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Chelsea Headhunters Racism caught on camera in Paris Underground

Taken from The Guardian newspaper We’re racist, we’re racist. And that’s the way we like it.” Just in case there was any possibility that the group of Chelsea hooligans were preventing a man from boarding a train on the Paris Métro for a reason more obscure than the colour of his skin, they helpfully illustrated their actions with a chant. They are racist.

They like being racist. What further justification than their liking of racism could they possibly need? It’s quite menacing, I think, the counterpoint in that chant, with the understated use of the word “like” confirming that half the fun is in embracing a powerfully destructive and hateful identity in a casual way, as if it’s merely a mild preference. These guys don’t feel passionately racist. It’s just something they “like”. No big deal. What’s all the fuss about?

Chelsea and the U.N condemn fans who pushed black man off Paris Métro Read more Are these men still finding their self-identification as racists enjoyable, now that a fellow passenger has filmed them in their petty aggression and taken it to the media? These men will be identified, banned from attending Chelsea matches at the very least, and perhaps face with criminal charges.

In the meantime, we can be assured of further why-oh-why discussion as to why football should continue to attract racists, despite the game’s years of concerted effort to disassociate itself from racism. Maybe I’m missing something here, but it always seems to me that football support is all about feeling that you’re part of one group and are opposed to another group.

In that way it surely shares at least some of the mentality of the racist. Then there’s the even more tiresome question of why these racist men support Chelsea even though it has so many black players. Yes. Why would a racist enjoy cynically exploiting the skills of black people? Such a baffling mystery. When, in human history, has that ever happened? No doubt these men are now feeling that they are the victims – victims of the political correctness that they think it so clever to defy.

It’s a shame, in a way, that the term “political correctness” even exists, that being against ignorant prejudice and vicious hatred can be characterised not as civilised but as “political”, not as right but as “correct”. The phrase implies heavily that a set of rules that should be followed has been brought into being in some arbitrary, faceless, undemocratic power-grab. The saddest thing is that men such as these men, who “like” hating strangers of whom they know nothing, really do feel that they are the ones being oppressed by a sinister ideology, when all that’s oppressing them is their own nasty, small-minded resentment.
By Deborah Orr

Not undermining, the fact a gang of drunks abusing a rail passenger is a pathetic act, its probably worth looking at the root of where the British football hooligan comes from. The rough end of the council estate. Brought up on a gang mentality. Has much changed in 30 years? Perhaps only the colour of skin

But in the scheme of things, should it really warrant such a high level of BBC media coverage Does anyone remember this being broadcast so loudly?

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Chelsea Headhunters Jailed

The end of a reign of terror

Headhunters … Terrence Matthews and Jason Marriner By MIKE SULLIVAN, Crime Editor, and ALEX PEAKEPublished: 26th March 2011 The Sun  

FOR decades the mere mention of their name struck fear and terror into football fans across the UK and Europe.

They revelled in being the most notorious hooligans on the planet.

They were the Chelsea Headhunters — dishing out their savage brand of football violence on rival fans at grounds across the country in the Seventies and Eighties.

They disappeared from the scene for a number of years following a string of convictions for violence. Then last year the ringleaders coaxed the now middle-aged and pot-bellied brutes out of retirement for one last dust-up.

But yesterday the vile thugs’ 30-year reign of terror was ended once and for all as the last remnants of the ageing, desperate gang were brought to justice following their final brutal clash.

The chance to rekindle the tribal camaraderie and blood-fuelled adrenaline the Headhunters had once lived for presented itself when Championship side Cardiff City were drawn away to Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup on February 13 2010.

The Welsh club’s own hardcore group, the Soul Crew, enjoy a formidable reputation and relished the prospect of invading west London.

In the deluded minds of the Chelsea old guard, getting stuck in to the Cardiff mob was a matter of defending national pride.

The scene that unfolded was a perfect storm of football violence — punch-ups and brick-throwing in broad daylight as terrified families cowered in the carnage.

Marshalling the bloated and blowing Chelsea soldiers that day were Andy “Nightmare” Frain, 46, and Jason Marriner, 43.

Dad-of-three Marriner, of Stevenage, Herts, was yesterday jailed for two years and banned from football grounds for eight years having been found guilty at Isleworth Crown Court of playing a “pivotal role” in organising one of the biggest ever violent clashes between football hooligan “firms”.

He was due to be joined by Frain — who was last seen arriving at court swigging from a bottle of vodka — but his sentencing had to be postponed due to illness. Frain, of Chelmsford, Essex, has pleaded guilty to violent disorder and is due to be sentenced later.

Frain and Marriner have previously been jailed for seven and six years respectively in 2000 after being secretly filmed plotting violence during a BBC programme by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre. Frain discussed his involvement with the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 while Marriner had close links to Ulster loyalists.

Andy 'Nightmare' Frain ... last seen at court with vodka

Andy ‘Nightmare’ Frain … last seen at court with vodkaNational Pictures

On Thursday, 13 other Chelsea fans were jailed for offences of violence after the Cardiff game and received sentences of up to two years in jail. One of those was Ian Cutler, a 50-year-old builder from Wednesbury, West Mids, who has football-related convictions for violence dating back to the 1970s. He was seen kicking and punching a man lying on the ground and given 14 months and banned from football grounds for six years.

Judge Martin Edmunds QC told Cutler and other defendants they were “old enough to know better”.

On Monday, Terence Matthews, of Morden, Surrey, and two others pleaded guilty to affray. A judge warned them they face jail when sentenced in May.

A now slimmed-down Matthews, 50, was once accused of being the “Fat Man” who rammed a bottle in a barman’s face at a pub near Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground.

He was jailed for four years for affray in 1986 but, to the outrage of police and victims, was acquitted of the bottle attack. He later served a two-year jail sentence for assaulting a police officer. Det Supt William Lyle of the Metropolitan Police said of the violence on the day of the Cardiff match: “Nothing like it had happened since the 1970s. One heavily pregnant woman in a car became very stressed by fighting hooligans.

“There was CCTV of a father shielding his two children as missiles were thrown over their heads. We were prepared for trouble but nobody could have foreseen that.”

These fresh convictions have ripped the heart out of the Headhunters’ hierarchy who, in their heyday, became infamous for inflicting their own brand of torture.

In their “manor” of London’s trendy King’s Road they would administer the notorious “Chelsea Smile” — so-called because victims’ faces would be SLICED from the edges of the mouth to the ears.

To hurt or even kill the victim, he or SHE would then be STABBED in the stomach so the face would RIP when they screamed.

But with the arrival of all-seater stadiums in the early Nineties, football hooliganism was all but stamped out. The shaven-headed, hate-filled hooligans got older and there was a lack of wannabes waiting to fill their shoes.

In recent years the Headhunters became nothing more than a myth.

The group faded away after MacIntyre’s documentary exposed the remaining hardcore members.

But the cup clash with Cardiff last year proved too much for the now paunchy monsters to turn down. All the old crew were back for the reunion — Nightmare, Marriner and the Fat Man too.

Scene of terror ... punch-up in 2010

Scene of terror … punch-up in 2010National Pictures

Police insisted on a noon kick-off but the first signs of trouble came in the morning when more than 100 Chelsea yobs marched on North End Road, splitting into two groups with military precision to attack Cardiff coaches.

Smoke bombs went off as the rival hooligans clashed before police took control.

The court heard this week how Chelsea fans then downed up to seven pints of lager and snorted lines of cocaine in pubs as they prepared to face their Welsh enemy after the final whistle.

The thugs jostled on the Fulham Road. A group of Cardiff fans broke away and made their way to the King’s Road, where they were met by the Headhunters.

More than 200 yobs then fought a running battle for the next quarter of an hour, hurling missiles and traffic cones at each other.

Bricks were thrown at police. One officer had his jaw broken and lost four teeth after being hit in the face with a rock.

The police quickly launched Operation Ternhill to identify the thugs and collected hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.

Seventeen hooligans were named to police in just two days last July following an appeal in The Sun.

A total of 96 people have been charged over the riot so far, with more than 60 having already pleaded guilty to offences of affray and violent disorder.

mpuDet Supt Lyle said: “A high number were in their thirties, forties and even their fifties. The oldest one was 55. A lot of them went because they knew there was a high possibility of violence.”

In February this year 27 Cardiff fans received sentences of up to 14 months in jail. A second batch of 18 more were given similar terms.

Brave telly investigator Donal MacIntyre was in court yesterday.

Thugs from the Headhunters firm attacked him and wife Ameera last year in “revenge” for some of their gang being convicted as a result of his 1999 report. A member of the gang James Wild, 47, was later convicted for the attack.

MacIntyre said: “They beat my wife up when she had a brain tumour. I’m here to see justice done. I’ve been running for ten years and now enough is enough.”

m.sullivan@the-sun.co.uk

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Chelsea Headhunters Jailed

The end of a reign of terror

Headhunters … Terrence Matthews and Jason Marriner By MIKE SULLIVAN, Crime Editor, and ALEX PEAKEPublished: 26th March 2011 The Sun  

FOR decades the mere mention of their name struck fear and terror into football fans across the UK and Europe.

They revelled in being the most notorious hooligans on the planet.

They were the Chelsea Headhunters — dishing out their savage brand of football violence on rival fans at grounds across the country in the Seventies and Eighties.

They disappeared from the scene for a number of years following a string of convictions for violence. Then last year the ringleaders coaxed the now middle-aged and pot-bellied brutes out of retirement for one last dust-up.

But yesterday the vile thugs’ 30-year reign of terror was ended once and for all as the last remnants of the ageing, desperate gang were brought to justice following their final brutal clash.

The chance to rekindle the tribal camaraderie and blood-fuelled adrenaline the Headhunters had once lived for presented itself when Championship side Cardiff City were drawn away to Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup on February 13 2010.

The Welsh club’s own hardcore group, the Soul Crew, enjoy a formidable reputation and relished the prospect of invading west London.

In the deluded minds of the Chelsea old guard, getting stuck in to the Cardiff mob was a matter of defending national pride.

The scene that unfolded was a perfect storm of football violence — punch-ups and brick-throwing in broad daylight as terrified families cowered in the carnage.

Marshalling the bloated and blowing Chelsea soldiers that day were Andy “Nightmare” Frain, 46, and Jason Marriner, 43.

Dad-of-three Marriner, of Stevenage, Herts, was yesterday jailed for two years and banned from football grounds for eight years having been found guilty at Isleworth Crown Court of playing a “pivotal role” in organising one of the biggest ever violent clashes between football hooligan “firms”.

He was due to be joined by Frain — who was last seen arriving at court swigging from a bottle of vodka — but his sentencing had to be postponed due to illness. Frain, of Chelmsford, Essex, has pleaded guilty to violent disorder and is due to be sentenced later.

Frain and Marriner have previously been jailed for seven and six years respectively in 2000 after being secretly filmed plotting violence during a BBC programme by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre. Frain discussed his involvement with the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 while Marriner had close links to Ulster loyalists.

Andy ‘Nightmare’ Frain … last seen at court with vodkaNational Pictures

On Thursday, 13 other Chelsea fans were jailed for offences of violence after the Cardiff game and received sentences of up to two years in jail. One of those was Ian Cutler, a 50-year-old builder from Wednesbury, West Mids, who has football-related convictions for violence dating back to the 1970s. He was seen kicking and punching a man lying on the ground and given 14 months and banned from football grounds for six years.

Judge Martin Edmunds QC told Cutler and other defendants they were “old enough to know better”.

On Monday, Terence Matthews, of Morden, Surrey, and two others pleaded guilty to affray. A judge warned them they face jail when sentenced in May.

A now slimmed-down Matthews, 50, was once accused of being the “Fat Man” who rammed a bottle in a barman’s face at a pub near Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground.

He was jailed for four years for affray in 1986 but, to the outrage of police and victims, was acquitted of the bottle attack. He later served a two-year jail sentence for assaulting a police officer. Det Supt William Lyle of the Metropolitan Police said of the violence on the day of the Cardiff match: “Nothing like it had happened since the 1970s. One heavily pregnant woman in a car became very stressed by fighting hooligans.

“There was CCTV of a father shielding his two children as missiles were thrown over their heads. We were prepared for trouble but nobody could have foreseen that.”

These fresh convictions have ripped the heart out of the Headhunters’ hierarchy who, in their heyday, became infamous for inflicting their own brand of torture.

In their “manor” of London’s trendy King’s Road they would administer the notorious “Chelsea Smile” — so-called because victims’ faces would be SLICED from the edges of the mouth to the ears.

To hurt or even kill the victim, he or SHE would then be STABBED in the stomach so the face would RIP when they screamed.

But with the arrival of all-seater stadiums in the early Nineties, football hooliganism was all but stamped out. The shaven-headed, hate-filled hooligans got older and there was a lack of wannabes waiting to fill their shoes.

In recent years the Headhunters became nothing more than a myth.

The group faded away after MacIntyre’s documentary exposed the remaining hardcore members.

But the cup clash with Cardiff last year proved too much for the now paunchy monsters to turn down. All the old crew were back for the reunion — Nightmare, Marriner and the Fat Man too.

Scene of terror … punch-up in 2010National Pictures

Police insisted on a noon kick-off but the first signs of trouble came in the morning when more than 100 Chelsea yobs marched on North End Road, splitting into two groups with military precision to attack Cardiff coaches.

Smoke bombs went off as the rival hooligans clashed before police took control.

The court heard this week how Chelsea fans then downed up to seven pints of lager and snorted lines of cocaine in pubs as they prepared to face their Welsh enemy after the final whistle.

The thugs jostled on the Fulham Road. A group of Cardiff fans broke away and made their way to the King’s Road, where they were met by the Headhunters.

More than 200 yobs then fought a running battle for the next quarter of an hour, hurling missiles and traffic cones at each other.

Bricks were thrown at police. One officer had his jaw broken and lost four teeth after being hit in the face with a rock.

The police quickly launched Operation Ternhill to identify the thugs and collected hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.

Seventeen hooligans were named to police in just two days last July following an appeal in The Sun.

A total of 96 people have been charged over the riot so far, with more than 60 having already pleaded guilty to offences of affray and violent disorder.

mpuDet Supt Lyle said: “A high number were in their thirties, forties and even their fifties. The oldest one was 55. A lot of them went because they knew there was a high possibility of violence.”

In February this year 27 Cardiff fans received sentences of up to 14 months in jail. A second batch of 18 more were given similar terms.

Brave telly investigator Donal MacIntyre was in court yesterday.

Thugs from the Headhunters firm attacked him and wife Ameera last year in “revenge” for some of their gang being convicted as a result of his 1999 report. A member of the gang James Wild, 47, was later convicted for the attack.

MacIntyre said: “They beat my wife up when she had a brain tumour. I’m here to see justice done. I’ve been running for ten years and now enough is enough.”

m.sullivan@the-sun.co.uk

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Why did Punk scare society

What was punk – and why did it scare people so much?

A man in punk dress is apparently admonished by a man in London in the mid-1980s. Punk’s expressive dress and anarchic politics were seen as a general affront to middle English conservatism in the mid-1970s, with the movement continuing as a subculture through the 1980s and beyond.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROGER HUTCHINGS / ALAMY

PUBLISHED 1 JUL 2022, 16:27 BST

EVERYONE knows the sound of punk: unfiltered and breathless, an assault of sonic claustrophobia captured unpolished in a studio, or garage, living room, or perhaps an alleyway. Guitar riffs are sharp and unruly, driven by drums clattering around a gritty, decisive bassline. Vocals are unpolished and expressive, yelling lyrics loaded with agenda above the instruments. Aggression, frustration, sneering sarcasm – and all of it loud.

Everyone too knows the look of punk: statement haircuts, ripped clothing, badges, metalwork, makeup and leather. To its makers and its audience, punk was the cultural identity of anger, disenfranchisement, and rebellion.

The surge of – and appetite for – the punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s wasn’t limited purely to the music. It became an ideology, spawning literature, poetry, fashion and political defiance. But, as dramatised in new Disney+ biopic Pistol, it was the music that became its gravitation point, giving a beat and an identity to a genre that would explode, implode – and be reinvented over the decades around the world. (The Walt Disney Company is majority owner of National Geographic Partners.)

Defining the undefinable

Punk as a movement – perhaps appropriately – defies definition. Defined by Monika Sklar in her book Punk Style, punk was a ‘vital new way to perform subcultural ideas, that incorporated its own art, music, dress and lifestyles… commonly rooted in those who are somehow disenfranchised from society.”

The word punk was originally an archaic term for a prostitute – ‘Puncke’ was used by Shakespeare as such in Measure by Measure, though ambiguously – and was later a common slang term for any kind of miscreant, or charismatic, good-for-nothing threat to authority such as the characters played by James Dean or Marlon Brando in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One. It was also widely used as prison slang to denote a victim of predatory sexual advances.  

People in punk dress walk down King's Road in London in the 1970s.

People in punk dress walk down King’s Road in London in the 1970s.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HOMER SYKES / ALAMY

Exactly when it was appended to music is uncertain, though it’s likely to have been a lot earlier than most realise. A note in the San Francisco Call of 3 October 1899 carried the outraged remarks of one Otto Wise, who reviewed the singing of a companion in a fraternity house as “the most punk song ever heard in a hall.” In this and later tuneful contexts, which were plentiful, the word was used as an adjective to describe any kind of music that was authentically ragtag or unpolished – the implication being that those making it were somewhat rough around the edges as well.

Far from a simple expression of alternative ideas, or music simply of a lowbrow nature, by the time ‘punk rock’ was a thing, it was perceived as being on a mission to deliberately provoke. Miriam-Webster defined the music as “marked by extreme and often deliberately offensive expressions of alienation and social discontent” – though the word wasn’t used widely when the movement was first finding its voice. It was around, though: In the May 1971 edition of edgy music magazine Creem, journalist Dave Marsh, in a retrospective of 1960s US bands ? and The Mysterions, described their output as being a “landmark exposition of punk rock” – one of the first times the term was coined as a genre.

The Sex Pistols in the United States, 1978. Punk rock grew concurrently in the U.S. and ...

The Sex Pistols in the United States, 1978. Punk rock grew concurrently in the U.S. and the U.K., though the musical movement began in America with bands such as the New York Dolls and The Stooges helping set the scene for what would follow. Stooges songs were part of the repertoire of the Sex Pistols.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY

American groups such as the New York Dolls and the Ramones (‘New York rock’), The Stooges and the MC5 in Detroit (‘garage rock’) had the swagger and bare-bones musicality vibe nailed. But the general use of a term so associated with scallywags of one kind or another was frowned upon, and mainly used by journalists to categorise elements of their music. A 1976 article in the UK’s Sounds magazine by John Ingham was entitled ‘Welcome to the (?) Rock Special’ – the question mark a clear statement that nobody quite knew what to call the new movement now emerging in the U.S., Australia and in the U.K. On the eastern side of the Atlantic at least, punk rock didn’t get its enduring identity until there was a band of suitably shameless menace upon which to pin it.

Linda and Sara Wycombe Punk girls . By Gavin Watson
Sara and Linda, Wycombe Punk girls . By Gavin Watson

Trigger point

Enter the Sex Pistols. The mid 1970s punk scene in the UK came at a point of economic decline and civil unrest. A recession was in full swing, police were clashing with the public on the streets in a series of disputes, Britain was sliding down the economic power list and – against a backdrop of a fading, increasingly costly Empire – the prospects for young people were bleak. An ungovernable ‘failed state,’ as summed up by journalist Simon Jenkins, who wrote: “The word ‘strike’ was in every page of every newspaper almost every day. Public services really were collapsing. This country really was a mess.”

The Sex Pistols performing in Norway, 1977. The band used European dates to emphasise their 'banned ...

The Sex Pistols performing in Norway, 1977. The band used European dates to emphasise their ‘banned in the UK’ notoriety, though in truth the band was never banned; merely their songs were excluded from the playlist of conservative broadcasters like the BBC, which it is believed limited their commercial success. Many believe the controversial single ‘God Save the Queen’ reached number 1 in the singles chart but was denied the accolade, losing out to Rod Stewart’s ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

PHOTOGRAPH BY NORWAY NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Against such a scene, by the mid-1970s the emergence of a colourful counter-culture of bands that seemed to articulate the country’s frustrations were a tempting lightning rod for disenfranchised youngsters.

Punk rock’s musicality – or as perceived in some quarters, lack thereof – was itself a reaction. While artistically, the songs sometimes sounded like the band had only a loose acquaintance with their instruments (a 1973 review of The New York Dolls compared the sound of the band to lawnmowers) it was a conscious riposte to grandiose, stadium-filling bands playing rambling prog-rock and employing operatic and indulgent performances.

Punk rock, when it arrived, was edgy, brief and unpolished, with unpredictable and chaotic live performances which sometimes ignited pent up crowds into violence. Out went virtuoso solos and twinkly stagecraft: musicianship came second to attitude, and the feeling of accessibility – that those on stage weren’t couched and pampered rock stars, but just someone with struggles, frustrations and something to say. Lyrics were often politicised or critical of what was increasingly seen as a country run by arcane and regressive institutions.

Such rough but charismatic sound also bred its own recession-proof fashion. The ascetic, unkempt look of American rock bands such as The Ramones and Television and artists such as Lou Reed and Patti Smith – ripped jeans held together with safety pins, recycled thrift store clothes and t-shirts – spread across the Atlantic and became individualistic styles that were by definition a unique statement. While aped – ironically – by fans, the emerging movement provided a platform for self-expression that was authentic, rag-tag, and accessible for anyone.

Some of the boldest statements were crafted by Vivienne Westwood, who at the time was in a relationship with socialite and sometime promoter Malcolm McLaren. After the latter had spent a period in the U.S. managing the New York Dolls, he became interested in managing a local band called The Strand, which he and Westwood used as a kind of musical billboard for their Chelsea fashion boutique. With the rise in popularity of fetish wear, Westwood and McLaren had renamed the boutique from Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die to SEX – and The Strand to the Sex Pistols, with McLaren describing his desired aesthetic for the band as ‘sexy young assassins.

‘The antithesis of humankind’

It was an uncomfortable contradiction that success and popularity was the inverse to punk’s philosophy, but also the inevitable consequence of connection with large numbers of disenfranchised record buyers. This came to a scandalous head in December 1976 when Thames TV presenter Bill Grundy – who, in a last-minute switch, found himself interviewing The Sex Pistols instead of Queen in a primetime evening broadcast – appeared to challenge the band on its anti-materialistic authenticity given it had accepted £40,000 for a record deal.

Singer John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, mumbled a swearword under his breath which Grundy asked him to repeat in defiance of the channel’s stringent policies. After more goading, guitarist Steve Jones broke into a profanity-loaded rant at the presenter, all of which was broadcast live. Grundy’s career never recovered, and the Sex Pistols were instantly notorious.

Westwood and McLaren's shop on The King's Road in 1976. Initially named Let it Rock, then Too ...
Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in London, 1977. Westwood wears the original artwork for God Save ...

Left:

Westwood and McLaren’s shop on The King’s Road in 1976. Initially named Let it Rock, then Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, then SEX – and later The Seditionaries, and finally World’s End, which it remains to this day.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TRINITY MIRROR / MIRRORPIX / ALAMY

Right:

Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in London, 1977. Westwood wears the original artwork for God Save the Queen on her t-shirst. Westwood’s designs were deliberately intended to shock and provoke, and she and McLaren’s influence over the Sex Pistols made them a leading charge on both the genre’s music and look.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TRINITY MIRROR / MIRRORPIX / ALAMY

Bernard Partridge, a member of the Great London Council, described the band as the ‘antithesis of humankind,’ adding that punk rock in general was “nauseating, disgusting, degrading, ghastly, sleazy, prurient, voyeuristic and generally nauseating… I think most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death.”

Anarchy in the UK

The perceived threat that punk rock presented to society was framed neatly by the release of what would become an anti-establishment anthem. For a target, as the head of state presiding over a country enduring austerity, the Queen was apparently as good as any.

Though the band denied the record was intended as a stunt, the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen was engineered by McLaren to be released during the Queen’s silver Jubilee on 27th May 1977.

Originally promoted using as a portrait of the Queen with a safety pin through her lip and with a record sleeve depicting ransom-like lettering over her eyes and mouth, the song – not unreasonably – was seen as an assault on the royal family and its values. Outlawed by the BBC, it was a popular success but also made the band targets for pro-monarchy supporters. Drummer Paul Cook was attacked outside a tube station by six men armed with knives; John Lydon was assaulted with razorblades outside a pub in Highbury leaving him with injuries to his hand and face.

The sleeve for the single God Save the Queen (1977.) The song was originally called No ...

The sleeve for the single God Save the Queen (1977.) The song was originally called No Future, and variations of the artwork, designed by artist Jamie Reid, included images of the Queen with a safety pin through her lip and swastikas over her eyes.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT LAZENBY / ALAMY

Lydon – who wrote the lyrics – has held the opinion that the song, which was originally titled No Future, was misunderstood. In Isle of Noises, Lydon told author Daniel Rachel the song captured ”the idea of being angry, of the indifference of the Queen to the population and the aloofness and indifference to us as people.” But writing in The Times in 2022, he stated: “I’ve got no animosity against any one of the royal family. Never did. It’s the institution of it that bothers me and the assumption that I’m to pay for that.”

45 years after its release, a reissue of the song reached number 1 in the UK charts for the first time on 4th June 2022 – the weekend of the Queen’s Platinum jubilee.

The inherent provocativeness of punk’s anti-establishment, anti-capitalism and anti-conformist statements inevitably went into darker territory, which deepened the divide between the older, more conservative generation and the punks themselves. As cultural theorist Dick Hebdige wrote in Subculture: The Meaning of Style, “No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalised forms, nor to bring down upon itself such vehement disapproval.”

Violence was a feature of many punk gigs – both within the crowd, between the crowd and the band, and between the more strait-laced public spoiling for a fight with a subculture seen as a genuine threat to the British way of life. Despite a reputation for unruliness, the punks became targets, too.

“Punk rock is nauseating, disgusting, degrading, ghastly, sleazy, prurient, voyeuristic and generally nauseating… I think most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death.”

BERNARD BROOK PARTRIDGE

“Punks’ transgressive, shocking attitudes and stances caused normative culture to react viciously against them,” wrote Andrew H. Carroll in Running Riot’: Violence and British Punk Communities, 1975-1984, “and it further isolated them from normative society; the reactions against them pushed punks deeper into their alternative community.”

Another theory for punk’s perceived aggression was the spiralling divorce rate and the dissolution of what many considered ‘traditional’ family values. As Connell states, “one way young people reacted to this was by constructing a new community, centred on punk music, that used violence to define itself.”

In addition, sinister accessories such as dog chains and knives were adopted as effects. In a further shock attack on older generations swastikas and other Nazi aesthetics were frequently worn as a deliberate provocation to those who had fought in WWII three decades earlier.

The latter was infamously sported by John Richie – better known by stage name Sid Vicious – who joined the Sex Pistols as a bassist in 1977. Vicious would come to epitomise punk’s more self-destructive side: allegedly talentless as a musician, he became a heroin addict, assaulted members of the band’s audience, carved slogans into his chest on stage and in 1978 was arrested for the second-degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in the aftermath of a party in New York. Vicious died from a drug overdose whilst awaiting trial in February 1979.

The Sex Pistols sign a record deal, 1977. Manager Malcolm McLaren (second from right) orchestrated stunts ...

The Sex Pistols sign a record deal, 1977. Manager Malcolm McLaren (second from right) orchestrated stunts such as this for maximum publicity and affront to institutions such as the monarchy. It’s no accident the contract was signed in front of Buckingham Palace, nor that the record God Save the Queen was released to coincide with the Queen’s silver jubilee. The band themselves denied the record was timed as such.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PA IMAGES / ALAMY

Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen in 1978. Both would be dead a year later Spungen supposedly ...

Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen in 1978. Both would be dead a year later Spungen supposedly at the hands of Vicious, and Vicious by a drug overdose. As Vicious died whilst awaiting trial, the question over who murdered Spungen – she was found stabbed by Vicious’s knife in late 1978 while the latter was in a drug-induced blackout – remains controversial.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY

Punk goes mainstream

Vicious’s death was considered one of the death knells for punk itself. Bands that followed The Sex Pistols’ lead included Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Slits, all of whom were influential in developing punk rock as a genre along various political themes, from austerity to equality, with some – including The Clash – becoming highly successful in the process. The latter made racial tension one of its protest flags, after lead singer Joe Strummer witnessed the violence between police and Black revellers at the Notting Hill Carnival in 1976, penning the song White Riot in response.

The Clash, pictured here in 1979, would be one of the British bands that would develop ...

The Clash, pictured here in 1979, would be one of the British bands that would develop punk rock beyond the 1970s.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY

As the 1970s became the 1980s, punk became even more resplendent. But as the decade progressed, inflation fell, the economy improved and new, less volatile bands caught the attention of younger generations.

While less menacing and gritty, the bright colours, creative hairstyles and use of makeup and other more tranquil ostentations of the 1980s music fashion appeared a natural development of punk. But stylistically, many of the bands that followed were an exaggerated contrast to their predecessors. Artists influenced by the punk movement such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Adam and the Ants earned the early nickname ‘peacock punks.’ The anger quelled, the motivations became less aggressive; guitars were augmented by new technology such as synthesisers that once again gave songs the produced shimmer bands like the Sex Pistols had gleefully binned. Punk, as a subculture, remained – but popular music evolved.

Their philosophy, however, didn’t – and has emerged periodically since, with movements such as gothic rock, grunge and EMO exhibiting many of the anarchic attributes that led to punk. Some of the albums produced in that first wave frequently rank in critics’ lists of the top albums of all time.

One of the bands identified as a kind of spiritual heir to The Sex Pistols emerged from Seattle in 1987. But for the lead singer, it was the philosophy, not the music, that tied the two together. “The only reason I might agree with people calling our band “The Sex Pistols of the 90s” is that, for both bands, the music is a very natural thing, very sincere,” said Kurt Cobain, of Nirvana. “All the hype the Sex Pistols had was totally deserved – they deserved everything they got.”

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Camden Skinhead

rollingstone Somers Town Skinheads London

Hello. I want to share with you my recollections and memories of the skinhead scene that I have always been a part of. At the moment I am recovering from falling off some scaffolding, so this has given me time to get to grips with modern technology and given me a chance to reflect for the first time on the subject of Skinhead culture and share with you some of the stories and memories of the past from like minded people which has been prompted by hearing the interview with Symond Lawes on the Brighton skinhead reunion recorded some time ago.
I will start by telling you about myself. I’m a 50 year old skinhead and bricklayer now living in Wendover, Bucks. I grew up around the Camden Town/Somers Town area of London.
When I was a kid, kicking a ball around at night, my mum always said: ‘Be home before the Mods come out!’

This was around 1969, she was referring to the lads, who would have been Mods, who had inherited the same patches outside the local pubs that their elder brothers hung around some years earlier.My parents still called them Mods, and I always thought of Mods as being the the elder statement of skinheads. These were previously the 7/6d’s, that have now come of age. We knew which families they came from, and who they were, and our families knew their families and so on. There were some real tough families in the area at that time. By this time the groups that my parents remembered were growing up, getting married, they were joining the Army and working for Her majesty ( GPO) or staying at one of her Hostels. (HMP Pentonville was near my home)The GPO tower was looming over us, like a calling card, it was a respectable career to aspire to and a lot of us did end up going to Mount Pleasant GPO, after being kicked out of school.
But a further aspiration, was to join the local gang. I was way to young for this at the time but I would look out of my bedroom window, with envy watching this group, evolve from 1968 onwards. I will never forget the sound of the the light buzzing of scooters as the gang rode their inheritance from their older brothers. They were a group of lads who had this tough but smart look about them, They wore mostly denim jackets, with Crombies ¾ length coats, boots and braces. The gals didn’t have the skinhead feathered hair cuts, like they did later. Some of them looked a bit like the Toyah Wilcox character in Quadrophenia. Most of the girls had Crombies but looked feminine but they still looked like Sixties Mod girls, with kilt type minis, they wore their hair in a shoulder length style that hinted at skinhead look. It was a bit like a flat mullet, with a fringe, that looked like it had been cut around a saucer template.
You always looked out for “Names” on the skinhead scene. “Names” who were hard enough to have been kicked out of the local boxing gyms. The word got out amongst the scene. They were always tough Jamaican offspring kids, and they were ALWAYS part of the group. These kids where always in the mix, as some of the top boys, but in many ways smarter. “wiv the threads” a right proper mixed bunch who always fought and hung around together, Skinheads or mods, peanuts, however they were, they were the was the only group you would ever see with blacks kids.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Somers Town like this:

SOMERS-TOWN, a chapelry and a sub-district in St. Pancras parish and district, Middlesex. The chapelry is a compact portion of the metropolis; lies between New Road, the Regent’s canal, and the Great Western railway, 2 miles NW of St. Paul’s; occupies ground which was mainly unedificed so late as 1780; and has a post-office‡ under London NW, and an S.-Police station. Pop., about 14,500. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of London. Value, £300. Patron, the Vicar of St. Pancras. The church was built after designs by Inwood, at a cost of £14,291.—The sub-district extends beyond the chapelry, and comprises 184 acres. Pop. in 1851, 35,641; in 1861, 39,099. Houses, 3,907.

