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Garry Bushell

Garry Bushell (born May 13, 1955 in Woolwich, South East London) is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter and author. Bushell also runs his own business, plays in the Oi! band The Gonadsm, and manages the New York City punk band Maninblack. He is a life-long fan of Charlton Athletic F.C..

Early career

Son of a fireman, Bushell attended Charlton Manor school and Colfe's School (which was then a grammar school). He worked for Shell as a messager, and then the London Fire Brigade before attending the North East London Polytechnic and the London College of Printing. Bushell was an amateur boxer, and he was a musician before becoming a full-time journalist. He first performed at secondary school in the group Pink Tent, which was heavily influenced by Monty Python. They wrote songs and comedy sketches; performing at parties and at each other's houses. Bushell was involved in The National Union of School Students and The Schools Action Union, a socialist organisation that had a strong situationist streak that led them to mix schoolboy hijinks with student activism. Around this time, Bushell was regularly confronted by members of the British Movement, who called him a communist. He was attacked and hospitalized by neo-Nazis in 1981. The National Front magazine Bulldog denounced him as "a race traitor" and published his home address. Years later, some leftists accused him of being a fascist.

Pink Tent evolved into The Gonads, an Oi! and punk pathetique band that has continued to perform in the 2000s. Many of their songs are comical party tunes, but they have occasionally written more serious material. Two examples of their songs that include social commentary are "Dying for a Pint" (which comments on nightclub bouncer brutality) and "Jobs Not Jails" (a critique of the Margaret Thatcher government's policies). One of their humorous songs was "I Lost My Love To A UK Sub", which is about the allegedly huge libido of UK Subs singer Charlie Harper. The Gonads have also played punk rock versions of old music hall numbers such as Gus Elen's "Half A Pint Of Ale." Other Bushell musical projects have included the bands Prole, Orgasm Guerrillas, and Lord Waistrel & The Cosh Boys. Prole were a self-defined socialist punk band that also included Steve Kent, the original guitarist of the streetpunk band The Business. Bushell also managed The Blood and Cockney Rejects, getting them their EMI deal. He also discovered Twisted Sister and got them signed in the UK to Secret Records.

Journalism and book writing

In the mid-1970s, at the age of 18, Bushell became an active member of the International Socialists, writing for the left wing newspaper Socialist Worker. He also wrote for Temporary Hoarding, Rebel, and his own punk fanzine, Napalm. From 1978 to 1985, he wrote for Sounds magazine, covering the punk rock genre and other street-level music genres such as 2 Tone, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the mod revival. Bushell was at the forefront of covering the Oi! genre, also known as real punk or streetpunk. In 1981, Bushell wrote the book Dance Craze - the 2-Tone story, and in 1984, he wrote the Iron Maiden biography Running Free.

Bushell moved to Fleet Street in 1985, working for The Sun, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mirror. He went back to The Sun to write its "Bizarre" column and to be the show business editor. In 1991, he briefly became assistant editor of The Daily Star. In the mid-1990s, he hosted the television programme Bushell On The Box (the same title as his Sun column from 1987 to 2001); commenting on the week's TV programmes. A regular feature of his newspaper column was "Garry's Goofs", in which he highlighted an unintended double entendre. In 2002, he published the book King of Telly: The Best of Bushell on the Box, containing highlights of his column. In 2001, Bushell's crime novelThe Face was serialised in the Daily Star, leading to his dismissal from The Sun; even though Sun publisher John Blake admitted that Bushell had no knowledge of the serialisation deal. At the time, Sun editor David Yelland had decided that the book was "too filthy" to be published in The Sun, breaking his promise to promote the book. Two years after Bushell was fired, a poll of Sun readers named him as their favourite columnist.

After The Sun, Bushell wrote for The People and left that paper on February 18, 2007 to work on books and screenplays. He announced his resignation as a TV critic, stating that he was becoming depressed at the state of British television. Bushell co-wrote the book Cockney Reject (about the punk band Cockney Rejects) and has written a film script for Join The Rejects - Get Yourself Killed. In May 2007, Bushell's column returned to the Daily Star Sunday. Bushell explained that he "missed the pressure of a weekly deadline." As of 2007, he has been presenting a monthly punk and ska podcast show on Total Rock, and a weekly talk show on talkSPORT.

In 1994, Bushell was named critic of the year at the UK Press Awards. In 2000, Comic Heritage (formerly the Dead Comics Society, now the Heritage Foundation) gave him an award for "Services To Comedy." In 2007 they named Bushell "Critic Of The Year."

Writing style

Bushell's columns are notable for similes and metaphors that can be described as politically incorrect, such as describing something as being "as fair as Frank Bruno's arse" or (in his May 1, 2005 column) "Today's TV is so obsessively gay, it's a wonder the Radio Times doesn't come with a pink Versace wrap and a free glass of Muscadet". However, homosexual TV star Dale Winton is the godfather of Bushell's daughter Jenna. His humour has upset some Sun executives, such as Rebekah Wade, but fans include Howard Stern, Dom Joly and Roy Hudd, who has called him "the Max Miller of the press."

Politics

Bushell started out as a socialist and was a member of the Trotskyist International Socialists, which became the SWP. However, in the 2000s, Bushell's main political focus has been patriotism and individual liberty. He sees his identity as English rather than British. He has campaigned to have St George's Day recognised as a public holiday in England, in the same way Saint Patrick's Day is a holiday in Ireland. He is a vocal opponent of the European Union. Amongst his heroes listed on his Myspace page are George Orwell and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

In the 2005 General Election, he stood as a candidate for the English Democrats Party, who promote the establishment of an English Parliament, and want England to leave the European Union. Bushell got 1216 votes (3.4% share) in the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency, finishing fifth out of seven in a race won by Nick Raynsford of the Labour Party. The result represented the high point for the English Democrats in the election, and Bushell finished ahead of the UK Independence Party candidate in that constituency. Bushell also represented the party in South Staffordshire, in the June 23 general election; winning 643 votes (2.51%) His campaign was supported by the Campaign for an English Parliament and Veritas. It has been reported that he is considering standing as a candidate for Mayor of London against Ken Livingstone in 2008. His nomination was submitted to the English Democrats in June 2007, and his campaign slogan is to be "Serious About London".

Family

Bushell has five children; three with Carol Bushell (Julie, Danny, and Robert) and two with Tania Bushell (Jenna and Ciara). Tania Bushell performs as the country music singer Leah McCaffrey. In November 2006, Bushell appeared on the Channel 4 programme 100% English and offered a sample of his DNA for testing. The results suggested that he was 8% Sub-Saharan African, most likely the result of a single mating within the previous five generations. Bushell took the news with good humour and later wrote on his website "I’d be delighted if it were true." However, he questioned the science and the motivation of the programme makers, concluding:

Only Nazis, and it appears C4, think of national identity in terms of racial purity... Besides, you could apply the same tests to the French or Italians and get similar results, but no-one questions their right to nationhood.

Footnotes

http://www.the-gonads.co.uk/
http://www.peom.co.uk/garrybushell.html
http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/oi/index.asp
http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/box/index.asp
The Independent (Deborah Ross) For Garry, England and St George: Interview - Garry Bushell 25 June 2001
http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/
http://garryformayor.co.uk/
http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/autobiography/INDEX.ASP
The Herald (David Belcher) A rare breed – and pure annoying with it 14 November 2006

External links

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