‘Bovver’ Books of the 1970s: Subcultures, Crisis and ‘Youth-Sploitation’ Novels

Abstract

Britain during the 1970s saw the publication of a spate of cheap, lurid novels based around the sensationalised portrayal of subcultural groups such as skinheads and motorcycle gangs. Publisher New English Library led the field, with books such as ‘Skinhead’ and ‘Suedehead’, and this article analyses such books in relation to their social, economic and political context. Focusing on the novels' narratives and representations, it argues that the genre was constituent in broader media constructions of 1970s Britain as being beset by a social and political ‘crisis’. The article concludes by considering the books' appeal. The genre, it is argued, was rooted in traditions of ‘exploitation’ fiction characterised by open-ended ambivalence. As such, the novels could be understood in a variety of ways. Their worldview was often authoritarian and chauvinistic, but their emphasis on defiant rebellion also gave the books significant cachet among the subcultures they represented.

Keywords:

• Crisis
• Fiction
• Skinheads
• Subculture
• Youth

Notes

Bill Osgerby is Professor of Media, Culture and Communications at London Metropolitan University. His books include Youth in Britain Since 1945 (Blackwell, 1998), Playboys in Paradise: Youth, Masculinity and Leisure-Style in Modern America (Berg/New York University Press, 2001), Youth Media (Routledge, 2004), and a co-edited anthology, Action TV: Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks (Routledge, 2001).

  [1] Allen, Skinhead, 27.

  [2] NEL editor, Laurence James, later explained in an interview with Stewart Home how Moffatt ‘… hated kids. He was not a youth oriented man, Jim really wasn't’. Home, ‘Bike Boys, Skinheads and Drunken Hacks’, 179.

  [3] Directed by Franc Roddam, Quadrophenia was loosely based on The Who's 1973 rock opera of the same name.

  [4] Allen, Mod Rule, 13.

  [5] The full Richard Allen canon comprised Skinhead (1970), Demo (1970), Suedehead (1971), Skinhead Escapes (1972), Boot Boys (1972), Skinhead Girls (1972), Sorts (1973), Smoothies (1973), Teeny Bopper Idol (1973), Glam (1973), Trouble for Skinhead (1973), Skinhead Farewell (1974), Top Gear Skin (1974), Terrace Terrors (1974), Dragon Skins (1975), Knuckle Girls (1977), Punk Rock (1977) and Mod Rule (1980).

  [6] Wells, Steven, ‘Bovver Books’. New Musical Express (13 February 1988)

  [7] Tiratsoo, ‘“You've Never Had It So Bad?”’

  [8] Cited in Tiratsoo, ‘“You've Never Had It So Bad?”’, 173.

  [9] Cited in Tiratsoo, ‘“You've Never Had It So Bad?”’, 163.

 [10] Allen, Suedhead, 5.

 [11] Allen, Suedhead, 5

 [12] Sharmash, ‘Obituary: Richard Allen’. Independent (25 November 1993).

 [13] Home, Neoism, Plagiarism and Praxis, 185.

 [14] See , Defiant Pose, Pure Mania, No Pity, Red London, Slow Death, Blow Job and Cunt.

 [15] Marshall, George, ‘Return of Joe Hawkins’. Skinhead Times 7 (Summer 1992): 1.

 [16] The Richard Allen novels were republished as the following collections: The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 1: Skinhead, Suedehead, Skinhead Escapes (1992); The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 2: Skinhead Girls, Sorts, Knuckle Girls (1993); The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 3: Trouble for Skinhead, Skinhead Farewell, Top-Gear Skin (1994); The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 4: Boot Boys, Smoothies, Terrace Terrors (1994); The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 5: Mod Rule, Punk Rock, Dragon Skins (1996); The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 6: Demo, Teeny Bopper Idol, Glam (1997).

 [17] Hebdige, Subculture, 95.

 [18] Bennett, ‘Introduction’, 5.

