Angelic Upstarts

Staunchly working-class and vehemently anti-fascist at a time when many of their peers flirted with the right wing, England’s Angelic Upstarts represented the best of skinhead culture. As pioneers of the gritty, spirited form of punk called Oi, they tweaked the formula of original British punk and injected it with socialist politics and the stiff rhythms of North East England’s sooty streets. With releases spanning the Thatcher years and continuing into the volatile post-9/11 world of Tony Blair, the Upstarts have never found themselves wanting for abuses of power to rail against.