Manejo de herramientas

"The dance was ending as they burst in to the h a l l . They

stood s i l e n t l y , s t a r i n g , not moving yet somehow on the point of motion, lik e preying animals, f i f t e e n or twenty boys wearing

motorcycle k i t . Their h a i r was greased and combed into s t y l e s

c a lle d College Cut and L atin Cut and Campus Cut and Perry Como.

Their ex p re s s io n was contemptuous and e x c i t e d . A record of

'Good N igh t, S w e e t h e a r t ', sung by Vera Lynn, was being a m p lifie d by the loudspeaker equipment attached to the w a ll above the door.

"Someone shouted d e r i s i v e l y , ' C a l l that dancing?' "'My Mum could do b e t t e r . '

"•Come on Dad, move your f a t a r s e . '

"One of them, . . . suddenly seemed to become the le a d e r . . . His Jacket had a t i g e r ' s head painted on the back, h is black

l e a t h e r Jeans were s tu ffe d in to ex-army d is p a tc h r i d e r ' s b o o ts . He moved s w i f t l y to the radiogram and, swinging his le g back, brought h is boot crashing to the fan-shaped g r i l l , s p l i n t e r i n g the wood and t e a r i n g the beige canvas m a t e r i a l behind i t .

"The other boys surged forward on to the f l o o r . Some of

them paired and s tarted to Jiv e. Another used the p a n e llin g of

the door a r a sounding board to beat out a rhythm.

’"Come o n ' , y e lle d the le a d e r . . . ' L e t ' s do i t o v e r . '

"He picked up a fo l d i n g wooden ch a ir and brought i t down

on top of the gramaphone. The v i c a r advanced with h is palms

outstretched a s i f to calm them down.

"Boys, boys, P l e a s e . L e t ' s not have any of the rough

s t u f f . ' "

Corny d ia lo g u e , maybe, but th is d e s c r i p t i o n , penned In

1 9 6 1, of the wrecking of a church youth c l u b by 'm indless le a t h e r Jacketted yobbos' cap tu res very w e ll the q u i n t e s s e n t i a l linage

conjured up by the ton-up boys of the la te 19 5 0s - an Image

p o s i t i v e l y guaranteed to shock and dismay a B r i t i s h p u b lic s t i l l unable to come to terms with the r e a l i s a t i o n that the Suez c r i s i s had sounded the f i n a l death k n e l l of a g l o r i o u s c o l o n i a l p a s t .

I n a B r i t a i n emerging from the upheaval of the Second World War, where t r a d i t i o n a l p a tte rn s of working c l a s s l i f e were In a state of f l u x , there was f e r t i l e ground f o r the e v o lu tio n of a delin q u en t subculture which attempted to "defend, s y m b o lic a lly , a c o n s ta n tly threatened space and a d e c l i n i n g s t a t u s . " ^ 1, by a d o p tin g a d i s t i n c t i v e sty ie of d ress and "group-minded behaviour as a r e a d i l y a v a i l a b l e , a l b e i t lmaglnery s o lu t i o n , to the problems encountered In m a t e r i a l l i f e which remained Insolu ble

The a u s t e r i t y o f those Immediate p o s t-w a r years cast a c h e e r l e s s grey mantle over the whole of B r i t i s h s o c ie ty - r a t io n books, clo th in g coupons, bomb s i t e s , p r e - f a b s , make-do-and-mend, queue f o r t h i s , queue f o r t h a t , queue f o r every other bloody t h i n g . People were glad to be a l i v e , I f you could c a l l I t

l i v i n g ; glad to get back to normal. But what was normal?

Normal was Just a memory, a faded photograph on the p a r lo u r

w a l l . Normal was gone f o r e v e r , buried beneath a h a l l of German

bombs, shot to p ie c e s on the b a t t l e f i e l d s of Europe and North

A f r i c a . Normal was s h a tte re d , battered and bent beyond a l l

r e c o g n i t i o n . Normal was dead. But the o l d e r gen eratio n

stu b b o rn ly refused t o b e lie v e the evidence before t h e i r eyes,

and c a r rie d on go in g through the motions. They knuckled down,

unquestlonnlng and uncomplaining, sustained by an unshakeable

c o n v ic tio n that everything would turn out 3.1 rig h t In the end. With a combination of Almighty God on the one hand and the

Welfare State on the other, the old way of l i f e would be r e b u i l t ,

b r i c k by b r i c k I f nec essa ry . I t was only a question o f time.

But the young, born and ra is e d In the turmoil of war, were

not so s u re . They had no r o o t s , no 'golden p a s t ' to re cap tu re.

The days of the B r i t i s h Empire were as remote to them as ancient Rome. F i f t e e n y e a r s or f i f t e e n hundred y e a r s , the p ast was

h i s t o r y - I r r e l e v a n t . The only th ing that mattered was now.

L i f e was f o r l i v i n g , not f o r rem in isc in g. The older generation

had had t h e i r go, and look what a mess th ey'd made o f I t -

th ey 'd fucked I t up good and proper. Now I t was up t o the kids

t o have a go. There were Jobs to be had and money t o be earned.

Maybe money c o u l d n 't buy happiness, but what I t could buy c e r t a i n l y f e l t good. The o ld e r gen eratio n d i d n 't understand,

c o u l d n 't understand, w ouldn't understand. Like the song s a id "

" I t ’ s Saturday night and I Just got paid Fool about my money, d o n 't t r y to save. My heart says go, go have a time .

