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Home , Angelic Upstarts, Ben Sherman, Brutus Jeans, Cockney Rejects, Desmond Dekker, Garry Bushell

Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? Style and Graphic Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? Skinhead Style and Graphic Subcultures LCC Graphic Subcultures Research Group

Many late Twentieth Century subcultures have been exhaustively analysed and pored over by historians, academics and journalists; collected, collated and curated in books, magazines, galleries and museums. This level of recuperation has never been applied to the Skinhead movement – the retains a strongly close-knit and largely underground identity, away from the cultural mainstream.

Looking at the historical and cultural origins of skinhead identity, the Graphic Subcultures Research Group at College of Communication (LCC) presents a new exhibition running from Wednesday 23 October – Saturday 2 November 2013. From British roots to contemporary global interpretations of the subculture, the show focuses on the visual manifestations of skinhead style – in dress, illustration, graphic design, photography, media and publishing – together with its links to music genres, football, politics and class.

Key themes explored include:

• Origins: 1960s Mods and • 1960s , and Bluebeat • 1970s Suedeheads and Bootboys • 1970s and 1980s Punk, Hardcore, !, Skunx and • 2 Tone and the Ska Revival • Class, Politics and Race – Neo Nazis, SHARP and RASH • Gender and Sexuality • Media Appropriation • Contemporary Global Skinhead Identities

Exhibition Curator Creative Director Russ Bestley Catalogue Design Russ Bestley

Special thanks to Toast, Matt Worley, , Ana Raposo, Shaun Cole, Tom Vague, Gavin Watson, Greg Bradley, Tony Credland, Glenn Orton, Roger Sabin and Leila Kassir for their invaluable help and contributions.

Thanks also to Natalie Brett, Lawrence Zeegen, Belinda May, Julie Coombes, Joanna Matthews, Les Claridge, Scott House, Luke Whitehead, Kellie Bryson, Kieron Marchese, Adriana De Freitas Rodrigues, Louella Ward, Allyne Costa and Gabriele Grigorjevaite.

Boots image on cover taken from front cover of the Last Resort shop catalogue circa 1980. Design by Mick Furbank, photography Martin Dean. Images in catalogue from the Mott Collection and from the archive collection of Toast. 2 54-46 That’s My Number – The First Skinheads Garry Bushell

