{"id":727615,"date":"2026-06-10T15:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727615\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:02:11","slug":"getting-off-the-bus-you-could-be-attacked-by-a-gang-of-skinheads-bikers-or-straights-it-was-hairy-riots-teargas-and-slamdancing-the-80s-scene-that-helped-inspire-metallica-slayer-na","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727615\/","title":{"rendered":"“Getting off the bus, you could be attacked by a gang of skinheads, bikers or straights. It was hairy.” Riots, teargas and slamdancing \u2013 The 80s scene that helped inspire Metallica, Slayer, Napalm Death and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1983, Anthrax<\/a> guitarist Scott Ian saw a band that changed his life. Growing up in New York, he\u2019d been aware of punk since the arrival of the Ramones<\/a>, but heard enough horror stories about what the punks<\/a> would do to \u201clonghairs\u201d that he decided to avoid the city\u2019s legendary CBGB\u2019s venue. That all changed when The Exploited came to town.<\/p>\n

Scott was a big fan of the Scottish band\u2019s 1982 album Troops Of Tomorrow, and he headed to downtown Manhattan club The Great Gildersleeves with then-Anthrax singer Neil Turbin and bassist Dan Lilker to see the band play and watch anarchy unfold.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Exploited came on and the crowd erupted into what I soon found out was called slam-dancing; I\u2019d never seen anything like it!\u201d Scott says now. \u201cAll these punks and skinheads losing their minds and stagediving, it was very physical and I was blown away. I wanted to go down and get into it, but Neil grabs me and is like, \u2018You don\u2019t wanna do that – they don\u2019t like longhairs!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hopped up on aggro and sporting foot-high mohawks, The Exploited and kindred spirits Discharge<\/a> and GBH led a wave of bands who took punk and made it heavier, faster and more brutal.<\/p>\n

I was searching for something that would help me release the aggression inside.<\/p>\n

Anastasiya Khomenko, Death Pill<\/p>\n

This movement \u2013 retrospectively dubbed UK82, after an Exploited song of the same name \u2013 would be a huge influence on the nascent thrash<\/a> and extreme metal movements that followed, inspiring everyone from Anthrax and Metallica<\/a> to Napalm Death, Neurosis and countless bands around the world today.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 12 I was searching for something that would inspire me and help release the aggression I had inside,\u201d says Anastasiya Khomenko, drummer with Ukrainian hardcore newcomers Death Pill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered The Exploited, GBH and Discharge around the same time \u2013 I heard [Discharge album] Never Again and since then I\u2019ve always been very close to fast punk music. It was amazing: raw, aggressive, fast\u2026 what else do you need when you\u2019re 14?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Discharge\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Press)<\/p>\n

At the end of the 70s, punk was in bad shape. The scene\u2019s founding fathers had either split up (Sex Pistols) or were moving away from their original fast and furious sound (The Clash, The Damned). The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal<\/a> had repurposed punk\u2019s DIY spirit, and was producing its own heroes in the shape of Saxon, Def Leppard and Iron Maiden.<\/p>\n

The news of punk\u2019s impending demise clearly hadn\u2019t reached Edinburgh when The Exploited formed in 1979. Fronted by Wattie Buchan, an ex-squaddie with an enormous red mohican and a Scottish accent that bordered on indecipherable, their defiantly titled debut album, 1981\u2019s Punk\u2019s Not Dead, plastered football-terrace chants over high-speed, ultra-aggro beats.<\/p>\n

A couple of hundred miles south in Stoke-on-Trent, Discharge were similarly upping the ante. \u201cIn the early days Discharge were basically a Sex Pistols cover band,\u201d explains guitarist Tony \u2018Bones\u2019 Roberts, who co-founded the band in 1977.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

But as the band\u2019s line-up changed, so too did its sound. \u201cIt was like a new band once [singer] Cal joined. We started playing faster and our sound just became harder as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

We played faster because it hid the mistakes<\/p>\n

Colin Abrahall, GBH<\/p>\n

GBH formed the following year in Birmingham \u2013 specifically in The Crown, the same pub that hosted Black Sabbath\u2019s early gigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone that went to The Crown was trying to form a band, but we carried through with it,\u201d GBH singer Colin Abrahall recalls. \u201cWe\u2019d run everything through this one amp and [original GBH drummer] Wilf hadn\u2019t got a full drum-kit, so he\u2019d tap along on an electric fire! We played faster because it hid the mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sound the three bands eventually developed had as much in common with Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s grimy, forceful noise as it did the Sex Pistols or The Clash\u2019s snotty broadsides, yet the wider punk and metal scenes were like oil and water, each eyeing the other with disdain and sometimes violence, though a few brave souls did occasionally cross the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were always a few metal fans at our gigs, even in the early days,\u201d says Bones with a laugh. \u201cThe brave ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where punk\u2019s original poster boys swung between nihilism and rebellious posturing, The Exploited, Discharge and GBH were fuelled by frustration and anger at the state of the world around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirmingham was an industrial city that\u2019d just got out of the three-day weeks\u2026 power cuts, lots of unemployment. It was a rough, tough place,\u201d Colin recalls. \u201cGetting off the bus, you could be attacked by a gang of skinheads, bikers or straights. It was hairy.\u201d<\/p>\n

GBH – CITY BABY ATTACKED BY RATS – HC WORLDWIDE (OFFICIAL VERSION HCWW) – YouTube
\n\"GBH<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, disdainful major labels kept these spiky haired hooligans at arms\u2019 length. Instead, it was down to independent UK labels like the London-based Secret (which released The Exploited\u2019s debut) and Stoke-On-Trent\u2019s Clay to unleash this snarling noise on the world. Both GBH and Discharge were signed to Clay, the latter after label founder Mike Stone saw an audience member throw a slab of beef at the band during a show in Stoke.<\/p>\n

