Think I've seen it but cant remember all of it, will look it up. What is it with the fixation people (men) have with violence? Movies, books, auto biogs about villains and enforcers, they always sell well
From 1978 I was a skinhead. It was amazing how trouble escalated within a couple of years. I remember mixing with the mods and Rasta's at "The Elms" in Leigh on Sea and the "Top Alex" in Southend. Then all of a sudden we all hated each other. In 1980 I went to see West Ham lose to Liverpool in the Charity shield. Bad Manners were playing in Stepney, East London that evening so we all went straight there. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. Vicious fighting with people getting slashed. I couldn't get away quick enough. I hung up my boots and braces very soon after that night.
i suppose because its interesting, last year I read a book by someone I have known as a friend for 20 years ( a biker ) a nicer bloke you could not meet, pushing nearly 70 now, we got talking about military and ww2 and he said he was an ex para in the 70s , I like to think im an amateur historian on german ww2, anyway told me he was a mercenary after he left the paras and wrote a book on his mercenary exploits in angola in the mid 70s , which was a best seller, bought a copy on ebay and by god I was shocked when I read it, true story and well documented , killed loads including other british mercenarys whilst part of colonel callans Angolan mercenary force , interesting but scary
those youth gang violence films were all preceeded by A Clockwork Orange..... that caused a bit of a stir
It' was well known about him .... They did their nut when he was on the " Strength through Oi " album !!! Was common knowledge in the 80s around London
Interesting read, thanks. I was at the GLC gig for the Smiths with friends and we all had our kids in tow. Luckily we didn't see any fights where we were at main stage. I grew through my teens as a Hairy/Hippy type to an punky biker in my 30's(1980's). A lot of my mates were skinheads but more style/fashion skins than the thug type. Any type of violence disgusts me, more so mindless gang attacks. I liked the oi style of music for its comic side and never really knew of its NF connections.
don't get gangs up here, just sheep loitering at the side of the road. that skin head movie your talking about it wasn't Australian was it? remember watching one in the 80s brutal.
Fucking NF Skins ruined the Scooter scene in the v late 80's/90's. Wankers. Dancing to Liquidator and then Seig Heiling? Thick tnucs.
American History X. I grew up in the 80's. there was a paticular nasty skin that had a reputation for violence that used to be around where I lived. I was playing around in the park with my mates when this dickhead decided to nick our cricket ball. After a bit of a standoff, I ended up in a scuff all with him. Ended up breaking his nose as well as other injuries and got my cricket ball back... a year later he jumps out from behind a tree when I was walking home and clubs me with a lump of wood. Didn't see it coming and got stitches in my head.... Roll on a few years and I bumped into him in a local pub where he started again (no longer a skin). We went outside and he ended up in the hospital...
i just got right good at recognizing the signs and avoided like the plague. i remember walking down union street in Aberdeen at night and feeling threatened by the girl gangs that where fashionable at the time.
It's always been my contention that the British are just a violent race. That's one of the reasons they conquered ¾ of the world. The tribal thuggery that is just part of the UK doesn't happen to anything like the same extent in other countries (well, at least European ones). Spain is a truly humungous market for Scottish and spirits (drunk long) but they don't then all go and knock seven shades of shit out of each other afterwards. Working in Liverpool, a clerk in the office used to regale us with his tales of a good Saturday night. Basically, he'd go out with his "crew", get rat-arsed, find some poor unfortunate to beat up with his mates, have a curry and throw up. Remove any of these elements and it wasn't considered a good night out. The guy was perfectly nice in the office. He was smallish with glasses. But I saw him under the influence once and he'd turned into a complete arsehole.