Some of the lads dressed smarter then the others, the way they dressed reminded me of the slick character in the 70’s TV show “Please Sir” some of the black lads had the Tennis Fred Perry shirts, and braces with “Peyton Place jackets. My mum wanted to see me dress like that, as she fancied the film actor Ryan O’ Neil.
She seem eager to see me in one of those outfits, more then any other form of attire. Later on most of the Jamaican kids were smartly dressed in tonics and loafers especially on music nights and at that time they had the same inner London accents as most of them had come over in the 1950’s when they was babies and a few of the younger lads was born in the UCH the same as me.
On youth club nights I would hear the sound of the club in the Cumberland Market down in NW1. This was mixed with the turn out of the dads and older lads coming out of the Kings Head opposite my house. At the time I didn’t know what the stuff they were playing was, but it had such a infectious bounce to it, and it echoed all around my room at night. I used to tuck my head under my eiderdown. I felt so spellbound by the rhythms and beats. So much so, that I would wake up with it almost resonating like an exact recording in my head the next morning.

This would stay with me for life. Later on I discovered exactly what it was and that it was the ska/rocksteady music. The ska would be played at the early part of the night just as it was getting dark, and the sound would be taken down a level later in the evening with the Rocksteady beat. At the time I was too young to get involved and my nearest encounter of rubbing shoulders with this crowd, was seeing these older kids break away from the group and go on the march to Highbury, on Saturdays. The older lot headed for the boozers and then the North Bank, while we went to the West Stand with my dad,and my mates who all had older brothers in the ranks so with that and the fact that there parents knew mine and who’s boy I was!
As I got older, I would go around me mates gaffs, a lot of their elders had left home to start families. It was almost the unwritten law at that time, that the elder brothers room should remain untouched, and that included record collections. For me, at the time that was heaven. I understood that ska was the main stay amongst Skinhead record collections, although a lot of skinheads at the time, did listen to other stuff apart from reggae there was a popular local band called “The Action” that locals still followed also nearly everyone of them had “Who” and “Small Faces” poster or disc, and also would you believe: “A Kind Of Blue” by Miles Davis. which his brother always called his “Shagging music.”

Madness have become the most successful band to have come out of the Skinhead Subculture, From Camden Town, inspiring a Ska movement worldwide

 

I thought it was a kind of dance at the time and I remember being glad to see those records and posters as it kind of blessed what I thought was a guilty secret of mine, my love of “The Who.” In a way it wasn’t that strange, as we all gravitate to a kind of group or music that attracts us and that was the whole Mod ancestry! It wasn’t quite the mainstream but it was heavy enough to be called Geezers music but it never crossed over to hippiedom which I always thought of as being “THEM” the group you never want to be with. I inherited a hatred of them, not so much the music coz there was a lot of “Blues” which I always loved, and that’s when I started to get more knowledgeable about this kind of music, as I knew that it was the root of ska, a Jamaican take on the blues that they had heard from the Southern states. So this also gave it a blessing to like “The Blues” as well.

My dislike for hippies came from the fact that they all seem to talk posh and they always seemed to be moaning in middle class accents and I despised those military wing greasers.The music consisted of “geezer rock” or white English men who played “Soul” and “Blues” that came out of “Rock” getting it slightly wrong. This was a style that developed by mistake. This clashing together of styles seem to repeat itself later on with Punk which I embraced quickly as soon as I was old enough to welcome it all but I had always being a Skinhead or Suede head since the time I tried to dress like guys from 1968 and 1969.

I have never been anything else as my age stopped me being a Mod. Then Punk came along and there was no way I was going to wear flares and attend concerts with the hairy ones on ice at Wembley!!! I’m pleased to say, that I have lived my life as a skinhead, and never succumbed to wearing flares no matter how out of step I was with the early to mid 70s.
I would also like to touch on something that Skinhead/Suede head discussions seem to overlook, This is when I started to hang around music venues the remainder of Skinheads from early days to the early mid 70s suede heads, were influenced by “Glam Rock” although it was from the less feminine side such as Mott the Hoople and Steve Harley. There seem to be the pre- punk, side which was full of the skinhead types, and that was “Pub Rock”. There were so many of us in our group, we would make our way up to Tally Ho boozer in the north end Kentish town, to see the bands that played there, that included all of us and those who were old enough to get in “legit”.

We were all part of the old gang of would be skins. This time more of them were wearing DMs, and crombies, with either a No2 or slightly grown out suede head haircuts. This was still the family “Skin” very much so, and this was the heavier aggressive sound that was for working class inner Londoners, or any other cities youth. We could relate to it.. it was our Generations “The Who.” I sounded out all of these bands, pre-punk even trying to get down to that London in Essex hotspot which was Southend. I thought Dr Feelgood were fucking magic. My mates started to hunt through those record collections to find stuff like it and in hindsight we enjoyed Kersal Flyers Brinsly Shultz etc….. I loved all that stuff. By then of course we’d turn up trying to get in to gigs (I was still too young by the way) to any gigs that we thought was of that ilk, but once we got to them and heard them there was something more unhinged about some of those bands: “London SS” and the “101ers” need I say more that was my introduction into punk and then for a year or two I indulged my self into it.
I met up with mates all over London, that I knew from Boxing Gyms by way of boxing, regular trips down to the Bridgehouse, when it was in Barking Road also it was only a short walk down to the “Roxy” it was close to us and we used to just to hang out there. We Heard that “Dee Generate” out of “Eater”, was our age so we thought: “Let’s ave some of that.!” Some of the punks were a bit creepy, and a bit too arty, for my liking, but I went with it. There was some crumpet, but the girls were all weird wiv suspenders and stuff, and their knockers were sticking out of bin liners!
This was great for a kid my age, especially the at the “Roxy” the mighty Menace at “The grope and wank her” (Hope and Anchor yes we used to think it was funny!!!!!!) We would chat to Charlie Harper at the George Roby,there was this lesbian down the west end. We used to go and hang around with her with an added idea I was gonna cop an eyeful, but that turned out to be the only place a lot of bands were able to play, thanks to the then Tory run GLC so although I did do a lot of growing up in experiencing ways of female flesh. It wasn’t the lesbo orgy I was expecting.
I will like to add, that at times we could feel a change happening, felt a ruck coming on, there were more swastikas, appearing with some of the punks. My jeans were scruffier but I still wore my black “Peyton Place” jacket and me Fred Perry tennis shirt we used to call em, not polos, they was well cheap then down Petticoat lane or Roman road. I always wore me DMs, and my hair was a bit above No2, I was a punk, but I always stayed a skinhead,too so the Swastika was a symbol that we despised. We grew up with parents and grandparents that had experienced it.

Half the streets were still corrugated fenced up, from Bomb sites, back in the days of me observing original skins I used to read read battle picture library and War picture library, those booklets, you know the kind of thing I mean. I used to have dreams of single handedly wiping out Nazis. I used to go to bed thinking that there was an army of rapist, Nazis hippies and coppers, and Narkie Grasses. and how I can dispose if them.It also was a symbol of The Grease, another reason why we hated them, because of their treachery of wearing what Nazis wore. although we hated “The Filth” and any establishment figure,, we were still working class British people and we was not that rebellious. So I resisted wearing that stuff but we was always up for a ruck people tend to think or want to believe it was the far left that was bovver boys when it was the opposite. I hate politics in music or subcults ,that’s why I don’t hold wiv no S H A R P stuff, but I will say this, we never saw a Tory never mind supported them.

Everyone came from Labour voting working class families,, so we knew what we wasn’t, but never dwelt on what we were or what we were going to be. I hated politics and what’s great about being a skinhead then and at now my age is that it’s like being in stir “You don’t ask questions.” The nonces will be found out and dealt with at some point, and a skinhead gathering is the same for anyone on both sides. Both far extremes will feel marginalised eventually and this it started out as a youth sub culture, and we have taken it with us. It’s what you feel, being a skinhead is all about, and it is what brings us together. As it’s the furthest thing away from being a 14 to 15 year old Mod. Skinhead, Rude Boy in the 1960s, suede head 1970s is politics. Thats what your mum and dad talk about, and as I still haven’t grown up nor do I want to I am a old but proud pathetic old git, and I won’t never change!
Going back to attitude. Well, We did speak in a way that isn’t talked now, but even your hard line trade union lefty activist would be slaughtered by the speak Gestapo now!!! it was another time, there was paki – bashing by gangs of mixed black and white youths especially after the arrival of Ugandan Asians not because of colour but because they were new and strange and our ignorance wasnt enlightened by the lack of integration and not willing to embrace, the culture,, unlike the Irish around our way which was a massive wave of families and for young people the West Indians shared there fashion and music it was ignorance and for us, the it was an overwhelmingly important pastime of fighting. This could be amongst any inner city youth Asians were just another group to ruck with, nothing more or less, as far we were concerned! As a group, privately who knows or cares what your views was away from the the lads was,, there was and there wasnt, least among us anyway and especially skinheads who were the hardest lot of the roughest manors, but I am sure Teds, Rockers, fuck even some working class hippies that went along for the trip as it were spoke like that,or picked on someone or something they didn’t understand that they felt weary of amongst not just kids but everyone at that time.

Most skinheads got a bashing from other skinheads most people amongst us was working class, and most of them were skinheads, or related to skinheads. I recall skinhead battles tales amongst the groups , and later on, about area gangs, they didn’t think in terms of London boroughs, just London areas and it was all very Territorial, for example there was Somers town, were I was, Kentish town, Upper Holloway Archway,Clarkenwell ,Shorditch/Hoxton/ Dalton, Queens Crescent, Camden town, then going eastwards there was Stoke Newington, Clapton and then the East End, Bethnal Green, Mile end , Wapping, Stepney, go further east and you get Canning Town, or West Hammersmith, Chelsea Fulham and Shepherds Bush.

Or you might know guys from these areas from work in the centre or boxing club circuit, or gigs, and you would talk and have a laugh but if you were meeting for a ruck then you be knocking shit out of each other if they were representing the area, and further to that, you might have a West Ham or Chelsea supporter in your local gang who would fight with you if you were called out by another manors lot but as they were mostly Arsenal around our way any friendship went at for that fixture. same goes for an Arsenal supporter from Fulham he’d be rucking his mates at football and come Saturday you looked at the scarf not the person that’s what how mad it was I have been told about it from older skinheads that I used to admire when I was looking at them from my bedroom window, fuck some of these guys are in there 70s now.

It was slightly different when I turned the age to shag and ruck but not that far off, but you get me gist !!! so I think Asians at the time got more of ribbing then a hiding it was other groups but most people would unite if they saw greasers setting on a skinhead or what you deemed as one of your ownAs for the Hambourgh tavern I’ve got my own views on that I was there although not for long we couldn’t get to it, but I remember feeling so fucking angry, to see skins that look like they were on the side of the the filth again it was whipped up by both right and left, press and lay politicians and more so the music press who hated the thought of working class council kids being a force, I don’t blame the Asians, they were young fuel filled lads protecting their area or what was force fed to them,they were young like us and was up for a ruck, like any group of whipped up teenage lads, we wanted to go down here or there and make some working class noise and have a few pints. I’m not a conspiracy weirdo, but there was so many reasons why the fucked up middle class left, the fucked up Nazi right wing plus the broadcast media and music press caused that, as the latter didn’t like something that was based around youth led pastime angst and they didn’t like something that they didn’t make or break because it was real and not manufactured, it was something that we could enjoy and dictate what happened with it. It served our purpose, it gave birth to the boneheads that have soiled a working class culture and ruined the fledgling stages of young rock n roll bands,And took away a good deal of their income at a time when they should of been making it good. We could enjoy a good few years of live working class punk rock, seeing as it was taken away from its own manufacturers and given to people who could enjoy it it started going down hill after the Clash signed to CBS it was salvaged and put to good use but the press wanted it dead. These days we can relax with it as our first love and enjoy the Ska and rocksteady that we adopted, and still love, through our own choice as Middle Aged skinheads, that the music press didn’t intend us to love and there’s fuck all they can do about it!!! I’ve got through a whole pack of 20 smokes, in the time it’s taken to do this, didn’t realise the time, that’s more then i get through in three days, but I have enjoyed sharing this with you all…. as you can tell I can go on for ever about this…

Those days were right proper heady,, faces were on stage,in bands that you knew from  seeing them around the chippy/ newsagent in tobert street,,or the youth club, and you know faces from school ,, punk , Arsenal ,especially (Arsenal/Highbury grove ) school , most of the locals around our way went to William Collins ,, I was expelled from secondary schools,, St George’s in St. John’s wood, Highbury grove, ect , only two weeks at William Collins,
I was used to seeing loads of local faces being on telly,, in bands, you took it for granted,(Pauline’s people then Grange Hill)  70s corona drink ads,ect ,, i stopped noticing,,
people from Anna Scher and all that!!! and so on,,but I know who your talking about now ,Low Numbers, they were in the Dublin castle,,i recall ,seen em with Madness,( or invaders, cant remember what stage they were at, the time) loads of us started bands, we loosely played,,,,but nothing proper,,, some bands went further then others,,we were called THE St Pancres Chronical   after the local Rag, but we were shit,,, I played guitar but every time I picked i it up , I just ended up playing Blues,,,bending notes,,,and sounding to much like Heavy Rock?,, I was fine with it, but it pissed the rest off,,,so we decided to stick to being in the crowd watching/ listening,
,,coz I knew people from other  schools in other manors , we kind of broke away from Cumberland market faces , except for four mates in  Robert st,,,and The Crown Flats,local people became  just another face  ,,you recognised ,and the families they came from,,, and who your dad and grandad drank with,
,There was a local crooner  type who  went of to the Army,,, geezer called Gary Driscoll,, he was the first local I knew off, that was dragged up there!! To get noted,,
,my ole man used to be mates with the landlord,of the Dublin castle ,then a Irish fella called Barney Finley,,I was. Mates with his boy Raymond,, they passed it on to the present family,,in the late 60s ,we used to run about in there  after lock up,  two o clock on Sunday afternoons, coz we’d often go to  av sunday dinner with them!!so it was only right I would later make that me local,, so  i witnessed the start of all that too,,was lucky Spose living between West End and Camden Town,
,,I was able to get into clubs in soho,,in the late 70s coz me dad knew all the faces and names ,Jimmy  and Rusty Humphreys  ect,, that’s why I was able to hang about  the latest clubs, being younger,me dad ran an electrical repair /retail shop ,,in Berwick street,called Friel and Francis ,with me uncle Bob (pic,on the front of oasis album), would you believe,, the first parking metre in Westminster was unveiled outside the shop,and  a young spiv that hung about in and out was Alan Suger came down  parked his van with hilivery   A .M .S .TRADING,,marked on the side,coz he knew the press would be snapping, me dad used to sell his car Ariels,(cute ,, got to love that)  anyway they  used to rig up the sound in Ronnie Scott’s,
I used to bunk of whatever school I was in ,to work on Berwick street market,,,
,we used  wheel the sack barras to pick up the veg  and stuff from around what was to become the Roxy before the fruit and veg moved across the river,, John Holt used to have something to do with it ,  I remember , it was converted  from that,,,so that’s why I familiar  to it to hang around there,,later,,, coz I was a cocky little shit, and coz Eaters drummer was from the sticks and was our age , we dint want him to out do us ,to be part of it all.. ,  i knew Id be looked after,,by someone that would be to hand,,if it got to heavy we could UP any older punk that snarled at our presence,,when they did, we was quick to take of our young punk head , and say “we ain’t fucking punks were skinheads”,,,you tossers,,, although we were at the time,,, lot of the older punks were from the sticks,, so when we got snarled at ,, we’d give it  our “( we’re from here,you ain’t  and you don’t know what’s around the corner on the way out ,)
,,the other local connection was my grandads drinking buddy ,who liked drinking with riff raff,was Constance Lambert, he used to live up Park Village East and come down to The Victory ,in Albany St ,he used to drink like a gooden apparently , corse he pegged it before I or the The Who was born,so he dint see his sons  success ,!

 

‘Skinheads & Cherry Reds’, Gerry Stimson, Rolling Stone, July 26 1969, pp. 22-23

This is from the UK edition of Rolling Stone, the American music paper. There are plenty of misspellings and typos, these are from the original. There’s also some racism expressed.

They are the people you may see on the fringe of things, at free concerts shouting out for their favourite football team when everyone else wants to listen to the music, hanging around outside of the Roundhouse trying to annoy people with long hair, or you may see them just hanging around on the street. They are the kids who have short cropped hair, wear boots and levis with braces. They don’t really have a name as such, outsiders call them crop-heads, prickle heads, bullet-heads, spike-heads, thin-heads, bother boys, or agro boys.
The lack of a name is strange, for most groups of people with an image of their own eventually get a name, Mods, Rockers, Hippies, Heads. ‘We are not mods really. Some people call us Mohair Men because we wear suits at the weekend, mohair men waiting for the agro. We’re just sort of stylists really because we keep in with the styles.’
The thing that they are known by is the gang and the area they come from. Like Mile-end, the Highbury, the Angel. The gang will have a hardcore of members with the rest of the bullet heads in that area supporting this gang against gangs from other areas. ‘There’s about 30 of us here from the Town (Summerstown), you know, King’s Cross and all of them areas. If we ever got into trouble, the geezer’s down there’d back us up; like there was 120 over the Hampstead Fair, geezer’s we knew, and everyone would back us up if we was in trouble.’
Trouble is the key activity of the gangs. Known as a ‘bit of agro’ – a bit of aggravation. Trouble can start at some event such as a football match, a free concert ‘like up Parly Hill’ or at just about any other time. At the Hampstead Fair ‘all the rival gangs, they all meet up there. Holloway, Highbury, and all them mob, like, and they all stick together, they’re all one mob and we’re the other mob.’
Trouble starts in several ways. It may be planned days ahead over some rivalry between two gangs, or it may just break out over some small incident. ‘You just see a face you don’t like. You know, I mean we get a bit of aggravation with the guys up there. All you hear all the time is the Holloway’s looking for you, the Highbury’s looking for you: and everytime we go there and pull someone about it and say ‘what’s all this trouble with the Town?’, no-one knows nothing about it. So every now and again, like, when people say ‘we hear the little Holloway turned you over’ we can’t have that like, so we have to go up there and turn them over.’
Each gang seems perpetually on the alert for some trouble. Sometimes months will go by without a fight, then suddenly there’ll be a fight every night. ‘We are friends with no-one, no joke. There was a time when we couldn’t go out of our area like unless we were thirty handed. We fucking hit every crew from right round here, up that way St. John’s Wood, The Edgeware Road, Tufnell Park, Archway, Burnt Oak, Mile-end, Kilburn, Holloway, Highbury, just sort of everywhere. We just sort of, about eighteen months ago, went made didn’t we, for about three weeks, getting into fights and whacking crews. We whacked someone from nearly everyone of them areas and they was all after us. There was a lot of agro then.’ That was the time when someone in a car came after the Town with a shotgun. There was some uncertainty as to whether it was a shotgun or an airgun, and if it was a shotgun, whether it had real or blank cartridges. ‘The guy with the gun thought we’d all run like and hide but he came a bit unstuck ‘cos we didn’t. We stood there and fucking waited for it. We he can only shoot two of you can’t he.’ The outcome was that they threw dustbins under the car making it skid up the pavement into a brick wall, then threw bottles. ‘The geezer with the gun, got knocked out, and they says they’d never come down no more, cause they’re all made down that Town.’
Some of the action is centred around football, for most of the gangs support some team. But little of the fighting is with other supporters of London teams; instead it is with supporters of teams from the North and Midlands. The Shed boys are those who support Chelsea (see the slogan ‘Shed’ painted on the walls) who watch the match from the Shed, one of the stands on the ground. Any who is not a Shed boy goes into the Shed is liable to get a kicking. Some of the fighting with other supporters takes part after the match, like at Euston when after a match you can see the crowds of bullet heads roaming in the streets nearby. Other things may follow the match, like kicking in shop windows and taking the cigarettes, or the time a crowd went up to Parliament Hill after a match and threw bottles at the Fleetwood Mac.
The clothes and the walk all fit in with the hard image. The usual gear is levis worn short with braces, tee-shirts, v-necked sweaters or cardigans in blue, khaki, brown, mustard or green. An innovation is the v-necked short sleeved sweater that doesn’t quite reach the waist so there is a hint of braces. Sometimes there are tattoos and sometimes gold signet rings worn two or three at a time. The cropped hair started coming in about three years ago and is probably copied from the spade haircut. And then there are the boots, the most important part of the gear. There are different types of boots and the styles change just as they do with shoes. Members of one gang tend to buy the same kind of boots. The boots probably arrived because a lot of bullet heads were wearing them for work, along with levis, and they’d come home from work in these clothes and what’s the point of changing if you are only going to stand round on the street corner. Then a style developed. ‘Like me, I didn’t start wearing them, we not really, because I thought, well I couldn’t half land a good kick with them, I bought them because everyone else did.’
The boots are one of the symbols of the hard image, and of course are very useful for fighting with. If you go out in your boots you are wearing a very handy weapon that is not so obviously a weapon like a knife. Even when the gang gets dressed up in their mohair suits on a Saturday night the boots are still worn, but then they will be highly polished. The trousers of the suits are worn short like the levis in order to leave room for the boots.
The boots are different colours and the favourite ones change over time. When it first started everyone was wearing tuf boots, Big T with the rubber sole, ‘then these boots came out, they call them Cherry Boots, Cherry Reds, with a toe cap like and sort of yellow trimmings. Then the black ones of these, then Monkey Boots which lace all the way up, and then Doctor Martins came out. Now there’s some new ones, with high backs, they’re just called Stompers, big steel toecap and everthing.
The walk too expresses the toughness. Its a sort of bouncy swagger with the shoulders spread broad. Its a ‘here I come stand out of the way’ walk. When there’s a group going somewhere walking is done in a long crocodile in single file, all hunching along behind the guy in front.
Most of the time seems to be spent waiting for something to happen, a bit of aggravation or a ‘caper’. During the week there is little else to do but hang about on the street, in cafes or Youth Clubs (if they haven’t been barred). Usually its the case that a few members of the gang have been barred from a club and so the rest don’t go because they don’t want to split up. The weekend is when it all happens. Those that are working have money and so maybe there is drinking or dancing at clubs. Clubs are not so popular as they used to be a year or so back. Then it was the Tiles and the Scene and other clubs round Wardour Street. A few now may make it down to Birdland. The weekend may also be the time for a caper down to the coast, Southend, Clacton or Brighton. Sundays it may be the Lido for swimming and a film in the evening if there is something on that they fancy, like a cowboy. Clint Eastwood goes down big. Strangely so did The Graduate. Tough films are liked best. Sometimes there are parties when peoples parents are away. Drinking mainly and the occasional smoke or pills.
The thing is that most do not have money to do much, especially during the week. If you’ve got a job and you’re not drawing just your £2 10s. 0d., from the Youth Employment the wage is likely to be around £10 or £15 a week, in labouring, apprenticeships and unskilled jobs. It is like they are in between everything. Not long out of school with a bit of money but not enough to go drinking in the pub every night, and in any case there is the age problem in pubs for most are between 15 and 17. To young and not enough money to buy cars or scooters. Sometimes someone will have a firm’s van which will be used to bomb off to the coast at the week-end. Too old to get much out of youth clubs. The girls they grew up with are now going out with older guys and only a few of the gang have girls. In some gangs girls are important. Squabbles over another gang’s girls may be a source of aggravation. But with other gangs girls are conspicuously absent and if some gets a girl he spends more time away from gang activities.
So the excitement comes from the action. But even that is avoided by some who can’t afford any more nickings. ‘Like that’s why we don’t go down the coast at the holidays no more. We’ve got too many up against us as it is. If you’ve got a lot of previous you’re doomed you are. If a copper gets hold of you and he recognises that you come from the Town you’re doomed to a fucking good hiding before you ever get near that nick.’ Like other groups there is the feeling that you get caught for the wrong things. That the bust is always the phoney one when you are not guilty. ‘We used to be really fighting all the time and they could never get any of us. Then they really started coming down, nicking you for just being there. Then a lot of it died down cause we gave a couple of them a good hiding. These two blokes came at us so we went at them, then one starts shouting that he was a police officer. It was too late then.’ The arrests are for insulting behaviour or assault. ‘I got one for using an offensive weapon. I got a good hiding off all these students and I got a nickering for it. I threw a bottle at them when they run. One of the geezer’s got his nose cut off.’

The Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton


As well as the gang fights there are fights between just two people. In a team fight between gangs anything goes but if two people fight and it looks fair they are left to it. ‘You get one geezer fighting another geezer, it’s a straightener like, he might be looking for so and so and he might go up and say ‘right you, a straightener, then we leave ‘em alone.’
Some of the gangs like the Highbury and the Angel have leaders but many of the smaller gangs have different leaders for different activities. Some people are listened to more if an event is planned. Someone will organise something ‘like going to Southend for the weekend or a crew going out and whacking someone.’ Then of course there are those that are the best fighters. ‘There are fighters and then there are cranks, madmen. Like Tony. Everytime we have a fight some cunt he just wants to stomp them into the ground. He goes mad and starts shouting ‘Stomp Stomp’. You know that cunt what was on the floor at Ally Pally. Tony had this huge broom pole and was stomping him for five minutes.
‘We had a bit of agro up there like.’ There are other targets as well as rival gangs. The targets are other easily identifiable groups such as students, Pakistanis and Greeks. Weirdos and students they cannot understand. ‘What I hate about weirdos is that the majority of them is students. We’re paying for them to go to their colleges to get educated so they can help us run the country, it may not be my taxes but everyone contributes like, if it weren’t for them your tax would go down even if it was just a penny. Then those fucking peace demonstrations. The’re all shouting about fucking love and peace and that then they go down Grosvenor Square smashing windows and we get a bill from the Americans; we fucking owe them enough dough as it is.’ The feeling is that if weirdos want to dress strangely and be dirty ‘they’re right states they are, right two and eights’ then they are entitled to get done over. One way to get a weirdo is to jump him if he does not move off the pavement out of the way of the gang, or to wait in the entrance tunnels of the tube and to rush at him and jostle him. Sometimes landing a few kicks. ‘Weirdos is no fun to jump though because they don’t fight back, they just curl up while you kick them.’
Weirdos are also hated because they are friends with foreigners – Bubbles (Bubble and squeaks – Greeks) and ‘them Black Irishmen from the north – Pakkis.’ ‘We can’t stand the Pakki’s – we all went down Drummond Street one night, down the road that is, like its all infested with Pakkis. About fifty of us went down fucking putting bottles through their restaurants and that was a good laugh that was. It got in all the papers, how the Pakkis were asking the police if they could arm themselves and form vigilante groups.’ And of course the Irish. ‘I don’t know why we don’t fucking give them back Ireland if they give us back Camden Town.’
Strangely they don’t dislike West Indians. It might be because they dig the West Indian Music and dance their dances. Double D – Desmond Decker, Arthur Connely, Roland Owl, Otis Redding, The Ethiopians, The Skatallites, Buster, The Untouchables, and Max Romeo. Sometimes a bit of bubble gum creeps in but mostly its Blue Beat, Ska, Rock-Steady and Reggae music. The Blacks are admired by the gangs. ‘Like they were the first with the short hair. They’re alright the Rude boys. Rudies hang out with Rudies mostly, and with white girls, and Black fight Blacks and Whites fight Whites and that’s it.’

 
 
 

 

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The big picture: punks and skinheads in harmony against Racism

The big picture: punks and skins in harmony against Racism, a point very rarely spoken about, especially when the name skinhead gets involved

The big picturePhotography The photographer who captured the spirit of punk has released a book of her most arresting portraits   

Black and white image of four young white men in leather jackets and ripped jeans sitting on steps smiling one with arm round the other.
 Punks and Skins on the Steps, taken in Coventry in 1980. Photograph: Janette Beckman

If they weren’t a band, they should have been. Janette Beckman, who chronicled the early years of punk in the UK, took this photograph in Coventry in 1980. She had by then made her name on Melody Maker, with pictures of the Clash on tour and the Sex Pistols in a skip; she caught the moment when Paul Weller first met Pete Townshend, one modfather to another; she made the Police’s first album cover; she assembled the Specials on Southend pier.

Beckman, who grew up in north London, had left London College of Printing and walked into Sounds magazine one afternoon in 1977 with her student portfolio. She was immediately dispatched to photograph Siouxsie and the Banshees and never looked back.

She was as likely to turn her camera on the audience and the streets as on the stage and the tour bus. In those years the boundaries between music and art and style seemed unusually porous. Punk was above all an “irrepressible attitude” she has suggested of that moment. “It was about change, the idea that people should question authority and do it for themselves.”

The four lads in this picture capture that spirit. They have put thought into how they look but are not striking poses. The picture is included in a short monograph of Beckman’s work of that time, which also includes images of Sid Vicious’s funeral procession and the Saturday afternoon punks of King’s Road, Chelsea. In 1982, after the edge of that attitude had given way to the posturing of the new romantics, Beckman moved to New York, where she took similarly iconic pictures of pioneer hip-hop artists and their followers. “People were really happy to be photographed back then,” she says. “As it didn’t happen very often.”

Janette Beckman’s Raw Punk Streets UK 1979-1982(Café Royal Books, £6) is available atcaferoyalbooks.com

Continue reading The big picture: punks and skinheads in harmony against Racism
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Skinhead History

Modernism started emerging in London in the 1950’s

Skinhead culture emerged as a result of two shifts in British culture and
society in the early/mid 1960s. Firstly, the Mod scene which had been so popular amongst British youth had begun to split into different factions. While the middle class Mods were able to carry on pursuing the latest Carnaby Street clothes and fashionable haircuts, this was out of reach to most working classMods. In a scene so heavily based on consumerism, this undermined the workingclass Mods’ status and ability to take part in the scene. This led to the emergence of “hard Mods”, who marked themselves off from their peers with shaved hair,  jeans, braces  and work boots. This style, based on the typical style of British workingmen at the time, served to separate them from the old Mods and the middle class hippies of their generation. It served as “a conscious attempt by working class youth to dramatist and resolve their marginal
status in a class-based society.”

Skinheads dancing to Jamaican Ska Music

Within mod culture you can carve it down the middle. On one side you have ‘Peacock Mods’ who have the sharper, middle class, jazz influenced aesthetic and on the other side you have ‘hard mods’ who prefer soul music, are working class and enjoy Jamaican rudeboy culture.

That might sound like an odd combination but with the children of the windrush from the 1950s integrating into  British white working class society, all living and going to school together, it was inevitable that each culture would influence the other.

The 3 elements that the vast majority of 1960s skinheads indulged in were:-

  • Clothing
  • Reggae
  • ska and soul Music
  • Football

The most (in)famous part of skinhead clothing is, of course, a pair of doc martens. They were what defined you from the mods or hippies with their delicate loafers or sandals. The doc martens were a sign of being working class and proud of it. Levi jeans or sta-prest trousers were popular having half-inch turn ups to show off their boots. Ben Sherman and fred perry button-down shirts offered clean, tidy looks with colourful checks to show off on the dancefloor on a night out. Crombie and sheepskin coats were the default coats.

The Great skinhead Reunion Brighton, is held every June

They offered a little bit of style in comparison to the heavily polished boots. Skinheads also wore half-inch braces to display their working class credentials.

Like, with mod fashion, there was snobbery about where your clothes were from. The rarer the shirt, boots or jeans the more style conscious you were seen to be.  skinhead Girls (Sorts Renees) In the modern day, called ‘Skinbyrds’ wore clothing along the same lines. Short skirts, feather cut hair styles and loafers or brogues fishnet stockings, were the usual get-up.

