The Warriors
History
After the English Oi! skinhead band the Last Resort called it a day in late 1981. The Warriors was formed as a continuation of the Last Resort but without the manager Mickey French and the bands drummer Andy Benfield who was replaced with John Fisher.
In early 1982 they played two gigs in in London, one at the 100 Club and the other at the Blue Coat Boy which at the time was known as “Skunks”. This line up recorded the song Horrorshow for Oi! Oi! That’s Yer Lot LP and the song Wicked Women for the United Skins LP. In May, The Last Resort album A Way of life – Skinhead Anthems was released by Mickey French. Skinhead Anthems was never intended as an album as it was just a bunch of demos but by then the band weren’t even playing.
By mid 1982 The Warriors line up was Roi Pearce on vocals, Arthur Kitchener on bass, Charlie Duggan on guitar, and John Fisher on drums. After those few gigs and recordings the band broke up. With Roi joining 4-Skins, Tarot, The Resort (1988), The Heavy Metal Outlaws in 1993, then Horrorshow. Roi reformed the Last Resort in 2003. Charlie sold his guitar and bought a motorbike. Andy appeared in a local band Big Mamoo as a keyboard player and later joined L.A. Doors to be replaced by Ben Mills. Arthur meanwhile joined Diz And The Doormen, Alive & Picking followed by The Balham Alligators, Arthur Kay & The Originals, The Cho-zen and The City Blues band to name but a few before reforming The Warriors in 1995.
In September 1995, Bieze, a skinhead from Belgium, wanted to do a “Last Resort” show in Brugge. Charlie and Andy are “unavailable” but Roi wanted to do it. Then Roi and Arthur fell out over musical differences. Basically Roi wanted to do a big rock show and Arthur wanted to just to take the money and run. So the original Last Resort vocalist of Graham Saxby was recruited after a chance meeting with Arthur’s wife.
The gig has to be put back from November 1995 to January 1996. In the meantime the lads teamed up with Daryl Smith (Cocksparrer, Argy Bargy) and Dustin Burgess (Argy Bargy) and recorded a new album The Full Monty.
Roi, who owns the copyright of the name The Last Resort had agreed to a one off gig but hadn’t agreed for an album to be made under that name, so a compromise was reached when Arthur suggested The Warriors A.K.A The Last Resort. The first pressing of The Full Monty bear that moniker as does a video of a gig recorded in Cardiff a couple of months later. This line up of The Warriors also played gigs at The Penny Theatre in Canterbury in 1996 and The Cue Club in Herne Bay in 1997. The Cue Club gig was also a launch party for the second album called Noizy Bollox.
Then in 1998 a mini album is recorded called Bad Guys with Bob Coltart (Maroondogs, Cho-Zen) and Steve Wyse on some of the tracks as Daryl and Dustin were too busy with Ska band The Mistakes.
The Warriors were then offered a small tour of Japan. James “Dutch” Ovens (Deadline, Gundog) and Tarik “Taz” Majeed (Gundog) were recruited on guitar and drums respectfully. They played gigs France, Herne Bay and Brixton before going off to a three date tour of Japan (Osaka twice and Kyoto).
This line up played over 40 gigs together in 4 years including, Holland, Germany, Dublin, Belfast, Atlanta, Finland, Norway and London (7 times). They played Punk Aid, Holidays In The Sun, Holidays In The Smoke and Punk & Disorderly before recording A Cross To Bear in 1999. This album was not released however until 2000.
In 2001, The Warriors recorded Justice Not Politics for the album A Tribute To The Business.
Then in 2002 Arthur decides to retire from Oi / Punk. Sid of Section 5 joined and a gig in Canterbury in 2003 is the final gig with that line up. Saxby decides to have a rest for various reasons and during this time the band lose James who decides to move to Bradford and Tarik gets a job away and has then played with East End Badoes and Viva Las Vegas.
Then in 2003 Roi reforms The Last Resort and Saxby goes to their gigs and ends up singing backing vocals quite a bit. After a while he wants to get The Warriors up and running again but is struggling to find a guitarist after a local lad was offered the job and decided he didn’t want it. Arthur suggests Tosh (Section 5) or Gary Lammin (Cocksparrer) or both.
Saxby has an idea of getting a band of local lads together so that The Warriors are a proper band again, rehearsing regularly and socialising a bit like the original Last Resort used to back in the 80’s.
