Angelic Upstarts

• Genre: Oi/Street Punk
• Hometown: South Shields

About

Of all the most politically vocal acts in the Oi! cauldron, Angelic Upstarts led the loudest charge of the left wing brigade with songs that uncomprimisingly challenged right wing ideology and all its adherents. The band championed the working class and the power of youth while simultaneously showing vibrant scorn and disdain for Margaret Thatcher's conservative policies, Britain's fascist National Front, police brutality and the Neo-Nazi element that had infiltrated the skinhead movement during the rebirth of Punk in the late '70s. Like the similarly minded Sham 69, the band soon found themselves playing shows that only served to give those they opposed a forum for violence and aggression; much unlike Sham, they continued on despite rarely playing a full show. In the end, it was waning public interest that sent the Upstarts their separate ways, although they continued to reform at intervals and to support liberal issues in their native England.

- Kali Holloway