Do You Remember The Days of 79?

No Jeans! No Greens! No Casuals! London Scooter Clubs 1979-1985
Roger Allen, Old Dog Publishing 2020

Driving a scooter through London wearing a parka in 1980/81 was seen by other youth cults as a provocative gesture. It was seen as an invitation to violence by skinheads, casuals and bikers that roamed the same streets. Soon these scooter-riding mods banded together in clubs united by a shared interest in scooters, as well as fashion and music, to present a united front against their enemies.

After visits up North, on scooter runs to Scarborough, a lot of these clubs started to drop the mod fashion and picked up on the scooter boy look of the Northern clubs. Many London mods didn’t get it and banned scooter boys from their venues with signs proclaiming ‘No Jeans!, No Greens!, No Casuals!’ in other words no scooter boys.

Roger Allen spent two years interviewing over 60 members of the clubs that existed within the London area between 1979 and 1985. The A23 Crusaders and The Paddington, The Wasps and The Viceroys, The Nomads and the Virgin Soldiers and all the 80 scooter clubs that made up this scene. Andrew Stevens spoke to him about the 337-pages strong result.

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November 22, 2020November 22, 2020 by Andrew Categories: Literature, Scootering, Skinhead historyTags: mods, No jeans no greens no casuals, Roger Allen scooterists, scooter mods, scooterboys, scooterists Leave a comment

Two-stroke in your veins and two fingers up at the law – Martin ‘Sticky’ Round

Dubbing yourself a “terrorist” of any sort may not strike many as particularly wise in the current climate, but for the ‘two-stroke terrorists’ of the 80s scooterboy movement, recognition of any kind would be welcome. Former Scootering magazine editor Martin ‘Sticky’ Round has made a living for himself documenting the scooter scene globally since those days. In his book Scooterboys: The Lost Tribe (Carpet Bombing Culture), he has set out to capture the hallmarks of one of Britain’s last truly working class subcultures which defies pigeon-holing on any other level.

Andrew Stevens (Vespa PX125) sat down with Sticky to discuss police harassment, flight jackets and the suedehead roots of 80s cut-down scooters.

April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 by Andrew Categories: Clobber, Music, Scootering, Skinhead historyTags: 70s scooters, Lambretta, Vespa 1 Comment

Skinhead Farewell – an interview with Mark Sargeant

In all possibility, you may think that when it comes to Richard Allen and the New English Library Skinhead titles there’s little more to be said, almost 50 years on. And like the steel-toed kick in the balls you’d clearly deserve, you’d be wrong, very wrong. Mark Sargeant (Sarge) has written for Scootering since the 80s – many post-decimal currency readers wouldn’t even know the name Richard Allen without the contribution of his spadework in bringing Skinhead to a new audience during that period. 

July 16, 2018July 16, 2018 by Andrew Categories: Literature, ScooteringTags: Mark Sargeant, Richard Allen Skinhead, Scootering magazine 2 Comments

From Mod to Bootboy: Scootering in the Seventies

It’s fair to say that scooters were one of the few staples of mod culture to survive intact as the subculture gave way to skinheads and bootboys. Many a self-respecting bootboy was pictured above their two-stroke brand of choice in the early seventies, and the presence of the mod revival later in the decade could give the impression that the scooterboy culture was all the rage throughout. But as Ashley Lenton (Classic Scooterist, Vespa News) writes here, scooterists were actually a dying force in the seventies and it was only thanks to a dedicated band that we can document it now.

October 26, 2017October 27, 2017 by Crombieboy Categories: Scootering, Skinhead historyTags: 70s scooters, Lambretta, scooter skins, scooter world, scootering magazines, Vespa 2 Comments