 [19] Kobrak and Luey, Structure of International Publishing, 77.

 [20] A history of ‘pulp’ fiction publishing in postwar Britain is provided in Holland, Mushroom Jungle.

 [21] A particular landmark was the ‘Hank Janson’ case. A pseudonym created by the English author Stephen Frances, Hank Janson's ‘hard-boiled’ stories of dangerous tough-guys were the most successful British gangster novels of the late 1940s and early 1950s, with sales in millions. But in 1954 Janson's publishers, Reginald Carter and Julius Reiter, were successfully prosecuted for obscenity, fined and sentenced to six months imprisonment. See , Mushroom Jungle, 139–57; Trials of Hank Janson.

 [22] Bob Tanner, interviewed in BBC2, ‘Skinhead Farewell’, Bookmark. BBC2, 1996.

 [23] A graphic roundup of NEL's 1970s offerings can be found in Marriott, Visual Guide to New English Library, Volume 1.

 [24] Peter Haining, interviewed in BBC2, ‘Skinhead Farewell’, Bookmark. BBC2, 1996.

 [25] James Moffatt, interviewed in BBC2, Late Night Line Up. BBC2, 1972.

 [26] The full extent of Moffat's prolific output is unknown. Interviewed in 1971, he claimed to have already written no less than 250 novels under 47 different pennames. An inventory of at least some of his work, produced under various aliases, can be found in Holland, ‘Richard Allen and Jim Moffat’.

 [27] Taylor, Satan's Slaves.

 [28] Victor Briggs, interviewed in BBC2 ‘Skinhead Farewell’, Bookmark. BBC2, 1996.

 [29] Allen, Skinhead, 12.

 [30] Allen, Skinhead, 26.

 [31] Allen, Skinhead, 36.

 [32] Allen, Skinhead, 40.

 [33] Allen, Skinhead, 60.

 [34] Allen, Skinhead, 61.

 [35] Allen, Skinhead, 71.

 [36] Allen, Skinhead, 76.

 [37] Allen, Skinhead, 80.

 [38] Allen, Skinhead, 95.

 [39] Allen, Skinhead, 105

 [40] Allen, Skinhead, 120.

 [41] Allen, Skinhead, 126–7.

 [42] Allen, Demo, back-cover blurb.

 [43] Demo, back-cover blurb, 23.

 [44] Demo, back-cover blurb, 4.

 [45] Allen, Suedehead, 27

 [46] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 39.

 [47] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 42.

 [48] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 78.

 [49] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 66.

 [50] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 92.

 [51] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 96.

 [52] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 108

 [53] Allen, Suedehead, 27, 110.

 [54] Clegg, Soccer Thug, back-cover blurb.

 [55] Parry, Agro, back-cover blurb.

 [56] Allen, Boot Boys, 9.

 [57] Allen, Boot Boys, 61.

 [58] Allen, Boot Boys, 58.

 [59] Allen, Skinhead Girls, 49.

 [60] Allen, Smoothies, 16.

 [61] Allen, Skinhead Escapes, 5.

 [62] Allen, Skinhead Escapes, 18.

 [63] Allen, Skinhead Escapes, 106.

 [64] Allen, Trouble for Skinhead, 5.

 [65] Allen, Trouble for Skinhead, 85.

 [66] Wilde, Barbarians on Wheels. As Laurence James later revealed in an interview with Stewart Home, the biker ‘interviews’ in both this book and the NEL Hells Angels magazines were actually concocted by the NEL editorial team. See Home, ‘Bike Boys, Skinheads and Drunken Hacks’, 186.

