Nicky Crane
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Nicola Vincenzio "Nicky" Crane (May 21, 1958- December 8, 1993) was a British neo-Nazi skinhead activist with a reputation for violence. He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993.
Born in Kent, Crane joined the British Movement (BM) in the late 1970s, and by 1980, he had become the BM organiser for Kent. In 1980, he attacked a black family at a bus stop near Liverpool Street station. For this act, he was convicted of unlawfully fighting and making an affray, and given a suspended sentence. In 1981, he appeared as an iconic barechested skinhead, braces down, on the cover photograph of the Oi! compilation album Strength Thru Oi! (due to his appearance, not his racist views); with his Nazi tattoos partially airbrushed out. This was chosen from a series of photos shot outside one of the entrances to the Woolwich foot tunnel under the Thames. Never afraid of going before the camera, Crane was ever quick to pose topless or in one his trademark tight vests. He also appeared on several T-shirts produced by the skinhead shop The Last Resort in Goulston Street, Aldgate during the 1980s, including the infamous "Action Man 80s" design, as well as on several of the shop's calenders, plus also on 'pirated' T-shirts produced by other retailers and was influential in popularising the grade-0 bald bonehead look amongst UK skinheads.
Also in 1981, he was convicted and jailed for four years for his role in a 1980 organised BM attack on a group of black youths arriving on a train at Woolwich Arsenal railway station. He once led an attack on an anti-racist concert being held in Jubilee Gardens on London's south bank. Pictures of him storming the stage where singer Hank Wangford was performing appeared in national newspapers but although Crane was clearly identifiable, no action was taken. Released from jail in 1984, Crane soon began providing security for the white power band Skrewdriver, and remained associated with the band and its leader, Ian Stuart Donaldson, for the rest of the decade, even designing two of the band's album covers and writing the lyrics (and being the subject of) the track "Justice" on the LP "Hail the New Dawn." He was jailed again in 1986 for six months following a fight on an Underground train. In 1987, he was instrumental in setting up the neo-Nazi network Blood and Honour with Donaldson. During this time, Crane was leading a double life as an active homosexual, even serving as a steward at the London gay pride march in 1986 and was a regular at London gay clubs such as Heaven and Bolts and the Bell pub at King's Cross.
At various times, Crane had worked as a bin man, bicycle courier, and a doorman at an S&M club. He also appeared in the Psychic TV Unclean video and in amateur gay porn films while still a neo-Nazi activist.<ref>Sounds, 22nd September 1984</ref> In July 1992, Crane admitted his homosexuality on the Channel 4 programme Out. He was immediately disowned by his Nazi associates, especially Ian Stuart Donaldson, who said he felt "betrayed." The same month the UK newspaper The Sun ran an article on him entitled Nazi Nick is a Panzi and included a picture of Crane with his face snarling at camera, head shaved bald, braces worn over his bare torso, faded jeans, white-laced boots and brandishing an axe. The article concluded with a quote from him, saying "It is all in the past, I've made a dramatic change."
