Chelsea Stu (Casual)

Rather than just the football, this is how it also went for me ....
I'm first right in photo catching flies wearing a Pierre Cardin shirt,which never really caught on...

The Style Council. Dominion Theatre. March 1984. First tour.
The move from Sta Prest to Lois, MA1 Jacket to Sergio Tacchini,
Hush Puppies to Adidas Spezials all made 18 months previous.
Walk into the Tottenham Pub round the corner before gig,get instantly screwed out by the trad revivalists still wearing Jam badges and Boating blazers.

Tension suddenly overrides excitement for seeing my first gig with the coolest band on the planet.
Round my way(Northolt),battles had taken place on a regular occurrence with these mugs.
Quick drink and a scruffy fucker in a parka points and says threateningly Wimbledon's that way (I'm in a Fila Velour Matchday). Nervous laugh and a quick mutter of wanker under the breath. I was 17 and we were only 2 handed !

Relieved to get in the gaff to watch TSC open up .
First tune... Up for Grabs....Course what is Weller wearing??
A crew neck Pringle draped over a Lacoste Polo!
Made a thousand revivalists look even more redundant that night!!!

These days i favour a nice Aquascutum 3/4 length mac,M&S Cords and a bit of CP with a pair of Adidas Dublins or Touring shoes but have got my order in for a Terrinda. I'll leave the shorts alone though....

Danny Dayer(Casual)

Grew up during the 80s, best time of my life. Just started my apprenticeship with Laings so had a bit of money to burn. First stop was Selfridges in London where I purchased a white terrinda tracksuit, which set me back a cool £110.00. A lot of money for a first year painter on £45.00 a week, but coming out onto Oxford Street I felt a million dollars. I wish I still had it now; they’re going for fortunes on e-bay. It then became apparent that I was hooked on buying clothes. Knik Naks was always the place to be on a Saturday as everyone from all over London seemed to congregate there. This shop was a treasure trove stocking Ball, Ciao and c17 jeans, Best company sweatshirts, Cerutti and Kickers shoes. Next stop was Gee 2 in Oxford Street where they made their own brand of jumper as well as stocking Giorgio Armani which consisted of some of the best knitwear ever and which we’ll probably never see again. Christopher’s Place held court to the Chipie shop, another favourite of the time, where a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt would cost well over £100.00. Well worth it though. As well as clothes my first love was Chelsea Football Club who I followed everywhere, much to the disgust of my girlfriend, who went onto become my wife!

Meeting your mates on a Saturday was such a buzz. Getting ready to go to the football, ringing each other to see what you were wearing. Great times. Aquascutum or Burberry golf jackets, cashmere Lyle and Scott or Pringle, or maybe a Lacoste roll neck, especially if we were going north. Lois cords split up the side, or if you felt really smart Farah’s were the shout of the day. Most footwear consisted of trainers, Trimm Trab, Forest Hills, Samba, Mamba, Hawaii, Gazelle, Stan Smiths, and Diadora. The list was endless, but my favourite were Apollo desert boots and did we look the dogs. Fifty of us at Euston looking like Milan catwalk models, flicking our fringes of our newly cut wedge haircuts.

The trips to the nether regions of the North were always the same. Dodging ticket collectors, drinking warm Skol white top, getting to your destination and being treated like cattle going to slaughter by local constabulary, who always hated Londoners and always managed to scuff or mark whatever new clothing you had on. If you lost the trip home was the worst journey ever, especially if you fell asleep, you usually woke up with no eyebrows!

As I got into my early twenties, I dressed more to look smart and finally had the money to shop in Woodhouse. CP Company, Stone Island and Armani. Timberland and Ralph Lauren graced my wardrobe as street fashion had moved on and I didn’t care much for break dancing and bodypoppin, the clothes of the day seemed baggier and trainers bulkier. Things haven’t changed much for me clothes wise. I still like to look smart although I have two children and a season ticket at Chelsea. Still a lot of nostalgia around and great to see sites like this. I could go on but not enough time...Keep the faith.

WhiteyCFC(Forum Member)

Hi lads, got a little story here for you. hope you like it.

Being a 90's lad, i dont have too many memories of the 80's - but ive always been into fashion even from an early age, i think i got it from my dad, he was always buying new clobber. But i used to have curtains like everybody else, adidas samba's and ellesse tracksuit tops, that kind of look. It was all oasis, stone roses and rave music on the stereo, we used to spend our days just sitting in a mates flat listening to old tapes we recorded from pirate radio. It all seemed pretty dark and dingy back then. What with everything that was going on with football, and englands reputation etc. I started following Chelsea during my late teens, i used to spend too much time in a world of music, as i was a big music lover and still am to this day. But i really got into the Casual side of things esspecially the clothes. I had to work on a saturday so i tried to get to the game as much as i could, meet up in the pub with my mates, looking out for the other team to walk past, not for anyother reasonsbut just to see what they were like.

I would be wearing stonewashed drainpipe jeans with forest hills, Stone island jackets and Pringle jumpers. Straight leg jeans have always been pretty popular down here cos of the mod and punk influence, which was before my time but i was never into the bootcut although i did rip the seams on the bottom of my jeans for a while. I still love it all to this day and am probably just as dedicated as anyone from the 80's. I still rumage around in the bargain basements at lily whites for an old deadstock pair of gazelles that people have forgotten about. Still spend 2 weeks wages on the newest CP jacket just for portsmouth away. People always wonder why i get so worked up about trainers and jackets etc, but i cant answer it. Its very much an addiction, and i cant see a cure. I can honestly see myself running about in a mille miglia when i 60. Its goot to see bands keeping the scene alive, like the enemy. Music, football and fashion - my life.

Jockey (Transalpino)(Forum Member)

I don’t really know where to start but reading Kev Sampsons piece gave me the inspiration to give my opinion. I probably noticed the first leanings towards a different culture in about late 77 when I was 12 and I started going round to the Anny Road End as opposed to the Kop/Boys Pen. I was there that day in 77 against West Ham that Sampson talks about and true enough the West Ham were dressed, like he said, with middle parts and long hair. They were dressed like my 17 year old brother who was part of the old crowd that didn’t take part in the cultural fashion revolution that took place on Merseyside between 77 and 83.

My memory will only allow me to pinpoint 78-79 as the milestone for this transformation. I remember the wedge hitting the city and remember watching the older lads at the match getting stuck in when it went 'off'. They might have looked like girls to the casual observer with their blousons and tight jeans but boy could they fuckin fight!

Liverpool and Everton’s firms always seemed younger, than the rest of the countries firms, and like today whenever someone had a certain piece of clothing the whole city wanted it. I can remember whole scally armies decked out in sky blue Slazenger V Necks, Inega jeans and Kios boots with big flicks dancing up and down on their heads as they jogged along.

The black Fred Perry polo with the red trim was worn by everyone on Scottie Road around this time and was soon replaced by the stripy long sleeved polo which I only knew to be called the 'Scotty Jumper' cos everyone on Scotty had one and furthermore the wedge was known as the 'Scotty Flick'.

Scotty Road seemed to be the centre of the fashion universe at that time. One of the looks around 79 consisted of a Sheepskin jacket, pair of Lois, a Wedge (of course) and a pair of Kickers or Mitre Memphis, oh and the small collared shirt accompanied by at least one full sovereign and a Granny chain. The birds dressed exactly the same minus the Memphis!

I can only really remember the Sportswear getting involved around 80-81 when I first started going abroad. We first used Transalpino to get us over there and one of our firm was the original rub out boy who sadly is no longer with us. His bedroom was like a travel agents shop. Transalpino was joined by National Express blanks, Persil tokens and later Interails. I remember 5 of us got stopped by police on Aachen station in about 83 travelling on stolen Austrian Interails and the bizzies suspicions were aroused after they discovered these young Austrian students German vocabulary only extended to the word 'nein' and 'danke'.We were thrown in jail for a few days and I added to my German with the words 'Licht raus bitte' "turn the light out please".

The lads who first served Wade Smith were part of our group and though I wasn’t there on those occasions I travelled abroad with them a few times. Sport shops all over Europe were paid visits and head bags were filled up. Often we would come out of a train station and bump into other gangs of Scousers (even though there wasn’t a game on) and have to get back on the train knowing there wouldn’t be anything decent left or the Polizie in that town would be looking for a group of sportswear clad urchins with girls haircuts.

In 82 I used to meet up with Chelsea when they were in the old 2nd division. They let us travel with them when they played up north against the likes of Bolton, Oldham, Preston and the like. We never had any problems as their firm were 20 plus and we were cheeky 15 year old urchins decked out in sportswear. They had 2 firms, the 'Skinheads' and the 'Soul Boys' (who we befriended). They were wearing the likes of Diamond Pringle jumpers and Farah slacks, I remember one game at Oldham in 82 and they where asking us what our Fila trackies were as they weren’t familiar with them. Nine months later we met up at Tranmere and the same lads were wearing Fila and Tachinni.

The whole of the early 80s has been well documented and the Scouse influence as the starting block for casual culture cannot be denied. It’s an interesting thought that if English fans had not been banned in 85 what direction would fashion have taken.

Casual Memories From Burnley John

Although I have followed Burnley Football Club for over 30yrs, on but mostly off, my reminisces from the late Seventies to the present day of the Casual culture are also based on school holidays, low paid retail jobs and watching programmes such as Ski Sunday and Pro celebrity Golf.

In the early days it was clear that towns such as Burnley picked up their influences from Manchester and Merseyside and whilst these lads may have been ahead of the times with their Haircuts and trainers the look at the match in East Lancashire prior to 81 was Harringtons, Bodywarmers, Dealer patterned boots and Wrangler jackets ( particularly favoured by lads from Colne ) and of course the Donkey jacket with or without the plastic fluorescent backing. I can remember seeing Millwall’s escort of about eight lads returning to their vehicles in full length Crombies, red handkerchief in top pocket and ten hole Doc martens boots ( Cant remember the colour of the laces though).