Black music in the 1960s was still mainly American soul. so Reggae and ska was onlyheard if you had west Indians mates. The off beat rhythm, exotic sound and strange composition made it an attractive rebel music for skinheads to adopt.

Songs like max romeo’s ‘wet dream’ were risqué and appealed to the skinheads sense of danger. Reggae became so synonymous with skinhead culture that many reggae hits have been about skinheads. ‘skinhead a bash them’ was one of those released by Claudette and the corporation on the Trojan records label. Another favourite was ‘skinhead moonstomp’ by symarip, which for many encapsulates the skinhead reggae sound.

Other skinhead favourites were the upsetters, prince buster, desmond dekker, toots and the maytals, derrick morgan and john holt.

Reggae was the sound being created in the Studios of Orange Street in Jamaica, as the early Immigrants came to Britain they brought with them many things that were to change British society forever, for good and bad. The British music industry was at its height, feeding the forever demanding record buying youth. The Mersey sound of the Beetles, The swinging 60’s.

Labels were set up to market this brand new sound to the British working class and beyond. labels like Trojan, Island, Blue Beat and many more marketted the music to a demanding new audience. The sound of the Council estates and dance halls became alive with Calypso and Reggae.

When skinheads weren’t skanking in dancehalls to reggae or showing off their latest Ben Sherman shirt they were at the football ground looking for a fight. There is a strong connection of London football teams with skinhead culture. West ham are the most prolific in that link. Chelsea and other big London clubs had groups of skinheads roaming the stands looking for some ‘aggro’.

Usually their boots and short hair would be great assets in maximising damage upon another and minimising their own beating by having little hair to possibly grab onto. Some say that football hooliganism stems from those first skinheads joining their local teams firms and looking for violence. Of course, most of this wouldn’t have happened without copious amounts of booze.

After 1970, reggae hit the uk pop charts and skinhead culture spread around the country in different shapes and forms.

Some skinheads grew their hair a little longer and wore smarter clothing and abandoned wearing boots for loafers. These skinheads were dubbed suedeheads, smoothies, boot boys and soul boys. Skinheads had even reached Australia as british parents migrated to greener pastures down under.

These skinheads evolved through the 1970s as sharpies and enjoyed rock music with slade being one of their favourite bands.
With the spirit of ’69 in the past skinhead culture dwindled and it was another 10 years for it to be revived by a new wave of ska bands and awareness of race.

2-tone and politics

After 10 years of dormancy a handful of bands exploded into the charts with the ska beat that skinheads had fallen in love with so much. The first 6 singles from 2-tone records featured the specials, madness, the selector and the beat. If any of those records were played at a party now kids would immediately know them and sing along. The skinhead and mod movements had been given a new lease of life.

This 2nd wave of ska was to not only be about music and having a good time but also take on a political aspect.

Since 1969 skinhead culture had evolved in many ways:-

  • Clothing
  • 2-tone Ska and oi!
  • politics and race
  • violence and hooliganism

Skinhead clothing had merged with mod fashions to an extent in 1979. skinheads would wear fred perry polos, Lonsdale t-shirts, band t-shirts and brogues had replaced heavy boots. Just as mod influences had permeated so did punk clothing. Ma-1 flight jackets, bleached jeans and even shorter haircuts were common amongst some skinheads.

There were still traditional skinheads who wore the original styles and sometimes with a shaved parting in their hair. With the skinhead look becoming less regimented if you wanted to be a skinhead it was fairly easy to look like one.

But with 3 different looks to choose from it also meant there were different types of music you’d be interested in. If you wore flight jackets and bleeched jeans then you’d usually prefer oi!

If you wore  fred perry polos and loafers then you’d like 2-tone and the jam. If you wore the traditional styles then you’d enjoy the 60s reggae and ska of original  skinheads.

2-tone and oi! were poles apart even though they were both described as being skinhead music. 2-tone’s black and white check (even though unintentional) became a symbol of britain’s racial harmony, which was sung about in some of the labels releases.

Oi! on the other hand was angry, anti-establishment and predominantly listened to by white kids. Even though 2-tone took elements from punk it was a much tamer, watered down influence. There was crossover, as there is with many music genres, but only madness came close to combining the 2 successfully.

Oi! bands that emerged as skinhead favourites were the 4-skins, cockney rejects, the business and combat 84. these bands played a part in the eventual creation of hardcore punk, which skinheads adopted as another branch to the ever growing  skinhead family tree. However, A potent mix of race awareness and right-wing politics would soon change skinhead culture and make skinhead a byword for racist.

Throughout the 1980s skinheads became polarized over politics (an issue that was never an aspect of 60s skinhead culture). Skinheads were seen more and more often at right-wing marches and rallies, as mass immigration took a hold of the UK, the rise in unemployment and Britains fall from power, caused a nationalistic reaction amongst Britains working class society.

The media began to portray all. Skinheads as Fascist, Racist and Violent. This was the image that the media exported across the globe, which in turn picked up more negative press, and was actually used as e recruitment advert for white supremist groups mainly in the USA. Hollywood jumped on the band wagon making movies about the devils with cropped hair

At the same time other skinheads were reacting to this by starting up groups such as ‘skinheads against racial prejudice’ or ‘sharp’ for short. Skinheads also began left-wing groups who labelled right-wing skinheads as ‘boneheads’ because they thought they were unintelligent.

Oi music arrived in the early 80’s as a hard edged street punk. reacting against the middle class fashion of Kings Road Punk Rock. the bands making political statements about unemployment, police oppression, the plight of the working class. The violent firms across the Uk had found a musical voice, and violence was widespread. A riot happened in a predominantly asian area called Southall in West London, which hit he headlines.

Maggie Thatcher asked for a blanket ban on the Skinhead culture, which took all music from the record shop shelves, all radio play, media coverage. This caused many bands to fold up, even effecting the 2tone bands which main message was racial harmony. no venues could accept them. But the skinhead culture refused to die, it went underground. Collecting an even harder edge.

The extreme right wing taking control in London

This period of skinhead culture was a time when some became disillusioned and uneasy with what being a skinhead meant. As a result skinhead culture seemed dead to many people, who weren’t interested in the extremes of violence or politics.

The tit for tat violence on the streets of London, the clamping down by the authorities and blacklisting was to almost destroy the skinhead culture forever.

If anyone would like to add to the Skinhead history section, please contact us at Subcultz. we Know there are many variations of the culture right across the globe.

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Football hooliganism makes it to America

Football, or as Americans call it ‘Soccer’ may be one of the fastest growing sports in America – with the English Premier League watched by millions each week – but it appears some of its worst excesses may have crossed the Atlantic. 

Two gangs of rival supporters were seen brawling in the streets of New Jersey Sunday afternoon ahead of a heated clash between the New York Red Bulls and newly-formed New York City Football Club.

In scenes reminiscent of the blood-soaked battles between British hooligan gangs, shirtless men bellowed ‘who are ya?’ at one another and lashed out with full trash bags and sandwich boards outside a supporters’ bar.

The unedifying confrontation raised the prospect of a violent soccer culture having migrated west, along with many of its best-known players, who have accepted big-money deals to devote themselves to U.S teams. 

 Scuffles break out outside New Jersey bar ahead of soccer derby 

Attack: Street brawlers were pictured in Newark, New Jersey, attacking one another with sandwich boards and shouting ahead of a New York City FC vs New York Red Bulls soccer match

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Attack: Street brawlers were pictured in Newark, New Jersey, attacking one another with sandwich boards and shouting ahead of a New York City FC vs New York Red Bulls soccer match

'Who are ya?': The fighters were shouting at one another in faux-British accents, appearing to mimic the hooligan cultures which plagues UK soccer

‘Who are ya?’: The fighters were shouting at one another in faux-British accents, appearing to mimic the hooligan cultures which plagues UK soccer

The clash took place not far from Penn Station in Newark, and under a mile from the Red Bull Stadium, where the Red Bulls eventually beat NYCFC two goals to nil.

The fans fought – reportedly only for a few minutes – outside Bello’s Pub and Grill, a New York Red Bulls supporters’ bar.

A member of staff told DailyMail.com the clash did not involve patrons drinking inside and it is the first known instance of soccer-related violence around the stadium

Violence and gang culture related to soccer fans has been a serious problem in Great Britain and other European countries, where riot police and mounted officers often attend the most emotional games in an attempt to keep the peace.

One passing witness said ‘Some of the guys had tattoos and were making hand gestures, whilst bouncing on the spot, a bit like a child desperate for an ice cream’

Soccer authorities have been promoting a sanitized version of the game in the United States, garnering many fans in the process.

The elevated profile of the sport – as well as big-money contracts – have seen famous European players moved to American teams.

Shirtless: Some of the fans wore little clothing as they clashed not far from Newark's busy Penn Station

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Shirtless: The appalling site of fat guts put local residents off of their hot dogs. Some of the fans wore little clothing as they clashed not far from Newark’s busy Penn Station

Intervention: An NJ Transit Police squad car was seen headed for the fans towards the end of the clip

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Intervention: An NJ Transit Police squad car was seen headed for the fans towards the end of the clip

Quite the welcome: Fans at the game displayed this banner - satirizing the way many European players towards the end of their careers have signed deals with U.S. clubs

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Quite the welcome: Fans at the game displayed this banner – satirizing the way many European players towards the end of their careers have signed deals with U.S. clubs. Big names include David Beckham, Thierry Henri and Chelsea’s Frank Lampard – who played Sunday for NYC FC.

Hollywood producer Albert Goldstein has immediately called for a script to be written, and is desperately looking for an English sounding American actor to play firm boss ‘Road-sign Randy’

The violence tonight raises the question of whether individual soccer fans may be attempting to transfer the so-called hooligan culture across the Atlantic.

The video shows an New Jersey Transit Police squad car responded to the violence. DailyMail.com has contacted NJ Transit and the Newark Police Department for comment. 

Reminiscent: The men seemed to be imitating the football violence which is common overseas - pictured above are fans in Germany being held back by riot police

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Reminiscent: The men seemed to be imitating the football violence which is common overseas – pictured above are fans in Germany being held back by riot police

Transplant: Former Chelsea player Frank Lampard, pictured above with his fiancee Christine Bleakley in Times Square, is one of several European stars to transfer to the U.S.

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Transplant: Former Chelsea player Frank Lampard, pictured above with his fiancee Christine Bleakley in Times Square, is one of several European stars to transfer to the US

The height of the British hooligan culture, was the 1970’s and 80’s until Maggie Thatcher clamped down on it, with heavy fines and jail terms. The New Yorkers have some distance to go, than a few cafe signs and ‘Oo Are ya’s’ 

SOCCER HOOLIGANISM VIDEO ECHOES ELIJAH WOOD ‘GREEN STREET’ FILM

Soccer fans brawling in the streets may be new in reality, but the fascination of hooligan-style violence to Americans has been given the silver screen treatment in the past.

2005’s Green Street Hooligans, which stars Elijah Wood, demonstrated told the story of a Harvard drop-out who was enticed into the violent world of British sporting violence.

Wood’s character left college in disgrace after taking the fall for his roommate’s cocaine use, then moved to London and got caught up in the Green Street Elite, a group with links to London’s West Ham football club.

The young American gets caught up in the brutality and camaraderie of the so-called GSE, which organizes huge, bloody brawls with fans of rival clubs.

However, he is scared away from hooligan culture for good after a family friend is beaten to death when a fight gets out of hand. Elijah Wood joins British football hooligans in Greet Street 

Visceral: Elijah Wood, right, starred in Green Street, which saw him take on British football hooligans on their own turf
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Visceral: Elijah Wood, right, starred in Green Street, which saw him take on British football hooligans on their own turf

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191764/Has-British-style-hooliganism-infiltrated-American-soccer-Fans-brawl-streets-ahead-New-York-derby-match.html#ixzz3iUjsJWAy
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Kings Road. London Punk Rock

The glory days of King’s Road

This picture shows a group of punks in the 1970s Kings Road, London
London Punks and Skinheads 1970’s Kings Road.

Proud Chelsea’s Sex, Drugstores and Rock & Roll: a History of the King’s Road is a new exhibition of photographs of King’s Road, Chelsea from the early days of the swinging 60s, right up to the end of the 80s. This picture shows a group of punks in the 1970s, when the road became a centre of punk culture.

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Punk Rock. Malcolm Mclaren Artist, Fashion Designer (1946–2010)

QUICK FACTS

NAMEMalcolm McLarenOCCUPATIONArtist, Fashion DesignerBIRTH DATEJanuary 22, 1946DEATH DATEApril 8, 2010EDUCATIONHarrow Art School,Croydon College of Art,Goldsmiths CollegePLACE OF BIRTHLondon, United KingdomPLACE OF DEATHSwitzerlandFULL NAMEMalcolm Robert Andrew McLaren

Recording artist and fashion designer Malcolm McLaren came to fame as manager of the Sex Pistols. Later, he recorded several albums of his own material.

  • Synopsis

Born in 1946 in London, England, Malcolm McLaren was one of the creative forces behind the sound and attitude of the Sex Pistols. With a passion for style and social friction, the daring McLaren went on to manage several other bands following the Pistols’ demise in 1978, as well as record several albums of his own material. He died in Switzerland from complications related to cancer on April 8, 2010.

Early Life

Artist, musician, band manager. One of the creative forces behind English punk rock and the Sex Pistols in particular, Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was born January 22, 1946, in London, England. The son of a Scottish engineer, he was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother, whom he later credited with fostering his well-regarded subversive spirit.

As such, school was not a perfect fit for the creative McLaren. He attended more than half a dozen different art schools, including Harrow Art School, where he befriended Jamie Reid, who would later serve as the brains behind the Sex Pistols’ provocative graphics. His struggles in school led one institution to expel him and another, Croydon College of Art, to try to have him committed to a mental institution.

In 1971 McLaren dropped out of school for good and opened a boutique shop in Chelsea. Initially called Let It Rock and later renamed Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die, the store specialized in 1950s “Teddy boy” fashions.

Life in Music

McLaren’s world changed when the New York Dolls, a glam-rock band that performed in high heels, visited his shop one day. McLaren and the musicians quickly hit it off and eventually he followed the band back to the United States, where he worked as its manager. McLaren brought an unusual approach to his job, pushing the band to shock its American audiences as much as possible. In one instance he had the Dolls perform in Maoist Red Guard uniforms and play in front of a hammer-and-sickle flag.

But the Dolls’ run was short-lived, and after the group broke up, McLaren returned to London intent on trying to ramp up what he’d tried to do in the States.

He found his new cause in a group of musicians headed up by lead singer John Lydon, later renamed Johnny Rotten due to the condition of his teeth. In every shape and form, the Sex Pistols was the product of McLaren’s imagination. He put the band together and orchestrated the outrage that made them the toast of the English punk rock scene. Rotten called McLaren “the most evil person on earth.”

With singles like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen,” the Pistols climbed the charts in Britain. The group’s short run consisted of just one album, the 1977 release Never Mind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols. In 1978 the group embarked on its first and only American tour. It quickly concluded when Rotten walked off the stage at a performance in San Francisco, leaving the band behind and marking the end of the Pistols as a group.

Even with the band’s demise, McLaren continued to stay heavily involved in the music scene. He went on to manage several other acts, and in 1983 issued an album of his own, Duck Rock, which featured a combination of world music and hip-hop. Several other albums followed, including Fans(1984), Waltz Darling (1989), and Paris (1994).

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Bermondsey Joy Riders to perform the Great Skinhead Reunion, Brighton

Late additions to the Bill for The Great skinhead Reunion 2015 The Bermondsey Joy Riders

Claiming all the credentials of a bonafide ‘77 super group, The Bermondsey Joyriders is a band pooling the hard-won experience and history of three veteran punks. Founding membersGary Lammin (vocals / guitar) and Martin Stacey (bass) cut their teeth in the Joe Strummer-produced Little Roosters and Generation X precursors Chelsea respectively, whilst recent recruit Chris Musto (drums) is a sticksman of some credentials – having previously played with Johnny Thunders, Joe Strummer and Nico, to name but a few!

More than the sum of their impressive punk rock heritage however, The Bermondsey Joyriders have won praise for splicing those sounds from suburbs with raw blues and Lammin’s startling slide guitar – emerging with a sonic signature that is undeniably all their own. Given just 12 hours (!) in the studio to lay down their self-titled 2008 debut, they managed to produce a record which Classic Rock magazine’s Carol Clerk deemed to have “pulled off a really impudent mix of influences”, and which Guitarist magazine’s Charles Shaar Murray felt had achieved a “unique spin on punk-blues”.

Featuring Gary Lammin, writer of Runnin Riot and Chip on your shoulder, original member of Cock Sparrer. Check their website for full info on the band

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Southall Skinhead Riots, A witness account

Rob Smiths Account

Friday, July 4th, 1981 had been a hot summer’s day in the Western suburbs of London. Late that afternoon, a small group of us took the bus from South Harrow to Hayes and met up with Hayes skins. From there about 15 of us travelled the short distance up the Uxbridge Road and arrived early at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall. As we walked from the bus stop, along the pavement and into the pub’s forecourt, we hadn’t noticed a hint of trouble anywhere and we weren’t expecting any either!

The pub was a good size. Inside it was bright from the evening sun thanks to the large bay windows but more on those later… The pub is located on the edge of Southall, on the main road leading into a town renowned for its large Asian population but we never thought that going to an Oi! gig on the edge of Southall would provoke a large part of its population to riot. Oi! bands had played in other areas across London with large immigrant populations before and there had never been any trouble.

Inside the pub, it grew noisier as more skins started to arrive. The atmosphere was buzzing – the 4-skins, the Last resort and the Business were going to play.

rob smith and friends

Inside, I remember thinking this gig had very little that was extreme right wing about it. I was aware of this because I’m of mixed race. There were no Nazi flags, no siege heils and it definitely didn’t feel like an extremist’s right wing get-together. Everyone was there – for this much looked-forward-to gig – for the bands, and to hear some good Oi! music.

Round about 8 O’clock, the crowd was getting a little impatient because the 4-Skins hadn’t yet arrived – you could see the gig organisers were getting a bit impatient too; but sure enough, through the large bay windows, we saw the band arrive, hurrying through the forecourt, ready to go straight on stage.

While the 4-Skins were playing something else was going on. Through the large windows, out in the darkening Uxbridge Road, we could see more and more Asians arriving and gathering by the wall of the forecourt. Inside it was stiff upper lip and the music carried on but there were a lot of murmurings as it became obvious there were going to be a lot of trouble.

The crowd outside got surprisingly larger by the minute. A few police had arrived and were forming a barrier between the restless, shouting Asians and the pub but as the crowd outside became larger and noisier, it became clear that the music inside would have to stop.

Events passed the point of no return when a brick came crashing through one of the bay windows. The music stopped and everyone inside took up defensive positions but no one would go outside – that would’ve been suicide. In the falling darkness, more bricks and missiles came hurtling in through the windows and it wasn’t long before we knew we had to get out… petrol bombs were being thrown at the pub. Many of us weren’t sure if we were going to get out alive because the police outside were looking as if they were failing to contain the situation. Inside, what had just been a calm evening’s entertainment had turned into a war zone. Broken furniture and glass lay all over the place as we fought to defend ourselves.

As more busloads of police arrived, a passage was formed to escape through. As bricks and bottles flew from 100’s of amassing Asians, we headed out of the pub across the no-man’s land forecourt, into the Uxbridge Road, behind the protection of police lines. Looking back, we saw a hijacked police car being set on fire. It was then rammed into the pub by Asian youths, sending the Hambrough up in flames. Fire engines, ambulances and more police cars arrived. Blazing sirens were drowned out by the noise of the riot. The night sky turned a reddish hue from the huge blaze. Even after we’d got back to Harrow, 4 miles away, we could still see the red glow of the sky from the burning pub!

The national newspapers, and radio and television news headlines the next day and for the next few days, were full of it but what I read in the papers and heard on the news didn’t match what I saw that night. The media were pinning all the blame on us skinheads, accusing us of going to Southall to start a riot and throwing petrol bombs at Asians. But I clearly remember going to Southall for a drink and a gig in a pub. There were no Nazi saluting skinheads in the pub. There were no skinheads throwing petrol bombs at Asians and there were definitely no plans to incite a riot.

Because of what happened at Southall, left-leaning media outlets and much of the right-leaning middle classes found every excuse under the sun to marginalise skinheads and Oi! music but their prejudices were based on false accounts! It was the assembled Asians that were the cause of the rioting that night, no matter how much they thought they were justified in doing what they did. They even continued rioting long after the last skinheads left the scene! But it was skinheads who got blamed, even though it was the police who had to defend us, not the other way round. We were the small minority needing police protection from the 100’s of rioting Asians! In fact, there were a few Asian skinheads inside the pub for the gig… these Asians weren’t rioting, the ones outside were! There were a few Black and Greek skinheads inside too.

On a lighter note, one funny thing I heard, don’t know if it’s true, was that the manager of the 4-Skins band chased the pub manager up the Uxbridge Road, wanting his money for the gig!

Seriously, the Southall night changed the course of Oi! – From that time on, the media ensured that Oi! would never get the positive publicity it deserved but despite all attempts to stamp it out, Oi! is still around and now global and long may it be so, but it will always be at home in London, where it all began.

Hanborough Tavern Southall, burned down by Asian Mob

cheers
Rob Smith

Hounslow Robs Account
I also went to that gig at the Hambrough tavern in Southall, the area itself is not too far from where I was living in Hounslow so it was an ideal opportunity for me to get to see a couple of the bands I was well into at that time, the 4skins and the Last resort.

Anyway, being only 15 at the time (turned 16 later that month) I hadn’t been to that many gigs, one that I had been to was at the Hambrough tavern a few weeks earlier. It was the Meteors and I hadn’t even planned to go; I’d been hanging around Hounslow bus garage which was a meeting place for the younger skins in my area when a local skinhead girl turned up and asked me to help her find the pub. Being a true gentleman (and because she was a right looker!) I went with her. As soon as we got off the bus on Southall Broadway we started to get abuse shouted at us by groups of Asians that were hanging around. Feeling nervous but putting a brave face on we headed towards the pub after asking one of the few white people we saw for directions. We noticed a group of Asians up ahead and as we got closer they blocked the road and surrounded us, there were maybe a dozen of ’em and looked to be in their late teens or early 20’s. One of them said “what are you doing in our area? “, as I turned to answer I got punched from the side and they all piled in. Would love to be able to say I had a good go back but didn’t have a chance really and ended up curled up on the ground getting a good kicking! To be fair they didn’t hit the girl although that was the only fair thing about it! Eventually they ran off and I found I wasn’t in too bad a condition, a few cuts & grazes but nothing serious. We made it to the pub and saw the band and I’m just mentioning that night cos it gives a bit of background to the area and how the Asians saw it, they regarded Southall as their town and you even had graffiti on the walls saying “whites out”!

Going back to the night of the riot I obviously had bad memories of the place but wasn’t gonna miss the chance to see the bands so headed to the bus garage in Hounslow where I knew some older local skins would be meeting up, an advance guard had already left but another 20 or so were there so I tagged along with them. Luckily we got a bus to Hayes and then another into Southall, I say luckily cos if we had taken the direct route it would have taken us to the Broadway and we’d have ended up on the other side of the massive mob of Asians that had already gathered by the time we got there.
I don’t remember any talk on the bus about it kicking off with the Asians that night, the only time I can recall someone mentioning trouble was about the possibility of old area rivalries between skinheads coming up at the gig.
On reaching the Tavern there was a line of police further up the road heading into the main part of Southall and you could clearly see the Asians on the other side of them. In the pub itself there was a good crowd and it was mainly skins but I noticed a few rockabillies and straights. As was mentioned by Cockney Express and London Rob there were also a few black skinheads in the pub and although there would have been right wing skins in there as well I don’t remember any friction between the skins inside.

West London Skinhead Girls who were at the infamous Southall gig


As for the bands themselves, the gig itself is a bit of a blur and my memory has failed me a bit there. I’d never heard the Business before but enjoyed their set. The Resort I did like, having heard the 3 track tape on sale at the shop. I remember Hodges & co on stage and have read elsewhere that they were playing “Chaos” as the windows came in, dunno about that but it would have been perfect timing!!! I do remember the bricks coming into the pub ‘tho, were standing quite near to the big bay windows where the curtains had been drawn. Looking back I suppose this stopped the bricks and flying glass doing more damage but a number of people did get hurt. I got a small cut on the cheek myself but others had much worse, can still picture a skinhead girl who had blood all down the side of her face. Of course everyone moved away from the windows but many also headed for the door, partly because you didn’t know what was gonna come in next but also to get out and get stuck in if they could, Skinheads were breaking up chairs and tables to use as weapons & to say people were angry would be an understatement!
Outside it was chaos, the old bill was trying to keep the Asians away from the pub but because of the numbers they were struggling. It’s true that some skins were in the front line standing shoulder to shoulder with the police, through the lines you could see the Asians were going mental and were well tooled up, waving sticks, bats and even swords above their heads! Some skins actually managed to get into them, talk about suicide missions! One guy came back with the whole inside of his lower arm opened up, said it had been done with a meat cleaver! From the look of it I didn’t doubt it!
We were being pushed back away from the pub and I can remember seeing the petrol bombs flying, didn’t actually see the moment the pub was hit or when the van was pushed into it but recall seeing the pub burning and the flames high in the sky. Looking back now I dread to think of the outcome if a petrol bomb had entered the pub whilst everyone was still inside really doesn’t bear thinking about!

On our side of the police the skins were pretty much able to do as they wanted as the police had their hands full trying to control the Asian mob. A few lighter moments did occur, a number of shops had had their windows smashed and some skins had entered into ’em to find weapons or just to do a bit of looting! One of the older Hounslow lot reappeared out of a shop with a box full of crisps! A full blown riot going with petrol bombs flying around and you’ve got skinheads walking about munching crisps! I’m sure some were even asking what flavours he had! (I was at the back of the line so had to make do with ready salted!) Cockney Express mentioned in a post that he saw people throwing bottles of cresta at the Asians; I remember that drink, they should have tried setting fire to it, probably would have burnt better than petrol!! At one point word went round that some Asians had managed to get around behind the police line and were up one of the side roads, we all went steaming up there but it was either a false alarm or they had thought better of it and scarpered. Anyway on the way back a couple of skins started knocking on doors and whacking any Asian that answered, out of order maybe but then again the circumstances that night weren’t normal! One door flew open and a bloke came running out waving his arms and shouting “I’m white, I’m white, paki’s 2 doors down”!!

London skinheads who were at the Hanborough Tavern when it was attacked

Eventually most of the skinheads were rounded up by the police and we were marched away from the area towards Hayes and Harlington station where the skins from other parts of London were to be put on trains. Those skins from west London carried on as we didn’t want to get trains into town. One thing I did notice was that the further we got away from the pub the worse we were treated by the old bill, we were being stopped every 100 yards or so and searched and hassled by ’em. The police earlier in the night had been fine with us because they knew what had happened and knew the score. Now there were coppers being brought in who hadn’t been at the front line and probably thought we had been the ones who had kicked it off, maybe not the case but it might explain their attitude and actions.
Also on that walk there was a confrontation with a group of white geezers who had pulled up in a van and jumped out with baseball bats calling us Nazi bastards, we were well spread out by this time and only about 10 of us were together in a group but we stood our ground and after a short stand off the police turned up and the blokes jumped back in the van and sped off, dunno who they were but they’d obviously been watching the news!
We ended up getting a night bus back to Hounslow and found a few local skins that hadn’t been to the gig waiting at the bus garage. Of course we played it up and you could tell they were gutted to have missed the night. I must admit I was guilty of the same when I met up with my mates the next day, probably bored ’em to tears going on about it, just like I’m doing now to anyone whose bothering to read this!!
Eventually got home about 4 in the morning, my mum was still up. She just looked at me and said “I don’t have to ask where you’ve been, I’ve been watching you on the telly”!

Looking back now the young Asians in Southall must have planned to attack the Hambrough tavern that night, they were just too organised for it to have been a spur of the moment thing, and they would never have got those numbers out at short notice.

I personally think Southall happened cos the local Asians were never gonna let a skinhead gig take place on their manor without having a pop at it. They did see it as their town and thought they had to put on a show of strength. The fact that most of ’em probably thought (as did most people not in the know thanks to the media) that every skin was a raving Nazi obviously played a part as well!
Still. it was a lively night! Wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

Cheers
Hounslow Rob


Cockney express (terry London) Account
Before I go any further I should point out that the following is my version of what I saw at the Southall riot. It is my own view of what lead up to the riot and it is my own view on the bands and the era itself. No disrespect is meant to any person/persons or bands.
As far as I know there are only two people that have taken the time to sit down and write what they saw. Both of those versions lead to the same end but, differ because of the people that wrote them and perhaps where they were on the night.
At the time of the riot I was Living in Bethnal green in London’s east end which was just a stone’s throw from the shop; The Last Resort. This shop at the time was world famous because of the Skinheads that used it on a regular basis and, because it was just THE place to be. Living so close didn’t mean that either me or, any of the other Skinheads that lived nearby used the shop or went to it regularly. To us it was just a shop that was around the corner. Any novelty the shop held had long since worn off. We left people from outside the East end to hang around the shop and look hard? And indeed get ripped off by the owner a certain Mickey “Millwall” French and his wife in crime…Margret and of course who could forget their fellow muggers of Skinhead money…”Fat Andy and “Shorditch” Ian.
Anyway before I lose my thread……………….
I had followed first Sham 69 then obviously the Cockney rejects but as these two bands either lost their way or, turned heavy metal I needed to find something new. That something new came in the form of a fellow that lived just a few streets away by the name of Gary Hodges and of course the now legendary 4 SKINS. To most at the time they were THE oi! Band. To us no one came close to them and if the truth be known it’s my opinion that since they (Hodges line up) split no one ever has. As far as I’m concerned since mid-1982 everything that came after has just been clutching at straws but please remember that is just my opinion. It is however an opinion that is shared by many that grew up during that time; living in the birthplace of oi! And, as a lot see it the eventual death place of oi…London’s east End. Yes I am aware of the bands that carried on and in some cases went from strength to strength I/e the Angelic upstarts and the Business but for me what followed was second rate. I will add that yes it was good music but to me it was second rate. If you like oil! at this time had started to grow up and spread throughout the country and in doing so newer bands injected their meaning into the music.
For me oi! Was about life in London, no, life in the East end….tuff, hard and a slum where no one gave a toss about us…the kids. The only ones it seemed that cared were the bands of the time. Listening to the likes of Blitz from Manchester or the Angelic Upstarts from the North east just wasn’t the same as listening to the Cockney rejects/The 4 Skins/Eastend badoes or, Cock sparer. Perhaps the only band that came later that made us listen again was the Ejected. You could call this narrow mindedness and I couldn’t give a f**k if you did…hey it’s not the first time I’ve been called that and, I doubt it will be the last. My take on it is simple….we came from an era which was very tribal and as such listening to what we called a foreign band Like the Upstarts was a no no. Of course we went to see them and of course we bought there albums and played them until they wore out but they just didn’t speak for us in the same way as our own. Just as a side point regarding the Upstarts; in later years I have spoken to many people from the North east and they felt the same way about London bands as we did about, non-London bands…like I said we were tribal. Who knows perhaps this is the real reason for the demise of the oi! Scene. Some say that it was the right wing whilst others say it was the left wing. Some even say it was when Skinheads grew their hair. There are many factors that contribute to its demise but, without a shadow of a doubt the main one IS the now infamous Southall riot.

