Bakers Dozen Sent Down

Bakers Dozen 'Sent Down' (Rebellion Records, 2007)

Bakers Dozen rose from the ashes of Beergut 100 (an Edinburgh chaos punk band whose 'Fistful of Copper' inner sleeve had a great homage to the awful 'Fistful of Metal' artwork) and have garnered themselves quite a bit of attention in the world wide Oi and street punk scene. Unfortunately for them, that scene, like many extreme subgenres, is full of not very bright people who see themselves as 'apolitical', but who harbour some pretty generic and antiquated right wing views. That's not to say that everybody involved in the scene is a bigot but, due to the shadowy political netherworld a lot of the bands inhabit, it does attract extreme violence and extreme views.

So, despite being a pretty successful band, which is quite an achievement when coming from Edinburgh, Bakers Dozen are viewed with suspicion and find themselves a little out in the cold because of indirect and direct associations with 'apolitical' labels and bands.

What many don't know is that Bakers Dozen started off as a joke/pastiche, not unlike Hard Skin, and it's easy to recognise this with some of the hilarious lyrics and song titles like 'Someone Else's Bird' and 'Firearms Offender'. If I'm not mistaken Oi Polloi even pollinated some of the germs of ideas which were part of the initial blueprint for Bakers Dozen.

Listening to this doesn't remind me of 4 Skins or Cockney Rejects, it's far heavier and much better played. There's some outrageously rocking solos breaking up the punk rock which has the odd riff or melody which refers to Naked Raygun or Down by Law rather than The Business.

Based on the performance on this album Bakers Dozen could easily be playing tours with the likes of Agnostic Front or Rancid. However, they will forever remain as big fish in a small pond due to the nature of the scene and some of the people they involve themselves with.

Peace