Mod to Suedehead

[flyfronted]

I recognise a couple of them in the photo. They are QPR. The young lad is holding a programme from the game before, You had to produce these or a ticket stub to get a ticket in your own end. The good old days before databases! Mind you it didn't matter much with Rangers and the mugs because being so local most of us knew each other anyway. Oh how times have changed, when we played them last half their support couldn't speak English let alone come from West London!

You lot do make me laugh - its only recently you found out how to get from the bush to fulham broadway . Welcome anyway mate

 

[con man]

Ay up all, new on here, to much to read, It would take me years, very slow reader, was expelled from school so just read snippets, recognise a couple of peeps on here, Will and Mike...... Tom McCourt, not personally but cos he is well known to most of us so called revival Skinheads......being from Stoke on Trent, particularly interested what GSvs5 has to say about the late 60's early 70's in the area and of course about Stoke City in them days and The Golden Torch, I didn't start going to Stoke till the latter part of the 70's when we were managed by Alan Durban, my first match was against Sunderland (Buttons), went with my step brother, who was Skinhead and a big Sham69 fan, loved the atmosphere of the Boothen End, but remember absolutly ******** myself, when the crowd surged forward, unfortunately got banned in 83 aged 16, after giving a Liverpool fan a good slapping, didn't go down again for 20 years when I started taking my kids....I bet the Waddington years were great for being a Stoke fan, especially the League Cup win over Chelsea, also wish I had been old enough to go the Torch, did you ever hear of Stoke on Trent Skinhead gangs....like The CHS (Port Vale), The Smallthorne Clampits, The Hanley Mafia, Shelbooth, etc, did you ever go Bowling Alley up Hanley, I know it was a big Mod hang out a few years earlier, what about The Top Rank up Hanley, The Heavy Steam Machine or The Place (said to be the first discothèque in the UK) if you did you might have been let in there, by my Dad as he was a bouncer there in the late 60's early 70's

 

[Gsvs5]

Welcome Grove and Conman.Trust me....being a Stoke fan all those years ago was painfull ! though I have great memories of the atmosphere in the Boothen and being lifted off my feet many a time in the crowd surges and being scared as hell.I was born in Chesterton,but only recall the Trent Vale blokes as having a name for themselves?My mate Wilf used to go to St Josephs in Stoke and he would always be with them.I did hear The Hanley Family mentioned,but that might have been on the Soul circuit?
Spent most of my youth in Stafford ,which made it easy getting around to the games as at that time the Midlands dominated or at least were well represented in the First Div.I remember hiding in the working mans club car park down by the michelin as our coach was surround by Midland Red Buses and hundreds of Leicester City were battling around it with Stoke.Probably that,Coventry away and being on the Chelsea train with Chelsea leaving Stoke were my worst nightmares.I'm a lover not a fighter !
It's funny but in those days ,everyone would attach themselves to a London club as well.The majority would be Spurs or Chelsea.You could see graffiti all over town saying Spurs or Shed,but it was all done by local lads.I have never been to the new ground and am happy to live with my memories of the red brick terrace houses,the smell of Brut at the back of the Boothen,and the sound of the Final Scores on the radio as we left the games.
I never went to the Torch.We were fortunate to have the Top of The World in our town with all the top Soul acts on our doorstep.It was the one place where everyone was united from both ends of town.Not that there was a big rivalry then,but most in the south were Wolves,and most in the north end Stoke.I witnessed some all out street battles outside there when either the fair was in town or some coaches would come from Wolverhampton.The Police thought that one copper and a dog would suffice in them days!
I was a regular at Tiffs in Newcastle and used to go to the All Nighters and The Place in Hanley.I do regret not getting to the Torch,but have none at all about skipping Wigan.
The Bowling Alley was a regular stop off before going to see a film at the cinema next door.Can.'t remember the name of the shop,but it was in Hanley that we used to first get our Brutus and Ben Sherman's.There was. hippy shop next door called Red Queen that I do remember for some odd reason?
I ended up down in London many years later and had a market stall in Portobello Rd,under the flyover,so I know the area well ,Grove.the section of the market under the canopy is run by an old mate of mine from Worcester,who ws a regular at The Catacombs in Wolverhampton.Small World it is......I used to like a drink in The Shakespeare on Wesbourne Grove back then.I think it.s gone now?

