This is England - yes it was...

Roland Rat, Margaret Thatcher; Rubik's Cubes, the Royal Wedding; aerobics, skinheads... the Eighties were hilarious.
However, I’ve just been watching the trailers for This Is England by Shane Meadows - a film about skinheads during the 1980s and Falklands War. I’m looking forward to seeing it because in 1978 I became a skinhead.
For the record I am not a racist – the National Front caught hold of the skinhead movement in the 1980s and it’s forever been associated with thick-necked, white working class, Nazis thugs.
Which was not the case in tthe 70s/80s. At least not for me as a callow 14 year old growing up in Liverpool. The family next door had five sons and they were all skinheads/mods too and they looked so cool on their mopeds getting ready for a night on the town.
I was into the music – mostly Reggae, Ska, and anything to do with Caribbean Black Culture and coming from the North, the Northern Soul of Wigan Casino.
And the look too – neatly pressed demin, stay-press trousers, Ben Sherman shirts, wing-point dexters and DMs. It was smart and clean and cheap to buy.Up until 1978 I’d followed the crowd – Prog Rock, Ersatz Hippy, Punk. But I realised I wanted to be a skin – the turning point for me was hearing White Man in Hammersmith Palais by The Clash on Radio City while doing my homework (see – I was a good working class boy).
The following day I had my flowing locks cut off by the barber at Hunt’s Cross, near Speke. My mother was appalled. I think my dad approved because I no longer looked like a girl. My sister thought I was an idiot. My brother still thinks I am an idiot.
The next day at school my black friend, Royston Cole, said I looked cool. Remember we were all wearing Oxford Bags and Mallets. I was elated.
In the late 70s and early 80s skinheads were not part of the National Front, indeed, during this period I was a member of the Labour Party and later became a member of Militant in Liverpool at the height of the Thatcher years. Militant was a mistake.
Shane Meadows, in his film, I hope, will show that the skinhead movement was not racist but was hijacked by the hated NF at a time when England (and this is an English story) was vulnerable to racist rhetoric - we had a recession, a war, and people were prepared to be counted. The Eighties looks idiotic now - but at least we had a community. Whether they were skinheads, Soulboys, New Romantics etc - we all agitated. Often against each other but mainly against the Government.
Time for some Prince Buster me thinks… Any other skinheads out there? Do you still have the tattoos?
The picture shows the Skin's top man and Father of Ska - Laurel Aitken.