British Rocker Jackets c.1956-1969

[Monitor]

Edward, you're right! I never noticed this, but there aren't any MC badges on this jacket while Sid's wearing it.

Well, who pinned all these biker badges, then? These badges did look too new, too 80's to me, and they were totally rad at the time, so it's entirely possible this jacket indeed did a full circle and ended up with a Rocker, once more. Could even be that the badges were added post-revival?

 

[Monitor]

Hah, turns out Sid pinned these biker badges after all - at least most of them!

 

[tropicalbob]

I doubt even Sid could have told you where, when, or how those pins came to the jacket.

 

[Monitor]

I doubt even Sid could have told you where, when, or how those pins came to the jacket.

...or what jacket am I even talking about.

 

[Edward]

I doubt especially Sid could tell us about them, bless 'im...

 

[Monitor]

More high res images of the original Rocker jackets, taken in Lewis Leathers London store, I believe. Right click and View image to see it in full size. Some crazy cool jackets in there!

 

[navetsea]

well, sometime things look much cooler in black and white photos or when done in monochrome

 

[Monitor]

I just have to share this, it's 2 kool for skool




This makes for a painful realization how boring all my jackets are.

 

[IXL]

Well, MY jackets aren't boring, they're........stealthy. Yes, that's it: stealthy.

 

[rocketeer]

I just have to share this, it's 2 kool for skool




This makes for a painful realization how boring all my jackets are.

Is this one yours Ivan? I have not seen a Lewis like this with a back seam,and to be honest I have not seen every make and every style. Maybe someone has swapped the labels.
Just my thoughts.
Still a nice jacket and looks good enough to ride in

 

[Monitor]

Is this one yours Ivan? I have not seen a Lewis like this with a back seam,and to be honest I have not seen every make and every style. Maybe someone has swapped the labels.
Just my thoughts.
Still a nice jacket and looks good enough to ride in

Wouldn't I wish. No, the photos are from an eBay auction. It's just a cool jacket with all the decor. Early Plainsman, I think? Mascot as doing the exact same one.

 

[handymike]

Of those hanging I like this one. It's got the cool Western belt built-in. Nice touch!

 

[Doctor Damage]

The link below has photos of Rockers in the UK during this period. My gosh, they look so young!

https://flashbak.com/ton-up-boys-gi...ohn-hoppy-hopkins-favorite-photographs-51189/

 

[rocketeer]

The link below has photos of Rockers in the UK during this period. My gosh, they look so young!

https://flashbak.com/ton-up-boys-gi...ohn-hoppy-hopkins-favorite-photographs-51189/

They are just like any other youth cult. Teds grew up and started families so onto the next set of teenagers and cheap motorbikes were the thing. Old A10s and Triumphs, some cobbled together to build Cafe racers others just standard with a set of clip ons. Only the well off owned a new Rocket Gold Star or Norton SS. Then the Rocker era died out, mods, skin heads, greasers back on bikes and a Teddy Boy revival took hold before punks. Most were teenagers with a handful of old uns hanging on to lost youth in the Teddy Boy and biker ranks.
A few are still at it today, but you won't get many teenagers on a 650 Triton due to our restrictive licensing for newcomers to motorcycling.
What have todays teenagers got to look forward to.Pulling up their jeans and blabbing on their phones thats what.
PS ever seen a 50 year old punk? Bondage trousers and a DESTROY shirt just don't look right.

 

[Monitor]

This damn link just made me buy one of these damn old UK motorcycle jackets. Well, the link and the fact that one appeared today in the local classifieds too... But whatever, I'm happy!

 

[rocketeer]

Older guys in old bike jackets sort of mix ok. You don't get many youngsters drooling over an old Triton, or even a modern version when a near 200mph Suzuki GSX R or whatever is available. A bit like the kids in the 1960s really, except in those days if you had the licence and the money you could buy the fastest at 17.