“I want all you skinheads to get up on I interviewed Chris at length in my book on the London club scene around 1965 your feet, put your braces together and Hoolies. He and his , the Middle and very much a smart, working- your on your feet, and give me Park Skins, came from a council estate class alternative to the dubious lure some of that ollll’ moonstompin’ . . .” in Eltham, South East London. They of psychedelia. West Indian culture Symarip ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ went to comprehensive schools when exerted a major influence on the they weren’t hopping the wag. And evolution of skinhead style. Ska, from If you want to know what skinheads when they weren’t fighting the rival which skinhead sprouted, was were about, it’s best to ignore Eltham Hounds skinhead gang they a Jamaican development of American everything you have ever read about would frequent the White Swan at R&B embellished with touches like them in the UK press. The tabloid Crystal Palace for their Friday reggae the omnipresent horn section. Wailers’ prejudice that skinheads were thick night, with DJ Brian Jones, or take guitarist Ernest Ranglin said that the fascist thugs, and mugs heading for the their own records to the Castlecombe word ‘ska’ was cooked up to describe jug was never true. Real skinheads were youth club at nearby Mottingham. the ‘Skat! Skat! Skat!’ scratching guitar interested in reggae, , football, Though they loved Stax and , strum that goes behind. Ska was the fucking and fighting, although probably reggae was the soundtrack of their music of the first-generation British not in that order. The cult, which had lives. Like me, Chris would buy his ska blacks and the teenage immigrants who its roots in , went mainstream imports from Music City in Lewisham, also adopted their own look and a name in 1969 - the year skinhead reggae run by a Jamaican fella called Lee, who – the rude boys. The name was assumed ruled the charts. It was a genuine mass later deejayed at a club called Tites in by ’s tough and volatile young working-class phenomenon. Every city, Beckenham. Weeks and his mates would ghetto hooligans who were noted for every town in every part of the UK had play the latest Jamaican sounds to get their savage gang wars and lawlessness. a cropped contingent. Richard Allen’s themselves hyped up for football. Ska records often aimed at persuading 1970 novel Skinhead, published later, the rudies to cool it, but perversely the sold more than a phenomenal 1 million Fighting was largely territorial and Wailers’ first single, ‘’, copies in paperback, and spawned 17 occurred mostly at or around football and later like ‘’ and ‘Jail further novels. The back-cover blurb matches, although the mass media House’ only helped to glorify the cult. sums it up as “a book that portrays with were more interested in the shock- horrifying vividness all the terror and horror mileage to be had from stories The rude-boy rig-out sported by West brutality that has become the trademark of skinhead attacks on minorities – Indian youths in south London was of these vicious teenage malcontents” homosexuals, squaddies, long- a direct ancestor of skinhead style: – words certain to horrify the press and (from my own childhood I can recall Crombie-type coats, worn other self-appointed guardians of public long-haired teens getting off the train higher than the norm to emphasise morality, but for the nation’s young at Eltham rather than Kidbrooke to white socks and black shoes, and all tearaways they were an enticing advert. avoid risking a beating from the Ferrier topped off with pork-pie hats and Estate skins) and Pakistanis, although wraparound shades. Creole brought Charlton Athletic hooligan Chris Weeks these attacks were more to do with to the UK in 1967 to became a that year, when he was cultural than racial differences – a fine promote his Top Twenty hit ‘007 (Shanty 14. Why? “Skinheads had it all,” he distinction to be made after you’d just Town)’. They gave him a ; Dekker says. “They had class, music, style. been clobbered over the head with a immediately insisted that the bottom There’s no way I could’ve been a ‘grebo’ half-brick to be sure, but an important six inches be cut off the trousers. For – the greasers were filthy rotten back one nonetheless. The new Pakistani most of his new, young fans this would then and still are. They’re nothing but a immigrants were different: unlike the be their first exposure to rude-boy poor man’s Hell’s Angels. Give me half- West Indian kids, they weren’t cool, sartorial style. Razor partings also inch braces and a clean they didn’t mix, and in fact they were originated with the young blacks, and [] any day.” A 16-year-old skin equally (if not more) disliked by West it’s highly likely that the skinhead interviewed at in 1969 echoed Indian skinheads, or Afro Boys, as they crop, although having roots in the Mod that revulsion: “We hate the grease ’cos became known. crew cut, was accentuated as a means they don’t wash and they wear all that of imitating the rude boys’ hairstyle leather and oily hair. They’re just dirty The roots of Skinhead stretch back (although its similarity to the hairstyle and their girls are even worse. So when years before 1969. Its development of GIs and the glamorous, pioneering you meet them you just want to get in can be traced directly to the ‘’, a US astronauts can’t be overlooked as there and do them.” Spartan branch of Mod first spotted contributory factors).

