Australians: Please Explain Sharpies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQteROjUdrI&feature=player_embedded

Boogie-rock skinheads?
That dance is nuts.
Kind of awesome.

I'm not Australian but those are suedeheads.

Not exactly - it's an aussie variation on the post-skinhead thing. They're called Sharpies.

http://www.furious.com/perfect/sharpies.html

From Glen Terry's liner notes to the Coloured Balls' Ball Power reissue CD:

"The fifties and sixties had seen a vast spred of urban development into the outlying reaches of greatest Melbourne and it was from both here and the more run down, traditionally working class inner suburbs that sharps were primarily spawn...The original Sharps really made their appearance in the sixties when groups of young tradesmen and lowly paid youths would congregate at the halls and clubs putting on dances...There was always some friction between these Modish 'sharp' dressers, out for a night in their good threads, sporting a well groomed somewhat conservative appearance, and the slightly more ragged music followers in the late sixties...By the early 1970s a change in direction was on the way. From the Broadmeadows to Frankston; Deer Park to Boronia there were thousands of teenagers growing up in areas where the only major attractions were the local footy club, a pool hall or fish & chip shop with pinball machins or the local pub if you were a bit older and bolder..."

Goes on to say that every suburb with a train station had its own Sharpie gang, all the way to Melbourne, and the kids took the train everywhere since they were mostly too young to drive, and the gangs got territorial and fought with each other. But also claims sharpies came from all ethnic backgrounds, and ranged in age from young teens to high 20s. Favorite overseas music: Faces, Slade, Suzi Quatro, David Bowie, Lou Reed. Favorite Aussie music: Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Buster Brown, early AC/DC, Lobby Loyde, Coloured Balls. Look: "Smart striped Italian style cardigans and knit tops, chisel-toed 'Cuban heel' shoes for the blokes, platforms for the 'chicks,' and certain jeans were all the rage. Combined with a particular haircut (short on top with tails at the back and not so dissimilar to a Bowie looking coiffe), this added up to a youth cult! In many ways it was more Clockwork Orange droog than archetypal skinhead."

From Ian McFarlane's notes, same CD:

"With the escalation of violence at their concerts during (1974), the media readily accused the (Coloured) Balls of inciting riots...With newspaper headlines like 'Droog terror gangs threaten festival blood bath' appearing alongside pictures of the band, there was little they could do to counteract the impact."

Bobsy Millar, from the Coloured Balls:

"Most of the sharpies that used to follow us were just young kids having a good time. They were from places like Broadmeadows, working class kids, but then later on there was that whole aggressive skihead bunch from other areas that took over. It was that gang mentality."

mean "aggressive skinhead bunch," obviously. (I was typing fast.)

We also talked about Coloured Balls, Buster Brown, and the sharpies some on the Rolling Hard Rock thread last year, starting about here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

cool - I kinda stumbled on Sharpies via that whole Aussie hard glam/proto-punk/post-boogie rock thing too. Daddy Cool (who were a bit earlier I think, more straight-up boogie), Rose Tattoo, early AC/DC. Gotta find me some Coloured Balls...

But that video clip up top really blows me away - it just always fascinates me how kids can set up such detailed and ornate little worlds all on their own - how at least 100's if not 1,000's of kids all got to the same weird place within months (the whole thing last about 6 years from what I'm reading - peaked for about 2) and that would have been all street-level back then, no internet, no music videos, no mainstream press, not even fanzines probably... The hive-mind is so incredible - but also scary. the thuggishness, the lurking fascism.

And it does seem pretty different - at least in its aesthetic details - from the UK mod/skin/suedehead thing. A lot trashier, a bit glammy, weirder, uglier.

Reminds me more of a gang from The Warriors than garden variety Skinheads.

Those bogan mullets are really uh...arresting.

I know! It's like an amalgamation of all the ugliest, awkwardest elements of glam, skinhead, and late-period hippy along with a healthy dose of nowheresville.

Funny platform/sandal-esque shoes worn with socks is strangest part of the girls' style, afaic. What was so wrong with loafers??

does seem pretty different - at least in its aesthetic details - from the UK mod/skin/suedehead thing. A lot trashier, a bit glammy, weirder, uglier.

Probably worth noting that Slade were a UK skinhead band who evolved into a glam band (and clearly had a big effect on the later sound of UK oi! bands), and Sharpies apparently loved them more than anybody else. Seems that must figure into this equation somehow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/chazhalo/Slade-1.jpg