LETTERS TO TONY WAKEFORD AND HOBGOBLIN

For many people what is reproduced below (originally posted in 2005) will have been rendered redundant by other material subsequently added to this site; however for the purpose of clarity and to help those doing detailed research into these matters, I have kept it online but moved it to a subsiduary page.

Tony Wakeford came up in conversation at a party I went to recently, which reminded me I’d once written him a letter I’d intended to make public if he failed to respond to it in a satisfactory manner. I first met Wakeford in the late seventies when he was a member of the Socialist Workers Party playing Rock Against Racism benefits with the Trotskyist pop group Crisis. I have many disagreements with SWP positions, but I've never let political differences prevent me from befriending members of this organisation. Indeed, to this day I know a number of people who belong to the SWP. Far-right organisations are, of course, a different matter. After Crisis broke up, Wakeford formed a new combo with Doug Pearce and Patrick Leagas called Death In June. I went to their first performance which was a Workers Against Racism benefit. One day Doug Pearce told me he’d kicked Tony Wakeford out of the band for joining the fascist National Front. Other individuals I knew corroborated this information. Pearce (who when I first knew him belonged to the International Marxist Group) would ultimately end up embroiled in fascist politics too, thus compelling me to break with him (but that’s a different story). At the time I learnt Wakedford had joined the NF, we lived in the same part of south London. Occasionally I would run into him by chance, on the street or else northern line tube trains. When this happened I refused to speak to Wakeford.

Eight years down the line I was told by a musician that Wakeford had realised he’d made a serious mistake and no longer had anything to do with the far-Right. I asked people who were active in Anti-Fascist Action if this was true, and they said they’d investigated Wakeford’s group Sol Invictus and could find nothing that would lead them to prevent him from performing in public. As a consequence, when I subsequently ran into Wakeford, I spoke to him. As Obi Egbuna put it in his book Destroy This Temple: The Voice of Black Power in Britain: “We live in a world of live and learn, and when a man is big enough to say he is sorry, you should be humble enough to say all is forgiven…” That said, by May 2000 I hadn't seen or spoken to Wakeford for some time, when out of the blue I received an angry phone call from him. He was upset about an article I’d written entitled We Mean It Man, which had been posted on the web at www.stewarthomesociety.org/dij.htm. In this piece he was only mentioned incidentally, with my critical focus being on Doug Pearce and Death In June. I was annoyed by Wakeford’s phone call, but upon reflection I thought I should send him a considered written response rather than simply suggesting he ‘drop dead’. Some of the matters addressed in the letter are now arcane, they concern failed attempts at fascist regroupment in which Wakeford may or may not have been involved. What got Wakeford so heated was the fact that I alluded to these matters in We Mean It Man by saying he ‘claims to have abandoned his former political positions’. I didn't then and still don’t know whether Wakeford's claims to have ended his involvement with fascist politics are true. Five years on from writing this letter, I'm aggrieved that after giving Wakeford the benefit of the doubt, and the opportunity to clear the air, he still hasn't done so. In public Wakeford continues to make mealy-mouthed excuses about his past behaviour. What Wakeford ought to do is stop whinging about having been ‘screwed’ by politicians, and instead act like a man by publicly apologising for getting involved with Nazi creeps, as well as frankly admitting he was a complete twit to do so.

Given all of the above, I think it is well worth making shame more shameful by making it public; so underneath is the full text of the letter I sent Wakeford in May 2000. I haven’t heard from him since then. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for an album of anti-Nazi and anti-racist songs from Sol Invictus with all proceeds being donated to anti-fascist groups, but if Wakeford has finally matured into an fully grown adult without my being aware of it, this is exactly the sort of magnanimous gesture he might make. Moving on, I was also disappointed by the antics of some of those who claimed to have evidence that Wakeford’s involvement with fascism was ongoing. I had hoped to get a debate going with those of them grouped around Hobogoblin magazine. I wrote We Mean It Man with the explicit intention of submitting it to this publication. Underneath the full text of my letter to Wakeford, I reproduce a very lightly edited version of the covering note I sent to Hobgoblin when I submitted We Mean It Man to them. I received no response whatsoever to this from either Hobgoblin or its sister publication in the US News & Letters. David Black, the individual involved with Hobgoblin of whom I am most critical, appears to have made a very small advance in his positions over the past five or so years. Therefore I have cut a few words of criticism from the letter which in the light of this minor evolution, might serve to place Black in too harsh a light.
Stewart Home, London 1st October 2005.

