mods and skinheads

this is one for the mods and skinheads

as some one who was born way after that era i dont know to much about it, could any one explain the whole mod v skinhead story

also where you a mod or a skinhead ? what made you become a mod or skinhead ?

this is one for the mods and skinheads

as some one who was born way after that era i dont know to much about it, could any one explain the whole mod v skinhead story

also where you a mod or a skinhead ? what made you become a mod or skinhead ?

I was a mod and i loved that way of life ... i became a mod through the music of the jam and then i got into the kinks and the small faces etc etc .... we would catch the train down to barry every bank holiday from rhymney train station and more and more mods would get on at every stop until we reached barry ... then the fun and games would begin with the skinheads there was never really any winners, just rushing each other now and again with a few short fist fights! ... it was just a good day out! i miss those days!

this is one for the mods and skinheads

as some one who was born way after that era i dont know to much about it, could any one explain the whole mod v skinhead story

also where you a mod or a skinhead ? what made you become a mod or skinhead ?

I was a mod and i loved that way of life ... i became a mod through the music of the jam and then i got into the kinks and the small faces etc etc .... we would catch the train down to barry every bank holiday from rhymney train station and more and more mods would get on at every stop until we reached barry ... then the fun and games would begin with the skinheads there was never really any winners, just rushing each other now and again with a few short fist fights! ... it was just a good day out! i miss those days!

why didnt the mods and skins get on ? was there a reason for all the fighting ? was barry and cardiff mostly skin heads or mods ?

The biggest rivalry was between Mods and Rockers, based around scooters or motorbikes, some of the Battles on seafronts were mental and made the odd football scarp seem small time.

The mods and skinhead rivalry was there but not on such a big scale and in truth many people in these groups came from the same areas and backgrounds and would freely mix with no problems, at it's peak mind skinheads were just against everything especially authority, it has, different meanings now to different people, some seen as racists some as anarchists some just good old fashioned music lovers from that era.

A lot of my mates who were skinheads them days, really are skinheads nowadays.

this is one for the mods and skinheads

as some one who was born way after that era i dont know to much about it, could any one explain the whole mod v skinhead story

also where you a mod or a skinhead ? what made you become a mod or skinhead ?

I was a mod and i loved that way of life ... i became a mod through the music of the jam and then i got into the kinks and the small faces etc etc .... we would catch the train down to barry every bank holiday from rhymney train station and more and more mods would get on at every stop until we reached barry ... then the fun and games would begin with the skinheads there was never really any winners, just rushing each other now and again with a few short fist fights! ... it was just a good day out! i miss those days!

why didnt the mods and skins get on ? was there a reason for all the fighting ? was barry and cardiff mostly skin heads or mods ?

it was just we dressed differently ... in those days people from tredegar would fight ebbw vale boys on the mountain between the towns just like football fans would fight each other on the streets.... it was thatchers britain and everywhere was fucked up to be honest. i was never into the violence and would just run back and for without throwing a punch or getting hit ... but i looked good doing it! ... even when i boxed a few years later i fought the same way! haha! [truth]

Skins were associated with right wing politics. Mods were associated with music. The third party to come out of this were the punks who were right wing without the political agenda, that is they were anarchist, but they used music such as the sex pistols to promote whatever they were trying to create which they did not know themselves.

Amongst this total confusion came the Trendies. They were the sort of look at us brigade we know our music but our political stance is we don't have a high enough IQ to work it out.

When the Trendies ruled the roost I was considered a smoothy by them. I put that down to fact that I ended up with the ladies while they had themselves to look at.

Mods in the 60s fought with rockers.They were fueled by fashion and scooters. As they started to dwindle in numbers during the early 70s they tended to move into different factions such as suedheads who liked bluebeat and ska music and eventually developed into skinheads.Then there were the one who drifted towards soul music, especially northern soul dance music. When there was a mini mod revival in the late 70s with bands like the jam, secret affair and the chords many of the skins and mods and punks of that time fought each other.When punk started to die you could sometimes find all of them at a specials concert together.....enjoying the music and fighting outside.Many scooter clubs also formed or got bigger during this time and many city fans were members of scooter clubs if not mods.Much of the fighting I remember was village against village, valley boys against newport or cardiff townies, where it did'nt matter what you were.

