Mod to Suedehead - Page 682

As a new poster my posts are being held back for 6 hours which is a bit of a pain. Again on this theme I travelled with West Ham to most of the London games between 1968-1971. Never went up North but my younger brother did the trip to Leeds where they pulled the communication cord and jumped off the train before entering Leeds and crossed playing fields to Elland road. All the Leeds mobs were at the station with a welcoming committee whilst the majority of the West Ham fans were already inside the ground. I heard that some of the West Ham boys went back to the station and the Leeds boys were sandwiched.

 

I remember standing in the Shed with West Ham but we didn't manage to get directly behind the goal which was our target. We also managed to get positioned in the North Bank at Highbury. I can't remember too much aggro. I remember a lot of running backwards and forwards.

Horrorshow platties there brothers

Shocked at how dated the 80s casuals look. Not a timeless fashion was it?

Bloody hell they were lairy ol' times weren't they?

Shame about Micky Greenaway-always remember hearing the Zigger Zagger,coming from the Shed.

Skinheads never wore Cravats(that was earlier Mod)but we did wear the Scarves tied like Cravats inside our Coats.

Sounds like Bob the Badger you were at a few Games I was at-especially being with West Ham,within the Shed.Never went North.West Ham would regularly turn on themselves-I have seen it happen on a few occasions.

Much prefer looking at Pictures of Women,walking along Carnaby Street.

 

I'll leave that to your superior age and knowledge. I lived through the mid-60s but wasn't aware of all Mod fashions then, being little more than a toddler  But by the '70s all of us skins who could afford them round our neck of the woods had Sambas. Not a 'Green flash' or 'black flash'  in sight, though 

I thought I looked bloody smart,in `68

Spoken to a few 70s Skinheads and they were worn the 2nd time around.

Sambas I meant.

I remember being persuaded to take the West Ham End.. About 60 of us young naive Skinheads got into their end early.. hardly any West Ham was there, as the End filled up a mob of older blokes came into the end wearing Chelsea scarfs chanting Chelsea...some of the lads with us did not suss and started to chant Chelsea back to them, next min out came the West Hame scarfs ..all hell broke loose, we ended running on the pitch to get away, Boys fighting Men,Happy days

Since the thread is called Mod To Suedehead now.I'm wondering about the transition from Mod to Skinhead to Suedehead.A few hundred pages back someone(browniecj maybea)said it was so gradual it was hardly noticeable.I know browniecj was a mod and then skin and M.O.M was as well (great photos from M.O.M.show the transistion.)Any recollections would be appreciated and may help newcomers to understand the new title.

I remember feeling 'old' at 22 too. It seemed like a whole different world in the mid 70s.

The way things are going we'll all be on bloody zimmer frames by the time that happens!

I think I've said all this before, but in '68 in S E London the term 'skinhead' was a term of abuse. It's what the greasers used to call us. If you called someone 'skinhead' you were asking for a frown at best and a knuckle sandwich at worst. 'Up North' the term 'mod' was still in use, but when I got to S E London I got weird looks from people when I used that word. I asked "What do you call yourselves, then?" and got the reply "Nothing really. 'Totters' maybe." (I first had this conversation in the Wimpy Bar in Bromley, N Kent). I also remember one bloke in a pub singing the words "I'm a lonely little Totter in a Greaser pub..." (to the tune of 'I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch') but I think he made it up on the spot.

Yes, the transition was hardly noticeable. It wasn't like we woke up one morning and said, "Let's all change our shirts for Ben Shermans, our monkey jackets for Harringtons, and our shoes for brogues from the Squire Shop, and start calling ourselves Skinheads." Items of clothing simply started coming into fashion and were worn with what we already had. I bought Bens because I liked button-down shirts; I bought a Harrington because it looked smart, and so on.

I think one of the things I enjoyed most about that era was going into the West Indian record shop in Deptford on Saturdays, where the black manager used to spin records for us and I'd maybe buy a couple.

Don't get to down M.O.M.It's a monumental task.Wish there was some way we all could help you carry the load.Little Queenie is no doubt capable but maybe it will take a crew.Good stuff above regarding the transition from Mod to Suedehead.

You mean the Adidas Samba right? I've read at numerous sources people started wearing those to avoid police attention as they were still looking for Dr. Martens boots and ignored people wearing such trainers at the time until those later became established, many also talk about some wearing Reebok Classics but that is quite a while later those are a personal favorite of mine as are the Club Classic C, I picked up some Adidas SL 72 recently very similar to the Samba.