A Skins ‘n’ Sharps Exhibition will be held from Sunday 4th of July 2010 @ The Kustom Lane Gallery, 8 Luton Lane, Hawthorn.
Googled “Blackburn South Sharps” and found this grouse site!
Larry Jenkins, aka ESOTERIC, is the photographer responsible for the now infamous “Sharpie” photos recently [sic] exhibited at ACMI / Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia.
Larry was the leader of the notorious street gang the “BLACKBURN SOUTH SHARPS” from 1972-1977 when the Sharpie sub-culture was at its peak and the working class suburbs of Melbourne were a tough and violent place to grow up. These photographs represent a period from 1975-1976 in Australian sub-cultural history and are one of the few photographic records of that time. Larry began taking photos at the age of 16 using a pocket camera, when he started working as an apprentice motor mechanic and spent his weekly wage developing his shots…
See also :
::: Sharpies – A Unique Australian Subculture
“The recent fascination with Sharpies leaves you wondering – when did a spotted past in suburban Australia become an object of fascination rather than derision?”
::: The Sharpies – Cult Gangs of the Sixties and Seventies
In the 60’s and 70’s the streets of Melbourne were full of gangs but it was the Sharpies, enemies of the Hippies and Mods that held the power on the street. For a mean bunch of kids they were extremely fashion conscious with their crest-knit black shirts and personally designed cardigans. But as Saturday night fever exploded the Sharpies started to conform until the gang slowly faded away.
::: Blackburn South Sharps on Wikipedia :
The Blackburn South Sharps were the most prominent of the 1972-1977 Melbourne ‘sharpie’ gangs. The Sharpies were unique [?] to Melbourne and are an important element of Melbourne’s history in that their clothes were not a copy of US or UK fashion and they listened to Melbourne rock bands. Sharpies were an early precursor to the Australian phenomenon of bogans.
[On ‘bogans’, see also Michelle Griffin, ‘Bogansville: meet the new in-crowd’, The Age, July 16, 2002. NB. The lexicographers at the ANU claim that the earliest trace they can find for the term is 1985, but I can recall its use in 1983.]
Nice Facebook pic @ndy.
Does anyone from the original Melbourne Sharps remember Fred Rose the one person i knew who was feared by most of the hard nuts around Melbourne.
Hello Ralphy Mouth here hi to all you guys, we all had lots of fun and memories of the Seventies to mention a few as follows… Mutual Bowls and Big Als, The Fun Factory down stairs Bourke Street. Every Saturday Collingwood football games then follow Rose Tattoo… Isabellas… Parties every weekend, St Moritz, Iceland and 21 Flavors… Just to mention a few we all had fun still think of the good times we had, we were all good mates and friends for ever i hope some of you remember me coz i remember you guys and all the tuff and hard times we shared, i hope to see you guys again the girls and mates we were all One Big Family…
Hope to see you all again soon Ralphy…
Magilla Mimmo Smee Ray Richard Sam Stef Dave Wayne Don Joe Micky Sparra Frank Alby Barry Kelvin Anthony Peter Jacko so many more… Sue Anne Bronwyn Penny Deb Danniel
Hope to see you all again… Ralphy
Hi Ralphy long time no speak, some of the old gang have put together a facebook page, search for Sharps and you will find them.
Mim how are you guys? im keen to see you all. im not much of a computer person will have a look, i knew we would one day catch up again gotta see Carps havent spoken for years plenty to talk about, talk soon Ralphy
HI GUYS I AND MY 5 BROTHERS AND SISTER LIVED OPPOSITE RICKY AND LARRY JENKINS FROM THE BLACKIE SOUTH SHARPIES MY DAD HATED IT THEY WERE ALWAYS IN TROUBLE AND BEING LOUD. FOR ME IT WAS GREAT LOTS TO SEE I WAS ALSO IN THE SAME CLASS AS LARRY AT SCHOOL I HAD A HORSE IN THE PADDOCK OPPOSITE AND HUNG AROUND WITH BRONWYN ABBOTT (NOW DEC) WE TWO WERE SHARPIE CHICKS FOR A WHILE HOW FUNNY WE SHOULD HAVE A REUNION AND A LAUGH. WHAT MEMORIES THIS HAS RISEN FOR ME THANKS.