Letter from Stewart Home to Tony Wakeford 26/5/00

These aren't the best circumstances for re-establishing contact, and given the situation I can’t see either of us wanting to prolong this. You are obviously every bit as pissed off with me as I am now with you (the rude way you contacted me didn’t make me any more sympathetic towards you). Since I understand you want to clear this up, I’m enclosing some documents so you can see the way things stand. I haven’t had time to find all the stuff I’ve got that mentions you (I have folders and folders of material by Green Anarchist and their friends attacking me and it is very repetitious) - but enclosed is a small selection. Material of this sort can be found all over the place - even in US publications such as Anarchy and Fifth Estate. There are also loads of letters and flyers, not to mention stuff on the web and general gossip.

I’ve spoken to some of those involved in web debates about countering the current attempts at a so called “left/right synthesis” and said you’d speak to them about the various claims and counter-claims, but they don't want to have anything to do with you. They believe you’re involved with Anarchist Heretics because Troy Southgate of the National Revolutionary Faction (formerly the English Nationalist Movement) has given them that impression. As I understand it, your connection to Southgate and Anarchist Heretics is through Mike Shankland, and if Shankland has been suckered, then you should warn him off these people (I’ve no desire to have any contact with Shankland, but since you have already been in communication with him, you might as well make sure he knows the score). If Shankland is happily involved and understands what Anarchist Heretics is about, then having anything to do with him will mean that you’ll be perceived as being involved too. I’ll enclose some stuff by the people you are being linked to through Shankland - you ought to be able to see exactly where this is coming from. Summarising the situation, Southgate is the political organiser, Richard Hunt acts as the figurehead and fine tunes the ideology, Jonathon Boulter is the schemer and Wayne John Sturgeon is the padre in a desperate attempt to rehabilitate fascism under another name.

I had the impression that you’d moved away from all this stuff (Trees In Winter is about the last thing I can remember and to me that seemed a better direction for you, since you appeared to have broken with your past and were gradually removing the problematic content from what you did, which is something I thought worth encouraging). I’ve been told you’ve been doing new songs with titles like In Europa recently - I haven’t bothered going into a record shop to see whether I can confirm this but those who’ve been looking at you in relation to this attempt at a so called “left/right synthesis” tell me this is what you’ve been doing, and it makes you suspect in their eyes.. It also seems that your involvement with Death In June in the early eighties isn’t doing you any good either. I’ve been told that Douglas Pearce was kicked off World Serpent for some Nazi involvement he has, the person who told me this is generally reliable, I haven’t had time to check it out for myself since being told this a few weeks ago. Pearce’s on stage “jokes” about the nail bombs last year (reported independently to me by at least two different people who went to his London rally) go way beyond what is acceptable - so there isn’t any rush about checking other stuff out. From what I know already I wouldn’t want anything to do with Pearce. Much of the stuff that goes around associates you with relatively recent Death In June material. Green Anarchist must have mentioned Rose Clouds For The Holocaust (I assume they mean Rose Clouds Of Holocaust) as “your” hymn to the death camps about six times. As far as I know, you haven’t been involved with Death In June for sixteen years and had nothing to do with writing or recording Rose Clouds Of Holocaust. In the context of various debates that were going on, I felt it was useful to make my opinions about Death In June clear. Pearce doesn’t seem to be doing you any favours with the way he’s been going, since you are very much associated with him - regardless of the fact that, as far as I know, it is years since you’ve worked together musically.

I don’t know what you’ve been doing lately, and I’m not in a position to state with complete certainty whether or not you were involved in anything musically immediately after your departure from Death In June. When I asked you seven or eight years ago if you’d been in the band Above The Ruins, you told me they had nothing to do with you - if in the early nineties you were being straight with me about putting far-Right politics behind you, I can't see why you’d have lied to me about this. On the other hand, several people, including David Tibet, have subsequently told me you were in Above The Ruins, and I can’t see why they’d lie about the matter either. Since I have never had access to Above The Ruins records, or any primary material that might indicate whether or not you were involved in that band, it is impossible for me to take a fully informed position on this matter. Certainly, a lot of people (including Searchlight who said so in their November 1997 issue) believe that in the mid-eighties you were in a Nazi band called Above The Ruins. You told me you weren’t in Above The Ruins, but given the weight of opinion going the other way, these days I’m not entirely convinced you’ve been straight with me about this.