5 In the beginning these shaven-headed Class was a major factor in skinhead worth buying the book for, as the rest I got a job at Burton’s in Bexleyheath Steady’ was typical of the new genre, shitting himself. But as far as we were white kids were known by a variety thinking. They hated bosses, the rich, consists of over-generalised, under- and so finally I could afford my first which itself developed. Until by 1969 concerned he was ruining our night and of names (peanuts, cropheads, boiled and the middle class – middle- and researched, pseudo-sociological claptrap handmade suit and proper it was producing massive British chart he had to go. So we all got stuck in. The eggs, no-heads and so on) but became upper-class in particular. The about the late-70s skinhead resurgence). Bens. The manager didn’t mind me crop hits like Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’. police came and lobbed us out. Sadly, identified as skinheads as early as Collinwood mob found them ‘plain Simplifying, early workday/football because he said it reminded him of his This ‘reggae of the ’69 kind’ was a that was the end of the White Swan 1967. In Jamie Mandelkau’s Buttons: revolting... you notice that a lot of rich wear would be boots, braces (to days in the RAF. I got my first Crombie major chart factor for the following reggae night.” The Making of a President, he talks of people turn hippy; they have been emphasis working-class origins and overcoat in Burton’s, because I got staff few years with some Jamaican artists battling ‘the Walthamstow Skinheads’ spoilt... they are reacting against society loyalties), any unfashionable shirt, discount. I got my two pairs of Sta-Prest quite shamelessly pandering to their No youth cult stands still, however. The in late 1967. Of all the names, only ’cause their own people are society. an army or RAF great coat, a Levi’s or strides in Millets, one white and one a British audience (the best example of skinhead look became progressively ‘skinhead’ really did justice to the new Hippies are just lazy no-good dropouts... Wrangler jacket, or a . dark green pair. My Levi cost 59 overtly skinhead-orientated reggae smarter, with boots and braces dropped cult’s tough, aggressive and passionately they look down on us...’ The skins of For best, dances and suchlike, all shillings and 6d [£2.98]. They had half- was Symarip’s ‘Skinhead Moonstop’). in favour of belts and loafers even working-class stance. East End skinhead the Chelsea Shed reacted to the student skins aspired to possess a decent suit, inch turn-ups. Levi’s ruled in London, released budget-price during the day, evolving into the suede- Alan Mortlock recalls seeing his first uprisings of 1968 with a chant of preferably a mohair, 2-Tone or Prince but in the Midlands Wranglers were compilations like the Tighten Up and head style. Suede-heads wore their hair skin gang in the spring of 1968. “It “Students, students – ha, ha, ha.” of Wales affair, worn with more popular. I had half-inch braces, Reggae Chartbusters series, which sold longer – it was combable – and favoured was at the fair at Wanstead Common. brogues, and later loafers. The all-time one blue pair and one red pair, at 12 bob for 14s 6d (72 ½p) and sold in excess the Crombie coat, preferably with a I was there with my mum and dad and Escalating violence at football matches favourite skinhead coat was a sheepskin [60p] each. My DMs were Burgundy of 60,000 units a pop. velvet collar. Some suedes developed saw all these guys with cropped hair. I – which neither began nor ended with – ‘Crombies didn’t really catch on until with yellow stitching and had to be a ‘city gent’ look sporting bowlers and remember Mum saying, ‘What a lovely skinheads – resulted in the adoption of suede-head time. polished with Kiwi brown polish. Also In the earlier part of the decade a brollies, although the classic suede smart lot of boys’ – and then they various weapons or ‘tools’, possibly the in my wardrobe was me Squires jacket, bluebeat aficionado would have to go to image was the – started rucking.” nastiest being homemade kung fu metal Hair was razor-cropped, but heads made by Harrington, my black Royals Brixton (where Somerleyton Road was named after Rodney Harrington who filed into star shapes to be chucked like were never shaved bald. The razors [brogues], my black Gibson lace-up then the ‘front line’) and clubs like the wore it in the TV show Peyton Place By the summer of 1968, the skinhead darts (which were also popular) at your were set to different lengths, one to basket weave tops, and my cappers with Ram Jam to hear the music, or southeast (like the city gent look, it was originally look had taken off as the working- opponents. Millwall fans came up with five, with the number-one crop being screw-on thick rubber soles – a lot like London like the Three Tuns. We briefly fashionable with mods) – Sta- class youth look, spawning a new the ‘Millwall brick’, a cosh made from a the shortest. The favourite shirt was the the boots I had a few years later in the would trek miles for the latest imports. Prest trousers (white ones looked best) media demon: the bootboy. Ian Walker simple tabloid newspaper folded until Ben Sherman with button-down collar Guards... To complete the look I had to But, as the music moved