TheNamelessThing.com

Football casual hooligans. What are they, and where did they begin their storied existence in this world? For many, the story of the casual football hooligans began in the council estates of Liverpool, specifically Scotland Road, where a post-Punk miasma mutated into a raucous Soul-Boy lookalike, one that laughed at the world and wore jelly sandals, big mohair sweaters, and skin-tight shitstopper jeans. This bizarre ensemble, sasquatch upper body attached to spindle-legged lower, was crowned with the most unlikely hairdo - the wedge, which has its own slew of debate and speculation as to its origins. The wedge hairstyle has been described as a most unlikely candidate for the hairstyle of casual hooligans, due to its efemminate look. These guys may have been into Bowie, but they weren't gay! The fact is, the wedge hairstyle had been sported by Northern Soul Boys and European males for years before the casuals adopted it, and in its original "casual" form was a long, baggy, free-swingin' affair, unlike the later tidier, shorter, more lacquered-looking versions favoured by lads outside the northwest. To this day, David Bowie is credited with inspiring Liverpool's earliest casuals via the cover of his Low album, but in many ways the wedge, or flick, as it was known in North Manchester, was simply another continental accoutrement to the rest of the uniform, much of which had continental designer written all over it. Continental designer sportswear has forever been the focus and defining aspect of the casual culture, but people who weren't there to see it in its prototypical form miss an important point: they wore jeans, too.
In Manchester in the mid-70s, a small population of Northern Soul disciples took to wearing polo shirts, baggy trousers with narrow bottoms, and boat-pumps. They, too sported the wedge, and were nicknamed Perry Boys, due to their fondness for the Fred Perry polo, which they wore during the summer. In the winter they wore long-sleeved polo shirts, made by Peter Werth, and it was this item that became a symbol of the early expression of so-called casual culture. Football hooligans and Northern Soul Boys weren't necessarily the same people back in the mid-70s, but as time passed, and the glam flares and goon collars became evermore ridiculous, the uniform naturally fell into the vacuum left behind on the terraces of Old Trafford, where once the bootboys had stood. This shrinking of collars and reducing of trouser-cuffs was a universal phenomenon in England at the time, and, coupled with the love of stylish Roxy Music and Bowie, the football casuals very slowly realised they had an identity - one which was completely without portrayal or reportage in the local or national media. Casual culture was a Nameless Thing in 1978 and 1979, and it remained such through 1980 and 1981; the Scallies of Liverpool and Everton, and the Boys of Manchester shared a secret, one they relished and baptised with blood, wrought by the Stanley knives and baseball bats which were so fashionable at the time. But it was the Peter Werth, along with a couple of other accessories, that created the first universal casual hooligan look on the football terraces.

The original Perry Boys hooligan uniform was this: Peter Werth long-sleeved polo shirt, preferably burgundy, but sometimes black or blue, with thin hoops and an unusually low shoulder seam; Lois jeans; Adidas Stan Smith training shoes, and lastly a long, wild wedge hairstyle, often dyed auburn, which matched the burgundy polos (and the burgundy chunky-knit fishermen's jumpers casuals also favoured). Burgundy was a major colour in the football casual scheme back in 1979. It is difficult to say why this was the case; it just was. Perhaps the colour offered a form of neutrality, being neither Manchester United, City, Liverpool, or Everton. These characters certainly socialised outside football, particularly in pubs, clubs, and youth clubs, and the wearing of football colours was a big no-no. Whatever the reason, the layered auburn-rinsed wedge, the burgundy Peter Werth, and dark blue Lois were the order of the day. In Liverpool, the jeans were worn as tight as possible, betraying their post-Punk drainpipes look, while in Manchester the jeans tended to be slightly baggier, but only slightly. Both cities wore the Adidas Stan Smith trainer, which, according to Robert Wade Smith (a trainer sales-super-specialist), sold a "phenomenal" 2,000 pairs in the run-up to Christmas, 1979. In Manchester, the Stan Smith made a similar impression, and the unlikely -looking shoe was all the rage. The Stan Smith almost resembled a leather low-top baseball boot, and was the last suspect for the footwear of football hooligans. But it was a cool-looking shoe, and when combined with the Peter Werth, the wedge, and the Lois jeans, there was a synergy that bespoke belonging, belonging to a new style tribe, one which was a Nameless Thing. In other regions of Britain during this time, there are those who claim to also have been discovering the casual styles, but this is quite unlikely in many cases, as the towns in question were often utterly incapable of importing, retailing, or even recognising casual style when they saw it. During 1979, a Mod revival occurred in Britain, and it is probably this that these individuals are remembering, in an embellished form, due to wishful thinking, in light of the longevity and "rightness" exuded by those who later embraced the casual hooligan lifestyle in its myriad aspects.
Anybody who belongs to an underground movement feels a thrill of recognition upon seeing other members of that same movement or club, but in the case of the football casual, this thrill often accompanied the doing of violence to those who wore the uniform, or else "mobbing up" with others of the same allegiance (usually to a football team, or in the case of Merseysiders simply being from Liverpool and having an awareness of dressing different was good enough reason to gang up) to attack outsiders. Men living in Liverpool today claim that the casual movement began as early as 1977, when they say they travelled to continental Europe to watch Liverpool FC play, observed Europeans sporting expensive designer wear and wedge hairstyles, and promptly bought, or shoplifted, some of this style, which is quite a believable response. Some claim that Stan Smiths and Lois jeans were "in" at this time (1977), but this is very unlikely, as Liverpudlians were wearing those clothes over 2 years later. The same can be said for the claims that Merseysiders were commonly seen in Adidas Nastase, ATP, and Grand Slam training shoes in 1979, which were of a quite superior style and substance than the Stan Smith, the cheapest of which (Nastase) found its way into British sports shops (in Manchester, though it's possible London stores may have inadvertently imported them for tennis players in the capital) around late 1980, early 1981. Robert Wade Smith, who was practically revered in Liverpool for his opening a store which sold rare Adidas trainers, provides the greatest evidence for the timeliness of the Stan Smith with his account of the shoe's massive popularity in late 1979. Stan Smiths were briefly usurped by Kio's Riders, a lookalike shoe available in various colours, through 1980, and indeed these non-sports shoes, along with another non-sports shoe, Kickers, formed the main competition to Adidas during that time. Not since the very early days of Casual, when youths wore Pod boaters, had a non-sporting shoe come to the fore. The point being made here is that claims by Liverpudlians that they were football casual hooligans in 1977, are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Am I, Ian Hough, even fit to be speaking about this phenomenon at all? I'm not even from Manchester, according to some people. But the truth is out there, and seek and ye shall find: There is no question that in Liverpool the casual culture was born, and that in Manchester an extension of so-called Perry Boy culture mutated into casual culture around 1979 (approximately 6 months after Liverpudlians had established a self-awareness of the movement), but it was in late '79, early '80 that a universal uniform was conceived in both cities, and the first true inter-city rivalry occurred, enacted by two seperate groups driven by an identical sartorial-cum-football hooligan sensibility.