The Smiths & Morrissey Rarities / FB Group: Recent photo of "Have-A-Go Merchant" promo cover star

Cover star of Have-A-Go Merchant.
The image was first published in Nick Knight's 1982 book "Skinhead".
Said page:

Regards,
FWD.

 

[gashonthenail]

I'm pretty sure it's in Peepholism.

Had a quick look through. Don't see it there.
I don't know - much as I would be chuffed to be on the cover of a Morrissey single, even an unreleased and promo-only one, I wouldn't want to be on the cover of that song. The lyrics express a mix of pity and contempt that isn't entirely complimentary. And a suggestion that the baby might not even be his? The song sounds like it is written about someone with 'small man' syndrome. And that probably he was treated in exactly the same way by his father when he was a kid. And so the pattern is repeated from one generation to the next. They f*** you up, your mum and dad. Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha...

 

[Gregor Samsa]

They f*** you up, your mum and dad.

”Man hands on misery to man.” Fantastic poem, that.

 

[gordyboy9]

View attachment 103083

but is it gay?

he has his name tattooed on his hand.
is your name doug.
yes how did you know.
i could see it tattooed on your fist as it was heading towards my face.

wonder if the tattoo still exists on his hand,answers on a postcard.

 

[gordyboy9]

Used to have a houseful of ( male)skinheads live down the road from us, approx 1982/3..
It was quite a big corner terraced house where they all gathered, sniffed glue and listened to Madness and Oi music and would threaten to beat you up unless you let them play football with you (badly in their Doc Martens to be fair).
They also revelled in writing extremely non-PC graffiti.
If any of them were gay they were definitely in the closet at that time.

yip bluebird iv known quite a few skinheads in my time going back to the late seveties,closets must have been in short supply in those days because i have never met a gay skinhead.
maybe they all moved to london for the gay skinhead scene

 

[j*e*t]

I've watched various interviews with former skinheads of about Sean Nevin's age on YouTube in the last few years. Whilst there are acknowledgements that the movement contained a violent, even neo-nazi, element, in general they are adamant that being a skinhead was primarily about the look - hair, clothes, boots - and the music. However, my own closest contact in person was with an Essex woman who once boasted to me that her skinhead brother, a West Ham FC supporter, would go up to London at weekends in the late 1970s expressly to do a bit of Paki-bashing with his mates. Coincidentally, the woman (a big Frank Sinatra fan and now a grandmother) had the surname Harrington, so I think of her every time I look at Mporium.

I should have said 'about the cover star's age' there. Sean is just the account holder? Sorry, I'm not on Facebook.

 

[Johnny]

There have been some great bands associated with Skinhead culture. Cock Sparrer, The 4 Skins, The Last Resort and The Business. Moz certainly a fan of the latter.
Current bands like Bishops Green as well.

 

[DagenhamDan]

Not rockabilly but psychobilly gigs were insanely violent.

Had many a great night up the Klub Foot in Hammersmith back in the day. Mad nights, Restless, Stingrays, Guana Batz and the Tall Boys and the Meteors. The bogs tho, were disgusting.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

The bogs tho, were disgusting.

As I imagine they should be in a joint like that.

 

[Stephen Hofmann]

Had many a great night up the Klub Foot in Hammersmith back in the day. Mad nights, Restless, Stingrays, Guana Batz and the Tall Boys and the Meteors. The bogs tho, were disgusting.

Can't even remember who I saw...such a blur. Went in as a naive Smiths fan....quite an eye opener.

 

[King Leer]

I’m most definitely counting early ska and reggae. Absolutely magnificent music. But also bands like The Oppressed and The Angelic Upstarts. And the 2-Tone stuff. I don’t know how much of a puritan you are, but this is some great music associated with skinhead culture.

I always liked the opening sequence of Introducing M, where Moz has a part time job postering for an Angelic Upstarts concert. I guess the yob walking around is supposed to be Mensi?

