HI ALL Every Bank Holiday that comes & goes, it is those from 1969, for me are very much a part of me, 1869, was the very best year in the 60 years I have lived, every thing about that year was very much me, and all the kids who had rejected society, my story about this aspect of the most Violent Youth sub culture is not just about fashion, it.s about spirit,

this was the last Bank Holiday of the 60's and is now known as the year of the SKINHEAD, however to most of the original BB we are proud to be the originals, Bank Holidays would soon be over, but the new 69-70 season was kicking of to the sound of OI! OI! OI! here are 2 draft pages from my book of facts, THE SPIRIT of 69, and it's meaning??? DAVE

Used to go from Leeds to Bridlington with the 'Central' scooter club, camp at Bempton in Brid.

I remember one year we were camped at the side of a raised railway embankment, not knowing that at the other side were camped a load of Rockers. We found out in the middle of the night though, when our tents were being pelted with bricks and stones, we made a fast getaway I can tell you.

It was always Bridlington for the mods and scooter boys, and Scarborough for the rockers, until one year the Mods decided that they wanted to go to Scarborough instead, so hundreds of Scooters rode in to Scarborough and kicked f**k out of the rockers and out of Scarborough, and from then on the Mods went there every year.

One memory stands out on that year when a rocker was riding up the front on his bike and some Mod hit him in the face with his crash helmet at about 30mph, sending the rocker backward off his bike, and the bike carried on into the sea wall.

Ah! good old days

Edited August 24, 201212 yr by Steve Luigi

I went to Southend bank holiday 69. Was meant to be a greaser home patch, though by the time me and the couple of blokes I was with got there they,d all been run off the front. Must have been 800 odd firm mainly cockneys with a splattering of us provinces geezers.Old bill spent all day trying to disperse us but all they done was split us into 4-5 groups which just made life harder for em.All the London boys would put there manor, football alleigances behind em and the chant was LONDON UNITED.Lot of haries got kicked and a lot of looting and vandalisam was order of the day.Lot of nickings as well which resulted in a fair few borstal, D.C. sentences.Same thing happened at the Hyde park concerts with the Stones one being paiculary vicious. Anyone calling you a skinhead back then was asking for a slap as that was a newspaper term and only used by 70,s onwards ones.

Found this link--hope it works.

https://boots7uk.multiply.com/photos/album/39/Black-and-White?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fphotos%2Falbum

Dave

Really the year when the mod thing went nationwide (bank holiday trouble and all that) was 1964, and the place where it all started was Clacton - Easter 1964.

A couple of scans from newspaper front pages below.

From then I think it moved to Margate and Brighton at Whitsun and Hastings and Yarmouth at August Bank Holiday.

Then it carried on into 1965 - mainly Brighton I think.

After that it pretty much petered out. In Clacton every bank holiday the police manned all the roads into town and anyone on scooters was turned back. They also manned the train station and anyone they considered might cause trouble had their shoe/boot laces confiscated.

So it just became more trouble than it was worth.

In 1964 I was 11 years old lived in Clacton just one door off the sea front so watched the whole thing happening that Easter. There was certainly a load of madness going on. A couple of hundred kids (mods) stormed the pier and vaulted the barriers and I don't doubt that a bit of blood was spilled here and there (mod v rocker ratio was about 100:1). And there was quite an ugly mood through the whole town and I know a lot of people felt intimidated ( not me ) Some bits of vandalism definitely. But there were strange circumstances. Easter came very early that year and the weather was really cold. Some of the kids were just getting up to mischief to save from freezing to death.

But when I saw the newspaper headlines on the Monday I thought it was outrageous. Total exaggeration. You'd have thought it was the end of the world as we knew it.

I said that to my Mum and (bless her heart) she said if you don't like something someone has said then you should tell them. The result was image 3 - courtesy of the Daily Mail.

So I started sticking my oar in quite young - and still gong strong

All the best

MB

Dave

Really the year when the mod thing went nationwide (bank holiday trouble and all that) was 1964, and the place where it all started was Clacton - Easter 1964.

A couple of scans from newspaper front pages below.

From then I think it moved to Margate and Brighton at Whitsun and Hastings and Yarmouth at August Bank Holiday.

Then it carried on into 1965 - mainly Brighton I think.

After that it pretty much petered out. In Clacton every bank holiday the police manned all the roads into town and anyone on scooters was turned back. They also manned the train station and anyone they considered might cause trouble had their shoe/boot laces confiscated.

So it just became more trouble than it was worth.

In 1964 I was 11 years old lived in Clacton just one door off the sea front so watched the whole thing happening that Easter. There was certainly a load of madness going on. A couple of hundred kids (mods) stormed the pier and vaulted the barriers and I don't doubt that a bit of blood was spilled here and there (mod v rocker ratio was about 100:1). And there was quite an ugly mood through the whole town and I know a lot of people felt intimidated ( not me ) Some bits of vandalism definitely. But there were strange circumstances. Easter came very early that year and the weather was really cold. Some of the kids were just getting up to mischief to save from freezing to death.

But when I saw the newspaper headlines on the Monday I thought it was outrageous. Total exaggeration. You'd have thought it was the end of the world as we knew it.

I said that to my Mum and (bless her heart) she said if you don't like something someone has said then you should tell them. The result was image 3 - courtesy of the Daily Mail.

So I started sticking my oar in quite young - and still gong strong

All the best

MB

What a fantastic memento to have - great post.

