Ee’e’s a real tasty geezer. :-)

What a boring fellow.

Had a quick look at the youtube video, there were names he mentioned and names in the comments that I knew, I didn't know these people personally but knew people that knew them, I'd certainly keep my distance from them, bad men, some of my mates from school worked in the market around that time, I'll have to speak to my pal who lived in Brentford up until 10 years ago if he knew of this Ray Hill geezer, not sure the name is familiar to me, he mentioned the Boathouse at Kew and the bouncer Morrie Bush, Morrie's favourite thing on a Saturday night was throwing 15/16 year old kids in mohair suits down the stairs, I managed to avoid that. There were a lot of well dressed market guys that frequented the Boathouse that bought their clobber from the IS, I guess their thieving financed it.

No never went to the Boathouse. Never went to Richmond Ice Rink either, or very far south of the river of an evening.

I remember there were more pubs on the North side of Kew bridge - all gone now. Don't know about cafes. Beecham was a massive employer as well before 'big pharma' became derogatory. The office where I worked is now flats.

I wonder is this is a generational thing. I don't remember much fighting growing up in the Eighties.

In my late teens and early twenties there wasn't so much agro.

1. you didn't want to ruin your clothes as they were expensive and hard to get hold of
2. you spent most of your time chasing girls rather than fighting. Your mates were often doing the same
3. clubs were expensive places to get into so you avoided getting chucked out of them
4. Good pubs had strict door policies. Once you were barred it would be a disaster for your social life

The only place you could guarantee trouble was at football. So you tended to avoid that.

By the late eighties even trouble at football had died down as everyone was loved up on E at the weekend.

Stax,

In the early eighties there was a specialist sportswear clothing shop where I lived.

It sold an array of luxury brands Fila, Sergio Tecchini, Ellesse, etc.

Sadly it didn't last. My understanding is that it was theft that quickly drove them out of business.

It was a shame to see an independent close so quickly

I was talking to a mate in the pub last week and he said he had never been in a fight. He was brought up in a working class area like myself. 20 years younger than me at 50 years old so I think there is a generational thing as I was involved in a few fights between 1968 and 1971. I went to a technical school (11 and 13 plus pupils) but it was a tough place plus a secondary problem was that some of the psychos (nutters) had brains as well. I also got involved in football violence and some of the pubs I used were dangerous places. I have only mellowed in recent years. I would not have wanted to work in Brentford market however as I prefer light hearted banter with work mates. Looking to fight or thieve work colleagues is alien to me.

In mitigation, knife crime was not the issue it is today. It was punch ups.

I think looking obviously Mod in my teens, I signalled for trouble. I was small in height but I really did dress up, even some of the Mods weren't happy with big collar BD purple polka dot shirts or those Briget Riley Op Art ones in 1982 before psych-freakbeat entered the scene years later with the Northampton lot.  Telling them pointed & cuban heel shoes were Mod was impossible to the Jam-plebs  (as seen on Marc Bolan and his group in 1960).  By the time I was buying Carnaby St stuff aged about 14 with money from job at Nottingham Fish Market each Saturday, I was both ahead of Nottingham trends and more outre for sure.

Also I've always had a resting bitch face - even my wife asks what's wrong when I'm perfectly happy.  The number of 'what you looking at' in bars and clubs, I couldn't count.

Plus I was a motor mouth, so it's not a combination that radiated tranquility.

Walking through Nottingham dressed head to toe in white with a Pop Art 'Pow!', cartoon Batman, Warhol Marilyn Monroe or Bullseye t-shirt was invited people to give me grief.  Then I started adding medals a la Townshend, I was like a beacon for aggro.


I also in later life started to look uncannily like Shaun Ryder - absolutely true.  It's got me free drinks, dubious offers and the fun of him looking down at me on the front row of a festival when people were chanting his name at me and him saying 'look down there, it's fookin' me!'.
Thankfully our likenesses have diverged with age.

I agree on Jazz Funk scene - Mod took me to Northern Soul, I was also quietly very into the earliest House scene (all Soul right?), then into Modern Soul and wider scene.  Never a peep of trouble on any Soul based scene, even my wife and sister in law got involved for decades too.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2024-01-19 10:19:10)

I can relate to 'resting bitch face' haha. My mum always used to say 'why don't you smile, you always look fed up?' when I was perfectly happy. My wife took over the mantle and sometimes says ' why don't you cheer up you miserable sod?
I was talking last week to a mate whose son goes to all West Ham away matches. He tells me that nowadays there is never trouble at away games in the UK but Europe is still  a dangerous place to visit. They tell me our local pub used to be a dangerous place for fights 20 years ago but not now. I haven't seen a fight there in 10 years but door man are employed of a weekend to control entry.
Knife crime in London seems to be drug related and a 'black on black' issue that doesn't impact me so I'm not really aware of it.