Searchlight: Slimelight Club Hosts Fascist Bands

Article by Alexander Gray, from Searchlight Magazine, July 2011, #433.

Freya Aswynn

A gig held at a nightclub called Slimelight in Islington, North London, on 25 June hosted bands and artists with deep roots in fascist circles, including Sol Invictus, Freya Aswynn, Sixth Comm and WHile Angels Watch.

The gigs headliner was the band Sol Invictus, whose founding member, Tony Wakeford, was a paid-up member of the fascist National Front. Although in 2007 he claimed that joining the NF had been the worst decision of his life and he had no sympathies for the ideas of this extreme right party for 20 years, he neither mentioned his later involvement in the development of the new right IONA group led by Richard Lawson, a former high-ranking NF member and Wakeford's best man.

A member of the Socialist Workers Party at the end of the 1970s and a co-founder of the left-wing band Crisis, Wakeford moved to the 'other side' in the early 1980s. Together with Douglas Pearce and Patrick Leagas (now leader of Sixth Comm), he founded the fascist band Death in June. It was named after the Night of the Long Knives, the June-July 1934 purge of the 'left-wing Nazis' such as Gregor Strasser and Ernst Rohn, head of the Sturmabteilung, venerated by Wakeford, Pearce and Leagas.

Ousted from Death in June, Wakeford founded the NF-associated band Above the Ruins. The band released only one album, in addition to contributing one track to the compilation No Surrender! Vol 1 released by the notorious German Nazi label Rock-O-Rama records in 1985. Wakeford continued distributing the album through his Tursa label until 2007, in spite of his alleged regret for his NF membership.

Sol Invictus has been hugely influenced by Italian fascist 'philosopher' Julius Evola, whose works exerted great influence on the terrorists behind the Bologna bombing in August 1980. Ironically, Wakeford's brother Steven moved away from far-right politics and is now a Fire Brigades Union officer and anti-fascist activist.

Also ont he bill was Dutch-born Freya Aswynn. A former key activist in John Yeowell's pagan Odinic Rite group. Aswynn has been known for her hateful racist rhetoric and involvement in several fascist Neofolk / post-industrial acts, including Sixth Comm and Sol Invictus. These days she tours alternative culture fairs carrying out pagan rituals such as casting the runes.

Aswynn was a close associate of Ralph Harrison, one of the founders of the rightwing nationalist magazine Right Now!, which during most of its existence was edited by the Irish fascist Derek Turner. After Right Now! ceased publication in 2006 many of those associated with it moved into the New Right club, run by the lifelong fascist activist Troy Southgate, and the Nazi and fascist arts scene. Turner himself now edits the Quarterly Review, a venerable old title revived in 2007 by the former Conservative MP Sir Richard Body.

Another associate of Southgate is Dev, the lead musician of While Angels Watch. Dev is also a close collaborator of Leagas and Ian Read, a former member of Sol Invictus, leader of the band Fire + Ice, and editor of the pagan Rûna magazine.

Islington Labour MP Emily Thornberry said: "It's a shame and a disgrace that these peddlers of poison are playing in Islington. We have a proud history of tolerance in this borough". However, the concerns voiced by Thornberry, as well as by anti-fascist musicians and the organisation Love Music Hate Racism, fell on deaf ears among Slimelight's management.

While Slimelight owner May Uan Mak confesses that he "is not comfortable with the bands", he controversially adds that "art can be fascist too. The fascist language can be just as powerful as any other language in the world." Widely advertised on the largest Nazi internet forum Stormfront, the Slimelight gig was destined to become a meeting point for those who are skilful not only in fascist language, but also in fascist activities.

In October Slimelight is putting on another gig featuring bands associated with misogyny, Nazism, paedophilia and sadism.