I was a ‘Curehead’ myself and still love them – thanks for sharing, makes a change from the dry business stuff – I stand co-accused of the latter!

I remember Greasers now, yes.

I’m not sure, though, that you’re being fair saying that I was describing the cliques back then as stunted. I was really only trying to point out, what I consider now looking back, to be pretty strange reasons for sides to be taken.

I do take your point though on the different origins for what effectively still was the same split in affiliations.

All though, as you say, down to cliquey teenagers.

It wasn’t really based on the ’60′s Mods and Rockers thing, the Mod side was influenced mostly by the Mod revival of the eighties (think of The Jam, and in Ireland, the mighty Blades), and the British Ska scene (Madness, Specials etc.), and punk and new wave, while the so-called Rocker side was actually composed of Heavy Metal fans (Sabbath, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden et al.), “Greasers” we called them. Remember?

I was big into the mod fashion for a while, still love the style, never cared much for the music (I was more of a US Punk/Hardcore fan at the time). Actually I never cared much for religious wars over musical genres (so serious at the time, that’s cliquey teenagers for you), if it sounded good I grabbed it no matter where it came from. Funnily enough I think that was common, I don’t think we were as stunted as you make out. I recall Mods head banging to Black Betty in the Town Hall and the Smiths/Cure/Joy Division and all that later “indie” stuff (not to mention grunge) were way more popular than mods and metallers. Mods and metallers just stood out because they were so visible in their dress code.

I had kind of grown out of the Smiths by the time I was fifteen and didn’t really warm to Joy Division ’til my late twenties. They’re a bit hyped in my opinion (Hannett made them) although Atmosphere is a classic that I can’t listen to anymore because of the shivers it sends down my spine.

Great site by the way, I’ve been following for years. You were two years behind me at school.

Regards
Mel

Those Irish natives who are making a success out of selling Irish-based products, services and brands abroad have a heck of a lot to offer and deserve a similar platform. Only problem is that they might be overly critical of the lack of state support they’ve received as they built their international businesses.