Slowly through 82 I started noticing lads wearing v-neck Jumpers ( Slazengers and then Pringles over stripey crew neck t-shirts sometimes topped off with a Patrick cagoule. Haircuts seemed to change and soon all the lads from school looked like guys from Top of the Pops. From a football point of view players such as Gary Shaw and Steve McMahon, ( Trevor Steven in 83) seemed to lead the way in this mysterious trend. No matter how much I tried to adopt this look I always returned from my local barber disappointed with my asylum haircut. Anyway most of my mates were still obsessed with various genres of heavy rock and fashion to them meant asking their mum to embroider the latest album cover from Uriah Heep, Magnum, Barclay James Harvest onto their Denim jacket.

The penny really dropped for me on an away trip to Carlisle in the cup on a cold January day where for the first time I witnessed Burnley,s dressy lads for the first time. I realise now that compared to lads from bigger clubs this look may have been dated then but the sight of these skinny boys shivering in exotic Diamond V-necks over half zipped cycling shirts, bleached jeans nervously flicking their hair from the eyes made a big impression on me. Compared to the cavemen I normally saw at the game this lot looked like they had just jumped off a space craft.

My enthusiasm for this new look didn’t last long as the shopping list of desired garments I had mentally prepared was either out of my league financially or simply unobtainable for a 15yr old with no income. Remember in 1983 a Lacoste Polo shirt was £29.99, if the Croc had kept pace with the price increase in lager then that item would now cost over £300.

Eventually as I acquired funds I began to collect pieces which I now realise were hopelessly out of date. I remember purchasing a Tacchini ski jacket in 1986 and being laughed at by a Pompey lad who reminded me that these items were available for free in London.

Slowly whilst living in Newcastle in the late Eighties I became aware of the change in fashion as I got to know a few older lads from around the country. Hair became shaved and the classic mullet disappeared overnight. Short hair remained in vogue until around 88 when the one length curtain haircut appeared ( later modelled famously by Paul Merson in their championship season. Clothes were all about Hunting and Fishing scenes festooning sweatshirts and I began to notice the classic Timberland deck shoe for the first time. A classic look at the time was an Ocean Pacific sweatshirt teamed with baggy dungarees and a wide brimmed cricket hat. The first time I saw Stone Island was in Walkers nightclub. I later found out that the fisherman sweater the lad was wearing cost the price of a small car and it was a further five years before I could afford my first piece.

I am now approaching my fortieth birthday and I am fortunate now to be able to afford many of these delicacies from my formative years. Very few people are able to understand this obsession with product. I work on the fashion floor of a large London Department store and despair at the lack of knowledge or awareness of how working class kids came to desire clothes that were deliberately marketed at a different social class. I feel utter revulsion when I see Fun Boys buying Lyle and Scott, they should stick to Abercrombie and Diesel. Without the Casuals and their desire for limited designer pieces these stores would still be stocking Carpets and toasters.

Anyway that’s my rant over. Thanks for the website. It is a source of nostalgia that otherwise would have not been documented. Many thanks also for the link to County Lads even though I am Burnley they have got it bang on.

M.P. (Casual)

Loving the website! A right blast from the past! My story began around 1982\83, coming from Ayrshire, we had a plethora of people all with their own wee allegiances - Rangers, Celtic, Ayr United & Kilmarnock. All within 25 mins of each other by train. My first recollection of the 'casuals' was seeing these older boys in tacchini and fila trackies in my hometown, strutting about, but unlike the thuggish gangs of the time. I then remember being about 12\13 in the Hibs end at a Killie game at Rugby Park & being transfixed by these older boys wearing really 'weird' but smart clothes, what seemed like hundreds of them, but all wearing Burberry scarves\golfers, earth coloured hooded jackets, golfing trousers (farah), Benetton rugby shirts, sunhats, really expensive and exclusive adidas zx trainers. They were singing about being casuals, and seemed more intent on goading the killie fans about what they were wearing, than watching the match. I was hooked on this strange new cult, and tried to learn all I could about it from whatever sources I could find.

Now being from Ayrshire this was a problem. Irvine, had a 'mob' who claimed to be Rangers ICF, but in reality, were little more than a bunch of trampy neds who never went to games, but thought they were 'casuals'. The funny looks I would get from them as I went about my business in Deerstalker & Burberry etc were priceless. Occasionally, some of them would try to 'tax' me, that is, steal items of clothing from me, but as a casual, you couldn't let this happen, and they would invariably back off, unsure of what to do, when a well dressed teenager acted out of character & sconed one with a bin.

I digress. Anyway, not wanting anything to do with Sectarianism or Killie, I ran with the Ayr Service Crew. Team was always being relegated but we had a great mob of dressers :) In fact, the dressing was always the best part of things :) I fondly remember Lois Cords, Lee Semi Flares, Pod Sandals, Those ancient next jumpers with the wild patterns, hooded jackets with the bulky concealable hoods, chipie, original wool lined Burberry jackets, pop84, Benetton rugby shirts, going back...luhge ski jackets, Lyle & Scott, pringle, nevica, marc o'polo, classic noveux, boating shoes & moccasins, and the trainers! 'kin hell! You would get really excited about what folks were wearing on their feet! Adidas Grand slam, Gazelle, Zx600 & the better imo ZX450, a classic trainer! Diadora Borg Elite, Nike Rio, Pony NFL, and in my opinion, my favourite and best casual trainer the adidas jeans in either blue or red suede. No-one wore these apart from Casuals as far as I can recall, but only the really clued up ones ;) I fondly remember skirmishes with Aberdeen, Section B & Saturday Service (I’m sure Motherwell even came through to Ayr one Summer to join us in running ICF all over the beach) I think I liked games with Aberdeen, Motherwell, Airdrie, because you could check out what their boys were wearing, as they were all well dressed crews :)

Kudos to them all, thanks to them all for the Style !

Dom (Casual/Author)

The ‘80s were a fantastic time to be coming of age. I was born in 1970, so that era was very special to me. I lived in Wigan; my first venture into the fashion arena was around 81 or 82, when I got on the school cross country team so my dad bought me a pair of Reebok Gazelle. My athletic endeavours didn’t last that long, but I enjoyed the status of being the first lad on our street to have a pair of Reebok and it was better than wearing Adidas Kick look a likes from Asda with four stripes on them. Fashion was more than important it was your trademark and the brands helped hide any insecurity you may have had as a teenager. I was into buying allsorts, first off there was the Patrick kagool, then the blizzard parka, then I got my first Lyle and Scott jumper which was a light blue v neck. My Mam used to give me money for dinner at school, but I saved it and made myself some butties and before long I had the £30 or so that it cost and walked all the way to the golf shop at Haigh Hall to buy it, then my Mam shrunk it in the wash when I’d had it about 3 weeks so I started dipping a pound or two here and there from her purse to pay for it’s replacement.

By 1983 shitstoppers had been replaced by flares and I think by about 84 I had a particularly debonair wardrobe which included 2 pairs of Wrangler flared cords (brown and blue) a pair of Lee flared jeans with the bottoms cut off, a Benetton rugby shirt, sweatshirt, and shirt, a Nike Windrunner several pairs of trainers including Adidas ZX 400, Adidas First tracky bottoms, a Kappa Jumper, Fila Tracky bottoms and a couple of Marks and Spencers round neck woollens. Life couldn’t get much better really could it? My first experience of hooligan violence was at the Rugby rather than the football. Rugby League is to be fair mainly confined to the M62 corridor so there’s a lot of rivalry. That glorious first rush was when Wigan played Leigh in the Challenge Cup semi final at Knowsley Road in St Helens. There was no segregation and me and some of my mates had tagged onto some of the older lads for safety, we stayed near them behind the try line in the ground and realised that the we were slowly but surely being joined by more and more lads who we recognised from Wigan and other’s we didn’t. When Wigan scored a penalty it went off. The excitement of that first affray is something I’ve never quite recaptured. After the match it went off outside the ground as well, I was in a surge of about 100 Wiganers charging up the road towards some Leigh supporters with some copper in a high visibility jacket stood in the middle swinging his stick around shouting, “Come on then I’ll have you all you fuckers.” He looked a right nob, he was more out of control than we were, I’ve never like the Old Bill since that.

A lot of the time it was blissful poverty, no money so dress well to look wealthy. There was one time a mate of mine’s mam and dad had gone away and left him in the house for the weekend, we all got scalled up, raided our parent’s drink cabinets and went round. Among the delights mine host had acquired to make the party go with bang were a dog eared copy of Penthouse, some lighter gas, some solvent for cleaning stains off vinyl car seats and a few pills the doctor had given his mum for insomnia. We were all out of our trees in about 40 minutes and just before we all passed out I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some birds round, so I rung one of those 0898 chat lines that BT were running at about a pound a minute to try and get some girls to the party.

Anyway I woke up in the hall at about 6 in the morning underneath the table the phone was on, with the phone off the hook, I picked up the handset and could hear voices so put it back in the cradle and sneaked off home. When my mate’s phone bill arrived, it was about six hundred quid, to put that into perspective you could buy a house in Wigan for ten grand at the time (and there’s probably parts of Bolton where you still can). To this day I’m not sure that he knows how that phone bill came about. Football wise I had two teams, there was the Latics who were in the third and Liverpool were my big team. I remember the first time I went to Anfield with Mike I asked him what to expect, he said, “Don’t wear white trainers” Come half time the steps turned into a waterfall of piss and when we left my shoes were crusted in a mix of cigarette ash and urine. Things could get complicated, I remember being at Anfield for the United game once and it went off in The Arkles, I was just getting stuck into the Manc bastards when I realised they were from Wigan, or there was the time we played St Helens in the rugby and had a row with some mates we had from Liverpool. You could be on the Kop for the United match and there’d be Wiganers with woolly accents who were with Liverpool, Scouse Evertonians who were there to team up with United, lads from Warrington who sounded more Scouse than us but were with the Mancs.

