Product Description

First came the Teds, then the Mods, Rockers, Hippies, Skinheads, Suedeheads and Punks. But by the late Seventies, a new youth fashion had appeared in Britain. Its adherents were often linked to violent football gangs, wore designer sportswear and made the bootboys of previous years look like the dinosaurs they were.

They were known as scallies, Perry Boys, trendies and dressers. But the name that stuck was Casuals. And this grassroots phenomenon, largely ignored by the media, was to change the face of both British fashion and international style.

Casuals recounts how the working-class fascination with sharp dressing and sartorial one-upmanship crystallised the often bitter rivalries of the hooligan gangs and how their culture spread across the terraces, clubs and beyond. It is the definitive book for football, music and fashion obsessives alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16913 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

DAILY RECORD
'The rise of the casual is revealed!'

THE WORD
'Thornton's intricate study and compilation of eye witness accounts is the new standard bearer.'

WHEN SATURDAY COMES
'An essential read for all purveyors of terrace culture.'

Customer Reviews

Casual reflections
This book is a must for anyone interested in the casual culture from its inception in the late 70's to the modern day. It predominantly centres on the clothes and music of the periods concerned, and describes how the style has evolved, putting it into context with the skinhead, two-tone movement and mod revival which coincided with its early beginnings.

Facsimile reproductions of the original Face article from 1983 by Kevin Sampson and copies of influential fanzine "The End" are teamed with stories of sourcing, appropriating and wearing casual clothing in the early days. Illustrated throughout, with 16 pages of colour photographs, I found it compulsive reading, and was particularly pleased to see mention of Patrick cagoules and Benetton rugby shirts (although I recall them being labelled as "tennis shirts"). As a man who spent his first giro on a pair of Diadora Pat Cash's and his first YTS money on a Pringle, the book certainly struck a chord.

The one observation I would make is that it centres in the main on the formation and early days of the casual movement, and whilst acknowledging that there has been a resurgence of casuals in recent times, the dismissive phrase of one contributor of "have Hackett, will throw plastic chairs anywhere in Europe" and the chapter "Close Island" may suggest some of the sympathies of the author.

In short, it is an A - Z of the casual era from Slazenger to Stone Island, and I would recommend this to anyone interested in the fashions and music of the last 25 years.

Borg Elite

Long forgotton gems
I Bought this book to show somebody the coat I once owned (front cover)A journey through fashion like we'd never seen before. Top Top Top read If you were there, wore it and are still wearing it then this book is for you. If you were never there but are a clone islander then buy it to see where you look came from.

Well Casual
It had to happen at some point - finally an informed, literate and broad approach to a subject that holds memories for many but, in its' written form, alienates most due to the preoccupations of a few mindless, violent protagonists who have been allowed to peddle their depressing and hateful world view in print.

The cover of this book paints it as yet another attempt by a provincial yob to cash in on his brief spell of notoriety during the mid 1980's; the media image of a hooligan whose goggled eyes reflect a punch-up on a terrace somewhere in England on a Saturday. But bear with it and you soon find something approaching a sub-cultural manual cum history book for blokes who came of age in the late 1970's - sop complete is the author (and the bulk of his contributors') eye(s).

The format of this book, as opposed to the semi-autobiographical nature of the majority of slim volumes on this depressing subject, is vaguely chronological, staring correctly in the mid 1970's and continuing to pretty much the present day. But its' milestones are far broader than just years - the arrival of Punk in the unique form that hit Merseyside and Manchester, the Liverpool in Europe Years, the Miners' strike, Heysel and Acid House all inform the book with a truly broad perspective that transcends the casual subculture and frames it within the significant events that provide reference points to anybody in their late 30's who experienced the glory days of football and casual.

The broad range of correspondents whose stories are cut up to pepper the narrative with real-life experiences gives a national view rather than the traditional football-centric regional perspective. Fashions, travel and music are described in a way that shows the basic differences between north and south. Merseyside is a key focus, but the book is none the worse for that; the Scousers had the coolest take on casual from the start and I say that as a southerner who proudly wore grey Farahs and slip-ons topped off with a pastel pink waffle sweater to nightclubs in my adopted Huddersfield home.

There is an argument to say that any work that was half literate would seem ground breaking when it was concerned with the experiences of the young male football fan in the 1980's, but Thornton's work has appeal to those who did not directly experience the phenomenon of casual as vividly as those who did; music and fashion references are as sharp as a razor and I for one was touched by the mention of the MA-1 jacket and Levi's 501 'look' as much as by the constant mention of the M&S crew neck sweater. Good times.

I wish we could expect more works from this author because I for one have no wish to spend my money on a ghost written tome concerning the sordid past of an ex-convict from Crewe who delights in recalling minor skirmishes in Halifax on a rainy Saturday in October, when there was so much more to the experience of the match and the travel and the look.

More please!