Behaviour

At a time when middle class hippies, flower power, student mysticism 
   and love-ins were getting the attention of the media, the working class 
   youths of the skinhead movement adopted an aggressive form of behavior, 
   in keeping with the tough uniform of their boots and braces. The skins were    
   passionately interested in football. However, the 
   increasing commercialization of the game cut across football working 
   class origins and helped to create a situation in which football violence 
   was common. The clubs had experienced this violence since the early 
   sixties. The comparative affluence of working class youth in the 
   sixties allowed the building-up of large groups of mobile supporters. The first    
   appearance at a way matches of massive groups of skinheads, 
   all uniformly dressed and intent on smashing their opponents into the 
   ground must have been rather unnerving for the managers of those clubs 
   who were hoping to turn football watching into a family outing. The 
   clubs reacted by increased policing of the fans and by herding them 
   into segregated areas of the terraces. Special spiked fences were 
   erected, there was the Arsenal cage, and one club was rumored to have 
   an underground room in which unruly fans were handcuffed to iron rings 
   let into the walls. These precautions served only to strengthen the 
   aggressive nature of the confrontation, to spread the cult and to 
   increase feelings of loyalty amongst the supporters. Football was the major    
   event of the week. It offered all excitement 
   of an adventure with "yer mates", the chance to display fanatical    loyalty 
   o your club, to prove your hardness and win the admiration of your 
   friends. Clashes with the police and opposing supporters, and taking 
   part in the ritual songs and chants of the football ground, together 
   with the opportunity to get drunk and run amok, provided the sort of 
   power and excitement which is normally denied to working class youth. Since    
   football was regarded as a battle, it was natural to use 
   weapons. Although some skinheads claimed that they were so hard that 
   they did not need to use weapons, and there was no standard personal 
   armament like the cutthroat razors of the teds or the bicycle chain of 
   the grebos, a variety of weapons were used at football matches and other 
   fights. Initially, the steel toecaps of industrial boots provided a good way    
   of savaging your opponent. The police soon banned these as offensive 
   weapons, especially when steel spikes were welded on to the toecaps, 
   and more subtle weapons had to be found. The Millwall brick, for example, 
   as a news paper folded again and again and squashed together to form a 
   cosh. Metal combs with sharpened handles were another example of how 
   weapons could be made from objects which would immediately attract the 
   attention of the police. Metal studded watch straps, sharpened coins, 
   Kung Fu stars with the edges filed down, also came into this category. 
   In 1969, there was an epidemic of dart throwing. Rice flails, which 
   could not be taken into football matches, were used in street battles, 
   as also were edges of razor blades taped to the inside of fingers or the 
   instep of boots. In order to conceal weapons, secret pockets were sewn 
   into the lining of coats. An interesting reaction on the part of the 
   Midland supporters was to wear metal pit helmets, with the peaks 
   sharpened to provide a cutting edge. Weaponry, of course, part of the ritual,    
   and ingenious solutions to 
   the police searches were part of the game. A minor weapon in the fight 
   against rival supporters was the use of the aerosol paint can. 
   "Tottenham Skins Rule, OK?" sprayed on every available surface in    a 
   Northern town was a good way of annoying your enemies and celebrating 
   your power. Skins were extremely defensive of their own territory. Each gang,    
   called a crew, had its own area which it defended against other skins 
   and non-skins. Fights between skins were usually the result of some 
   territorial infringement. Some crews, such as those from large housing 
   estates, had 200 or more members. Others, such as the one described in 
   "The Paint House", were much smaller. The method of transport, unlike    
   the mods and rockers, was not an 
   essential feature of the cult, although there were scooter skins with 
   the scooter stripped to the essentials, and crew who used ford Cortinas 
   or Transit vans for getting about. Public transport was an accepted way 
   of traveling. If crew went to Southend on a Bank Holiday Monday, which 
   was a traditional outing for London's East End, they would arrive in 
   the town by train and walk as a group to the seafront. Marching along 
   the street, with boots thudding and fingers slapping (a peculiarly 
   skinhead mannerism), all wearing the same clothes and the same haircut, 
   the skinheads presented an image of power. Chris Welch has written "The    
   sight of cropped heads and the sound of heavy boots entering the 
   midnight Wimpy bar or dance halls is cause for sinking feelings in the 
   pit of the stomach." Even if no fight occurred, membership of such a group    
   was an end 
   in itself. It was some time before the police learnt to react to these 
   invasions by stealing the skins' bootlaces and in some cases their 
   braces. The reply of the skins was to use a short wire, such as a 
   paperclip, to replace the laces in a way which could not be spotted by 
   the police. Braces were used for display, most jeans or trousers being 
   self-supporting. East End working class attitudes have been parodied by Alf    
   Garnett 
   as portrayed by Warren Mitchell, yet his strongly loyalist, 
   anti-socialist, anti-foreigner, anti-intellectual, male chauvinist 
   opinions appear to reflect real attitudes, only exaggerated for the 
   purpose of the comedy. Some of these opinions can be seen reflected in 
   the behaviour of skins, but the parallel should not be taken too far. 
   For example, because of the extrovert character of the West Indian 
   blacks and of the music they played, there was no antagonism between 
   skins and blacks. Indeed, many blacks were skinheads or formed their 
   own crews, such as the Kilburn Blacks and the Kilburn Whites. However, Asian    
   immigrants had a different, closed way of life and 
   did not blend with traditional working class or East End ways of living. 
   Inner city areas faced the threat of settlement by immigrants or of 
   demolition and removal to overspill areas. Skinhead violence may be 
   seen as one response to such change in society. Paki bashing was 
   combined with queer bashing, squad die bashing, grease bashing and 
   student bashing. This led to skinheads being both hated and feared. As 
   the media caught on to this aspect of the cult, it caused some skins to 
   leave the movement and more violent people to join it. Eventually, this 
   was one of the reasons which led to its decline in 1971/72. There was 
   no point in being a skin if you simply got nicked by the police wherever 
   you went. A crew was predominantly a male group, like any other city gang, 
   yet skinhead girls eventually became an accepted part of the scene. 
   Moreover, since only a policewoman can search a girl and there are 
   fewer women police than men, girls became useful carriers of weapons 
   or pills. The clothes of skinhead girls made them look superficially 
   like the boys. "Can't tell boys from girls" has been the typical whine    
   from reporters when faced by any new youth group. Most skinhead girls, 
   sometimes called rennes, would wear bennies, button-fly red tags, white 
   socks and penny loafers or monkey boots. As the fashion matured, they 
   had short mini-skirts beneath three-quarter length two-tone jackets and 
   fishnet tights. The hairstyle would be a number two or three crop with 
   feathered fingers all around. Some had long straight hair. The 
   combination of fishnet tights, mini-skirts and cropped hair created an 
   image which, at least to one observer, was absolutely stunning.