Hey Ralph
Great to hear from you. Check out the “Sharpies, Sharps & Skins a 1960-1970’s Melbourne Sub-Culture” Facebook group.
A photo of you and Don has just been posted. We are meeting up over the “Skins ‘n’ Sharps” exhibition opening weekend in July so hope to see you and Mim then.
Stef
Hey there Ralphy, it’s Don here mate, give me a call on 0419 002 455 real soon OK. Cheers, Don.
Hey Ralph, we are here. A lot of us caught up last year & are great friends again, contact us, would luv to see you for the exhibition in July. I’m on facebook – debbie woolgar & pete & danielle, don, woodsy etc
🙂
Sunday 11th July Julie Mac book signing 1pm to 3pm
Sunday 18th July City Sharps playing live 3pm to 5pm
Sunday 25th July Little Freddie and the Pops (Fred Negro) playing live 3pm to 5pm
Gallery and exhibition info
Opening Sunday 4th July to 25th July
At Kustom Lane Gallery, 8 Luton Lane, Hawthorn
Open daily from 12 noon to 6pm free admission
will be there july 4th guys, call u soon don
Long time since I have checked on this site to see how we are all adapting to the ‘winter of Melbourne’ & indeed, the ‘winter of our lives’. Not happy with some of the childish antics of threats towards one another, but families do fight, & we are one big family, If you wish to fight, insult, or abuse others, kindly do it elsewhere, in the ring would be good, I & I am certain other family members would watch intently, Wendy & Julie Mac could take it in turns ‘strolling’ around the ring with the numbered cards for the round… Julie Mac, do we know each other? I think I can remember you quite well, & Wendy, if you are who I think you are, I know you VERY well, in fact, tell your husband/partner, that I still love you, & if you are single & available, & interested in recapturing our past exploits together, I can get a divorce… & perhaps Noel & Chris O’H could take turns in refereeing, the fight I mean, not the divorce. Some good reading before, I don’t recall leather sandals as being desired footwear of my time, I used to wear Treads, as well as Acropolis & Batsanis’, now it’s mainly orthopaedic footwear. Mick & @ndy & all the rest of the ‘familia’, I await with baited breath & pangs of nostalgia to rekindle lost souls & reminisce our bygone era, in the immortal words of some septic tank, July 4th is independence day, I reclaim this day as our iconic sharpie family day, take good care everyone & see you there, or be square, love & kisses to some of you… Brother Bobby. x.
Hey Brother Bobby,
No need for a referee, just like the late 60’s fight to the finish or run like hell, not ashamed to say I did both.
Cheers folks
Brother Noel
Bobby, I love reading your posts! Had a bit of a giggle imagining ‘strolling’ the ring.
Not sure if our paths crossed, I was around Iceland Ringwood 76-78 and the city 77-79. We can work it out on the family day.
xx
The Sharpie Generation Gap
When I was 15 in 1977, many of you guys were already in your mid 20s. Most teenagers are unable to notice anyone above the age of 21 and I imagine it’s vice-versa.
The music you love when you are in puberty becomes stamped on your soul. While the original Sharps grew up listening to the hard sounds of Lobby and other Sunbury legends, the sounds of Rose Tattoo, The Angels and La Femme are the ones that make my heart skip a beat in teenage passion.
Below are a couple of passages from RAGE
“The front of the stage was jammed packed with Sharpies. I have never seen so many in one place, especially the old Sharpies with that hard look about them.”
“The old Melbourne Sharps and Gunnies are tough and well respected. You do not mess with them or any other Old boys or girls from the suburbs – unless you want trouble.”
We know our place in the Sharpie Hierarchy
I expect the original Sharps to think RAGE is a piece of crap. You are supposed to. It’s not one of ‘Chopper’s’ books or ‘Underbelly’. To you it will seem like a 1970s copy of Dolly magazine.
‘How to make a boy notice you’
‘Should I go all the way?’
‘Win a grouse Bluebird of Happiness necklace and earring set’
‘See the new Staggers range of demin jeans and jackets’
With that in mind, I have added guns, cars, tattoos and girls having scrag fights in school uniform for the original male Sharpies’ reading pleasure. I think the girls will ‘get it’, teenage girls are universal with their growing pains.
At this time in two weeks, I will be bursting with excitement at getting the chance to re-live the days with my Sharpie Family.
