Oi! Greatest Hits Volume One

(Dojo)
by Joshua Brown

Yes, it lives up to its name. Here are 20 Oi! anthems from 20 different bands. Two songs are included that can’t justifiably be absent from a “greatest hits” comp: “Someone’s Gonna Die” by Blitz (probably a Rancid song by now in common un-wisdom) and “Banned From the Pubs” by Peter and the Test Tube Babies. Documented here is England circa the late ’70s and early ’80s, a time when the statement “oi! oi! oi!” really meant something. Along with reliable old standboi!s like Red Alert‘s “In Britain,” Sham 69‘s “Borstal Breakout,” Angelic Upstarts‘ “The Murder of Liddle Towers,” et cetera, there are lesser-knowns such as Menace, the Ejected, the Crack, and the Blood. Other bands who have a large catalogue of hits to choose from are Cock Sparrer, Cockney Rejects, the Business, Infa Riot, and the Gonads.