English journalist, musician and activist
Garry Bushell
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![Bushell in 2014](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Garry_Bushell_columnist.jpg/220px-Garry_Bushell_columnist.jpg) Bushell in 2014
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Born
| (
1955-05-13
)
13 May 1955
(age 69)
Woolwich
, London, England
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Occupation
| Musician, music journalist, author, political activist, television presenter
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Subject
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Years active
| 1973?present
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Children
| 5
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Garry Bushell
(born 13 May 1955) is an English newspaper
columnist
, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Cockney
Oi!
bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York City Oi! band Maninblack until the death of the band frontman Andre Schlessinger.
[1]
Bushell's recurring topical themes are comedy, country and
class
. He has campaigned for an English Parliament, a
Benny Hill
statue
[2]
and for variety and talent shows on TV. He has been a columnist for several newspapers, including
The Sun
,
The People
and the
Daily Star Sunday
, and has worked as the review editor for the
Sunday Express
.
Early life and music career
[
edit
]
The son of a fireman, Bushell attended Charlton Manor School and
Colfe's School
(which was then a grammar school). At secondary school, he first performed in the group Pink Tent, which was heavily influenced by
Monty Python
. They wrote songs and comedy sketches; performed at parties and at each other's houses. Bushell was involved in the
National Union of School Students
and the Schools Action Union, a
socialist
organisation that had a strong
situationist
streak that led them to mix schoolboy hijinks with
student activism
. He worked for
Shell
as a messenger, and then the
London Fire Brigade
before attending
North East London Polytechnic
and the
London College of Printing
simultaneously.
Pink Tent evolved into 1977 punk band the Gonads, who have also described themselves
Oi!
,
punk pathetique
and "Oi-Tone" because they play
ska
and
street punk
. Many of their songs are comical party tunes, but they have occasionally written more serious material. Two examples of their songs that include social commentary are "Dying for a Pint" (which comments on
nightclub
bouncer
brutality
) and "Jobs Not Jails" (a critique of the
Margaret Thatcher
government's policies).
[
citation needed
]
Lars Frederiksen
, guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Rancid, with journalist Garry Bushell
Other Bushell musical projects have included the bands Prole, Orgasm Guerrillas, the Ska-Nads and Lord Waistrel & the Cosh Boys. Prole was a socialist punk band that also included Steve Kent, the original guitarist of the Oi! band
the Business
. Bushell managed
the Blood
and
Cockney Rejects
, getting them their
EMI
deal. He also got
Twisted Sister
signed in the UK to Secret Records.
[3]
He compiled the first four Oi! compilation albums and contributed songs to later collections.
Journalism and writing
[
edit
]
In 1973, at the age of 18, Bushell joined the
International Socialists
and started writing for their newspaper
Socialist Worker
. He also wrote for
Temporary Hoarding
,
Rebel
, and his own punk fanzine
Napalm
, and edited the North East London Polytechnic Student Union magazine
NEPAM
.
[4]
From 1978 to 1985, he wrote for
Sounds
magazine, covering punk and other street-level
music genres
, such as
2 Tone
, the
new wave of British heavy metal
and the
mod revival
. Bushell was at the forefront of covering the
Oi!
subgenre, also known as
real punk
or
street punk
.
[5]
In 1981, when
Strength Thru Oi!
was released, it was controversial because its title was a play on a Nazi slogan "
Strength Through Joy
", and the cover featured
Nicky Crane
, a
British Movement
activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Garry Bushell, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on
The Skids
' EP
Strength Through Joy
and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by the
Daily Mail
two months later. The original cover model had been Carlton Leach. The same year, Bushell wrote the book
Dance Craze ? the 2-Tone story
, and in 1984, he wrote the
Iron Maiden
biography
Running Free
.
His scathing reviews of the early punk incarnation of
Adam and the Ants
led to him being name-checked, along with veteran
NME
writer
Nick Kent
, in the band's song "Press Darlings", containing the line "If passion ends in fashion, Bushell is the best dressed man in town."
[6]
On the studio version, immediately after this line, lead singer
Adam Ant
can be heard muttering "You can say that again, the scruffy sod!"
[6]
Bushell also attracted the attentions of Crass who responded to his criticisms with the song "Hurry Up Garry" and the Notsensibles who released the song "Garry Bushell's Band Of The Week".
