Mod to Suedehead

Originally Posted by Man-of-Mystery

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Bunty, I watched that episode of RSG the night it went out!

Next up:
Every Friday I was glued to RSG,before anything else happened.

Originally Posted by browniecj

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Every Friday I was glued to RSG,before anything else happened.

Me too! My mum hated it!

It was funny really,you could meet and talk to a Skinhead(in the old days)and you could tell which Team they supported-from where they lived.Up West was one of the areas where you meet Skins and there would be hardly any violence,unless there were Matches on . Saturdays we used to meet up with some Skins from Willesden,and cause choas around the West End.

That was another important meeting place-a Cafe.Always had Soul on the Juke Box.Funny the other day,I fancied going into an old fashion Cafe and reliving those moments.Of course now you cannot-all Starbucks etc.

Originally Posted by Man-of-Mystery

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Me too! My mum hated it!

Actually my Mum enjoyed it.She used to like Mick Jagger,"what a lovely mover"She used to say.My Dad"turn the bloody row off".

For the book?

Some interesting points emerging about aggro. I was always one to keep out of the way - unless the odds were especially favourable .

I guess you guys living in London did not really experience the weekly horrors of having to avoid the greasers - the Coggeshall Bastards were especially lethal. If it's of help for the book I should like to re-live some of the more bizarre incidents. Here is just one.

Saturday night in 1968 or 69. Summer. Me and a couple of mates walking down Duke Street in Chelmsford and we took no real notice of a parked white mini van. It had its little vent thing open on the roof and looked just like a typical Police van used at the time.

As we approached a load of greasers piled out the back well tooled up - well there were more than three of them! There were only three of us. We took flight across the road, into the car park of County Hall, found the caretaker's flat where we hoped to take refuge. He told us to f*** off! We spotted a metal ladder affixed to the building, shot up that and hid on a low roof until the attackers got fed up and pissed off.

But the more interesting thing (and this is something the greasers did not do) was the in-fighting among skinheads themselves. In my area it was not restricted to football.....

Originally Posted by Brideshead

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For the book?

Keep it coming, John!

Most of us was good lads, But you did get some real horrible fcukers, Nutters we called them, I was in school with one lad , a year older than i we hung around in the 60s,
Once we left school i never saw him for a couple of years, this would be 1970, Then he just appeared on the scene, he was always a handful and had a habit of turning on people, He knew i was established in the gang and maybe he resented this.
One night we was all drinking in the pub, he said to me fancy going in the next bar to put some music on the box, ok i said, We put the music on...then returning to the other bar... as i pushed the door open he punched me in the back of the head, i turned around and he threw another, was trying to work out why i was being attacked by a bloke that i knew from infants school, anyway lads inside heard the noise and came out, i was prepared to fight him, lucky for me the governor also came out and banned me from the pub, think he was scared of this bloke, his name was Pete .

Some weeks later i was in a pub, they had a disco downstairs, I was sitting down and this Pete came in looking for trouble, Also he had a Knife, I was sitting against the wall and was sort of blocked in, I thought he is looking for me, I was so scared i was shaking, I was trying to get a grip of myself, never been so scared even to this day, One thing i was not going to run away in front of my mates, also it was impossible as he was standing there blocking my way, he then walked out of the pub, a couple of minutes later the Police was all over, i came out the pub..and a lad was lying over the back seat of a Police Panda car, Blood was all over the seat the C*nt Pete had stabbed him in the stomach..for nothing, this story is just one little episode of the madness that went on.
In the early days it was fun, But once we started drinking alcohol the violence went up to another level,
People done some awful things back then, One bloke who was one nutter, woke up one day and left the area, he just went to another part of Britain to live, never saw him again, i often wonder if he has trouble sleeping these days.

From 'Watch Out Kids' Mick Farren and Edward Barker

SBN Boards 333 13580 6
SBN Paper 333 13692 6

Pub 1972 Open Gate Books

(No page numbers! Far out eh?)

On the subject of the UFO club in Tottenham Ct Rd.......

I can't understand why there is a big argument nowadays over white Ben Shermans. (In 'The Paint House Gang', a 1972 study of Skinheads, one of the participants states that white Ben Shermans were never worn.) I had a long-sleeved Oxford weave one which I got from Davis's in Tottenham which was a good Skinhead shop. Sleeveless V-necks and cardigans were also worn. I can remember a phase of wearing Levi cords (blue), crewneck blue jumper with the shirt collar out and brogues, probably late '69 or '70. I won't go into football violence - it's so f**king boring - but I reckon that London clubs had the smartest Skinheads in England by a long way.

I must point out that not all Skinheads had a number one or number two haircut. Some had a very short college-boy with a high parting, very similar to the hard Mods that appeared in 1965-1966.

Jim Cox - Original Skinhead in 'The button-down types' chapter in 'The Soul Stylists' (page 83-87)

Blimey that's weird, I was sorting that article out whilst Lasttye posted his on a similar note....

Bunty, I'm wondering if this is Mick Farren and Edward Barker putting a backward spin on things. The word 'skinhead' wasn't in general use until two years after this incident except as an insult (maybe that's how he meant it). Two years later they met me and slightly revised their opinion when I 'persuaded' them to help me start 'Yell'. Edward was a great bloke - now dead, bless him - a brilliant cartoonist who even drew a couple of pics for me for 'Yell'.

Originally Posted by Lasttye

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Most of us was good lads, But you did get some real horrible fcukers....i often wonder if he has trouble sleeping these days.

Roy, I'm glad the topic of violence is being brought up. It's def a big part of "skinhead", whether 60s, or later new breed years. This thread focuses mostly on the clothes, but one cant forget that it's a violent scene, not just a bunch of well dressed guys hanging out dancing to soul music. Tho it does seem that the new "new breed" of skinheads are now made up of old first timers who have gotten into it as "traditional/Trojan" skinheads since that side of the scene is safe and easy to jump into.

We not only got in the Phoenix youth club, one night we decided to go to the North Paddington Boys Club,
We thought their was a disco going on, We walked in the main Hall and their was a boxing ring in the middle of the hall, Lads our age training hitting bags and sparring in the Ring,
We stood against the Wall six of us, the trainer said ok lads, have you come to join the Boxing club, Nah we thought it was disco night, the trainer Mike was his name said, why dont you join it, Anyone of you would like to have a move around in the ring with one of my lads, fcuk that we said, getting in there with a trained boxer. Mike said ok why not pair up with each other and do some sparring, seconds later we was getting the gloves on, we spent the next hours bashing each other up.
Mike who became a friend after that knew we had the balls, But we never had the discipline that his boxers had.
Mike would have been maybe 10 years older he would come in the pub and have a beer with us, Many a time he would turn up in Court for lads who had got nicked, Pleading to the Magistrate that we was good lads at heart.