Released in April 1981, Discharge\u2019s EP Why? was a cacophony of feedback, proto-blastbeats and infuriated howls, cramming 10 tracks into a little under 15 minutes and reaching No.1 in the UK Independent Charts. That same month, The Exploited\u2019s debut Punk\u2019s Not Dead reached No.20 in the official charts, earning the band an invitation onto Top Of The Pops for a memorable performance of the song Dead Cities. Wattie later joked that The Exploited \u201cwere probably the only band to sell less records after [our] appearance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, provincial towns and cities up and down the country had their own clique of kids with Exploited-style mohicans and Discharge logos painted on the back of their jackets: Vice Squad and Chaos UK from Bristol, Anti-Nowhere League from Tunbridge Wells, Derby\u2019s Anti-Pasti… The list is endless.<\/p>\n

It sounded like the apocalypse<\/p>\n

Scott Ian Anthrax<\/p>\n

In December 1981 The Exploited and GBH played together at Leeds\u2019 Queens Hall, sharing the bill with the Anti-Nowhere League and punk pioneers The Damned, as well as US hardcore trailblazers Black Flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time we met Americans and realised there was stuff happening out there too,\u201d Colin says. \u201cThere were thousands of people there, all going wild. The whole world seemed punk!\u201d<\/p>\n

If 1981 had been a formative year for the new punks, 1982 was the year everything exploded. The Exploited\u2019s second album, Troops Of Tomorrow, upped the speed and aggression of its predecessor, while GBH and Discharge both released landmark debut albums in the shape of City Baby Attacked By Rats and Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing had a huge impact on Anthrax, Slayer and Exodus,\u201d says Scott Ian. \u201cThere was a level of intensity, aggression and brutality that was unlike anything we\u2019d ever heard. Those short bursts of anger, those sparse lyrics\u2026 it sounded like the apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off the back of these albums, the bands made their way over to the US, which had a thriving punk scene of its own in hardcore. As wild as their shows in the UK had been, the US was a whole other world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some mad gigs,\u201d Colin says. \u201cWe played one place and the security were these old military guys still in uniform! But whenever anyone would get onstage, a lot of venues would cut the PA off and drop the fire curtain.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a drummer I realised I’d need to step up if I was going to keep up with these bands.<\/p>\n

Dave Lombardo<\/p>\n

The Exploited fared even worse \u2013 more than one gig ended prematurely after tear gas was fired into the venue. Still, at least they got to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times we\u2019d turn up to a venue and the promoter would just say, \u2018It\u2019s been called off, go home,\u2019\u201d says Discharge\u2019s Bones.<\/p>\n

The gigs that did happen certainly left an impression on those that witnessed them. Just as Scott Ian had seen The Exploited in New York, Dave Lombardo of up-and-coming young thrashers Slayer saw GBH play at the venue Madame Wong\u2019s West.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GBH gig really felt like what we [Slayer] wanted to do,\u201d Dave tells Hammer. \u201cThe aggression, the anger, the conviction that you\u2019d play your music with\u2026 there wasn\u2019t anything pretentious about it. It was a bunch of street kids into music, pissed about society, about home and whatever. As a drummer I was realising I needed to step up if I was going to keep up with these bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t the only fresh-faced thrasher in the audience that night, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got to San Francisco, Metallica came along to see us,\u201d Colin remembers. \u201cWe got quite friendly with them. Three years later we were rehearsing in Birmingham and Metallica ended up rehearsing right next door to us for this massive tour they\u2019d got booked. They\u2019d take us to the pub at dinner time!\u201d<\/p>\n

As thrash bloomed in the 80s, the UK punk scene that had helped inspire it began to wane. GBH soldiered on, as did The Exploited, although Wattie remained the sole constant member. Bones left Discharge in 1982 to form Broken Bones; four years later his old band released the infamous Grave New World album, which saw singer Cal adopt a high-pitched wail plucked straight from the Sunset Strip \u2013 something that didn\u2019t go over well with their existing fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a famous time when Discharge played The Ritz [in New York in 1986], and HR from Bad Brains dumped a whole can of garbage on Cal onstage because he hated their new sound so much!\u201d recalls Scott Ian.<\/p>\n

Our merch girl told Metallica, ‘You can pay for your shirts like everybody else!’<\/p>\n

Bones Discharge<\/p>\n

Discharge took the hint and split in 1987, but a resurgence of interest in the 1990s from the likes of Sepultura, Slayer and Metallica \u2013 who covered Free Speech For The Dumb on 1998\u2019s Garage Inc. \u2013 saw three-quarters of their Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing line-up reunite in 2001.<\/p>\n

GBH stayed the course, releasing a steady string of albums over the years, as did The Exploited, although their last release was over 20 years ago, 2003\u2019s Fuck The System. All three bands still gig regularly today \u2013 even two onstage heart attacks in the last decade can\u2019t stop The Exploited frontman Wattie in his tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are hundreds, if not thousands, of fans all over the world, playing covers of their songs and getting tattoos in honour of the musicians,\u201d Death Pill vocalist Mariana Navrotskaya says of the original UK82 bands. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about a large-scale influence on the modern music scene: at a minimum, these bands still get thousands of people to their shows each year, which shows their importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s come full circle and we even see parents bringing their kids,\u201d says Discharge\u2019s Bones. \u201cMetallica came to see us one night before they played London. They got a quiet table away from the rabble and you could see them headbanging all night. Later, they went over to the merch to ask if there were any free shirts and the girl working it had no idea who they were. She said, \u2018You can pay for them like everybody else!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1983, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian saw a band that changed his life. Growing up in New York,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-727615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}