Rockers (also known as leather boys[1] or ton-up boys[2]) are members or followers of a bikersubculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the late 1950s and was popular in the 1960s. It was mainly centred on motorcycles and rock 'n' roll music. By 1965, the term greaser had also been introduced to Great Britain[3][4][5] and, since then, the terms greaser and rocker have become synonymous within the British Isles, although used differently in North America and elsewhere. Rockers were also derisively known as Coffee Bar Cowboys.[6] Their Japanese counterpart was called the Kaminari-Zoku (Thunder Tribe/Clan/Group, or Thunderers).[7]
1960s Rockers under canopy outside Busy Bee Café, Watford, England
Until the post-war period motorcycling held a prestigious position and enjoyed a positive image in British society, being associated with wealth and glamour. Starting in the 1950s, the middle classes were able to buy inexpensive motorcars so that motorcycles became transport for the poor.[8]
The rocker subculture came about due to factors such as: the end of post-war rationing in the UK, a general rise in prosperity for working class youths, the recent availability of credit and financing for young people, the influence of American popular music and films, the construction of race track-like arterial roads around British cities, the development of transport cafes and a peak in British motorcycle engineering. The name "rocker" came not from music, but from the rockers found in 4-stroke engines, as opposed to the two stroke engines used by scooters and ridden by mods.[citation needed]
During the 1950s,[9] they were known as "ton-Up boys" because doing a ton is English slang for driving at a speed of 100mph (160km/h) or over. The rockers or ton-up boys took what was essentially a sport and turned it into a lifestyle, dropping out of mainstream society[10] and "rebelling at the points where their will crossed society's".[11] This damaged the public image of motorcycling in the UK.[8]
The mass media started targeting these socially powerless youths and cast them as "folk devils", creating a moral panic[12] through highly exaggerated and ill-founded portrayals.[13][14] From the 1960s on, due to the media fury surrounding the mods and rockers, motorcycling youths became more commonly known as rockers, a term previously little known outside small groups.[15] The public came to consider rockers as hopelessly naive, loutish, scruffy, motorised cowboys, loners or outsiders.[15]
A vintage Triton motorcycle consisting of a Triumph twin-cylinder engine in a NortonFeatherbed frame built in a street legal racer style with single seat, clip-on low handlebars and megaphone exhausts.
The term café racer originated in the 1950s,[16] when bikers often frequented transport cafés, using them as starting and finishing points for road races. A café racer is a motorcycle that has been modified for speed and good handling rather than for comfort.[17] Features include: a single racing seat, low handlebars (such as ace bars or one-sided clip-ons mounted directly onto the front forks for control and aerodynamics), large racing petrol tanks (aluminium ones were often polished and left unpainted), swept-back exhaust pipes, rear-set footpegs (to give better clearance while cornering at high speeds) with or without half or full race fairings.[18]
These motorcycles were lean, light and handled various road surfaces well. The most defining machine of the rocker heyday was the Triton, which was a custom motorcycle made of a NortonFeatherbed frame and a Triumph Bonneville engine. It used the most common and fastest racing engine combined with the best handling frame of its day.[19][20] Other popular motorcycle brands included BSA, Royal Enfield and Matchless.
The term café racers is now also used to describe motorcycle riders who prefer vintage British, Italian or Japanese motorbikes from the 1950s to late 1970s. These modern café racers do not resemble the rockers of earlier decades, and they dress in a more modern and comfortable style, with only a hint of likeness to the rocker style, nor do they share the passion for 50s rock'n'roll. These modern café racers have taken elements of the American greaser, British rocker, and modern motorcycle rider styles to create a look of their own.[21][22] Rockers in the 2000s tend still to ride classic British motorcycles, however, classically styled European café racers are now also seen, such as Moto Guzzi or Ducati, as well as classic Japanese bikes, some with British-made frames such as those made by Rickman.
Rockers bought standard factory-made motorcycles and stripped them down, tuning them up and modifying them to appear like racing bikes. Their bikes were not merely transport, but were used as an object of intimidation and masculinity projecting them uneasily close to death,[14] an element exaggerated by their use of skull and crossbone-type symbolism.[citation needed]
First seen in the United States and then England,[15] the rocker fashion style was born out of necessity and practicality. Rockers wore heavily decorated leather motorcycle jackets, often adorned with metal studs, patches, pin badges and sometimes an Essogas man trinket. When they rode their motorcycles, they usually wore no helmet, or wore a classic open-face helmet, aviator goggles and a white silk scarf (to protect them from the elements). Other common items included: T-shirts, leather caps, Levi's or Wranglerjeans,[23] leather trousers, tall motorcycle boots (often made by Lewis Leathers and Goldtop) or brothel creepers/beetle crushers. Also popular was a patch declaring membership of the 59 Club of England, a church-based youth organisation that later formed into a motorcycle club with members all over the world. The rocker hairstyle, kept in place with Brylcreem, was usually a tame or exaggerated pompadour hairstyle, as was popular with some 1950s rock and roll musicians.
