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Townies

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JohnJames

JohnJames

master brummie
Do any members remember the "Townie" thing that sort of took off around late 1970 when the Skinhead thing became a bit boring? Clothes we wore were Crombies, Suits, trilby hats and loafer shoes amongst other things. Favourite pubs in town were the Gilded Cage, the Parisien, the Outrigger, the Tavern and many others. A favourite "Disco" was the Picadilly on Picadilly Arcade. As young men really felt that we were maturing because we had decided to grow our hair a little bit, whilst most of our contemporaries had shoulder length hair. Strsnge but fun times..
 
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Was this a peculiarly Birmingham or big city thing? I was in business in Bournemouth & Poole during this period and I can't remember any such group activity. The Teddy boy era was over pretty quickly and then for a year or so, being a seaside town, we had the mods -v- rockers gatherings. But after that nothing. Youngsters seemed too busy enjoying themselves on the beach. We had the occasional skinhead and a few punks, but most of thos were from outside the area.

Pete, in this lockdown I look more like a beatnik without much on top!

Maurice :cool:
 
No, Pete, and never had flowers in my hair or visited San Francisco, but perhaps you are referring to a certain photo that I posted somewhere, but just to wind you up, here it is again! :)
cot2.jpg

Maurice :cool:
 
We were in a pub in the JQ 1965 when they closed we were asked to leave and as we walked out 2 couples came in and when we said its closed, they said its ok we are townies and can get afters.
 
I vaguely recall that young people similarly dressed were called
suede heads. Not sure where I heard this, maybe elsewhere in the UK.

NoddKD.
 
JohnJames said:
Do any members remember the "Townie" thing that sort of took off around late 1970 when the Skinhead thing became a bit boring? Clothes we wore were Crombies, Suits, trilby hats and loafer shoes amongst other things. Favourite pubs in town were the Gilded Cage, the Parisien, the Outrigger, the Tavern and many others. A favourite "Disco" was the Picadilly on Picadilly Arcade. As young men really felt that we were maturing because we had decided to grow our hair a little bit, whilst most of our contemporaries had shoulder length hair. Strsnge but fun times..
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carolina said:
Sorry disagree townies were people who were dressed in the most modern of styles and frequented places in town. Nothing to do with gangs or beating up of people.
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Carolina I agree 100% with you we started off as mods and ended up as townies . Main reason we loved town , we loved to meet , we loved the music, we loved life most of all at that time, it was a happening , after all those years after the second world war . I'd like to think I know because I was there >
 
I can remember an incident in the 'Locarno' Hurst st. in the late sixties one Friday night.

Me and my mate Phil were doing our best at chatting up a couple of girls (failed again) when one of them said
"We don't go out with Townies."

"Since when did we become Townies" asked Phil.
"Dunno mate" said I.

We knew of Townies but didn't consider ourselves to be one. We were just a couple of bikers out on the town.

After discussing the event with our motorbiking mates, it was explained to us that because we went to the Locarno (other venues were available) on a Friday night, driving a Wolseley 6/110, wearing a three piece suit with fob watch, covered in 'Brut' and neatly lacquered hair, what do you expect.

It was a phase Phil and I went through. We went back to donning our motorbike gear seven nights a week and hanging about in Alex's (other cafe's were available).
 
we thought that from post 43 it had been established that the urban link was nothing to do with the townies of the 60s and 70s in this country..pretty obvious to most i think but it seems we are still rumbling on off topic..this thread will now be closed until moderators have time to go through it all and remove all off topic posts and comments which sadly wont leave much of a thread...it will then be re opened for posts that only contain members memories of those good old days..thank you

the team
 
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