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The Woodville Halls Soul Boys
Soon after I’d paid
My sixty
Or seventy pence,
I found myself
In what I thought
Was a miniature London.
I saw girls
In chandelier earrings,
In stiletto heels,
Wearing evening
Dresses,
Which contrasted with
The bizarre
Hair colours
They favoured:
Jet black
Or bleach blonde,
With flashes of
Red, purple
Or green.
Some wore large
Bow ties,
Others unceremoniously
Hanged
Their school ties
Round their
Necks.
Eye make-up
Was exaggerated.
The boys all had
Short hair,
Wore mohair sweaters,
Thin ties,
Baggy,
Peg-top trousers
And winklepicker shoes.
A band playing
Raw street rock
At a frantic speed
Came to a sudden,
Violent climax...
Melodic, rhythmic,
Highly danceable
Soul music
Was now beginning
To fill the hall,
With another group
Of short-haired youths...
Smoother, more elegant,
Less menacing
Than the previous ones.
These well-dressed
Street boys
Wore well-pressed pegs
Of red or blue...
They pirouetted
And posed...
Pirouetted and posed
Comments
Carl Halling
Sat, 2020-10-03 22:45
Spot on, Teddy...
It was 1977, the height of the Punk era, these Soul Boys dressed in Punk styles, but preferred Soul music and dressed to look good not to shock and of course to dance, there was a lot of crossover between Punk and Soul in that year, but the fashions were very similar, an incredibly exciting time, I dressed like them myself but never expected to see this incredible world in Gravesend, which was at the time, a very distant suburb of London.