Blaggers Ita

In 1993 the British punk rock outfit Blaggers ITA released an unpolished debut album whose sleeve, showing a flaming swastika, prompted an immediate ban throughout Germany. A pair of follow-up singles climbed into the UK Top 50, and a co-headlining trek with the Manic Street Preachers and Credit To The Nation carried the group’s combative politics from town to town. After one show an onstage dispute spilled into a post-gig scuffle with a journalist. Although the band’s spokesperson, Matty ‘Blag’ (b. Matthew Roberts, 1964, Oswestry, Shropshire, England, d. 22 February 2000, London, England; vocals), remained an outspoken anti-fascist, he freely recounted how, during an earlier period of economic hardship and limited awareness in his working-class youth, he had briefly embraced Nazi views. The disclosure cost the band its Reading Festival slot, while planned Top Of The Pops spots and magazine features evaporated. On 4 April 1995 Leeds magistrates acquitted Matty of assault, dismissing the case on procedural grounds; that summer the group expelled him. Blaggers ITA splintered into competing factions, forfeited its Parlophone Records contract, and quickly lost all public traction. Matty Blag died from a drug overdose in February 2000.