 

[The dogs bollocks]

There was some interest in a thread on this in the discussion on the revived Mascot Leathers brand, so I figured I'd kick it off. Within the leather jacket niche, there is a very specific style that was adopted by the "Rockers" youth tribe of the late fifties and well into the sixties. As a movement, it coincided with the advent of the British rock and roll boom, both the original 1950s American stars, and the rise of home-grown acts, inspired and influenced by the acts, and which kept the form going into the early sixties. Bands like Vince Taylor and his Playboys (best known for the song Brand New Cadillac, later popularised to a new generation by The Clash). The mainstream popularity of British rock and roll was largely killed off by the Merseybeat scene, in particular those irritating Beatles with their clean, pop sound. The Stones were much closer to actual rock and roll, but a distinct shift in the sound nonetheless. The 'rocker' scene remained, though, centred equally on rock and roll and motorcycles. This, of course, was the era of the British motorcycling boom; cars were still out of the reach of many, and a motorcycle still represented affordable, honest transport for the working classes. Legend speaks of the Rockers who faced off against the Mods in British seaside resorts on bank holidays in the early sixties, climaxing with the worst of the violence in '64 in Margate and Brighton. In reality, while there were certainly isolated incidents, a lot of this was simply press sensationalism (as identified by academic Stan Cohen, who in 1972 published the classic Folk Devils and Moral Panics. It was in this work that Cohen published his term "moral panic", widely used since. Cracking book if you get the chance - there were a couple of new editions published in recent years, before Cohen died). It certainly is true that mod was a completely different philosophy: they wanted to be now, fashion forward, all about the latest thing (thus the idea of mod revivalism is already something at odds with the original concept of the movement). Rockers were already a retrospective tribe by 1963.

The British rocker look was certainly influenced by American imagery, from the music they loved and also the cinema. The Wild One was banned in Britain for fourteen years. It was only first passed by the censors in 1967, the first screening for the public being finally in 1968 at (appropriately) a meeting of the 59 Club. When you look at a photo of British rockers you can certainly see traces of the visual influence of American outlaw motorcycle gangs circa the late forties, as retold by Hollywood and Brando, but there are distinctly British quirks to the style. The boots tended to be British motorcycle boots, rear-zipped, and tighter fitting than American engineer boots, with off-white, wool seaboot socks folded over the tops. In those days before strict helmet laws, caps something like Brando's were on occasion worn, but most common in those photos are pudding-basic helmets, worn with goggles made to the same design as the RAF were wearing in WW2.

For more information on the scene, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker_(subculture) to start... The best jump off point to learn about it, though, is the web page for original rocker hub, the Ace Café: http://www.ace-cafe-london.com.

The particular element I'm interested in looking at in this thread is the British Rocker jacket: a leather jacket, typically customised to the wearer's tastes. I first learned about the subculture and their jackets some nearly twenty years ago when looking into a leather jacket worn by Tim Curry as Dr Frank'n'Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Tim also wore the jacket on stage in The Rocky Horror Show, both in the original London production, and in LA at the Roxy, when the show first transferred to the US, ahead of making the film in '74). This is the jacket:

It's believed to have been a Lewis Plainsman, a style that was worn by some of the rockers (fringed jackets were rarer than non-fringed, but far from unheard of). The jacket was Tim Curry's own personal jacket; I don't know whether he put it together himself, though it seems more likely that he bought it used, already like that. He parted with the jacket at some point in time after the film was shot in Autumn 1974. Noone knows for certain where it went, but it is believed that this is the real thing, now in the hands of a fan:

Whatever its origins, this is very much a jacket in the style of some of the more extreme / ornate rocker jackets. Most of them weren't as decorated as the revivalists often go for. Here are some of the more full on revivalist looks:

Of course, there were originals that took it to extremes, just as there are many now who keep the more common, toned-down look.

This is a very strong look of an extreme original:

You can always tell a later jacket made by a revivalist straight off if they have Ace Café badging or something with "Rockers" on it. The Ace merchandising dates to the revival of the café in the nineties to date. I've never seen an original with the word "Rockers" used as a label on it - that seems to be a revival thing.


I'll post more in a bit, with some links to photos of original rockers...

Great write up...Pinterest has hundreds of great pics of this era and Rockers or Greasers as they were know originally.

Just a couple of points...Boots...Traditionally the boots you refer to were RAF flying boots as were the socks folded over the boot at the tops. The silk scarf too , a hallmark of a greaser was standard RAF military issue. This mainly due to the lack of funds and the fact that National service was still going on and following the Second World War Military Surplus stores were a key shopping destination for this era. The MODs iconic piece was of course the military Parker.


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[The dogs bollocks]

Here are some shots of original members of the early 59 Club, started in 1959 by a motorcycling vicar who wanted to do something for the local kids (as memory serves, it started out as a generic youth club to begin with, but soon became more focused on motorcycles):

This one is more typical of how most of the Rockers decorated their jackets back in the day - a few pins and things here and there, but less extreme to begin with. The more full on looks came later on (certainly influencing, and in turn doubtless being influenced by, pvnk and metal stylings on leather jackets):

Of course, not all the jackets were leather:

...but the kids who did wear leather tended to look cooler....

