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| Tom |
Rolling Stones may drop 'racist' support
By Arifa Akbar
03 June 2003
The Rolling Stones may drop a German band who were to support them on their world tour because the group has written racist lyrics.
Boehse Onkelz, translated as Bad Uncle, were due to play with the Stones in Hanover on 8 August as part of the European leg of the tour.
Bernard Doherty, spokesman for the Rolling Stones, said the band had been told about Boehse Onkelz' background and members would meet this week to discuss removing them from the billing. "The Rolling Stones were not aware the band had been booked by a local promoter," said Mr Doherty.
The German group wrote racist lyrics referring to the Turkish community in the 1980s. They are since said to have renounced their links with the far right.
The rock band is the fourth largest in Germany and has had a loyal following since it formed. When the band members were teenagers, they are understood to have recorded a demo tape which included far right-wing lyrics. Their early songs include "Turks Out", which has the line: "Go back to Ankara ... you make me sick."
Since the mid-1980s, they have made public statements against Nazism and racism. The bass player Stephan Weidner said that the songs were not meant to have been heard outside of punk clubs. He told the heavy metal fanzine Metal Hammer: "I have done things in the past that could be interpreted as being fascist. There's nothing that can be prettified about this. But now that I'm 38 years old, do I still have to justify what I did when I was a 16 year old?"
Other bands supporting the Stones include the Stereophonics, the Hives and the Pretenders.
The Stones are currently taking a six-week break from the gruelling tour before resuming tomorrow in Munich, visiting another 15 countries before finishing back in England on their final date at Twickenham on 24 August.
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| mac_daddy |
good.
and the local promoter gets left holding the bag...
while that bass player doesn't have to justify everything he did as a teenager, there is NO reason why the Stones should have to explain or defend his (or his band's) behavior. Maybe the folks in Hanover get lucky, and the Hives get the spot. |
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| Gazza |
>The Stones are currently taking a six-week break from the gruelling tour before resuming tomorrow in Munich, visiting another 15 countries before finishing back in England on their final date at Twickenham on 24 August
ahem. |
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| Riffhard |
So who opened? Was it the "former" Nazis or what?
Riffhard |
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| ~AzQb |
Warn't it Chrissie and them Pretendaaaahs???
No???
~ |
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| RubyFriday |
I think...Cranberries |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
>But now that I'm 38 years old, do I still have to justify what I did when I was a 16 year old?"<
Under normal conditions...no. But these are not normal conditions that we are talking here. Unfortunately, his band was hired by a local promoter to open for the Stones. NOW he does indeed have to justify his, and his band's past.
I mean, Eichman still had to justify what he did in decades past....no?
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| sonicrock |
yes but eichmann was a grown up man. i really don t like nazi, i may say i m able to take gun to fight them, but i don t want to justify what i did at 16 either.life is a gathering of mistakes that you try to fight, i mean my life. |
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| RubyFriday |
I wouldn�t defend this either - just the opposite - but you can�t compare a mass murderer with a stone thrower |
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| Doxa |
Well, now it looks like they didn�t kick BO out (Well, my German is quite bad, but I think I got it right). Those who know German better check this out:
http://www.haz.de/hannover/nachrichten/202591.html
Doxa |
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| sirmoonie |
All this damn political correctness. Why can't bands like the Onkies be allowed to embrace Germany's rich nazical heritage? |
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| sirmoonie |
Contest time:
First person to get their views published by BBC gets.....uh, my congratulatons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/2959444.stm
I sent my comments in, but they e-mailed me back saying they were not fit for public consumption. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
>yes but eichmann was a grown up man.<
Sure. A grown man who put himself into a position where he either followed orders or be executed. But it is my opinion that these guys, even at 16, knew what they were doing, just like the Nazis. They were trying to cultivate a following amoungst the German Skinhead movement. They made a very bad choice. Now they are embarrassed that that choice came to light. You can't make the choice to be a racist, and not expect consequences on down the road. In the US, people lose jobs, get evicted, are socially ostracized if it is found that they were Klan, or Aryan Nation, or whatever. Sure, the white power jerks can still be found here. But they have had to go underground...they hide. Everytime they have a rally, there is a bigger counter-rally of civilized people who want to stamp out racism. So now they have their gatherings out in the mountains, far away from the rest of us. They know if they show their faces, they will lose big time. And that is the way it should be.
We must all live with the results of our decisions. It matters not when those decisions were made.
I'm sure the Turks and Jews are very forgiving towards this band. Yeah, right.
>but you can�t compare a mass murderer with a stone thrower<
Mass murderers start out as stone throwers. No good comes out of any racist movement. I paint them all with the same brush.
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
Sir Stonesalot wrote:
I'm sure the Turks and Jews are very forgiving towards this band. Yeah, right.
They had a lot more songs that just the two that get mentioned now, including one about bombing and burning London. Their claim that they were young and just discussing social events that they say the were witnessing everyday is a load of neo-crock.
This stuff goes over big in Germany and always has. Are we supposed to believe that it has only now just come to light that Germany's FOURTH LARGEST BAND are Nazis? Yeah right.
I've defended the Stones money grubbing ways before, but this one is over the top. I hope Mick and Co. feel a little twinge of remorse before counting up last night's Reichmarks take. |
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| Doxa |
Mick Jagger: "Wir spielen mit ihnen. Sie sind eine gute Band."
So, that�s it.
Doxa |
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| sirmoonie |
Money wins. As it should, I suppose.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2967972.stm |
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| Tom |
From TOTALLY JEWISH
http://www.totallyjewish.com
Stones Furore
by Justin Cohen - Jun 6
A German rock band accused of performing virulently anti-Jewish songs are due to support the Rolling Stones on their world tour this summer.
Boeshe Onkelz, which translates as Evil Uncles, is one of Germany�s most popular rock bands, but their right-wing punk past could come back to haunt them as pressure mounts on Mick Jagger�s wrinkly rockers to drop them from the 50,000-capacity show in Hanover on 8 August.
A spokesperson for the British band told TJ: �The Rolling Stones were unaware of this band�s background and this story from their history. A local German promoter booked them. They�re only appearing on one show in Hanover. The rest of the tour we have bands like AC DC, the Stereophonics, the Hives and the Pretenders.�
He added: �Of course, The Rolling Stones would not support any far right-wing bands.�
Boehse Onkelz was once a favourite act among Germany�s neo-nazi fringe. But it has since gone on to become the country�s fourth biggest selling rock band and the band�s members have long renounced the views expressed in some of their early songs.
One tune, dating from the 1980s, contains the lyrics: �Want your Jew to die, come again to Dachau. There the Jews run fast with women and children. That is beautiful. That is good. Let us f**k them."
Another song, called Turks Out, features the line: �Go back to Ankara, you make me sick.�
The band has responded to the storm of controversy by saying the songs were written when they were just teenagers and were never meant to be heard outside of the small clubs they played.
Bass player Stephan Weidner said: �We never played for fascist parties and were never members of a fascist or right wing party.�
A spokesperson for the European Jewish Congress told TJ: �The coming to Germany of the Rolling Stones, one of the all time prestigious rock bands, should send out a very strong signal for understanding and the need for people to live in mutual respect. By including a German band with this track record in the programme, the organisers would be sending out a very different signal.� |
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