Category: Literature

Hardcore Hegelian: an interview with Stewart Home

The likes of the Cockney Rejects and East End Badoes have penned entire albums recently on the subject of East End gentrification, but for Stewart Home it’s a cause to fight. A one-time Neoist but always a novelist, a quick scan of his books since 1988 reveals a range of titles from The Assault on Culture to The Nine Lives of Ray the Cat Jones, via Blow Job and Cunt, naturally. Stevo met the crophead chronicler of pulp and punk at the foot of the Barbican and repaired to a nearby Spoons to talk Marx and mods. Continue reading →

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Cropheads Between the Covers – Books Roundup #1

9781138202115Skinhead History, Identity and Culture
Kevin Borgeson and Robin Valeri, 2017 (Routledge)

Skinhead History, Identity and Culture is published by academic imprint Routledge in their Crime and Society series and at £110 a pop you may be tempted towards criminal enterprise just to afford a copy. Continue reading →

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Another Rebel Thread: an interview with Roger K. Burton

Having dressed film stars (Quadrophenia, Absolute Beginners, Young Soul Rebels) and countless music videos, it’s unsurprising that Roger Burton sought to not only document his time in the business but also the vast attire he’s amassed along the way. Rebel Threads (Laurence King Publishing) is that book, spanning the range of British youth subcultures from the war onwards and delving into the fashions which gave them their name. Continue reading →

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Skinhead Classics: Books for Bootboys 1970-2000. Part Three – the 90s

This is an ongoing, decade by decade, attempt to catalogue in 500 words or less the most notable skinhead books, starting with Richard Allen’s Skinhead in 1970 and ending on ST Publishing’s output until the turn of the century. Click here for Part 2 – the 80s. Continue reading →

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Skinhead Classics: Books for Bootboys 1970-2000. Part Two – the 80s

This is an ongoing, decade by decade, attempt to catalogue in 500 words or less the most notable skinhead books, starting with Richard Allen’s Skinhead in 1970 and ending on ST Publishing’s output until the turn of the century.  Click here for Part 1 – the 70s. Continue reading →

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Skinhead Classics: Books for Bootboys 1970-2000. Part One – the 70s

As a youth cult and subculture, skinheads, their fashion and music, have been the subject of numerous books and documentaries, some favourable and others not so.  

This is an on-going, decade by decade, attempt to catalogue in 500 words or less the most notable (our own Research Unit, if you like), starting with Richard Allen’s Skinhead in 1970 and ending on ST Publishing’s output until the turn of the century.   Continue reading →

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Zine review: Verbal #5

You’d have to go back quite some time to find proper skinzines like Hard As Nails, Zoot, Bovver Boot and the like. Back far enough, in fact, to the era before even the MP3 or dial-up modems.

Verbal, despite the aggro title, isn’t a ‘sussed skin’ zine in the vein of Hard As Nails, though it’s arguably as sussed as any of those earlier titles, and no one could deny that editor John King has more than earned his stripes as the novelist behind Skinheads and the Human Punk nights at the 100 Club, if not more. Continue reading →

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Literary hooligan: an interview with John King

Headhunters, White Trash, Skinheads and, most recently, The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler – as the titles of John King’s novels alone suggest, the godfather of hoolie lit is not one to dodge controversy or trouble. Living it as he’s writing it, the same has certainly been true for his real life persona.

King is something like British literature’s face of Oi. As many Londoners will know, this connection extends to the live events he puts on at the 100 Club. Named after his fourth novel, Human Punk, King’s night frequently features prole punk icons such as The Last Resort, Cockney Rejects, Ruts DC and Sham 69. Continue reading →

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