into pop’s and ox-blood Royals. Barrie Taylor claimed in New Society to have seen it became lethally hard. Hooligans also and back pleats. Bens were usually have a titfer [hat] when I nicked mainstream, so reggae nights became (a.k.a. Barrie the mod) from east London 4,000 skinheads running rampage at one fashioned makeshift knuckledusters checked (never white) and worn with out of Selfridges up London. I was with regular features of dance halls like recalls, “By the end of ’71, suede-head soccer match. “They all wore bleached out of coins wrapped in paper. The most the top button undone and the sleeves a girlfriend from Chislehurst and I just the local Palais. Contemporary reggae had developed into the ‘smoothie’ look Levis, Dr Martens, a short scarf tied popular ‘helpers’ however, were the turned up once. Brutus check and walked in, tried it on and walked out promoter Tony Cousins recalls, “The with the hair even longer, Fair Isle yoke cravat style, cropped hair,” he wrote, simple metal comb and steel-capped later the humble were also wearing it.” great thing about this kind of music pullovers, polo necks and later tank adding, “They looked like an army Dr Martens work boots. It’s unlikely acceptable. Smarter skins replaced Levi’s was that the audiences were completely tops, and shirts with hideous rounded and after the game went into action that the good 19th-century Bavarian red-tag jeans with Sta-Prest trousers. Older skins with more ready cash integrated between black and white.” collars. The favoured smoothie shoes like one.” Dr Klaus Martens had the slightest Andrew McClelland, a former skinhead pushed the smartness with a mod’s US soul was still extremely popular too, were called Norwegians. They were idea of just how seminal his patented from , southeast London, says, attention to detail. Tonic mohair suits and artists like Booker T had a large lace-ups and had a basket weave design A Rudie spin-off, the Afro Boys were Air-Wair soles (resistant to fat, acid, “Everything had a name. When you were the ultimate in style. They were skinhead following, although inevitably on the front.” With the explosion of plentiful in cities such as London oil, petrol and alkali, and topped off went out at night you went in your Ben worn with handkerchiefs in the top the music lived more through DJs in the glam and glitter between 1971 and and , and were equals with handsome leather uppers) were Sherman shirt, your Levis, your Doctor pocket. Suit jackets would be single- pubs and clubs than on stage. 1973, skinhead was finished as a mass in skinhead , initially at least; to become for generations of British Martens or your Squires. Even when we breasted with as many as five buttons, movement...until the late 70s, when it although the skinhead kids from the hooligans. Martens, or DMs, were went down to Margate you could always large (four-inch) pocket flaps with The Middle Park Mob were from an all- all came-back, first with punk and then Collinwood gang, based in Stepney, an essential ingredient of the early tell our chaps. We all looked the same, ticket pockets inside. Black and white white council estate, but the skins were 2-Tone... interviewed in the Paint House, skinhead look. Then they were usually like a uniform, in sheepskins, white skins mixed freely at such mates with Jamaican lads from Brixton testify that sexual rivalry generated ill brown or cherry red, and just eight-hole jeans and boots.” as the Streatham Locarno and also congregated at the White Swan feeling. The original skinheads weren’t affairs as a rule. Girls never wore DMs: Suite. Reggae was the skinhead in Crystal Palace. Chris Weeks recalls renowned for political activity, but, they favoured monkey boots. For Chris Weeks and his mates, getting music, but it was a markedly different one black kid called Tony who would if asked, the majority would have the right look was essential but hard reggae from the simple ska that the delight the regulars with his impression been Labour voters, like their parents. The very best guide to the evolution for working-class kids on low incomes. rudies had introduced mods to earlier of Arthur Conley singing ‘Sweet Soul During the dustmen’s strike of 1969, the of skinhead sartorial style over the He says, “I couldn’t afford a proper on in the decade. Around 1966, ska Music’. The happy harmony ended Collinwood filled market barrows with golden age of 1968 to 1971 was written Ben Sherman, so my first shirt was a in Jamaica had developed into rock only when a big Jamaican DJ called rubbish and dumped it by the front door by Jim Ferguson and published in Nick Brutus. They looked just as good and 39 steady, which was faster and funkier Neville tried to take the venue over, of Stepney town hall, shouting, “We’re Knight’s Skinhead book (although his shillings and 6d [£1.98] you couldn’t go than the original, in much the same way bringing his own massive PA to drown skinheads and we’re doing this for essay and Harry Hawke’s handsome wrong. I got that shirt at Harry Fenton’s as US R&B had developed into soul. out Brian Jones’s sounds. Says Chris, Garry Bushell the dustmen.” reggae discography are the only things in Eltham High Street. After I left school ’s definitive dance hit ‘Rock “The bloke was massive and Brian was Columnist & Author