Personally, I wouldn’t have thought it that likely that you'd have played with Skrewdriver because their sub-HM racket appears to be at odds with your musical interests. But David Black of News & Letters UK seems to think you made an album with Skrewdriver and I’m not going to deny it on your behalf, because I’ve no way of knowing if it is true or not. When I’ve been attacked, rather than denying specific smears, I’ve often found it better to make statements of position (that way things can be moved forward). You might find it useful to do the same. In my opinion, the best way of making sure your past stays behind you, is to make clear statements in support of multiculturalism and anti-racism, and equally clear statements against fascism and xenophobia. Like I said, I think it unlikely you played with Skrewdriver but regardless of whether this allegation is true or not, being seen to have made a clean break with your past is going to do you a lot more good than denying a specific but groundless smear. You might also want to look into whether Patrick Harrington has been feeding (dis?)information about you to Larry O’Hara (David Black’s research about you appears to consist of whatever Larry O’Hara tells him to write).

I’m hearing a lot of different things. Certainly, when I ran into David Tibet at the Conway Hall last year, he told me you’d really sorted yourself out but that Pearce had lost it and got mixed up in some really unpleasant shit. On the other hand, from what I’d been told more recently by people involved in political debates and whose judgement on these matters I generally respect, it seemed quite possible you were mixed up in Anarchist Heretics. You have very forcefully told me this isn’t true. Since I am prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt in the matter of Anarchist Heretics, I trust the enclosed material (despite its unpleasant nature) is of some use in moving things forward in a positive direction for you. One possible explanation of why Southgate (and possibly Harrington too) are circulating “innuendoes” which are perhaps designed to discredit you, is because they want to compromise you into working alongside them. If this is the dynamic that is going on, then a clear and unambiguous attack on their politics can only weaken them and strengthen you. Making an attack of this kind is what I would do. My suspicion is that you’ll do nothing about the enclosed and simply let matters ride. However, I’d be very happy to be proved wrong on this. Ciao, Stewart.

Letter from Stewart Home to Christopher Ford at Hobgoblin 11/11/99

I enclose with this a submission to your magazine Hobgoblin about punk rock and anti-racism that deals extensively with the band Death In June. Your associate David Black appears to be very interested in this group and my analysis may be particularly useful to him. I concentrate on Doug Pearce since he is the mainstay of Death In June, he sells more records than the current bands of former members such as Tony Wakeford or Patrick Leagas, and I have access to a greater amount of material by and about him. It should go without saying that my analysis in many ways dovetails with – but also extends and updates - the investigation Anti-Fascist Action made into Death In June, Tony Wakeford and a number of other musicians connected to them. Assuming you have connections with anti-fascist activists and debates, you may recall that AFA concluded Death In June weren't involved in recruiting on behalf of fascist organisations and that AFA decided not to physically prevent them from performing live. That said, since these discussions took place coming on for ten years ago, I feel the publication of an informed critique of Death In June is long overdue, hence the enclosed submission.

You may also recall that on page 256 of the South End Press edition of Indignant Heart, Charles Denby relates a story about a lion and a jackass which he uses to illustrates how union bureaucrats operate. The same story might be used with regard to David Black and his pronouncements about various reactionary currents…, his attacks on Death In June play into this pop group’s hands. There are far more effective ways of attacking scams like Death In June than the methods adopted by Black, as I make clear in the enclosed submission. On a slightly different tack, Black appears to believe that Tony Wakeford is still active in fascist politics. If this is the case it would be helpful if he made any evidence he has more generally available. While - as will be obvious from the enclosed piece - I am critical of the products of Wakeford's music business career, I still consider it worth encouraging individuals who have broken with fascist political groups to maintain such breaks. It is, of course, possible that in Wakeford’s case I have been duped and if it can be shown that this is so, then it would be useful to know this in order to do something about it. Likewise, Black could write a companion piece to my article focusing on Tony Wakeford and Sol Invictus since various things he has written leave the impression that he believes himself to have a knowledge of this subject that greatly exceeds my own. Such an undertaking would also provide him with an opportunity to demonstrate that he’d learnt something from my submission. Yours sincerely, Stewart Home. CC News & Letters USA. ENC.

Documents released October 2005

Tony Wakeford Replies?

An email was sent to this website on 22 July 2006 purporting to come from Tony Wakeford. The sender wrote: "I never replied to your letter because I never got it. I have only just seen it on the net. As for the macho be a man stuff, what like you were at Acklam Hall?" The email address this was sent from and the content lead me to the conclusion that it is almost certainly genuine. While it is possible Wakeford didn't receive my letter, I view this as rather too convenient. However, if this email is from Wakeford (and I think it is) then he's seen my letter now and even after a six year cooling off period doesn't want to deal with the issues it raises. Draw your own conclusions; personally I'll continue with my policy of many years standing of having nothing to do with Wakeford. As for Wakeford's macho posturing (Acklam Hall is a reference to a fight that took place in Notting Hill in 1979 after I was attacked by a bunch of guys who were a lot bigger than me, and it was with the help of several dozen other people who jumped in that I avoided getting badly beaten up), all I can say is: 'meow!'

