Last time you read my blog thing, I'd finished wanking and had a butchers hook on some 'casual' (what a wank name for a sub culture) football site. It's been a while and I've gotten accustomed to how the site works and that. I haven't made any friends or anything cause, to be honest, I'm not on there to be all paly; especially as most of them are old enough to be my kids. I've posted the odd topic just to get a response mostly in the music forum as, have I've said before, I love my music. Most of the older lads know there shit. Can't all remember there names but some Swedish or Norwegian cunt called Spiteful seems to know a lot about Ska so I might and I mean might, have a chat with him on that subject. Then there's Mr. Fingers (fucking dodgy name if ever I saw one) seems to know a bit about punk. Not really my thing as much but least it's not O fucking asis. Don't get me wrong. They were good in the early 90s but what a load of wank they are now. Fucking can't stand the cunts. I'd love to knock that monkey swaggering cunt Noel's teeth in. Probably improve his looks.
So apart from wanking and looking through stupid 'casual' sites, what have I been up to? Nothing much. Still buying clobber. Got myself a pair of Nike Elites in red and white colourway, some Adidas LA Trainers, a pair of Nudie jeans and Fjall raven Telemark II in olive. A very nice piece that Telemark and my very first Fjall Raven piece too. Looking to get some shoes to go with it. Might have a look at some Grisport or Finn Comforts, fuck knows. I'm not too fussed as I've loads of shoes and trainers that would go with it.
Not sure if any one's interested, I wouldn't blame anyone if they weren't cause I don't half talk some shit, but I'm going to give the old dust a bit of a break. Not that I have a dust problem, just that I find myself ending up in some strange places on it. Like at some fat ginger bird's flat at four in the morning with her fat sweaty pussy suffocating me while her fat, goofy mate's covered my cock in chocolate and noshing me off.
It is true to say the eagle eye of every casual is always on alert, always pinching and sneaking the newest unseen label and look, the best line against your classic retro trainers and so on. This led me to wonder about the remergence of the 'complete' look. And over recent weeks this has become more and more prevalent at W12, among a distinctive few. The look of the ‘elite’ as Diadora put it, above the rest , totally obsessed with your style and the latest styles is how I see casual. Well having been obsessed for all these years and chatted to numerous like minded people over the past few, now really seems to be the time that casuals are stepping up the pace and moving the fashion and style on. A total look seems to start from the first point of everyday, even with unseen items such as socks and so on. As such I have also found myself hunting for bargains the same as anyone else, and found Farah trousers in Matalan for £19, the classic original trouser, which produces a great line hanging against trainers and also Pringle socks and or Tacchini under crackers for a £5 at TK Maxx. I have also begun, well for a while now, but bare with me, shaving products such as Geo Trumper just to know that I am using the best available. Being bald it’s similar to the attention to detail I would have paid to my wedge hair cut all those years ago. So to spot a few items completing looks on fellow supporters a few weekends ago was warmly welcomed. First new item I spied was the arrival of Aquascutum and Victorinox leather gloves, but my personal favourite has been the exchange from the old classic golf umbrella to superb wooden handled Armani brollies. And it is this side of things which is slowly altering the heavily sports labelled look associated with QPR, towards a more all round casual style, making it harder for the undiscerning eye to spot the styles and labels. The deerstalker hats cannot be far away now I think. But how far can too far go? not sure myself, maybe the Benetton rugby tops of old, were a step too far. I hated them. the next few months will be of interest to see what emerges. In a similar vain, having thumbed through Neal Heard’s Trainers book which literally follows trainers from conception to current day recently, I also wondered if there is a book that pictorially covers the history of casual? I recently bought A Casual Look: A photo-diary of football fans, 1980s to 2001, only to find it falls someway short of a total reportage of the fashion and is more colloquial. Concentrating on certain clubs, it is more a fan ideal than the casual fashion, although still a very commendable book and great read. With the fashion changing all the time though, would it be possible to truly capture casual?
The publishers of a new book about friendship set against the football casual backdrop of the early 90's rave scene, is set to be published and on sale on Amazon by April 6th. The publishers kindly sent all readers of this blog a sneak preview of chapter 1 of the book. http://content.yudu.com/Library/A148jy/DecadeChapter1
Obviously it's not enough to make a qualified judgment of the book overall from this one extract, but from what we've read so far, it looks like it could have genuine potential. This is what the publishers say:
"DECADE BY PAT W HENDERSEN
The ultimate betrayal between best friends can be the most casual thing in the world!
When wide boy Martin Bridges decides to take Colin Nichols under his wing, events conspire to send both him and his protégé hurtling headwards into Scotland's murky criminal underworld. But as they go deeper, could it be that the tables are being turned? Could Colin be taking the lead from his friend? Could Martin be losing his grip? And when betrayals are exposed, how far will they go to stay in control?