6 7 8 9 Flashbacks of a Bootboy Tom Vague

Before punk I was a bootboy/soulboy/ Village Bowl or Winter Gardens – the remained in with. One of them appeared glam , more interested in football Clash, Damned, Jam, Generation X, when I was getting on the guest list than music. I became an Everton Slaughter and the Dogs, – were for a Siouxsie and the Banshees gig supporter in 1968, when my mum said like indoors with at Poole and I got him in as my plus I had to choose one of the teams in music and girls. In 78 I went to Chelsea one. We then had a disagreement with the cup final and I went for the blues v Everton after going to Seditionaries, the Banshees’ new merchandiser, who who duly lost to West Brom. At school and the Rock Against Carnival proceeded to grab a bag of Vague 10. in Gillingham, Dorset, the local teams in Hackney, in Sham army mode: black Whereupon the merchandising stall was to support were Bournemouth and/or Dr Martens boots, combat trousers and surrounded by skinheads and the tour Portsmouth. One of my first brushes black Harrington jacket. manager had to beg me to call them with the law came over ‘Pompey off. Once the Vagues were retrieved Bootboys Rule’ or possibly ‘Rool’ graffiti At the 78 Reading festival I was the skins reluctantly complied but on the scout hut in Mere where I lived. pictured in the local paper at the front told me they were going to do over Gillingham and Shaftesbury, where I when Sham came on, bearing some the Banshees’ van. On the previous was born, were bootboy towns and resemblance to . As we got Banshees tour we alerted the to Tisbury was the stronghold, there I remember a big scary West Ham some sieg heiling skins in the audience which we formed an alliance with the NF skinhead hitting anybody who tried at Derby, prompting them to change Shaftesbury lot to attack. to walk past him, but I got by unscathed into Star of David ‘Israel’ T-shirts which as he either considered me a fellow quelled the trouble. The mid-70s bootboy look was skin or was busy hitting someone else. brown Dr Martens boots, Oxford or After Sham I saw the aftermath of the In Ladbroke Grove in the early 80s, in Birmingham bags trousers, jean jacket, mini-riot in the beer tent and ended up the KPH pub on the way to a post-punk football scarf, and post- with a called Julie during gig at Acklam Hall/Bay 63, we were quite long hair, not much shorter than the more harmonious ‘If the Kids are befriended by one of the infamous the greasers. My most style conscious United’ Pirates’ set. We later had some Grove skins. He accompanied us to the mate Steve Luftman had a Crombie aggro off a group of Status Quo fans Golden Cross on Portobello, where he coat with a red handkerchief in the but managed to talk our way out if it, seemed to be on good terms with all the breast pocket. We were mostly engaged saying “We’re not skinheads, we’re local dealers, but then refused to help in fairly harmless rural vandalism. I punk rockers”, accusing them of acting us bump start a black bloke’s car under once somehow got the better of Luke, the same as the neo-Nazi skins. the Westway. I was relieved that my the leader of the Tisbury bikers, in a post-punk skinhead mate Gary, who was village hall fight/drunken tussle. Shortly after Reading I saw Adam and associated with Death in June, did help. I was fully committed to post-mod/ the Ants for the first time, during an Gary and Dev, who was Asian, from my skinhead pop culture, but one of my anti-punk bikers’ mini-riot in Salisbury, squat virtually became NF skins after best mates, Derek Skinner, was a and went post-punk. In 79 a lot of my listening to too much Joy Division and greaser, known as Skin. He was into punk mates became ska revival Two- Throbbing Gristle. The Ladbroke Grove the Velvet Underground and the New tone skinheads, which I thought was a skins were widely considered to be NF, York Dolls, and I first saw Sniffin’ Glue cop out, but we featured , as in the skinhead riot scene in Breaking after he got a copy at a John Madness and Selecter in Vague, along Glass under the Westway, in which they Cale and the Boys gig at Bournemouth with the Ants, Joy Division and Public appear re-enacting the skin mini-riots Winter Gardens. Image. The Ants at High Wycombe at Acklam Hall. But the Wise brothers Town Hall in 80 started off as another portray them as, if not left-wing red In 76/77 I was still going to football, anti-punk mini-riot initiated by the skins, non-racists who socialised with and playing, more than going to gigs. I local skins sieg heiling and throwing the Rastas on All Saints Road. would go to Man United games against chairs, but ended as a skinhead rout, as Southampton and Bristol City with they had underestimated the turn out United supporter mates in ‘the Red of London punks, actively encouraged Army’ football hooligan days, and by Adam. even went to the 76 Charity Shield with the Liverpool supporting leader There was a faction of the Bournemouth of the Gillingham bootboys Dougie punks that became skins but still wore Tom Vague Charlton. Punk gigs at Bournemouth Seditionaries/punk T-shirts, who I Writer and editor of Vague fanzine

10 11 12 13 The Finer Detail Shaun Cole

‘The skinhead style is smart, clean and that the skinhead’s choice of References tough. It is a precise uniform which reflected ‘hardness, masculinity and Cohen, P., 1997. Subcultural Conflict and proclaims identity’ working-classness’ (Marshall 1991; 35). Working Class Community. In K. Gelder & S. Thornton, eds. The Subcultures Nick Knight’s book, Skinhead, from Over the forty-five years of the Reader. London: Routledge. which this quote is taken, was not the subculture’s existence there have Hebdige, D., 1979. Subculture: the first detailed piece of writing about been divisions, between original and Meaning of Style, London: Methuen. skinhead culture, however, it did post-punk revival, racist and non- or Marshall, G., 1991. Spirit of ’69: A make a concerted effort to present a anti racist, straight and gay, male and Skinhead Bible, Dunoon: S.T. Publishing. comprehensive picture of this much female (even though the focus here is discussed and sometimes misunderstood on male skinhead style). But throughout or misrepresented subculture. Like all of these variations and divisions, Knight, chroniclers and observers of through the fashionable appropriations Skinhead style and culture, including and the revivals and assertions of sociologists John Clarke, Tony Jefferson, authenticity, adherence to particulars Phil Cohen, Ted Polhemus and Dick and detail in clothing and style has Hebdige, photographers Gavin Watson been key. Jim Fergusson’s ‘fashion and John G. Byrne and participant notebook’ in Knight’s book clearly skinhead George Marshall, have all illustrates these particularities in early noted the clean-cut precision and skinhead style, for example in 1968 attention to detail of the various stages trouser legs were eighteen inches wide of the development of this subculture with half inch turn ups worn to skim from its emergence in the late 1960s to the top of a pair of eight hole boots and its post-punk revival in the late 1970s lapels on suit jackets were three inches and beyond. at the widest.