 [67] For example, NEL republished American biker fiction such as Pat Stadley's The Black Leather Barbarians, originally issued by New American Library in 1960, and Hugh Barron's Bonnie, originally attributed to Oscar Bessie and published by New York's Domino Books in 1968. NEL also republished Jan Hudson's ‘factual’ account of US motorcycle gangs, The Sex and Savagery of Hell's Angels, originally published by San Diego's Greenleaf Classics in 1966. The book sold so well in Britain that NEL commissioned to produce two more ‘factual’ accounts of US motorcycle gangs, The New Barbarians and Bikers at War. Hudson was touted by his dust-jacket blurbs as someone who ‘knows the Angels. He's mixed with them and heard their views on life, sex, violence’. The reality, however, was more prosaic. ‘Jan Hudson’ was actually one of many pennames used by George H. Smith, an American hack better known for his romances and sci-fi novels.

 [68] Cave, Chopper, 5.

 [69] Following Chopper, Cave's NEL biker novels comprised Mama (1972), The Run (1972), Rogue Angels (1973), Speed Freaks (1973) and White Line Fever (1975).

 [70] Stuart's biker output encompassed The Bikers (1971), The Outlaws (1972) and The Last Trip (1972), followed by two biker/occult hybrids, The Devil's Rider (1972) and The Bike From Hell (1973). Ryder/Harvey produced two NEL biker novels: Angel Alone (1975) and Avenging Angel (1975).

 [71] Norman's NEL biker quartet comprised Angels From Hell (1973), Angel Challenge (1973), Guardian Angels (1974) and Angels On My Mind (1974).

 [72] Norman, Angels From Hell, 115.

 [73] Turner, Crisis? What Crisis?, ix.

 [74] Moran, ‘“Stand Up and Be Counted”’, 173.

 [75] Nairn, Break-Up of Britain, 51.

 [76] Nairn, Break-Up of Britain, 67.

 [77] Clarke et al., ‘Subcultures, Cultures and Class’, 40.

 [78] Hall et al., Policing the Crisis, 299.

 [79] Clarke et al., ‘Subcultures, Cultures and Class’, 40.

 [80] Clarke et al., ‘Subcultures, Cultures and Class’, 40

 [81] Moore-Gilbert, ‘Apocalypse Now?’ 153.

 [82] Home, ‘Introduction’, n.p.

 [83] Hunt, British Low Culture, 75.

 [84] Allen, Smoothies, 54.

 [85] Allen, Smoothies, 54–5.

 [86] The strategy, however, was not without problems. As former NEL editor, Peter Haining has recalled, ‘The photographers hated NEL! Unlike a writer, who can observe from a distance, they had to actually confront these people and ask if they could take their picture. I mean most would do it for a tenner, but sometimes one of the photographers would come back and say “God, you wouldn't believe this bunch I've seen today and photographed.”’ Quoted in Marriott, Visual Guide to New English Library, Volume 1, 80.

 [87] Allen, Suedehead, 13.

 [88] Allen, Suedehead, 9.

 [89] Allen, Sorts, 49.

 [90] Allen, Demo, 111.

 [91] Allen, Suedehead, 5–6.

 [92] Allen, Sorts, 8.

 [93] Moran, ‘“Stand Up and Be Counted”’, 189.

 [94] Moran, ‘“Stand Up and Be Counted”’, 194.

 [95] Moran, ‘“Stand Up and Be Counted”’, 188; see also Tomlinson, Politics of Decline, 1.

 [96] See , ‘Narrating Crisis’; ‘Chronicles of a Death Foretold’.

 [97] Similar arguments are advanced in Tiratsoo, ‘“You've Never Had It So Bad”?’

 [98] Hay, ‘Chronicles of a Death Foretold’, 447.

 [99] Mercer, ‘That's Entertainment’, 183–4.

[100] Hebdige, ‘Hiding in the Light’, 19.

[101] For discussion of the capacity of ‘youth’ to serve as a vehicle for discussion of wider social and political issues, see Austin and Willard, ‘Angels of History, Demons of Culture’.

[102] For discussion of the media's ‘positive’ stereotyping of ‘teenage affluence’ during the 1950s and early 1960s, see Horn, Juke Box Britain, 90–115; Osgerby, Youth in Britain Since 1945, 30–49; Osgerby, Youth Media, 12–29.