 

[con man]

Yeah being a Stoke fan is pain full, none more so when we were out of top flight football for 23 years, made a good start to the season this term, long may it last, though I'm afraid they probably won't haha!!
Was the shop, you mentioned Chawners on Hope Street, it was still selling bens shermans , chrombie's, obviously not the real deal,in the late 70's right through to the mid 80's.....Brassingtons for Brogues and loafers etc, millets, army and navy and quartermasters stores for army fatigues and Blunts for Boots and in 79/81 C&A for cheap toniks, Harrington's etc, when they caught on to the Two Tone Tone thing.......funny thing is, as a 12 year old in 79, the Skinhead look really appealed to me and thousands of others up and down the country, but we were called Rude Boys haha!! because of the Two Tone thing and I absolutely loved it and it has stayed with me 30 odd years later, but I had no knowledge at that time that Skinhead was a massive thing, just 10 years earlier and didn't realise I was part of a revival, early on, like most, I didn't know Madness and The Specials were doing cover versions, I was only 3 years of age in in 1969. only when I started to get more into it, did I realise what it was truly about, but by 80/81 had all but died a death, so we had no where to turn other than Oi!, and I know a lot of our generation get slagged of for that period in the history of Skinhead, but it was all we had....I have a photo of myself in 1980 and I'm wearing red Fred Perry, under a black Slazenger jumper and British Army lightweight trousers and a 3 quarter inch crop, I would imagine not far off what young 12 year old Skinheads were wearing in 68/69, just 12 years earlier, and living in Stoke we had no idea what was being worn in London and no internet to look at,to get ideas, we just wore what felt right, but it did all go pair shaped a couple of years later, but I loved the Oi! Period to, but by the mid 80's it did start to go back to how it was, mainly due to the scooter scene....but by the late 80's things started to go dark and political and by 89, I fell out of love with it all and my kids were born, but by 93, I bumped into an old mate, who had started a band, The Rough Kutz,he even asked me to join, but I cant sing for **** or play guitar, anyway, went back to my old barbers...johnny 2 bob in Bucknall and haven't looked back since.....luckily for me I met my missus in 85, she was a revival Mod, but I turned her from the dark side and she became a Skinhead and we are still together and she loves it as much as I do and go to do's and events up and down the country and met a lot of like minded people and made lot of friends through The Skinhead world.....but fair play to the originals, if it wasnt for you, we wouldn't be doing it.....I just wish I was ten years older, then I could of been there......but then again I'd be a right old bastard now haha!!.....that's my story, sorry for boring you all

 

[Gsvs5]

Chawners !I just did a google street view.The area looks a lot different these days ,but then i'm a right old bastard now !

 

[browniecj]

Welcome con man.

 

[cerneabbas]

con man..Welcome,it was interesting reading your story,i enjoy reading about people from different parts of the country and the different decades.BTW all though i am not an "original",i will admit to being an old bastard ( 55 ) and i love it (apart from the failing eyesight ),got no mortgage,more stamina and more money than any time in my life ! !

 

[con man]

Didn't mean offence, saying old bastasd, I'm coming up for 47 so not that far behind you and in youngsters eyes I'm an old bastard, but to a lot of people who know me they keep it short and sweet and it just bastard!!!!
Know what you mean cerneabbas, not payed mortgage off just yet, only a couple of years left, but still feels good to see its coming down now with very little interest to pay, my kids are in their 20's an so now, me and my missus have found a new lease of life....but what she doesn't know is, when I lose a bit of timber off the old waist line, I shall be purchasing a lot more clothing, now we have a bit more clutter to spend.....ask any female who is into traditional styled Skinhead scene as it is now and they will tell you, their partners spend more time in the mirror than them, I'am certainly guilty of this......Gsvs5 yes Parts of Stoke have changed, mainly Hanley, at it is classed as the city centre, some change for the better, some for the worse, the fabric of the place is still there, but a lot of the industry has gone, coal, steel have gone and the pots are in decline, pot banks are not the nicest places to work, did two years on one and it was like something out of a Dickens novel, its grim up North as they say, though technically we are not North, proper Northerners would laugh at us for calling ourselves such, but I strangely don't like to be classed as Midlands, would prefer to be from the North West, its not all bad up here though, remember if teams from the North West and Midlands didn't start the football league, this country's league tables wouldn't be the envy of every footballing nation in the world

 

[Clouseau]

Grove and Con man, interesting stories. Con man, i'm 49, and my experience is close to yours, except i'm from the other side of the channel. Like you, i didn't knew that most of the 80's ska hits were covers, and then i discovered the Trojan compilations. Then on, i was mainly into rocksteady, reggae and soul, 60s/70s R&B and RnR. I quit the "move" mid-eighties, because it was becoming too political for me.

 

[con man]

Nice one clouseau, you should get back into it, there are quite a few things on over here, especially in Margate and the Isle of Wight and I have met, French, Spanish, German, Swiss, American and Japenese all like minded people, who have an interest in the original style.....don't get confused with the other Ahem cough cough....groups. Now I'm not one to take the piss out of anyone, except if they support Port Vale and each to his own, but going out somewhere where mid aged men who were into Madness or Oi! For all of 6 months between the years of 79/81 and have now gone bald, so have now decided to become Skinhead again and dress up in bleached jeans and 14 hole cherry red Doc Martins and a Fred Perry, topped with a green MA1 lookalike flight jacket on a weekend, does not float my boat...and for this reason I'm heading more towards the Mod scene and getting more and more into proper R&B.......sorry I shall get off my high horse now haha!!
Gsvs5, you are originally from Chesterton I'm not far from there, I live in Kidsgrove , though originally from the scabby Abbey......one good thing to come out of Chesterton, was Jackie Trent, who had a couple of hits and had a couple of songs that were popular on the Northern Soul scene, ( my wife's auntie used to be mates with her at school) talking of Northern, I only really like the tunes that were popular on the scooterist scene and which the purists hate, as some people say there is reason why certain songs werent hits, cos they were ****, why clear a dance and play an obscure tune nobody wants to dance to.....anyway in Stoke, Northern is virtually rammed down your throat and a Northern Soul night can be found most weekends.....getting back on to Jackie Trent, although she did make a couple of great tunes, You Baby, being one of them, I cannot forgive her or her husband, music producer Tony Hatch, of New Faces fame, for unleashing on to an unsuspecting world, the theme tune to that diabolic Australian Soap.... Neighbours.....he says as he climbs down off high horse yet again!!....haha!!