Hey there Brothers & Sisters, thanks for the feed back, fight like hell, or turn & run? Noel, I’m still runnin’ & Julie Mac, I attempted to reintroduce myself to the fray to some of you young’uns when I left her majesty’s Blue stone College back in ’76, I ended up being ‘worshipped’ as an original Melbourne Sharpie ’71-’74 (2nd or 3rd generation methinks) by a lovely bunch of kiddies from Camberwell for a couple of weekends, but they got bored of an old bloke hangin’ around, I was also on parole & I had to find employment, discovered Pink Floyd & Marihuana, tattoos, The Doors, Yes & Bourbon, acid, motorcycles, cars, girlfriends, wives, children, more work, more tattoos, more wives, more kids, more work, more tattoos, then you die. pretty gloomy huh? see you soon. Bobby Sandford. xxx (Wendy, where are you when I need a hug?)
well said jul’s can’t wait to catch up with u and everyone in our sharpie family
Hi long lost Family. So good of you Guy’s to keep this going, it certainly was a Special time with a Special group of people. If no one else cared about us, we did about each other & F— the rest. My husband still think’s the only thing I got from those year’s was the U Can Go F— Yourself attitude towards other’s, which l still can’t see anything wrong with, but I think I might have got a bit more. Hey Bobby S have a look at the Skin’s & Sharp’s facebook page. Picture of Wendy & Chris – he was also in that car accident. l think l remember meeting up with u at a Pub one night & u were on a walking stick?????? Was that u?????? Like yourself I ended up looking at Bluestone walls, just the girlie version. A few tatt’s – a few removed. A few husband’s never seemed to find one with that great sharpie attitude. See U Guy’s in July 🙂
I used to be a Doveton Sharpie…we had over 150 in our gang, everywhere we went, others shook, because we used to be the most feared gang in Melbourne… Just read the newspapers of the day “The Herald” and “The Sun”…after few deaths in Dandenong area…cops used to lock up any Doveton Sharps and Skinheads… Most of the members are either dead or in jail today…The Doveton Sharpies… Be scared real scared.
Hey Larry i think you sth Blackie boys might have forgotten nth Blackburn sharps together with Box Hill.
The Sharpies were called that because they tried to dress ‘sharp’… The sharpie gangs originated in the early 70s not the 60s in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. By 73 they went feral (a cross between skinheads, punks and dickheads).
They used to han[g] around Collingwood during the 60s where they got all their ideas from, but weren’t ‘classy’ enough to dress like the gang they copied called ‘The Collingwood Boys’ (from Collingwood/Fitzroy/Richmond), who were mostly the sons and daughters of migrant workers and crims (painters and dockers). They were a real bad little bunch, who dressed like movie stars and carried guns. This gang even invented its own dances: the Collingwood Swing Step and the Break. Their hair style was called the ‘CCC’ the Collingwood College Cut (short back and sides).
90% of the Collingwood Boys were career criminals by the age of 17 and hated drug dealers and hoons (people who lived off the earnings of prostitutes) with a vengeance. They had a saying that these scumbags were ‘too lazy to work and too weak to steal…’
Compared to the Collingwood Boys the Sharpies were a joke. Just a bunch of drunken yobbos with an attitude.
Al
Hi all,
Couldn’t make the exhibition as i live interstate. But to mark the day i pulled out the pair of button up Lee’s i got from Sam Bears in Russell st in 1978. Actually fitted into them but hey they have shrunk. Doveton Sharp i knew the Dolman family, Marie was a sister i think. How come if they are all either in jail or dead that you have survived???
Hi Alex, the Collingwood info is great!
The earliest reference I have found to a sharpie is here (in the last paragraph)
http://www.theage.com.au/news/michael-leunig/clothes-breaketh-the-man/2006/09/01/1156817043257.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
I would love to talk to Leunig to find out more.
