Skins

I was walking through Manchester with a friend the other week when we were passed by what looked like a genuine skinhead. 18 hole DMs, bleached jeans, braces to hold them up, Ben Sherman shirt and No1 crop. My friend commented that you don't see many of them about these days, which prompted me to enquire whether he meant in real life or in fantasy.

Naturally my fantasy skin wears a cardigan. He puts in only the rarest of appearances because I'm old enough to remember the original skins who did little to endear themselves to polite society even before they were hijacked by the far right. That the look, if not the ethos, has subsequently been taken up by a part of the gay world is a source of ironic amusement. That that segment has failed to pick up on the cardigan aspect is, however, a disappointment.

Growing up in the seventies we were exposed to a series of books from New English Library with titles like Skinhead, Suedehead, Skinhead Escapes, written by an old drunk called Richard Allen (who died more than twenty years ago, which is why I'm brave enough to describe him so). They were passed around at school and I found them faintly disgusting for their violence and celebration of all things plebeian. I'm a tad less snobbish these days.

An exception was Suedehead, which, if I remember rightly, had a character who while ostensibly violent, obnoxious and heterosexual was actually violent, obnoxious and inclined to be a bit homosexual. This, back then, was a rare thrill; a gay character who wasn't a victim. No cardigan action though. I seem to remember a chapter ending by pointing out an ear ring bouncing about in a gay encounter which identified the character and was probably meant to shock us to find out that our hero was capable of such things.

Regular readers (I'll never tire of using that expression) will not be surprised to learn that I have a couple of skinhead style cardigans. How nice it would be to have a couple of skins to put in them.

He'd do very nicely.

Finally, I'd like to thank spagnak whose encouraging comments I've only just spotted; you're too kind! I was under the impression I'd get emails telling me about pending comments. It seems I do, within minutes of finding them myself and including them on the blog. Sorry for the delay.