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I always liked the opening sequence of Introducing M, where Moz has a part time job postering for an Angelic Upstarts concert. I guess the yob walking around is supposed to be Mensi?

Ditto! It’s such a great little vignette.
Haha, maybe. A damn shame he passed, by the way.

 

[gashonthenail]

It was one of the first masculine gay subcultures that wasn't completely hidden. It was moving closer to the mainstream.

This is just rubbish. 'Gay men' (whatever that means) have been dressing like 'straight men' (whatever than means) for centuries to blend in and not stand out. And also as a bit of a fetish - a form of masculine 'drag'. This is why the Village People were able to turn this into a bit of a visual joke in the US context - one of them dressed as a construction worker, one of them dressed as a cowboy etc. In the UK context one of them could have quite easily dressed as a skinhead. Many gay men did indeed adopt the skinhead look - very simply because it was how other (straight) men were dressing in the towns where they grew up. It was all about blending in and not standing out. And as a bit of a fetish. The idea that some gay men dress 'butch' (to blend in) and some gay men dress 'effeminate' (to stand out) is as old as the hills. There are jokes in Juvenal's Satires about butch and effeminate homosexuals, even though that word hadn't been invented yet. And it is the main theme of The Naked Civil Servant, published in 1968 but recalling Quentin Crisp's experiences in the London of the 1930s through to the 1950s. There is nothing new under the sun.
Morrissey's interest in the skinhead culture is almost certainly predominantly to do with its staunchly working class origins, much less so with its tangential 'gay' context, that you seem unhealthily obsessed with in your role of the titillated 'voyeur'.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

This is just rubbish.

It is, quite literally, malarkey.

 

[gashonthenail]

A touch of the Phil Daniels 'cheeky chappie' about him?

 

[Ryan]

you would have thought he would have got a new shirt by now!

First post = best post.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

Yeah, that and, I always speculated the British skinhead culture represented an England to him that no longer exists. Around the same time he was singing of it’s ‘death’ and American cultures hand in that, with such songs as Glamorous Glue and We’ll Let You Know. Though being the contrarian he is, he would eventually move to L.A.

Contrarian or hypocrite?

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Contrarian or hypocrite?

Maybe neither? Maybe a pragmatist?

 

[Johnnie Ray]

To an extent. The haircuts weren't. Rockabilly's and rockers always looked better. I can't remember Moz ever shaving his head......can you? Apart from that one-off short haircut in 95,

'97. Check out the Alma Matters video.

 

[Stephen Hofmann]

'97. Check out the Alma Matters video.

That's what I meant. I saw him at Battersea in 97 with that haircut.

 

[Stephen Hofmann]

This is just rubbish. 'Gay men' (whatever that means) have been dressing like 'straight men' (whatever than means) for centuries to blend in and not stand out. And also as a bit of a fetish - a form of masculine 'drag'. This is why the Village People were able to turn this into a bit of a visual joke in the US context - one of them dressed as a construction worker, one of them dressed as a cowboy etc. In the UK context one of them could have quite easily dressed as a skinhead. Many gay men did indeed adopt the skinhead look - very simply because it was how other (straight) men were dressing in the towns where they grew up. It was all about blending in and not standing out. And as a bit of a fetish. The idea that some gay men dress 'butch' (to blend in) and some gay men dress 'effeminate' (to stand out) is as old as the hills. There are jokes in Juvenal's Satires about butch and effeminate homosexuals, even though that word hadn't been invented yet. And it is the main theme of The Naked Civil Servant, published in 1968 but recalling Quentin Crisp's experiences in the London of the 1930s through to the 1950s. There is nothing new under the sun.
Morrissey's interest in the skinhead culture is almost certainly predominantly to do with its staunchly working class origins, much less so with its tangential 'gay' context, that you seem unhealthily obsessed with in your role of the titillated 'voyeur'.

Gay men copied Skinheads..........let's get that straight.