Pistols, Specials and the bad ol days.

The Cockney Rejects

A change of tack from shipwrecks today. I have been watching 'Pistols' -a TV series about the Sex Pistols and how they came to be. Malcom Mclaren always said 'he invented Punk' But lets have this right- what a load of claptrap. Punk wasnt about north london university students or college kids dressing up in vivian westwards tosh. It wasnt about socialism or had anything to do with politics. It came out of the mean streets of  East london through unemployment and all the shit a country could throw at its young inhabitants. It was a mean time. Fighting and violence was everywhere you went. School, football, street gangs, gigs, night clubs,- everywhere you went there was trouble. Crap piled up on the streets because of the strikes and crime rocketed due to the black outs. All under the labour party. This sparked Punk bands like the 'Rejects' Sham69 and Ska bands like the 'Specials'  Malcom Mclaren and all his entourage of champagne socialists tapped into this but had absolutely naff all to do with it. Dont get me wrong, the Pistols did do some great tracks but essentially they were a made up Boy band all marketed and clothed by middle classed champange socialists trying to sell their wears and it worked- the college types filled their pathetic london designer shops. Punk was rougher and far tougher than that. Real punks were just scruffy lads who had no money for such things. They just wanted to blow off steam. Maclaren my arse!  By the way, my best mate used to be the drummer for the band pictured above, and is still mates with them today. They still do gigs! He also went on to drum for another punk band-the Angelic upstarts- and toured Europe with them. These lads all still go to watch my beloved West Ham United and we meet up most years and reminisce.  

The Specials.

While on the subject of bands and the old days, we hear of the sad loss of  Specials singer Terry Hall recently. Another love of my early days has been Ska and the Specials in particular captured the youth spirit of the time and the skinhead movement in East London (West Ham Skins) before the NF cowardly idiots came on the scene to spoil it all. We grew our hair as a result and went a bit more Mod.  I make no bones about it, in our youth we were little trouble makers but we weren't racist, we just loved a tear up, mainly at football but as I wrote above- you had to fight people everywhere you went back then. It was London culture at that time. Jack & me went to see the Specials live in 1978 and it was an awesome night. Another big memory surrounding this band was in 1980 the night before the FA cup final with Arsenal, we decided to go to highbury and went into a skinhead club there and The Specials tune 'Man at C&A was playing at the time. An awesome track and one of my favourites of all time. It was exciting being among the enemy all night and them oblivious of it. Inevitably they cottoned on who we were and huge fight kicked off with them outside the club. A wild night and the 3 of us were lucky to come away fairly unscathed but that was because we gave a very good account of ourselves. We had no choice! That Specials track has never left me as a result. Top Ska Band. Sad loss of a teenage hero. So many memories.

This is all stuff I have never spoken about before but was a big part of my early life before diving. My mate and me loved going to football. We used to get in to Leyton Orient as nippers at half time because they used to open the gates then to allow people to leave early. We were then taken to West Ham at 10 years old and just loved it over there. A wild place for sure!  However, I got my first real kicking at football away at QPR and I was just 12 years old. (1974)  We were on the tube home when a group of QPR got on and battered us both and stole my mates scarf. All I remember was a DM boot smashing into my head and bouncing it into the train window.  After they were done with us, all bloodied up we moved down the train but ran into some older lads who turned out to be West Ham. They looked after us and we walked up the train to look for our assailants. These lads took good care of the QPR mob for beating up two little West ham kids -and even got my mate his scarf back. They threw the bullies off at the next stop then kept singing "Mile End, Mile End" as the train pulled away. We were jumping up and down with them and joining in. It was all very exciting to me at the time. My ancestors were all from Mile End so I knew where they were all hailing from too, so I felt a bit of a connection.  My mate and I went to school the next week all battered and bruised. I had a huge lump on one side of my face and a big bruise on the other. My mate had two black eyes and a split lip.  In the playground it seemed like everyone thought we were cool but many thought we would never go again thereafter. However, the hooligan bug had bitten us and this was only the beginning. Its a strange occurrence but thats how it works sometimes. We had found out that day that we were not made of glass and the excitement of it all was an absolute adrenaline rush. After that we copped many a blood bath along the way and gave a few out too. It all stood us in good stead for our teenage years on the mean streets of East London. Wild times for sure and the music was all a big part of it. We would wind ourselves right up on the Rejects on match days then go out buzzin for a ruck. This all carried on until I found diving in 1979. Then my life started changing for the better. By 1985 I had backed right away from the hooligan scene. Although we were still season ticket holders in the West Ham south bank, then in chicken run, for years after. I only stopped going footy when I moved to Scilly in 1999.  Most of those in my early days still go now. I join them occasionally, maybe once or twice a year. But diving is my passion and has been since my first sea dive in about 1981.