In February 2007 after watching Crimewave at the Mill Inn in Deal, Saxby offers bass duties to Karl Taylor his old mate from Herne Bay but as Karl is quite happy in Crimewave he declines and suggests a mate of his, Russ Black, who is at the same gig. After rapidly recruiting Dave Rowe on guitar and a loan of Chris Hogg from Crimewave, until a permanent drummer can be found.
Within two months and just two rehearsals the first gig with this line up at the Concrete Jungle festival at Camber Sands in April. This turned out to be a disaster, it came way too quickly and with that many rehearsals and an extremely drunk member of the band it was as shambolic. But they were going again and a gig at the Beercart Arms in Canterbury on the 29th of April (Saxbys Birthday) with Deadline and Crimewave was a vast improvement on the previous gig.
Unfortunately after that Chris had to go on tour in America as he is also a roadie and a drum tech. So the band had to cancel a gig and were struggling again until Ben Moss from local metal heads Demonbreed offered himself up as drummer.
A few local gigs followed with Vice Squad, Assert, Demob, Batteries Not Included, Vas Deferens and The Vibrators among others. Ben announced he was leaving and on 4th Jan 2008 played his last gig at The Railway in Ipswich supporting The Gonads. Chris who had just returned from his trip to America and Europe rejoined and played his return gig in Ashford at Oranges less than one month and more than two rehearsals later, followed by a support slot to Sick On The Bus. Then in March the band were offered a gig in Stoke supporting The Business, a headline show in both France and Belgium at the Moloko Bar. Later that month The Warriors recorded a few songs at a small studio in Margate as a demo.
In 2008 and April and May are busy months, April culminating in Saxbys 50th Birthday bash in Sheerness supporting The Vibrators followed by a gig with Red Alert. June saw the band headline The Bridgehouse 2 with Splodge and The Gonads, a gig with Menace and one supporting The Last Resort. Finished off the year by finally recording Unite The Scene which was recorded at Perryvale Studios in London. Finishing off gigging for the year with a superb night at the Bridgehouse with Frankie Flame and Superyob.
Unite The Scene was released in March 2009, with an album launch with Sham 69 gig in Gillingham. After the release of Unite The Scene The Warriors gigged extensively throughout 2009 culminating in a superb gig supporting 4-Skins in Paris and one on the last date of the Cockney Rejects world tour at The Circus Tavern in Essex.
2010 started off reasonably slowly but picked up pace with a slot at Punk & Disorderly in Berlin, followed by what would be Dave’s last dates abroad with The Warriors in Germany & Holland. Dave played his final gig at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool doing a storming half hour set. The band had a nightmare of a time auditioning a new guitarist as they were all good and finally settled on Andy H who was previously with Surgery Without Research who had supported The Warriors a few times in the past. Unrehearsed, Andy H went straight into the studio to record the new single which was called England on Randale Records.
Discography
Official Productions
1996 – The Full Monty – LP and CD
1997 – Noizy Bollox – CD
1998 – Bad Guys – miniCD
1999 – Made In England – EP
1999 – Last Resort/Sad Junkie Loser – 7″
2000 – A Cross To Bear – CD
2008 – Future Is Unrecorded – CDr single
2009 – Unite The Scene – LP and CD
Live Albums and Bootlegs
1996 – Maximum Oi – Live In Cardiff – Vinyl EP
1996 – Maximum Oi – Live in Cardiff – DVD
2008 – Oi! The Bootleg – CDr bootleg
Split
2011 – The Warriors / Booze & Glory – England – Randale Records – single
Samplers
1982 – United Skins LP/CD (Wicked Women)
1983 – Oi! Oi! That’s Yer Lot – LP/CD (Horror Show)