Could this album really cause so much trouble for the Oi! scene? In the eyes of the media/government and any other dimlo that wanted to jump onto the “lets ban Oi! bandwagon” it could…or could it?
The album ‘strength thru oi’ which takes its name from a Nazi slogan ‘strength thru joy’
has been used as a scapegoat to justify the unfounded claims of the media from the day of its release until now. It’s true that the front cover had a photo of the late Nicky crane who was a member of the British movement and, head of the leader guard. It’s true that he had British movement tattoos. It is also true that he was a last minute stand in because the cover should have featured Carlton leach the notorious West ham and ICF hooligan but due to one thing and another he didn’t show. It’s also true that on the rear of the cover it pays homage to various non-white peoples.Thats as far as I will go with that because I don’t feel it’s worth going into detail about what Jesse Owens did or who he was or/Sugar ray Leonard etc. etc. What I will say is this. It has been common knowledge for a long time now that the Front cover was changed because of the real cover model not showing. What you might not know is this. Others who I cant mention have indicated it was actually the rear cover that was changed due to its right wing content…..think about it! Either way that album was and always will be the best of all the Oi! Albums in the series. To me everything that came after carry on oi was a waist of money.
I and others were due to leave on coaches for Southall that were to leave from the Last resort in Goulston Street, East London. As it turned out around twenty of us didn’t because a couple of weeks before we had arranged to meet Skinheads from Ealing (West London) at Ealing. We had met the Ealing Skinheads at various 4 Skin gigs and got to know them and would travel to a pub that they used called the Victoria. I also knew a couple of the Green ford Skinheads who at the time were working at the same place I was in Old Street. One of these Skinheads was talking about the planned gig at the Hambourgh
Tavern in Southall one Monday morning at work. To come to the point the same Skinhead told me on the Wednesday of the same week that he wouldn’t be going because he had heard that the Southall youth Movement was going to try and disrupt the event. Talking with some Ealing Skinheads later that day it was confirmed that they had also heard the same.
This is a bit of information that to my knowledge has never been mentioned anywhere by anyone that has ever spoken or written about what happened on the night.
It turned out that we got held up in Ealing and arrived in Southall almost forty five minutes late. As we made our way to the Tavern it was obvious that what I had been told was quite true because of the huge amounts of Asians that were gathered and, armed.
We were a good thirty in numbers and just cut straight through these people without any sign of them even trying to have a go at us. As we came near to the tavern there was about ten Police already on duty outside. We got the usual bollox that they tended to give Skinheads back then but it did them no good because they were just ignored which I don’t think they liked all that much. Now, at this point I would like to point out that the media has established a myth which goes something like this.
They, the media claim that what sparked the riot was us. Skinheads came into the Southall area and were abusing Asian woman/daubing walls with Swastikas and racist slogans etc. This is complete and utter bollox. The real reason is this. Two months prior to the event a gang of Asians had been arrested and two had been beaten whilst in Police custody (something that was quite common back then). The end result of the tension that this event caused lead straight to the doors of the Hambourgh Tavern. The Asians were looking for an excuse to get back at the Police and despite three meetings with the elders of their community and the Southall youth movement to keep the peace it was going to go off. Claims that the British Movement and National Front were in the pub were complete rubbish. Claims that on one of the coaches that brought people from the Last Resort there was a National Front flag in the rear window are rubbish. Perhaps what people don’t know is that inside the pub there were Black Skinheads that had travelled from the Kilburn area.
It was these that were the first to be hurt as the windows came through and believe it or not it was these that were pulled to safety by white Skinheads. Any notion that this was a right wing motivated event is an untruth. Obviously there were right wing supporters in the pub as there was left wing. We all knew each other and it was an unwritten rule that on a 4 Skins bill you kept that at home. Who would want to tangle with Gary Hodges and those that he had with him? Only a fool that’s who.
Playing on the night were three bands…they were. The Last Resort. The Business. The 4 Skins.
It was those Black Skinheads that were hurt first and as ive said were pulled clear. I don’t know if they were in the bay window on purpose to wind the Asians up or what but if that was the case then it worked. One of their names was Lenox and he came from Ladbroke grove and as a side point was also injured at Acklam hall during another event that went tits up.
As the windows came through i would have to say that we were still not too worried inside the pub about what was going on outside because we thought the Police would move the Asians on. I have never worked out why they didn’t or, why it got so out of hand.We have to be honest here because the Police could have been heavy handed and forced the issue but obviously the event with the Asian gang had something to do with it. The only thing people were concerned about was the woman that were there…one of whom was pregnant and the younger ones. I’ll never know how everyone got out safe and sound but, we did. It certainly hasn’t got anything to do with the Police because they just lost it.
I was in a group of East end Skinheads which included Gary hitchcock/The 4 Skins and Lol Prior. Because we all knew each other we all stayed together and stayed in the pub until we were forced out by the fumes and smoke that at this point was pouring in through the smashed windows. The now legendary story about Lol prior trying to get the bands equipment out before it burned is quite true. He was beaten back by the flames and he was dragged out kicking and screaming.
Just a head of us as we came out of the pub were the bulk of the Skinheads that i presume Rob is talking about when he says they were escorted through the Asians.
There are many stories about that night that have been told since and some i smile about because i know that they are rubbish. One is when Hoxtom Tom the bassist with the 4 Skins was supposed to have knocked on the door of an Asian seeking help and was knocked over the head with a frying pan…funny but untrue. Another is that Gary Hitchcock jumped into the back of a Police van and wouldn’t come out. also untrue. These people were all in the same group together until we arrived back in East London safe and sound.

One thing that is true is this. As we left the pub and tried to charge at a group of Asians that had begun to fight toe to toe with the police that were trying to get away from the pub; they ,the Police screamed for us to help them which we did. With hindsight this was a mistake on both ours and the polices part because this just enraged the Asians even more. I mean, there we were with a solid line of police between us and the Asians and we were beating the living daylights out of ten or more Asians that had been caught as the police reinforced their lines. I suppose it must have looked or was seen by the press as a racist attack but……one of the black Skinheads was also having a go at the Asians…figure that out.
Rightly or wrongly but those Asians that were caught and hurt and, i do me they were hurt deserved it. What stuck with me as i sat and thought about it over the following days was the amount of camera flashes. What the f**k was all that about? how did anyone from the media arrive on the scene so soon? In the papers the following weekend these photos began to appear along with photos of burnt British movement and National front leaflets?
One word can describe these leaflets and I’ll leave you the reader to make up your own mind…the word is…PLANTED.
During a conversation with Gary Hodges he came up with the idea that the police had put those leaflets there the following morning as a ploy to avoid any questions raised about their complete incompetence over the tactics they used on the night. I’d say that is as true an explanation as I’ve heard. I don’t recall seeing any leaflets being handed out. The only leaflets i was given were for future Oi! events and one for a gig which was to take place in the pub two weeks later for a Rockabilly night with the band the Deltas.

The police gathered up the Skinheads that were left over from the pub and tried to force us to the Local British rail station and onto Paddington I believe.
Gary Hitchcock gave them a simple two word answer “fk Off”. The police couldn’t argue because they had other things to attend to. For some unknown reason we ended up in North Harrow When we arrived they MADE us all buy a ticket or they would arrest us. Anyway, whilst on the platform another group of Skinheads arrived who obviously had the same idea as us which was to somehow get back to Southall and have a go back. Among the group which was mainly Chelsea and the South London Skinheads was Chubby chris of Combat 84.By now we were a good forty in numbers and these were all the people that you wanted with you. Thinking on it these days it was quite a surreal situation because there on that tube train platform were two sets of people who probably hated each other more than any other group. The hatred all came down to East/South London and West ham/Chelsea. Funny though, because none of that was mentioned as the hate for the Asians was a lot greater. Well as it turned out we didn’t get back to Southall because we were being followed every step of the way by the Police who were at all the stations we went through. I would like to be telling you how we did make it back to Southall and, how we did take revenge on the Asians but if I’m honest its lucky we didn’t. Looking at it now im older there’s a good chance that i might not have lived if we made it back. It goes without saying that the amount of weapons we had gathered up and the mood we were in we would have killed or been killed. As it was many Asians throughout London fell foul to Skinhead attacks in the following weeks and during one of these attacks one Asian that got a little too mouthy was knifed to death. I don’t have a problem with that because not one Asian when asked by the media said that what happened in Southall was wrong. We are aware of the tightknit community these people have and we were aware at the time that they knew the truth that was hidden behind that riot so ,fk THEM. You could say that im a callous bastard but i was at Southall and was also there the night the Asian was killed. I don’t think it too relevant to go into detail about his death but he deserved what he got as did those that turned up on the night in question. What you have to remember is tensions were running high within the Asian community and, amongst Skinheads. Some of the younger Asians took what they read in the papers as truth. Lets just say that when a group of Asians turned up to gloat and gave it large to a group of Skinheads that were at Southall then they were inviting trouble…..like i said tensions were running high.

The story came out about the Asian gang and the beatings the police gave to two of them but by now people’s minds were closed. We all thought f**k it then…if this is what you think we are then that’s what we will be.

We eventually ended up at Harrow on the Hill where there was also a large number of Skinheads but by now the police had, had enough.
Everyone just drifted off onto the tube and went home.
Obviously we all knew it was on the cards that there would be a backlash but i don’t think that anyone realised it would be on the scale that it was. At the time it was as if the whole world and his sister had something to say about the oi! Movement and, everyone wanted to have their say. The papers were full of it each and every day for two solid weeks or more and no one wanted to touch an oi! Band or, even touch and oi! Event. Clubs and pubs that were due to host an event pulled out and gave some lame reason.
It really was a case of us and them at the time.
Skinheads were getting grief from every direction; even those Skinheads that were still at school were being threatened with being kicked out if they didn’t grow their hair. Those that were putting the records out were it seems fighting a losing battle with the music industry and the bands were being slaughtered by people that had been all ready to promote them just a few weeks before.
The right wing was claiming a victory over the left and in turn the left was claiming one over the right.
It was even spoke of in parliament…………………
None and, i do mean NONE of this dampened the spirits of those that were involved in the scene because all though at the time we didn’t realise it, this is what we all thrived on and lived for……Confrontation. That is what the whole meaning of oi! Was and should be about even today.
What an absolute victory the Carry on Oi! Album was and, what a sigh of relief was breathed on the streets. Out of all the Oi! Albums this one might not be the best but, it certainly was the most well received of them all. This album to us at the time represented two fingers firmly stuck up to the them……………………………..The establishment.
I would have to say that most if, not all didn’t like the cover notes because to us they went too far…..they were too apologetic. It was if the words wrote on the rear of that cover played straight into the hands of those that were trying to destroy the Oi! Movement. It felt like the establishment had said, either toe the line or, we WILL destroy you. This was too much for some of the more loyal within the Oi! Scene and so they left it. Gary Hodges and the 4 Skins came in for so much flak that it got too out of hand and caused too many arguments so he (Gary Hodges) did the natural thing and left the band. It goes without saying that he went out in a blaze of glory and this was all down to the track that was on the carry on Oi! Album…………….Evil, it says it all really.
Once Gary left the scene it began to fill with what can only be described as kiss arse apologists who played straight into the hands of both the right wing and, the left. It was these people that really brought politics into our movement with their bullste rantings. You only have to have a look at the so called Oi! Albums that came after Oi! Oi! that’s yer lot. Just have a look at the bands that were on these albums and also the cover notes………….Bollox to all that ste. With the exception of perhaps the new 4 Skins/Vicious rumours and of course the Business the following albums were rubbish.
It was the people that were behind the said albums that played straight into the hands of the right wing. You can try all you like to pull that statement apart but history will prove you wrong. By mid-1983 the door was well and truly closed on the whole Oi! Movement; it wasn’t a shadow of its former self and because of those that were now running it….Oi! was lost.
Everything was turned on its head by the middle class, suburban rebels that had taken it upon themselves to try and speak for the kids.
These people were on a collision course with a man that came onto the Skinhead scene kicking, growling and causing havoc. He met these people head on and; with his band he just took over and, blew away the cobwebs and told the establishment exactly what they could do and, where they could go. Oi! Was dead but, Ian Stuart had arrived and, in style.
The left put up a form of resistance but it was just too weak……..
Who honestly could take Chris Dean, Nick King or Martin Hewes of the Redskins seriously? Please, If anyone is in any doubts then think…..Jubilee gardens.
Probably the biggest pile of bullste that came out of those few years was that the Redskins were signed to Decca records which in my mind says it all. The Redskins were supposed to be what they the establishment wanted Skinheads to be like Bollox to that idea because there was no way that any self-respecting Skinhead would listen to three middle class drop out types that had nothing in common with us. These people openly supported the Socialist workers party anyway. Correct me if I’m wrong but the way i see it is like this; if you can’t have the right then you can’t have the left Oh! But of course these type of people don’t think like that do they….too much bullste floating around in their heads and not enough streetwise suss’. It’s at this point in the history of Skinheads that the so called S H A R P Skinheads began to pop up. Yes i don’t understand them either. The bit i can’t seem to get my head around is when they say they are non-political…..errrrr if you say so.
Now before i get accused of championing the right wing let’s just get something straight. In Ian Stuart those people that were beaten down by the media over Southall saw someone that again spoke for them. Those people would be the ones that came from the street., the real Skinheads/the real Herberts and the real football thugs. Not the Sussed Skins as they were known as at the time or the loony left wing lets ban everything and support everything that just isn’t worthwhile, types.
We are all aware of where Skrewdriver went and what they did and that’s not relevant so, it won’t be spoken of. By the time Skrewdriver had announced their true intentions most if not all of the original Oi! scene had moved onto either; Football hooliganism and the casual way of life or were too busy earning a crust to give a fk. As the 80’s wore on under a Thatcher government people began to think in a different way to a few years before i mean…like her or hate her she gave us money/jobs and a meaning. The spirit of Oi! Was about changing the way we were living and getting ourselves out of poverty. She gave us that and, we took it. We are all aware of the miners’ strike but we didn’t give a toss about that because it was a case of “were all right jack”. It takes me back to the point i made about being tribal so nuff said. In any case a lot of the Skinheads that i grew up with watched our Dads being made unemployed as they the establishment closed down the docks in the East end of London…the same applied for the hated ones that lived over the river in South London. We had experienced it…..i don’t recall any miners standing alongside my Dad on picket duty in the 70’s.His favourite saying to me as i grew up was “Boy, the dosh is out there so grab it with both hands and never let go…fk everyone else” too bloody true. Now if that aint Oi! then i don’t know what is.

2004.
Oi! Can never be as it once was because of the way we live today but that doesn’t mean the bands that have emerged and in some cases re-emerged cant still play good old fashioned Oi! The way it should be played.
There are allot of bands that call themselves Oi! but as far as I’m concerned the only two that are worth a mention are…Argy bargee and Section 5.These two have the spirit of the old bands. The rest are too busy with politics which was not what we were about.
It’s good to see younger people getting involved in the newer scene and enjoying the music of the older one.
The future
Who knows, let’s just take it as it comes and try to enjoy it while it’s here. It could soon be gone.

And lastly, It would not be right to end this article without naming the bands and recordings that made it all worthwhile.
The Bands……
1.The 4 Skins (Gary Hodges line up)
2.The East end badoes.
3.The Cockney rejects.
4.The Business.
5.Vicious Rumours.
7.Cock sparrer.
8.The Gonads.
9.The Ejected.
10.The Last Resort.

The Records……
1.One law For Them.(The 4 Skins)
2.1984.(The 4 Skins)
3.Class of 82. (The Ejected)
4.England belongs to me.(Cock Sparrer)
5.We can do anything.(The Cockney Rejects)
6.Working class kids.(The Last Resort)
7.Work or riot.(The Business)
8.The Way its got to be.(East end badoes)
9.Vicious Rumours.(Vicious Rumours)
10.Fighting in the streets.(The Cockney Rejects)

As i said at the start, this article is not meant to upset or insult any band/bands/person or persons. If it has then…toughen yourselves up and get a life you mugs.

The Final words come from Max Splodge when asked for his opinion on the riot and i quote…
“I think it was a conspiracy between Esso and Unigate”.
Follow that.
Cockney Express ( Terry London

Jinkys Account
So much rubbish has been wrote about what really happened and I’m not sure I have ever read anywhere either in a book or on the internet anything by people that were there.
Well that summer was a scorcher as those that remember will tell you and tempers were running high among a lot of people on the streets hence all the riots.
I had been to the Hambourgh Tavern before the night of the riot but that was a Rockabilly gig. In fact I had been there a month before. Whilst on our way we got no end of grief off the local Asians but just pushed through them to the pub. I had gone the month before with two Rockabillys and another Skinhead and it was us the Skinheads we thought they were targeting but as we found out inside everyone had been given grief so we just assumed it was because we were White. Now some people have said that the Skinheads going to Southall was provocative but what a load of old tosh because explain the grief the Rockabillys got or the grief that the Soul boys got when they went there. We were told by someone that worked the bar that everyone that came into that pub on gig nights was greeted with the same hostile reception from the Asians and hey ho…they were ALL White so go and figure that one out.

What Tel says about the geezer from Greenford is quite true.. Tel his name was Greg Page in case you had forgot mate. I knew Greg through the Ealing Skinheads. Jason Harrison (Arty), Tony Jarvis (Samson) and the others; you should remember them Tel.
So Greg tells us about the gig but a few days later he explains about the Southall youth Movement and what they had threatened to do if it went ahead. As a point on the side I think that if the Police had called the gig off they would have still gone on the rampage because I don’t think to this day that it was us that they really wanted to have a row with…it was the Police and the reasons have already been pointed out. Also, why didn’t the Police stop the gig because they MUST have known all the things that we knew. Maybe they wanted to use this as a way of avoiding a full on riot by the Asians against them and its far easier to blame us the Skinheads than have questions asked about them…..now there’s a thought for you to mull over.
Right, I got one of the coaches that left from the last resort along with a few other pals from the East end, yeah it’s true that there was a Union jack in the back window of one of the coaches and why not?, And so what?
Those that I’d gone with had already had a right good drink up and were still at it on the coach. On the journey we gave all the usual waner signs to everyone and that included the filth; Funny coz id have thought they would have stopped the coach and wiped us off but no? maybe im reading something into this that isn’t there but how about this for an explanation…the old bill knew where we were going and they knew what was going to happen and that’s why they waved us on ,sit you never know.
Right, we arrive at the Hambourgh tavern in good time but you couldn’t help but notice that the little journey that we had to take from the coaches to the pub was not pleasant at all. The Asians that were gathered were making cutting gestures across their throats to us and giving the wan*er sign but I don’t think any of us realized that this was any more than a few locals giving it large. We understood what they thought we were i.e. Nazis and so we swallowed it. Some returned the gestures but can you believe that those old bill that were with us threatened us with arrest and started to get heavy handed. At the time I didn’t think on it but now I reckon that is was all for the Asians benefit but it did them no good because those that were being shoved about shoved back.
Inside the pub now. I won’t talk about what happened there because Tel/Rob and Rob have spoken about that.
I want to talk about what happened as we came out. Tel talks about the group he was with being the last ones out and by rights that should have been me as well but because of where I was in the pub I had to leave because I couldn’t breathe. Correct me if I’m wrong but those bay windows had large curtains hanging from them and they caught on fire and gave off smoke. It had gone from enjoying ourselves and told by Hoxton to keep calm to sudden chaos and blind panic. I thought I was going to be burned alive and I’m not afraid to admit it. As I say I was forced out of the place and was shoved towards two rows of Police and bundled forward still coughing my guts up.
I managed to find two pals that I had gone with and we mobbed up with all the other Skinheads some one hundred feet from the pub. It was at this time that the last lot came out of the pub and got straight into some Asians that had come across to where a few Police had got in front of a small wall. To me it looked like these Skinheads were trying to make a stand and this caused some of those that I was with to try and get back but it was all done in a few minutes and we were bundled away. It was just as we were being told that we would be taken to the local BR that a huge bang went off then a flash that lit the place up; the Asians were all cheering and I have since found out that it was the Police car that was rammed towards the pub.
There was no way I was going to get on a train and go to Paddington or wherever it was because my only interest was getting back home to East London and the same went for the seven or so I was now with. We managed to escape from the police escort and walked what seemed like miles through all these back streets. Along that way we just kept bumping into one mob of Asians after another and they wanted it and they got it. I hope this doesn’t sound like we were some kind of super heroes because trust me I was shitting myself and I don’t give a toss about admitting it either but we had to fight our way through a good fifty plus Asians in little gangs for about fifty In one of those little rows we had we came across ten or so Asians that I think wanted to kill us. As we turned a corner they were coming the other way and it went straight off but we managed to get the better of them and get them on their toes. It was as we were leaving them behind that another lot came out of an alleyway and I was hit over the head with a bottle. I tell you I went down like a ton of bricks but those that were with me stopped the Asians from putting the boot in and fought the cunt’s off me. These Asians also ran off but the talk was that a huge mob will come back our way so we had better get off ourselves. I honestly can’t remember too much about getting home because I was dizzy and seeing double. One thing I can remember is the looks I was getting from people on the bus we had jumped on and this was down to the claret coming out of my head. None of us knew where we were or where the bus was going but as long as it was heading away from that pub I don’t think any of us really care. As it turned out we ended up in a place called Eastcote where we got a tube train all the way home. Now that was luxury I can tell you.
By the time we got back it was all over the TV and radio and guess who got the blame?
The following day after getting along to the hospital to be stitched up from cuts I bought the papers and they were full of it and I still can’t understand to this day what the press thought they were doing. They made out that Skinheads had gone to Southall looking for trouble and got turned over by the locals. One report said that a Swastika had been sprayed on a window. If that is true I can’t see why the riot happened. The press basically said that the Asians gave us a good hiding because some of us gave them some verbal….the press were gloating over it instead of condemning it which they should have. It seems that the press were saying that two wrongs do make a right so if that was the case then why did all the revenge attacks that took place across London get bad press?
No, something was most defiantly dodgy about that night and I think that somewhere in a Government vault is a paper with the names of the ringleaders from the Southall youth Movement and the names of the Police that let it all happen to protect themselves.
My account (very boring one)
My Memories of that night – said in short quick version.
We had been drinking in the Hambrough for a few weeks before the gig It was just inside Southall on the border of Hayes. Obviously, it was mainly skins from Hayes and Southall and local areas pre the riot night and there hadn’t been much trouble every time I had gone there. I had gone there as usual but was looking forward to the gig. It was slow to start but the atmosphere was great inside. I was getting hot so went outside for some air and saw groups of Asians gathering. Suddenly Peter Soda a black guy that had gone to the same school had spotted me and came rushing over to me. He asked me why i had come tonight and that i shouldn’t have come with my skinhead as it was going to be kicking off in a few minutes and he said “loads of them have got petrol bombs ready”. He grabbed my hand and told me to go with him. (By the way I forgot to mention he was a friend) He walked me through the gathering groups to the other end of Southall – the wrong end!!! He left me near a copper close to the police station and said i should be far enough away to be safe. The Petrol bombs started going off and i saw the smoke from a couple of cars that had been set alight and could hear screaming and shouting. Loads more police shot out of the Station and towards the trouble. The copper i was standing with shot off so i dashed right into the front of the station. Some police were coming back bleeding as the Asians were attacking them too. It was getting dodgy near the station too so a copper told me to get in his car and drove me to another part of southall down the backstreets that could connect up to Yeading. He left me there then drove off, I started walking and not long afterwards I heard my name being shouted. It was my mum who had driven round the back way with the minibus from the children’s home and she was picking up some stray skinheads she found and was dropping them over to Hayes via Yeading. There were both black and white skins in the pub that night and my mate who was Black had gone with me. She had got out and got back to Hayes and had told my mum she didn’t know where I was, my mum then came out looking for me.
My mate Peter told me that the Asians had gone prepared with the petrol bombs. It was a load of crap that the skins had gone there for trouble but the next day on the news it was saying we started it all and were provoking the Asians but the rioting carried on with Asians attacking the police even after all the skins had left.

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Teddy Boys 1950’s

History of the British Teddy Boy and Culture

A group of Teddy Boys admire the passing Teddy Girls on Clapham Common 1954.

History of the British Teddy Boy Movement


Teddy Boy Mike waits for his friend Pat on a cleared Bombsite, London 1955.

The origins of the Teddy Boys go back to the late 1940’s when Saville Row Tailor’s attempted to revive the styles of the reign of King Edward VII, 1901-1910, known as the Edwardian era, into men’s fashions. The Teddy Boy fashion of the fifties has its origins in what was an upper class reaction to the austerity imposed by the socialist government in the years following the World War II.

EDWARDIAN STYLE –  a photograph from the Tailor and Cutter & Women’s Wear, June 23, 1950 with the accompanying text:

“Following on our article concerning the dress of the students up at Oxford, which we printed in our June 9th issue, we show on the right(above) a photograph of Mr. Hugh Street, an Oxford undergraduate who favors the individual in single breasted suits.” 

“His jacket is generously skirted and button-four with a very short lapel and squarely-cut fronts.  Jacket pockets are slanted and are offset by narrow trousers (narrow all the way – not pegged topped) and double breasted waistcoat.  The Oxford breeze obliginly blows the left trouser against the Street leg and reveals a fashionable half boot.”

Wealthy young men, especially Guards officers adopted, the style of the Edwardian era. At that point in history, the Edwardian era was then just over forty years previous and their grandparents, if not their parents, wore the style the first time around.

Young Oxford undergraduates wearing elements of the neo-Edwardian style in the early 1950's.

Young Oxford undergraduates wearing elements of the neo-Edwardian style in the early 1950’s.

The original Edwardian revival was actually far more historically accurate in terms of replicating the original Edwardian era style than the later Teddy Boy style which was a fusion of British Edwardian and American Western styles. Although there had been youth groups with their own dress codes called ‘Scuttlers’ in 19th century Manchester and Liverpool, Teddy Boys were the first youth group in England to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market.

The neo-Edwardian look worn by an off-duty Guards Officer creted by Saville row Tailors in 1948.

“Originally, the Edwardian suit was introduced in 1950 by a group of Saville Row tailors who were attempting to initiate a new style. It was addressed, primarily, to the young aristocratic men about town. Essentially the dress consisted of a long narrow lapelled, waisted jacket, narrow trousers (but without being ‘drainpipes’), ordinary toe-capped shoes, and a fancy waistcoat. Shirts were white with cut-away collars and ties were tied with a ‘windsor’ knot. Headwear, if worn, was a trilby hat. The essential changes from conventional dress were the cut of the jacket and the dandy waistcoat. Additionally, barbers began offering individual styling, and hair-length was generally longer than conventional short back and sides.”

The description above was obtained from the typeset of a picture of the ‘authentic’ Edwardian dress which was put out by the Tailor and Cutter and printed in the Daily Sketch, 14th November 1953, in order to dissociate the ‘authentic’ from the working class adoption of the style.

TEDDY BOYS – the real thing- who visited “The Post” to demonstrate the authentic version of this youthful London craze. David Kelly (left) is in “Mississippi gambler style” Tony Griffith (middle) is true to the trend though in no particular style, and Ronald Bunting is in exact replica of Edwardian Fashion.

The principal features are the long coats with fur trimmings (velvet) the drainpipe trousers short of the ankles, the “Slim Jim” ties, fancy waistcoats and gaudy socks.  Dressy materials like barathea and gabardine are essential.  Between them, they have 10 other similar costumes.

The three youths, all 18 are native Londoners and of the opinion that Wellington’s “Teddy Boys” are not really that because they don’t dress as well.

Wellington Evening Post (New Zealand) Monday May 30th 7th 1955.

The emergence of the Working Class Edwardian 

The ‘Edwardian’s’ or a least ‘The Working Class Edwardian’ emerged without much warning ……. There was little preparation for his appearance as a fully fledged deviant, ( a person defined as a social problem) …. He had curious parents; one was the upper-class Edwardian dandy, the other the older delinquent subculture of South London …. his clothes were originally worn by the middle and upper classes, but this was only for a short period.

Swindon Teddy Boys at the Hammersmith Palais,  London 1955.

….Indeed the style was  worn throughout the 1950’s, but its meaning changed dramatically over the decade …. When the long jackets and tight trousers covered the middle class, the fashion was proclaimed a pleasing innovation, but it was rapidly re-appraised when it spread to young working-class males in 1952.  It seems that these new ‘Edwardians’ were ‘Spivs’ not the ‘respectable’ working class …. as a result, the middle class felt that they could no longer share the style with its new adherents.

Teddy Boys and Girls at The Locarno, Swindon, Wiltshire in 1954

In 1948 Saville Row Tailors got together to push the style on to the young Mayfair bloods, the Guardees, and onto the Businessmen, they pushed it so successfully that it then became the uniform of the dance hall creepers.

“It means” explained a disconsolate young ex-Guardee over a champange coctail, “That absolutely the whole of one’s wardrobe immediately becomes unwearable” Those who now wore Edwardian dress were described as delinquents …. Unfavorable social types were summoned forth to define them as, ‘zoot-suiters’, ‘hooligans’ and ‘spivs’ ….  The newspaper that these comments appeared in did not hesitate to award them an unambiguous identity …. The clothing was unchanged, but its wearers had translated it into a stigma.

Teddy Boys at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in 1957.

Knowing the ingrown conservatism of any English working-class community and its opposition to dandyism and any hint of effeminacy, it must have taken a special boldness for the first Teddy Boys of South London to swagger along their drab streets in their exaggerated outfits.

Teddy Boys Tony Ackrill, Tony Bond and Bill Ferris at Faringdon Road Park, Rodbourne, Swindon, Wiltshire in 1954.

The question which has to be asked is how had this style managed to cross the River Thames? It could hardly have come direct from Savile Row.  The general explanation is that it reached South London via Soho. It was a new post-war development that young manual labourers from South London, especially those who had seen military service, went far more readily than before for their evening’s entertainment to “the other side”, that is, the West end, the square mile of large cinemas and little clubs, jazz haunts and juke box cafe’s, which around Soho abut on theatre land and fashionable restaurants.

Teenagers at the Corbett Hospital Fete, Stourbridge, Worcestershire in August 1957 – note the Teddy Boy on the right with the drape with the half-moon pockets.

It was Soho that the Elephant Boys were said to have encountered the new fashion of dressing eccentrically, through meetings either with young Mayfair Edwardians or the latter’s Soho imitators.  Anyhow, the novel fact was that they picked up the fashion and imitated it, perhaps because its look appealed to them, but probably also because its exaggeration corresponded to something in their own outlook, a nagging dissatisfaction, a compelling demand to draw attention to themselves.

Some young Edwardian’s form Wolverhampton around 1955.

Spivs, Cosh Boys or Creepers

Spivs 

Richard Attenborough plays ‘Pinkie’, a typical ‘Spiv’ dressed in a long double-breasted suit with a Trilby Hat in the 1947 film, ‘Brighton Rock’ alongside Hermoine Braddely. The long jacket can be seen to have been heavily influenced by the American Zoot Suit and is regarded as the precursor style to the Edwardian look.

During the second World War, the ‘Spiv’ was born and originated in the ‘Borough’ of Southwark in South London.  Spiv’s were a particular type of petty criminal who dealt in illicit, typically black market goods of questionable authenticity.

The image of the Spiv was a slickly-dressed man offering goods at bargain prices.  The goods that Spiv’s offered were generally not what they seemed or had been obtained illegally.  The term Spiv was widely used during the Second World War and in the post-war rationing period of the late 1940’s and 1950’s. Spiv’s however by contrast to the Teddy Boys were much older men in their thirties, forties and fifties and although they adopted a certain dress style, they were clearly not teenagers.  Nevertheless, the image and style of the Spiv is generally accepted by historians a precursor style to that of the Teddy Boy.

A spiv in 1945 with a Voigtlander camera for sale on the blackmarket in London.

Cosh Boys 

Cosh Boys in Notting Hill, London in 1954 wearing finger-tip length jackets of a style which immediately preceded Teddy Boy style. Note the chain attached to the belt loop, which was a direct influence from the Zoot Suit.

Following on from the Spiv’s and during the early 1950’s some teenage gangs started to appear in the East End of London and they became known as Cosh Boys. The fundamental differences between the Cosh Boys and the Spiv’s was that Cosh Boys were much younger that the Spiv’s. Cosh Boys were also violent, but probably the most important element was that they were youths who had adopted the Edwardian fashion as part of their identity.  It was therefore very easy to recognise them as they had started to adopt the long drape jacket with velvet collar and cuffs narrower trousers and a Slim Jim tie. Their hair was “long” and greased. These Cosh Boys terrified London society with stories of razor attacks, robberies, fights between gangs and assaults against the police.


A number of quotes from newspaper articles from the early 1950’s discuss the Cosh Boy, the clothes they wore and the fact that the general population regarded them as a menace to society.

The same two Cosh Boys at Notting Hill in 1954.

As early as 1951, Cosh Boys had been wearing finger-tip drapes (so called because they must reach as far as the fingertip when the arm is fully extended) bright ankle socks, fancy shoes with thick crepe rubber wedge soles (which are known to the connoisseurs as “Creepers”).  The girls, or so the boys claim, are copying male hairstyles, especially the D.A. (so called because of it’s resemblance to a ducks rear).  The costume most in favour now is a black be-bop sweater over a pencil skirt either slit or buttoned, a three-quarter check overcoat and three tier wedge shoes.  – Daily Mirror October 28th1951.