I’ve heard a lot of tales about travel to the match but not heard anyone match this one, me and my mate Mike (who I must put on record as being single handedly responsible for all my strays off the straight and narrow) had a mate who’s nickname was Jimmy Hill because of his pointy chin, Jimmy’s dad worked for British Rail and got issued with a pass for every member of the family to use the trains. It was basically a card that said “Staff Privilege Free Travel” or something like that and it had a grid where Jimmy’s brothers and sisters could write in up to 8 free journey’s a year. We coerced him into lending us these passes (we must have swapped them for a mucky video or something) and would go into the local Woolworths, where they stocked some erasable biro’s that Parker Pens were selling, write in ‘Wigan to Liverpool return’ and the days date, go to the match and then rub it out when we got home and give him them back. There was one time me and Mike were meant to go to Chelsea away but I overslept and he went by himself. Anyway I was woken by my old man coming to check in my bedroom that I was there, Mike had been nicked at one of the barriers with this pass and had given my name and address to the Old Bill and they’d rung our house to check his details.

On the Latics side of things we had some blinding days, Blackpool was a favourite, there was one do up there either 86 or 87 when there were 54 arrests with 49 of those arrested being from the Wigan area. I think Blackpool and their main boy Benny got a bit pissed off everyone used to turn out for them in numbers because it was a good day out. However our real venom was reserved for Bolton. In May 1986 ( I think it was the 16th to be precise and we’d been wearing pegs instead of flares for nearly a year) Wigan Athletic played Bolton Wanderers at home. At around 2pm an incident occurred at the Market Tavern public house where a group of Wiganers set upon a group of Bolton fans who were drinking inside the pub. As a result of the incident Mr Andrew Greenwood and a friend of his from Bolton spent two weeks in hospital recovering from their injuries. Mr Greenwood received 220 stitches in his back for multiple knife wounds. That coincidentally was the day that Mr and Mrs Lavin decided to move themselves and the rest of the family away from the hustle and bustle of Wigan to the bucolic airs of Horwich which lay within the Borough of Bolton and was home to some of Bolton’s most unruly fans known collectively as the Horwich Casuals. It took about 6 to 8 months for the death threats to die down and by late 1987 they’d stopped pulling knives on me in the pub.

By that time things had moved away from the sportier brands of the early mid eighties and I was shoplifting to support my addiction to labels like Ciao, Ball Jeans, Iron Wash Jeans, Liberto, Armani, Lacoste, Timberland and Best Company. People around me had similar tastes, by that time the Burberry jacket was dying off and people were coming up with Pop 84 or Marc O’ Polo sweatshirts. We were shopping at places like Woodhouse and Wardrobe around St Anne’s square in Manchester or Reiss (which was in it’s infancy at the time) and Phil Blacks or De Guy or Mezzanine. By 1989 I was good friends with a lot of the Horwich Casuals and although I had a few ventures into other towns with them on Friday night I was still a Wiganer and I refused outright to go to the match with them. My loyality has and always will be with Wigan and Liverpool, but things were starting to get uncomfortable with the police. The “hoolivan” with its cameras was at every game and questions were getting asked in Parliament and I knew something bad was going to happen then we heard about the dawn raids happening to Man City and Chelsea. In 1988 I went to University in Leeds, I came home one weekend in 89 and there were a few gruff Scoucers drinking with the Horwich lot who claimed to be working on a building site in the area and who liked to drink and fight so wanted to hang around with us. I asked them names of well known Kopites and Liverpool scallies but they fell silent. At 5:30 on a Monday morning in April 1989 16 addresses in Horwich had warrants served and 16 men were detained in connection with organised football violence, I was away in Leeds at the time. The Scoucers were from the regional crime squad, I don’t think I went to another match until 1991.

By 1989/90 I was into the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, I suppose an embarrassing silence is the best way to cover my fashion statements of that era, the rave scene was good and things were plentiful even though I didn’t have a job but by 1992 I was becoming a wash out and a skeleton. I didn’t want to take poorly synthesised MDMA anymore, I liked fisticuffs and rough and tumble but the judiciary was leaning more and more towards custodial sentences so I opted for Thai Boxing as the outlet for my aggression. It’s legal and fighting infront of a crowd of 400 people is a great lift but the referee and rules make it a more sanitised experience. Being in a firm of 200 charging at Blackpool’s mob outside the Gasworks Social Club is a very empowering experience for a working class lad. By 1994 I’d visited Thailand to train and have a holiday and now I’ve engineered my life so that 50% of it is spent in Siam.

Life here is great, I still train in the beautiful sport but don’t fight (I was never really that good). I’ve had the privilege to train and spar with some of the most successful Thai stadium champions and IBF boxing world champions. Life can be infuriating here for a westerner at times, but the laid back nothing matters attitude that can be irritating is what also makes it such a great place to live; there’s never a day goes by that you don’t see something that blows your mind, I was sat in a bar not too long back and a ladyboy walked past pushing a pram with a baby in it, you get surprises like that almost every day. I also recently had the privilege of interviewing Peter Hook of New Order for an online publication I write for over here when he played a DJ set in Bangkok; he’s a hero of mine and New Order’s music has greatly influenced my life. The bars in Bangkok, Pattaya and Samui are crawling with ex and current hooligans, I call them Rusty Stanleys you can hardly go into a pub without bumping into someone you had a row with 15 years ago. All the main firms are represented here, Cardiff, Leeds, Borough, Stoke, Chelsea, Arsenal, Millwall, United, City, Liverpool, Forest, Everton, it’s an endless list. Most of the animosity’s forgotten (notice I used the word most) and it’s good to have a laugh about things, you’ve got everything a bloke needs here and you’re far from the critical eye of political correctness so everyone’s in an easy frame of mind. You walk into bars like the infamous Dogs Bollocks or the Lazi Pig (run by FYC’s one and only Lee Spence) and they’re full of 35 and 40 year old blokes thinking they’re 20 again; chat about Charge Sheets and old scars litter the air like old Bovril cups and fag ends used to litter the Kop at 6pm on Saturday. These days, like a lot of people I can’t afford to get nicked, but the spirit’s still there, fashion wise over here shorts are a daily necessity because of the weather, there’s a brand you can’t get in the UK called Molecule, they’re the nuts. I’ve got bits and pieces of Stone Island stuff (the jeans are indestructible) I like a lot of the Adidas retro trainers even though they give me ingrowing toenails, I’ve Sergio Tacchini tracky tops in the wardrobe back in England and like Lacoste and Ralph Lauren polo shirts. I do find it hard to walk past the Lacoste shop here without nipping in although it’s a real pain when you find a beauty and then see a copy of it for less than a fiver on a stall.

Thailand takes up most of my life now. My novel Last Seen in Bangkok is available to buy through www.lulu.com or you can visit my website,www.lastseeninbangkok.com. I’ve got a bit of an identity crisis now what with Latics and Liverpool both being Premiership, OK no I haven’t it’s Latics through and through. It was priceless being sat in a bamboo bar during monsoon season in Chiang Mai Northern Thailand last year watching Latics making their Premiership debut at home to Chelsea on telly, watching them get robbed to a one nil defeat and hearing my old mate Brian Cannon leading the JJB in a chant of “We’re going to win the League, We’re going to win the League and now you’re gonna believe us …..” If you’d told a 15 year old me that was what would happen in twenty years time I probably would have slashed you.

Oh and PS if you’re the t##t that gave me the tattoo’s with the blue pen in the Dog’s Bar when I fell asleep there the other week, the Nazi and National Front ones I didn’t mind so much but the Bolton Wanderers ones went a bit too far. Cheers !

Ian Hough (Casual)

Punks were the peacocks of the 70’s and they managed to fool everyone into believing they really were naughty boys for a few years, but we all knew they weren’t. As we approached the turn of the decade, it seemed there really were no fashions to follow, no leaders to look to. I remember the dark days of autumn, 1979, aged fourteen, when the new wave thing was flailing in its death throes, and punk was dead, and suddenly the Mods were walking about in their ridiculous fish-tails, in two-tone pants, white socks and loafers, and it was really pretty fascinating and unexpected. They had short back and sides, and wore Fred Perries, usually the white one with the pale blue and black (or was it dark blue?) stripes at collar and sleeve-cuff. There was a shop in Manchester City centre, two or three in fact, called Stolen From Ivor, and they banged out all the latest Mod offerings, along with other, less formal attire. There were always a couple of two-tone suits on mannequins in the windows, bathed in that green and purple light from the coloured bulbs and the backing paper, along with loafers, Fred Perries, and even trilbies. But the Mod thing was just too formal, the suits and ties were a pain in the arse, and we didn’t like it. Quadrophenia had done the damage, well and truly, or so it seemed.

Gradually, though, the character of the window in Stolen From Ivor changed; now there were no two-tone pants in there, but there were these odd two-tone jeans, that were baggy but which tapered to a narrow bottom, with a turn-up, showing the coloured flecks in the inner denim. There were Pod shoes instead of loafers, and there were chunky-knit fishermen’s jumpers. The Fred Perries lingered for a while, but long-sleeved polo shirts began to ease them out into the cold. The lads started gradually getting their hair sculpted at this point, from fairly normalish short-back-and-sides, to something a bit more girly and strange. From a normalish-looking template, the fringe was grown low over one eye, and layered around the side, describing a horizontal line across the ear. Initially, the cut would be quite short, with an absolute lack of sideboards of any kind being a priority, with the hair cut tight across the top of the ear, and round the back to a point. That cut across the top of the ear, excluding all evidence of sideboards, was the original symbol of knowing the score. Those who’d been there the earliest had the tell-tale layering effect across the ear, in a continuous line, coming right back from the fringe, to the wedge at the back. The shorter hairstyle naturally grew into this shape, which was the sign of being a mature animal. I knew one of the lads who worked there, and he was a definite trendsetter. He had a fully-matured flick in late 1979, and was wearing burgundy cords with an auburn rinse in his hair – the sign of the Mod Killer.