Although used the In the clothing glossary section of expression ‘lower-class dandy obsessed Spirit of ‘69, Marshall notes that Ben with the small details of dress’ (1979: Sherman and other button down collar 52) to describe Mods, as a distinctive shirts should be worn with the top subculture that had grown out of button undone, whilst Fred Perry polo the diversification of styles of mod shirts should always be worn with the dressing in the latter part of the 1960s, top button done up. Other oral sources the skinheads inherited this keen eye indicate that the size of the button for detail. The boots, braces, jeans down shirt collar was also important: or Sta-prest trousers, button down revivalist skinheads looked to buy shirts and close-cropped hair worn by shirts where three fingers could be the ‘hard mods’ and the first wave of inserted between the fold of the collar skinheads from 1968 was a uniform and the button. Braces needed to be that Phil Cohen described as ‘a kind of no more than half and inch wide and caricature of a model worker’ (1997: 91); although initially worn to hold up jeans where functionality and adherence to or trousers, following the late seventies a practical proletariat ethic determined revival could be worn hanging down the choice of garments. over the bottom.

Narrow cut, tailored tonic or mohair These examples are by no means the full suits indicated both an adherence to extent of the prescriptive detail required notions of smartness and a working in skinhead dress, but they do offer an class aspiration that had been seen in insight into the precision of attention Shaun Cole mods and teddy boys. In his ‘skinhead to detail that is a key component of any Course Director bible’ Spirit of ’69, George Marshall skinhead’s style. MA History & Culture of Fashion echoed Cohen’s words, proclaiming London College of Fashion

8 15 16 17 From the Streets Matt Worley

Oi! was not so much created as in and around the Bridge House pub also more than just a soundtrack for discovered. The term was adopted by in Canning Town. While the Rejects skinheads. Today, as it forms the basis the Sounds writer Garry Bushell in 1980 produced a kind of ‘ruck ‘n’ roll’ that of scenes across every continent, so to describe a new wave of punk bands soon found favour with members of simplistic racial connotations fall away for whom ‘punk ain’t dogma or religion West Ham’s Inter City Firm (ICF), and the politics of class once more but the fulfillment of a burning need the offered a more come to the fore. Oi!, as Garry Johnson for rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form, raw, politicised street punk inspired by always made clear, was about ‘having aggressive and threatening.’ Taken from but firmly rooted in the a laugh and having a say’; it was a song, Oi! was first working-class culture of their native about being ‘sharp in brain and dress’, used as the title for a compilation album north-east. Where the Rejects sung of ‘knowing no-one is better than you’, designed to reassert punk as a form of ‘fighting in the streets’ and eschewed ‘not giving a toss about the boss’, ‘working-class protest’. More broadly, politics in all its forms, so the Upstarts’ being ‘proud to be British, but not it served as a catch-all term for what set concentrated its fury on ‘police xenophobic’. Most importantly, Oi! was Bushell described as ‘a loose alliance oppression’ and included paeans to steadfastly and unapologetically ‘proud of volatile young talents, skins, punks, mine workers. For the Upstarts’ lead to be working class’. tearaways, hooligans, rebels with or singer, Mensi, punk was ‘working-class without causes united by their class, rebellion, a way of making kids think a their spirit, their honesty and their love bit more’. For Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner, the of furious rock ‘n’ roll’. Rejects’ lead singer, punk was ‘bootboy music. Harringtons, boots and straights, To the forefront, initially at least, were that’s what we’re all about’. bands and poets such as the 4-Skins, Blitz, The Business, , Infa As this suggests, Oi! comprised what Riot, Garry Johnson and the Last Resort. Bushell described as a ‘skin/bootboy/ For Bushell, they revived punk’s original hardcore-punk mentality’. It was based promise in providing ‘music made by on principles of pride, loyalty and and for the hundreds of thousands of courage. It was ‘anti-politics’, in that human hand grenades primed by this it rejected both mainstream politics middle-class and middle-aged controlled and the ‘crackpots’ of the political society which has guaranteed them NO fringe. Instead, Oi! sought to provide a FUTURE and left them to fester in their street-level protest against the ‘smug frustration’. politicians and greedy bosses [who] have destroyed whole communities The parameters of Oi! were outlined in and thrown an entire generation on various Sounds articles and a series of the scrapheap’. six compilation LPs released between 1980 and 1984. The first and most Of course more organised politics important article was ‘The New Breed’, did intrude. The far right sought to which complemented the release of claim Oi! and the far left proved quick Oi! The Album in November 1980 to denigrate it, especially after the and sought to define what Bushell infamous Hambrough Tavern gig of distinguished as a particular strand July 1981. But both failed to succeed. of born of the If the politics of left and right impinged and The Clash but filtered through the on Oi!, then the common denominator blunt social realism of Cock Sparrer and of the bands involved remained Sham 69. a class identity that defined their understanding of punk and affirmed Two more immediate precedents were their sense of place within the shifting the Cockney Rejects and the Angelic contours of British society. Upstarts, the first of whom came from London’s Custom House and Oi!, then, was more than just a voice Matt Worley helped forge the nucleus of a scene from the dead end of the street. It was Reading University

