Saturday, January 29, 2011

Iron Cross

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"Iron Cross" is probably one of the most well known Skinhead bands to have come out of the States and for good reason too. They were the first! It all started when Sab Grey met Dante Ferrando in 1980 in the nation's capital, Washington D.C. Ferrando was previously in a band with guitarist Mark Haggerty called "Broken Cross." Grey was the one to come up with the name "Iron Cross". Many people perceived the band as racist due to the name and imagery, but Grey, who was born Jewish, has stated on many occasions that they are not racist or fascist. The band's official first line-up consisted of Grey on vocals, Ferrando on drums, Haggerty on guitar, and John Falls on Bass. Unfortunately, Falls would leave the band shortly after the creation, opening the bass player position to 2 more members before settling on Wendell Blow, who was formerly in the Hardcore band "State of Alert (S.O.A)". With Grey being one of the slew of roommates of the Dischord House in Arlington, VA, it was inevitable that the band would be featured on the Dischord Records compilation "Flex Your Head" in 1982. The band's first E.P. was released later in 1982 and was entitled "Skinhead Glory," which included the now legendary song, "Crucified". John Dunn, who was one the original skins of D.C., would replace Blow on bass and be featured at the infamous Angelic Upstarts show(which apparently ended with a blow up between the 2 bands) and on the next E.P. "Hated and Proud". However, Dunn would not stay long enough to see the E.P. released and was replaced by Paul Cleary who had a good resume of former bands around D.C. The band eventually called it quits in 1985 and the members went their separate ways. Ferrando and Haggerty formed the band "Grey Matter" while Grey decided to go live in England. Since the original disbanding, GMM records put out "Live For Now!" which consists of all the released and unreleased material from the band. Sab Grey eventually ended up back in the States and has re-birthed "Iron Cross" with a new line-up, who recently put out a new EP entitle "2 Piece and A Buiscut" and split 7" with England band "Keyside Strike". Grey is also pursuing music in the his band "Sab Grey and The Royal American" as well as performing solo shows with an acoustic guitar. Ferrando now owns the club "The Black Cat" in D.C., Haggerty now lives in the Bay Area, Dunn relocated to Seattle, Blow lives in Austin Texas and Cleary still resides in D.C. Although there have been many Skinhead bands from America to surpass "Iron Cross" musically and lyrically, they were in fact the first.
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Original Lineups : Sab Grey - Vocals
Dante Ferrando - Drums
Mark Haggerty - Guitar
John Falls - Bass
Wendell Blow - Bass
John Dunn - Bass
Paul Cleary - Bass

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Current Lineup : Sab Grey - Vocals
Scotty Powers(Slumlords) - Drums
Dimitri Medevev - Bass
Mark Linskey(Hudson Falcons) - Guitar
Shadwick Wilde(Straight Laiced) - Guitar.

Skinhead Glory EP - 1982
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1.Crucified For Your Sins
2.Psycho Skin
3.Fight'em All
4.Shadows In The Night


Hated and Proud - 1983
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1.You're A Rebel
2.Grey Morning
3.Wolf Pack


Live for Now!
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1.New Breed
2.Wargames
3.It's A Fight
4.Teenage Violators
5.Live For Now
6.Crucified For Your Sins
7.Psycho Skin
8.Fight 'Em All
9.Shadows In The Night
10.Against The Enemy
11.Criminal Minds
12.Phsyco Skin (Out Take)
13.Death Or Glory
14.Wolfpack
15.Grey Morning
16.You're A Rebel


2 Piece and A Buscuit
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1.Pride and Freedom (originally by Straight Laced)
2.I Don;t Love You Anymore
3.Running Riot (originally by Cock Sparrer)
4.Catch Your Grave


Split with Keyside Strike
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1.Iron Cross - Pride And Freedom
2.Iron Cross - I Don't Love You Any More
3.Keyside Strike - Chavageddon
4.Keyside Strike - Old School (revisited)


3 comments:

  1. Support!
    http://naturalbornoutlaws.blogspot.com/

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  2. I liked iron cross til I saw sab on a live interview & I submitted a couple questions & his answers made me lose All respect. I've seen a handful of people call him a poseur, I know why now!

    ReplyDelete