h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Reading this forum has brought back many fond memories! I was a skin for a few years 1980-83, growing up in a working class area. Being only two years old when the scene first took off in 69 I cant really comment on that era, However the early eighties I can offer some knowledge on.

Myth 1 - Skinheads are brainless Hooligans

Many of the Skins who I hung out with back then are now professional people, one of my closest friends is a wealthy responsible businesman. Being a yobbo took me through University and into a well paid and respected career.

It was simply the style at the time - punk was dead, Mod was tired and new romantic was well!!!!


Myth 2 - Skinheads are racist

In the early days if you were a skinhead it was all about looking good in your Crombie, Sta-Press, Brogues, Levi's (lets come back to this later), Ben Sherman's, Fred perry etc... and listening to the best sounds around. Back then we would listen to all of the 2-Tone sounds, Bad Manners, Madness, The Beat and Judge Dread along with the all the old classic Trojan and early Ska Classics.

This was all about the 2-tone multi racial scene with many black white and asian people getting involved. I can actually say that I knew at least 20-30 black and mixed race asian Skins, not Rude Boys but Skins.

This scene was like a mixture of the Mod, Rude Boy and Skinhead culture.

On the other hand you had the skins who were into the Oi! scene, more rebellious and not quite so well dressed (Combat trousers etc)listening to bands like Peter and the Test Tube Babies. This scene was a lot more hardcore and was more like Punk, with the hardcore scene it was easier to get swallowed up by your suroundings and an influx of racists to the ranks spread.

A perfect example of this was a skin that I knew who ended up being practically brainwashed by the British Movement (offshoot of NF), he was attending the meetings thinking them to be pollitical, but all they did was spread hatred and lawlessness.

I also remember him wearing a T-Shirt with a swastika on the front and tour dates on the back (England 1945 - Cancelled) as worn by Sid Vicious, the funny thing was that the T-shirt was not being racist, it was being ironic, he just couldn't understand that. In the end he gave up on that scene and turned out to be one of the nicest guy you could meet.

Anyway, back to the point, skinheads mixed with black people, listened to black music and wore jeans from a jewish company - Levis!

Skinheads as a group racist? I don't think so.



What has made skinheads seem racist is the press coverige they recieved over the years (as per usual the minority paints the majority). These Nazi white power groups have seen an image that they can attach to which will make them seem daunting and scary to the public and make them feel hard. Subsequently the nazi politicians have decided to adopt these children as their own and lead them into further hatred.

Sorry for waffling on but I hate the thought that I should be embarresed to tell my kids that I was a skinhead when those were some of the best years of my life