18 19 20 21 Boots, Braces and Blackletter: Skinhead Graphics Russ Bestley

Skinhead identity, in all its many movement, punk and new wave, directly appropriated from Nordic or variations and interpretations, centres goth, emo, new romantic or hip hop). Celtic tradition (the celtic cross and rune on a range of visual and stylistic codes, symbols are commonplace) and ‘hidden’ many linked directly to clothing and Skinhead graphics tend to be overtly Nazi references including cryptic dress as well as hairstyle. Graphic hard-hitting and direct – the use numerical codes (18 relating to the first material associated with the subculture of high contrast black and white and eighth letter of the alphabet, AH, – such things as , flyers, posters, photography and line is mirrored the initials of Adolph Hitler, and 88 catalogues, book jackets and record by bold typographic treatments and relating to HH, or Heil Hitler). sleeves – follows similar codes and the adoption of strongly upright and conventions, usually communicating condensed sans serif or heavy uppercase One of the most common skinhead an affiliation to subcultural identity gothic typefaces. As with with punk symbols, the ‘crucified skinhead’ through the use of drawings or fanzines, Letraset dry transfer lettering illustration, was originally drawn by photographs of skinheads themselves, is commonplace within later skinhead Mick Furbank for the Last Resort along with bold headings and simple fanzines, with access to a wide range of skinhead shop in Petticoat Lane, icons or symbols associated with the suitable or appropriate typefaces limited London. Often interpreted as a scene including items of clothing, and thus generally standardised through symbol of skinhead identity with records and flags. The word ‘skinhead’ convention rather than design. Right an accompanying association with itself features heavily. wing elements tend to stray from the persecution for membership of the formula to incorporate an abundance of scene, the image has been appropriated The most common and frequently used blackletter styles, an ancient European by both left and right wing factions of ‘visual tropes’ are images of skinheads style used to describe type where the the subculture and is widely adopted as themselves – in action (running, darkness of the characters overpowers a tattoo by skinheads internationally. fighting, performing on stage or in the whiteness of the page. Such easily replicable symbols comprise the audience watching bands) or in a graphic language that is accessible portrait pose, often looking directly The survival of blackletter type styles and transferable throughout the at the viewer. This applies to both in Germany through to the early 20th skinhead subculture. photographs and drawings – with Century, a fact often attributed to the the latter sometimes adopting a more endurance of the Protestant religion exaggeratedly aggressive posture or in the country, led to its common extreme visual perspective. Symbols association with Nazism, particularly often centre on the (usually Dr in its schwabacher and fraktur Martens or combat boots), commonly in forms. However, this is a common extreme close-up and tightly cropped, misconception, as the Nazi party or on braces, Ben Sherman or Fred Perry adopted a range of stiffer and more shirts, narrow legged and turned up upright adaptations, redesigned by jeans, or on tattoos, faces and fists. German type designers in an attempt to update the form and remove its more The means of production nearly calligraphic elements. While the official always utilises either photography or interpretation of these new typefaces line drawing, both of which are more suggested that they “… stand strong immediately accessible to untrained and uniform, clear and powerful, a image-makers and lend themselves convincing expression of a new German well to simple methods of reproduction determination”, they were often decried such as photocopying. The skinhead by typesetters as schaftstiefelgrotesk or scene benefits and suffers equally ‘jackboot grotesques’. from a lack of commercial or cultural recuperation, and consequently far Such typographic subtleties are fewer examples of slick, professional generally lost on the producers of right graphics exist when compared to other wing skinhead graphics, who tend to subcultures that were seen as offering utilise any available typeface that on Russ Bestley better opportunities for commercial first appearance resembles the generic Reader in Graphic Design exploitation (such as the later hippy blackletter form, along with symbols London College of Communication

