Cockney Rejects are an Oi! punk rock band that formed in the East End of London in 1979. Their song “Oi, Oi, Oi”, from their album Greatest Hits Volume 2, was the inspiration for the name of the Oi! music genre.Their biggest hit record in the United Kingdom, “The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off”, was a parody of Sham 69’s song “Hersham Boys”. Other Cockney Rejects songs were less commercial, partly because they tended to be about hard-edged topics such as street fighting or football hooliganism. The band members are staunch supporters of West Ham United F.C., and their hit song “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” was a cover of a West Ham supporters’ chant, which had been sung since the 1920s. The violence depicted in their lyrics was often mirrored at their concerts, and the band members often fought to defend themselves (often from supporters of opposing football teams) or to split up conflicts between audience members. Jeff and Mick Geggus (who are brothers) had both been amateur youth boxers, and had fought at the national level. Cockney Rejects expressed contempt for all politicians in their lyrics, and they rejected media claims that they had a British Movement following, or that the band members supported the views of that far right group. In their first Sounds interview, they mockingly referred to the British Movement as the “German Movement” and stated that many of their heroes were black boxers.Jeff Turner’s autobiography Cockney Reject describes an incident in which the band members and their supporters had a massive fight against British Movement members at one of Cockney Rejects’ early concerts. Cockney Rejects released their most recent album Unforgiven on the G&R London independent record label in May 2007.
