Long before the hooligans and aggro, before the thugs and violence, before the white supremacy and race riots...
There lived in London, a group of young, white, British, working class kids, who rejected the long-haired hippy decadence of the time in favour of shaved heads, boots and braces. They were modernists, and called themselves mods.
Living side-by-side with the mods, was a group of young, black, second generation Jamaican British, working class kids, who wore sharp suits and listened to the ska music of independent Jamaica. They called themselves rude boys.
Two opposing gangs of working class kids, one white, one black, might spoil for a fight, you would think. But instead, they united through music, clothes and culture to become one of the most enduring subcultures in modern history, skinhead.
Made from bits of Studio One, and Treasure Isle, King Edwards and Bluebeat, Trojan and Two Tone, from original Jamaican ska and rocksteady record covers, to photos and flyers from the revival and reunions, this collage is a testament to the non-racist origins of the skinhead subculture, is an allegory for the birth of modern multiculturalism, and has been created to coincide with Black History Month in the UK.
For The Subculture