1999 – Skinhead Girl Crew – 2 CD – (South London Girl)
1996 – Trouble On Terraces – CD (Here To Stay / Warriors
199? – Tribute To The Business – CD (Justice Not Politics)
1996 – Heroes & Villains – CD (Gary Bushell / Reggie Kray)
1997 – 100% British Oi – Double CD (Horrorshow)
1999 – The Ultimate Street Music Convention – CD (4 Live Tracks In Japan)
199? – Kill The Boys Scouts Vol1 – Vinyl (Bad Guys)
2000 – This Is Punk This Is Oi – (Ex Pats)
2000 – The First Ten Years – Warzwerk – CD (Craig & Bently)
200? – Justice For Mark Barnsley – (Buddha Of Backstreets)
2001 – Hardcore Hooligan – CD (Justice Not Politics)
2002 – Strength Of The Nation – CD (Made In England)
2002 – Punk Aid – Double – CD (Class War)
2009 – Radio Riot – CD (SNAFU)
2009 – Is This England – CD (Clockwork London / Kill Your Boss / The Future Is Unwritten)
Track Lists
The Full Monty
01. Free Reggie Kray
02. The Last Refuge
03. Sawdust Caesar
04. Big Brother Is Watching You
05. Mothers In Arms
06. Gary Bushell
07. Marlon Brando
08. S-Tory Stories
09. Perfect Crime
10. All Quiet On The Preston Front
11. Them And Us
12. Holiday Songs
Noizy Bollox
01. Noizy Bollox
02. Face Behind The Mask
03. Driving And Drumming
04. Horror Show
05. Let There Be Noize
06. Department Of Greed
07. Warriors (Come Out To Play)
08. Fibby Fairfax
09. Ex-Pats (Living In Exile)
10. Spirit Of 69
11. I Used To Believe
12. The Beast
Bad Guys
01. Bad Guy
02. Had It Your Own Way Too Long
03. Gary Bushell
04. Free Reggie Kray
05. C.S.A.
06. Craig And Bentley
07. Made In England
The Best Of The Warriors
01. The Face Behind The Mask
02. Free Reggie Kray
03. Noizy Bollox
04. Gary Bushell
05. Sawdust Caesar
06. Craig And Bentley
07. The Last Refuge
08. Let There Be Noize
09. Horror Show
10. Them And Us
11. Wicked Women
12. Warriors (Come Out To Play)
13. Made In England
14. S-Tory Stories
15. Ex-Pats (Living In Exile)
16. Department of Greed
17. Mothers In Arms
18. Fibby Fairfax
19. Held Hostage (Live In Japan)
20. Resort Boot Boys (Live In Japan)
A Cross To Bear
01. Intro
02. God Bless Princess Diana
03. Sad Junkie Loser
04. When The Party’s Over
05. South London Girl
06. Children Of The Damned
07. Crazy Killer
08. Vanessa
09. The Last Resort
10. Buddah Of The Back Streets
11. Stay Free
12. Class War
13. Burn Down The Discos
14. Outro
15. Noizy Bollox (live)
16. Working Class Kids (live)
17. Free Reggie Kray (live)
18. Marlon Brando (live)
19. Johnny Barden (live)
20. Bad Guys (live)
21. Horrorshow (live)
22. George Marshall (live)
23. Rebels With A Cause (live)
24. Gary Bushell (live)
Oi! The Bootleg
01. Horrorshow (Demo)
02. Wicked Women (Rare)
03. Here To Stay (Rare)
04. Warriors (original version)
05. Held Hostage (Live In Japan)
06. King Of The Jungle (Live In Japan)
07. Oi Oi Skinhead / Sawdust Ceasar (Live In Japan)
08. Resort Bootboys / Not Going Home (Live In Japan)
09. Diana (Original demo)
10. South London Girl (Original demo)
11. Stay Free (Original demo)
12. Vanessa (Original demo)
13. Class War (Original demo)
14. Crazy Killer (Original demo)
15. Buddha Of The Backstreets (Original demo)
16. Children Of The Damned (Original demo)
17. When The Party’s Over (Original demo)
18. Douglas Baders Legs (Unreleased)
19. Justice Not Politics (Rare – Business Cover)
Unite The Scene
01. Political Crossfire
02. The Future Is Unwritten
03. S.N.A.F.U
04. Up The Bridgehouse
05. Unite The Scene
06. Compromise Your beliefs
07. Kill Your Boss
08. John Fila, Drug Dealer
09. Be A Man
10. Fists Of Fury
11. Clockwork London
12. Horrorshow
Maximum Oi – Live In Cardiff
01. Soul Boys
02. Working Class Kids
03. Free Reggie Kray
04. Gary Bushell
05. Marlon Brando
06. Horrorshow
07. Sawdust Ceasar
08. Johnny Barden
09. Perfect Crime
10. Rebels With A Cause
11. £8 A Week
12. King Of The Jungle
13. Violence In Our Minds
14. Held Hostage
15. Resort Bootboys