Bulldog Breed
History
Oi! studio-project. English Rose’s vocalist Jonesy was in prison, serving 18 months, half way through his sentence in 1994, he wrote to Squadron’s bassist Brad and guitarist Jim and English Rose drummer Blakey, that on his release they could do an Oi! album together. The plan was for it to be without any real politics, just as a bit of fun to remember their younger days etc and to use some of the profits to aid P.O.W.s. Brad suggested the band-name, Bulldog Breed, and the album title, ‘Made In England’. The song writing began while Jonesy was still in prison, whilst the rest of the line-up worked on the music. Upon Jonesy’s release, in early 1995, they got together for rehearsals in Jonesy’s front room with Jonesy, vocals, Jim on guitar, Brad on bass and Blakey on drums.
Their first studio session ended up with the finished product of the first CD ‘Made In England’. The idea of the project being 100% Oi! influenced didn’t last long and some of their political beliefs crept into some songs. They were very happy with the end result and decided to release it theirselves.
Due to the support they received they decided that there was a need for a second CD, and ‘Unleashed Again’ was recorded in November 1996. This wasn’t as Oi! sounding as the first CD.
Bulldog Breed was only ever meant to be a recording project but because of the support they got they decided to play live. With this line-up they played gigs in Finland, Italy, Germany and Scotland. Just before a planned trip to Ulster, Jim quit the band. After a while Titch was found as his replacement and the band played gigs in France, Italy and the U.S.
In October 2000 the band returned to the studio to record tracks, which were released as part of the ‘Bonded By Blood’ split-CD with US band Intimidation One. Bulldog Breed played their last gig in April 2002.
Since then the band has played a few gigs on and off and in 2009 released a limited edition hand numbered CD – The Complete Collection. Which includes all the bands songs, old new, unreleased and from split CD.
Not to be confused with the 1960s ‘psychadelia’ band of the same name that also released an album titled ‘Made In England’.
EARLY DAYS:
AS MOST OF YOU ALREADY KNOW, ‘BULLDOG BREED’ WAS A CO-OPERATION BETWEEN TWO BANDS, ‘ENGLISH ROSE’ & ‘SQUADRON’. THE LINE UP AT THE BEGINNING WAS AS FOLLOWS:
‘BRAD – BASS’ (SQUADRON).
‘JIM – GUITAR’ (SQUADRON).
‘STEVE – VOCALS’ (ENGLISH ROSE).
‘DAVID – DRUMS’ (ENGLISH ROSE).
it was never meant to be any more than a recording project, an attempt to capture that old school oi! Sound and attitude while steering clear of politics. Obviously our street politics found a way in, it was life as we saw it back then, but we think we managed to capture that old school sound and attitude as planned.
back in early ’93, ‘squadron’ were treading a path to heavier and heavier music and losing that original skinhead sound that they once had. ‘english rose’ were faced with guitarist problems in them days and not functioning as a full band, just occasional recording sessions. Anyway, both bands had started becoming good friends while playing alongside each other on a regular basis. That friendship grew when both bands were arrested in germany while traveling to play a gig, and spent some time together in the cells. Oh such fun times!
the boys got talking about music and how we love the simplicity of football terrace / anthem skinhead songs such as ”oi! Oi! Oi!’, ‘chaos’, ‘razors in the night’, ‘england belongs to me’, ‘violence’, ‘someone’s gonna die’, ‘hurry up harry’, ‘suburban rebels’, ‘take em all’ and thousands of other classic oi! Songs. After a handful of beers ‘bulldog breed’ was born, an eccentrically british name with that obvious skinhead connection and patriotic passion. Sadly though ‘steve was waiting for a court date following a previous run in with the law and received on 18 month sentence, this was a slight set back but also a chance for us to write the music and lyrics for our 1st album.
MADE IN ENGLAND:
The boys were re-united in early ’95 and got together in the living room of steve’s house, to the annoyance of the neighbours no doubt, to rehearse the songs that were penned over the last year or so. The 1st album was ready and was recorded in april ’95, mixed on april 23rd (st georges day), and with that patriotic feeling running at a high we decided to call it ‘made in england’. The cover was simple a picture we took from a popular skinhead book, and so started the musical journey of ‘bulldog breed’. We didn’t want anything technical or over produced, we wanted raw and straight forward oi!. We recorded and mixed the album in 3 days and decided to releases it on our own label, which we named ‘rampage productions’. The album gained a lot of praise and support from a wide range of people, but it also had a few ignorant critics. We thanked a large number of bands on the album, including ‘red alert’, ‘the partisans’ and ‘the oppressed’ among others, because they had influenced us musically and we had listened to them through life. Their music had influenced us, not thier pseudo anarchistic, liberal, wishy-washy political views. Enough said!