There was no doubt that he was advising the owners of the shop what to sell and what not to. All the lads in my neighbourhood in North Manchester started wearing the gear very early on, while retaining the Fred Perry in its many colours. The black with the yellow stripes was popular, but for Christmas 1979 I got an all-black one, with no stripes, just a tiny lemon logo. The Mods got a slapping and were slapped out of existence in my neighbourhood, and these new styles were rampant by the new year of 1980. This isn’t replica footy kits I’m talking here, now, this is the original Perry Boys’ wardrobe – a polo shirt under a burgundy chunky-knit jumper, with Fruit of the Loom overalls and a pair of Pods or black Adidas trainers, which had been popular for at least two years, as they were always worn on the park with the replica Man United kits we all prized as kids (some of us had been twelve two years earlier). People were literally making it up as they went along at this point, and it was exciting to know you were in on something so new. Perry Boys became Town Boys, and eventually anyone wearing this gear became simply Boys.

We knew only Liverpool and Everton had Boys at that point, outside Manchester, and when teams from the two cities met, it was chaos and festive, with everyone out in his latest tackle, giving it the big one on the big day. The quintessential “look” materialised around March 1980, in both cities, and it was this: Peter Werth polo shirt, preferably black or burgundy (everything was burgundy back then, for some reason), Lois jeans, and Adidas Stan Smith trainers. People were dyeing their Stan Smiths in every colour of the rainbow, and then Kio’s came along to provide a bit of competition, a sign that at least the manufacturers were getting a clue even if the media was oblivious. French footy shirts by Le Coq Sportif became huge, as well as Inega jeans, Adidas Jogger, and cords in every colour imaginable. Why this style became so tightly wedded to football is anybody’s guess, notwithstanding the scouse Euro trip phenomenon. In Manchester we didn’t get into Europe too often back then, but the intense connection was still there. This thing of ours grew and engulfed the lives of all young lads in the northwest of England. It was as if we just knew everybody else was going to have to get with the programme sooner or later, as we had made a quantum leap to the ultimate style of living. The rest is history – other regions finally got a clue and the word “Casual” was born. I have no idea where that word came from, as I certainly never heard anyone use it in Manchester. To us, we were all Boys, and the only other Boys were the scousers. And boy did we have some fun and games…

Ian Hough

Marc (Casual)

First off what a result...............proper site amongst those from the wannabees. Born in 70 it was around the age of 12 / 13 that I decided I needed another wardrobe other than adidas t shirts and tracksuits / footy kits as my grifter riding days were at an end and I was now all grown up with a Raleigh arena. Mod was the first dabble and I went full on getting the old man (who himself was a known lad) to whip me up to Carnaby Street to purchase boating blazers, perrys and red white and blue bowlers from Shellys.............after a year or two of that and burgundy sta press and "Y" cardigans I soon realised that it was the wham boys the girls liked and not the cool rare soul appreciating young mod in loafers.

That was it and in 84 / 85 it was farahs, adidas multicoloured cagoule, Pringles and Ellesse polos.........being lucky enough to go on a school ski trip to Switzerland it coincided well with ski hats and jackets being the vogue so I had mine provided on a plate and mum was pleased as her hard earned spent at c&a wouldn’t go to waste. no need to go into great detail as you fellas seem in the know but the next few years were spent in various adidas , puma trainers.............pink shirts button down shirts ( first time worn outside trousers with top button done up - lol )........flicked hair longer at the back.........then the loose perm done by the local mobile hairdresser.........home highlighting kits ( mum stabbing head trying to get hair through cap )........gold rope chains and sovereigns...........earrings..........golf umbrellas and deciding I could break-dance etc etc etc.

Now down my way there was a bridging period between the pre mentioned and the leap to Armani , Valentino , C.P. etc...........................it was the b boy phase where we all seemed to be walking around wearing Kangol hats, flight jackets with white fur hoods and patches on coats held with safety pins listening to public enemy and run dmc etc. Glad to say that soon passed and it was proper dressing again ( excluding the paisley hooded tops , flares and kickers - think Enfield's Kevin the Teenager ) ............the London rare groove warehouse parties with Norman jay...chesters superb boys own parties , sunrise , biology , shave yer tongue , full circle etc. football was always on the sideline but it was around 1991 when Ibiza went shite and Rimini didn’t take off that it became the main focus.............the clubs realised that they could drop dress codes start letting "our sort" in and make the scene massive and commercial and opened horrible places like club uk etc.

Stayed around for a few years until one day I took a look at myself and thought...........d&g , helmet lang , comme de garcon , Patrick Cox etc..........who am I kidding ? It was my " day wear " by the likes of stone island , left hand , Armani etc that I really enjoyed buying and wearing and I liked the fact that it wasn’t out of fashion the week after you’d bought it unlike the other pretentious crap id been wearing. As is the natural progression most of our old crowd from school are now settled with kids.......the others staying at her majesties pleasure. I always like clocking an old head I don’t know when in another town or on holiday with the kids etc as there’s always that little smile of acknowledgement and the look up and down. my biggest regret is that apart from S.I. being horrible nowadays I always wear mine ( old and new ) without the arm compass on because as someone else mentioned those wearing it and Hackett etc jumping on the bandwagon thinking there’s a uniform have ruined it.

Marc

indiecasual71 (Forum Member)

Here's my story, boys. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed starring in it.

I was born in Kent in 1971 and moved to Telford in Shropshire when I was 4. I had a pretty normal childhood, apart from my Dad working abroad, so it was my Mum who took me down 'The Wolves' regularly from the age of 7. I was 7, not her!

By the time I reached my teens, Mum and Dad had divorced and money was tight, but Mum did her best for me and my sister. We could only afford Mini Milks and Lemonade Sparkles while the other kids had Funny Feets, but we were happy enough and I still had my trips to Molineux when my Mum could manage it. It was in my early teens, at football matches, when I started noticing, what the older lads were wearing and I wanted a bit of it for myself. I spent more time admiring people's adidas trainers and Tacchini tracksuits than actually watching the match! Some of the more 'privileged' kids started coming to school in this snazzy sportswear and I was hooked but had to make do with what the mail order catalogues were selling due to finances. Soon I was wearing, mainly adidas clobber with a bit of Pringle and trainers such as adidas Colt (my first pair), Ringo, Samba, Puma Dallas and Puma Set. My favourite pair, that I've not seen or heard of since, were adidas Canberra. I stopped going to the football in about '87 when I bagged my first girlfriend. What a fool!

Fast forward to 1989 and I'm earning my own money for the first time, and through being into The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays I immersed myself in the rave scene, partying every weekend. It really was great to be part of something so fresh and new, and my newfound wealth was going on Chipie, Chevignon, John Richmond's Destroy label(YUK!) and other little things that made me smile(wink wink)! But by about '91/'92 the original spirit was lost due to a combination of bad drugs and an increasingly more commercial scene so I just stopped going out. The comedown lasted for months and I just stayed in my room thinking I'd never be part of anything again. A big, black hole needed filling.

Then one day in late '92 I bumped into an old buddy in town and he asked me if I fancied going to Wolves with him the next day. I hadn't been for years so I said yes, went, and I was hooked again. Going with the lads instead of my Mum was a new experience for me, and I formed a lot of strong friendships at this time that still exist today. I was part of a scene again, but I was clumping strangers instead of hugging them! Soon I was spending loads on clothes again with Lacoste, Ralph Lauren and Armani being my favourite labels, along with Timberland and Rockport footwear. The music scene of the time wasn't doing much for me so I was listening to past masters such as The Jam, The Smiths, New Order and The Roses. Then Oasis happened and had a massive impact on me. I'm sure you'll agree that hearing an album like ‘Definitely Maybe’ as a 22 year old was awe-inspiring and I soon began following the band and all the other guitar bands that they spawned, when I wasn't at football.

This lifestyle continued into the new millennium with Paul and Shark being my label of choice, with a bit of Stone Island and whatever adidas reissues JD Sports were selling. Then, in 2003, almost overnight, my viewpoint changed. I was sick of spending £200 odd on a jacket or jumper, going to the match and seeing 10 people in the same thing. Fashion wise I was bored shitless and I started remembering the clobber from the 80s. Now I could afford it, I couldn't get hold of it, apart from the odd dodgy reissue and a couple of charity shop bargains.

Then 2 things happened that are the reason I'm typing this story. Firstly, during a dirty weekend in London, with my current partner in 2003, I walked into Size? on Carnaby Street. You must understand that at this point I had no idea what adidas were doing apart from what JDs and JJB were selling, and I walked into this store and literally burst into tears. Forest Hills, Spezial, Dublin, Montreal were all in attendance. They told me Trimm Trab and Munchen were coming soon, as was a Birmingham branch of the store which I visited regularly until the second thing happened, yes, you've guessed it......I discovered Ebay! Here I could get anything I wanted and was soon buying so much on other people's accounts as I couldn't afford my own computer! Then I got one through work and I haven't looked back. Everything I used to dream of , I now own, Fila Bj, reversible Australian trackie top, countless Cerruti 1881 tops etc, and I've also amassed over 40 pairs of trainers, with hundreds I'm still looking for. I now no longer wear anything that isn't from the 'golden era'.

Also having a computer obviously led to me to this wonderful site where I can talk about my passion with loads of top lads who share this obsession with me! I don't go to football as much these days, but I know when I do, I'm not going to be walking around in identical clobber to everyone else, and that means a lot to me, as does the 'Brotherhood' which is 80s casuals.

Thanks for reading, lads, I’ll see you on the forum daily, and in Blackpool July 1st.

Phil

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Rambolatic (Forum Member)

Dear Forum Members.

Having read some of the stories on the site (and some of them are very good reads) I feel that the time has come to have my say and share with the lads on the site, my views about football, fashion and life in general.

