Mod to Suedehead

[Inkss]

Goo-nies II, Sole Survivors

 

[Swampster]

Goo-nies II, Sole Survivors

Return of the Treadi.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

The alliterative nature of the 'bovver boy' moniker suggests it's a tabloid newspaper construct like 'lager lout'.

It had a certain currency, but not much.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

Just had a snoop around online - do you mean like mock turtle necks? Crew necks that have a higher stand to the ‘collar’ (head opening!) but not enough to fold over?

In the late 60s there was a brief attempt by the fashion biz to bring in a "turtle" neck shirt (i.e. in shirt material) with a chunky brooch instead of a tie. It didn't really catch on - a handful of uptown peacocks might have taken it up - but I did see one customer at the Savoy Rooms in Catford wearing such a shirt with a brooch. That would have been second half of 1968, shortly after I arrived down in London. He was wearing it with a standard peanut suit. I saw no one else with one.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

I'm not sure when I first heard 'bovver boys'. When I was about six in the early seventies, boys a couple of years older would complain that the local play area had been occupied by 'skinheads' and I _think_ they may also have called them bovver boys. I should think they were probably just kids who were may not even have been in their teens. I always associated them with baseball boots rather than proper boots, which may be a clue.
https://wordhistories.net/2022/03/10/bovverboy-skinhead/ says bovver boots and bovver boy both crop up in 1969. Interesting that two of the citations are in Midlands* newspapers, though journalists will pick up on words coined elsewhere. It does mean that the phrase had at least been introduced into my local area.
I'd forgotten that Dick Emery's character was called Screwsby the Bovver Boy though I don't know when he appeared or even if the phrase was actually used in the show.
*(The Midlands are, of course, 'oop north' to Londoners and 'darn sarf' to anyone north of about Sheffield. The 'th' sound has long been a bit of an optional extra round my neck of the woods)

I heard the terms "totter," "bovver boy," "aggro boy," "boot boy," and "John boy" being used in London about skinheads during the skinhead era. Of those terms "totter" was a term some of us/them used when "mod" was falling out of use, and was adopted because inner-city London kids would collect scrap to sell (a practice known as "totting" - the term "totter" had been synonymous with rag & bone men); "boot boy" was taken up; "John boy" was generally used by non-skins taking the Mickey out of the London accent and the practice of calling anyone you didn't know "John."* One of my girlfriends at college said to me "You're a John boy!"

As for North/Midland/South, I remember when Charlton Athletic's ground closed, there had been talk of the club relocating to Milton Keynes. Some of the lads said that Charlton were going to move "Ap Noaf!" I couldn't help laughing, because Milton Keynes is in the South Midlands. Still, the move didn't happen, so we were spared there being a team in the League with the name "Milton Athletic."

*"Oi, John, got the time?" It's where, so I believe, Alexei Sayle got the idea for "Ullo John Got A New Motor."

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

I missed the bijou chat about musical abilities. In about 1971, by which time I was out of the gear and into loons and long hair, I joined a bunch of lads, who had all been at Goldsmiths, in what you could loosely call a folk band or a ceilidh band (I have photos somewhere.. yep, found 'em). We played at a pub in New Cross, and boasted that we never repeated a number during a whole evening. Mind you, that meant that when we had gone through all the jigs and reels and whatnot that we knew we would resort to comedy foxtrots,* South African Voortrekker songs, the Old Tiger Rag, music hall stuff, and so on - but by heck we did it!

I started with the band vamping on harmonica, very occasionally played a 4-string tenor banjo tuned like the top 4 strings of a guitar. Then they bought me a drum kit from a junk shop. It was a pre-War dance band drum kit, with a massive, thin bass drum, a snare drum, a little tom-tom, a hi-hat, a row of Chinese temple blocks, a cymbal with a bite out of it, a rattle, and a stuffed parrot. Then one day I came back from a fortnight's holiday to find that they had sold that and bought me a double bass instead. "I can't play double bass!" I protested. They dismissed my objection with, "Oh, you're a musician, you can play anything." I gave it a go, lasted a few months, and gave up.

The band, on the other hand, was still going until very recently. The fiddle player died last year, leaving the accordionist as the only member of the original lineup. The most recent YouTube video of them is dated 2022!

*Our accordion player had been a session muso for the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band.

<- Greasy Truckers' Ball, The Roundhouse.

The Walpole, New Cross.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

New podcast! Here's the shpeel:

Kate Mowbray presents mellow soul tracks for Valentine’s Day, spanning almost a whole century from Ma Rainey’s ‘Prove It On Me Blues’ to Brittany Howard’s ‘Patience’. Wonderful tracks today include numbers by Otis Redding, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, the Isley Brothers, and more!

STAR RADIO - Valentine's Day 2024 Special! by STARSoulShack | Mixcloud

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

.

 

[Inkss]

From the same set of photos as the previous one I posted.

Found on the Facebook for my town's history.

Seems like my locale was spoilt for musical entertainment back in the 60s:

 

[Thin White Duke]

Some real talent there just playing the clubs eh? What a time to be alive.

Similarly there was a lad I later knew of named Jeff Docherty who had started the “Fillmore North” nights in Sunderland in the early seventies. Starting at the more recently demolished Bay Hotel on the sea front then moving to the Mayfair. He persuaded all kinds of talent to come and play including the Who, and details it all in his book ‘A Promoter’s Tale’ which is a good read for anyone interested.

When I was a kid the only venue I was aware of was the Sunderland Empire (largest theatre in the north supposedly) but that all went to **** when it got damaged by punks when The Boomtown Rats played there. Concerts were banned from that point on (I think Showaddywaddy were still allowed to play!😁) and for the next several years Sunderland was largely ignored and you had to go to Newcastle to see anyone when I was in my teens.

 

[Swampster]

I bet it was Sid James’s ghost seeing off the bands at the Sunderland Empire.

 

[Thin White Duke]

I bet it was Sid James’s ghost seeing off the bands at the Sunderland Empire.

😬😬😬

The story goes that Les Dawson was doing stand up and saw the ghost. He was so spooked he finished quickly and vowed never to play there again!

There’s an excellent graphic book called ‘Alice In Sunderland’ where this gets mentioned. The writer builds the whole book around allegations that Lewis Carol’s ‘Alice’ books were based on his visits the area to see his beloved niece but aside from all that it’s loaded with a mountain of information about the area, history, key figures and events etc.

Anyway apologies for the digression here’s a pic to get back on track!

 

[Inkss]

Another pic found on my old town's facebook

Early 80s

 

[northernbloke12345]

Missing the anorak, notepad, thermos flask and camera.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

Missing the anorak, notepad, thermos flask and camera.

Snorkel Parka in navy blue, actually. Although the misidentification is where we got the term anorak (for a nerd or enthusiast) from.