Every youth cult needs great music, great clothing, great footwear and a great haircut. These new skinheads had it all
Looking For Trouble – ‘I Want All You Skinheads to Get Up on Your Feet’ is Photographer John Ingledew’s third book and features over 160 rare and previously unpublished images.
With a limited edition run of 800 numbered copies, this evocative and insightful book covers different facets of the skinhead revival in Britain in the late 1970s.
Throughout his career, photographer John Ingledew has relentlessly captured the raw energy of Britain’s youth tribes in the late 20th century.
His work isn’t just about documenting style or moments—it’s about peeling back the layers to reveal the heartbeat of devotion to a scene, a culture, a way of life.
Looking For Trouble pulses with the intensity of those who live for their tribe, embracing a world outside the mainstream, where identity is forged in the gritty corners of subculture.
“I’ve taught photography at many Art Colleges and Universities,” explains John, “And I always try to set a project for my students in which they have to photograph the subcultures they are part of.
“Their results are always great. We do youth culture best in Britain and there are constantly new scenes linked to music and fashion, often well off the radar.”
John captures the mood and era of his work with beautifully worded, thoughtful commentary throughout, providing a unique perspective on a tribe from the golden age of British youth culture, when punks, rockabillies, teds, new romantics, as well as the mod and skinhead revivals, all had their own vibrant scenes.”
“Whilst some in the photographs look like angels with dirty faces, others looked totally unapproachable, but I think people who have chosen to stand out are always happy to be photographed – it’s an affirmation of their choice to be outside the usual. Some were adolescents up West for the night from the suburbs, others had far more troubled lives and were runaways, spending their days in the drop-in Youth Centre in Macklin Street in Covent Garden and sleeping in hostels.”
Looking For Trouble – ‘I Want All You Skinheads to Get Up on Your Feet”
Terrifying the tourists in Leicester Square.
Every youth cult needs great music, great clothing, great footwear and a great haircut. These new skinheads had it all; the boundless energy of The Specials and Madness provided the soundtrack, Ben Sherman, Crombie, Levi’s and Fred Perry the clothes and Dr. Marten’s the boots – a barber’s clippers rounding off the style with a number one, two or three.
The return of young skinheads to the football terraces of West London is featured along with photographs of the gang of skins that congregated in the West End of London, whose members took the look in an extreme direction with facial tattooing previously only seen in sideshows and U.S.prison yards.
Throughout this time, John got to know this group and photographed some of them at gigs, on days out, being tattooed and in their homes, as well as when they hung out terrifying the tourists in Leicester Square.
He would return to this scene again during his career to photograph the skinhead girls of Bristol and the skins who were passionate about Jamaican music and who’d travelled from all over the country to attend concerts by legends Prince Buster and Laurel Aitken, The Godfather of Ska.
A Visiting Professor at the University of West London and a lifelong Chelsea FC supporter, John has published two books focused on football fan culture. His work is also displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, and his photographs have been featured in recent major UK exhibitions, Grown Up in Britain – 100 Years of Teenage Kicks and From the Caribbean to Coventry.
It was a pleasure for The Atlantic Dispatch to sit down with John, as we learned more about his recent book and his love and affinity for Chelsea Football Club.
Amazing Chaos
When I look back at the images that feature throughout Looking For Trouble, what I remember most about that time are The Bank Holiday weekends of the late 1970s and early 1980s where there seemed to be invasions of the seaside towns by thousands upon thousands of young people.
It was amazing chaos, truly memorable, just like the Brighton scenes in Quadrophenia. I am very proud of the pictures from those days, they really caught the atmosphere of that time.
A book is out there forever
This is my third photobook and seeing my pictures carefully put together into a story is totally thrilling.
There are many pages in Looking For Trouble that I really love. Some images show the same people with their skinheads in their youth and then later in their lives. I love that.
The football terrace pictures throughout look so different from today’s stadium crowds, the tattoo pictures still shock and I think the ending of the book is very strong – though no spoilers!
Like most photographers, I’ve got a collection of photobooks, mainly by my photographer heroes William Klein, Colin Jones, Diane Arbus and Robert Frank. Whilst it’s great to have your work in magazines and exhibitions, they don’t last long, whilst a book is out there forever.
Now you are going to believe us
I guess one of the highlights of my career would be getting a phone call asking me if I’d like to work taking pictures at Chelsea FC.
At first, I thought it was a wind-up from one of my mates – but it led to seven seasons of photographing the team and fans home and away.
It was a brilliant time for me and led to my last photobook called AND NOW ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE US, which ends with Chelsea becoming Champions, for the first time in 50 years.
I loved it when one critic reviewing the book said that after all the good work I’d done at Chelsea I should be shooting for England!
Bovril Gate
I still go to Chelsea games with the same mates I’ve been going with for forty-five seasons, and our club, like all football fans, is deeply part of us.
We see owners, managers and players come and go, and know the only constant is us the fans, you’re a fan for life, we’re lifers, and as our song goes ‘We’ve Won It All”.
There are some things I hate about football today, like the renaming of grounds after sponsors. Some things are far too precious ever to sell, though Chelsea pioneered such things many decades ago when the club named one of the entrances to the Shed Terrace the BOVRIL Gate.
I still love Chelsea and the Bridge, though the Press don’t much, we’re a MARMITE Club, well, a BOVRIL one really!
We went to Hell and won
There are many stand-out moments for me as a Chelsea fan. These were the you-have-to-be-there-to-believe-it kinds of games and for me some of the club’s greatest moments.
On the 28th of April 1984, when it was Chelsea 5, Leeds 0. That was the game that led to us being promoted.
October 20th, 1999, I witnessed Galatasaray 0, Chelsea 5, WE WENT TO HELL AND WON 5-nil.
Then on April 30th 2005, Bolton 0, Chelsea 2, CHAMPIONS! Oh, and when my children had their birthday parties in the Press Room at Stamford Bridge. That’s up there as well.
ALL IMAGES BY JOHN INGLEDEW
Looking For Trouble – ‘I Want All You Skinheads to Get Up on Your Feet’ Is available on November 3rd and preview and advance orders can be made now on www.moonboy.space.
To see more of John’s work please click here