Teds and Punks

Having already seen the Rockers versus Mods battles on the seafronts of England in the late Sixties and skinhead football hooliganism in the early to mid seventies the nation now witnessed the very public battles on the Kings Road of London between the emerging Punks and another existing youth group the Teddy Boys (Teds).

In true style the more press it got the more it attracted the idiots and increasingly inflammatory statements. Unbelievably go on Teds forums today (2007) and they’re still harping on about it and how crap punk is (was). But for most of us old punks we love rock ‘n’ roll!!

Teddy Boys date back to the late forties when, following the war, a generation of youngsters with money to burn appropriated Edwardian (Teddy) clothing style currently in fashion on Saville Row and cranked it up a notch. In the beginning, there were drapes and drainpipe trousers. Then that look was customised; the drapes with collar, cuff and pocket trimmings, even narrower trousers, crepe-soled shoes or beetle crushers and hairstyle heavily greased into a quiff and shaped into a DA, or as it was popularly called, a ‘ducks arse’ as it resembled one!

More tales of teenage violence followed, luridly reported and no doubt exaggerated in the press.

Cinemas, dance halls and other places of entertainment in South east London are closing their doors to youths in ‘Edwardian’ suits because of gang hooliganism…The ban, which week by week is becoming more generally applied, is believed by the police to be one of the main reasons for the extension of the area in which fights with knuckle dusters, coshes, and similar weapons between bands of teenagers can now be anticipated…In cinemas, seats have been slashed with razors and had dozens of meat skewers stuck into them. Daily Mail, 27.4.54

In June 1955 the Sunday Dispatch headline was a typically sensationalist tabloid style with the following headline.

WAR ON TEDDY BOYS.

Menace In The Streets Of Britain’s Cities Is being Cleaned Up At Last

In essence, the Teds were never more than a minority in their age group but they were the first to see themselves and to be seen by society as  ‘teenagers’, the ‘bad guys’, and so a group apart. They also pre-dated but came to be associated with, rock ’n’ roll which of course itself became fresh fodder for the media offering more sex, drugs and violence stories. They were the Punks of the day and as startling and controversial. Twenty-five years down the line in 1977 Teddy Boys had never quite died out and there was a revival due to a resurgence of interest in rock ‘n’ roll. In the main, Teddy Boys were rigidly conservative and traditional and being a Ted often ran in the family.

Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) The Teds were different from the Punks in that there was so many ages – there was the older lot, all the dads, along with younger kids. The Punk thing was very young. It was like going out and fighting old men, kind of ridiculous really. John Lydon, No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

Big John. “My old man was a Ted… I’ve been brought up with nothing else. Chris Welch, Fighting In the Streets, Melody Maker, 30.7.77

The important difference between the 50’s and 70’s was that, though the clothes and music may have stayed fundamentally the same, violence was more prevalent.

The second generation Teds’ obstinate fidelity to the traditional ‘bad-guy’ stereotypes appeared by contrast obvious and reactionary. To the sounds of records long since deleted, in clothes which qualified as virtual museum pieces, these latter day Teds resurrected a set of sexual mores (gallantry, courtship) and a swaggering machismo – that ‘quaint’ combination of chauvinism, Brylcreem and sudden violence – which was already enshrined in the parent culture as the model of masculine behaviour. Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning Of Style

While indeed Teds in the seventies were in a time warp, it should be noted that there were new traditional rock ’n’ roll bands coming through like Crazy Caven and the Rhythm Rockers, the Flying Saucers and the Riot Rockers. Newer younger bands with a new style of rock ‘n’ roll, like Whirlwind, also came up against these more traditional styles.

Nigel Dixon (Whirlwind) That’s the main trouble with them [the Teds]. Some of them think that all rock ’n’ roll stopped after 1959…and they still look now like they did twenty years ago. Some of them are still in their hillbilly gear. Zigzag, May 1978

How did they come to clash with Punks? Its origins are debatable but when you look at the two youth tribes you’ll see it was inevitable.

In 1977 these new Teddy Boys were younger and out to make a name for themselves. What better way to prove their youth credentials and the fact they were still around than the age old one of finding a more high profile enemy and beating it to a pulp? First Mods and Rockers; now Teds and Punks.

Then you have the points of contention.

By 1974 the name of the shop had been changed to ‘SEX.’ While still selling some Teddy Boy gear, it came to predominantly sell fetish, PVC, leather and rubber gear and introduced what later became part of Punk fashion before changing the name in 1977 to ‘Seditionaries’. As such you had Punks appropriate, adapt, mix ‘n’ match and disfigure Teddy Boy clothes like the lurex socks, brothel creepers, drapes and drainpipes with fetish gear with bricolage like the safety pin.

This didn’t go down with the conservative Teds who saw their clothes as sacrosanct and the mutilation an insult. Titch the Ted, a character in Tony Parson’s ‘Stories We Could Tell’ sums it up.

