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Added 20th March 2011 by dubwise-er

Artefact

Photograph
Dancing Tarantulas
1984

Lest we forget.......left and right,the typical Perry boy style. ( As for the old bezzer lying abed, it’s an old familiar Dancing Tarantula on his annual day out. Cos they were mates and contributed in some perverse way to what turns out to be Manchester musical history, I’ll write something about them at a later date.)
Don’t know if Perry boys have had much mention on the site but it was pretty much the dominant street youth culture of the time and not aligned with any particular music style. It was really just street wear with Fred Perry being the height of smart casual. The dead give-away sign of a Perry though was the obligatory one-eye hair style, where the hair basically just covered ,yes, the one eye, and in best examples of the breed, would be constantly flicked back by a jerk of the head like a nervous disorder (reminiscent of the homeless Scots lad in "Naked", brilliant film!) ; very odd now I think about it.....It was also quite gang minded and more aggro than the obvious punk/ skinhead culture. (Numerous stories about gigs, particularly up at The Osbourne in Miles Platting, where gangs of marauding Perrys would take on other youths trespassing on their turf....). Always thought it looked quite smart though. Not sure what the modern equivalent is but there's bound to be one, maybe two.... This photo taken just over from the aforementioned Spinners Arms.
Just remembered, that was my jacket,ha!
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Latest Discussion

“Ah Perry boys or flickheads as we used to call them. Walking around town in the late 70s early 80s could be a bloody nightmare when you came across these lads looking for trouble. Saying that it didnt matter what you looked like it was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some of my mates were Perrys and although they all looked the same, shitstopper jeans, adidas samba, fp jumper, same hair style from small flick going up to Phil Oakey proportions, they a were all into different music. Some of them loved Bowie, some were into the Chameleons etc and some just disco loving pissheads.They all supported city!!”
20 Mar 2011
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=32585...

I remember that jacket too ! Nasty hasn't changed a bit !!”
13 Dec 2011
“Were the Perries part of the Tarantuala's troupe? or just a couple of scallies hanging about?”
11 Mar 2013
“Yeah they were just a couple of lads walking past so got them to jump in the pic.I think we must've been bored and just messin' about.There were 3 in The Dancing Tarantulas,Nasty, Monsta & Tim (Tinkerbell);a group of disperate youths if there ever was one.I was the "manager" to use the term very loosely.As the name suggests they "danced";... again, using the term in its widest possible sense.They were pretty out there and a good laugh though.I have some other flyers/photos/press articles about them.Will get to upload them at some point.”
14 Mar 2013
“Hi,

I am interested in publishing this photo for a piece about Manchester in the 1970s. Would it be possible?
Thanks so much.”
23 Feb 2015
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