UNLEASHED AGAIN:
In mid ’96 the writing of the 2nd album began, and we decided to call it ‘unleashed again’. The studio was booked for november and we had most of the album penned, but we actually wrote ‘drunk & disorderly’ while travelling to and from the studio in the back of a van, and we wrote ‘in your eyes’ in the studio itself. We completed the recording and mixed it on november 9th. The cover came from over the water this time, from none other than ‘griffin’ of ‘aryan’ / ‘stonehammer’ fame. ‘brad’ & ‘jim’ had stayed with him while touring canada and america, and seeing as he was a top notch artist and owner of bulldogs, it seemed logical to ask for his assistance with the cover. We released the album on ‘rampage productions’ again, and the reaction was more than what we could ever have dreamed of.
EARLY 1997 – 1999:
We entered the studio again in ’97 to record for the ‘voice of britain’ compilation cd on ‘rampage productions’, resulting in the 2 songs, ‘the union jack’ and ‘brotherhood’. Sadly this was the last input from ‘jim’ as he decided to quit the band and move onto other musical adventures. ‘bulldog breed’ were momentarily down, but not out of the fight for good. In ’99 we were asked to play in america at the ‘hammerfest’, and in stepped ‘tich’ who was at that time playing alongside ‘brad in the band ‘eye of odin’. What a weekend, what a great festival, playing with bands like ‘bully boys’, ‘midtown bootboys’, ‘white wash’ and ‘intimidation one’. Goddamn!
THE GREAT BRITISH EXPORT:
With ‘tich’ on board, we entered the studio to lay down a few tracks for a 7″ single for ‘dim records’ in germany. The a-side featured ‘the great british export’, a song about the skinhead way of life. For the b-side we covered ‘pervert’ (public enemy), as close to the original as possible, and ‘take em all’ (cock sparrer) with our slight twist on the lyrics.
PANZERFAUST RECORDS:
Also in 2000, we entered the studio again. ‘panzerfaust records’ asked us to record a split cd with ‘intimidation one’, so we recorded our 6 songs, but somewhere in the production of the release our sound was lost, but our message still got out there. But once again the band came to a hault as we all had too much going on in our lives, family, jobs, children and other bands. ‘brad’ & ‘tich’ were busy with ‘eye of odin’, ‘steve’ was off touring with ‘english rose’, with the backing of ‘verszerzodes’ and ‘david’ was now drumming with ‘brutal attack’. Busy! Busy! Busy!
TODAY:
the 40th birthday of ‘steve’ saw the band get together again for a bit of a jam. We started talking again about the songs we had on demo from all those years back, stuff that was meant to be the 3rd and final album. That night resulted in the band getting together for a few more gigs and a couple of days in the recording studio. We recorded 10 new songs, 8 of them are the un-heard tracks from the demo, and we also re-recorded ‘unleashed again’ with new lyrics, and ‘h.F.F.H’ with updated lyrics. These songs are exclusively for this ‘complete collection, and maybe for a vinyl release for you vinyl junkies.
so, we are older and wiser now, but the music is still as true as ever….. ‘bulldog breed’ never lost that oi! Spirit, and never lost the passion for the music or the way of life. We have been lucky enough to play america, italy, spain, belgium, france, germany, finland, ulster, hungary, scotland and england of course. We have met many friends over the years, and a lot of those friendships still continue today, and we hope for many more years to come.
