The Strike – Oi Collection

The Strike were a British Oi! band that originated in Scotland in the 1980’s. The Strike never recorded a full-length album and this is a compilation of all their officially released songs augmented with three demo recordings. Over the year this collection, or variations of it, have previously been issued on numerous labels including Captain Oi! Records and Rebellion Records. There were bands from this era that made great music in this genre, Cock Sparrer, The Business and Sham 69, to name three bands off the top of my head, all made great records that carried the hallmark of Oi! but I just can’t warm to this album at all, normally I can usually find a positive on an album an something will catch my attention and draw me in, this album however just leaves me cold.

There were some great punk records and Oi! bands from the 1980s that were hugely influential but The Strike to me is not one of them, it features minimal three chord structures with barked vocals and to me this just sounds like stereotypical punk by numbers. The production on the album doesn’t help it’s cause either as it sounds claustrophobic and muffled and makes the whole album sound very dated. Bands such as Dropkick Murphys and Rancid have acknowledged their debt to the Oi! genre but both of this bands have demonstrated how the punk scene has evolved and moved on and to me The Strike belong firmly in the early 1980’s along with acid wash jeans and leg warmers.