A look backSocietyThe skinhead ‘uniform’ of cropped hair, short trousers and braces made them stand out – especially to the policeLondon’s skinheads have disbanded. When we weren’t looking, the bovver boys slipped out of their braces, grew their hair long and quietly demobbed.
Football club secretaries, policemen, community relations officers and hairdressers have known all about it for some time. Gordon Borland, secretary of Millwall Football Club was happy to admit last week that he had not seen a skinhead around the place for months. “I think they’re a dying breed.”
Bob Wall, Arsenal’s secretary, told me: “Vandalism in the ground has diminished and skinheads have just disappeared.” Crystal Palace manager Bert Head recently had 700 fans accompany his team to Manchester and was moved to comment on the excellence of their behaviour.
Sergeant Sullivan, who works at Bow police station in the East End, where it all began, agreed: “The old guard has gone,” he said. “The braces and the cropped hair have gone, the trousers are getting longer and the boots are disappearing. The “new guard” were now wearing not-so-short trousers, shoes, and Ben Sherman shirts.
Sam Shepherd, the 18-year-old furrier’s boy who played Bronco Bullfrog in the film of the same name, said this was all true except for the bit about the Ben Shermans. “They’ve been out for years,” he said. The film took two years to make and at the start his hair was cropped short. In the closing scenes it was parted in the middle and falling on both temples like an old English sheepdog. Why had they grown it? There had been all that bad publicity [about skinheads] and it got that you couldn’t go anywhere without being moved on or searched by the police.
Chris, who is 16 and works as a furniture porter, took us to see the barber who once gave him his haircuts. It was an affectionate meeting. The haircut is said to be the invention of the United States marine corps. “It was a very easy haircut,” the barber said nostalgically.
The first recorded newspaper sighting of a skinhead occurred during the hippy occupation of 144 Piccadilly in September 1969. A band of crop-haired, booted youths busy hurling plastic boules balls at the hippies, explained: “We’re from south of the river and we work for a living.” The name “skinhead” is said to have been invented by the hippies, who had nothing else to throw back.
Two former East End skins I met in a Greek café in Stratford were adamant that it was the publicity that made them quit. “I wanted nothing more to do with it,’ said Jim Byrne, a 19-year-old clerk who is now at the “suedehead” stage. His friend agreed. “All this aggro thing is over. I used to think the skinhead bit looked smart.”
They both stared incredulously into their tea leaves. I asked another suedehead if he used to be with the skins. “Nah,” he said. “I was a greaser.”
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