Why Newcastle skinhead gangs were making the headlines in the Chronicle 50 years ago

It was 1970, a year when the Chronicle ran dozens of stories on the skinhead gangs who were said to be rampaging through the streets of Newcastle

Whatever happened to these likely lads?

The group of skinhead friends was photographed sitting on the steps of the Evening Chronicle's staff entrance on Pudding Chare, Newcastle, this week 50 years ago.

Dressed in the trademark Dr Marten boots and half-mast trousers of the prevailing fashion, the boys will all be around 70 today. We hope the last five decades have treated them well.

And whereas these lads were perfectly well-behaved during their visit to the Chronicle, skinheads had gained a notorious reputation across the UK, and the North East, as the 1970s dawned.

The sight of a group of shaven-headed lads wearing immaculately polished cherry red or shiny black ‘Docs’ walking towards you in the street was enough to make the average law-abiding citizen quickly stride off in the opposite direction.

Skinheads, it was reported, had a reputation for enjoying reggae music - and violence.

Over at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park where the often edgy atmosphere was utterly different to today’s matchday experience, gangs would congregate in the long-demolished Leazes End causing all sorts of mayhem.

One gang, the so-called Scotswood Aggro Boys would feature in a BBC documentary, narrated by a young Mike Neville, that aired in 1971.

Called All Dressed Up And Going Nowhere (and available to view on YouTube), it was filmed among the gritty surrounds of Newcastle's West End and recorded the skinheads' conflicts with a rival gang of motorbike-driving ‘hairies’.

Just as the behaviour of Teddy Boys a decade and a half earlier had been vilified, and the antics of punks in the late 70s would be tut-tutted, 50 years ago, the Chronicle and other newspapers regularly ran stories on the menace of this latest youth movement - the skinhead.

In May 1970, we reported how "a gang of 200 skinheads who arrived by train from Newcastle rampaged through Whitley Bay, before clashing at the Spanish City fairground. Dozens of police, some with dogs, were brought in to restore order."

In the same month, we told how skinheads swept through the streets of Newcastle city centre. "About 40 of them gathered on the corner of Grainger Street and Newgate Street and harassed shoppers. They were later joined by other gangs. Police in panda cars arrived to disperse them."

A month earlier, 300 skinheads, fans of both Newcastle United and visiting Manchester United, clashed at Newcastle Central Station before a match a St James' Park. We told how "black marias raced through the city centre" as the trouble flared.

And in September, "passers-by had to hide behind cars for protection when 50 or 60 skinheads ran down St James' Street" before another Newcastle United game.

The Chronicle received letters from skinheads claiming that stories had been exaggerated, but one letter writer from Fawdon in Newcastle declared: "I lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the parents. It would be more helpful to talk of delinquent parents rather than delinquent children!"

It's interesting to note that many of the skinheads from 1970 might well be respectable grandfathers today in 2020.