Bushell moved to
Fleet Street
in 1985, working for
The Sun
,
Evening Standard
and the
Daily Mirror
. He went back to
The Sun
to write its "Bizarre" column and to be the showbusiness editor. In 1991, he briefly became assistant editor of the
Daily Star
, where he wrote a current affairs column called "Walk Tall With Bushell", as well as his TV column. Three months later, he quit and returned to
The Sun
.
In 1994, Bushell was named critic of the year at the UK Press Awards.
[7]
In the mid-1990s, Bushell hosted the TV programme
Bushell on the Box
, commenting on the week's TV programmes. The show included rants, interviews, star guests and comedy sketches. It ran for 50 episodes and was number one on ITV's Night Network.
[
clarification needed
]
The following year, Bushell became resident critic on
Jonathan Ross
's ITV series
The Big Big Talent Show
. He also hosted
Garry Bushell Reveals All
for Granada Men & Motors. He has appeared on a wide range of other shows, including
Celebrity Squares
,
Noel's House Party
,
Drop! The Celebrity
,
Newsnight
and
This Morning
.
[
citation needed
]
In 2001, he was resident TV critic of
The Big Breakfast
.
In 2001, Bushell's
crime novel
The Face
about undercover detective Harry Tyler was serialised in the
Daily Star
, leading to his dismissal from
The Sun
, even though the book's publisher
John Blake
admitted Bushell had no knowledge of the serialisation deal. After he was dismissed, he started legal proceedings against
The Sun
who settled out of court.
[
citation needed
]
In 2002, Bushell published the book
King of Telly: The Best of Bushell on the Box
, containing highlights of his column. He has since published two more Harry Tyler novels,
Two-Faced
and
Facedown
. A fourth is due out in 2021.
After
The Sun
, Bushell wrote for
The People
until 18 February 2007 when he left to work on books and screenplays. He announced his resignation as a TV critic, stating that he was becoming depressed at the state of British television.
[8]
In 2005, Bushell co-wrote
Cockney Reject
, the autobiography of Jeff "Stinky" Turner (nee Geggus) of punk band
Cockney Rejects
, and penned a film script for
Join the Rejects ? Get Yourself Killed
, an abortive feature film project on the band which was replaced by a documentary film,
East End Babylon
.
Garry Bushell with singer and actress
Patti Boulaye
Bushell has published his own autobiography,
Bushell on the Rampage
, a book attacking the BBC soap opera
EastEnders
called
1001 Reasons EastEnders is Pony
, and a book on UK youth subcultures called
Hoolies
. He has also co-written the autobiography of Cockney comic Jimmy Jones,
Now This is a Very True Story
, published in 2011 and a new expanded version of Dance Craze, about 2-Tone, which is subtitled 'Rude Boys on the Road'. In May 2007, Bushell's column returned to the
Daily Star Sunday
.
In August 2007, Bushell made a remark during a humorous exchange on the
Talksport
programme
Football First
implying that homosexuality was a perversion, leading the regulator
Ofcom
to find the segment in breach of standards for failing to justify offensive material by the context in which it was presented.
[9]
[10]
Ofcom rejected talkSPORT's claims that the comments made had been "off the cuff", and talkSPORT issued a statement saying its staff had been "made aware" that what Bushell had said was "unacceptable".
[9]
[11]
Bushell later said that it was not homosexuality which he was referring to as a perversion, but the further lowering of the age of consent; and that his remarks were taken out of context. He has since left talkSPORT. In his 2009 book,
The World According To...
, Bushell says he made the remark to wind up another broadcaster.
In 2007, Bushell started presenting a monthly punk and
ska
podcast
show on
TotalRock
, and the Heritage Foundation named Bushell "Critic of the Year". In 2009 he started an occasional punk and ska show called Rancid Sounds for Total Rock radio.
[12]
In January 2024, Bushell retired from his
Daily Star
column, but brought the
Bushell on the Box
brand back to screens via
Jim Davidson
's
Ustreme
.
[13]
Writing style
[
edit
]
Bushell's columns are known for their
similes
and
metaphors
, such as describing something as being "as fair as
Frank Bruno
's
arse
" or (in his 1 May 2005 column) "Today's TV is so obsessively gay, it's a wonder the
Radio Times
doesn't come with a pink
Versace
wrap and a free glass of
Muscadet
".
[
citation needed
]
His humour angered some
Sun
executives, such as
Rebekah Wade
, but fans include
Barbara Windsor
,
Dom Joly
and
Roy Hudd
, who has called him "the
Max Miller
of the press."