LIFE

I was born on a cold December night in 1968 (this makes me a young looking 37) in Springfield, a stones throw from the ground in Wigan. I remember in younger life that times were very hard because I was in the middle of 5 other “Rambolatics” and my mother and father had f--k all really. I can‘t remember much from younger life, but when I was 13, I know my life went on a downward spiral quite fast, as my father passed away to the deadly Cancer. We well know there isn’t much we can do about that when it’s diagnosed. When dad died I cracked up and was a right little shit, who had no respect for anyone and I didn’t give a shit really. The inevitable happened and after kids homes, assessment centres, Strangeways and finally a lovely little place in Durham called Medomsley Detention Centre, they finally had me in a place where I couldn’t harm anybody.

I got out just after my 18th birthday and I haven’t looked back since. I got a good job, started to earn my own cash and now I’m married with two gorgeous daughters in a nice house and a f--king wardrobe to die for. You could say I got the lucky break everyone dreams of and I took it, well snatched it with both hands.

FOOTBALL

I have followed Wigan all my life. I can remember my dad taking me, to the now defunct, Springfield Park to watch games in the non-league days. When I got out of “the clink” I played, Saturdays and Sundays, with my mates for local teams and to be honest, they were the best days of my life, up to now. I won f--k all when I played and even though we played to win, we couldn’t wait to get showered and into the boozer for the craic after the game.

From the age of 26, I started to watch Wigan, home and away. Some of the lads had been going donkeys years, but I fitted in straight away. I have made some of the best mates, that I have today. For them and myself to watch Wigan in the Premier League is something we will never forget. As it stands, we have a decent chance of getting into Europe and I hope we achieve it. Imagine eh
LITTLE WIGAN IN EUROPE.

CLOBBER

I really only got into the fashion side of things in my teenage years. When I started to earn the cash, all my money seemed to go on clothes and trainers. I remember my first outfit I bought was a Marc O’Polo shirt, canvas Armani jeans and a pair of adidas Samba. From then on, all I did was buy clothes and to this day, it is still what I do with any spare cash.

I now have a lovely collection of trainers. The last count was 27 pairs and most of them are adidas. I‘d been after a pair of Berlin for yonks and finally acquired a pair last month. They are the tops, of my collection, that includes, Athen suede and leather versions, Malmos, 6 pairs of Spezials, 4 pairs of Montreal, Forest Hills, Hawaii, Indoor Supers and my Bermudas.

Shirts wise, I have a lot, but when I put one on, I always go for the Lacoste. They really are superb attire and I plan to be buried in one! Jeans wise, it’s the Armani’s for me and Stone Islands.

Jumpers, I love my green Benetton (cheers kenbo) and all my M&S Cashmeres As for jackets, I have a lovely collection. A couple of Stone Island and CP, Lacoste, Fjall Raven Greenland and I’ve just bought a Arktis Norrona.

You could say that some guys on the Forum are real 80s Casuals, more than myself, and I would go along with that. I consider myself a 90s Casual but 80s does sound better, so I aint too fussed. I have been fortunate to meet Barrington and Awaydays in the flesh. They are a credit to the board and will do anything for you if they can. I’ve also dealt with Jey, Estaban and fy4white and they also seem decent lads, who I can’t wait to share a beer on the Blackpool jolly.

I‘d just like to finish and say thanks, for letting me have the opportunity to, have my say, on your board and pass on the advice my dad said to me, before the geezer passed away.
“Be good and live life to the full because you're only here once.“

Rambolatic.

Norwich63 (Forum Member)

My story started in 1981. I was standing in Norwich station in my donkey jacket and DMs when a group of Norwich fans came in looking for Oldham fans. What caught my eye was the different appearance of the Norwich lads, wedge haircuts, smart jumpers, faded jeans and Pod or Kickers footwear. So this was the defining moment when I thought a change of look was needed.

That summer I met some of these lads at the Haven holiday park in Caister and my casual life was about to begin in earnest. My first items of gear were a Slazenger red v neck jumper, a pair of Farah's, sheepskin coat and a pair of Dunlop strap over tennis shoes. Then the sportswear look started to take off and I remember going into Pilch's of Norwich and shelling out £75 for a full Fila bj Terrinda tracksuit envied by some lads, ridiculed by others for spending that much on a tracksuit. Other additions included Fila and adidas tennis shirts, Lacoste items, a Lutha ski jacket, Lee jeans and Lois cords.

Then cometh the mid eighties and the sportswear look was vanishing fast so we moved into Armani, Marc O’ Polo, Franco Ziche, Ciro Citerrio and Boss. These labels were worn for a time but then I stopped going to the match as much and lost track a little. Moving on to the nineties, labels I favoured were Chipie, Cheviginon , Timberland, Ralph Lauren and adidas trainers. Up to the modern day now and I find myself wearing a lot of Lacoste and Ralph Lauren and spend hours searching eBay for that elusive piece of clothing.

That’s my story.

Regards to all forum members and moderators.

Derbyboy (Forum Member)

Although Derby born and bred, for a good few years, from the age of 16, (1980) I lived in a Leicestershire town called Ashby De La Zouch.I had not long started work down the local pit and by most peoples standards the wages weren’t too bad. At this time of my life, fashion wise, I was a little mixed up and drifted through a sort of mod/skinhead phase. My eldest sister had been a punk and always dressed in the latest threads and a lot of her dress sense rubbed off on me.

Fast forward to 1982. My summer hols in the south of France brought me a lot of inspiration. Whilst there, drinking in the bars at night, I got to see loads of lads from Liverpool, London and Manchester all wearing drainpipe jeans and black adidas trainers with tennis shirts. I knew then that I had to source some of this gear.

On my return to England I started scouring any sports shops within 50 miles for ideas and this I did on my Triumph 750 Bonneville. ( i wasn’t exactly a greabo I just loved motorcycles) First the usual Lois jeans and sambas with Slazenger jumpers and then came the SL80's.
The beauty of the lads I knocked around with, in Ashby, was that we were all very different in so much that, I worked locally but they all went off to different Unis and this meant that when they came back, the odd weekends, they each brought home the latest fashion stories and where to buy the stuff. We all supported different teams and although I was a Derby fan I would go with whoever and watch the likes of Leeds, Sheff Utd, Coventry, Liverpool, Leicester and Aston Villa. This meant I could get to see the differences on the terraces and in turn this gave me loads of ideas.

My main source for gear was MC Sports in Leicester and Nottingham, starting with a Fila BJ top and a pair of Gazelles. Then the bug just overtook me. It was as if, every other week I was buying something new. At one point I owned three Fila tracksuits, two Tacchini tops along with Pringle jumpers, Lyle and Scott, Cerutti 1881,Ellesse etc etc. When one of my sisters told my mum that there was over a grands worth of clothes in my wardrobe(and that was a very conservative estimate) she went nuts and instantly doubled my board!!!

The pinnacle for me was the summer of 1984 and a boys trip to Benidorm. We are talking 18-30 holiday classic here and the days when you could go out and drink all night for around a 1000 pesetas(£5). I had packed loads of tennis shirts, mainly Cerutti and Ellesse, and my Borg Elites with a pair of white Fila tennis shorts to boot. Whilst in Benidorm we found a few decent sports shops stocking Lacoste etc and a few shrewd purchases were made. The best night of the holiday was when we were all shipped out, via buses, to a so called evenings BBQ out in the middle of nowhere, with all you could eat and drink, and a disco laid on, all for the princely sum of about a tenner. The laugh was that about 5 coaches came after picking up young gals and lads from all over the resort and dropping them in the middle of nowhere to get hammered. This should be alright you would think, except, that there were lads from about 8 or 9 different football clubs all dressed in their terrace gear and trying to out do each other. Needless to say there was a few bottle fights.

By 1985 the sportswear side had become tired and like a lot of others, I moved more into the dressier designer look. I started wearing Armani with cords and adidas shoes and Lacoste t shirts underneath. I can remember paying £175 for a suede and wool Armani cardigan from Scotneys in Leicester.I went to Derby v Forest game at the City Ground and whilst walking towards the away turnstiles, some tw*t ran past and slashed the arm of my cardi with a Stanley knife. Luckily for me I wasn’t hurt but the cardi was ruined.

I then started to get more in to the likes of Bonneville C17 jeans etc and Trapper moccasins and did most of my shopping at Limeys and the odd trip to London etc.

The decade that was the 80's had now gone and I was now married. I was spending my money on other things but the one thing that still hurts is, in 1989 my wife and I went to Australia for 6 months. We stored all our belongings at different relatives houses and in particular, I stored a shoe box, which contained labels, receipts, train tickets stubs for away games and my Borg Elite shoe bag at the Sister in Laws. Upon my return, we rented a flat. I moved all our belongings in but I couldn’t find the old shoe box. When I asked her, she simply said "Oh that old box of crap. I threw it away." "Did you look inside to see what there was",I said. "It contained a lot of memories for me." "Yes" she said. "Memories are in your head so why you need to keep them in a box I will never know." I was gutted. Nuff said :-(

By the time 1990 came, it was Replay, John Smedley tops and Timberland handsewns for me with a bit of Best Company chucked in. Today I try to dress in a casual sort of way at the game with a mixture between old and new. The likes of Gazelles and Borg Elites and now the new Beckenbauers from adidas, One True Saxon jeans, Paul Smith tops and a little bit of Ralph Lauren. I still notice, at the footy though, the odd youngster making an effort instead of wearing all the Prada and Stone Island. When you get chatting to some about the casuals of the 80's, they bang on about how lucky we were to have been a part of it. My advice to them is, with the way fashion is these day,s you can cherry pick different styles and still look good, combining retro with todays new style such as the Y3 from adidas etc.

In 2006 my teenage son and I are off to Spain for a bit of a boys holiday with the agenda being the World Cup. We shall sit about watching England’s group games with the sunshine and a beer and already my son is planning his wardrobe. He really is a fashion tart wearing old classic Tacchini tops and Lacoste with trim tabs. He certainly looks the part and is young and slim enough to wear anything, but ironically with no input from me, he is even growing his hair in a wedge style mushroom. God help us.

Great Site. Keep it up!

Derbyboy.

