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Garry Bushell | |
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 Bushell in 2014 | |
| Born | (1955-05-13)13 May 1955 (age 70) Woolwich, London, England |
| Occupation | Musician, music journalist, author, political activist, television presenter |
| Subject |
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| Years active | 1973–present |
| Children | 5 |
Garry Bushell (born 13 May 1955) is an English newspapercolumnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the CockneyOi! bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York City Oi! band Maninblack until the death of the band frontman Andre Schlessinger.[1] Bushell's recurring topical themes are comedy, country andclass. He has campaigned for an English Parliament, aBenny Hill statue[2] and for variety and talent shows on TV. He has been a columnist for several newspapers, includingThe Sun,The People and theDaily Star Sunday, and has worked as the review editor for theSunday Express.
The son of a fireman, Bushell attended Charlton Manor School andColfe's School (which was then a grammar school). At secondary school, he first performed in the group Pink Tent, which was heavily influenced byMonty Python. They wrote songs and comedy sketches; performed at parties and at each other's houses. Bushell was involved in theNational Union of School Students and the Schools Action Union, asocialist organisation that had a strongsituationist streak that led them to mix schoolboy hijinks withstudent activism. He worked forShell as a messenger, and then theLondon Fire Brigade before attendingNorth East London Polytechnic and theLondon College of Printing simultaneously.
Pink Tent evolved into 1977 punk band the Gonads, who have also described themselvesOi!,punk pathetique and "Oi-Tone" because they playska andstreet punk. 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 onnightclubbouncerbrutality) and "Jobs Not Jails" (a critique of theMargaret Thatcher government's policies).[citation needed]
Other Bushell musical projects have included the bands Prole, Orgasm Guerrillas, the Ska-Nads and Lord Waistrel & the Cosh Boys. Prole was a socialist punk band that also included Steve Kent, the original guitarist of the Oi! bandthe Business. Bushell managedthe Blood andCockney Rejects, getting them theirEMI deal. He also gotTwisted Sister signed in the UK to Secret Records.[3] He compiled the first four Oi! compilation albums and contributed songs to later collections.
In 1973, at the age of 18, Bushell joined theInternational Socialists and started writing for their newspaperSocialist Worker. He also wrote forTemporary Hoarding,Rebel, and his own punk fanzineNapalm, and edited the North East London Polytechnic Student Union magazineNEPAM.[4] From 1978 to 1985, he wrote forSounds magazine, covering punk and other street-levelmusic genres, such as2 Tone, thenew wave of British heavy metal and themod revival. Bushell was at the forefront of covering theOi! subgenre, also known asreal punk orstreet punk.[5] In 1981, whenStrength Thru Oi! was released, it was controversial because its title was a play on a Nazi slogan, "Strength Through Joy", and the cover featuredNicky Crane, aBritish Movement activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Garry Bushell, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun onThe Skids' EPStrength Through Joy and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by theDaily Mail two months later. The original cover model had been Carlton Leach. The same year, Bushell wrote the bookDance Craze – the 2-Tone story, and in 1984, he wrote theIron Maiden biographyRunning Free.
His scathing reviews of the early punk incarnation ofAdam and the Ants led to him being name-checked, along with veteranNME writerNick Kent, in the band's song "Press Darlings", containing the line "If passion ends in fashion, Bushell is the best dressed man in town."[6] On the studio version, immediately after this line, lead singerAdam Ant can be heard muttering "You can say that again, the scruffy sod!"[6] Bushell also attracted the attentions of Crass who responded to his criticisms with the song "Hurry Up Garry" and the Notsensibles who released the song "Garry Bushell's Band Of The Week".
Bushell moved toFleet Street in 1985, working forThe Sun,Evening Standard and theDaily Mirror. He went back toThe Sun to write its "Bizarre" column and to be the showbusiness editor. In 1991, he briefly became assistant editor of theDaily Star, where he wrote a current affairs column called "Walk Tall With Bushell", as well as his TV column. Three months later, he quit and returned toThe Sun.
In 1990 the Press Council adjudicated againstThe Sun and Garry Bushell for his use of derogatory terminology about gay people.[7] Bushell's columns contained terminology including “woofter” and “poof”, attacks on television programmes that “promote homosexuality,” and lines such as, “It must be true what they say about nobody being all bad … even Stalin banned poofs!”[8]
In 1994, Bushell was named critic of the year at the UK Press Awards.[9] In the mid-1990s, Bushell hosted the TV programmeBushell on the Box, commenting on the week's TV programmes. The show included rants, interviews, star guests and comedy sketches. It ran for 50 episodes and was number one on ITV's Night Network.[clarification needed] The following year, Bushell became resident critic onJonathan Ross's ITV seriesThe Big Big Talent Show. He also hostedGarry Bushell Reveals All for Granada Men & Motors. He has appeared on a wide range of other shows, includingCelebrity Squares,Noel's House Party,Drop! The Celebrity,Newsnight andThis Morning.[citation needed] In 2001, he was resident TV critic ofThe Big Breakfast.