Discography
Official Productions
???? – Demo – own production – MC
1995 – Made in England – Rampage Productions – RAM 1 – CD – UK
1997 – Unleashed again – Rampage Productions – RAM 2- CD – UK
2000 – The great British export – Dim Records – EP
2000 – Made in England – Rampage Productions – LP
2000 – Unleashed again – Dim Records – LP
2009 – The Complete Collection 1994-2009 – own production – Double CD
2009 – Loyal To The End – Oi! Ain’t Red Records – LP
Live Albums
2001 – Made in England – Rampage Productions – CD
Split
2001 – Bulldog Breed & Intimidation One – Brothers through Blood Vol. 2 – Panzerfaust Records – CD
Samplers
All for one thing (13. Unity is Victory, 14. Stand up Fight Back)
Blood & Honour – Britain awake! (16. Made in England)
Soutien des Prisonniers (15. Unity is Victory)
United Skins – For freedom of speech (CD1: 22. Loyal to the end)
Voice of Britain Vol. 1 (15. Brotherhood, 16. The Union Jack)
Track Lists
Demo
01. Die With Dignity
02. Loyal to the End
03. 4.Q (Cover Blitz)
04. Nothing
05. Red, White & Black
06. Statistic
07. Straight Back to Hell
08. Skinheads 88 (Youth Defense League)
Made In England
01. Made in England
02. Our Flags are Flying
03. Bulldog Breed
04. Oi! Oi! Oi!
05. Instinct to Survive
06. We Hate You
07. Fence Sitter (Shitter)
08. Rockin’ On
09. Taken for a Ride
10. Fact or Fiction
11. Unity is Victory
12. Proud & True
The Great British Export
01. The Great British Export
02. Take´Em All
03. Pervert
A limited edition 300 copy vinyl
Unleashed Again
01. Unleashed Again
02. Bitter & Twisted
03. My Motherland
04. Vicious Rumours
05. H.F.F.H
06. Drunk & Disorderly
07. Stand Up – Fight Back
08. U.X.B.
09. A Way of Life
10. Paedophile
11. It’s Getting Worse
12. In Your Eyes
13. Tattooed Skin
14. Take ’em All
The Complete Collection 1994-2009
CD 1:
01. Made In England (3:32)
02. Our Flags Are Flying (2:50)
03. Bulldog Breed (2:46)
04. Oi! Oi! Oi! (3:01)
05. Instinct To Survive (3:04)
06. We Hate You (3:03)
07. Fence Sitter (Shitter) (3:52)
08. Rockin’ On (3:32)
09. Taken For A Ride (2:09)
10. Fact Or Fiction (2:38)
11. Unity is Victory (5:43)
12. Unleashed Again (3:08)
13. Bitter & Twisted (2:18)
14. My Motherland (3:01)
15. Vicious Rumours (2:00)
16. H.F.F.H (4:15)
17. Drunk & Disorderly (2:58)
18. Stand Up – Fight Back (2:47)
19. U.X.B. (2:54)
20. A Way of Life (1:53)
21. Paedophile (3:56)
22. It’s Getting Worse (2:46)
CD 2:
01. Brotherhood (3:55)
02. The Union Jack (3:54)
03. The great British Export (4:42)
04. Pervert (3:28)
05. Take ’em all (3:34)
06. You’re fucking wrong (2:40)
07. Excuses (2:28)
08. Tattooed Skin (3:16)
09. Straight Edge (0:57)
10. Taking it back (2:04)
11. Corruption (3:25)
12. Die with dignity (3:19)
13. H.F.F.H. (2008) (3:38)
14. Loyal to the end (2:34)
15. 4Q (1:32)
16. Nothing (3:10)
17. Red, White and Black (3:42)
18. Statistic (3:51)
19. Straight back to hell (3:51)
20. Unleashed again (2008) (3:07)
21. Skinheads 88 (2:12)
22. Proud & True (4:28)
23. In your eyes (6:13)
Loyal To The End
01. Die With Dignity
02. H.F.F.H.
03. Loyal To The End
04. 4.Q
05. Nothing
06. Red, White & Black
07. Statistic
08. Straight Back To Hell
09. Unleashed Again
10. Skinheads 88
Limited edition vinyl release as 525. 175 black and 350 in red.
Bulldog Breed & Intimidation One – Brothers through Blood Vol. 2
Bulldog Breed
01. You`re fuckin` wrong (2:50)
02. Excuses (2:38)
03. Tattoed Skin (3:23)
04. Straight edge (1:08)
05. Taking it back (2:13)
06. Corruption (3:27)
Intimidation One
07. My pride (3:55)
08. Back with a bang (4:01)
09. Enkel (8:01)
10. In pride we stride (2:25)
11. O`Leary remembered (5:53)
12. Odins war (1:50)