Publisher: Omnibus Press
Released 2023
What Have We Got: The Turbulent Story of Oi! is celebrated author Simon Spence's study of the Oi! punk movement. The only book to consider Oi! punk as a distinct genre within punk rock, What Have We Got regards the form's complicated history and asks what kind of legacy it has left. Spence interviews key figures from the scene and investigates the flashpoint between both the far-left and far-right factions that claimed the movement as their own. Spence looks at the terrible racism apparent in some of the bands and asks how a genre which initially aligned itself with the Rock Against Racism movement could turn so ugly. The book also considers the social and political situation of the UK in the '70s and '80s.