A tale of unlikely friendship and betrayal set against the contrasting backgrounds of football casual violence and the peace and harmony of the early nineties rave scene. Decade is a tale of young lives being lived to the full and friendships put to the test."
After one of my usual Friday nights sewn to the duvet, watching luscious Lolitta Love with one hand on my huge cock and a 50 squid note rolled up to hoover the last remnants of happiness up my nose, I decided to put my chap away and give the old laptop a run, see what the bastard could bring up. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just something mildly interesting to keep my mind occupied, as I could feel the temptation to ring my ex and tell her how much I missed her sitting on the end of my cock and pumping her full of my love cream. I know she appreciates my romantic side, just I'm a bit too romantic and enjoy sharing the love with other women. Selfish bitch. Anyway, after looking up the usual nonsence relating to my beloved team, I turned my attentions to one of my other passion - clothes.
Now I won't lie, cause quite frankly I'm a crap liar. My ex wife will testify to that, but I used to be a bit of a lad back when I was younger. I guess most blokes at my age were. All part of growing up in that shit period, which everyone seems to remember as great times but were in fact fucking bollocks, except for the football. Yep, nothing beat meeting up with a few of your mates, travelling up to some shit northern town, drinking their ale and rowing with the locals although if quite honest, I was shit at it. Can't remember how many times I've had my teeth kicked in, stabbed, bottled and punched in the face - I'm still a fucking looker though. Worst part of it was having the gear I saved up months for to be ruined by some yokel, with a tash and donkey jacket. Anyway, I tapped in football casual, just to see what the old chap would bring up and on the first page was this site called, "FootballCasual" so I clicked the link and checked it out.
The opening page had the usual shit in it. You know history of the fashion, brands worn, icons blah blah blah. Though, it looked like someone had made an effort for a change and the site was more geared to the fashion aspect rather than the violence, which is a plus I suppose as I've heard about forums with mouthy little snotty nosed tykes giving it the big un cause they seen Green Street and the Football Factory. And how hard they are and they got a "pwopa nawty firm" ready to run everyone up and down the country. Load of bollocks! First sign of trouble and they'd be off quicker than last nights kebab.
Well I signed up and everything so I could have a proper butchers hook, see what the clienteles like, you know what I mean? See if it's full of people in the know or clueless cunts. You can never really tell with these forums unless you're there for a while but a quick glance at the posts and you get the general idea. By the way, I was going to go by the name Steve McQueen, but some cunt took it already. Bloody shame that as Steve M is one of my favourite actors of all time and a fucking style icon if I do say so myself.
I couldn't be arsed with the introductions, figured I'd save that until I got to know the residents. Didn't want to make an introduction only to fuck off a few days later cause the forum was a load of toss. I went straight to the "Bet you look good on the dancefloor" forum as I wanted to see what the chaps were wearing. See if they matched up to my own high standards. To be fair, there were a few blokes on there that knew their gear though I had to say there was also a few that needed a kick up the arse, sooner rather than later. If you're interested, and you probably are if you got this far reading this utter shit, I'm still into my 80s gear. Fila, Pringle, Lacoste, the usual suspects. You can't go wrong with them. But I am partial to the odd Barbour, Fjall Raven and Stone Island, though some cunts on there are slagging it off saying it's dead and all that. Load of bollocks in my opinion. Stone Island still make some top fucking gear, so what if a few chavy cunts wear moody shit. I know mine are real and look the dog's and that's all that matters. I'd like one of those shits that say it's dead to have a look at my collection (as long as they don't breath on it) and tell me that Stone Island is dead. Tossers!
I also took a quick look at the "General public house". It's the forum where you can talk bollocks, just to see what people have on their minds. The first thing that I saw that instantly made me feel good about the place was the "Top sausage" thread. Not a thread about Walls sausages (I can be funny sometimes can't I?) but about some fit-arsed birds. My favourite is Lucy Pinder. I'd love to give her a good rutting. Nice to see a bit of real gash as well as clothes porn.
It weren't long though before I was checking out the entertainment forum. I love my music and could open my own shop with the amount of LPs, EPs and 45 I got. When I was younger, I was into a bit of Soul. My old man was a Mod so was kind of brought up on the stuff. Though when the Clash came out, I moved on to the old reggae dub, like Culture, Mad Professor, Black Uhru, Burning Spear; proper dubs. Used to get ripped at school about it, but fuck 'em. It was bloody hard juggling buying clothes and music as in those days people were proper poor and clothes cost a fucking bomb! If I'm honest, the clothes took a step back as music came first back then. Not really into the music scene now as it's all Assembly lined shit. When programmes like X-Factor and Pop Idol become popular, you know music is dead. Glad I grew up when I did, when musicians were trying to make music that meant something. Instead of this cack gangster, soulless shite.