Largely due to their clothing styles and dirtiness, the rockers were not widely welcomed by venues such as pubs and dance halls. Rockers also transformed rock and roll dancing into a more violent, individualistic form beyond the control of dance hall management.[14] They were generally reviled by the British motorcycle industry and general enthusiasts as being as an embarrassment and bad for the industry and the sport.[24]
Originally, many rockers opposed recreational drug use, and according to Johnny Stuart:
They had no knowledge of the different sorts of drugs. To them amphetamines, cannabis, heroin were all drugs - something to be hated. Their ritual hatred of Mods and other sub-cultures was based in part on the fact that these people were believed to take drugs and were therefore regarded as sissies. Their dislike of anyone connected with drugs was intense.[25]
Cultural legacy
Len Paterson, founder of the Rocker Reunion movement, left, Father Graham Hullet of the 59 Club, seated on motorcycle, at Enfield Motorcycles factory, UK.
The rockers' look and attitude influenced pop groups in the 1960s, such as The Beatles,[9] as well as hard rock and punk rock bands and fans in the late 1970s. The look of the ton-up boy and rocker was accurately portrayed in the 1964 film The Leather Boys. The rocker subculture has also influenced the rockabilly revival and the psychobilly subculture.
Many contemporary rockers still wear engineer boots or full-length motorcycle boots, but Winklepickers (sharp pointed shoes) are no longer common. Some wear brothel creepers (originally worn by Teddy Boys), or combat boots. Rockers have continued to wear leather motorcycle jackets, often adorned with patches, studs, spikes and painted artwork; jeans or leather trousers; and white silk scarves. Leather caps adorned with metal studs and chains, common among rockers in the 1950s and 1960s, are rarely seen any more. Instead, some contemporary rockers wear a classic woollen flat cap.
Rocker reunions
In the early 1970s, the British rocker and hardcore motorcycle scene fractured and evolved under new influences coming from California: the hippies and the Hells Angels.[26] The remaining rockers became known as greasers, and the scene had all but died out.
In the early 1980s, a Rockers revival was started by Lenny Paterson and a handful of original rockers. Paterson organised rocker reunion dances called piss-ups, which attracted individuals from as far as Europe. The first rocker reunion motorcycle run of 30 classic British motorcycles rode to Battersea - home of the Chelsea Bridge Boys. Following runs went to other destinations with historic relevance to Rockers such as Brighton.
In 1994 Mark Wilsmore[27] and others organised the first Ace Cafe Reunion to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the famous transport cafe before going on to re-opening and establishing a series of events.[28] These events now attract up to 40,000 motorcyclists.[29][30]
Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the late 1950s to mid 1960s. Media coverage of the two groups fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and they became widely perceived as violent, unruly troublemakers.
Raggare is a subculture found mostly in Sweden and parts of Norway and Finland, and to a lesser extent in Denmark, Germany, and Austria. Raggare are related to the American greaser and rockabilly subcultures and are known for their love of hot rod cars and 1950s American pop culture. Loosely translated into English, the term is roughly equivalent to the American "greaser", English "rocker", and Australian "Bodgie" and "Widgie" culture; all share a common passion for mid-20th-century American cars, rockabilly-based music and related fashion.
Mod, from the word modernist, is a subculture that began in 1950s London and spread throughout Great Britain, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries. It continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in a small group of stylish London-based young men and women in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz. Elements of the mod subculture include fashion ; music and motor scooters. In the mid-1960s, the subculture listened to rock groups such as the Who and Small Faces. The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night jazz dancing at clubs.
Greasers are a youth subculture that emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s from predominantly working class and lower-class teenagers and young adults in the United States and Canada. The subculture remained prominent into the mid-1960s and was particularly embraced by certain ethnic groups in urban areas, particularly Italian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Latin Americans.
Bōsōzoku is a Japanese youth subculture associated with customized motorcycles. The first appearance of these types of biker gangs was in the 1950s. Popularity climbed throughout the 1980s, peaking at an estimated 42,510 members in 1982. Their numbers dropped dramatically in the 2000s, with fewer than 7,297 members in 2012. Later in 2020 a Bōsōzoku rally that used to attract thousands of members only had 53 members, with police stating that it was a long time since they had to round up that many people.
Kustom Kulture is the artworks, vehicles, hairstyles, and fashions of those who have driven and built custom cars and motorcycles in the United States of America from the 1950s through today. It was born out of the hot rod culture of Southern California of the 1960s.