[
citation needed
]
His tabloid column and writing style were once satirised in adult comic
Viz
, including a one-off comic strip titled
Garry Bushell The Bear
, about a homophobic, xenophobic brown bear.
[14]
Responding to comments made by Bushell in the 25 November 1993 issue of
The Sun
("Liberal permissiveness is eating the fabric of our society. You want
video nasties
peddling stomach-churning filth? You got 'em. Western values? Who needs 'em!"), John Martin's book
Seduction of the Gullible: The Truth Behind the Video Nasty Scandal
says: "[w]hen Bushell isn't blustering about decency and Western values, he can be found gloating and cracking jokes in his column over such incidents as the death of several transvestites in a sex cinema fire."
[15]
Politics
[
edit
]
Bushell started his political activism as a
socialist
and was a member of the
Trotskyist
International Socialists (which became the
Socialist Workers Party
). In 1986, in his '"On the Soap Box" column, Bushell raged against the middle classes, who he claimed had ruined the
Labour Party
. He has opposed the
European Union
and unfettered immigration, because he said it undercut working class wages. He has written articles supporting the
Smithfield
meat porters who were fighting to preserve their market, and in favour of the
UDR Four
, working class comedians and
Page 3
girls.
[
citation needed
]
In the 2000s
[
when?
]
, his focus has been on patriotism and individual liberty. He has campaigned to have
St George's Day
recognised as a public holiday in England, in the same way
St Patrick's Day
is a holiday in Ireland.
[
citation needed
]
In the
2005 General Election
, he stood as a candidate for the
English Democrats Party
, who promote the establishment of an
English Parliament
, and who wanted England to leave the European Union. Bushell got 1,216 votes (3.4% share) in the
Greenwich and Woolwich
constituency, finishing fifth out of seven in a race won by
Nick Raynsford
of the
Labour Party
. The result represented the high point for the English Democrats in the election, and Bushell finished ahead of the
UK Independence Party
candidate in that constituency. Bushell also represented the party in
South Staffordshire
, in the delayed vote (due to the death of a candidate) on 23 June; winning 643 votes (2.51%). His campaign was supported by the
Campaign for an English Parliament
and
Veritas
. He considered running for
Mayor of London
against
Ken Livingstone
in 2008,
[16]
[17]
but he pulled out of the race in January 2008 and stood aside for
Matt O'Connor
. Bushell announced on 7 December 2011 that he would join and support
UKIP
.
[18]
He is not now a member of any political party.
[
citation needed
]
Elections contested
[
edit
]
UK General elections
Personal life
[
edit
]
Bushell has five children ? three with Carol Bushell (Julie, Danny and Rob) and two with Tania Bushell (Jenna and Ciara)? and lives in Sidcup, South East London.
[
citation needed
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Novels
- The Face
(2001)
- Two-Faced
(2004)
- Face Down
(2013)
- All or Nothing
(2019)
- Hell Bent
(2019)
- Non-fiction
- Running Free ? The Authorised Biography of Iron Maiden
(1984)
- Twister Sister ? The First Official Book
(1985)
- Diary of a Mad Man
(with Mick Wall) (1985)
- The Best of Garry's Goofs
(1992)
- Cockney Reject
(with Jeff Turner) (2005)
- The World According to Garry Bushell
(2008)
- Hoolies
(2010)
- Now This Is a Very True Story
(2010)
- Dance Craze ? Rude Boys on the Road
(2012)
- Time for Action
(2012)
- 1001 Reasons EastEnders Is 'Pony'
(2015)
- Sounds of Glory
(2016)
- 1979: The Ska Revival
(2019)
- 1979: Time For Action, The Mod Revival
(2019)
Discography
[
edit
]
- The Gonads: Live ? The Official Bootleg
(1984)
- Live & Loud
(1988)
- Back and Barking
(1999)
- Schitz-Oi!-Phrenia
(2001)
- Old Boots, No Panties
(2006)
- Live Free, Die Free
(2009)
- Glorious Bastards
(2010)
- Greater Hits Volume One: Plums
(2011)
- Greater Hits Volume Two: The Mutt's Nuts
(2012)
- Built for Destruction
(2013)
- Greater Hits Volume Three: The Complete Cobblers
(2015)
- London Bawling
(2016)
- All the Loon Stompers
(2017)
- American Gonads
(2018)
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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Artists
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