Paul Bucknall (Forum Member)

I was born in Douglas in the Isle of Man in 1972 and it’s where I still live. I first remember trainers being important when I was at primary school. The first Nike waffles had just become available for the grand price of £14 and everyone wanted them, blue with yellow stripes or grey with red stripes. Of course my mum thought that Clark’s trainers were better value and looked harder wearing so I never got a pair of then.

When I started secondary school it was the mod revival that was all the kids were interested in. After a year or so, trainers and sports gear started to appear. I remember there being a cross over period where flight jacket were being worn with the latest trainers! My first pair of decent trainers were Puma Kicker which were followed by many more pairs, Farah pants, a Nike Windrunner and lots of Pringles and Lyle and Scotts. I had a mate back then, Lee Breadner who had just moved over from Liverpool and had all the latest and best gear. He got me in to wearing flares when all the other lads still had skin tight jeans on. Still see him about these days dressed in Armani but looking more like David Beckham. He’s a ladies hair stylist now.

Anyway, it was parties every Friday night, dressed in the best gear and trainers me and me mates could afford. Borg Elites all round, nice leather jackets, Pringles etc. I remember my younger brother having a pair of Borg junior, no kangaroo leather there, plastic they were with a red stripe. I always looked forward to Fridays and the weekend. My girlfriend at the time always had one of my jackets or jumpers on but dressed well anyway along with all the other chaps girls. Good time for me the 80’s, girls, good trainers and clothes, beer and the occasional row with other lads. My school work did suffer though because I failed all my GCSE’s!

When I was 16 in the late eighties, I got in to the scooter scene so the clothes and trainers didn’t get that much attention for a few years. Well here I am back on the ball again, married with 2 boys now but I’ve got me taste for good clothes and trainers back again.

Paul

Jey (Forum Moderator)

Here's my contribution.

I'm newer to this game than most. I live in Grimsby which is quite far flung in terms of fashion. I didn't really get into clothes until I was about 13/14 in 81/82. I got a Saturday job and started buying my own gear. I still remember my first outfit. Navy blue Pringle, Tacchini rollneck, ,faded Lee jeans and a pair of blue suede Patrick trainers, all out my mums catalogue.

When I had a bit more money I started buying the Lendl range. I had everything from jackets and jumpers to Lendl trainers. Lacoste was a big favourite as well. In 83/84 we finally started getting decent clothes in Grimsby. Everything from Newman to Marc O'Polo in which I indulged. When I was 16 I moved to London. Now I was earning I could really indulge. I got into Armani mainly, I didn't really know much about the casual scene so I was influenced by what other lads were wearing at the match.

I'm 37 now and still try my best to partake, but with 3 kids I have less finances! I'm more interested now in picking up what I couldn't afford the first time round. My mates think I'm nuts when they go to the shops and buy new and I'm trawling jumble sales and charity shops in search of the “Holy Grail”

Bill (Forum Member)

Bit different from the normal stories, here’s a bit about what its like living in an age of young casuals who think that style can be bought…

Born in 89 just outside Newport, South Wales. From day one, my whole life was sport orientated. My parents were/are sport mad and it was only a matter of time before football became my first love! My dad was part of the casual revolution the first time round, so I was raised with tale upon tale of trips, trends and tribulations. It has a big affect on you and I have been waiting 10 years to become involved in this awesome scene.

My first casual item was a Burberry of London crew neck sweatshirt, a item that is and will always be my favourite piece, then came the usual Burberry Cap, Aquascutum scarf and Adidas Campus. This was all before I entered secondary school.

Mid teens were the changing point for me. My whole conception of the casual scene changed. The whole scene regarding music and friendship never entered my head. “Its not what you wear its how you wear it” the best quote I have ever read. A lot of todays “yoof” cannot get their heads around this comment. It has to be over £300 for the garment to enter their wardrobe. My wardrobe used to be full of pricey items that I only bought for the label. Utter madness. These days most of my clothes combined cost less than a Stone Island Jacket! Labels that are considered to be casual at the moment are the likes of Patagonia, Fjall Raven, Blue Harbour, 80’s Casuals, Zegna Sport and Facconable being just a few. There are many many more worn week in, week out by lads from every corner of the British Isles. Trainers are the piece that sets the casual uniform off in my opinion. It’s the first thing I look for on anyone. You could be wearing the smartest jacket/jeans combination, if you don’t make the effort with your feet then the effort for the rest is pointless.

I can fully understand why the older ‘original’ casuals look at today’s modern youth fashion and chuckle how poor it is. There are a few of us who are keeping the real casual tradition alive though. I'll leave you with “that” quote "Its not what you wear its how you wear it"

Thank you for reading

Bill

Kerso (Forum Member/Casual)

When I first started writing this I got about 500 words in before realising I hadn’t got past 1980 yet. It was basically a long-winded effort beginning with my first experience of “brand awareness” aged 9 when I point blank refused to consider wearing Woolworths Winfield football boots and not being able to explain to my Mum that there WAS a difference between them and adidas Beckenbauer Super other than the much larger price tag. So instead of writing a thesis on the psychology of Casual culture I’ll just keep it simple and put in chronological order the defining moments in my life that have lead me to where I am now.

1975 – see above. I got the Beckenbauer’s.

1977 – My best mate and I are allowed to go to Fir Park on our own to watch Motherwell.

1978 – Whilst shopping for my summer holiday rig-out I buy a pair of adidas Jogger from Roberts Stores in Glasgow. My first pair of trainers not bought with playing football in mind. I wore those trainers ‘til they literally fell apart. So began a love affair that thus far has lasted 27 years.

1980 – I become a Mod and rather than run the risk of being labelled a “plastic” I try to find out as much as possible about the original Mods in the 60’s. Speaking to some family friends who were originals the over-riding topic of conversation was the complete obsession with clothes and having “the look”.

1981 – For my 15th birthday my Dad agrees to let me have a made-to-measure, grey pinstriped mohair suit. 3 fittings and £250 later all those stories about my old man spending a month’s wages on a coat or a suit in the 50’s & 60’s start to make sense. Not bad for a working class electrician from the West of Scotland. To this day all his clothes are made-to-measure and he’s still the sharpest dresser I’ve ever seen.

1983 Part 1 – My days as a Mod having led to scootering and Northern Soul, my life consists of football, Northern All-Nighters and riding a chopped Vespa up and down the country.

1983 Part 2 – Whilst waiting at Motherwell train station I witness the sight of what seems like hundreds of youths dressed in jeans, trainers, brightly coloured golf sweaters and tracksuits get off an inter-city train and immediately begin chanting “A-ber-deen, A-ber-deen, A-ber-deen” . It was an awesome sight. Seeing them cause havoc in the ground later on merely added to the attraction of being part of what was going on. I was aware of a number of Casuals already in Motherwell but was too wrapped up in music, scooters and playing football to take much notice. Not any more – I was hooked. It took 6 weeks of saving, selling and begging ‘til I had enough to buy my first rig-out.

Yellow Pringle V-Neck Sweater
Bleached Lee Jeans
Nike Windrunner Cagoule
Puma G.Vilas
Donnay Tennis Shirt (the budget didn’t stretch to a Tacchini)

2005 – There’s no point in trying to give a detailed rundown of the labels, the styles, the haircuts etc because most lads on here will have gone down the same route with much the same stories and we don’t want it to turn into Groundhog Day now do we?

What I will say is that day in 1983 changed my life forever, has given me more good times than I can possibly mention, a bank balance which has very rarely been in the black, a feeling of being part of something that was very special for a time in the 80’s but most of all a very large circle of friends from all corners of the UK. Some of these friendships go back more than 20 years, some only a matter of months. These are people though who I respect, admire and most importantly – whose like-mindedness I can totally identify with. There’s nothing better than having a conversation about something you’re passionate about with someone on the same wavelength.

There’s a saying that says it’s not what you wear, it’s how you wear it. Bollocks. It’s what you wear AND how you wear it.

Evo (Casual)

I was brought up on the 7th floor of a tower block in Birkenhead that faced out across the river Mersey. On a clear night I could tell the time on the Liver buildings from my bedroom. This didn’t stop me from getting regular hassle from scousers for being a wool though. Anyway I was born in 1963 this made me 17 in 1980 so, as you can guess, being a footy fan, I was well aware of the cultural revolution taking place on the terraces. In the mid seventies everyone was a bootboy/skinhead or just a 3 star jumper/birmos/stacks guy. Then came punk. For me this was about 1977 and as a rebellious 14 year old I embraced it wholeheartedly, but even as i did so i was vaguely aware of something else. Normally when i went to Everton it was in the Gwladys St. (home end) but, I went to this one game in the park end and noticed a group of lads that stuck out, small collared Shirts, drainpipe jeans and sensible looking shoes, the sort my dad would favour. Later I realised these were pods which i recall proceeded Kickers as the chosen footwear.

Still, I was blissfully happy with punk until one afternoon at "erics", it will have been late 78 maybe 79, I was watching a band (I’m pretty sure it was The Skids who were playing. I was at the front all punked up, po-going away when a ruck broke out behind me the band stopped playing while the door staff sorted it out. I watched as a crew of maybe 15 or so lads were turfed out the club. Everyone one of them with fringes jesus or Lois jeans, black adidas or pod. Fred Perry V neck pullovers etc . That was it for me. Here was something new and fresh . It meant you could enjoy the punk scene, keep your attitude but dress smartly. I loved the covertness of it. You could move around on trains in shops etc without attracting any attention from the authorities as you looked so harmless.

Early memories are of "deja vu" opening in Birkenhead. This was a top shop that sold really good stuff. Strangely it closed after maybe only 12 months, not before i bought a pair of lime green Kickers at 24.99. That was a weeks wages. Sexy Rexy in Liverpool for your Razzy cords, Stolen From Ivor giving away Mickey Mouse T-shirts with every pair of Fiorucci jeans. The t-shirts then became a sort-after item. How about a pair of yellow Inega jumbo cords. I got beaten up in Rhyl by the local taffs for being a " f**king queer" while wearing them. I ditched them after that. Stanley leathers or box leathers,jesus or Lois bib n brace, sheepies, sheepskin mittens, Barbour jackets (did i imagine them ?) Kios shoes or was it Kois ? Having the legs of your jeans too long so as the bottoms puckered up on your trainers or cutting the sides of your jeans so as they folded over you trainers. Scally walks, like hands held together behind your back, while swaggering your shoulders from side to side, or, having your coat half way down your back i think this was to show the label on your T-shirt.