In my early days I liked Punks/Skinheads, loved their music, SLF/SHAM 69/COCKNEY REJECTS/ANGELIC UPSTARTS etc etc
We loved bashing the Mods on Barry Island/Porthcawl and even Pontypridd, later on as a Casual/Trendie we continued the trend a good mod bashing every Saturday or Ely Bridge.

When there was no football, it would be mod bashing day.
I Do rem going to Hartlepool v Cardiff in 1986 and chasing their mods around the town before the game.

Casual = Trendy.

Casual = Trendy.

Ian, We were originally Casuals, then Mike Dye(RIP) came up with the name ELY TRENDIES, loved it.

I was a rocker,many lambrettas and vespas' had my boot print in it I dressed in leathers and rode a triumph bonneville...that's just the way it was,just like Cardiff and swansea..hated the sight of each other...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF-glrpjqog CCFC( i had a yammy 250 US custom.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF-glrpjqog CCFC( i had a yammy 250 US custom.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EjMLfa-13w CCFC

Skins were associated with right wing politics. Mods were associated with music. The third party to come out of this were the punks who were right wing without the political agenda, that is they were anarchist, but they used music such as the sex pistols to promote whatever they were trying to create which they did not know themselves.

Amongst this total confusion came the Trendies. They were the sort of look at us brigade we know our music but our political stance is we don't have a high enough IQ to work it out.

When the Trendies ruled the roost I was considered a smoothy by them. I put that down to fact that I ended up with the ladies while they had themselves to look at.

i think skinheads became involved in right wing politics a bit later on ... in the beginning it was all about the music and clothes! ... all the skinheads i knew liked the specials, bad manners and groups like that!

The original skinheads from the sixties were not right wing, they were influenced by west indian music and fashion and plenty of British black lads were into the scene back then. The racist connections came with the re-emergence of skins much later on.

In my early days I liked Punks/Skinheads, loved their music, SLF/SHAM 69/COCKNEY REJECTS/ANGELIC UPSTARTS etc etc
We loved bashing the Mods on Barry Island/Porthcawl and even Pontypridd, later on as a Casual/Trendie we continued the trend a good mod bashing every Saturday or Ely Bridge.

When there was no football, it would be mod bashing day.
I Do rem going to Hartlepool v Cardiff in 1986 and chasing their mods around the town before the game.

Ponty mods wernt always on the receiving end annis they had a few tastey lads
Barry island bank holiday mondays were great

In my early days I liked Punks/Skinheads, loved their music, SLF/SHAM 69/COCKNEY REJECTS/ANGELIC UPSTARTS etc etc
We loved bashing the Mods on Barry Island/Porthcawl and even Pontypridd, later on as a Casual/Trendie we continued the trend a good mod bashing every Saturday or Ely Bridge.

When there was no football, it would be mod bashing day.
I Do rem going to Hartlepool v Cardiff in 1986 and chasing their mods around the town before the game.

where you at barry around 1981, 82, 83 during the bank holidays annis? i was deffo there during those years as a mod ... tbh i think we gave as good as we got .... youve got to remember most of us had pretty girls on our arms mind unlike you scruffy lot!

I was a mod and in the early days we had to go to Bristol to get the clothes and shoes we wanted as Cardiff and Newport were behind the times, and there was no Severn Bridge then, so we went over on the train.
In latter years I bought a Lambretta SX200 and a few of us used to ride up to Malvern on weekends a couple of times a month to meet up with other mods and girls who we had met at Bournemouth and Brighton on get togethers.
We also had fights against the rockers, a regular confrontation used to be with the Handpost Newport bikers.
They were great days, mohair suits, long leather coats, parkas, Ben Sherman shirts, Levis with small turn ups and slip on shoes.

In my early days I liked Punks/Skinheads, loved their music, SLF/SHAM 69/COCKNEY REJECTS/ANGELIC UPSTARTS etc etc
We loved bashing the Mods on Barry Island/Porthcawl and even Pontypridd, later on as a Casual/Trendie we continued the trend a good mod bashing every Saturday or Ely Bridge.