22 23 24 25 26 27 Rebels With a Cause Ana Raposo

While the original skinhead subculture turning towards left-wing politics band , released in 1984, emerged in the 1960s, the burgeoning of and actively combating racism; and and subsequently used again for the the punk movement also accompanied neo-fascist skinheads, labelled by other cover of a neo-fascist skinhead split a skinhead revival. Many revival skinhead factions with the derogatory album between English Rose and Kill skinheads turned to punk music and the term of ‘boneheads’ – due to their fully Baby Kill, Good Night Left Side, released two subcultures have been intertwined shaved rather than close-cropped heads. in 2006. Similarly, two compilation ever since. There are many instances of This split produced some of the most albums both entitled United Skins use individuals shifting between punk and active and committed anti-fascist Oi! an image by Mick Furbanks. The first, skinhead subcultures, or even keeping a groups, such as the Oppressed, who released on the Boots and Braces label in foot in both camps. imported the SHARP movement from 1982, marked the advent of nationalist the US into the UK. 1 skinheads; the second, a contemporary The skinhead revival of the late 1970s release, replaces the original European resulted in a new breed of skinhead. In common with a number of other and Commonwealth flags with flags According to George Marshall: subcultures displaying a strong sense of characteristic of the Red Anarchist commitment and loyalty, the discourse Skinheads movement. “During the summer of 1977, when of authenticity is ever-present within battles between teds and punks were a the skinhead scene. Faced with a regular weekend tourist attraction along movement with radically oppositional Footnotes the King’s Road, the original skinheads political views, from neo-fascist 1. Although the ‘enforced’ political who believed in the old ways, often skinheads to Red Anarchist Skinheads, awareness of skinheads had its fought alongside the teds, while the new gestures claiming the subculture from beginning during the late 1970s and breed sided with the punks.” (Marshall one particular viewpoint are constant. early 1980s, the categorisation of these 1994: 72) factions occurred later. Both anti racist Both opposing factions claim the legacy groups emerged first in the US – the This new breed of skinheads turned of the traditional skinhead, and hence a term SHARP was first used in 1986 and to Oi!, a punk variation trying to kind of ownership over its history and RASH during the early 1990s. reconnect to working class culture. politics. In 1980, Bulldog: The Paper of Presenting faster and more aggressive the Young National Front claimed that Bibliography sounds, it reflected its roots in pub “Nobody would deny that skinheads are Bulldog: paper of the Young National rock, reviving the sing-a-long with racist!” (Bulldog c.1980: 3). In contrast, Front (c.1980c). Issue 18. songs about drinking, football, aggro, SHARP, RASH and traditional skinheads London: National Front. sex and class. Oi!, which was at its core will claim the direct lineage with the Marshall, G. (1994) Spirit of ‘69: a apolitical, united punks and skinheads. rude boys and black skinheads of the skinhead bible. : S.T. Publishing. One perhaps unforeseen consequence, late 1960s as a proof of authenticity and largely due to the music’s often openly distinguish themselves from neo-fascist aggressive stance, was that some Oi! skinheads mostly by association with bands like the 4-Skins began to gather longstanding crossover musical styles neo-fascist followings. Bands were such as reggae and ska. forced to define their political affiliation and some bands even decided to break Within restricted and tightly defined up as the only way to cast aside these subcultures, the use of codes is often unwelcome new audiences. specialised. Distinctions between political allegiances are very clear to This split led to a schism of the skinhead those within the subculture – whether subculture into a number of distinct and by fashion, graphics or music – but opposing factions: traditional skinheads are frequently misunderstood by – following the apolitical first stance outside observers. The same codes are of the skinhead subculture; SHARP – frequently reclaimed. As an example, Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, the same photograph by Nick Knight, assuming an anti-racist stance while from a Sunday ‘mod bashing’ in Bethnal refusing to engage in organised politics; Green in 1981, was used for the album Ana Raposo RASH – Red Anarchist Skinheads, Oi! Oi! Music by the anti-fascist Oi! ESAD. Matosinhos, Portugal

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