[103] Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, 10. Writing with Paul Rock, Cohen made similar arguments in relation to media representations of Teddy boys during the 1950s. See Rock and Cohen, ‘Teddy Boy’.

[104] Freeman, Robert, and Kathleen Halton, ‘Changing Faces’. Sunday Times Magazine (2 August 1964).

[105] Clarke et al., ‘Subcultures, Cultures and Class’, 73.

[106] Clarke et al., ‘Subcultures, Cultures and Class’, 73

[107] Daily Mirror, 8 June 1961.

[108] Daily Express, 2 November 1972.

[109] For contemporaneous accounts of the development of skinhead style, see Bugler, ‘Puritans in Boots’; Daniel and McGuire, Paint House; , ‘Football Hooliganism and the Skinheads’; ‘Skinheads and the Magical Recovery of Community’. More recent journalistic, but well documented, histories of skinhead style exist in Knight, Skinhead; , Spirit of ’69; Skinhead Nation.

[110] Mungham and Pearson, ‘Introduction’, 7.

[111] Fowler, ‘Skins Rule’, 19.

[112] Marshall, Spirit of ’69, 8.

[113] Daily Mirror, 3 February 1970.

[114] The books also plundered from other popular representations of subcultural violence. A particular influence was A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film version of Anthony Burgess's novel, originally published in 1962. Several authors note how Kubrick's interpretation of Burgess's delinquent gang owed a heavy debt to contemporary media portrayals of skinheads and, in turn, influenced the work of youth cult authors such as Moffat/Allen. See Healy, Gay Skins, 87; Hunt, British Low Culture, 80.

[115] Healy, Gay Skins, 90.

[116] Allen, Skinhead, 30.

[117] Healy, Gay Skins, 91.

[118] Allen, Skinhead, 18.

[119] Allen, ‘Skin Henge’. Skinhead Times 8 (Autumn 1992): 4.

[120] Allen, ‘Author's Appreciation’, The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 1, 5.

[121] Allen, Skinhead Girls, 29.

[122] Healy, Gay Skins, 99–100.

[123] Bentley, ‘“New Elizabethans”’, 16–33.

[124] Schaefer, ‘Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!’, 5.

[125] See McGee and Roberston, J.D. Films.

[126] Surveys of the genre can be found in Palfrey, Steve, ‘Teenage Gang Paperbacks’. Paperback and Pulp Collector 1 (April 1991): 7–10; Server, Over My Dead Body, 80–95.

[127] Notable exceptions include Teddy Taylor's account of his life as a jazz-fuelled beatnik, Baron's Court All Change (published in 1961) and Thom Keyes' brassy portrayal of a fictitious beat group, All Night Stand (published in 1966).

[128] Allen, Suedehead, 7.

[129] Norman, Angels from Hell, 13.

[130] Harris, ‘Introduction’, 1.

[131] Allen, Terrace Terrors, 27.

[132] Allen, Knuckle Girls, 127.

[133] See Sutherland, Fiction and the Fiction Industry, 25–45.

[134] Parsons, The Kids, back-cover blurb. In a 2005 interview, Parsons revealed how his NEL novel helped him land a job in music journalism. See MacKenzie, Suzie, ‘Let's Get Personal’. Guardian (27 August 2005).

[135] Sams, Punk, 61.

[136] Home, Assault on Culture, 82.

[137] Healy, Gay Skins, 88.

[138] Quoted in Godfrey, John, ‘“We're Proud But Not Prejudiced’. Independent (7 September 1992).

[139] Marshall, ‘Tribute to Richard Allen’, 7.

[140] Allen, ‘Skin Henge’. Skinhead Times 8 (Autumn 1992).

[141] See Hebdige, Subculture and the various contributions to Hall and Jefferson, Resistance Through Rituals.

[142] Clarke and Jefferson, ‘Working Class Youth Cultures’, 148.

[143] Thornton, Club Cultures, 117.