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This photo just popped up again on a FB local history group the area close to where I grew up. A very familiar scene of a bunch of local lads in town sometime in the 60's. They could well have come from or would later drop into the Busy Bee Cafe just few miles away.
They went by many names: "Rockers", "Leather boys", "Cafe racers" and later, "Greasers". A big part of the 1950s and 60s subculture in Great Britain. Sworn enemies of the "Mods".
Jethro Tull's "Too Old to Rock'n Roll Too Young to Die" is a fitting tribute to the Rocker subculture in Great Britain:
Some of the lyrics:
"The old rocker wore his hair too long
Wore his trouser cuffs too tight
Unfashionable to the end drank his ale too light
Death's head belts buckle, yesterday's dreams
The transport caf' prophet of doom
Ringing no change in his double sewn seams
In his post-war babe gloom
Now he's too old to rock 'n' roll
But he's too young to die
Yes, he's too old to rock 'n' roll
But he's too young to die
He once owned a Harley Davidson
And a triumph Bonneville
Counted his friends in burned out spark plugs
And prays that he always will
But he's the last of the blue blood greasers boys
And all of his mates are doing time
Married with three kids up by the ring road
Sold their souls straight down the line......."
Several have already been mentioned but Ton Up Boys was another. Some were Cafe Racer lads who hung out at the old transport cafes and used them as starting and finishing points for racing. The Busy Bee at Watford was one of the local places, at night you could hear the bikes way way off in the distance would slowly growing louder and loudert as they tore up and down the bypass. The Ace Cafe on London's North Circular was another.
Hattie and other original rockers on Chelsea Bridge, London The rockers and members of a British subculture originated in the U.K in the 50’s. They are mainly centered in cafe race, motorcycl…