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saw my elder brother recently and asked him about the fifties teddy boy era. i mentioned in another thread about the fighting between the american and the canadian servicemen at the pubs sawyers arms $ the towers, bro says the nottingham teds would go down and join in the fracus. they would all meet at a cafe called the moo-cow near the midland station, anyone remember it.

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My adolescence started when I left school late 1959, without a certificate to my name. A lot of the time was spent in coffee bars; the 49, el Toreador, which had an upstairs called Sargasso and had fi

Same as you Loppy........school 50 to 60,.......but I well remember all the 50s music.....Mam and all her sisters playing it on 78s.......Johnie Ray,Beverley sisters,Frankie Lane,Dickie Valentine,Davi

I loved the late fifties - from about 1956 actually - as the music changed from silly/cute little songs from Val Doonican etc to mostly guitar accompanied songs from Tommy Steele, Buddy Holly, then th

I can remember the Cafe , and I'm a child of the 60s . It was on the same side as the station between the the canal and the (Bentinct) Hotel. I can't remember if that's the name of the hotel. I used to call in there on match days if I had been working on a Saturday.

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When we arrived in Nottingham Midland station on a cold winters day. January or February of 1963.

"Ye old Moo Cow Cafe" was the first place we visited.

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Stories abound of the teddy boy era..mostly exaggerated..there were fights between gangs around Nottingham...some with bike chains and razors ..but 90% just a regular punch up,it wasn't West Side Story.

The only time I remember things getting really vicious was the race riots in '58 and that was mostly St Anns.Gangs of youths would gather at the Locano at weekends with little or no trouble.

Compared with nowadays the scene was very peaceful...pubs and corner shops didn't have bouncers.Pubs shut at 10pm and the streets weren't full of drunken yobs afterwards.

There was a bit of hassle with servicemen at the Towers but most of that was over the local tarts nicking their wallets.

Teddy boys weren't angels, but unlike their modern counterparts old ladies could walk home after a glass of stout in their local, without the fear of being robbed and beaten up for a few coppers.

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There was a Teddy Boy gang with amazing quifs and DA's that I seem to recall was a combination of blokes from Firbeck, Bilborough and Fernwood Estates that regularly used to wander up and down the Nottingham Canal in the late 50's armed with a variety of air guns and even 22 rifles, shooting at anything that moved.

You could tell when they'd been visiting, the canal was full of dead frogs in particular, pike, any unfortunate birds and even cats, I even knew them to shoot at cows on the opposite bank.

We were scared stiff of them, if the cry, 'It's the Teds', was heard, we were off.

One day however, without going into detail we caught up with a peadophile/peeping tom who attacked us with a mallet, so we set the dog on him and he legged it off down the canal. Guess what, who should come round the corner but our armed to the teeth gang of Teds. 'Whats up lads?' when we told them, they went for him big time, he got peppered and was last seen being persued up Moor Farm Lane, God help him.

There was a particular oak tree along that stretch of the canal that they used for target practice, they were fond of those airgun darts with flights and we used to try and dig them out with a pen knife. During my little walk at Easter with my son, we found the oak tree, looking a little sad, but still there. Amazingly, while going through mothers loft, I found a tin full of juvenile treasures including one of those darts that I'd prised out the tree, 50 years on and fired by one of those Teds:-

scan0031-1.jpg

Does anybody want to claim it.

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My "era" was the tail end of the "Mods & Rockers" - which I joined with my Vespa. Of course, rumours ran rampant of fights with the rockers ocurring spontaneously almost anywhere a mod could be found - so I lived with a certain amount of trepidation.

That was until one day in Sawley. I had been in to the motorcycle dealers for parts and was having trouble starting my scooter when up walked a real rough looking rocker. A real throwback complete with greased back hair, and leather jacket adorned with chains. "Avin' trubble are ya?" he asked - to which I nervously replied "yeah, it won't start". "Well, get on and I'll push you" he said - and promptly did so! The scooter fired up, we had a short chat about it and off I went with a friendly wave from him. I never worried about the "rockers" again!

But then I saw the real error of my ways - sold the Vespa and bought a Triumph! If you can't beat em....

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  • 1 month later...

I remember the Moo Cow well but only went into it once. That was enough. It was the IN place , the cliche 'anyone who was anyone' frequented it but oh it was mucky. It was all Americanised as I recall and done up in gaudy pastel colours but the fag smoke quickly dulled everything to dark orange. I have just released my 2nd book YO'D MEK A PARSON SWEAR...AGAIN! and one of the incidents in that book is centred on that cafe.