Finally real students of the era can find references to the emerging casual in the book "Spike Island " a portrait of policing inner city Liverpool. published in 1980. The book makes regular references to the dress codes of the local youths. The Police themselves had a name for these kids. They called them" bucks" a much better name i always thought than scallies.

Regards

Evo

Joey Wag (Forum Member)

I grew up in a small village on the outskirts north of Hanover, Germany, surrounded by 6 army camps and hundreds of squaddies. No-one in Germany, no-one I was knocking about with in the late 70’s and early 80’s anyway, knew about this casual lark happening in the UK, however, quite a few labels, especially many of the adidas, Puma trainers were worn at similar times in a similar way, but never in the name of casual or particularly for going the match. To be honest, I cannot remember exactly which pair of adidas were my first ones, I recall getting a pair of Vienna for school, as they needed to be white and red, I remember getting the blue rekords with the thin white sole and most of all, I don’t recall a single sports shops, even the small ones on the outskirts of town, without adidas or Puma in the sales racks.

My mother could never afford to buy me a lot of expensive labels so a lot was passed down from my cousins and one of them happened to be a good tennis player and the club he played for treated the juniors quite well, plus my mate was playing tennis too and his dad was travelling the world with his job and used to spoil him rotten, and a lot of the stuff ended in my wardrobe too. The closest I ever got to play tennis was as a guest player with my mate, as my ma couldn’t afford the high membership fees. It never stopped me and some other mates watching Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and what have you on the telly though, I somehow liked Roscoe Tanner , playing tennis in the street, with a rope tied across the street to lamp posts, used as a net. We used to wear a lot of tennis gear to school, I did anyway. Tacchini trackies, Australian trackies, Fila polo’s and Adidas Grand Prix and Grand Slams, I loved them to bits and the Grand Prix were the first ones I ever bought for myself after working for a local garden centre during the school holidays. One fine evening during those holidays and after one or two too many bottles of beer for our age anyway, meeting in the local bus-stop, me and my mate decided to cycle to the local tennis club on the outskirts of the village, in order to nick a lot of the shoes, rackets, clobber left in the changies all the time. It helped that my mate had nicked a key from his dad and we found quite a lot, however, all the shoes were covered in red clay and needed intensive washing. The Grand Slams I loved so much were two sizes too big and they suffered a bit in the wash, but they were worn to death. In Germany you never had to wear school uniforms, so you could wear all that clobber to school too. My passion for adidas and labels started that way and I had been a Liverpool fan since 1977, however, I had not been to a proper Liverpool match yet at the time.

Many squaddies spotted in town and the local bars used to dress in a casual style but it never caught on properly as far as I remember. There were many of them into the skin fashion still and it was due to my mate’s sister’s boyfriend, a Bristol City fan, that I ended up with my first ever Fred Perry polo and Merc harrington jacket in the summer of 1980. We managed to sneak into some of the usual squaddy watering holes in town on the odd occasion but soon got sussed and chucked out again.

Going the match with your mate for me started at 13 in the 1980/81 season, with your typical denim vest with patches on, however, also in 80/81 the skin fashion started to kick-off in Germany, especially round our way with the big squaddy influence and so it was the skin look that was adopted straight away and lasted for a few years when going the match. In 1984 I went to the first ever Liverpool game, a friendly against Borussia Dortmund and I spotted many Scousers dressed rather smart and the ones I met inside the ground had been “shopping” too. My cousin worked in Karstadt in Dortmund and told me that a lot of trainers and clobber went west that day. The next game was Heysel in 85, sad but true and in July 85 I travelled to Liverpool for the first time in pre-season too, soon to be followed by more regular trips to Liverpool and mostly to European aways. One of my fondest memories is of Whittys sports shop in Bold Street, buying plenty of New Balance for the lads at home, making a nice profit and also buying some adidas back home for mates in Liverpool.

Another favourite thing was to travel by coach to London for the weekend, in order to watch Liverpool in the Smoke for me and others went to West Ham, Chelsea and other clubs and we used to take a suit case to fill with skin fashion, New Balance trainers for the mates in Germany, always making a nice profit which paid for the trip and the odd item of clobber too. In the late 80’s, especially after a friendly in Dusseldorf against England in 87 and after Euro 88 it was a misch masch dressing in UK and typical German clobber for me, always influenced by the Liverpool style. Although it is hard to believe, but even in Germany there was a casual scene happening at that time, no doubt slightly later and by far not as wide-spread as in the UK, but a lot of the German lads following the National Side, causing havoc on the travels and at various games, adopted a certain casual style too and some labels were identical to the UK. Lacoste, Best Company, Chipie, Chevignon and even Stone Island for a very small minority spring to mind straight away.In the 80’s quite a few German lads started travelling to the UK, some adopted some of the UK style of dressing and developed a passion for clobber and training shoes. Germany in the 80's was Trimm Trab galore. Looking at various old school photies, you can spot them clearly. Munchens were used for Volleyball a lot. Many mates, me included, wore Spezials for actually playing handball, Table Tennis, especially Eberhard Scholers in the earlier days for table tennis and not really for knocking about. Very popular were the Sambas with the brown sole for either indoor footy during the winter months, or just for knocking about. My arl fella and his mates used Kegler Supers ( I remember them without the pegs stills too ) down the local "Kegelbahn" ( skittles alley ) although these days he's sporting the equipment version, which I got him for chrimbo in 2002. Yugoslavia was a very popular holiday destination in the 80's and many brought back Adidas trainer made in Yugoslavia for half the price, in slightly different colours or material. I only went once with my mate's family and got a pair of Trimm Trabs, they were grey with dark blue stripes, that's all I can remember.

In the mid 90’s, a lot of German car boot sales, jumble sales ( Flohmarkte ) were full of deadstock 3 Streifen trainers and clobber and I bought the odd bits there but some never survived the washing machine, only lasted a few games and ended up in red cross containers, getting shipped out to the likes of Bosnia. I got a pair of burgundy Gazelles with the golden writing in 94, in a brown box though and that was the start of the re-issues appearing in Germany as far as I remember. Universals got re-issued round that time again too. There wasn't that much of a demand in Germany for retro trainers anyway. The Judy sharing my flat and life at the time was totally against buying second hand clobber, deadstock trainers, trainers in general and I finally gave in and got rid of most stuff again and only kept the odd item. After the much needed split in 1998, I slowly started to buying re-issues and the odd deadstock trainer again. I have been living in the UK since August 2003 and Liverpool since September last year and have not looked back ever since. This passion for wearing 3 Streifen trainers and the odd Diadora, to the match will stay with me for many years to come for sure.

Best of luck with the site lads and as Bazza Smash would say, you know the dance.

Trimm Trab (Forum Member)

Like many others it was the stan smith which I remember ending the adidas black phase ( 79 or 80 ) and setting off my fascination for trainers. adidas of course (apart from the reebok’s in 86) with the Stan Smith, Comfort, Tom Okker , ATP and Puma Davis Cup ( strap overs ) are what I remember around then .

One night I'm going to the youth club and I see a bright green pair of Stan Smiths . On closer inspection they had a red block on the side of the sole……Kios Low………. On match day, always walking with your head down to spot the new trainers and what they were called , all the different types of pod , tractor tread sole , hole punched designs on the toe , who had the most kicker leaf’s etc

The different jeans and cords. Inega Jumbo,gold or burgundy, Ritzy which changed to Razzy (or the other way round), Rifle, Lee, Fruit of the loom, FU’s. Thick and thin cords, list is endless and yes it did seem to change weekly.

Strange how I can remember the first time I saw a certain trainer even today.( some might say sad!) Trimm Trab (navy/light blue) in the bookies on Goodison Road, Grand Slam on the lad at the next space invaders to me in “Las Vegas”, Forest Hills on the L81 and the lad had on a green bubble coat on.

To sum up this strange thing, 84/85 season and Everton beat United 5-0 at Goodison. Before the game, United stormed down Goodison Road and one lad made a stand near to the players entrance, throwing a pocket full of slumy at Everton's lads. He was wearing Marathon 84 (bright yellow/navy) and a green Benneton ski jacket.See all the important details were remembered!!!

Great site lads.

Regards.

Trimm Trab

Kevin Sampson (Author: Awaydays)

I grew up in a place called Thingwall on the outskirts of Birkenhead. It was a typical 60s new-build place, smallish low-rise council estate surrounded by a few streets of ‘bought’ houses. We lived at the ‘bought’ end of Beaumaris Drive, one of the arteries into the estate. It’s here that my fascination with gangs started, at the age of 9. Night after night there’d be skirmishes outside - skinheads against greabos, or estate against estate. I shared a bedroom with my brothers and we’d be at the window watching the action. The sound of dozens of pairs of Martens pinging down the street was dead exciting for us young kids - and it stood me in good stead at Anfield.

Locked out for the final game of the 76-77 season, we had to beat West Ham to win the League, they had to win to avoid relegation. Unusually for a London team, they brought a big firm up (only Palace in the F.A Cup had really come in numbers to Liverpool up until then). By that period, mid-77 quite a lot of our younger lads had started wearing The Uniform - adidas T-shirt, Wrangler semi-flares and either suedies or any one of the adidas ‘black’ range: Kick, Mamba, Samba - and to this day I’m sure there was a style called Bamba… maybe not.