Incidentally, while Wakeford refuses to deal with the issues I raised in my letter, the rumours surrounding him multiply. I'd heard no gossip about Wakeford for a long time until my letter to him was put up here, after which I suddenly found my eyes and ears inundated with 'dirt' circulating about him. These rumours come from multiple sources and range from the assertion that until recently he had linked some of his own web pages to others put up by Troy Southgate of Anarchist Heretics, via the claim that the original Sol Invictus bassist left to join hardcore Nazi band No Remorse, to matters even more sinister. Among other things it is alleged that there is some 'connection' between Tony Wakeford, Ian Stuart (deceased 'singer' with Nazi band Skrewdriver), the Italian fascist terrorists responsible for the Bologna train station bombing, and a hotel in Kings X (north London). Further, there is supposedly a direct physical connection between this hotel and the fascist ideologue Julius Evola;, as well as a link between those who stayed there, the death of Roberto Calvi and a murder in Holland Park (west London). Yet other rumours connect Wakeford via former Sol Invictus singer Ian Read to politically dodgy goings on at a north London club. And I've been told that anyone interested in Wakeford's fascist activities should look out for the name Dave Waters, which is an alias used by the Sol Invictus front man. All of which makes it more - rather than less - pressing for Wakeford to address the issues I raised in my letter to him. My suspicion is that there is some factual basis to these rumours even if they distort matters. Regardless, for as long as Wakeford refuses to make a clean public break with his political past these rumours are bound to persist. And as a way of opening up the possibility of a more honest reassessment of Wakeford's shady past, I'd like to reveal that rather than starting his music career with the Trotskyist pop group Crisis as standard biographies of him claim, prior to this Wakeford was actually in a Status Quo style boogie band called Blackwater (obsessives can go looking through back copies of the Woking News & Mail for corroboration of this, there is an article headlined something like "Crisis Are All Set To Shock" dating probably from 1977 which makes mention of this - I have seen it but don't have a copy of the clipping). So now you know!

The two paragraphs above were added when this site was revamped in October 2006.

I am adding beneath a statement that went up on Tony Wakeford's website a couple of weeks ago. Make of it what you will:

"A Message from Tony. For the few who are interested in such things, Many years ago I was a (sic) once a member of the National Front. It was probably the worse decision of my life and one I very much regret. However, I have no connection with, sympathy for, or interest in those ideas nor have I had for around 20 years. A number of friends and musicians whom I work with (including my wife of 8 years), my bass player, my percussionist and engineer/producer, would be at best discriminated against or at worse dead if a far-right party took power. None of the artists I work with hold such views either, and I doubt they would want to work with me if they thought I did. I am willing to discus this matter privately with friends and associates and with those who are genuinely interested in my music or wish to work with me. However, this is the last public statement I plan to make on the subject. I am too fat to jump through hoops for people. In the end people will either have to believe me or not. Tony Wakeford. 14 February 2007."

My view is that this is better than nothing, although the statement could have been more fulsome, would have been far stronger if it had included an apology as well as regrets, and should have been made a long time ago. But better late than never.... Personally I don't want anything to do with Wakeford and I would urge others to take the same line, but unless concrete evidence emerges that he is lying when he says he ended his involvement with fascism 20 years ago, then I will provisionally accept the claims he makes on this score. However, since I am now convinced that Wakeford lied to me when he assured me he hadn't been in the band Above The Ruins, I remain sceptical of anything he says, and I am willing to further revise my position on whether he has or has not broken with fascism.

These further notes were added on 2 March 2007.

Most recent material on Wakeford in terms of postings on this site (drawing extensively from older published sources)

More material about Wakeford posted on this site

We Mean It Man: Punk Rock & Anti-Racism or, Death In June not mysterious

The McGonagall Syndrome (on the intellectual and aesthetic failings of a sad man who enthuses about Death In June, Sol Invictus and neo-folk)

You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic (on Wakeford's pal Pete Webb and the Industrialised Culture Research Network)

The Sound of Sadism: Whitehouse & the 'New' 'British' Art (post-aesthetic fascism)

Skrewdriver (chapter from book on punk rock Cranked Up Really High)

I Love A Man In A Uniform: From Fetish To Fashion & Back Again

Music