The Sunday Graphic reported that the Police Forces of Britain are to “Get the first one in” against the teenage gangs of the big towns.  A newly organised Police plan to rid the country of the Cosh Boys, the bicycle-chain thugs and the knuckle-duster gangs.  The appointment of  Flying Squad Chief Superintendant Chapman to the head of No.3 District Metropolitan Police, which covers the East End of London, is part of the new campaign.  Toughness is the key and and the C.I.D. aided by the recent law making it a crime to carry offensive weapons “Without authority or reasonable excuse” – The Sunday Pictorial March 19th 1950.

Four Cosh Boys who robbed an old woman after one of them burned her face with a cigarette were jailed for five years.  After hearing what they had done Mr Justice oliver told the prosecuting council ” I wish some of the persons who oppose flogging could have heard your statement” – Daily Mirror October 15th 1952.

James Kenny and Joan Collins in the 1953 Film Cosh Boy.

A British film was released in 1953 called “Cosh Boy” starring James Kenny, Joan Collins, Hermionie Baddeley, Hermioine Gingold, Betty Ann Davis and Robert Ayres. The film was based on an original play by Bruce Walker, and tells of the exploits of 16-year-old delinquent youth Roy Walsh (James Kenney) and his gang in post World War II London. The characters portrayed in the film would later tar all Teddy Boys with the same brush as being juvenille delinquents.

Another nickname which was given to Teddy Boys in the early 1950’s was “Creepers”, this derived from the dance – “The Creep” by Yorkshire Big Band leader, Ken Mackintosh.  This was a dance performed by Teddy Boys and Girls before the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Britain.

A well known dance that the Teddy Boys adopted was ‘The Creep‘, a slow shuffle of a dance so popular with Teddy Boys that it led to their other nickname of ‘creepers’.

The Creep by Ken Macintosh

Writers Paul Rock and Stan Cohen date the crossover from upper-class fashion to working-class youth style at 1953 and they comment that the new Edwardians (Teddy Boys) were ‘lumpenproletarian “creepers” ‘ (a German word literally meaning “raggedy proletarian” which is derived from the Latin proletarius, a citizen of the lowest class) and not of the ‘respectable working class’. Writer T.R. Fyvel’s account explains that the Edwardian fashion was usurped by working-class youths in 1953 after it had been ‘launched from Savile Row … as an answer to American styles’.

10th October 1953: London gang member Colin Donellan dressed in fashionable Edwardian Teddy Boy style outside a Cecil Gee shop.

It was bold and rebellious in its own right before its usurpation by Teddy Boys because it was an extravagant upper-class snub to the post-war Labour Government and its message of austerity. Fyvel claims that, in this form, the fashion was shortlived because, having started in Mayfair, it soon vanished from London and entered the suburbs. In the meantime it was transported and transformed to the South London working-class areas of Elephant and Castle, Lambeth, Vauxhall and Southwark, where it retained its meaning of social revolt but in a new context, that of petty crime and swank, with clear connections to earlier groups like Spivs.

Two smart Teddy Boys pictured in Worthing, Sussex with the Ted on the left wearing a brocade waistcoat with velvet trim.

Two smart Teddy Boys pictured in Worthing, Sussex with the Ted on the left wearing a brocade waistcoat with velvet trim.

Edwardian dress began to be taken up by working class youths sometime in 1953 and, in those early days, was often taken over wholesale (The Daily Mirror of 23rd October, 1953, shows a picture of Michael Davies, who was convicted of what later became known as the first ‘Teddy Boy’ killing, which would bear this out. In fact the picture shows him in a three piece matching suit, i.e. without the fancy waistcoat.)Leonard Sims, a young Teddy Boy sports his newly tailored Drape jacket with flap button-down pockets.  The photograph was part of an article published in the daily Mirror Newspaper on Friday 13th November 1955 entitled Why I wear these Togs.

The Boys from the Elephant

One theory as to how the Edwardian style was adopted by working class youths was that some young men from Elephant and Castle called the Elephant Mob were on a recce in the West End and were impressed by the rather flashy and expensive-looking new Edwardian-style and quickly took it for their own.

Tony Reuter, one of the Elephant Boys posing as a Teddy Boy for The People Newspaper in 1955.

Around 1950/51 these same young men from around Elephant and Castle, Lambeth and the Borough (Southwark) having appropriated the uptown Edwardian clothes started to mix it up with the look of a World War Two Spiv. In addition they borrowed the hairstyles and style influences of American Westerns (the Mississippi gambler maverick tie for instance) that were hugely popular in the early fifties.

A group of Teddy boys find themselves with nowhere to go and hang around on the Old Kent Road at Elephant and Castle, South London, 13th July 1955.

It would seem however, that there is somewhat of a case to suggest that the gang from Elephant & Castle who had been impressed with the upper class Edwardian dress that they had seen in Mayfair could well have been the first to start the Edwardian working class style in 1950/51. This was later described in T.R. Fyvel’s book, “The Insecure Offenders” as being The Fashion from the Elephant,in other words it could be said that there is a probability that some members of “The Elephant Boys” could well have been the first Teddy Boys!

Outside the ABC, Elephant & Castle, 1954.

All of the Elephant Gang were snappy dressers. Suits cost roughly the equivalent of two weeks’ wages or more.  They were made to measure by excellent tailors on the basis of a deposit and some of the balance paid at each of the two fittings with the remainder paid on collection.  The style varied but was never outlandish with generally two buttoned conventional suits.

Boys wearing Edwardian style clothes at the “Teen Canteen” at Elephant & Castle, South London, July 1955 – note the unusually long sideburns of the Teddy Boy with the double-breasted waistcoat for the period.

When the Edwardian fashion came in at Elephant & Castle, the style was a three or four buttoned three piece suit without velvet collar, although this sometimes appeared on overcoats.  Fashionable materials at this time were mohair or twenty-two ounce worsted in say clerical grey.  Just try to buy that material nowadays.  Amongst notable tailors were Harris and Hymies, both in the Cut near Blackfriars; Diamond Brothers at Shaftesbury Avenue; Sam Arkus in Berwick Street, Soho; and Charkham’s of Oxford Street.

The Teddy Boy Fashion spreads throughout Britain.

Young Teddy Boy Frank Harvey in Tottenham, North London in 1954 (from the Picture Post)

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Although the popular press of the day claim that the working-class Edwardian fashion was initially worn in south and east London during the early 1950’s, the fashion was actually taking hold all over the country at the same time. Examples of this can be found in Newspaper reports and Photographs which confirm this.

A young Teddy Boy – George taken in the traditional terraced streets of Salford, Lancashire – mid fifties.

This potent fashion statement of wearing the Edwardian style could very well have been the first time teenage boys developed their own style of clothing that differentiated from their fathers or elder brothers. It was a conscious and colourful attempt, just like the posh dandies in St James, to rebel against the grey post-war austerity that had enveloped the country after the war. These fashionable young men from South London and elsewhere would later be known as Teddy Boys but the term had not been invented at that point in time and the boys were then simply known as Edwardian’s.

Teddy Boys outside ‘The Royalty’ Mecca Dance Hall, Tottenham, London 29 May 1954.

There are of course many differing accounts of where the Teddy Boy style actually started and the ensuing pattern of geographical expansion. Some writers, for example, maintain that the first Teds emerged in the East End and in North London, around Tottenham and Highbury, and from there they spread southwards, to Streatham and Battersea and Purley, and westwards, to Shepherds Bush and Fulham, and then down to the seaside towns, and up into the Midlands until, by 1956, they had taken root all over Britain.

Teddy Boy, Roy Bradley aged 16 in 1955 at Peterborough.

There is however now more evidence to support the view that the working class Edwardian style and fashion actually started around the country at around and about the same time. Part of the reason that South London is seen as the birthplace of the working class Edwardian style is because the popular press of the day reported the emergence of the style in the London Press.  However there are many reports of the style being adopted in other parts of the country in the early 1950’s with young men wearing tighter than normal trousers, long jackets, ‘brothel creeper’ shoes and sporting Tony Curtis hairstyles.

In 1953, the major newspapers reported on the sweeping trend in men’s fashion across all the towns of Britain, towards what was termed the New Edwardian look. However the working class Edwardian style had been on the street since at least 1951, because the style had been created on the street by the street and by working class teenagers and not by Saville Row or fashion designers such as Hardy Amis.

The influence of the Zoot Suit 

As early as 1941 the drape style jacket can see to be emerging through the Zoot Suit.  These non-delinquent youths who are Jitterbug fans are wearing Zoot suits, most of which are single -breasted and not double-breasted as is typical of most Zoot Suits.

Due to ignorance, the popular press at the time got the emergence of the working class Edwardian style confused with the American Zoot suit and featured articles and reports of the growth amongst working class teenagers of Zoot Suit Gangs.

Zoot Suits nevertheless, are known to have had a direct influence on the re-emergence of the Edwardian style. Zoot Suits originated in the Harlem district of New York in the 1930’s and were associated with black American Jazz culture and later adopted by Hispanic Americans during the early 1940’s. There was a similarity between the long jacket of the Zoot Suit and the Edwardian Drape Jacket insofar that it was a longer than conventional length.

Three Jamaican immigrants,(left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury Docks, Essex on board the ex-troopship SS Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948, smartly dressed in ‘Zoot Suits’ and trilby hats.

The American  Zoot Suit by  way of comparison  features high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long double-breasted jacket with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders.  It is generally worn with a Fedora Hat.  Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket, which was a feature adopted by British Teddy Boys. The creation and naming of the Zoot Suit have been variously attributed to Harold C. Fox, a Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter Louis Lettes, a Memphis tailor; and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer.  The name ‘Zoot’ is thought to have been a corruption or reduplication of the word suit.

The first appearances of Zoot Suits appearing in Britain was when a number of Black American soldiers wore Zoot Suits in Britain whilst on R & R in Dance Halls in Britain during World War II.  Many West Indians, particularly Jamaicans then brought the suit to Britain during Commonwealth Immigration in the late 1940’s and 1950’s.  The Zoot Suit most certainly had some influence on Saville Row Tailors during the re-introduction of the New Edwardian style in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.

The ‘Edwardian’ becomes the ‘Teddy Boy’ 

Turning the corner into Princedale Road, North Kensington, Roger Mayne saw a group of young Teddy Boys whom he thought ‘a bit sinister’. Crossing to the opposite side, he had got past them when one called out, ‘Take our photo, Mister!’. Mayne turned around and took a number of photos – he ‘wasn’t going to miss a chance like that’. ‘Teds’ had attracted a violent and criminal reputation. Some carried flick-knives.

The name “Teddy Boy” however, was not officially born until September 23rd 1953 when a Daily Express newspaper headline shortened Edward to Teddy and coined the term ‘Teddy Boy’(also known as Ted). Nevertheless, it is also known that a number of girlfriends of working class Edwardian’s were referring to them as Teddy Boys well before the Daily Express used its media power to officially christen Edwardian’s into Teddy Boys.

This choice of dress by working class youngsters was, initially, an attempt to buy status since the clothes chosen had been originally worn by upper-class dandies. These were then quickly aborted by a harsh social reaction.

It should be mentioned however, that at the peak of the Teddy Boy movement in 1954/55, the number of fully bona-fide Teddy Boys in the Greater London area did not exceed a top figure of 30,000.  This fact dispenses with the modern idea that all British teenage boys in the 1950’s were Teddy Boys.

Teddy Boy George Lamont in a black and white ‘dog-tooth’ drape jacket with black velvet collar and cuffs with his girlfriend, Teddy Girl Edna Hockridge, Aberdeen Scotland 1955.

In 1954 second-hand Edwardian suits were on sale in various markets as they had become rapidly unwearable by the upper-class dandies once the Teddy Boys had taken them over as their own. This was then followed by by the Teddy Boys creation of their own style via the modifications already outlined. This, then, was the Teddy Boys one contribution to culture: their adoption and personal modification of Savile Row Edwardian suits.

Teddy Boys and National Service.

“National Service, unfortunately, aggravates the trouble.  Most boys regard it as a tiresome chore that has to be completed before life really begins. Between school-leaving and call-up there is little incentive to settle down.”– Unknown Newspaper column 1954.

Many people tend to forget that most teenagers who had started to adopt the Edwardian style were leaving school and entering the workplace at 14 and 15 years of age.  The boys would then later at the age of 18 (or 21 if serving an apprenticeship) be called up for National Service into the British Armed Forces. In many cases the boys would be sent to overseas trouble spots such as Egypt during the Suez crises in 1956, the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya during the 1950’s and Aden.  Many older people who had previously served in the armed forces had the view that National Service would ensure that these youngsters would ‘get their hair cut’ and have the Ted Style ‘beasted’ out of them.

This was however not the case and many National Servicemen kept the Edwardian style holding onto the addage that whats under the beret is mine and what is outside is the Army’s.  However, a number of Army and Air Force units did everything they could to knock this Teddy Boy style out of their squaddies and airmen with limited success.  Here is an example of this from the Daily Mirror, June 11th 1955:

‘The order was given “on parade in civvies”, it was quite the strangest parade in the garrison’s proud history. Some of the men wore Edwardian suits, drainpipe trousers and long, tight-fitting jackets, drape suits. They had ‘jazzy’ shirts and ties, with fancy shoes “to match”.  The C.O. (Commanding Officer), six foot tall tough looking Colonel R.G. Pine-Coffin, D.S.O. stood and stared then banned the lot.  In future, he ordered only modestly cut lounge suits, sports jackets or blazers and flannels or uniform may be worn by men “walking out” off duty. He added“When I saw how some of my went about Aldershot, I just had to order this Parade.  I expect a few, the few who delight in the extravagant dress of Hollywood or East End Spiv’s feel that their liberties are being interfered with, but the Edwardian Suits, fancy shoes and jazzy ties and socks I have seen some wearing are not becoming of a soldier.  We’re a proud lot in the Airborne and feel that these modern fashions that a few of the chaps like, rather let’s the mob down!”.’

It should be made clear however that these young Edwardians were only teenagers and  thereafter society expected these same young Edwardian teenagers to grow out of this rebellious style – make sure they had a regular job, get married, have children and settle into 1950’s family life.

Bob Corbett,  17 of Liverpool wears a silver grey suit with black lapels and black piping and brown suede shoes. A slightly advanced version of an orthodox Teddy outfit June 1954.

Many young men in the mid-fifties however could not actually afford to purchase the entire Teddy Boy outfit and would wear only elements of it. The shoes were an affordable part of the Teddy Boy style; brothel creepers, lots of entwined leather on the top and thick crepe soles.  That element spread as shoes were more readily available than the clothes themselves.

A group of Northampton Teddy Boys all wearing Drape Jackets.

The sartorial signifiers like ‘drain-pipe’ trousers may well have identified a Teddy Boy however, this would have only been the case within the ‘teens and twenties’ age bracket. Male teenagers sported certain signs of peer group belonging, like the hair, the trousers and the shoes, but the Teddy Boys uniform in its entirety was not widely adopted by the mainstream teenager. It tended to be those Teddy Boys in gangs who would wear the whole regalia.

Outside of London, few youths adopted the whole of the Teddy Boy regalia, rather they took on only parts of it – the ones that they could get away with if they could afford them, ‘there were a lot of the drainpipe trousers and haircuts and things like that’.

A Teddy Boy dances with his girl at The Royalty Mecca Dance Hall, Tottenham, London 1954.

It is estimated that in terms of numbers in 1953-54 there were a ‘few thousand’ Teds and that they roamed the streets in gangs and that they were territorial and occasionally violent towards other Teddy Boy gangs.

Bob Aber, a then young Teddy Boy from Northampton photographed in London by John Facer in a single link two piece drape suit (the shadow). Note the photograph was made from the negative placed the wrong way round.

The advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll music in Britain – the Teddy Boys make this their own! 

In 1954  Rock ‘n’ Roll had not really been heard of in the UK,  it wouldn’t arrive on these shores until as a main stream music until 1955/6. However, it is a mistake to believe that Teddy Boys and Girls did not have an interest in music, prior to the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Dance Halls were extremely popular places with young adults during the early 1950s and there were plenty of new dance crazes to keep them interested.

Although Teddy Boys are associated with Rock ‘n’ Roll music, the style actually came before the music. Rock ‘n’ Roll was generally adopted by the young generation (which of course included the Teddy Boys) from 1955 when the film, Blackboard Jungle, was first shown in cinemas in the Britain.

By 1955, Britain was well placed to receive American rock and roll music and culture. It shared a common language, had been exposed to American culture through the stationing of troops in the country, and shared many social developments, including the emergence of distinct youth sub-cultures, which in Britain of course included the Teddy Boys. Trad Jazz became popular, and many of its musicians were influenced by related American styles, including boogie woogie and the blues. This was a style that tended to be followed by University students and tended to be shunned by working class Teddy Boys.  The skiffle craze, led by Lonnie Donegan, utilised amateurish versions of American folk songs and encouraged many of the subsequent generation of rock and roll, folk, R&B and beat musicians to start performing.

Bill Haley and His Comets rehearsing at London’s Dominion Theatre, February 6, 1957.Bill Haley’s ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’ is certainly the record that introduced Rock and Roll to an unprepared British Public. But most people will probably tell you that it was another record  that started it all.  That other record was ‘Rock Around The Clock’ which was recorded in 1954, but didn’t chart in the UK until October 1955. However, it was still in the chart when ‘Rip It Up’, Haley’s 11th UK success entered the chart at the end of 1956! ‘Rip It Up’ was almost the last in the amazing run of hit records that Bill Haley had issued in the UK during 1956.It was the beginning of something new, a wind of freedom. In Britain, in September 1956, Bill Haley had 5 records in the ‘Top 20’ and the film Rock Around The Clock was shown at 300 cinemas.

At the same time British audiences were also beginning to encounter American rock and roll, initially through films including Blackboard Jungle (1955) and Rock Around the Clock (1955). Both movies contained the Bill Haley & His Comets hit “Rock Around the Clock”, which first entered the British charts in early 1955 – four months before it reached the US pop charts – topped the British charts later that year and again in 1956, and helped identify rock and roll with teenage delinquency.

In 1956, the film, Blackboard Jungle made its premier at the Trocadero Cinema at Elephant & Castle in South London. It was then shown thereafter at Cinemas throughout Britain.  At the end of the film, the song ‘Rock around the Clock’ was played and at the Trocodero, Teddy Boys danced with their girls in the aisles and when cinema staff attempted to stop them, they rioted and ripped up the cinema seats with flick knives.

This was replicated at copycat riots during the screening of the film at Cinema’s throughout the country. Teddy Boys had now embraced Rock ‘n’ Roll for the first time and made it their own. The government and media were outraged and the film was subsequently banned from many cinemas. The media jumped on this phenomenon, placing the new rock ‘n’ roll music and the Teddy Boys at the centre of all the rioting. This confirmed the pre-conception to many members of the establishment, that Teddy Boys were in fact Juvenile Delinquents and social outcasts.

Newspapers were filled with pictures of Teddy Boys and girls dancing and jiving outside the cinemas. The police were frequently involved in quelling, what was in many instances simply teenage high spirits. There can be no doubt that the media had a big hand in sensationalising the rioting and seat slashing, and thereby simply poured fuel on the smouldering embers of the Trocadero riot, and fanned the flames for what in many instances were obviously copycat riots. Blackboard Jungle was also the first major studio film to use Rock ‘n’ Roll on the soundtrack.

The success of the film, Blackboard Jungle, kick-started sales ofRock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and his Comets, which helped spark the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Britain.

By the spring of 1957 Bill Haley & the Comets were never to enter the chart again, save re-issues of their previous material.  Whatever doubts there may be about Bill Haley’s musical influences, he can certainly be credited with unleashing  Rock and Roll on the British record buyer.

American rock and roll acts such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Buddy Holly thereafter became major forces in the British charts.

A young Teddy Boy with a Drape jacket and high-waisted trousers dances with his girl at a local Dance Hall.

A group of Brierley Hill (Dudley) Worcestershire Teddy Boys mid 1950’s

The initial response of the British music industry was to attempt to produce copies of American records, recorded with session musicians and often fronted by teen idols. More grassroots British rock and rollers soon began to appear, including Tommy Steele and Wee Willie Harris. During this period American Rock and Roll remained dominant; however, in 1958 Britain produced its first “authentic” rock and roll song and star, when Cliff Richard & the Drifters (later Shadows) reached number 2 in the charts with “Move It”.  The 2is Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street, Soho in London’s West End became the home of and the birthplace of many of Britain’s home-grown Rock ‘n’ Roll Stars.

An Edinburgh Teddy Boy in a two piece drape suit that is in need of a good pressing – mid 1950’s.

At the same time in 1958, TV shows such as Six-Five Special and Oh Boy! Came about and promoted the careers of British rock and rollers like Marty Wilde and Adam Faith. Cliff Richard and his backing band, The Shadows, were the most successful home grown rock and roll based acts of the era.  Other leading acts included Billy Fury, Joe Brown, and Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, whose 1960 hit song “Shakin’ All Over” became a rock and roll standard.

Brian Licorice Locking Roy Clark and Vince Eagers first appearance at the 2is Coffee Bar as the Vagabonds circa November 1957.

Teddy Boys are and were a totally British phenomenon as opposed to the other styles worn in countries such as the United States. Also don’t forget that Teddy Boys were listening and dancing to mainly Big Band, Jazz and Skiffle type music prior to the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Alec Cruikshank, a clerk in a City of London shipping office walking towards the Mecca Dance Hall, Tottenham, Middlesex (North London) on 29th May 1954.

Criminality and Clothes.

When teenager John Beckley was murdered by a Teddy Boy gang known as the Plough Boys in July 1953 after a fight that started on Clapham Common, the Daily Mirror’s headline Flick Knives, Dance Music and Edwardian Suits’ linked criminality to clothes.

Teddy Boys became regarded by many as the urban, unskilled working class boys, looking for an identity through the clothes they wore. A number of Teddy Boys pursued gang warfare and vandalism in both the streets and the dance halls, carrying coshes, bicycle chains, razors and flick-knives beneath their fine Edwardian style clothes.  This reputation then gave any youth who wore elements of the Teddy Boys dress as being tarred with the same brush.

However to many this was a style of dress and a fashion to be worn and of course not all Teddy Boys were as the popular press described. The 1950’s was the first decade to produce teenage fashions, before this they were expected to dress similar to their parents. Following the war, when prosperity hit Britain, these working class teenagers could afford to buy their own clothes, although most shops only offered ‘off the peg’ conventional styles and many tailors refused to make up these ‘new’ fashions. The teenagers were now a marketing target that made 50’s fashion a symbol of a whole new lifestyle.

Teddy Boys were the first real high profile teenagers in Britain, who flaunted their clothes and attitude like a badge.  It comes as no surprise then that the media was quick to paint them as violent and a menace based on a single incident.  However, many Teddy Boys formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival gangs which were often exaggerated by the popular press.

Many negative newspaper headlines then appeared in the popular press and here are some examples from various cities and towns in England during the mid fifties:

“Cinemas, dance halls and other places of entertainment in South east London are closing their doors to youths in ‘Edwardian’ suits because of gang hooliganism. The ban, which week by week is becoming more generally applied, is believed by the police to be one of the main reasons for the extension of the area in which fights with knuckle dusters, coshes, and similar weapons between bands of teenagers can now be anticipated. In cinemas, seats have been slashed with razors and had dozens of meat skewers stuck into them.” 

Daily Mail, 12th April 1954.

Edwardian spivs plan new swoop 

GANGS MENACE RESORT

Police are Standing by

BRIGHTON, Saturday Night.

Britain’s most famous holiday resort, packed with Easter visitors in it’s Centenary year, is being terrorised by rival gangs of “Edwardian” thugs.

Gang fights between rival ‘Edwardian thugs’ from Southsea, Portsmouth and the East End of London came to a head in one of Britains most popular holiday resorts.  In the month of March 1954 the youths, all dressed in the uniform of the of exaggerated Edwardian jackets and drainpipe trousers clashed with a local gang in a quarral over two girls.  The visiting gang from Southsea got the worst of it. Two Policemen were called in to quell the disturbance.

The gang announced that they would return with reinforcements on  Easter Sunday. Thus Brighton Police, many of them on special duty were standing by to cope with the threatened invasion by the teenage gangsters from the Southsea and Portsmouth area.  The Police were determined to do everything possible to avoid a local incident like the Clapham Common youth gang killing, but admit that the ‘Edwardians’ had the upper hand.

Sunday Chronicle (Brighton), April 18th 1954. 

SLASHED WITH RAZOR BY TEDDY BOY

Police appeal for witnesses.

A Slough man, razor-slashed in a fight outside the Public Library in William Street on Saturday night was so shocked when he saw his face in the mirror that he collapsed.

He was later taken to Upton Hospital and had twenty stitches inserted in to his face. 

Slough Observer – Friday February 4th 1955

Alleged Razor Attack by Teddy Boy

STORY OF CHRISTMAS NIGHT BRAWL IN NOTTS.

A Razor, alleged to have been used by a Teddy Boy in slashing four youths in a Christmas night brawl, was shown to the jury at Notts Assizes.  A 22 year old Yorkshire Railway Shunter, pleaded not guilty to four charges of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.  

Mr T.R. Fitzwalter, prosecuting said “It is a deplrorable, indeed, that youths aged 18 to 20 can find no better way of celebrating a time of what we regard as peace and goodwill, by indulging in an unseemly brawl of the kind you will hear.”  Describing a Teddy Boy, Mr Fitzwalter said “The expression is used to describe youths who go about in gangs and clothes supposed to belong to the Edwardian era”.

Nottingham Evening Post, February 28th 1955. 

Here’s a great clip of 1950’s Teddy Boys from Burnt Oak, North London being interveiwed by a News Reporter about an attack on a Vicar.It seems Teddy Boys disappear in the Summer & all go Fishing!

Although many incidents of hooliganism, violence and rowdyism were reported at face value.  The press coverage of a murder that took place in May 1955 provides an example of the role played by the mass media.  A sixty year old Cypriot was killed by one of a group of four youths in a road in Camden Town.  There was nothing about this unpleasant killing that indicated a ‘typical’ Teddy Boy crime, yet almost all the newspapers which appeared on the following morning referred to the killer as a ‘Teddy Boy’.

“There were reports of Police Investigations of Teddy Boy activity in Camden Town, and a Detective Superintendent  was widely quoted as sending out a message to his men to “Find every Teddy Boy, go into the pubs and dance halls and bring in the boys of that gang”.  A week later , a 21 year old was arrested and sent for trial, the same Detective Superintendent said at the preliminary hearing that the boy had an ‘excellent’ character and was not a Teddy Boy. There was no evidence that he had been a member of a gang.”

London Evening News, May 21st 1955. 

Press over-reaction was becoming common.  The Daily Express report of the crime claimed:

“Four shallow-faced Teddy Boys lounging in the shadows of the corner Baker’s shop”.  

Daily Express, May 22nd 1955.

The accuracy of this description is not an issue, although it would be interesting to know how the reporter learned of the boys complexions!

London Teddy Boys portraying the popular violent image in the 1959 UK film ‘Sapphire’

More incidents were reported again in the May of 1955.

TEDDY GIRLS SPARK OFF BATTLE IN DANCE HALL

Two fair-haired Teddy Girls in black sweaters and tight skirts started clawing each other in the corner of the bath Pavilion.  Rival Teddy Boys joined the fight and sixteen were arrested as Police routed rival razor gangs from Bath and Bristol.  Witnesses said that bicycle chains and knuckledusters were used in the fight, but Police found no weapons.  Mr. P. Bedford, Bath Pavilion Director said “The question of whether this type of youth should be banned from municipal dances should be considered.”

Daily Express, May 30th 1955

Blackpool Tower Ballroom, Lancashire, 1954. The sign to the left of the stage reads NO BOP, NO JIVE!

A Blackpool Cinema Manager declared that “I’m the one who decides whether a youth is wearing Edwardian dress or not, my decision is final”.  The Police told of a new purge of Teddy Boy gangs following some  of the weekend activities in the town, Inspector John Dunn Chief of Blackpool C.I.D. said  “They seem unconscious of how ridiculous they look in their drainpipe trousers, light socks, long jackets with flattering padded shoulders and effeminate mops of hair”.

Blackpool Gazette & Herald, May 15th 1954.

The town of Reading reported that a War on Edwardian hooligans was declared, alarmed by the increase of gangs roaming the street, the Police will combat very rigorously, attempts to create disturbances. “Dance hall owners may take unified action”, said one owner, “The time has come to ban from all dance halls in the town any Edwardian youths and their girl friends”, but the trouble is not so much in the Dance halls as in the Street.

Daily Herald, May 23rd 1954. 

Local Dance in Peterborough 1955 with Roy Bradley (a Teddy Boy wearing a Drape Jacket) on the far right.

COMMENT – insert.

The Nottingham and Notting Hill Riots of 1958. 

A Teddy Boy gets searched by a Policeman during the 1958 Notting Hill Riots in which Teddy Boys were widely implicated, which in fact were orchestrated by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.

The most notable disturbances involving Teddy Boys were the Nottingham – St. Anne’s Well Riots and the London Notting Hill Riots, both which took place in August / September 1958. Teddy Boys were present in large numbers during these disturbances and were implicated in attacks on the newly arrived and settled black West Indian community. These disturbances however, were largely orchestrated by by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.

2nd September 1958 Teddy Boys and Girls run through Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, during the race riots in West London.

The St Ann’s Well, Nottingham Disturbances 

In the summer of 1958 there was a self-imposed curfew for black people in St Ann’s.  Being caught out on the streets late at night was simply dangerous.

On Saturday 24th August 1958, extra Police were on guard as fierce fighting between White and Coloured people broke out in the St Ann’s Well area of Nottingham, eight white people including a Policeman were run down by a coloured drivers car, and taken to Hospital.  Dozens of people were injured were injured by bottles, knives razors and stakes.  One had 37 stitches inserted in his throat, two others had more than a dozen stitches each in back stab wounds.  Police, ambulancemen and firemen with hoses were sent to the scene and order was restored after several hours.

The incident, which  local  legend  blames  for setting off the chain of  events  leading  to  the  riots,  happened  when  a  black man had  to visit the late night chemist to get a prescription filled for his wife. On the way back he was waylaid by a group of Teddy Boys,  who the police were unable to locate. In the normal run of  things  they might have  been reluctant to  back  up the sort of  young black men who habitually got themselves into fights  in pubs and street corners, but this was a story which perfectly encapsulated the situation they were  in. A respectable family man, on an errand of mercy, had been pointlessly attacked and beaten.  This was precisely the sort of incident which enraged the migrants and made them willing to encourage retaliation.

After that incident the West Indians went out the following week looking to see if they could find Teddy Boys to hit back, but nothing happened. And then, gradually, an incident took place at a pub. And the fighting started.

It  would  not  have  been  difficult  to  get  into  a  confrontation  outside  the St Ann’s Well Inn  at  closing time on a Saturday night, and on 23rd August it duly happened. This time, however, there was a group of black men on the scene, ready and willing to fight.  In the first  phase  dozens  of  people were injured  ‘ in a  matter  of  seconds’  but  before  the  police  arrived,  the black  men  had  vanished  into  the  nearby  alleyways.   Eight local Nottingham whites were hospitalised, including a policeman who was run down by a car. To many of the migrants it seemed like a legitimate return for the treatment to which they had become accustomed.

The chap who drove his car through the crowd, a West Indian chap, described  what happened. He was at a party and, as soon as they heard that there was these disturbances at a pub nearby, the Robin Hood Chase, they all decided, Well, we must get there. And he got in his car with a few others and went there, and there was this milling crowd, and he felt the best way, Well, I had better drive through this, and he went through it at full tilt, as quickly as he could. I think a policeman must get bumped on the backside or something like that. And I remember when Roy was telling me, I said, “But, look, man, that was dangerous.”  He said, “I reckon you’re too damned nice, man. It give me satisfaction, at least we can fight back, you know, at least we fight back, and people will realise we’re not prepared to sit and take this sort of thing anymore. If they want to be nasty, we can be nasty as well.”

News of the fight spread like wildfire through the area and, in a short time, a mostly white crowd estimated at about 1,500 had gathered and started attacking black people at random.  By the time the police restored order another eight people had been injured. In the following weeks, the St Ann’s Well Road affray was widely reported as an eruption which symbolised the racial anger simmering beneath the surface of English life. Oddly enough, this was the last large scale racial conflict of its type in Nottingham.  On the next Saturday night an equally large crowd gathered in the district anticipating another ‘race riot’, but no black people turned up, so they began to fight each other.