A lot of people have tried to pinpoint when that Liverpool look first started appearing. As an out-of-towner (we didn’t have fans from Sweden and Thailand and Austria in those days, out-of-towners meant Wirral, Southport, Ormskirk, Maghull!) I would just go the match, keep my eyes open and my mouth shut, but it was always important to look the part. Even in the days of Flemings you could give yourself away by the clothes you wore - or didn’t wear - so I’d have to admit that I was a spotter of the first order when it comes to this debate about who was wearing what, when. For example, I well recall going to West Ham for the third round F.A Cup game, January 1976 and clocking a little crew of our lads in brown suede adidas trainies. Training shoes have always, always been a massive cult item on Merseyside - for as long as I can remember. I’m not saying there were hundreds of match lads wearing the same thing that day, but it was there, it was the first flicker of something going on. Couldn’t tell you the name of those trainies either (anyone notice how the spell-check tries to make you say trainees, but that’s a different thing: that’s a type of job start that ceased to exist in 1979), but whether they were Tobacco, Tobago or Trinidad there was about twenty lads all wearing them and, for me, that was the start of the movement.

By the time we played Southampton in the Charity Shield that August, the look was even more noticeable. Again, it was a knowing minority, lost in a mass of Keegan bubble perms and acres of flapping denim - but it was the same, almost Mod-ish uniform of short, side-parted hair, narrow jeans and training shoes - and there were more of them. And if you spool onto that baking hot May day in 1977, there was a few of us standing outside The Kop, kids of 14 or 15 who’d been locked out - and it was the clarion call of stampeding DMs that warned us West Ham were on the rampage. Let’s give them their due, here - there was about a hundred of them tried to boot down the Anny Road gates and, when that failed, they got together and went on a little jolly around the streets of Anfield. Sadly, that’s where the plaudits have to end. That West Ham firm has to be one of the scruffiest, dirtiest mobs I’ve ever seen. You were half waiting for them to start deftly lifting silk handkerchiefs from gentlemen’s topcoats or offer you a two-for-one chimney sweeping deal. DMs and half-masts to a man, and this at a time, we’re now assured, that the London clubs were blazing a fashion trail for the Northern monkeys to follow. All’s I can say is they must have been on one of them last-day-of-the-season fancy dress outings. We heard their bovver boots charging up Kemlyn Road and, I don’t mind saying, took full advantage of our own streamlined footwear to give it toes.

For me, May 77 was when it really took off - that was the start of the golden era. Nicky Allt pinpoints Zurich the month before as being a key date for himself in terms of what you could get away with at the match. What’s for sure is that our travelling hordes ended the season in Rome dressed like Kenny (a bad boy band fond of massive Birmos). But by the time King Kenny arrived a few months later, most of the lads in the 16-25 age range had abandoned all the width. Sat in the same spec on the steps outside Wembley, August 1977, you could definitely tell the Liverpool boys apart from the Man.U.

From that point on, right through to the end of the 1979-80 season it was an ever-changing mood. It was exciting times in the city, loads of great home-grown bands like The Bunnymen and Wah! starting play at Eric’s alongside match favourites like The Jam, Magazine, Clash etc. That was the period I wanted to try and capture in Awaydays. At the time I wrote the book, no work of fiction had really brought to life that era - where music and fashion and football gave you reasons for living, just as Margaret Thatcher was starting to take them away. It’s a fictional document of perhaps the most important underground youth movement in recent times.

Awaydays focuses on a the final six weeks of 1979. By that time, the Liverpool fashion madness had gone berserk. The much-loved Sexy Rexie shop had witty little flashcards pinned to, say, a pair of cords in the window: “In for One Day only: Inega jumbo cords!“ Manns in London Road joined in with a free Three Star Jumper offer with every pair of Lois bib’n brace (“why go cold?“ their pin-cards said). Just on a footwear level, it seemed as though the match lads were wearing something new every game: Naturetreckers, cord shoes, moccasins, yachting pumps, Green Flash, Kickers, Pod, Kios all had their moment in the sun alongside the countless adidas shoes that came and went. Personal favourites from that era would have to be Nastase, Fiji (all-beige, supple brown leather), Barrington Gold and the wondrous SL80. At the top end, hats were always a big thing in Liverpool, too: deerstalkers, MASH hats, balaclavas pinned in the centre with a tiny badge - and every Scal at the 1980 Semi-Finals against Arsenal had a baseball cap on.

Fine books by Phil Thornton, Nicky Allt and Dave Hewitson chronicle all the Ins and Outs lovingly, and there’s no time here to list all the fashion nonsense that passed as footy style. Two particular itches I’d like to scratch though:

1) The fashion media’s ‘reclaiming’ of the movement as a London thing. It wasn’t. It really, really was not. During the gestation period of 1976-1980 I saw first hand every major London mob - Millwall included. Yes, they had a few dressed-up lads. Mobs like Chelsea caught on as quickly as the Manchester teams (i.e 1979). But the whole culture of football hooligans lashing the scarves and boots and dressing in that unique hybrid of sports gear and street fashion - that’s Liverpool, all the way. Going through the main London teams - Arsenal, semi-final of the League Cup, February 1978. One half of the Road End is duffel coats and wedges. The other half is skinheads. Arsenal were skins in 1978 and they were still skins two years later. Chelsea at Everton, October 1977. There was a big callout for all Scousers to get together after Chelsea had hopped on the Everton mob first game of the season. Chelsea came - quite a lot of them for a night game, too - but they were punks. No word of a lie, some of them had silver DMs on! January ‘78 Liverpool at Stamford Bridge for the F.A Cup - Chelsea were still mainly punks and skinheads (and fatties, to be fair). And when Tottenham talk fondly about their repeated attacks on Liverpool’s escort after the Terry Mac winner in 1980, they actually admit they could suss the Scousers because of our haircuts. We, in turn, knew who they were from their donkey jackets. Never has there been a more apt role model for a team than Chas ’n Dave adopting Spurs!

Looking back on it now, it’s remarkable that a major international youth subculture started outside of London - but get over it. It did. I wrote the first ever article documenting the existence of dressed-up match lads in Liverpool. I sent it to The Face in 1982. The clued-up style cognoscenti of Olde Londone Townshippe sent me a nice letter back saying: ‘this may well be happening round your way, but we see no evidence of it here. It’s a purely local story and not of significance to The Face.’ I was surprised - everyone was dressing the same by 1982! The following year, still trying to get a start as a writer, I sent them the same article. This time they wrote back and said: ‘Great timing. We’ve just asked a London-based writer to turn in a piece about the Casuals. We’ll put yours next to his.’ In the space of a year they’d gone from “this doesn’t exist” to “this is a London phenomenon”.

2) Itch 2: although the U.S has lent us many a key scally fashion accessory - the baseball cap, the MASH hat, the teabag T-shirt - none of this movement has its roots in New York. Only Fashion Assistants on glossy magazines believe that twaddle. Even at the moment when Rap music decided to celebrate the look (in 1986, ten years after it kicked-off!) Run DMC picked the ugliest, divviest shoes that no-one ever wore - the much-mocked shell-toe (My adidas). The Big Apple blazing a trail? Forget about it.

Good luck with the site. Anyone with recollections of Huyton Rugby League atrocities, please take the time to write in.

Phil Thornton (Author: Casuals)

Growing up in a new town populated by 40,000 scousers and 25,000 wools meant that, in gang terms, we were always out numbered at least 2 to 1 by our Liverpudlian neighbours. The scally revolution was slow to hit the Old Town area of Runcorn although we watched it with amused interest. Most wools were still skins, mods or even punks in 1980 and it wasn't until the mod revival began to dissipate at the beginning of the new decade that we first noticed the arrival of wedges, ski jumpers, balloon jeans, smoothy belts, Pods, plazzy sandals and of course adidas - this didn't have a name but the music was Kraftwerk and Human league, the clothes were Bowie/Roxy mixed with Army & Navy utilitarian and the football was Liverpool and Everton football clubs. Someone sprayed 'Hough Green Scals' on a road sign which was the first time we'd heard the expression 'scal' - no-one went around calling themselves a scal but you knew one when you saw one (or they smacked you).

We'd wait for them to get off the train at Runcorn station, fifty or so of us and pick off the scousers if we knew they were in one's or two's (any more and the odds were against us!!) - you knew they were scousers because only scousers dressed like that at the time. Or so we thought. About 81 when all the baseball and American football airtex t-shirt craze was rampant we were at Runcorn AFC's ground when about 100 'scousers' bunked in - a few came over to talk to us in broad Lancastrian accents. They were Wigan's Chosen Few and had legged our scousers all over the place after getting off at Runcorn East station. Obviously the look was expanding into wool-land. A few of our lads started wearing the box leathers, Kickers, Razzy/Second Image jeans, bubble coats, needle cords, Adidas/Patrick kagools, Karmen Ghia cord jackets deerstalkers, japhats, Trimm Trab, Munchen, Forest Hills etc and there was a lot of pressure to start dressing 'smooth' (as we still called it).

I must admit I was a late starter getting my 'adidas shoes' and Israeli parka in winter 82, just after leaving school. That was it then. I was hooked. No, I was obsessed with fashion, swapping Liverpool for Manchester in 83 and getting into the unique Manc look that developed in the mid-80s. I wrote my book because I still think that the casual 'movement' (if a movement it was) has been the most overlooked and under documented youth cult of all time. You try and dig out archive photos of casuals and you'll understand just how little of it there is. With all the great pop cult books available now using archive hip hop/mod/punk/skin photos, it's almost impossible to get hold of any casual memorabilia unless it comes direct from the lads and lasses themselves.

If you were there and stayed with it for the past 25 years or so you'll know 'this thing of ours' went through numerous subtle evolutionary shifts that the mass media or the fashion press never picked up on. Perhaps in some respects it's better that way. We can always have the last laugh on those who pretend to understand our sub-culture yet who always, ALWAYS, get it wrong. The best thing about our scene it that it continues to evolve and we haven't become embarrassing relics from a bygone era, like the teds or mods. There's a place for retro and classical casual wear but it's always mixed in with something new and exciting. I still get worked up about this and I'm almost 40 now.

Good luck with 80s Casuals and here's to another 25 years of sharp dressing under impossible circumstances.

Phil Thornton
Swine Magazine