Liverpool's casual culture: leading the world in style

Nov 28 2008 Emma Pinch

Awaydays 320

IT’S 1979. No home computers, no internet, no McDonalds, no DVDs or videos, no mobiles, just three TV stations (which shut down at midnight), pizzas no bigger than six inches.

And on Merseyside it got worse. Thatcher was in power, jobs were thinning out, and money was tight.

So what was there for kicks?

According to authors Dave Hewitson and Kevin Sampson, plenty. In fact, popular culture in Liverpool was flourishing in the blowy, bleak docklands.

Wirral-born Kevin Sampson has produced a film, Awaydays, from his book of the same name written in 1982. Its backdrop is a new lifestyle which was totally football-orientated, and which went on to permeate the style of a whole generation.

The film, which is due for release in April, follows the fortunes of a group of young Tranmere fans, already becoming disillusioned with Thatcher’s Britain. Set in 1979, it has been shot on location around Liverpool and the Wirral.

Dave Hewitson, who runs a nostalgia website and online store called 80scasuals.co.uk, advised the film-maker on the styles on Merseyside in 1979, and where they could be sourced.

He’s written a book on this unique culture revolution called The Liverpool Boys Are In Town.

The first time Dave was struck by the phenomenon was on August 13, 1977, at Wembley Stadium. He was 14. It was the day of the Charity Shield, Liverpool v Manchester United.

On the steps, close to the turnstiles, about 20 youths were milling about. It was when flares were still the dressed-down choice of the masses.

"Some were sporting a strange new hairstyle, but there was nothing effeminate about the attitude and confidence of the gang, dressed in straight jeans and cords, and they were wearing Adidas trainers, not common in an era of disco and punk fashion," says Dave, 45, from Norris Green.

"Going to the match was no longer about football, it was now about the clothes and the attitude."

He traces the origins of the craze to the Anfield Road End of Liverpool’s football ground, and to Liverpool’s dizzying climb into the upper echelons of international football in the mid- 70s.

"You looked at the Anfield Road End crowd and it was more colourful than in the Kop, which was where the ‘woollybacks’ went," recalls Dave. "Britain was in recession and everyone was in black and white. They were in Adidas trainers and jeans, and lemon and pink and turquoise polo shirts."