The following weekend there was another uprising, and that was even apparently more violent than the first one, but the interesting thing, it was only one black person was in the area at that time. And he walked through the crowd of fighting people and nobody noticed him, and had a good laugh.

The Notting Hill Riots

SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

Change in Style 

In 1958, there was a huge Italian influence on fashion and this was the begining of the end of the Teddy Boy as a mainstream style.  Boys started wearing suits with short, boxy jackets (colloquially known as bum-freezers), tapered knife-edge trousers, waistcoats, with white button-down shirts and thin ties, ideally with a matching handkerchief (usually a bit of cloth on a white card, which slipped into the top left hand pocket of the jacket) and with all that, the emergence of winkle-picker shoes for men. This style was to be in many ways a prelude to the Modernist or later Mod style of dress that would slowly start to emerge in 1959 and would become popular and peak by 1963/4.

The Shadows pictured in 1960 wearing the Italian (tonic) bumb-freezer Suits that had started to become fashionable in 1958 heralding a decline in the wearing of the longer drape jacket worn by Teddy Boys.  These suits were generally worn with ‘Winklepicker’ shoes. The mohair tonic suit was later adopted by the Mods of the 1960’s.

There were still some older die-hard Teddy Boys in the dance halls during the late 1950’s; however they were becoming outnumbered by boys who were adopting the new Italian suits. By 1958 the remaining Teddy Boys had started to wear jackets and suits with brighter colours which was due to the fact that new dyes had become available towards the end of the fifties.

Teddy Boy, Bill Evans aged 17 from Salford, Lancashire with his girlfriend in 1959, at the seaside resort of Blackpool, wearing the more traditional neo-Edwardian attire. Bill is sporting a black drape jacket with wide lapels for the date, blue brocade waistcoat with a Chinese pattern, white shirt with slim-jim tie but with much tighter blue-grey 14″ bottom trousers with highly polished slip-on shoes. Bill’s girlfriend is wearing a typical orange circle dress with white sash. Copyright Bill Evans and Julian Lord – no reproduction without permission from copyright holder.

As styles changed jackets had much narrower lapels, more velvet appeared now on the pockets as well as the collar and cuffs and 14″ trouser bottoms without turn-ups became the norm.  This style of the late 1950’s became the template for the Teddy Boy jackets and suits which emerged later during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

By 1958 the remaining Teddy Boy suits sported brighter colours with much narrower lapels on the jackets, more velvet appeared now on the pockets as well as the collar and cuffs and 14″ trouser bottoms as the norm. This is demonstrated in the photograph of Breathless Dan Coffey in the photograph below.  This style became the template for the Teddy Boys who emerged later during the late 1960’s 1970’s.

Teddy Boy Stalwart, Breathless Dan Coffey, originally from Newport, Monmouthshire pictured in 1960 wearing a light coloured Drape suit with contrasting black velvet on both the pockets and covered buttons. Note the use of the black velvet buttons on the vandyke cuffs and the ‘cumberband’ style high waistband on the trousers. Breathless Dan was one of the original Teddy Boys who kept the Teddy Boy Movement alive during the dark days of the 1960’s and Rock n Roll music in this country.  Dan was an avid fan of the Legendary Jerry Lee Lewis and along with his then wife, Faye became firm fiends of The Killer, making a number of visits to the United States. Breathless Dan was primarily responsible for bringing back Rockabilly records to Britain during the 1960’s of American artists who had never had their music aired here during the 1950’s.  This then brought about the massive interest and following that Rockabilly music had during the 1970’s amongst British Teddy Boys.

The Dark Days of the 1960’s 

As the fifties turned into the sixties, Teddy Boys became a minority subculture and most youths at the time considered the style old fashioned and were captivated with the Italian look of bumb-freezer jackets and winkle pickers.

Here is a programme made in 1960 called ‘Living for Kicks’ which features Brighton, Tooting and Northampton Teenagers. It is interesting to note that Teddy Boys are alive and well in Northampton in 1960 at the Abington Parish Hall, whereas in Brighton at the Whisky a Go Go Coffee bar there is a mixture of Beatnicks and ordinary teenagers of the period.  A slightly older audience appear at the Castle pub in Tooting featuring Duffy Power.

The key to how the Teddy Boys actually survived during the dark days of the 1960’s lies with what can be termed, second generation Teddy Boys, that is those Teddy Boys who were too young to be Teddy Boys in the early to mid 1950’s but had adopted the style in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.  These Teddy Boys had been guided by the few original first generation Teddy Boys that were still around, these were the Teddy Boys who had continued from the early 1950’s and were the die-hard’s who were true to the style, music and movement.

Breathless Dan Coffey with his wife Faye circa 1960/61.

The few original first generation Teddy Boys still remaining along with the larger numbers of second generation Teddy Boys then continued to maintain the Teddy Boy Movement throughout the so-called swinging sixties, albiet in much smaller numbers

Teddy Boys pictured at Ilford, Essex in 1960.

One should not get the impression that the Teddy Boys had completely died out during the early to mid 1960’s because they had not, however they were certainly only a minority and not mainsteam as they were in the 1950’s. Travelling Fairgrounds were places where a number of Teds could be found during the 1960’s as many of the older Teds found jobs on the Fairgrounds.

Teddy Boys wearing ‘Kiss Me Quick’ Cowboy hats at Scarborough, Yorkshire in 1961. Note the velvet on the pockets of the Ted on the left and the open collars with the T-shirt underneath, a very popular style amongst Rockers in the early 1960’s.

The Rockers and the 1960’s.

A significant proportion of late 1950’s early 1960’s Teddy Boys that were left became Rockers adopting leather jackets and many riding British Motorbikes.  At the beginning, the Rockers were an evolvement of the Teddy Boy without the drape. In the 1950’s the ‘Rockers’ were known as ‘Ton-Up Boys’ because doing a ton was slang for driving at a speed of 100 mph (160 km/h) or over and they rode mainly British manufactured motorcycles.

A group of Rockers at the 59 Club during the 1960’s

The Rocker subculture came about due to factors such as: the end of post-war rationing in the UK, a general rise in prosperity for working class youths, the recent availability of credit and financing for young people, the influence of American popular music and films, the construction of arterial roads around British cities such as the North Circular Road in Middlesex and North London, the development of transport cafes and a peak in British motorcycle engineering.

Rockers at the Fifty-Nine Club in Paddington, London with Father Bill.

The Teddy Boys were in fact considered the Rockers “spiritual ancestors”. The Rockers or Ton-up Boys took what was essentially a sport and turned it into a lifestyle, dropping out of mainstream  society and “rebelling at the points where their will crossed society’s”.  This damaged the public image of motorcycling in the UK and led to the politicisation of the motorcycling community.

Johnny Kidd and the Pirates 1960.

The Rockers (just like their predecessors, the Teddy Boys) enjoyed Rock ‘n’ Roll music particularly Gene Vincent, Vince Taylor, Johnny Kid and the Pirates and other early British Beat of the early 1960’s pre-Beatle era. The Rockers style in the main consisted of jeans, boots and leather jackets. The Rockers tended to decorate their black leather jackets with enamel badges and studs denoting their local gang or their motorcycle type etc. Most Rockers, like their predecessors, the Teddy Boys, were seen as anti-establishment rebels portraying a ‘bad boy’ image.

A scene from the film, The Leather Boys (1963) shot in the Ace Cafe with working class London teenagers Dot (seated) played by Rita Tushingham and Rocker, Reggie (standing) played by Colin Campbell.

The Rockers were essentially from the working class and despised any fashion, other than their own. They each had the same hairstyle, shaggy with a bit of slick to it  or a quiff.  The Ace Café in Middlesex/North London along the North Circular Road was a well known hangout of the Rockers in North London and like many transport cafe’s was renowned for it’s greasy foods and jukeboxes.  Riding motorcycles was of the upmost importance, so they tended to keep away from drugs and alcohol. The motorcycles were also modified or “souped up” in order to be in top racing form.  Many Rockers converted their bikes into ‘Cafe Racers’ and most Rockers had a British manufactured Triumph, BSA or a Norton motorcycle.

In actual fact, two groups of Rockers emerged. The first one identified with Marlon Brando’s image in ‘The Wild One’, hanging around transport cafes, projecting nomadic romanticism, violence, anti-authoritarianism and anti-domesticity.  The second group were non-riders, who were similar in image but less involved in the cult of the motorbike.  This second group who would tend to be more ‘Teddy Boy’ in appearance would tend to wear ‘Castle Top Creepers’ and ‘Winkle Picker Boots’ and either light blue jeans or black drainpipe jeans with coloured bottoms and stripes down the outer seam. The remaining Teddy Boys would tend to hang around with this second group, as most of the remaining Teds were non-motorcyclists.

By 1965 the term greaser or grebo had also become common and, since then, the terms greaser and rocker have become synonymous within British working class Motorcycle culture.

The Modernists or Mods

Mods arriving at Hastings, Sussex aboard their Lambreta and Vespa Scooters in 1964.

The opposition British youth culture to the Rockers during the 1960’s were the Mods or Modernists as they were first known as.  The Mods were another working class movement that were typified by their wearing of tailor-made suits with narrow lapels (sometimes made of mohair), thin ties, button-down collar shirts, wool or cashmere jumpers (crewneck or V-neck), Chelsea or Beatle boots, loafers, Clarks desert boots, bowling shoes, and hairstyles that imitated the look of French Nouvelle Vague film actors.

An early 1960’s Mod was Marc Bolan (later 1970’s Rock Star) seen here wearing a typical mohair suit, round collar shirt with leather waistcoat.

A few male mods went against gender norms by using eye shadow, eye-pencil or even lipstick. Mods chose scooters over motorbikes partly because they were a symbol of Italian style and because their body panels concealed moving parts and made them less likely to stain clothes with oil or road dust. Many mods wore military parkas while driving scooters in order to keep their clothes clean.

For more information on Mod Culture, go to:  http://www.modculture.co.uk/

The Return in the Prominence of the Teddy Boy and the so called  Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival – 1967.

‘Fifties Flash’ at Northwood, Middesex in 1968.

The difference between the emergence of the Teddy Boy in the 1950’s and the re-emergence of the Teddy Boy in 1967 is that the Teddy Boy of the 1950’s was a youth fashion statement against austerity and the beginning of the identity of the teenager in Britain. As previously stated, Teddy Boys in the early 1950’s initially had no connection with Rock ‘n’ Roll music until it arrived in Britain in October 1955.  In 1967 however, teenagers had already become established throughout the fifties and sixties and the re-emergence of the Teddy Boy was directly connected with 1950’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Music. The interesting thing is that the Teddy Boys who led the revival were not teenagers, they were second generation Teds in their mid twenties and in some cases original Teddy Boys in their early thirties.

In 1967, at the height of Flower Power – mainly a student phenomenon – Bill Haley’s Shake Rattle and Roll crept into the charts again.  Pop’s instant nature is it’s nostalgia; the passing had attained a permanence. The Fifties was the beginning of the period to return to.

The Teddy Boys had lingered on through the sixties, albeit in decreased numbers.  Then all of a sudden from 1967 onwards, the Teddy Boys started a resurgence and were again on the increase.  The style had changed: the drapes were brighter, the drainpipes tighter; hair lacquer had started to replace grease. The meaning had changed too. Teds were no longer the hard-core nasties; that they had previously been seen as in the 1950’s.  They were more like nostalgic adherents to Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Teddy Boy style.

Young kids continued to join the ranks of the Teds. The thirty-year-old old timers, the Originals formed the leadership. Teddy Boys, like Breathless Dan Coffey spearheaded this resurgence. Veterans of the Fifties, they had been there. Respect for age, absent at the start, was becoming a corner-stone of the re-merging Teddy Boy movement.

Brian Rushgrove and other Teds in Bradford 1968.

This heralded a new era for the Teddy Boy movement and during the late 1960’s and especially during the 1970’s Teddy Boy groups and Rock n Roll Clubs and Societies could be found throughout most of Britain’s main cities and towns as the momentum picked up.

Teddy Boy, Ray Flight wearing a plain ice blue drape suit circa 1970.

In terms of the music, as well as Bill Haley’s re-emergence, the American comedy Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival band, Sha Na Na had quite an influence on the Rock ‘n’ Roll music scene singing many Doo Wop songs and Teen ballads as well as main stream Rock ‘n’ Roll in the early 1970’s.

Sha Na Na – from the Streets of New York in 1971.

Sha Na Na were first seen at the 1968/9 Woodstock festival and also gained acceptance and popularity amongst non Rock ‘n’ Roll adherents.  In Britain, the 1960’s band, the Dave Clarke Five produced the Good Olde Rock ‘n’ Roll EP and LP in 1969 where the band appeared as cartoon versions of Teddy Boys on the black and white covers.

It was bands like the Wild Angels, The Houseshakers, The Rock ‘n’ Roll Gang,  Shakin’ Stevens & The Sunsets and The Rock ‘n ‘Roll Allstars that had re-created the true spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll, by rendering the big success of the 50′s  These bands played traditional Rock ‘n’ Roll favorites such as Johnny B. Goode, Tutti Frutti, Peggy Sue, Be Bop A Lula, C’mon Everybody, Great Balls Of Fire.

There were two South Wales bands however that had started to develop Rock ‘n’ Roll and take the Teddy Boys in a new direction. They were Penarth (Glamorgan) based Shakin Stevens & the Sunsets and Newport (Monmouthshire) based Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers who had both discovered and started to play Rockabilly music. The other bands in general were not developing Rock ‘n’ Roll music much beyond third rate versions of the originals.  Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Teddy Boys needed something new and it was to be these two bands along with later the Flying Saucers and the Riot Rockers who would provide this.

As former Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers roadie, Ritchie Gee comments on the sleeve notes of the LP Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers …. the Way it Was:

“The band looked the same on stage as they did off. Out ‘n’ out Teds!  When this lot came out of South Wales, they were so wild and different to anyone else it was scary! (What other band looked like that at the time?)”

“Sure there were other bands playing Rock ‘n’ Roll in 69 – 70, but most of them were just doing the same old covers and nothing new. At gigs in the early 70’s I often saw Rock ‘n’ Roll musicians turn up in their flared jeans and straight hair styles, disappear backstage and re-emerge in Drapes ‘n’ Drainpipes with their hair greased and slicked back!  They’d churn out all the safe old standards and afterwards change back to what they really were – the sort who wouldn’t get past the door at a real Rock ‘n’ Roll gig.”

“But seeing Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers for the first time at the Fishmongers Arms in 1971, lookin’ real cool and playin’ wild Rock ‘n’ Roll music to a Teddy Boy crowd, I thought “At Last! This is IT! Yahoo!”

Gene Vincent in England in 1969.

It should be noted however, that out of all the American artists, Gene Vincent probably had a bigger influence and impact on the late 1960’s and 1970’s Teddy Boy movement than any other single American Rock ‘n’ Roller.  This was mainly due to the fact that Gene Vincent had been popular amongst the 1960’s Rockers and had spent a great deal of time in Britain during the 1960’s making many appearances right through until his death in 1971.  Gene Vincent remains to this day a cult figure to Rockers and Teddy Boys.

Teddy Boys outside a Cinema in Victoria, London in  1971, pose for the cover of a budget Contour LP’CRAZY ROCK’ : Ray Flight, Don Dolby and Girl and Driftin’ Den Board.

The 1970’s – the new age of the Teddy Boy and the emergence of Rockabilly music.

A photograph some very smart 1970’s Teddy Boys taken in Chelmsford, Essex, circa 1973/74 left to right: Tony Stutely, Maurice Stutely, Steve Barnes and Jerry Rock RIP.

As the 1960’s turned into the 1970’s there continued to be a genuine nationwide revival of the Teddy Boys, with some being the sons of the originals who had grown up with the style and the music.  However, the vast majority were simply teenagers who did not want to adopt the other styles that were popular at the time. Another reason was the increase in popularity of Rock ‘n’ Roll music and the emerging interest in Rockabilly music and as a result, a number of Rock n Roll Clubs opened up and their patronage swelled. This consequently fueled a big increase to the ranks of the Teddy Boys.

Although the resurgence in Rock n Roll music during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was initially focused at traditional Rock n Roll, Rockabilly music gradually became the music of the 1970’s Teds. In the 1950’s Rockabilly had been included as part of mainstream Rock n Roll with records like Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes and some of the early Elvis Presley Sun Records such as I Don’t Care if The Sun Don’t Shine and That’s Alright Mama.  However few people had ever heard of American artists such as Charlie Feathers, Mac Curtis and Sonny Burgess in Britain.  During the 1960’s, people like Breathless Dan Coffey had made visits over to the states and brought back these records back to Britain. As time went on Rockabilly music gained ground and the British label, Charley Records bought up many of the rights of these Rockabilly records and re-issued them to good effect.

Due to the resurgence of interest in the Teddy Boy style in the early 1970’s; the look was taken up by fashion designers, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren through their shop ‘Let it Rock’ on London’s Kings Road. They produced many “off the peg” Drapes for sale.  However this was to be short lived and as with all fashion designers, they soon moved on to other styles such as the Punk Rocker styles. Malcolm McLaren in fact went on to manage the Sex Pistols punk rocker band and therefore these people could never have gained acceptance within the Teddy Boy movement as clearly they were simply opportunists cashing in on a style and therefore have to be discounted as far as the evolvement of the Teddy Boys are concerned.  The Teddy Boys were then left with their traditional tailors who continued to produce their suits.  The 1970’s Teds had adopted many aspects of the 1950s style however with a large glam rock influence, including louder colours for drape jackets, brothel creepers and socks.

Fashion designers such as Katherine Hamnet started bringing out drape designs in lurex and this took a lot away from the original Teddy Boy style to make the wearing of such attire no different to stage wear. Yet another example of band wagon jumpers and an opportunist, who used the Teddy Boy style for commercial gain. There were tartan, yellow and orange fluorescent drapes which would never have been worn by the original Teddy Boys. Commercial Bands such as Mud, and Showaddywaddy in the Seventies had given such a bad and distorted image of the real Teddy Boys, that the general public interpreted these incorrect styles as being how Teddy boys should look. Actually a lot of Teds stopped going out to regular clubs because there were so many people dressed in such gaudy colours.

There were a few outlets who would produce off the peg Drapes such as Teds Corner at London Victoria, many of these suits and Jackets were made by East End tailor, Colin Taub now based at Hackney Mews and still a major Teddy Boy tailor to this day.  There were other outlets who would sell accessories such as drainpipe jeans, satin shirts, slim-jim ties, bootlace / bolo ties and buckled belts etc, an example being Lord Jim’s in Bradford’s Kirkgate Market.  They were also suppliers of footwear such as Industrial Trades Footwear in Thornton Road, Bradford who would sell George Cox Creepers and the friendly old Leo (originally from Peckham in South London) would always be happy to assist and give you a bit of discount and a spare pair of laces or a suede brush.  There were also ‘Castle Top’ Creepers which were sold in Stylo shoe shops during the 1970’s.  The 1970’s Teds were never short of gear!

As far as hairstyles were concerned, the 1970’s Teds would tend to use hair lacquer rather than the traditional Brylcreem.  They would also tend to train their hair into big quiffs and huge pompadour’s which could be better held in by the use of hair  lacquer as opposed to hair cream or grease.  Some Teds would use coconut oil as well.

Teds at Wembley in August 1972.

On Saturday 5th August 1972, the London Rock and Roll Show took place and was the first major Rock ‘n’ Roll concert held at Wembley Stadium in London, England in which Teddy Boys would gather together in large numbers. This was a landmark concert where the greats of Rock ‘n’ Roll could be heard in one concert for the first time in the UK.

The concert included performances by major performers including Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Bill Haley and His Comets. The concert ended with an extended performance by Chuck Berry, who at the time was enjoying major chart success in Britain and the US with his “My Ding-a-Ling”.

The concert was filmed and then released in 1973 as The London Rock and Roll Show, directed by Peter Clifton. Although no soundtrack release occurred at the time the film was made, one was finally issued in the early 2000s, followed by several different DVD releases with different combinations of performances.

The entire footage of the London Rock n Roll Show 1972

The most famous venue in London during the early 1970’s was the famous ‘Black Raven’ which was the main Central London Teddy Boy Pub in Bishopgate Street, London EC2. The Black Raven finally closed its doors on Saturday 16th August 1975, however the pub actually started to become a Teddy Boy haunt from about 1965/1966 onwards.

The Black Raven Pub, Bishopgate, London with Sunglasses Ron and Gang

“There weren’t any groups doing gigs at the Black Raven. It was far too small! Tongue Tied Danny and Roy Williams used to play records upstairs when Bob Acland let the Teds use an upstairs room.The pub got SO FULL that there was an overspill onto the pavement outside. Pretty soon upstairs was full and in its heyday Upstairs, Downstairs and outside was completely rockin’. It really was unbelievable by today’s standards. Somewhere SO SMALL giving SO MUCH enjoyment to SO MANY. It didn’t matter that there were no groups playing in the Raven – we had other places to go for that. What we HAD was a rockin jukebox, a rockin record hop, LOADS of mates, plenty of birds, plenty of booze, a really great time and probably the best cameraderie of any group of people I’ve ever met in my life. The Black Raven wasn’t much to look at……..BUT IT WAS OURS!” (quote from Ray Flight – a well known ex Black Raven regular).

Famous Photograph taken outside the ‘Black Raven’ Pub, 185-187 Bishopgate Street, London EC2 – the Black Raven was the main Central London Teddy Boy Pub 1966-1975 (featured p 18/19 in the Sunday Times Colour Supplement 27th September 1970.

One major event happened in the 1970’s which brought Teddy Boys to the fore nationally, was the ‘March to the BBC’ and this took place on Saturday 15th May 1976.

The band ‘Flying Saucers’ on the March to the BBC in London.

This involved thousands of Teddy Boys and Girls from all over the Country marching through Central London to the BBC studios in a national campaign for more Rock ‘n’ Roll to be played on the Radio.  The campaign was a total success and the BBC caved in and this resulted in Harrogate born Stuart Coleman who had helped organise the march and much to his suprise into delivering a weekly Rock n Roll Show on Radio 1 late on Saturday afternoons.

Teds gather at Hyde Park ready for the March to the BBC at Portland Place.

However, the events leading up to this March and subsequent epic concert recording at Picketts Lock began in the dark winter days of 1975. This started as an idea to gather Rock ‘n’ Roll fans from all over the country to join forces and march through the streets of London to BBC Broadcasting House, to demand more time on Radio for our kind of music: Original Rock ‘n’ Rol, seemed impossible, but after months of publicity, promotion, touring around and foot-slogging spreading the word, the great day arrived and there outside Hyde Park, London. This was an amazing sight seeing thousands of people (over 5000) nearly all Teddy Boys and Girls, all resplendent in their best gear, ready to march, and march they did! To the BBC where a 50.000 strong petition and a taped pilot Rock ‘n’ Roll show were handed in.

After the march, the day was far from over for all those fans who had made the journey to London. The climax of this unique day was the live Rock ‘n’ Roll show at Picketts Lock. For this major event, three of the top Rock ‘n’ Roll bands in the country were to play: Crazy Cavan ‘n’ the Rhythm Rockers, The Hellraisers and Flying Saucers.  An LP of the Picketts Lock Show was made entitled’Rock’n’ Roll is still Alive’.

Rock n Roll is Still Alive LP Cover.

The emphasis on Rockabilly music amongst the Teddy Boys during the period from the mid 1970’s through to today has been a major influence on the whole Rock ‘n’ Roll scene in general.  Although with the current interest into British Rock n Roll amongst the Teddy Boy scene, this has been somewhat overshadowed.

Boppin’ Bill’s Regimental Re-union (London Evening Standard) with left to right: Billy Johnson, Andy Tuppen, Sunglasses Ron Staples & Pete ‘Spot’ Lambert & Colin ‘Chip’ Chippendale outside Lyceum in London on October 15th 1975 following concert with the Hellraisers and Rock Island Line.

During the 1970’s, there were Teddy Boy groups in most main towns and cities throughout the country. This was a great period for the Teddy Boy movement and many new bands emerged notably Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers who greatly influenced by Rockabilly created the distinctive Crazy Rhythm sound and wrote their own songs such as Teddy Boy Boogie and Wildest Cat in Town. Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers became the Teddy Boy band of the 1970’s and 1980’s and have remained so till this day.  During the early 1970’s Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers were not initially accepted by the older second generation Teds. Dell Richardson (Radio Caroline – Good Rockin’ Tonight presenter) remembers when he ran the old 6-5 Club in Harrow during the early seventies, that when Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers were playing at the club, the older Teds would stand at the back and complain at the then new Crazy Rhythm style, preferring traditional Rock ‘n’ Roll.  Of course as time went on, these self same Teds would become avid fans of the band.

Crazy Cavan & the Rhythm Rockers  pictured wearing Drape Jackets during the early 1970’s have since their formation been the main Teddy Boy band and are still well acclaimed amongst Teddy Boys.

Other notable bands who emerged during the 1970’s who would play Rockabilly were the Flying Saucers and The Riot Rockers.

There was considerable friction between the younger Teds and other cults such as the Punk Rockers in the late 1970’s particularly in London and later with the Mods which re-emerged during the early 1980’s.

The Rockabilly spin off.

Due to the fact that Rockabilly music was from the Southern Sates of America, the Teddy Boys started to adopt the Confederate Flag as a symbol. Many people wrongly interpreted this as being racist, due to the Confederate Flag being standard of the Confederate States of America who had upheld slavery before and during its existence, 1861 – 1865. It was the fact that Rockabilly music came predominantly from the Southern States, that the Teddy Boys decided to adopt the Flag.

There was also a spin off movement with a number of Teds wearing Confederate caps and uniforms during the early 1970’s.  Notably a band called CSA wore Confederate uniforms on stage.

Eventually a breakaway movement that became known as ‘Rockabillies’ emerged. Initially, they were really Teddy Boys who wore checked shirts, jeans, boots and Donkey Jackets with Confederate flags on the back.  A number also wore cheese-cutter caps (as worn by Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps) as many were big Gene Vincent fans.

The photograph above shows a Rockabilly on the front cover of the LP that was published in 1978 by Charly Records entitled ‘Rockabilly Rules OK’. You can see that the hairstyle is combed into a quiff and DA, as worn by Teddy Boys, however the clothing is totally different as detailed as above. There are a number of reasons why this Rockabilly movement came about and separated itself from the Teddy Boys. First of all there were a number of young Teddy Boys who were subject to a certain amount of bullying from some of the older teds who tended to both regard them and call them ‘Plastic Teds’.  Secondly some of these younger Teddy Boys were targeted by other groups who were around at the time and got beaten up for what they wore, so they succumbed to peer pressure and wanted too wear something that brought less attention to them.  The image of the Rockabilly enabled these youngsters to maintain part of the image without drawing too much attention to themselves. A third reason was that, the cost of a full Drape suit was extremely costly to many young aspiring Teds. Also the image of American Rockabilly style fitted this image whereas the Teddy Boy was totally 100% British.

As time went on, this Rockabilly movement started to adopt different haircuts with Flat-tops starting to replace the quiff and DA.  Many would shave all their hair off around the sides and keep a crew cut on top.  This then started to bring about a totally different style away from the Teds.  Most of these Rockabillies however, continued to go into the same pubs as the Teds and go to the same Do’s.  There was commonality through the music – Rockabilly.  For instance most of the Teds were fans of  Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers and most of the Rockabillies were fans too.  For instance on the LP cover shown above, Rockabilly Rules OK, along with the original 1950’s Rockabilly tracks there are two Cavan tracks as well. Another point is that as the seventies progressed, Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers wore less in the way of Drapes on stage with many members of the group wearing checked shirts and jeans more in keeping with the Rockabilly movement.

Towards the end of the 1970’s another movement would emerge, the American style swing jive orientated ‘Hep Cats’.  These further depleted the numbers of Teds during the early 1980’s and there was some open conflict between this group and the Teds. The ‘Hep Cats’ will be covered further on in this History of the Teddy Boy Movement.

Despite all these other spin off movements and depletion in numbers during the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Teddy Boys have continued steadfast in their own self belief.

London and Leeds Teds meet up in Central London in 1983 for the Jerry Lee Lewis Concert at the Hammersmith Odeon. Pictured left to right: Spider Ken, Spot, Jimmy Coleman Adrian Clayton, Nidge, Geordie Bill, Unknown, Son with Martin Gravall (centre).

Rock n Roll / Teddy Boy Weekenders

In 1979 the first real Rock ‘n’ Roll Weekender took place at Caister near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.  The weekend saw some really big artists take to the stage such as Ray Campi, Matchbox, Freddy ‘Fingers’ Lee, Flying Saucers and Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers and Bill Haley, which was quite unique. The festival included all Rock ‘n’ Roll fans as well as Teddy Boys such as Rebels, Rockabillies, Rockers and Hep Cats and this took place with minimal trouble.

PHOTO:  Leeds Teddy Boys & Girls in a Challet at the first Caister Weekend in 1979. Rear row, left to right: Les Errin, Pete Ewart, Adrian Clayton, Maxine and Dave Johnson RIP. Front, left to right: Dave Williamson and Myles.

As the 1980’s progressed there were more successful Teddy Boy Weekenders, notably ‘Brean Sands’ near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Weymouth in Dorset.  Both Brean Sands and Weymouth were organised by the great Bristol Ted, Johnny Hale.  Brean Sands and Weymouth ran for a good few years during the mid to late 1980’s.  However, one major spin off of Brean Sands was the appearance of Bill Haley’s original Comets first UK appearance in 30 years. Later in the 1990’s there were more weekenders organised at both Weymouth, Skegness and Great Yarmouth.

Teds at Weymouth, Dorset in 1986.

Return to the Original pre 1955 Edwardian style 

Most people who had become Teddy Boys during the late sixties and nineteen seventies had absolutely no idea about the origins of the Teddy Boy movement or how it started.  If you asked the majority of people why they became Teddy Boys during the ‘Revival’, it would be because they liked the style, they liked Rock ‘n’ Roll music and they wanted to be different from all the other fashions around at the time.  In fact many Teds would have a far greater knowledge of Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rockabilly music than they ever would about the original styles of Drape Jackets worn in the early 1950’s for example.  Most Teds would go for the accepted roll collar and half-moon pocket style drapes in varying colours and varying contrasting velvet trim with bolo (incorrectly called Bootlace) ties by way of example.  Most Teds if you asked them would see absolutely nothing wrong with this, as this was the accepted norm and they actually knew of nothing else!  There were exceptions to the rule however and these exceptions would eventually start something in terms of change.

However, during the seventies and eighties due to the influence of the ‘Glam Image’ that had infiltrated the Teddy Boy scene, the original Teddy Boy style had become largely diluted and to a large degree, somewhat lost.

With the establishment of the Swing Jive American orientated ‘Hep Cats’ that had become established  during the late 1970’s, a number of British outlets had started buying up stocks of American 1950’s clothes and importing them in large quantities over into the U.K. These then became available for sale and many ‘Cats’ were then seen wearing original 1950’s Box Jackets and Peg Pants etc. Not all Hep Cats were wearing original clothing of course, and like the Teds, many had their clothes made and tailored after copying original American designs. Also a considerable number of former Teds had either become Rockabillies or Hep Cats which had led to a deletion in numbers of Teds during the early 1980’s. The reasons for those Teds changing their allegances have already been discussed previously in The Rockabilly spin off.

What a number of forward thinking Teds realised was, that these Hep Cats were wearing a more authentic style of clothing, albiet American, than were the current British Teddy Boys.  This then started to set off alarm bells in the mind of some of these Teds – how the hell can we allow these Hep Cats to outdo the British Teddy Boy in terms of authentic clothing, we need to do something about this!.

It was now time to do something about this problem. In the early 1980’s, it was felt amongst a number of Teddy Boys, that they needed to go and research their roots and return to the more authentic original styles of the 1950’s and that this was now far from overdue.  This was initially started by those Teddy Boys who were keen to return to the original more conservative Edwardian style of Teddy Boy dress and get away from the seventies Glam image.

The Eccles Connection with the Edwardian style 

As many Teds from the North West of England will remember, in 1972 the Midland Hotel in West Didsbury, Manchester opened up and became the main venue for Teddy Boys in South-East Lancashire and North-East Cheshire during the 1970’s. However, during the very early 1980’s the ‘Mid’ as everyone knew it, started to go into decline and eventually closed in late 1981, early 1982. As the ‘Heps Cats’ had started to increase in numbers during the late 1970’s early 1980’s, these had become residents at the ‘Mid’ along with the Teds. For ‘most of the time’ these two groups happily co-existed apart from one or two educational smacks that the Teds felt that they needed to administer!

