I am talking secondary school age i. e 11+.
I turned up in the Autumn of 1976 as a supposedly bright kid to a Grammar School in Norfolk. The punk wars had yet to reach us and to be honest never did. At this point in my musical life at was all TOTP Thursday night fandom with a particular love of ABBA.
As the punk years evolved outside of my frame of reference I was swept along with the pop of the day and on my 13th birthday in 1978 I was gifted a cassette tape player and a voucher that would enable me to buy two cassettes. I bought Parallel Lines by Blondie and Out of the Blue by ELO. My clearly exquisite taste in rock/pop was born on that day!
As the years developed in school I became known as the pop chart nerd who could tell you what number your favourite band was that week and developed friendships with similar musical focused chaps. Then in 1979 I saw Motorhead perform Bomber on TOTP and shortly after my best friend bought Metal Rendezvous by Krokus as he has just got a record player. Thus began a long lost period into metal that quickly lead to NWOBHM…
I am now fully recovered after 27 years.
This is a warning from history. Do music tribes still exist in today’s kids?
Freddy Steady says
Are you sure I’m not your best friend? Loved ABBA , went to ENSFC, brought Metal Rendezvous on vinyl, saw them at the Gaumont and loved NWOBHM… for a short while.
Not sure musical tribes exist quite so much these days…too much choice?
Uncle Wheaty says
Where did you live near Great Yarmouth?
Freddy Steady says
Uh, lived across the river in (relatively) posh Gorleston. Went to Gorleston Grammar until Upper Sixth in ENSFC. Think we were the first intake .
Wasn’t one of the cool kids (you know , liking Echo and the Bunnymen or earlyish Simple Minds)…how could I be , liking Krokus!?
Uncle Wheaty says
I lived in Caister on Sea….spray string heaven in the early 198os summers with all the parties at the camp site!
I too was part of the first intake in 1982.
I wasn’t cool either but I don’t recall anyone else being apart from a metal band that i believe was also there and one member went on to be a member of the Catherine Wheel who I think rreleased one well received album (not sure when).
Freddy Steady says
Yep. Rob Dickinson, a mate at the time, went on to find fame and fortune with the Wheel. The other band might well have been Runestaff? Sixth form heavy metal basically.
The Gorleston Grammar lot didn’t really mix that well with the Caister crew in the Upper Sixth, nothing nasty or anything, just pretty much kept ourselves to ourselves.
Moose the Mooche says
Runestaff! Awesome name! Totally tippexing that on my sports bag!
Uncle Wheaty says
Runestaff it was.
I don’t think integrating the various schools was high on the agenda in the first year! I used it as a good excuse for one of my less than expected grades to get into University and it was accepted!
Freddy Steady says
Yeah well, I didn’t even manage to get less than expected grades ( I blame my really crap band oh yes) and went off elsewhere while all my mates did what you did.
Mum and Dad still live nearby and I drag my family back there a couple of times a year. The beach at Gorleston is pretty ok these days but otherwise I don’t miss the area much.
Uncle Wheaty says
Same here.
My folks and sister still live there. I go back a couple of times a year so they see the grandchildren. Otherwise I have to pick them up and drive them to Oxfordshire as they will nor drive/use public transport anymore.
Freddy Steady says
Oi you! They had an lp out and everything. Big news in our Sixth Form.
Uncle Wheaty says
They even got a mention in the Yarmouth Mercury!
Freddy Steady says
They were big news locally. Played the Big Apple in Southtown and everything!
Uncle Wheaty says
Probably got mobbed in Pegotty’s as well!
Freddy Steady says
Is Peggotys even still there? Haven’t been out in Yarmouth for about 30 years!
Uncle Wheaty says
Apparently it is:
https://whatpub.com/pubs/NOR/372/peggottys-great-yarmouth
Freddy Steady says
So it is . Two decent beers only though. Pah.
Uncle Wheaty says
It was probably Norwich Bitter, Fosters and Strongbow in the 1980s!
Freddy Steady says
Christ…Norwich Bitter. Shudder….
Uncle Wheaty says
Brown and watery with a faint alcohol content.
Vincent says
My kids had the tragedy of my musical influences on them (viz. sardonic Onion headline,” hip dad impairs social credibility of his children”). My son was metal mad at the time, my daughter likes Steve Wilson, Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout, and Rush, so doesn’t quite get other kids music. She doesn’t dress in any discernible ‘rock’ style, and would be best described as a ‘geek girl’ in style.
This is now a cool thing, so she is not picked on for her style.
I saw/ see all the other children going in when I drop mine off. There remains still the occasional metal kid with a band t-shirt, but an abject lack of goths, There are kids who look like they like rap, but currently south leicestershire (Oadby) looks like it has no hippies, psychobillies, soulboys, electrotypes, or punks in it’s 6th form. Nor do I see any tribal types on the University of Nottingham campus bar the occasional engineer in a Metallica shirt.
Kaisfatdad says
I’d say that the music tribes definitely still exist but there are now other equally important factors at play. A lot of them are gamers and I’m sure that games like Overwatch and Doom inspire the same kind of loyalty that bands did for my generation.
I need to do some more fieldwork to here are a few observations based on my 14 year old son and his mates. He listens exclusively to grime with some hip hop on the side. The fashion code is black sportswear from Adidas, expensive trainers and baseball caps. He mentioned that one of his old friends had “gone all Emo and grown his hair long”. I ran into another of his old friends who was proudly sporting longish hair, a denim jacket and an Iron Maiden T shirt.
Then there’s the charity shop, vintage look as worn by First Aid Kit. These kids are into (predominantly Swedish language) singer song writers like Håkan Hellström, Laleh and Frida Hyvönen with perhaps a smidgeon of reggae.
DJ acts like Swedish House Mafia, Aviici and DeadMaus are enormous but I have no idea of the fashion code for the techno crowd.
attackdog says
Just out of interest, what does a ‘fully recovered’ NWOBHM head listen to now? After 25 years of it can you still hear?