In 2001, Bushell'scrime novelThe Face about undercover detective Harry Tyler was serialised in theDaily Star, leading to his dismissal fromThe Sun, even though the book's publisherJohn Blake admitted Bushell had no knowledge of the serialisation deal. After he was dismissed, he started legal proceedings againstThe Sun who settled out of court.[citation needed]
In 2002, Bushell published the bookKing of Telly: The Best of Bushell on the Box, containing highlights of his column. He has since published two more Harry Tyler novels,Two-Faced andFacedown. A fourth is due out in 2021.
AfterThe Sun, Bushell wrote forThe People until 18 February 2007 when he left 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.[10] In 2005, Bushell co-wroteCockney Reject, the autobiography of Jeff "Stinky" Turner (née Geggus) of punk bandCockney Rejects, and penned a film script forJoin the Rejects – Get Yourself Killed, an abortive feature film project on the band which was replaced by a documentary film,East End Babylon.
Bushell has published his own autobiography,Bushell on the Rampage, a book attacking the BBC soap operaEastEnders called1001 Reasons EastEnders is Pony, and a book on UK youth subcultures calledHoolies. He has also co-written the autobiography of Cockney comic Jimmy Jones,Now This is a Very True Story, published in 2011 and a new expanded version of Dance Craze, about 2-Tone, which is subtitled 'Rude Boys on the Road'. In May 2007, Bushell's column returned to theDaily Star Sunday.
In August 2007, Bushell made a remark during a humorous exchange on theTalksport programmeFootball First implying that homosexuality was a perversion, leading the regulatorOfcom to find the segment in breach of standards for failing to justify offensive material by the context in which it was presented.[11][12]
Ofcom rejected talkSPORT's claims that the comments made had been "off the cuff", and talkSPORT issued a statement saying its staff had been "made aware" that what Bushell had said was "unacceptable".[11][13] Bushell later said that it was not homosexuality which he was referring to as a perversion, but the further lowering of the age of consent; and that his remarks were taken out of context. He has since left talkSPORT. In his 2009 book,The World According To..., Bushell says he made the remark to wind up another broadcaster.
In 2007, Bushell started presenting a monthly punk andskapodcast show onTotalRock, and the Heritage Foundation named Bushell "Critic of the Year". In 2009 he started an occasional punk and ska show called Rancid Sounds for Total Rock radio.[14]
In January 2024, Bushell retired from hisDaily Star column, but brought theBushell on the Box brand back to screens viaJim Davidson'sUstreme.[15]
Bushell's columns are known for theirsimiles andmetaphors, such as describing something as being "as fair asFrank Bruno'sarse" or (in his 1 May 2005 column) "Today's TV is so obsessively gay, it's a wonder theRadio Times doesn't come with a pinkVersace wrap and a free glass ofMuscadet".[citation needed] His humour angered someSun executives, such asRebekah Wade, but fans includeBarbara Windsor,Dom Joly andRoy Hudd, who has called him "theMax Miller of the press."[citation needed] His tabloid column and writing style were once satirised in adult comicViz, including a one-off comic strip titledGarry Bushell The Bear, about a homophobic, xenophobic brown bear.[16]
Responding to comments made by Bushell in the 25 November 1993 issue ofThe Sun ("Liberal permissiveness is eating the fabric of our society. You wantvideo nasties peddling stomach-churning filth? You got 'em. Western values? Who needs 'em!"), John Martin's bookSeduction of the Gullible: The Truth Behind the Video Nasty Scandal says: "[w]hen Bushell isn't blustering about decency and Western values, he can be found gloating and cracking jokes in his column over such incidents as the death of several transvestites in a sex cinema fire."[17]
Bushell started his political activism as asocialist and was a member of theTrotskyist International Socialists (which became theSocialist Workers Party). In 1986, in his '"On the Soap Box" column, Bushell raged against the middle classes, who he claimed had ruined theLabour Party. He has opposed theEuropean Union and unfettered immigration, because he said it undercut working class wages. He has written articles supporting theSmithfield meat porters who were fighting to preserve their market, and in favour of theUDR Four, working class comedians andPage 3 girls.[citation needed] In the 2000s[when?], his focus has been on patriotism and individual liberty. He has campaigned to haveSt George's Day recognised as a public holiday in England, in the same waySt Patrick's Day is a holiday in Ireland.[citation needed]
In the2005 General Election, he stood as a candidate for theEnglish Democrats Party, who promote the establishment of anEnglish Parliament, and who wanted England to leave the European Union. Bushell got 1,216 votes (3.4% share) in theGreenwich and Woolwich constituency, finishing fifth out of seven in a race won byNick Raynsford of theLabour Party. The result represented the high point for the English Democrats in the election, and Bushell finished ahead of theUK Independence Party candidate in that constituency. Bushell also represented the party inSouth Staffordshire, in the delayed vote (due to the death of a candidate) on 23 June; winning 643 votes (2.51%). His campaign was supported by theCampaign for an English Parliament andVeritas. He considered running forMayor of London againstKen Livingstone in 2008,[18][19] but he pulled out of the race in January 2008 and stood aside forMatt O'Connor. Bushell announced on 7 December 2011 that he would join and supportUKIP.[20] He is not now a member of any political party.[citation needed]
UK General elections
| Date of election | Constituency | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Greenwich & Woolwich | English Democrats | 1,216 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | Staffordshire South | English Democrats | 643 | 2.5 |
Bushell has five children, three with Carol Bushell and two with Tania Bushell. He lives in Sidcup, South East London.[21]
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