Ian Stuart Donaldson
:
Ian Stuart redirects here. For the Scottish author who uses the pseudonym Ian Stuart, see
Alistair MacLean; see also
Ian Stewart.
Ian Stuart Donaldson (August 11, 1957 - September 24, 1993), commonly known as
Ian Stuart, was the founder of
Skrewdriver, the British
racist skinhead punk band. He is infamous for his
far right National Socialist beliefs.
Stuart was brought up in
Blackpool, where he formed the band
Skrewdriver in 1977 after seeing the
Sex Pistols play in
Manchester. The band disbanded in 1979, but Stuart reformed it in 1982 with different backing players. Unlike the original lineup, the new
Skrewdriver was a
racist band with connections to the far-right
Rock Against Communism organization. Stuart became the leader of
Blood and Honour, a
militant,
nationalist organization involved in the distribution of racist music and propaganda, and the organization of rock concerts.
Stuart was the leader of two other bands, White Diamond and The Klansmen, and released several solo albums, including
Patriotic Ballads vols. 1 & 2 with Skrewdriver guitarist
Stigger, which covered traditional songs such as "
Tomorrow Belongs To Me" and "
The Green Fields of France".
He was the most influental person in the
White Power music movement. His voice could be heard in Nazi rock band No Remorse's album "See you in Valhalla" (1989) in the song
The Invisible Empire which refers to the KKK.
Stuart was one of the principal organisers of a concert near
Waterloo station in London in 1992. When anti-Nazi groups heard of it, a protest was organized, resulting in a near riot. Shortly before this, he had taken a part-time job at a supermarket to help pay his rent. After the incident his employers dismissed him from his position.
In July 1993, Ian Stuart and Skrewdriver played their last concert (organized by
Andreas J. Voigt) for their German friends
Kreuzritter für Deutschland in Waiblingen by Stuttgart.
In September 1993 Donaldson died in a car crash in
Derbyshire. He was not driving the car. Some friends and supporters claim his death was the result of a plot by
MI5 and the
Special Branch, who were alleged to have infiltrated Blood and Honour. However no evidence supports any of these claims, and it is difficult to deduce why they would wish to murder someone at a time when far-right organisations in Britain were practically moribund until the
British National Party's council seat win in the Isle Of Dogs,
after Donaldson's death.
However, the coroner's inquest did state misgivings over the car's steering wheel column. A slightly more plausible rumour is that the steering wheel of his car had been tampered with by London gangsters whom Donaldson had crossed swords with over the Blood And Honour organisation interfering with their own "
security firms".
The
anarcho-punk band
MDC ridiculed Donaldson's death with their song "Nazis Shouldn't Drive". [
1]As did the band
F.Y.P. with their song "Ian Stuart as a Crash Test Dummy".
* He was a strict
vegan and was strongly opposed to
animal testing and
fox hunting.
* The biography of Ian Stuart called
Diamond in the Dust (2002) claims that he had argued with and beaten up
Iggy Pop and
Bob Geldof.
The Geldof incident actually appears on the Boomtown Rats DVD
Someone's Looking At You (On Film 1976 - 1986) and in Geldof's autobiography
Is That It? and differs vastly from that in the Donaldson version. Both bands (ISD was at that time playing as frontman for Tumbling Dice) were playing at the Music Machine in London in 1977 at a showcase concert (which included
Siouxsie And The Banshees) for the USA about Punk.
Donaldson has lambasted the Boomtown Rats as a "sellout" during Tumbling Dice's set and egging the crowd to see them off when they appeared, apparantly in the hope the Rats (& other bands yet to appear) would be intimidated into not showing, thus boosting Tumbling Dice's chances of gaining some much needed publicity.
When the Rats carried on regardless, Donaldson ran on stage after their second song & punched Geldof twice, causing him to fall over. As the bouncers hauled Donaldson away for a beating and ejection from the venue, Geldof continued with blood pouring down his face, a photograph of which was used on the front of the next week's
New Musical Express under the headline "Now The Violence Has To Stop".
* He was rumoured to be friends with both
Lemmy Kilmister of
Motörhead and
Suggs from
Madness in the early 1980s. They both distanced themselves from him after he became an outspoken racist.
White Noise: Inside the International Nazi Skinhead Scene, edited by Nick Lowles and Steve Silver (ISBN 0952203839)
*
Nationalism*
Neo-Nazism*
Nazi Skinhead*
Nazi Punk*
Rock Against Communism*
Ian Stuart in Germany*
Neo-Nazi Skinheads and Racist Rock: Youth Subculture of Hate*
Fascism in the United Kingdom and Europe 1997*http://punkandoi.free.fr/skrewdriver_biography.htm
*http://skrewdriver.net/stuart.html
*http://stefan.sonic.tripod.com/skrewdriver.htm - The Complete Ian Stuart and Skrewdriver Discography Collection
