Skinhead Subculture - Interview

Just a bit further down the page is this thread http://www.styleforum.net/t/89027/traditional-skinheads  Traditional Skinheads. Ask there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by francisxavier 

Just PLEASE don't take the tone of "but they were actually very multicultural," like some sort of moralist after-school special. That whole thing is overemphasized, forced, and in many cases embellished. If you look through that thread, there were a couple OS's who can give you the real deal, not the do-gooder apologist versions.



 

I largely agree with that. By about 1975-76 in West London, most skinheads were nothing more than racist gangs working for the National Front, and a lot of us Irish Catholic kids were afraid of being attacked by NF skinheads, even those of us who had been or still were traditional skinheads.  As a kid on the streets in west and central London in the 60s and 70s I never once saw a black skinhead.

It is true that the original skinheads were only interested in drinking, fighting, football, music and women - in that order. But that apolitical ideology only lasted a few years before the NF got its claws into the look & the impressioanble lads on the football terraces.

The "This is England" film does NOT in any way,shape or form represent the London of 1983. I left the RAF in 82 after the Falklands, by mid-83 I was a 22 year old police officer in West London and there were no traditional skinheads left. Those sporting looks akin to the skinhead look were either a) nazi bonehead punks or b) just Oi! punks. Traditional skinheads in central London in 83 were as rare as hens teeth. They existed but not as street gangs, they would gather on a Saturday in Camden Town or Carnaby Street or at The Last Resort or on day trips to Southend and Margate but that was the extent of it. You'd never see one wandering around day-to-day on his own in full regalia because he's get his head kicked in.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by francisxavier 

Curious about that statement. I'm sure there was a rift in ideology between "trads" and their offspring, but were they getting attacked by the other skins? Did they look noticeably different from the other factions?

Yes, yes and yes.  In the late 70s when trad skinheads were having pitched battles with nazi boneheads inside and outside ska, two tone and punk gigs. Most famously at some Specials gigs which were the catalyst for the RAR gigs. My own mixed gang of skinheads, rockabillies and casuals got jumped by a Nazi skinhead gang from Shepherds Bush in Notting Hill in 78....however, they came off far worse, I'm pleased to report.

Looked completely different, the skinheads who followed Oi! punk fell into two camps GROUP A, the trad look but toned down, and GROUP B, the green bomber jackets, white T-shirts, very high jeans and very high boots, sometimes even with a mohican.

The Nazis wearing the skinhead look, looked similar to some of the group  GROUP B Oi! skins, but took it even further, introducing the black bomber jackets, the black jeans,black t-shirts and even combat trousers and of course completely bald. Hence the term "boneheads" for Nazi skins.   Compare and contrast that look with right wing and paramilitary groups all over Europe.    But that's enough of this before it develops into a political discussion. I think the OP should go to the other thread and ask for volunteers.