kyle (2021), "It's a white fight and we've got to win it: culture, violence, and the transatlantic far right since the 1970s", Global White Nationalism: From Apartheid to Trump, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 262–300, ISBN 9781526147066
- ^ Forbes and Stampton (2015), p. 418, 461.
- ^ Dyck, Kirsten (2016). Reichsrock: the international web of white-power and Neo-Nazi hate music. Rutgers University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-8135-7471-4. OCLC 937999084.
- ^ N. Lowles, "White Riot: The Violent Story of Combat 18", Milo Books, 2001
- ^ a b Dyck (2016), p. 24.
- ^ Shekhovtsov, Anton (2013), "European Far-Right Music and Its Enemies", Analysing Fascist Discourse: European Fascism in Talk and Text, Routledge, p. 283, ISBN 978-0-415-89919-2
- ^ "Policing far-right terror". Searchlight. June 1999. Archived from the original on 18 June 2004.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "£2000 was for gigs not racist CDs". Jersey Evening Post. 21 November 2009.
- ^ "Tattooist acquitted of racial hate plot". Jersey Evening Post. 27 November 2009.
- ^ Allchorn, William (2022). Moving beyond Islamist Extremism: Assessing Counter Narrative Responses to the Global Far Right. ibidem Press. p. 68. ISBN 9783838214900.
External links
edit- No Remorse discography at Discogs
- No Remorse at AllMusic