 

[Grove]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes.

@ Lasttye. I know it well. I live just a stones throw away from Droop St now and you're right West London lads have always been trend setters and among the best dressed...Still are!

@Flyfronted. TBH although we've always been able to turn out well on a given day we've never had, or will have the numbers Chelsea do but thankfully we are still very much a proper football club in the traditional sense. Until I either get priced out or we move to a larger ground/bowling alley/multiplex or like our neighbours in the borough fill the ground with tourists waving plastic flags and those horrible clappy things it's still a great place to go on a Saturday even though the football itself is more often than not pretty dire. This is a piece of graffiti from a few years ago which I think sums it up well. http://cakeheadlovesevil.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/3839261139_4b0314f31e_b.jpg?w=490
One major difference back in the day was Chelsea's large far right/NF following which obviously carried on with the newer incarnations combat 18 etc. and all that King Billy, Glasgow Rangers, Linfield nonsense. We never had that. Maybe it was because traditionally most of our support comes Notting Hill, Paddington, Grove, Latimer Rd, Kensal Rise, Harlesden, Willesden, Bush which are very mixed areas with in particular large West Indian and Irish communities? Either way it set us apart and both clubs have always had very different identies which can only be a good thing when you're practically on each others doorsteps.

Also worth noting when the teams come out QPR play The Clash 'London's Calling' and Chelsea, I think, still use 'Liquidator' or at least a version of it....Dunno about Fulham, Vivaldi maybe?

 

[cerneabbas]

con man...No offence taken, in fact I think that my nickname in work is "old bastard" because I often hear the younger blokes saying "oh heres that old bastard again,whats he on about now".
I don't see why you shouldn't be able to buy what you want ( clothes,car,scooter what ever takes your fancy ) when you have paid for the kids etc its me time again IMO...
Interesting how many people on here saying how things have changed a lot over recent years ( I had thought that it was just me,nice to know that others feel the same),as long as we don't look back with rose tinted glasses and realise that some things are better now.
To us anyone north of Cheltenham is a northerner,the laugh is though back in the day anyone walking from Temple Meads ( the main Bristol railway station) to Eastville or Ashton Gate would have thought that its "grim down south"!....However back then going "up north" for the football was a bit of an adventure for us,a lot of things seemed different, now everywhere seems pretty much the same...IMO.

 

[cerneabbas]

I'm not sure? I never had kids,and I wonder if they have the same excitement about clothes today? Suedehead seems to have been a natural progression at the time as many of us never ever had the severe crop anyway.Kids were a few years older,probably dating girls and wanting a less severe look when it came time to meet the future in-laws,and didn't need the hassle of being refused entry to places.Although it was short lived,all of us "Followed" fashion.It's a rare few who start it.We always needed something new,even if it was only a different fabric.remember how exciting Tonik was? At the end of the Sixties we were all English.We then wanted to look French,draping out jumpers over our shoulders.Next it would be Italian...and so on it goes

Gsvs5..I have been thinking about this post,i don't think that kids do get so excited about buying clothes as we were because they have got so used to cheap "fashion" clothing,often buying something for a specific night out and then binning it....Now that is a generalisation,but its also a generalisation when we say "we" meaning all of our generation,lets face it there are not so many people on threads like this who were around back in the day because most are not interested,there were loads of blokes who dressed skinhead/suedehead because it was the fashion/their mates dressed that way,and they happily moved onto something else..I do remember being excited about Tonik, it seemed very new to us,its not something I would want to wear now though maybe because your ideas change as you get older or because it seems old hat now,i don't know.
BTW,in another thread you mention some Stoke lads having a liking for London clubs,i found this a bit surprising as Stoke were a big first division club then...I always thought that it was an unwritten rule that if you supported a club lower down the league ( Bristol Rovers for instance ) then it was ok to support a bigger club as well ( if you wanted to )...also is it true or an urban myth that Stoke lads used to throw potters clay with razor blades stuck in it at matches ? I have heard this said but it seems unlikely to me,if its true it must have made a mess of their pockets.

 

[ek77]



1970. Chelsea vs QPR ?

we already had that pic on here some time ago... ---->>> http://www.styleforum.net/t/89027/mod-to-suedehead/6060#post_5262893

 

[cerneabbas]

we already had that pic on here some time ago...

I think that girls been in another picture on here as well.