When the ‘Mid’ closed in the early eighties, the Teds and Hep Cats went to the ‘Gorton Brook’ pub at Belle Vue in Manchester. However, many of the Teds felt that the new venue lacked atmosphere and this is when a number of the Teds started to go to a venue in the nearby town of Eccles.

As Teddy Boy author, Julian Lord (originally from Urmston) recalls: “After the ‘Mid’, my mate Jim Lelonik (better known as ‘Skinny Jim’) were lost as far as Ted venues were concerned and we made a conscious decision to go around in our drapes in Urmston, where we both lived as the ‘Gorton Brook’ in Belle Vue was definately not to our taste.  Eventually we found out about the Teds in nearby Eccles, and the next thing, we were straight accross the swing bridge over the Manchester Ship canal form Urmston into Eccles. From theron in, we went with our girls to Eccles and drunk, rocked and stopped over there every weekend .”

However, many Teddy Boys will not be aware that something quite dramatic was starting to happen in nearby Eccles at the begining of the 1980’s, which is not widely remembered or even known about.

This was the start of the reclaiming of the original pre 1955 Edwardian Teddy Boy style, which interestingly came about in 1981 in Eccles, Lancashire. This is a former textile town to the west of the City of Salford which ajoins Manchester to the east.  Eccles was an appropriate place for this to happen because the town had been established territory for Teddy Boys from the time when they first emerged in the early 1950’s. So to see Teddy Boys strutting their stuff in Eccles was nothing new and was in-keeping with the character of the town.  At that time during the seventies and early eighties, Eccles was a place that had changed little since the fifties and was an appropriate place for this to happen.  Eccles Teddy Boy, Ray Ferris was to be the first person to spearhead this move back to the original pre 1955 Teddy Boy style, after co-opting second generation Manchester Teddy Boy, Boppin’ Brian Spilsbury.

Three Eccles (Salford) Teds circa 1981/82 at Mill Brow, Salford where a big Teddy Boy fight took place in the late 1950’s. Teddy Boy, Bill Evans talks about this fight in the book, TEDDY BOYS A Concise History by Ray Ferris and Julian Lord. Bill Evans was actually in that fight. The three Teds sporting the pre 1955 style in the photograph are Dave Cotton RIP, Ray Ferris and Wayne Percival (aka Percy).

According to ‘Boppin Brian’ Spilsbury, it was in late 1981 / early 1982 that Ray Ferris and him had decided to go and research the true Edwardian style at the Manchester Central Library newspaper archives. This was the begining of the move back to the original pre 1955 Teddy Boy style and these Teddy Boys were actually at the forefront of re-discovering their Teddy Boy Roots.

Boppin Brian recalls: “All I know is that it was around 1981/82 that the change which we had being doing the research into started to take hold. .I remember, then young Teddy Boy, Paul Trainor looking like he had just stepped out of a 1954 photo in his dogtooth fingertip drape.”

Paul Trainor remembers: “The first time I saw a rock and roll band – the Renegades, playing at a pub in Ordsall, Salford. I didn’t know anybody there, but during the break, Bopping Brian and ‘Big’ Dave Machin came over and asked me if I was enjoying it. It’s so easy to ignore newcomers sat by themselves, but I will always remember what great ambassadors for rock and roll those two were. Later on that evening I got talking to Ray Ferris, who also made me equally welcome. I went round to his flat later that week and he let me borrow a shed-load of his records to tape. I also remember him telling me about the origins of Teds from the from the early, pre-rock and roll fifties and importantly, about the original Edwardian style of jacket which they wore. He also recommended a book which he had used for research – “The Insecure Offenders”. All this was new to me, so I remember it very well, it was January 1979. I first went to the tailor on Langworthy Road in early 1981 to get a pair of pants made, to match a jacket I already had, and soon went back for a full suit to be made. A lot of the styling was suggested by the tailor himself, Paul Mack, with input from me, but really I wouldn’t have known where to start without this early guidance from Ray Ferris.”

Urmston Teddy Boy, Julian Lord in 1983 wearing, his then, new all black drape, black half velvet collar, black velvet over left breast pocket. Ticket pockets were present on both sides of the drape to complement the straight flap hip pockets. Julian was wearing a much more authentic style of suit albiet with the seventies mix with Winklepickers shoes, which he eventually replaced. He also eventually lost the 1970’s sideburns!

As Julian Lord recalls: .

“It was actually Paul Trainor from Eccles (Salford) in 1981 who was the first Teddy Boy to actually start wearing the more authentic drape.  By 1982 most of the Eccles Teds were wearing a much more orthodox drape suit.  I could only afford one and in 1983 Ray Ferris and I designed my black Drape suit in a pub in Eccles that summer. We all used to get them made to measure at the tailors on Langworthy Road in Salford.  One other thing was that, we all had our hair cut and styled at Pritchard’s in Eccles who did a mean DA – we always called him Mr. Pritchard.  You could guarantee, that if you went over on a Saturday morning there would be a massive cue before you could get your hair done”

Julian Lord continues:

“Eccles in the early 1980’s was a massively secure Teddy Boy stronghold and fortress back then. We all used to go around the town with at least a dozen Teds and our girls, visiting every pub we could until we were ratted. Brilliant memories. At the time Teddy Boy, Frank Hibbet had the first pin stripe suit I ever saw, and it looked damn smart, although pin stripe in the 50’s was uncommon on Teds as it was regarded as an upper class thing then. I remember Ray Ferris in a brand new all light grey suit with turn ups on the trousers. I don’t think it had any velvet on it at all – that would have been in 1982 or 1983.”

The Farnborough Edwardians

Two members of the Farnborough ‘Edwardians’ – Danny Dawkins and Jerry Lunn pictured in 1988.

Notably, another group of then young Teddy Boys from the Farnborough and North Camp area of Hampshire – Paul Culshaw, Jerry Lunn, Richard Wooley and Frankie Calland started to adopt the original pre-1955 Edwardian style. The Farnborough group were also one of the first groups in the early 1980’s to reject the 1970’s glam rock image and adopt the original Edwardian pre 1955 Teddy Boy image to excellent effect.

As Jerry Lunn describes the pre-1955 Edwardian style in his book, A Thouroughly English Hoodlum, when he and Richard Wooley first came accross Paul Culshaw and Frankie Calland:

“There were a couple of others within the group, who stood out. They had longer, slicked back hair, and instead of the casual, summery type clothing worn by the rest, were wearing charcoal grey suits. Long cut jackets with matching, slightly loose fitting trousers, waistcoats and watch chains. Unlike the rest, they had no colour in their dress, and looked very sombre. Both wore highly polished plain black shoes, you couldn’t see the socks, as their trouser cuffs hung just on the top of the shoe. These two guys brought back that vision from so many years ago, yet they were somehow different. They still projected that same air of superiority and arrogance, they looked just as smart and tough as I remembered the Teds from years before looking, if not more so. But, there was something about this less flamboyant look that demanded more respect”.

Richard Woolley, Paul Culshaw, Simon Moon and Fiona somewhere in London portraying the original pre-1955 image.

According to Jerry Lunn, one of the main influences in adopting the authentic Edwardian style were pictures from old copies of Picture Post magazine, along with other similar press cuttings from the early to mid 50’s and the occasional correct image gleened from books with pictures of 1950’s Edwardians such as Colin Donellan and Alex Cruickshank.

Richard Wooley with Paul Culshaw and Fiona in the 1980’s sporting the authentic pre-1955 image.

Paul Culshaw however, as already stated, was really the first member of the group to adopt this early authentic style and he was influenced by photographs from Picture Post and the like, however  another of the old gang Steve Ferrin, had found photos of his dad, who had been a Teddy Boy back in the 50’s, and the pictures were of this earlier style.

The Edwardian Drape Society – T.E.D.S. 

Members of the Edwardian Drape Society with a young looking Ritchie Gee (stood right) with Dixie (stood) and Suzy (seated) Kieth Thorby (centre) in 1993. Other Teds unknown?

Whilst these other two notable groups in the early 1980’s mentioned above at Eccles and at Farnborough had made an impact in terms of the return to the original style, the Teddy Boy scene as a whole was starting to wane in the mid 1980’s and the numbers of Teds were starting to drop significantly. Some had got married and couldn’t afford to go out any more due to family commitments, a considerable number had joined the ranks of the Hep Catsand Rockabillies and some just simply became disillusioned and left the movement altogether.  This then only left a hard core of Teds to continue the movement and those left soon realised that the heady days of the seventies for the Teds were finally over.

However in the early 1990’s something was starting to stir in London just north of the River in Islington.  Two sisters, Dixie and Susie thought about getting the Teds, initially in the London area, into a unified group and improving their image. A meeting was then organised at the Empress of Russia pub in Islington and about 20 or so people turned up and a new Teddy Boy movement was born.

This group was known as ‘The Edwardian Drape Society’ or ‘T.E.D.S. for short, and had been formed with the objective of taking a co-ordinated approach at encouraging those Teds still around to start wearing a more authentic form of Teddy Boy clothing and to reclaim the original 1950’s Teddy Boy style.

Once The Edwardian Drape Society had been formed, it was soon spearheaded by Teddy Boy, Ritchie Gee (who became President) along with veteran Teddy Boy, Frank ‘Knuckles’ De Lacey (Vice President).  In 1993 a new Rock ‘n’ Roll club known as the ‘Tennessee Club’ was also started by Ritchie Gee at the White Hart pub on White Hart Lane in Tottenham, Middlesex (North London) and this then became the home of T.E.D.S.

Members of The Edwardian Drape Society, 1996.

Although credit must go to the pockets of Teds that started to reclaim the original style back in the early eighties mentioned above, T.E.D.S. brought the Teds together as one force and with the media interest in the group, managed to spread the word throughout the Teddy Boy scene and beyond. This is why this group were successful where the others were not in promoting a more original and authentic style of Teddy Boy clothing amongst the whole of the Teddy Boy Movement.

When T.E.D.S. started in the early 1990’s the original 1950’s Teddy Boy look was promoted in a big way and T.E.D.S. have been responsible for bringing about the more authentic style that most Teds now follow today. The Edwardian Drape Society have arguably along with other Teddy Boys, been responsible for holding the Teddy Boy movement together during the last 25 years.

In 1996, a brief 3min 45 sec Black and White film was made by photographer and film maker Bruce Weber entitled Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society.

The Tennessee Club had a number of venues over the years notably ‘The King’s Stables’ in Wood Green and finally it moved to the Trent Park Golf Club at Oakwood in North London and operated very successfully for a period with Ritchie Gee staging many big and sought after American Rock n Rollers. However the Tennessee Club finally closed its doors in the early 2000’s although T.E.D.S. has continued as an entity even if somewhat underground. T.E.D.S. has now largely achieved its objective and left a legacy, because if you look at most Teds these days, they are undoubtedly wearing a more authentic style of clothing that they ever were during the 1970’s.

Founders of The Edwardian Drape Society, sisters Susie and Dixie with Ritchie Gee and Teddy Boy Paul Keenaghan at The Tennessee Club 2nd venue, The Kings Stables at Wood Green, North London around 1998.

As a well known Teddy Boy from North London says:  It’s great what The Edwardian Drape Society set out to do back then in those days because this had a permanent lasting effect on putting our image right.”

Teddy Boy Promotor Ritchie Gee now runs the Wildest Cats in Town weekenders held at Pakefield, Lowestoft in both June/July and December of each year. Andy Munday now assists Ritchie and Frank and takes a lead role in the organisation of the Wildest Cats weekenders along with a number of other members the team.

Ritchie Gee, Andy Munday & Frank ‘Knukles’ De Lacey at the Wildest Cats in Town Weekender, Pakefield, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Most of the Teddy Boys around today are third generation Teds and the nineteen seventies was the period that they became active on the Teddy Boy scene. There are also a few second generation and fourth generation Teds and even a small number of new recruits from the current period. Due to the fact that many of these Teds are in their late forties, fifties and sixties, their style of dress has been toned down with the passing of years and is totally different to what many would have worn in the 1970’s.

In addition, there have been a number of other factors that have influenced the current more conservative and original style of Teddy Boy dress of wearing more somber colours and styles. The Edwardian Drape Society (already mentioned) set up during the early 1990’s had a major impact on reclaiming the original style by setting an original dress code standard. In fact at the time, Teds had to wait to be invited to join T.E.D.S. and this was largely as a result of their dress code. For instance those Teds who wanted to retain the seventies style of dress would not be invited to join.

Many Teddy Boys that have continued to maintain the 1970’s style of dress saw this as a form of dictatorship, by what they considered, as a group of elitest Teds who wanted to become the Teddy Boy Fashion Police. However, this was never the intention – the reason was to simply return the style of the Teddy Boy back to the pre Rock ‘n’ Roll – 1955 style of dress, which had become bastardised and become somewhat lost during the annals of time.

Members of The Edwardian Drape Society wearing predominantly Black Drape suits at The Tennessee Club’s 3rd and last venue at Oakwood North London around 2000.

When the majority of Teddy Boys had started to adopt this early 1950’s style in the from the mid to late 1990’s onwards, many started to have Black Drapes tailored and were accused of looking like Undertakers. However, as time has progressed and with more research, it is clear that early and mid fifties Teddy boys were wearing colours other than black such a bottle green, powder grey, brown, navy and mid-blue and checks. Many Teddy Boys are now wearing a range of colours and styles inkeeping with the early to mid fifties period.

Other Edwardian Teddy Boy Groups

The International Edwardian Teddy Boy Association

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Manchester Peacock Society 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The British Teddy Boy Movement Today

The Internet and the access of historical photographs and the interest in the roots of the British Teddy Boy, particularly the pre-1955 era (before the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Britain) has given the Teddy Boy Movement a knowledge that the rank and file of Teds never had previously.  This new found knowledge has given the ability for the Teds to rediscover themselves and where they came from and on top of that, the ability for many of us to recreate the look of the pre -1955 Teddy Boy – 59 years or more later.

As a result of these factors, many mainstream Teddy Boys in the UK have made the decision to return the original 1950’s style and image that the Edwardian style groups in the 1980’s were promoting and more so with the influence of  The Edwardian Drape Society during the 1990’s onwards. In general most Teddy Boys and Girls are now wearing a far more authentic form of 1950’s Edwardian Teddy Boy form of dress than they would have worn during the 1970’s.  However a number of Teddy boys still prefer to maintain the 1970’s image and of course as a unified movement, there is room for these Teds to take their rightful place within the Teddy Boy movement. Although the Teddy Boy has a certain way of dressing based on a common theme, there is no right or wrong dress code that dictates what style a Teddy Boy should be wearing, because at the end of it all the Teddy Boy is an individual and most ostensively – a Rebel!

Teddy Boys and Girls at the Manchester Evening News Photo Shoot, Saturday 6th April 2013.

Despite the variety of styles and differences in opinions within the Teddy Boy movement, one thing is for sure, the British Teddy Boy is likely to be around for a good few years to come and represents the first distinctive style that made teenagers in Britain stand out and be different from the rest. The Teddy Boy’s were the originators of a distinctive Youth Culture in Britain and the first rebels against conformity and conventional style. They have continued to maintain that reputation to this day, standing out from the rest of society – the British Teddy Boy really has become a British Cultural icon!

 © The Edwardian T

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Jack The Lad, A Skinhead Biography. Soho. By Symond lawes

SOHO

skinhead and skinhead girls piccadilly 1980, by gavin watson

Bev carver, Symond lawes, skinny jim, jayne and nigel buzby
Skinheads in Piccadilly London

Where the fuck is Soho¨? Jack said to Gav studying the tube map on the wall,

I am sure it’s in the west end¨

A bit to shy to ask adults, as Soho was known for sex shops and sleaze, not really the sort of place to encourage teenage kids to go hang around.

But where ever there was danger, there was always fun

The first time the lads had gone looking for Soho, they had studied the tube map looking for Soho station. But to no avail. Being street wise 14 year old skins, they didn’t want to have to ask a stranger and risk embarrassment, but just managed to find it by chance, wandering up through china town behind Leicester square, the shops changed from Chinese restaurants to small shops with the words ,Adult shop’ on the window. Handmade signs saying ´Model upstairs, above a shabby unpainted doorway, a bell hanging on the frame with exposed wires. Not really the place for a twiggy jack thought to himself. More like a model zeppelin he imagined.

Designed for ripping off rich Americans or drunks on a stag night, famous for sleazy shops and overpriced drinks in basement strip clubs. Porn cinemas and prostitution.

A few streets down, in Leicester square were the large theatres showing the Hollywood blockbusters, the caricature artists, painting pictures of ugly kids, whilst throngs of Japanese tourists photograph everything that moves, and most things that dont . The street buskers singing the same old Beatles and rolling stones songs to passing tourists. Well behaved London police officers playing the part of ´Bobby´, giving directions to the tourists, desperately trying to keep the image of nice London safe for the US Dollar and Japanese Yen. Smiling kids posing by red telephone boxes, in their plastic bowler hats.

But for the young skinheads it was a different world.

I´m bursting for a piss¨ jack announced to his mates, just gotta go to the loo¨

In the middle of Leicester square by the small garden there are some public lavatories. Walking down the steps the smell of disinfectant hits the nostrils mixed with the rancid smell of human waste. The tiled black and white chequered tiles, as you enter. The shiny polished copper pipes. Jack wondered to himself, who took so much pride in cleaning toilet water pipes. But any pride is a good thing he reckoned. All the lads piled down the steps to go for a pee.

But even in such a public functional place, there lurked danger.

Like rats, you are never far from a nonce in the west end, and like rats they scamper around looking to feed their hunger. A lot of runaways head for London. The bright lights, the romantic notion of a better life, the anonymity of the big city. Escaping some form of child abuse or unhappiness.

Like Ying and Yang, there is the Salvation Army and churches which are there to help and support. There is also the anti Christ waiting to feed.

When jack was 10 years old he had gone to the seaside, to Selsea Bill, on a very rare trip with his family.. Jack had been so excited, as lots of his mates had been there on family holidays, and had come to school telling stories of the sea and riding donkeys on the beach. Jacks town was about as far inland as possible in the UK, and it took hours to ever reach the ocean.

It was late autumn, and the place was almost deserted, a cold wind coming in off the sea. A closed fair ground and shuttered fish and chip shops, but any trip with his family was a great thing for jack and his sisters, and to see the ocean was almost magical.

Almost as soon as jack got out of his dads car, he needed the bathroom, his dad went crazy if his kids ever asked to stop for a toilet break on the journey, and the excitement of a glimpse of the sea, kept all the kids in anxious excitement anyway. His mum fed them boiled sweets for the journey, which was a lovely treat.

On the edge of the closed fair ground was a public WC. So jack headed straight for it, leaving his sisters and parents to wander along the promenade admiring the view, his sisters dashing down onto the beach to look for sea shells. The seagulls screaming overhead searching for washed up fish.

Jack was so excited to explore the seashore, he thought nothing as he ran into the toilet. Straight into a cubicle he slammed the door behind him, slipped the bolt across and took a seat on the toilet.

As he sat there, a piece of toilet paper flew under the gap beneath the door, and some footsteps walked away. Glancing down, jack noticed there was something handwritten on the piece of paper.

IF YOU WANT A WANK OPEN THE DOOR. The paper read.

Jack was absolutely frozen with fear.

Öh my god, he thought, what can I do, I have to open the door to escape, but if I open the door, then he will get me. He had only just about heard of the word ´wank´ . It’s something Pitwell often talked about, but jack was a lot more interested in collecting football cards and climbing trees for conkers, than anything vaguely sexual. But he realized he was in serious danger.

He understood the danger from his father’s tempers, he got at home, the canings and beatings from school teachers, even the bullies in the street of the council estate. But this was a whole new danger. Something that even scared adults. There were often rumours around the streets about strange men in red Austin mini cars. His mother always told him, never to speak to strangers. Kids talked about this danger, but never in detail, no one really knew who they were, or what they did to kids, when they kidnapped them.

What was he to do, he sat frozen, unable to breath, as it might let out a noise, holding his heart trying to hide the sound of the beating, he let out a slight uncontrollable murmour of fear. Where was he to go, he would have to open the door at some point. Perhaps his dad would come looking for him. But maybe not. Maybe this man will kick in the door. Thinking about it, he realized that as he had came into the building, there was a whole group of men in the toilet. Why were they all there? Were they all bursting to use the bathroom, as he was, maybe they would help him. But then a thought hit him. Maybe they are all together, maybe they are all kidnappers and perverts.

He slowly stood, pulling his belt tight. Raising his courage. Very slowly, he pulled the bolt on the lock, trying desperately not to make a scraping sound of metal on metal, mustering every bit of courage he could in an attempt to allow his escape. The door slowly opened. With every ounce of strength, every piece of energy, he ran. Not looking at anyone, not giving anyone a chance to grab him, he darted for the door to exit. Within a few seconds he was outside. He ran straight into a car parked outside, and as he looked into the window he saw the face of the devil. A thin old man in bottle glasses, with greased hair, staring at him. The look chilled his bones, as he ran for safety towards his sisters and parents. He could feel the eyes of the demon on his back, but he wasn’t going to look behind him.

Making the promenade, he saw his family down on the beach, his sisters bending over and searching the sand for shells, by the edge of the tide, jumping waves and running to escape them. His parents walking along further inland.

His anxiety dropped as he reached safety. Running down the otherwise deserted beach, his sister called him,

¨jack, look I’ve already found a shell fish, as she held it to her ear, listen you can hear the sea inside¨

Instantly he decided not to mention the toilet experience to anyone. His dad would only get angry, his mum wouldn´t know what to say. And it would at the very least, ruin the day for the whole family.

Instead he picked a flat stone up and threw it as hard as he could into the sea, trying to make it skim the surface of the sea. It went up twice then disappeared into a large white rimmed wave of the ocean. Jacks dog ´George ´chased the stone straight into the ocean, which filled jacks heart with joy. The dog had never seen the sea before, and had been howling on the entire journey from home.

´George had endless energy for chasing sticks, balls and anything you threw for him. He was jacks closest friend. One of the few kind things his dad ever did, was to save George from being killed by the vet. He had been bought as a German shepherd, but had not grown. He was just a mongrel, so the neighbour had taken him in the pub and asked if anyone wanted to save the young dog from its death sentence. He soon became one of the biggest personalities on the estate, being Jack, the paperboys dog.

Walking along the beach, the kids were all having the best fun ever. As usual feeling starving hungry, but otherwise loving it. Along the side of the ocean road were lots of shops, all looking tatty, selling rock and postcards and one large one with red flashing lights and music blasting out. It was an arcade filled with amusement and gambling machines. Oh how jack wished he had a few coins to go inside.

¨right that’s it we´re going home!¨ jacks dad barked

What, why? His mother asked quite shocked

¨Bloody Wogs¨ his dad barked with hatred in his eyes, staring at a group of black teenagers who were in the amusement arcade. ¨

So that was the end of the family holiday.

Leicester square was buzzing with crowds of people as the young teenage skinheads entered the toilets. Jack eyeing up the situation, looking for an empty cubical. Most people would be oblivious to the parasitic nonce. They don’t look very different to any man you could see on a Sunday watering his garden lawn, they don’t wear anything different than anyone else. They could be a school teacher or a bus driver, married to a fat wife with blow dried hair. But hidden behind that mask is the sexual deviant, who prey on young boys in public lavatories.

As Stuart entered the toilet, he went immediately to the standing urinal, undoing his jeans zip. Richard a bit further along. Jack was on watch, and sure enough, a man came running up beside Stuart from one of the wash basins. As Stuart was going about his personal business the man stood and looked down at Stuarts hands .

¨Stuart, there’s a fucking nonce next to you¨ jack screamed as loud as he could.

Stuart, bewildered, looked to his side, to see the man of about 45, wearing a sports jacket and backpack, looking at him, trying to get his kicks.

The pervert realizing very quickly he had been noticed ran for the door. This was jacks chance.

¨ let´s do the fucking scum¨ he cried to his mates.

Racing forward. He wanted this piece of scum before he could make the street outside.

Stuart and Richard joined in the chase, but were slightly to late, as the nonce made the crowds of Leicester Square. He went immediately into hiding behind the tourists. But Richard chased straight into the crowd, throwing a can of coke which had been discarded on the litter bin.

´clang´. It bounced off the side of the nonce’s head, sending its contents splashing over the pervert, and some other people in the crowd.

¨fucking nonce¨ Richard called after him.

¨Bloody Yobs ¨ a voice came from the crowd

Yes did you see what that thug did to that poor man?¨ came the sound of his wife

Bloody skinheads, where´s the police¨?, another startled onlooker called out¨.

Quickly coming to his senses jack realized they were in a volatile situation. The west end is crawling with police, and the skinheads would be the first arrested.

¨leave it he cried out to his mates, there´s old bill about ¨

Yes I hope they lock you away¨, came the voices

¨Aww bollocks to you fucking lot, what do you know¨. jack shouted into the crowd.

As the lads got together and mutually decided to leave the scene sharpish, running up the side of the theatre into Leicester place.

Bring back national service¨ came a comment as jack stuck up the V´s to the onlookers as the young skins made their escape into china town.

Another statistic for the newspaper reports

SKINHEAD THUGS ATTACK INNOCENT MAN IN LEICESTER SQUARE, WITNESSES REPORT.

Jack thought to himself as they trotted north into Soho. Sexual perversion and child molesting was a lesser crime than parking on a yellow line in the British court system. For the parking offence the driver immediately gains a fine. For the nonce the most he could expect was a few hours counseling if he ever made it to court.

The courts were full of nonce’s anyway, judges and barristers all had attended private schools and been buggered by rugby playing elder kids as part of the normal initiation. So they didn’t understand what crime had been committed. They would often go to whores in the back streets of kings cross to have their arses spanked by some sexually abused runaway and pay them money for the service.

Whilst Mrs. Judge was at home in Twickenham worrying about the colour of the curtains, as little Harriot and Bartholomew were away at school studying law and sociology in the hope of following their father into chambers, or failing that, getting a high paid job at the BBC, or in the media to write about the menace of the lower class thugs in British society.

Soho peep shows were always good for a laugh. The darkened hallways and the row of booths, a little like confession boxes in a catholic church. Only instead of getting father O´Reilly, when the flap opened after inserting 50p you got a naked girl sitting on a bar stall touching herself for the gratification of anyone with a few spare coins. Sometimes she would be so excited she would be sitting there reading a book, with her lily white skin, cellulite and stretch marks visible to anyone with a few spare coins.

Amongst the sex shops and porn cinemas, Soho was also a place for the drugs trade, it was not uncommon to see a few smack heads lying in the gutter, or spaced out in shop doorways, pallid white skin with blackened eyes. Pupils like pin dots. The living dead, covered in cysts and boils, from too many poisoned needles. Resorting to thieving or begging for any spare change, once the good looks had gone and there was no room left for them on the peep show stool, when the curb crawler kept driving, the nonce onto his next victim. The wheels of the sex industry, ploughing on through the harvest of human destruction.

Jack wondered why in this day and age with all the information out there, people would still take that first puff of opium. That first chase of the dragon. Was Sid Vicious or the rock stars of the 1960´s so cool as to want to follow them to a lonely end. Did they really believe that they were immune to addiction. Or was it just a death wish that would soon be granted, their bodies being found in cardboard city under waterloo bridge. another victim to the paupers grave.

Late night cafe, for a hot mug of tea, or a Spanish omelet. A place to escape the cold night air, or to wait for the morning trains to start. A few drunk clubbers, some musicians sitting for an after work coffee. Late night whores on a break. Old school gangsters wearing the immaculate fitted suites of a bye gone era, after spending too many years behind bars, cooped up in wormwood scrubs. Undercover vice squad with yellow fingers, from too long sitting on stake outs smoking players number 10. The proprietor watching over his flock of misfits.

On the wall are pictures of beautiful Spanish hillside villages, the sunsets over the Mediterranean, white painted buildings and tango dancers, all slightly faded and worn, a tea urn sitting on the edge of the surface, with a steady flow of steam escaping from the top rim.

Family photos of children in Sunday best clothing, posing with their mother and father, proudly hanging on the wall behind the service area. Jack wondered what brought this guy to London, the city of thieves. Maybe he had got on a boat to seek excitement of the most magical city on earth, His own business feeding the English people Spanish food. Sending regular letters home about the great business in London, hoping one day for his Spanish sweetheart to join him, or to one day return a rich man to the village he had come from.

Furniture from 1960´s square melamine tables with wooden chairs. A yellow glow from too much cigarette smoke and cooking fat, creating a warm homely atmosphere, the transistor radio playing wonderful world by Louis Armstrong.

A politeness and courtesy to the night owls of Soho. Two young skinheads feel welcomed as they take a seat, resting the tired feet from the constant walk around the streets of the west end.

Two overdressed and over made up girls stand, the smell of perfume hanging over them mixed with cigarette smoke. One wearing tight leather dress and leopard skin coat. The other in a bright red micro mini skirt short enough, it almost reveals her panties. Her boob tube squeezing the breath out of her chest, pushing her ample breasts to bursting point. Bright red lipstick and almost red blusher on her face.

¨see you later Luca, back to work¨ one says as she blows the proprietor a kiss walking out of the late night omelet café.

¨stay safe darling¨ replies the Spanish guy behind the counter

Jack and Gavin sit by the window sipping mugs of tea. Jack watching the Mercedes outside with the Arabic looking guy behind the wheel.

¨mind if we sit here?¨ a strong female northern Irish accent asks.

Yes sure you can¨ jack says, looking up to see two pretty punk girls standing smiling at him and Gavin. Jack offering a big smile to the girls as they take their seats.

¨god I could murder a cup of tea¨, one of the girls remarks as she looks at the menu written on the wall.

¨I think you have to go ask at the counter, Jack says, I’ll come with you, I need a refill, thinking it a good excuse to talk to the girl.

The proprietor , a thick set man in his mid 50´s with jet black hair and dark brown eyes, a few too many hairs sprouting from his nose and ears, wearing a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, an apron not hiding his petruding stomach very well, a tea towel laying over his shoulder.

¨how can I help you kids¨, he asks the couple as he places some clean plates on the shelf.

¨two cups of tea, please Mr.¨, the young punk girl asks

Holding the silver aluminium teapot under the water boiler, he pulls the handle and a high pitch hiss comes as the boiling water squirts into the open pot. Swirling it around in circles, he pours the thick brown tea,

¨And what about you son?¨ he says to jack without looking at him, preferring to concentrate on the boiling water.

¨I´ll have two teas as well please¨, he says placing his two cups on the surface.

Rejoining Gavin and the other girl, who had already struck up a conversation, the two friends placed the tea cups on the table and sat down opposite each other.

Where you two from¨? Gavin asks, my mum is from Ireland.

¨really, where from, asks the girl, we are from Belfast¨

Port Louth, by the prison¨ Gavin replies.

¨Wild place that, all the families from both sides go and live there, to be near the old man in jail, the girl says with a laugh, having their own private war¨.

Gavin continues ¨my mum hates it in Ireland, she has been here since she was about 18, got out as fast as she could, my uncles also moved to England, so we don’t really have any family there at all nowadays, I have never been there, but my uncle was a champion hurling player.´ Billy Dargan .

¨Oh that’s grand, I hope to move away from Ireland too, maybe we will stay in London, we just got here today, so we don’t know yet. London scares me.¨

Ha-ha jack laughed, you are scared of London, and you got the IRA blowing the fuck out of your town?

¨Oh it’s not as bad as that, don’t believe all the news reports, if you don’t get involved with it, they leave you alone¨.´ The IRA blew up the police station down my street once, but that’s about it¨. London is full of muggers.

¨Yes I guess so, Jack said, my brother was in the army over there, but he was stationed down in south Armagh, a place called Crossmaglen¨

¨Oh yes that’s called bandit country, they have shite going on across the border down there.¨

¨I´m Mary by the way, and this is Bridget, nice to meet you´.

¨My brother is a Belfast skinhead, but he´s over here now, living in Kilburn, do you know him, he´s called Mickey Doyle¨.

¨No can’t say I do know him, there’s a lot of skinheads in London´, but might have met him at some time or other,¨ Jack replied.

So what brought you to London, you just visiting your brother and shopping¨?