‘We’ve been around a lot longer than anyone. They look like they’re not men. Just weird. Strange. Very odd. They nick our clobber – they’ll wear a drape – but they’ll rip it up. What’s that all about? Or they copy bits of our music – it’s rock and roll – but it’s not done right. They say they’re going to wipe Teds out. And we’re not having it. It’s out of order.’ Tony Parsons, Stories We Could Tell

And they did react violently.

Boy George. Punks bastardized drapes with safety pins and wore paint splashed brothel creepers to annoy the Teds. I was punched in the face and booted several times for wearing brothel creepers…They filled me with terror. Boy George, Take It Like A Man,

Simone Stenfors (Roxygoer) I was coming back from a gig with a girlfriend. I really liked the look of the Teds and I mixed it and Punk all together in a mish mash. I was wearing a 50’s skirt with tights, lurex socks and black patent high heeled shoes with spikes and studs, a dog collar and a fluorescent pink drape. We got off the tube at Hammersmith and this Teddy Boy and Girl got off as well behind us. I heard ‘Oi slag!’ and the next thing one of them grabbed me by the hair, smashed my head against the wall and between them ripped a whole pocket off my drape. Punk77 Interview

And lastly plain old jealousy; you have the publicity given to Punk Rock as the new gang in town. 

Brian Young (Rudi) Remember, at the time the Teds had been undergoing a huge revival amongst younger folks yet never got any press and very little radio exposure (hence the famous march in London when thousands of Teds marched on the BBC from all over the country demanding the BBC play some REAL rock ’n’ roll). In contrast if a Punk as much as farted in the outer Hebrides it was front page news – so I reckon the Teds were rightly jealous of these weirdo upstarts muscling in on their patch and challenging their position as the wildest cats in town. Punk77 Interview

Violence meant more publicity and a higher Ted profile, which meant more teenagers became attracted to becoming Teds.

And fight they did in pitched battles on a Saturday up the Kings Road, Chelsea while the newspapers and cameras would there to be catch it all. And if there was no story then the newspapers would sometimes fake it.

Anon. I mean I know people who were actually offered money by photographers to throw bricks at the Teddy boys, but it was arranged with the Teddy boys too, of course, just for the press. Peter Everett, You’ll Never Be 16 Again

However, don’t underestimate the situation; this was real violence with people getting hurt for no real reason. Joe Strummer and Tim Smith were two of the high-profile names but countless punks and teds encountered violence. Often it was organised, as Ted, Rebel Eddie, explained about being asked to make an announcement at his disco.

I’ve got an announcement to make tonight ‘Punk bashing: Sloane Square this Saturday… All Teds. No weapons. Chris Welch, Fighting In the Streets, Melody Maker, 30.7.77

At any one time on the Kings Road you could have Punks, Teds and rival football factions in action.

Vicious street fighting broke out for the third week-end running in the Kings Road area on Saturday afternoon. The clashes were between rival gangs of Teddy Boys and Punk Rockers…The main trouble erupted when police moved in to try and arrest some of the crowd of over 100 Punks assembled in Sloane Square…the whole road was blocked by fighting…At about 3.30 p.m., the mob moved off, but the fighting went on till early evening. West London Observer, A Day Of Violence, 4.8.77

However, not everyone fell for the violence Shtick. Leee Black Childers, himself beaten up by punks while being mistaken for a Ted, tried to organise a joint gig.

Johnny Rotten famously posed in Teddy Boy clothes, went to the Roxy and almost got beaten up by punks who didn’t recognise him and claimed to attend Teddy Boy gigs unmolested.

To confuse things even more, love even got a look in around early 1978 when there was a temporary craze for hooking up with the opposite sex and the opposite youth group; Ted and Punkette and Punk and Teddy Girl! Journalist Steve Walsh explained this strange state of affairs in an NME feature.

Time was, when blood used to flow between Punk and Ted with far greater regularity than it does now…I seem to remember that the first members of either tribe, to proffer any kind of olive branch were the ‘dear little Punkettes’, prostrating themselves with an uneasy mixture of diplomacy and coy masochism before the creepers of whichever burly, drape-coated ruffian had just sent their ‘wimp’ boyfriends packing, tails between their strides. It got to the point where a Ted on yer arm was as ‘de rigueur’ as yer ‘Boy’ bondage pants. NME, 1.3.78

In music you had Wayne County’s tale of love caught on the single Eddie & Sheena. Eddie is a Teddy Boy and Sheena is a Punk.

Eddie & Sheena…starts off as a tongue in cheek 50’s rock’n’roll ballad after we learn that Eddie and Sheena have married and ‘named the little brat Elvis…Rottennnnnnnnn!’ It explodes into a mad race as they pogoed the night away.  Summer Salt Fanzine, 1978

And lastly Don E Sibley’s strange rockabilly indie smash ‘Punk Bashin’ Boogie.’ Nice!

And just as suddenly it all died out. The press moved on from the Teds and Punks coverage and found more tits and arse and shock horror stories to shock titillate the nation. Punk moved on and soon it would be time for a Skinhead/Mod/Rocker reprise, more fighting and back in the papers again.

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