Mod to Suedehead - Page 7

Thanks to our German friend for PMing me and reminding me about my own thread. I hadn't given up on it guys, I'd just lost it in all the traffic that gets generated on this site.

Ok, being a bit older than most of you and having been in at the beginning I want to put a few things straight. Starting with the most trivial stuff first then ending on the serious stuff.

1. Slade were NEVER skinheads, they had the look foisted on them by their record company to appeal to the youngsters in an attempt to sell more records. And nayway only Noddy adopted the full look, two members flat out refused to have anything to do with it, which is clear from the photos of the day, anyway the look didn't even last a year on them.

2. Bleachers did exist back then, but they weren't very common. They were actually more common during later revivals.

3. Ideologies? Nonsense! Back in the 70s the only thing a traditional skinhead was
interested in was music, beer, his clobber, football and women. Politics and religion had no place in the original skinhead movement.

In the mid 70s when the NF hijacked the movement on the football terraces of teamsl ike Chelsea and West Ham lots of kids adopted the skinhead look to go with their right wing aggro and "paki and queer-bashing"

I've discussed this with quite a few older trads over the years, and we all always come to the same conclusion that politics held no interest for us at all back then.

That said most skinheads in London in the 70s came from working class families. And if you ask them today about their personal politics you'll find that a large percentage are, like myself, left wing as a result of growing up in working class left wing families and areas.

The myth that boys from working class Labour (left wing) families would suddenly become right wing once they became skinheads is simply that, a myth.

4. NOW, when punks started dressing like skinheads in the early 80s and listneing to Oi! that's when a lot of skinheads started expressing right wing political views (The NF boys dressed like skinheads I don't consider as part of the movement, they were a short lived phenomena in the mid 70s, in low numbers, who mostly became punks a couple of years later anyway)

Clean shaven head, US bomber jacket, punk T-shirt, and knee high boots is not a skinhead it's a punk.

I don't listen to Oi! because I'm not a punk and I don't like Oi! music anyway.

I listen to ska, reggae, soul, hard rock, heavy metal, synth, folk, New Wave, classical and lots of other styles of musc actually but Oi! isn't one of them

Happy New Year you Skinheads

Nice look there mein freund a bit like the Casuals look of the mid 80s (Farrahs trousers, button downs, pringles, brogues) mixed with a touch of late 60s soulboy, however not Mod thank God. By the late 60s the Mods were to all intents and purposes hippies, all long-hair, military tunics, tie-dye grandad shirts and striped trousers

A pair of oxblood tassle loafers with those clothes would look great and even more in keeping with the soulboy style.