Well , something like that. Bridget here thinks she is in the family way, so we had to come over here, you know how it is being catholic in Ireland, she is going to the family planning clinic tomorrow, her ex boyfriend doesn’t want to know, he´s a waste of space, the feckin ejit¨.

¨Oh well I am sure you will be ok in London, there´s more Irish here than in Ireland.

Is that a fact, I was a bit worried we might get a hard time here, because of all the political shite.

¨No, like you say, don’t believe the media, our estate has loads of Irish, I don’t think the average Englishman blames all Irish for a few fucking scumbags, Gavin said, when my mum came over in the 50´s there was a bit of ignorance to the Irish, they used to have signs up in lodging houses, saying no dogs or Irish, but that’s ancient history.

So what brought your brother here, work¨? Asked jack.

Ha-ha, our brother, she said with a big smile. Biggest fool of them all, wherever there is trouble , our brother won’t be far away, he decided one night to steal a car, to get home from the pub, him and a few ejit mates of his.

The next day we get a visit from the ´Boys´, they tell our brother he has one hour to leave Ireland, turns out the car belonged to them. Luckily for him our Dar knows a few people, so managed to sweet talk them into agreeing not to take my brothers knees, if he left, and my father paid for the repairs to the car.

Silly fool, he parks the car a few streets away, thinking no one would notice, the local skinheads, in their big boots and no brains. You can´t blow your nose in my street without all the neighbours knowing how many tissues you use¨. ´

´so of course the Provo’s were round the house before breakfast, knocking me Ole Fella out of bed in his Y fronts

Hahahaha, so he moved to safe London, full of muggers, hahahaha, Jack said with sarcasm.

Yes, something like that, she said, he has to send me father money every week. He got a solid leathering from me Dars belt, to send him on his way. ¨she said, as all the four new friends laughed together.

A man came into the café, immaculately dressed in a sharp 3 button Italian suite, with a full length Crombie style overcoat draped over his shoulders, a pair of smooth’s, so shiny you could see your face in them.

¨hey Peter! The man behind the counter called out, in a very pronounced Spanish English accent, a huge smile across his face and an outstretched hand. The two guys hug, and the proprietor kisses the man on the cheek.

¨how’s the lovely clean air of free London my friend,

¨just great Luca, but the air is not so clean these days, with all these cars about¨.

¨what you want my friend? anything you like on the house, my home is your home¨ he continues

With that, the two old friends went into conversation about old times, dropping the volume levels gradually to a quiet talk.

Jack watched them as they spoke, imaging the stories those two guys could tell. Men from a different era, The jazz clubs of Soho, the swinging 60´s of the Mods . And The London underworld. Judging by Peters clothing, the way he held himself, with confidence, and the fact he wore a deep scar down the side of his face. Not a Chelsea smile, but a sign of an old street fight and a cut throat razor.

¨jack stop staring, Gavin’s voice broke through jacks thoughts¨.

¨Ur ur yes, shit, jack stuttered realizing he had been eyeballing someone who could take it seriously the wrong way, and returned his attention back to the girls.

¨so how’s the punk scene in Ireland¨ jack asked Bridget.

¨Yes pretty good, I like the English bands more. I love Sousxie and the Banshees, X-ray Specs¨ she said.

Yes they are good bands answered jack, but I love Stiff Little fingers and the Undertones¨.

¨Yes they are good an all, but all the best music, comes from London, you have so much here, most of the Belfast punks have turned skinhead now, they all love madness and the specials¨.

The conversation carried on about the punk and skinhead scenes in London and Ireland. As peter the sharp dressed guy crossed the room towards three other older guys of similar age who were sitting in the corner. As he passed the young skinheads table he smiled.

¨Tut tut, what’s this town coming too, he said, bloody skinheads

Hey Luca you don’t want these trouble makers in here, he called over to the proprietor, who was in the process of washing some blue and white striped mugs.

¨Get them all a hot drink on me, he said with a wink and a smile, as he took his seat with the other three guys.

Jack gave a shy thank you smile, in recognition of the generosity shown by the charismatic stranger, the 4 fresh cups of tea arriving soon afterwards to the table.

¨see London’s, not so bad¨ jack said to the Irish girls, who seemed enthralled by this new city.

Gavin pulled out his camera and took a few shots of the girls, which sparked conversation.

¨ I wanted to go to college to study photography , remarked Mary¨. But I couldn´t afford it, I had to get a job, so I ended up working in Woolworths, but at least it was in the photographic processing department ha-ha¨ she laughed.

¨ I never studied a thing, Gavin said, just got hold of a camera off my old man and started taking pictures.

Gavin often used his camera for opening doors, got him free into gigs as well as a good tool for chatting up women.

¨Great fun printing the pictures in the bathroom, as well, interjected jack, then turned his attention back to Bridget and the conversation of music. Jack loved punk music, and also liked punk girls, as they tended to be feminine and wore more revealing clothes than the skinhead girls.

Bridget was a small framed girl, her hair dyed black, with bright green Irish eyes. She was wearing tight fitting black jeans, destroy shirt which was torn across the chest to reveal a slight cleavage and black bra. Her leather biker jacket with love hearts and anarchy sign painted on the lapel in Tipex, with a few band pin badges, one saying Belfast punks, Sousxie and the banshees badges., alternative Ulster, oh bondage up yours, Her skin was crystal clear with a natural beauty. A soft gentleness about her. Small petite hands with manicured nails painted black, with a few silver rings, silver bracelets and pieces of material tied around her wrists.

¨Fancy going for a walk¨? Jack offered the girls

¨Yes sure, why not, can we go see Trafalgar square¨? Asked Bridget.

¨ I thought you said you´d been sightseeing today¨?

¨well we have, but London´s massive, we seen all the shops in Oxford street and Covent Garden¨ laughed Mary.

Yes bet you did¨, jack said with a raised eyebrow and frown, thanking god he wasn’t mugged into that sightseeing trip.

Taking the last mouthful of tea, jack stood and slipped on his prized Crombie, doing up the three buttons, adjusting the red handkerchief in the top pocket and brushing it off with his hand, he walked towards peter, the sharp dressed guy, but as he did he noticed the guys all stopped talking, on his approach. Jack sensing not to step to close, stopped and just nodded at peter.

¨thanks for the tea mate¨!

Peter rose his eyebrows. Don’t mention it , enjoy your girls. A short pause as jack turned away,

¨Keep your nose clean son,¨ Peter chipped in,

As jack walked away, ¨ if you can’t keep it clean, don’t get caught! ¨

Walking through Soho at night was a different experience than during the daytime. Gone were the shoppers and city workers, the black cabs and motorcycles couriers. Replaced by drunken clubbers wearing this week’s trendy clothes, staggering about looking for a kebab to wash down the alcohol, homeless sleeping in shop doorways, sheltering from the wind and rain, the scruffy dog sleeping at his feet, dirty clothing and one bag to hold the worldly possessions, making a bed on piss a stained pavement.

Piles of rubbish waiting collection from the council workers dustcart leaning against lamp posts.

Red lights flickering in upstairs windows above closed video shops.

¨If the Nuns could see me now, Bridget laughed, as she read the posters pinned to the porn cinema windows. Debbie does Dallas ¨she said as she tucked her hand around Jacks arm

Gavin and Mary were walking in front, probably discussing the meaning of life, knowing Gavin, he was always deep in thought about astrology, karma, from the latest hippy book he had read about metaphysics.

Through the streets of Soho the gay rent boys at old Compton street, the Chinese restaurants of china town surrounding Gerard street, on the edge of Soho, bordering Leicester Square and theatre land. Who knows where they all come from, rumours of human trafficking, stuffing people in container s on ships and backs of trucks, all the way from small villages in China, to work the restaurants and sweat shops of London and Europe. Controlled by the Chinese Triad gangs of Hong Kong. But no one really knows, they don’t mix with English people, live a parallel life within the city. But they don’t cause any public concerns. There are never stories of Chinese muggers or street riots, so they go un noticed, so long as the Peking duck stays cheap and tasty.

Maybe due to Bruce Lee movies nobody fucks around with the Chinese, as British kids are well aware that every Chinese person is a trained killer, who can take the biggest man down with one flying kick or karate chop.

Old Compton Street looks like any other West End Street, but Jack felt glad to have Bridget on his arm as they walked along. This strange group of bikers standing around, dressed in too much leather, with no obvious signs of motorbikes about, and even less females for comfort.

Jack felt eyes on him, as he walked, but kept his eyes on the path in front, his conversation with Bridget, perhaps subconsciously pulling her a bit closer to him, as he passed along the road. Bridget seemed unaware of anything odd about these people.

Reaching Charring Cross road unscathed, jack felt a sigh of relief. Relaxing slightly.

¨they give me the creeps¨, he said to Bridget, who was busy chatting about something , which had become a blur to jack, his mind was otherwise engaged.

¨who do, the Buzzcocks? ¨ Bridget answered, a bit confused.

¨No, said Jack, Fucking Queers¨

¨Are the Buzzcocks Gay?¨ She said

¨No, I don’t think so, said jack, but all those Poofs in Compton Street are¨

¨Who…. Those bikers¨? She remarked, looking back over her shoulder, I thought it was a hells angels club or something¨

¨Yes but with a few too many moustaches for my liking¨, laughed Jack

¨Aww leave them, they do no harm¨, She said tugging on Jacks arm

¨Idon’t want to know the harm they do to each others arses¨, Jack joked back

¨Urrr you´re disgusting, she said, screwing up her face.

She giggled a little and rested her head on jacks shoulder, as they walked, jack was worried slightly that her makeup would smudge onto his prized coat, but thought he wouldn´t mention it, he was quite enjoying the feminine touches coming from Bridget. He wasn’t sure if he was on a result here with the girl. Was she putting out inviting body language, or was it was just her friendly Irish nature.

Walking down Charring Cross Road, jack was giving Bridget a bit of a history lesson.

¨Denmark Street, they call Tin pan alley, because of all the musical instrument shops. The sex pistols used to rehearse in an upstairs room above a shop there, McLaren paid them 25 quid a week, before they made it big.

And that’s the National portrait gallery, where they have all the old biscuit tin classics, Constable, or whatever his name is, you´d know his paintings, countryside stuff, with horses and carts etc. the Heywayne or something like that.

That church is St Martin’s in the fields, weird to think this was all fields, once upon a time. The actual city of London, is only one square mile, and was once walled, its where the tower of London is and all the banks. It used to have gates likes Bishops gate etc.

They got a doss house now at St Martin’s for all the homeless, and a lot of those big buildings are embassies, like Canada and south Africa. And there is Trafalgar square, jack announced as Nelsons Column came into view.

¨You know a lot about this stuff Jack, I am very impressed, the perfect English gentleman tourist guide, did they teach you this at school?¨ Bridget asked.

HAHA jack laughed, they teach us fuck all, apart from how to bend over for a whack on the arse from a wooden cane. And especially nothing about British history, its politically incorrect. We have the industrial revolution, all about the toll puddle martyrs and who gives a toss who invented the fucking safety lamp. They teach us nothing about our culture or political history. I just like it, my ancestors were undertakers in Drury Lane, which is just up the road there, at the time the first white settlers were discovering America ¨.

♪have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man♪ Bridget began to sing.

¨Maybe you are the muffin man Jack hehehe¨ she giggled.

♪yes I know the muffin man the muffin man♪ she teased and kissed jack on the side of his cheek.

¨My family have always been Boggies, Bridget laughed, don’t think we ever had anyone as grand as the muffin man. I think a lot left during the famine, to England and America, and ever since then we have tended to leave Ireland, I don’t want to go back, there´s nothing there, in the North with all the guns, bombs, army and police everywhere, it’s no place to bring up children¨ she said with a sad sort of sigh, her mind drifting back to home for a short moment.

¨What about the south¨? Jack asked

¨Never live there, it’s all farmers and cows¨ she said, you don’t get much Rock n Roll in Cork¨. She laughed out loud to herself, putting on some sort of accent, as if laughing at people from Cork.

¨So you gonna be a born again cockney girl now then¨. Jack asked

¨yes something like that, I will start my own band and become the next Souxsie Sue¨

¨Irish Irene and the screaming Fenians¨ Jack suggested

¨sounds great, where the Albert Hall¨ she laughed.

♪ I came a long way from Tipperary, to the streets of London Town♪ jack began singing to make up a song

♪ Where I met a crazy English clown ♪ she sang

Up ahead Gavin and Mary had stopped and were talking to a guy in the street, who looked like another skinhead.

¨seen any skinheads knocking about?¨he asked

¨No not since earlier on¨ Gav replied.

¨You got any fags?, I’m gasping. He asked.

¨no mate sorry, jack answered, we don’t smoke¨

¨I got some rollies, Bridget piped in, as she opened her satchel which was covered in writing from a marker pen, and decorated with pin badges of mainly British punk bands, anarchy symbols and a CND patch.

Searching through her makeup and other things, girls carry around in bags, she pulled out a packet of Golden Virginia.

The guy looked a bit worse for wear, as Bridget handed him the tobacco, jack noticed his hands were black and bruised, visible sores across his knuckles, covered in dry blood, covering the Indian ink tattoos, blood was also all over his green flight jacket. Jack didn’t really want to ask him, what had happened to him.

¨That’s great.¨ He said raising a smile across his face, taking the tobacco and searching for some papers inside.

He stuck a paper to his lip and hissed a little, as he touched a cut , putting his fingers in the pouch to get a few strands of tobacco.

¨that’s looks a bit painful¨ Bridget said, as she curled her eyebrows.

¨ Oh its nothing, I just got out the cells, the old bill gave me a right good hiding. Look, he said as he poked out his tongue, to reveal that is was torn almost in two, from left to right.

Shissssshh, Bridget let out a sound, as she peered at him, touching the side of his face gently. Jack and the rest of the guys also stared in horror.

¨fucking old bill punched me in the face and I bit into my tongue¨.

It looked horrifically painful, jack thought almost cringing, as he felt his own tongue in his mouth, imaging the pain this guy must be feeling.

¨Oh you poor love¨, Bridget continued, as she looked at his mouth, in a caring almost motherly way, as if speaking to a young child who had just fallen off of his bicycle.

¨Why did they do that¨? she asked,

¨I got in a row with some Gooners up at Finsbury Park, and the fuckers nicked me, gave me a right pasting in the cells, but at least they didn’t charge me¨: he said with half a smile.

Jack noticed the skinhead was wearing a London Yids badge and a Tottenham Cockerel. Arch rivals to North London team Arsenal FC.

The guy handed back the tobacco to Bridget, but she held her palm up, and pushed his hand away.

¨No you keep it dear, it looks like you need it more than me, you have had a bad day, she said with a caring soft voice and smile.

¨oh if you insist, the guy returned, quickly pushing the Golden Virginia into his jacket pocket before Bridget changed her mind.

He then tapped his jeans and jacket, whilst holding the unlit cigarette in his mouth.

¨Got a light?¨ he asked from the corner of his mouth, with a raised eyebrow and a little boys cheeky grin, feeling really happy, with the generosity shown to him by Bridget.

¨Here you are, now go on with ya¨. Bridget passed a disposable lighter, closing his hand around it, with her hand.

¨You´re a sweetheart ¨. He said giving Bridget a hug, and a kiss on her cheek.

¨Hope you don’t mind mate. He said to Jack, you got a cracking bird there, make sure you look after her¨.

Bridget giggled slightly and looked at Jack for a split second, which in turn he felt a blush sweep across his cheeks

¨Have a great night¨! He said as the flame lit the end of his cigarette, allowing him to inhale a large lung full of relaxing tobacco smoke.

He took Jacks hand and shook it, and with that, walked into the London night, with a slight stride in his walk.

¨what’s a Gooner¨? Bridget asked Jack as they began to walk.

¨ An Arsenal football hooligan, Gooner is the name for Gunners firm. That guy was a Yid, which is Tottenham Hotspur, they are the big north London rivals, a bit like West Ham and Millwall in East and South London.

¨ha ha, you boys all want to be hero´s, always have to have something to fight about, thought you had a bit more education here, you are as bad as the lads back home¨.

¨Don´t look at me, I’m a nice boy¨. Jack said, giving his most angelic smile possible.

Bridget smiled, like a teacher does, not believing a word.

¨Besides, I come from High Wycombe, we got a shit team, made up of butchers and bakers.¨

¨and candlestick makers¨. Bridget added, giggling to herself.

¨ha ha you know the team then Bridge¨?

Jack paused to let the joke have some time.

¨No I never really been a big football fan, I think my dad put me off it, coming in pissed on a Sunday afternoon and turning the movie off we had all been watching, for the start of match of the day. I am much more into music and having fun. All that running about and millions of hours talking about 90 minutes of pretty boys kicking a bag of wind around, then getting in the bath together afterwards, doesn’t do it for me¨.

¨hahahaha you are funny Jack, she said. My sort of boy¨.

Trafalgar square was empty, just a few people standing on the road above the Square waiting for a night bus, and one guy in the far corner sweeping up discarded litter..

The four teenagers just messing about. Gavin leaned against the big grey stone held his hands together and gave the girls a bunk up onto the surface surrounding Nelson.

Jack jumped up himself, and immediately climbed onto one of the four brass lions, which sat at Nelsons column´s base.

¨pull me up jack¨. Asked Bridget, as she desperately tried to be the tom boy and join jack on the climb.

Jack leaned over and took her hands, pulling her up to join him. The both sat astride the lion, as if riding him, jack felt the closeness of Bridget against his body and smelled her perfume and the beautiful fragrance of female, as she looked out over London.

¨That’s Whitehall down there, where Maggie and the Government do their stuff. At the End is Big Ben, I think you can see that from here. And the next street over there is The Mall. We can go visit Lizzie if you like¨.

¨Who´s Lizzie¨? Asked Bridget.

¨You know, Lizzie, The Queen, Elizabeth¨! Jack Explained

¨Oww got ya, Bridget said, as she got the joke, Yes lets go see the Queen at Buckingham Palace, do you think she will make us some tea?¨

¨I am sure she will, we can tell her some loyal subjects are over from Ireland, maybe we will get some Digestives, or scones¨. Jack added.

¨I want to meet the Corgi’s, I love dogs¨, Bridget said as she slid down off the Lion.

Walking down through Admiralty Arch into the Mall, the sight of thousands of parades over the last few hundred years.

Jack was giving Bridget the tourist guide, all about how the Royal Navy was controlled from here, and the Horse guards which did all the ceremonial stuff for the tourists. Reading a few plaques, under military statues. From days gone by, when the British establishment, honoured its fallen heroes, killed on a far way field. During the time Britain was building her Empire.

Jack felt a sense of pride, as he walked down the Mall, admiring the palace buildings. The architecture. The flag poles lining all the way down the road, one of the few places in Britain they still flew the union jack on occasions. The guardsmen outside the palaces, in their immaculate red tunics and bearskin hats, were just there to collect the tourist dollar. But as an Englishman Jack still felt a pride in his heart, and yearned to be part of a Britain which travelled the Earth, spreading education, designing and building railway systems and hospitals. Trading with tribes, in distant nations. Discovering amazing new breeds of animals and forests. Being feared and respected by all the other World powers, bashing the French and Spanish for Gold in the process.

But this was 1981, what future was there for today’s youth, what did this country hold for him. Unemployment and maybe a council flat if there are any left. Some shit job in a factory or supermarket.

¨ It’s a bit dark and quiet down here Jack, are you sure we will be ok¨?

¨ Yes, this is tourist central, you won’t get any problems here¨ Jack answered,

The two walking arm in arm down the road. Jack felt good. It was really lucky to meet Bridget in the café, she seemed a really nice girl. Jack was wondering how he could see her again, and was hoping she decided to stay in London. Maybe she would come visit Wycombe some time. Was he going to get a kiss at some point tonight, he was wishing.

The City was quiet, just the odd car passing along the Mall, it’s not a bus or truck route, and there were no other pedestrians.

The pair were just wandering along casually, enjoying the evening, when behind him jack felt the thump of running feet. Looking over his shoulder, he saw somebody in the distance coming towards him. Not sure who it was or quite what to do, Jack immediately thought it best to keep Bridget calm. His natural male protectiveness coming to the fore.

He carried on chatting, but was concentrating on the feet, bracing himself for some sort of confrontation. Gavin was up ahead. Jack wondered if he had noticed yet, but didn’t want to raise the alarm, because he didn’t want to frighten Bridget, but she had noticed, jack felt her pull a bit tighter on his arm. Maybe she was also thinking about not to panic.

Speeding up his step slightly to close the gap between himself and Gavin, bracing himself as the footsteps got nearer

Jack was on high alert, his muscles tightening, but he didn’t want to look at the person running, hoping he would keep on going. He pulled his hands out of his pockets, clenched fists.

The guy passed him, overtook Gavin, then in front he stopped the run, and went into a slow pace.

He was a young black guy.

Gavin had noticed and looked back to Jack, to see where his backup was. Jack was thinking the same thing.

Something made jack look over his own shoulder, maybe for an escape route, but to his major alarm he saw a big mob running towards him.

Shit! He thought, this is going to be a proper row.

This was definitely getting more serious by the minute. The guy in front was holding them pinned in, as the rest of the mob caught up. Jack stood his ground and turned. He was used to street fighting, and knew Gavin would be thinking the same thing. He weighed his options up in his mind.

Fight or flight. Well he wasn’t going to run for several reasons, mainly that Bridget would slow him down, and if he did run he would almost certainly take a beating, or his friends would. He had learned that its always best to front out a situation, however much it goes against nature.

Bridget had stopped talking, she must have noticed the impending situation. Jacks stress levels were rising, the adrenalin and rushing of blood to the head. His sensing becoming hyper aware, as all the sounds disappeared. Jack focused

In a situation like this jack always applied the same rule, just go for the biggest one, take out the leader, in a firm, you will have the fighters and the followers. If you are going to take a beating then at least inflict as much damage into one of them as you can. Get hold of him. Bite him, punch and gauge his eyes out, but whatever you do, but don’t let go. If they are going to kick the shit out of you, then use their guy as your shield keep your face and body as close to him as you can and cause him maximum damage, the more vicious you are, the less you should get hurt. Most attacks will be over in a few minutes, so just hold on. Unless they have a blade, you should only end up with a few cuts and bruises. But long gone were the days when Jack would let anyone rob him, without a fucking good fight.

The mob approached, but as they neared it became apparent that they weren’t looking at jack. They divided and ran either side, as if Jack were a lamppost. He didn’t feel any punches, and kicks, were they going to attack Gavin first?

A thought struck him. These were white guys, and not the black mob Jack was expecting. Who were they?

They all ran past Gavin, then like a pack of wild dogs tore into the lone black guy.

The game had changed, but both jack and Gavin were pumped and ready to fight. But instead of defensive, it turned to offensive. Without a word Jack and Gavin charged towards the mob to defend the lone victim. Gavin grabbed one by the shoulder, spinning him around as Jack sprinted in, his fist raised, lining it up for the first jaw to smash.

The guy raised his hand up from his jacket pocket, he was holding something.

Pointing it directly at Jack came the words

¨Old Bill, Fuck Off¨!!

Like a sportsman’s getting the whistle, Jack just sort of froze mid flight, as reality hit him. Maybe with a little help from Bridget who grabbed his coat tail.

¨NOOOOOO, JAAAAAACKKK¨

Perhaps it was the girls company or location, but for whatever reason. The police didn’t react to the Skinheads, but put their attention back to the black guy, who by now was spread eagled on the pavement, Two undercover policemen holding him down, knees pushed into his back, as they pulled his hands behind him, clipping the handcuffs on him. Cursing and swearing at him, as another stood over him, speaking into a radio.

The four teenagers were all silent as they walked for a few minutes, past the dramatic scene.

¨We should be getting back. Was the first words Bridget spoke, as she hung onto Mary. I don’t feel safe, let’s get back to the room Mary¨:

Another night ruined by the fucking Police. Jack thought, scratching an imaginary ACAB tattoo into his knuckles, as the two girls said their farewells, never to be seen again.

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Ben Sherman 1963 -2012 RIP

Ben Sherman is Dead

June 11, 2012

The iconic British clothing brand is officially dead to many loyal fans.

Founded in 1963 by Arthur Benjamin Sugarman, Ben Sherman was an originator of the mod look and a legendary lifestyle brand that became an international sensation for impeccably tailored shirts and suits.

Ben Sherman was murdered by a new corporate structure that didn’t stay true to its roots and completely disregarded his loyal following. While trying to boost sales and increase market share by appealing to a broader audience, Ben Sherman’s new marketing tactics led to his ultimate demise.

His health started to fail when the women’s line was discontinued and subsequently restyled shirts, clothing and accessories were introduced without any trace of Ben’s original clean-cut, mod identity.   The final nail in the coffin was the “Plectrum Sessions” – featuring un-kept, unfashionable hippie and hipster bands- exactly the opposite of his original style.

He is survived by betrayed loyal fans worldwide, especially mods and skinheads who will miss the classic, clean-cut styles that have been replaced by fickle hippie and hipster fads.  Restoration of the lifestyle brand seems hopeless.  Based in London, UK; Ben Sherman was 49 years old.

Chelsea Hawkins

IT’S A MOD, MOD WORLD

 London Mods 1960’s

Pan Philippou, CEO of Ben Sherman, reflects on the company’s heritage and plans for a brilliant future.

By Randi Gollin

How does an iconic brand get its groove back? That was one of the key conundrums facing mover and shaker Pan Philippou when he took the reins as CEO of Ben Sherman in January 2010.  A British company with staying power Ben Sherman was founded in 1963 by Arthur Benjamin Sugarman, a shirtmaker who seized the mod moment and ran with it, creating London-look button-downs that struck a chord with bands like The Who , The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, becoming a vibrant emblem of youth culture. “It was post-war — you think of the revolution, The Beatles, all that. And this brand comes around,” says Philippou during a recent interview at the company’s midtown Manhattan showroom. “He took the shirt to another level. The button-down collar, the button at the back, all the colors, the fabrications, and people were just used to wearing white shirts. Now they were wearing colored shirts. It was a bit of the anti of the shirt in many respects,” he says.  (It might be said that Philippou, too, takes the radical approach, dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans rather a Ben Sherman button-down.)

“I was born in the ’60s,” he continues. “I remember, if you had a Ben Sherman, in the ’70s, you were like the crème de la crème — if you had a Ben Sherman, certainly you’d get a bird.”

Over the decades, Ben Sherman continued to outfit musicians like The Clash, The Jam, Blur, Oasis and Moby and it also captured the hip peacock’s fancy with its kaleidoscope of eye-catching hues and patterns. “There are stories around Ben Sherman, there’s sincerity, there’s heritage,” he explains. But as this pioneering label, which turns 50 years old in 2013, expanded its reach into women’s clothing and beyond, it also morphed into a business with an unwieldy number of categories and licensees and its vision got, well, a tad murky.  The name, Philippou notes, seemed to carry more weight than the goods bearing its label.



Plectrum Collection

Approachable, funny and candid, with impressive business chops to boot, this Londoner knows a thing or two about redefining a brand and maximizing its potential. Prior to joining Ben Sherman, Philippou headed up the privately held World Design & Trade Co. for four years, where he restructured the prominent UK streetwear brands Firetrap, Full Circle and Sonnetti. His gig before that: leading the charge at Diesel, from 1995 to 2007, where he started as finance director and was swiftly promoted to CEO. “I was like a duck to water,” he says, recalling his transition from numbers man to the style side of the fence. “I just really enjoyed the whole fashion thing. I was probably living that life, at the weekend, parties, dressing up a bit, and it was just an extension of that, so it became a blur of happiness. I didn’t know anything about markets but it was really just the intuition, the feel of the market, the distribution, understanding the customer. I loved being a connoisseur, understanding what was cool and what wasn’t cool and that made it all sort of relevant to the brand.”

Diesel, of course, went on to become “best in the class in the UK” and at the end of 2003, its owner, Renzo Rosso, dispatched Philippou, a born fashion-maven, to the States to reposition the brand.

This look could be based on 1930’s Bolshevik, or perhaps just the local jumble sale

Philippou’s laser-beam focus has come to the fore once again in his current post. Once onboard, he and his team took stock of every detail, from the branding strategy and the very definition of the Ben Sherman customer to its own store concepts, which have been repositioned and will soon be launched in the UK.

As the reshaping got underway, it became apparent that a return to the company’s core business was imperative if Ben Sherman was to move ahead. “We had to say first and foremost we’re a shirt company. And that got lost along the way; we developed into a lifestyle brand. So we spent a lot of time rekindling. We had some people who had come on board, help design the shirts further, looking at supply chain to see where we could start to innovate a little bit more,” says Philippou. “Now we’re trying to get back with the Ben Sherman button-down shirt. We need to make sure that the staple is always there so we can build on that and build around that.”

In an effort to streamline the myriad licenses, accessories, for instance, have been brought back in house, and placed in the hands of a Fred Perry alum. This September, Ben Sherman will launch a fragrance through Nordstrom’s  — not exactly a new foray, but a better-positioned, more professional undertaking. And as many a bird can tell you, women’s clothing has flown the coop.  “It’s a market based on trends, as opposed to brands. Women are very fickle. They’ll wear leggings one season, denim another and we just couldn’t compete in that marketplace where there’s a massive turnaround for looks,” he says.

Admittedly, the fashionable guy is also capricious, but Philippou has found that as a customer, he’s “more dedicated to a brand. It’s more of a case of I’m part of that tribe, I’ve gone for Ben Sherman, therefore this is my DNA, this is what I subscribe to, this is the music I like, this is where I hang out.”

Back in Sugarman’s day, that mod guy wearing a Ben Sherman shirt would have hopped on his scooter, dressed in his parka, and zipped down to Brighton. Not so, today’s modernist customer, a fashion lover who’s 25 to 45, professional, educated and makes an above-average income.  “He’d maybe take a flight to Miami, maybe take a flight to Ibizia, with his iPad; he’d be really techno savvy. He wouldn’t be bringing some girl on a scooter to Brighton. He’s listening to things like Plan B and Mos Def,” muses Philippou.

And he might also opt for one of the brand’s more premium segments — the on-trend Plectrum collection, or the higher-end Modern Classics, which incorporates slim-fit shirts and jackets with a hint of British attitude.

“We’re really trying to make a brand these last 12 months all relevant to 2011, while at the same time, keeping the heritage there,” Philippou says. “We call ourselves the heritage of modernism. We want to be applicable to the modern guy — the mod guy of 2011.”

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Infa Riot

STILL OUT OF ORDER!

There aren’t many bands that appeal to both Punks & Skins equally but Infa Riot certainly crossed both genres and have equal amount of respect from both camps. A lot of people nowadays think Oi = Skinhead, but a closer look at the early Oi albums will show that there were more non skinhead bands on them than there were people with shaved heads. It was a working class thing. Terrace bootboys, Punks, Skins, Herberts – Oi! was an ATTITUDE and Infa Riot had plenty of that.

Originally formed in early 1980 by vocalist Lee Wilson and his bass playing brother Floyd, together with guitarist Barry Damery and drummer Mark Reynolds, they soon impressed with their brand of boots and braces punk.  So much so, they found themselves in ‘Sounds’ with a glowing review of their fourth gig at Hornsey community centre, courtesy of Upstarts vocalist Mensi.

Mensi said “Every time I see them I think, yeah! This is what it’s all about, ordinary kids getting together for a bash.  Gutter level, a garage band, no pose, no shit, just get on with the job.  Protest, hate, love, all bottled up and let out in a stream of catchy energetic songs.  Punk. What it’s supposed to be”.

By November 1980 they managed to blow both Chelsea and The Dark off the Lyceum stage and earnt themselves the tag the ‘new boot boys sensations’ in the endless fanzines they managed to appear in.  Lee Wilson enamoured himself with the eighties punks declaring “our crowd are the same age as us.  Pursey’s nearly thirty, he’s got no relation with the crowd.  The time is right to kick out all the has-beens.  It’s time for a new generation of bands.  Punk’s about ordinary geezers – punks, skins, bootboys”.

Catching up with Lee now he might not remember saying that (he loved Sham back in the day) but he concedes, “Floyd and Barry were still at school when we started out. The drummer and I were a bit older at 17”. So what were the gigs like for these kids of the eighties? “They were brilliant gigs” Lee reminisces, “I particularly remember Liverpool and Edinburgh as we did an afternoon gig for the under 18s and then went back on again in the evening. All the gigs were brilliant, apart from the spitting which they did back then if they liked you”.