Warrior Kings: The South London Gang Wars 1976-1982 [Perfect Paperback]

Noel 'Razor' Smith Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2008

It was the long hot summer of 1976, and a 15-year-old Noel Smith, testosterone jangling, was among many south London kids keen to stamp their mark on the world and find an identity and a sense of belonging. Rock ’n’ roll music of the ’50s had gripped his imagination and, adopting the dress, hairstyle and dance moves, a Teddy boy was born. Many of his peers followed suit and soon the Balham Wildkatz were born - mob-handed, arrogant and spoiling for a ruck at every opportunity. Life was all about flying your colors, cultivating both a personal and gang reputation, claiming new turf and protecting your own patch against the enemy: the other teen subcultures based around the music scene - mods, rockers, soul boys, punks, skinheads, smoothies, rockabillies - that formed a volatile melting pot of juvenile angst waiting to explode. Clubbing, drinking, thieving and fighting became the norm and a wave of increasingly reckless and violent behavior ensued, resulting ultimately in internecine warfare. ‘Razor’ Smith, as a veteran of that scene and former gang leader of the Wildkatz, looks back with honesty, humor and vivid clarity on the days of his youth.

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About the Author

Noel Razor Smith was born in London in 1960. He has fifty-eight criminal convictions and has spent the greater portion of his adult life in prison. Whilst in prison he taught himself to read and write, gained an Honours Diploma from The London School of Journalism and an A-Level in Law. He has been awarded a number of Koestler awards for his writing and has contributed articles to the Independent, the Guardian, Punch, the Big Issue, the New Statesman and the New Law Journal. Razor is currently serving a life-sentence for armed robbery. His autobiography 'A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun' was published in 2004.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Apex Publishing Ltd (March 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904444954
• ISBN-13: 978-1904444954
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,406,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Our Design For Life, July 11, 2008

By 

Adrian Stranik "Ade" (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warrior Kings: The South London Gang Wars 1976-1982 (Perfect Paperback)

In the early 50's the Teddy Boy phenomenon developed from the black marketer `spiv' of the war years and became the first true British youth sub-culture. The `Ted' whose look was based on the sartorial elegance of the Edwardian era (Teddy Edward) was subsequently replaced in the coming decades by the Mods of the 60's and the Punks in the 70's. These three primary movements all provided the starting point for myriad other variations such as Skinheads, Rude Boys, Rockers, Smoothies, Casuals, New Romantics and Goths - but none was more unlikely and offbeat than the Rockabillies.

Up until now the history books tell us that 70's teenage wasteland belonged to the Punks but the new book Warrior Kings by Noel `Razor' Smith - readdresses this misnomer. Rockabillies emerged from the Ted/Rocker linage and were as much an embrace of the raw roots teenage rampage attitude of Punk as it was a complete rejection of it. Punk was seen as `with it' and trendy and, thus, despised by a faction of youth obsessed with an obscure and rootsier brand of Rock n Roll and the styles of Deep Southern 50's Americana.

Smith touched upon his Ted/Rockabilly leanings in his first book `A Few Kind Words & a Loaded Gun' but `Warrior Kings' is a thorough (and often hilarious) examination of a largely ignored phenomenon where thousands of British teenagers rejected the middle class posturings of Punk and immersed themselves in the sounds and styles of an ancient musical missing link spawned somewhere between Elvis' first record in 1954 and done and dusted by the time Buddy Holly recorded his last `Nashville sessions' at the end of '56.

Tribe membership inevitably means bloodshed - and Warrior Kings is claret central. The Punks V. Rockers wars in the Kings Road circa 1976 were largely tabloid inspired but these conflicts soon took on a life of their own. Along with a re-emerging Mod revival all the old and new youth cults co-existed for the first and last time with obvious results. Warrior Kings details many of the legendary `tear ups' which raged all over South London but just change the names and locations and you'll have pretty much an identikit account of Saturday night mayhem typical of every major town in Britain.

By the early 80's the Rockabilly movement was diluted and rendered somewhat ridiculous by insipid `cash ins' like `Rockabilly Rebel' by Matchbox and the Stray Cats' `Runaway Boys.' 1982 sounded the death rattle of the uniquely British phenomenon of true youth sub-culture's before succumbing to the `classless' soup of the coming decades. Corporate endeavour eventually perfected the art of cultural homogenisation with designer labels and the `over grown infant' styles of Hip Hop which has dominated the hearts, minds and wardrobes of global youth culture ever since.

As for the book itself, Warrior Kings' fight for survival nearly turned out as futile as the movement it so vividly conveys. Smith's usual publisher Penguin passed on it and even his own agent the novelist Will Self didn't exactly break a sweat - deriding the subject matter `revisionist' - but then he's an ex punk so go figure. The book finally found a home with independent publishers Apex but by his own admission Smith admits Warrior Kings is not his best work, being as it is something of a rush job. (An early proof of the book came back with a missing chapter - `Shopping for Clothes'- which, due to just wanting to see it published, Smith let pass) Some of the incidents are somewhat repetitive and could perhaps have benefited from a leaner, meaner rendering. But Warrior Kings is as unique a tale as the curious era that inspired it and a `must read' for aficionados of pre-gun gang folklore and anyone nostalgic for an era before our designs for life became compulsory.