When there was no football, it would be mod bashing day.
I Do rem going to Hartlepool v Cardiff in 1986 and chasing their mods around the town before the game.

where you at barry around 1981, 82, 83 during the bank holidays annis? i was deffo there during those years as a mod ... tbh i think we gave as good as we got .... youve got to remember most of us had pretty girls on our arms mind unlike you scruffy lot!

Yes I was and jealous of your pretty girls.

In my early days I liked Punks/Skinheads, loved their music, SLF/SHAM 69/COCKNEY REJECTS/ANGELIC UPSTARTS etc etc
We loved bashing the Mods on Barry Island/Porthcawl and even Pontypridd, later on as a Casual/Trendie we continued the trend a good mod bashing every Saturday or Ely Bridge.

When there was no football, it would be mod bashing day.
I Do rem going to Hartlepool v Cardiff in 1986 and chasing their mods around the town before the game.

where you at barry around 1981, 82, 83 during the bank holidays annis? i was deffo there during those years as a mod ... tbh i think we gave as good as we got .... youve got to remember most of us had pretty girls on our arms mind unlike you scruffy lot!

i used to go down barry or porthcawl as a skinhead in the early 80s, a load of us from church village...
i remember a few of the ponty and taffs wells mods

we had pretty punk/skin girls too i f*cking married one

i was really into the oi scene the rejects, sham. cock sparrer,angelic upstarts

been offered a freebie for saturday night sham in swindon with back stage passes to meet jimmy pursey and co my mate is their new official photographer


used to love cracking a few mods heads in Ponty

always been punk. always used to go to penrhys dance on a sunday night to fight rockers late 70's used to love it.

I am a skinhead now.

i was a skinhead. and during the 80s. there was some really hard ugly bastards in the bob bank

Out of all the subcultures, I like the hippies. Just used to get high and shag each other. Sounds better than all this violence

Was a mod back in the day pontypridd was mainly mod,rhydyfelin was a mod stronghold.Some right mad bastards

I was a mod/scooter boy etc. I loved these skinheads, funny as hell. You'd get some dickhead who'd shave his head and become "hard" overnight. People used to hunt them just to beat the crap out them because it would have been rude not to.

As for trendies. I must have lived in a different world or dimension or something. That's all I remember of them was they were "a trendy" so that they were neutral. There were some that used to go to the Soul nights with us and sometimes they'd get in to fights but that was always alongside rather than against. It was the same going to Barry, they were always alongside going "hunting for boneheads".
If these people wanted to go looking for mods etc then they didn't have to look far. One of our regular places was the Ocean Club down Cardiff docks. That was a rough place but can't ever remember any trouble there. Some good bands played there though.

The Metal/Biker scene of the early eighties was more underground than the other scenes.

Some good outposts could be found though.

Taffs Well Rugby Club with the Crazy Captain

Bogies Cardiff

Smileys Cardiff (only the Angels and Taff Riders allowed on tyop floor. some right evil bastards up there.

Terminus at bottom of St Mary Street Butch Gay Bar one room full on Prog/Metal in big room. Poor sods who got rooms mixed up. Think Blue Oyster Bar in Police Acadamy.

Knights Arms Portcawl

Golden Mile Pub on A48.

Not Many Rucks involving the Metal/Biker Lot,seemed to keep themselves to themselves.

Few Incedidents I remember were

Barry Island one bank Holiday about 50 scooter boys preening on the front when some Taff Riders got in amongst them it was like a scene from Lord of the Rings as 5 Bikes just ploughed through the scooters sending them all over the road. Even the Skins were pissing themselves.

I think Sabbath were playing the Capitol when the Jam were playing the rank carnage in Queen Street.

And a few rucks outside Smilies with the docks boys at kicking out time

Annis, do you remember a guy called David Jurgensen ? He was around the Ely Trendies ?

this is one for the mods and skinheads

as some one who was born way after that era i dont know to much about it, could any one explain the whole mod v skinhead story

also where you a mod or a skinhead ? what made you become a mod or skinhead ?

I was a mod. I liked the clothes and the music. I had some skinhead mates, though. When the casual scene came along, it wasn't too much of a change for me, because a lot of the clothes were similar to the mod gear anyway.

I still listen to some of the same music, because it beats a lot of what's come along since.