The 20th century saw the rise and fall of many subcultures.
Rocker or rockers may refer to:
The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the early 1950s to mid-1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after the Second World War.
A café racer is a genre of sport motorcycles that originated among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960s in London. Café racers were standard production bikes that were modified by their owners and optimized for speed and handling for quick rides over short distances. Café racers have since become popular around the world, and some manufacturers produce factory-made models that are available in the showrooms.
The 59 Club, also written as The Fifty Nine Club and known as 'the 9', is a British motorcycle club with members distributed internationally.
Brothel creepers, sometimes shortened to creepers, are a style of shoe that has thick crepe soles, often in combination with suede uppers. This style of footwear became fashionable in the years following World War II, seeing resurgences of popularity at various times since then.
The Ace Cafe is an old transport cafe located near Wembley, North West London, England. Situated next to the North Circular Road, it is historically a notable venue in motorcycle culture. The original cafe opened in 1938 and closed in 1969. It re-opened on the original site in 1997 as a cafe, functions, and entertainment venue.
Greaser was a derogatory term for a Mexican in what is now the U.S. Southwest in the 19th century. The slur likely derived from what was considered one of the lowliest occupations typically held by Mexicans, the greasing of the axles of wagons; they also greased animal hides that were taken to California where Mexicans loaded them onto clipper ships. It was in common usage among U.S. troops during the Mexican–American War.
Fashion in the years following World War II is characterized by the resurgence of haute couture after the austerity of the war years. Square shoulders and short skirts were replaced by the soft femininity of Christian Dior's "New Look" silhouette, with its sweeping longer skirts, fitted waist, and rounded shoulders, which in turn gave way to an unfitted, structural look in the later 1950s.
The Leather Boys is a 1964 British drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell and Dudley Sutton. The story is set in the rocker subculture in London and features a gay motorcyclist.
Bodgies and widgies refer to a youth subculture that existed in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s, similar to the rocker culture in the UK or Greaser culture in the United States. Most bodgies rode motorbikes but some had cars, many of which were hotted-up with accessories such as mag wheels and hot dog mufflers. Males were called bodgies and females were called widgies.
A leather jacket is a jacket-length coat that is usually worn on top of other apparel or item of clothing, and made from the tanned hide of various animal skins. The leather material is typically dyed black, or various shades of brown, but a wide range of colors is possible. Leather jackets can be designed for many purposes, and specific styles have been associated with subcultures such as greasers, motorcyclists, and bikers, mobsters, military aviators and music subcultures, who have worn the garment for protective or fashionable reasons, and occasionally to create a potentially intimidating appearance.
A scooterboy is a member of one of several scooter-related subcultures of the 1960s and later decades, alongside rude boys, mods and skinheads. The term is sometimes used as a catch-all designation for any scootering enthusiast who does not fall into the latter three categories.
Lewis Leathers is a brand name of the oldest British motorcycle clothing company. D. Lewis Ltd, manufacturer of leather jackets which was established in the late 19th century.
References
↑ Stuart, John, Rockers! Kings of the Road (Plexus Publishing, 1996). ISBN0-85965-125-8.
↑ Motor Cycle, 24 June 1965. p.836. On the Four Winds by 'Nitor'. "It was, I have it on good authority, as much a surprise to the so-called rockers to find they are now "greasers" as it was to the general public...The people in question—greasy rockers?—are expected to sit back uncomplainingly while learned gentlemen in such papers as the Guardian discuss the pros and cons...I would suggest to the Guardian's correspondent, and to any other erudite commentators who feel duty bound to join in, that the subject should be allowed to die a natural death." Accessed 20 February 2014
↑ Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain By Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson. Routledge, 1990. ISBN0-415-09916-1
1 2 3 4 The sociology of youth culture and youth subcultures: Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll by Mike Brake 1980 Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN0-7100-0364-1
1 2 3 Nuttall, Jeff. Bomb Culture Paladin, London 1969. pp. 27-29
↑ McCallum, Duncan (8 February 2014). "The return of motorcycling's cafe racers". Herald Scotland. Herald & Times Group. Retrieved 29 December 2014. British motorcycle customisation stretches back to the 1950s, when the term cafe racer was coined. They were stripped-down machines, lighter than stock with dropped clip-on handlebars to make the riding position more aerodynamic, and were the low-cost mode of transport for the growing band of post-war rockers who would race ton-up (100mph) between transport cafes, such as the famous Ace Cafe on London's North Circular Road, along the then quiet motorway network.
↑ The Café Racer Phenomenon (Those were the days...), Alastair Walker. Veloce Publishing 2009. ISBN1-84584-264-2
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