Tattoos, New York 1976
Sharpies, Melbourne 1973
My Son Josh Learns to Swim 1972
Fitzroy Extrovert 1974
Mirka Mora 1973
A Closer Look, Melbourne Cup 1987
Let's Groove, Melbourne 1980
Razor Club, Melbourne 1991
Smoko, Bathurst Islanders 1973
Keith Richards, Monsalvat 1973
Australian Championships, Bells Beach 1967
I found these photos and all kinds of interesting stories about the 60s and 70s in London stemming simply from looking up the word "mod", which I used in something I wrote yesterday to describe clothing.
Here's the main Wikipedia article on mods.
This blog has lots of good stories from a guy who grew up during that time period: Crying all the way to the chip shop: The sentimental musings of an ageing British expat in words, music, and pictures.
I learned some choice new slang expressions from that last page:
"shirt lifter"
"sing to the vicar"
This was a funny detail from a story about the Special Patrol Group, a division of the London police:
One of the SPG's most controversial incidents came in 1979, while officers were policing a protest by the Anti-Nazi League in Southall. During a running battle, demonstrator Blair Peach was allegedly beaten to death by the SPG. In the inquiries which followed, a variety of unauthorised weapons were found in the possession of SPG officers, including Baseball bats, crowbars and sledgehammers.
Another interesting story about dance hall disruptions:
In that time period, disaffected unemployed Jamaican youths sometimes found temporary employment from sound system operators to disrupt competitors' dances (leading to the term dancehall crasher). This — and other street violence — became an integral part of the rude boy lifestyle, and gave rise to a culture of political gang violence in Jamaica.
The mods were into "polo shirts", which they called "Fred Perrys" after the tennis player Fred Perry. And polo shirts were originally called "tennis shirts" and were designed for tennis.
Fred Perry
Tennis shirt
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tennis players ordinarily wore "tennis whites" consisting of long-sleeved white button-up shirts (worn with the sleeves rolled up), flannel trousers, and ties. As one might expect, this attire presented several problems for ease of play and comfort on the court.
René Lacoste, the French 7-time Grand Slam tennis champion, decided that the stiff tennis attire was too cumbersome and uncomfortable. He designed a white, short-sleeved, loosely knit piqué cotton (he called the cotton weave jersey petit piqué) shirt with an un-starched, flat protruding collar, a buttoned placket, and a longer shirt-tail in back than in front (known today as a "tennis tail"; see below), which he first wore at the 1926 U.S. Open championship.
This guy was a prof at CalArts. I have his book at home on my bookshelf. Borrowed it from the sociology library in college and failed to return it.
Hebdige broke new ground by interpreting youth cultures in terms of a dialogue between Black and white youth.
Came across this guy in one of the articles:
Adam Diment
(Frederick) Adam Diment (born 1943), a spy novelist, published four novels between 1967 and 1971. All four are about the adventures of Philip McAlpine whom critic Anthony Boucher described as 'an agent who smokes hashish, leads a highly active sex life, kills vividly, uses (or even coins) the latest London slang and still seems a perfectly real (and even oddly likeable) young man rather than a reflected Bond image'. Diment disappeared from public view after his last novel, adding to his cult figure status among fans of 1960's spy novels.