There's a few clued up fellas on the site and nice to see some varied tastes, instead of the same old fucking Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Charlatans shit that's meant to be "Casual" (fucking wank name) so you got to listen to them otherwise you ain't casual. Fucking bollocks I say.
On first glance. Looks like a decent site, not too many cunts thinking they know everything about clothes and trying to give it the big one. Still, it's very early days so I’ll be back on to see if any tossers are on there and if the site falls apart, probably will these sort of sites cater for wankers. Guess I'll fit in nicely then.
THE sense of deja vu in and around Shepherd's Bush is in some ways quite unnerving. The 'Casual' buzz has returned. The political and economic climate is similar to that at the start of the movement and one of the main players of that golden time, Stuarts, is once again filled with enough sportswear delights to fill the heart of any casual aficionado or fan. For me the whole thing started around at QPR in 1982, with the following season seeing the lid literally come off the movement in the area. Fable has it that coach loads of away fans would turn up to Stuarts, along with Man o' War across the other side of the Uxbridge Road, to buy the latest looks. The area has been somewhat overlooked in the history books, but anyone in the known remembers the importance of the club and area to the fashion in its heyday. But now it is definitely back. And after a slow underground trickle two years ago, 'Casual' of sorts has made a welcome return. Since the beginning of the season countless groups of away fans have been seen walking through the doors of the shop to pick up some new threads. Barnsley fans caught my eye on the opening day of the season sporting Fila tops en-masse. And the same can be said when we visited Aston Villa earlier this season for a league cup match, with a good sized crew of Rangers fans cutting a retro-laden dash across Aston Park. The lack of time given to the importance of W12 to the original movement may be slightly galling when thumbing through Phil Thornton's Casual book and such like, but it did allow for the club to create its own niche looks, in a similar way to the Scallies with their tweed jackets and so on. The eyes never quite lose their eagle-edge when it comes to spotting football styles, trends and fashions. Admittedly, the initial new movement is sported by the 35-45 year old age bracket, but aspects are filtering down to the younger fans. Out seem to be going the high street footwear and Hackett, Stone Island and Burberry labels, in exchange for Fila, Tacchini and Lacoste and of course the dusting down of classic trainers (Forest Hills, Borg Elites and so on) with the hunt and challenge to be one step ahead alive and well. It is obvious each look has been hunted down by the wearer, worked on and thought out, either while chasing that classic pair of trainers or faded Lois chords on eBay or originalsfootwear.com and so on, or simply through combinations of memory and just great dress sense. The question of how the fashion avoids being a closed shop of old Casual 'die-hards' who know in-depth detail on the classic Adidas trainers of the day, or exactly when a style of Fila tracksuit top was released and how many were available is one I find interesting. This needs to be avoided if the fashion is to avoid failing to make the proper impact needed for it to flourish and grow, with younger Casual followers catching on and also bringing in newer styles and labels to the look. I have been keeping an eye out for this aspect of things and will monitor it over the coming months of the season. That aside this is an exciting time and I for one am really enjoying it, I feel like something that was always 'ours' has been reclaimed in some way. Whatever it is, Casual of sorts is back.
Now that's a headline. The famous British clothing brand Aquascutum have been revealed as the official suppliers of men's evening wear for the BAFTAs 2009, which will take place on February 8th.
Aquascutum has long been associated with stars of the silver screen. Legends such as Humphrey Bogart, Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Cary Grant have all been spotted in Aqua clothing.
Despite having the connations with identi-kit hooliganism after the chronic abuse of its iconic house check pattern, Aqua is enjoying a bit of a revival of late with their jackets and outerwear. The showerpoof wool fabrics mean that the Casual knows that Aquascutum will always provide first class quality when it comes to fabrication, but can they maintain the highest standards in classic British design?
It would appear that a true return to form is definitely happening at Aquascutum.
In the early 80's golf chic was all the rage with the rebellious souls from the football terraces. It's impact on casual culture was probably not as evident as tennis wear, but strong none the less. The leaders in this area were Lyle & Scott and Pringle. Lyle & Scott has been the casual-friendly brand that has probably had the most over-exposure in the mainstream in recent years (with the exception of Stone Island), but Pringle is still a brand that maintains class and subtlety. It's rumoured on the ground that the pringle diamond jumper could be making a comeback in 2009. I myself have an invested interest, having recently purchased two very nice v-necks in a cashmere/merino mix ;-) We at FootballCasual.com are very keen to see whether a golf chic revival will actually happen this year, or whether its simply the senile murmurings of nostalgic grandads. New players in the golf arena worth investigating are J.Lindeberg and William Hunt. We also have to keep stressing that although there is a huge nod towards retro in the casual revivalist mindset - young guns need to experiment and push things forward. After all, constant invention keeps constant attention.