I think Reverend Bill carries it well in that shot too....

The 59 Club even held church services at which bikes were blessed:

(Surely only a near-divine act of turning the other cheek allowed some mod to park their hairdryer in this shot...)

Note the 59 Club insignia on one of the jackets in the middle of this shot:

You don't tend to see the revivalists rocking the collar and tie under leather look much....

Oh yes you do...The Triumph influencing ‘Distinguished Gentleman’s ride was full of just this look...good fun.


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[Edward]

Of those hanging I like this one. It's got the cool Western belt built-in. Nice touch!
View attachment 52325

Very neatly done. It's not even a belt - just a Highwayman type waistband. The stud-over bit that covers the bottom of the zip was really only there to stop the zipbox scratching on the tank, though it should also take a little of the pressure off the zip itself.

They are just like any other youth cult. Teds grew up and started families so onto the next set of teenagers and cheap motorbikes were the thing. Old A10s and Triumphs, some cobbled together to build Cafe racers others just standard with a set of clip ons. Only the well off owned a new Rocket Gold Star or Norton SS. Then the Rocker era died out, mods, skin heads, greasers back on bikes and a Teddy Boy revival took hold before punks. Most were teenagers with a handful of old uns hanging on to lost youth in the Teddy Boy and biker ranks.
A few are still at it today, but you won't get many teenagers on a 650 Triton due to our restrictive licensing for newcomers to motorcycling.
What have todays teenagers got to look forward to.Pulling up their jeans and blabbing on their phones thats what.

I think the insurance industry game has killed two wheels for the kids. Well... a combination of that and media demonisation. I mean, how often do you see a biker on anything on TV these days where it's not some geeky novelty accessory rarely seen on the road, a 1%er outlaw, or a set-up for 'RTA death of the week' on Casualty.... I'm sure I'm seeing something of a revival in London, though. There's definitely been a big increase in bikes round the East End in the last twenty years. What we need is some sort of state-insurance scheme to make it cheaper, get more people on bikes instead of cars clogging up the road.... That, and plod to take down the dangerous idiots (what do they call themselves, BikeLife?) with extreme prejudice.

PS ever seen a 50 year old punk? Bondage trousers and a DESTROY shirt just don't look right.

THere's a reason it's next to impossible to find bondage trousers over a 38" waist (even if they're labelled a 44.... bondage trousers come in reverse-vanty sizes.....). There's also a related explanation as to where all the chubby, middle-aged men on the rockbilly scene mysteriously appear from every year.....

Older guys in old bike jackets sort of mix ok. You don't get many youngsters drooling over an old Triton, or even a modern version when a near 200mph Suzuki GSX R or whatever is available. A bit like the kids in the 1960s really, except in those days if you had the licence and the money you could buy the fastest at 17.

It does strike me that the kids in the streetfighter scene are probably the modern equivalent of the rockers as were. Necver could get on board with that style of bike myself, though for me it's always been aesthetic over performance. Same with cars.

Great write up...Pinterest has hundreds of great pics of this era and Rockers or Greasers as they were know originally.

Just a couple of points...Boots...Traditionally the boots you refer to were RAF flying boots as were the socks folded over the boot at the tops. The silk scarf too , a hallmark of a greaser was standard RAF military issue. This mainly due to the lack of funds and the fact that National service was still going on and following the Second World War Military Surplus stores were a key shopping destination for this era. The MODs iconic piece was of course the military Parker.


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Yeah, cheap post-war surplus. My paternal grandfather wore all sorts of ex-RAF bits on his bike in the late 40s. Somewhere I still have his gauntlets and flying goggles. WAs greaser ever a term that had currency on this side of the Atlantic? It's not one I've ever seen mentioned much in the UK.

Oh yes you do...The Triumph influencing ‘Distinguished Gentleman’s ride was full of just this look...good fun.


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Ah, well, that's something else again. THe Tweed run for motorcycles! I saw a whole bunch of folks on the day of this year's event in London, either on their way to or from it (round Old Street, near the Bike Shed, and round home in Whitechapel). Looks good fun.

 

[Shiloh John]

Beatle Ed Germany Hamburg Jacket! https://www.ebay.com/itm/232559547220?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649