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My older brother was a Teddy boy ! he had the dark swarthy good looks, (I took after me dad) I went through my teen years with him and his mates hanging round the house and motorbikes, which I loved really.

One of them was a real nice bloke and had a beut Velocette, with fishtail exhaust, all black and chrome. And he took me on the pillion if I asked him.

Some how though I tended to be a mod and maybe it was my school mates as we all tended to become Scooter boys in our parka's.

Never had any problems with the "Greasers" as we called em, probably because big bro was quite a well known character around the traps.

He was also well known for his fighting prowess and got into a fair bit of bother during his silly years. He also got involved in the st annes riots, nothing to be proud about, but that was just him.

Very strange though as he got older he became a mouse and kept well away from any aggro or trouble.

I knew a lot of the local bikers through my brother and we all got on well really. It was only when we went on a coast run that things could change a bit, me with my mates and them with there's.

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:) Teddy Boys were given a bad press during the 50's, perhaps because they dressed differently: wanting their own style with their long Edwardian, velvet collared jackets, thick soled, suede shoes, gold chain bracelets and greased, flicked up hair.

I recall there being a huge, photographic, centre spread in one of the daily tabloids of 'Teds' wearing knuckleduster rings, carrying flick knives and bicycle chains; it was a terrifying image to set before the Nation.

I'm sure Teddy Boys weren't as bad as they were depicted; youth's gentle anarchy against the regimented, disciplined times - a breath of fresh air really. :)

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Teddy Boys=50's

Greasers & Mods=60's

Punks=70's

New age romantics=80's

Then not much else in the way of teenage 'rebellion', either physical or outrageous fashions, where has all the anarchy gone?........................ :cool:

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many of the younger teds still around in the sixties and can still be found on the rock and roll seen today along with a few ofthe older lads and of course young teenagers who just love the rock and roll sceenelove to go to the gigs and whatch them all still jive . and some of the youngsters put them to same even those that can still jive well i am sure denshaw will agree with me .

as for were as all the rebellion gonepaulus what about the goths ust the other week i was having a conversation with kats husband micheal who has never been very happy about their daughter being a goth and keep dying her hair different coulors had to remind him he was once a ted and i was sure there were things his parents did not like about his cloths and life style but he turned out alright.

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Forgot about the Goths Babs, but they're not 'high profile' in the news as were the others I listed, although I agree they're rebellious within their families............ :)

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yeh we wernt as bad as we were painterd eric andin all the fights i remember with the mods it was the mods that started on the rockers when they out numbered us but even then we always stood our ground and often saw them off looking a lot worse for wear.

but your alright know anyway eric you saw the error of your ways.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I used to hang around with some young Teds from Radford Blvd area back around 1958. Met them at St Margaret's Youth club dance nights on Aspley Lane. They were intimidating but really nice guys when you got to know them. The leader of our group was a Ken Trout and I remember that his older brother ( i forget his first name) and another character called "Big Bev" were Senior Teds in Radford. One night I went with friends to a dance in Bulwell and waliking back to the bus stop I was jumped by the local Bulwell Teds, but luckily for me one of them recognised me as being Ken Trout's mate and they said "sorry" and lsft me alone. THAT is the fear of the Teds manifested ..., We used to go to the Saturday morning rush at the Gaumont and I remember one of the lads had a prized set of Brass Knuckles that we all tried on for size... Oh Dear.

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HI DAVID

I REMEMBER BIG BEV OR BIG EV AS SOME OF US CALLED HIM .DID YOU GO TO WHITE HORSE OR COCKED HAT ROCK AND ROLL NIGHTS QUITE A FEW RADFORD TEDS STILL ABOUT ROCKING RAY REGULARLY DOING GIGS AT THE BOAT PRIORY ST LENTON LAST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

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No I never went to those Rock n' Roll nights, I sort of moved on to the coffee bar scene and I wonder if anyone remembers a local Gene Vincent lookalike and wannabee who "clunked" around town in leathers and a leg iron ( even tho' he didn't neeed it). He was a dead ringer for Gene. I saw Gene live twice, first at the Palace Mansfield then a few years later at the Sherwood Rooms he was SO GREAT and this lookalike showed up to the Sherwood Rooms event so we sort of had STEREO GENE's !!!! I never had a full TED Suit either, but did have a copy of ELVIS's stripey jacket with velvet collar ( drains and crepes too of course) .

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