Mod to Suedehead

[covskin]

...but through it all I was only ever pre-skinhead, skinhead or ex-skinhead - which is why I have no time for people who think skinhead music is tinny, 1970 'skinhead reggae' pop music and base everything around that.

 

[Bob the Badger]

Ska, Reggae, Bluebeat, Rock Steady even Calypso was 'our' music for a short period of time. A late summer visit to Notting Hill carnival was a yearly highlight. The music press was generally disparaging of the sounds we liked. Middle class journalists didn't understand white working class kids getting into West Indian music and they put us and the music down. Not that it bothered me. What did upset me was how many of my mates also turned against the music only a few years later.

And yes what are Cockney jackets? Are they the ones worn by Adam Faith in 'Budgie'?

 

[Swampster]

And yes what are Cockney jackets? Are they the ones worn by Adam Faith in 'Budgie'?

The imitation MA-1 type flight jackets were known as cockney jackets round here (small town West Mids) in the early 80s.
Cheap Harringtons - almost always black - were worn by almost everyone here around 80. Many had the very classy felt letters put on the back, nickname, football club or band name usually. The harder kids progressed to the green flight jackets.
Even our school jumpers showed a degree of tribalism. They were supposed to be red or grey. The meek seemed to wear grey more often than red. After a while some - especially the tougher metal element - worked out that they could call their jumpers charcoal grey and wear black. At about the same time, burgundy became very in, so that would pass muster as red.
My standing could be seen if I said that I sometimes wore a Harrington but never a cockney, and my jumper went from grey to burgundy.
Ties also had their own language.

 

[Inkss]

There was definitely a 'burgundy-boom' round my way in '81/'82. Burgundy sta-prest (that didn't stay pressed), burgundy leather 'hunter' jackets, burgundy 'Y' cardigans, burgundy shoes that laced at the side, burgundy pin-collar shirts. Grey was a big colour around then as well. Then in '83 everything burgundy was gone.

 

[Clouseau]

If you go to the beach in summer in France, you will see some burgundy English tourists under the sun.

 

[Bob the Badger]

If you go to the beach in summer in France, you will see some burgundy English tourists under the sun.

I hope there are plenty of English tourists on the French beaches (and elsewhere in Europe) this summer

 

[Swampster]

There was definitely a 'burgundy-boom' round my way in '81/'82. Burgundy sta-prest (that didn't stay pressed), burgundy leather 'hunter' jackets, burgundy 'Y' cardigans, burgundy shoes that laced at the side, burgundy pin-collar shirts. Grey was a big colour around then as well. Then in '83 everything burgundy was gone.

One of my friends was always immaculately dressed and during this boom he was often dressed to the nines in burgundy. His hair was bright blond. Aged about 15, we had a party at a friends and most of us stayed over. This lad had been drinking the owner's home-made red wine. He was discovered in the morning with his blond wedge-cut dyed burgundy from his own vomit. I think that put him off the colour.

 

[The Saint]

I’m fascinated by this tribal discussion and hope it’s not straying too off topic for the thread title. Some great memories lads and interesting to note a lot of common experiences despite differences in age and location.
I remember a kid in my class around age 14 who considered himself a punk but had ‘Iron Maiden’ stencilled out on his note book so he’d be exactly one of those who transitioned from punk to NWOBR - also got a bike jacket and motorbike a couple of years later but as you say, never grew his hair long like the metal devotees.

I just did a blog post about playing a gig recently with my mate Dave. Known him since we were five but he went to a different school. He got into all manner of long-hair music while after the Mod scene I was into all manner of eighties techno-funk-pop-soul-goth ... whatever! (Did a separate blog post a couple of months ago about my musical memories!)

The common ground on the Venn diagram of our music tastes is that he was mental for The Who (has seen them over sixty times) so has an empathy for the Mod roots and revival scene even though in our teens we’d just nod at eachother from our respective crowds in the pub or have a brief congenial chat, so not exactly Jimmy and Kevin in ‘Quadrophenia’.

Like most I wasn’t into the disco scene back then but grew to worship the sound of Nile Rodgers. When I get together with Dave et al to jam they almost all play classic and/or American rock (Tom Petty, John Mellencamp) and I love to blast them with ‘Good Times’ or ‘Stayin Alive’ or some other disco cheese just to raise their eyebrows!??

ffs Rod , l can just imagine the thread polis inspecting that post as l type. Most likely they will be agast.

Been a great week here , how is weather down your way , have you been in your pool this week?

 

[Thin White Duke]

Pool season is April to October - even longer if we can be arsed to put the heater on!?