Reverting to adolesence here but this reminds me of going down the coast in 1970 - to the tune of Staus Quo - Down the dustpipe.

Going down to the coast now

In my braces and boots

Ain't no room for no grease down there

In a town like Whitley Bay

Doing alright now

Going down to the fight now na na nana

What a fantastic memento to have - great post.

I suppose I must have been a bit of a precocious kid - taking on the hang 'em & flog 'em brigade at the age of 11.

There are a few nice pictures of that weekend on line. One below. I especially like the mod girls. Something really atmospheric about it.

The hotel where they hold the Monumental soul weekender is just a few yards from there. And I lived a couple of streets further along.

Enjoy!

Edited August 25, 201212 yr by MBarrett

Edited August 25, 201212 yr by MBarrett

I suppose I must have been a bit of a precocious kid - taking on the hang 'em & flog 'em brigade at the age of 11.

There are a few nice pictures of that weekend on line. One below. I especially like the mod girls. Something really atmospheric about it.

The hotel where they hold the Monumental soul weekender is just a few yards from there. And I lived a couple of streets further along.

Enjoy!

Yes great photos - lots of memories of mod girls in 3 quarter length leather jackets locally right up until the late 60s.

And on a sunny day in our local park the mod girls would always be walking in pairs with one linking the other and with hand held transistors which always seemed to be playing Heatwave or Dancing in the street.

Our local park which had a lake would often subsitute for the coast and large groups would sit around always with radios - Otis Redding SOTDOTB and The Toys Lovers Concerto seemed to programmed a lot too and as a youngster I remember first hearing Marvin Gayes I heard it through the grapevine on someone's park radio - and being an unsophisticated 12 year old I thought it literally meant a grapevine and I pictured Marvin standing behind something that resembled a tree overhearing a conversation and that misconception persisted for a long time lol

Cheers

Manus

Yes great photos - lots of memories of mod girls in 3 quarter length leather jackets locally right up until the late 60s.

And on a sunny day in our local park the mod girls would always be walking in pairs with one linking the other and with hand held transistors which always seemed to be playing Heatwave or Dancing in the street.

Our local park which had a lake would often subsitute for the coast and large groups would sit around always with radios - Otis Redding SOTDOTB and The Toys Lovers Concerto seemed to programmed a lot too and as a youngster I remember first hearing Marvin Gayes I heard it through the grapevine on someone's park radio - and being an unsophisticated 12 year old I thought it literally meant a grapevine and I pictured Marvin standing behind something that resembled a tree overhearing a conversation and that misconception persisted for a long time lol

Cheers

Manus

So did I, but that was reinforced by the top of the pops film which had a girl walking through a vineyard!

HI and many thanks, for the input grest stuff, CHEIFYS commments may be correct? but I will stick to my version that it followed AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY, As Bt Yarmouth had the NEW BEACH smashed to bits, GREEBO got stuck on the tip of my umbrella recieved fatal wound, (good job I lost it?) following a savage attack on a GREEBO outside the OASIS, John Wilson the man who boiled his baby to death when his misses left him? single handed destroyed the man with head butts, the BIG FIGHT on REGENT ROAD near bowling ally.

To me every town in HARTFORDSHIRE WS THERE, INCLUDING MANY FROM LUTON?

However it was the fight on the GREEN, That I will always rember, about 15 of us were in the sights of about 70 GREEBO and they attacked I ran round to a mini van parked near the back off the OASIS, when I saw SNOWY (the albino) only feet away stick a garden rake into the boat of this GREEBO, and pulled his face off with a swift tug, he got QUEENS PLESURE DAVE

Reverting to adolesence here but this reminds me of going down the coast in 1970 - to the tune of Staus Quo - Down the dustpipe.

Going down to the coast now

In my braces and boots

Ain't no room for no grease down there

In a town like Whitley Bay

Doing alright now

Going down to the fight now na na nana

Hi manus how are you doing,I remember a song the Corby lads used to sing way back in the day of a similar ilk.

Down on the corner,

Fighting with the grease,

Sicking the boot in ,

Knocking out their teeth!

If memory is correct the tune was that from a Creedence clearwater revival song of the time.

Back in the early seventies it was quite common for a hundred or more size crew from Corby to go to football matches nearby,Notts,Derby,liecs etc where all individual team support would be forgotten and would merge into a mostly scots looking firm all wearing different colours including Celtic and Rangers? that would emerge early morning in a town to cause havoc under the guise of Man utd, chelsea or whatever.The same firm would pay regular visits to kettering to take part in mini riots outside night clubs,certain pubs etc.Quite a few of this crew were all nighter boys who went to harboro,the Torch etc but enjoyed the fun of a good old mini riot me,I was hooked on it from the get go,arrested first time at Ketternig v Corby at Kettering after a group of greesers got whacked outside the ground on the way to the match,aged 12, from then on bad was good.Two of the other Corbvy lads who got nicked were big names on the local notierity front so I felt quite proud being frogmarmarched into the panda car(police transport of the time,)but what the!!!! I was just",Getting on life",

Hi manus how are you doing,I remember a song the Corby lads used to sing way back in the day of a similar ilk.

Down on the corner,

Fighting with the grease,

Sicking the boot in ,

Knocking out their teeth!

If memory is correct the tune was that from a Creedence clearwater revival song of the time.

Mad old days Manus

Cheers