BÖHSE ONKELZ/STONES Controversy Rages On

June 23, 2003

Worried sponsors severed their links with a planned ROLLING STONES concert in a continuing row over the group's support band.

T-Mobile and NDR 2 radio station earlier this month scrapped plans to help publicize the August 8 concert in protest over the act who are alleged to have had a racist past.

A spokesman said the appearance on the bill of BÖHSE ONKELZ, the popular German punk band once outlawed for their allegedly hate-filled, neo-Nazi lyrics, "fitted neither the image nor the musical direction of the program".

However the STONES said they were happy to go ahead with the BÖHSE ONKELZ in Hanover, the only venue at which the band feature on the British group's tour.

STONES lead singer Mick Jagger said two weeks ago: "They seem to have renounced any tenuous links they may have had to any right-wing organizations so we take that as proof of their good faith and we will keep them on the show."

BÖHSE ONKELZ, a German misspelling which translates as Evil Uncles, were founded in 1980 as a punk band, and initially had a skinhead following.

They have admitted writing racist lyrics at the start of their musical career, but renounced the skinhead scene when it became linked with the political far right.

They are now considered a mainstream rock band, one of the biggest in the country.

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