The Legacy of the Soul Boys

By Carl Halling

Fri, 20 Dec 2013
  • 531 reads
2 comments
 

The Soul Boys' love of Black Dance music was a legacy of the Mods and Skins that preceded them.

Yet while the Soul Boys were largely working class hard nuts from various dismal London suburbs, some Soul lovers were in fact not Soul Boys at all, so much as elegant trendies.

But with a penchant for floppy college boy fringes, plaid shirts worn over plain white tee-shirts, straight leg jeans, and the by now obligatory winkle pickers.

And these were the kind to be found at such sumptuous places as the Sombrero on Kensington High Street.

The Soul Boys also favoured the wedge haircut, which could be worn with streaks of blond or red or even green, brightly-coloured peg-top trousers and winkle pickers or plastic beach sandals.

Speaking of the wedge, it was taken up at some point in the late 1970s by a faction of Liverpool football fans who'd developed a taste for European designer sportswear while travelling on the continent for away matches.

Thence, the Casual subculture was spawned.

And its passion for designer labels persisted well into the 2010s, being manifest in every small town and shopping mall throughout the land.

Taken from Compared to the Fathomless Joy Awaiting
Certificate PG
Non-fiction
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by scratch on

That's quiet and assured writing.  You're right about scousers and wedges too.  I guess some good modern social anthropology at play to put this together.  I enjoyed it.  Unsure about the formating, was it your intention to have the text centred and in the font in which it appears here?

 

Submitted by Carl Halling on

Hi Scratch, thanks for the positive review. Yes, it was my intention to centre the piece, it being so short I thought it would give it some shape. Thanks again, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Carl.