I t ' s Saturday night and, baby, I f e e l fine . . . " ^ 3

Who the h e l l needed 's e c u r i t y ' ? S e cu rity meant being tied

down, 'planning f o r the f u t u r e ' . Who cared about the future

anyway? The f u t u r e , like the p ast, could take care of I t s e l f .

The teds were the f i r s t group to be associated with a

unique s u b c u lt u r a l s t y l e , the appearance of which was to generate a consid erable adverse s o c i e t a l r e a c t i o n , s im ila r t o that which marked the emergence of I t s American contemporary, the b iker

s u b c u lt u r e . Teds quickly became a s s o c ia t e d . In the minds of

the p u b lic with gang violence and a d e c lin e In moral s tan d ard s.

They were the a r c h e t y p ic a l 'bad bo y s' of the 1950s. Fven the

most minor of In c id e n ts In v o lv in g youths whose d ress could be held to resemble the teddy boy sty le received widespread

p u b l i c i t y I n the media. And.Just In case the p u b lic h ad n 't

a c t u a l l y encountered the menace face to f a c e , the newspapers f e l l over themselves to d e s c rib e the enormity of the problem In such g r a p h ic d e t a i l that every home In the land was I n f i n i t e l y b e t t e r acquainted with what and what was not t y p i c a l teddy boy

behaviour than the k id s were them selves. The teddy boy was a

v i o l e n t , a g g r e s s i v e , monster, who chewed gum, put a x le grease on h i s q u i f f , sewed f i s h hooks In h i s l a p e l s , and c a r r i e d a v a r i e t y o f nasty weapons, in c lu d i n g knuckle d u s t e r s , f l i c k

k n i f e , b l c y c l e / t o l l e t chain and cosh. They fought In gangs,

threatened old l a d l e s , seduced young g i r l s , and woe betide anyone

who stared at them too hard I n the s t r e e t . In a c t u a l f a c t , the

teds lik e d to be stared a t , wanted t o be stared a t , dressed to

be stared a t , r e v e l l e d In being stared a t . Ign o rin g the

s p e c ta t o rs or, on occasion s, scowling a t them, was t h e i r way

of being very c o o l . Their appearance was a p u b lic a f f r o n t , and

they e x p lo i t e d i t to the f u l l .

The s ta t u s value of t h i s unexpected newsworthiness was not

l o s t on the t e d s . As Fyve 1 notes in h i s book, 'The Insecure

O f f e n d e r s ', the wave of rock and r o l l ' r l o t s ' that took place In 1956 ap pears to have been p r e c i p i t a t e d l a r g e l y by an h y s t e r i c a l o v e r - r e a c t i o n to the uproarous behaviour a t the Flephant and C a s t l e 's Trocadero Cinema d u rin g a showing of B i l l H a l e y 's f i l m

'Rock Around The C l o c k '. The s e r i e s of s i m i l a r I n c id e n ts which occurred in cinemas throughout the world bore an almost carbon­ copy s i m i l a r i t y to the Flephant and Castle ' r i o t ' . Just as though

the media had c a t e g o r i c a l l y defin ed and communicated to an e a g e r re ad e rs h ip of novice teddy boys the so rt of behaviour a p pro priate f o r them to indulge I n . I f 's u c c e s s ' can be measured by r e s u l t s , then the media won an overwhelming v ic to ry In I t s campaign t o

put the new ' f o l k d e v i l ' on the In t e r n a t io n a l map. According to

the Times, which f o r some reason seems to have taken a s p e c i a l in t e r e s t in the phenomenon, between July 23rd 195& and October lAth 1959. there were no l e s s than f o r t y - e i g h t rock and r o l l

' r i o t s ' In s ix t e e n c o u n trie s , Including such u n lik ely l o c a t i o n s as Singapore, Norway, Japan (who had t h e i r own p a r t i c u la r brand

of teddy boys, the 'T a y a z o k u ), Argentina, Denmark, Hhodesla, P e r s ia ( I r a n ) , B u l g a r i a , Siam (T h a i la n d ), Indonesia and

C zech oslovakia. In B r i t a i n , c o u n cils up and down the land re acte d

by Imposing bans on the use of dance h a l l s f o r rock and r o l l dances cinemas were persuaded not to show 'Rock Around The C lo c k ', Juke boxes were banned from c a f e s , c o ffe e bar lic e n c e s withdrawn, and school p u p il s who dared to wear Items of teddy boy clo thing to

sch o o l, promptly banned from the premises. Questions were asked

In both Houses of P arliam en t, Parliamentary Committees, p en al

com m lttees,Judlcial committees, probation o f f i c e r s , m a g is tra te s ,

p s y c h o lo g i s t s , p s y c h i a t r i s t s , c r im in o lo g is t s , u n iv e rsity dons

and churchmen a l l made r e p o r t s on the phenomenon. The Archbishop

of Canterbury, seeking f i r s t hand inform ation, held a p r iv a t e audience with Adam F a it h , and a young Jeremy Thorpe, speaking on the Home S e r v i c e 's 'Any Q u e s t io n s ', explained to the n a t io n In p a t r o n is in g tones that "rock and r o l l music (was) simply going t o have to be banned i f I t causes the young people o f t h i s country to re a c t In t h i s f a s h i o n . " ^ (Fortunately f o r the 'young people of th is c o u n t r y '; Hr. Thorpe's educated drone was unheeded by the powers that be , and rock and r o l l l i v e d on to o u t la s t h is own p o l i t i c a l c a r e e r . ) Fven the 1959 Queen's