I remember the burgundy craze too. It was among the soul/disco boys more than anyone who was tribe-afilliated! Low vamp burgundy slip ons, white socks, bleached jeans, oatmeal jumpers tucked in, wedge haircuts ... **shudder** topped off by burgundy leather what Inkss called Hunter jacket (something like an M-65 in leather - urgh! Swap in burgundy strides or v neck. I was sorta dating a lass around Christmas 1980 and she bought me a burgundy v neck. We faded out soon after and I was straight down the town to swap it for a scarlet red Fred Perry jumper. They were made of arcrylic back then I think with a blue embroidered crest.

 

[Clouseau]

I remember the ones that were made of acrylic back then. But I always thought they were cheap knock-offs. In France we only found the plain FPs(they were and still are my favourites) that were in cotton. I remember a mate had a black one with yellow piping in acrylic, we all laughed at him, that was around 1980-81. I had my first Fred Perry in 1979 I think, it was a red one with 3 buttons and a white laurel. Kind of a treasure back then.

 

[Thin White Duke]

There were two kinds of Fred Perry jumper I remember from approx 1975 to at least the early eighties.

The first was definitely arcrylic and they were ribbed with a narrow double stripe in two colours around the v, cuffs and hem. I had one in 1975 long before getting into the Mod scene which was white with a navy and sky stripe. Also later had red with a white and navy stripe. I remember black with white and yellow stripe and brown with cream and white stripe. There was probably a navy too, possibly with white and yellow. The ribbed texture made them skinny fit (we were all skinny back then anyway!) but they were frowned upon once we got clued up into the scene. The laurel wreath was a piece of cotton cut into the shape and stitched on rather than embroidered. Did a quick Google image search but couldn’t find any that look like this. Understandable really as they went out of favour a long time ago so there probably aren’t many still extant.

Maybe a bit later and certainly more desirable were the smooth-knit versions. These were all one colour with no piping. Most popular was all solid red. The Laurel wreath was navy and embroidered in like the polo shirts. I thought these were acrylic too but I may be wrong. Nowadays FP loves to tap in to the heritage of their brand and the same style jumper will be reissued in lambswool no doubt at vast cost but what we had back then were a bit cheap. The emblem gave them a bit more standing than say a plain one from Marks and Spencer or elsewhere without an emblem but I don’t recall them being of any great quality.

This pic is a lambswool from the Atom Retro website and looks close to what I’m on about ...

 

[Clouseau]

There were two kinds of Fred Perry jumper I remember from approx 1975 to at least the early eighties.

The first was definitely arcrylic and they were ribbed with a narrow double stripe in two colours around the v, cuffs and hem. I had one in 1975 long before getting into the Mod scene which was white with a navy and sky stripe. Also later had red with a white and navy stripe. I remember black with white and yellow stripe and brown with cream and white stripe. There was probably a navy too, possibly with white and yellow. The ribbed texture made them skinny fit (we were all skinny back then anyway!) but they were frowned upon once we got clued up into the scene. The laurel wreath was a piece of cotton cut into the shape and stitched on rather than embroidered. Did a quick Google image search but couldn’t find any that look like this. Understandable really as they went out of favour a long time ago so there probably aren’t many still extant.

Maybe a bit later and certainly more desirable were the smooth-knit versions. These were all one colour with no piping. Most popular was all solid red. The Laurel wreath was navy and embroidered in like the polo shirts. I thought these were acrylic too but I may be wrong. Nowadays FP loves to tap in to the heritage of their brand and the same style jumper will be reissued in lambswool no doubt at vast cost but what we had back then were a bit cheap. The emblem gave them a bit more standing than say a plain one from Marks and Spencer or elsewhere without an emblem but I don’t recall them being of any great quality.

This pic is a lambswool from the Atom Retro website and looks close to what I’m on about ...
View attachment 1598024

My mistake. I misred your previous post and was speaking of the tennis shirts.

speaking of the Laurel wreath made of a piece of cotton, they recently made a collab with NCabourn with a vintage tennis shirt like that. (I’ve got one)

And they re-did a Jumper with a logo like that some years ago it was a Terry Hall (from the Specials) model.

 

[Inkss]

One year at our school it was a sea of burgundy, grey and black:

A year later it was a kaleidoscopic free-for-all

 

[Cutdown69]

My mistake. I misred your previous post and was speaking of the tennis shirts.

speaking of the Laurel wreath made of a piece of cotton, they recently made a collab with NCabourn with a vintage tennis shirt like that. (I’ve got one)

And they re-did a Jumper with a logo like that some years ago it was a Terry Hall (from the Specials) model.

View attachment 1598072

View attachment 1598073

Like this?

 

[Bob the Badger]

Is that a genuine FP? I don't remember seeing that style before.