Mim lets get together please, be there on the 18th july 1pm, Ralphy
hi people ; chris couldnt make it this time , will catch up with u when in vic bro. this collingwood thing the best team in the A F L my team . but mate hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha u talk shit thats all im going 2 say
Hey Ralphy better late than never was good to see you.
skins n sharps next sunday, show your colours! show your style! show your face? I’ve been down/up to the gallery several times since opening night & have met many old friends & comrades, and I may be imagining things, but weren’t there more of us? I even spoke at length to the sharpies that don’t exist, you know the ones from the 60’s, that didn’t start in the outer suburbs, all 5 of them approaching their 60’s, heard some great tales of that era. last chance to come along & catch up for a while I’m told, leave your negativity & bad attitude at the door & charm us with your wit & stories, & buy Julie Macs book! (help her write another one with your stories in it!) let’s start with Miss Wendy…
hay bobby.great stuff,2 the bros in the woodwork we know ur out there,i think next time this gos on,flyers in every state and i 4 one would be glad 2 dump 3 or 4 thousand flyers around W.A.be good
Good to see you too Mim after all these years catch up soon with Maggilla? Let him know please cheers mate all the best.
Ralph
hi all there is a new book out on the thomastown sharps. has any one seen it out, and where, i am one of the last of not many left of that crew.
thanks
jim
Hi Jim, the book Top Fellas about the Sharpie sub-culture with the Thomastown Sharps pictured on the cover has been re-released. It is available from
http://www.bookshop.unimelb.edu.au/cbc/p?9780980759488
There is another book in the pipeline about the Thomastown Sharps that is close to being finished. I can’t wait to read it.
Bobby, I will pick up my list of contacts shortly and start making calls to start the next book. And yes, I would love to start with Miss Wendy and see the sparks fly.
Achoo.
Love Julie Mac
For more info on Blackburn Sharps – see Suburban Warriors:
…bigger doc being made as we speak.
I don’t think they were in any way the most notorious gang, more like a small group of mates in the suburbs who liked to hang around the milk bar and the train station and look tough – whether they were tough or had any reason to be particularly nasty to people – is doubtful – i think it was more about trying to entice girls!!!???
rob and mick not sure who u are but i know george sharpy very well etc
thanks julie i picked up a copy of that brings back old times funny to see john and micuss on the cover was looking through some of my old photos of my 21st with some of the old crew who were there shame there is not many left of us any more thanks again
Jim, I caught up with your guys at the Skinsnsharps Exhibition last month. It was nice to have a chance to make friends and forget about the old rival gang stuff.
This is great, I only ever heard of sharpies from my old dad, I was born 82 so yeah. He’s Serb but back then it was all Yugoslavs together apparently. He was in Footscray but I dunno who he ran with or where, but I always loved hearing the stories, so I appreciate this page and all the people on it. Even the arguing is good haha, thanks all.
Thank’s one & all involved with the Skinsnsharps Expo held in July. You gave us all a great opportunity to catch up re-live & re-hash our stories. Hopefully word will get out & a few more will join us next time. Great work done by Julie Mac on her book showing that this was a special era in our lives. We are the smarter ones of the bunch that survived Jail & Death. Thank’s one and all. Special thank’s to my friend Bobby. (sparks)
Noel, my dad owned the Faleron Cafe from its opening in 1956 and I worked there throughout the 60’s and 70’s as a school kid serving all the workers from the Post Office, Myers and the sharpies who used to come in. Great to be reminded about those big bags of chips and know that you appreciated them. Thank you for the memories.
Hi Mary,
I can taste those chips still today about 43 years on and such a big bag, a drop of vinegar and summer, autumn, winter or spring best ever taste in town.
Is your dad still surviving? Thank YOU, for responding and bringing back such wonderful memories Mary.
Take care,
Noel.
Hi Noel,
No, sadly, my dad’s passed on. Went into the Cafe a young man, worked 90hrs a week for more than 25 years and came out an old man. Come to think of it, it was hard for me too, spending every weekend / school holidays there, but I got to meet great people from all over – we seemed to be the only place open in the city for a feed on a Sunday night so we got the lot. The PO telegram delivery boys on their red bikes and the sharpies were my favourites. Dad used to give them more chips because he said they were too skinny and looked like they could use a feed.
Despite the gang reputations, we never had any trouble whatsoever with the sharpies. The only trouble makers were the cops. The city in those days had illegal gambling places which cops would pretend to raid from time to time. Then they’d come to our place expecting hamburgers with the lot (4 shillings) for free. Buggered if I was going to let that happen. Having a 10 year old wait until they put the exact money on the counter must have pissed them off big time. They’d pretend to dig into that tiny front pocket in their trousers looking for that last penny waiting for me to say ‘oh, it’s OK, that’s enough money’ and then just plonk the notes down when they’d realised it wasn’t going to happen. Bloody cops.
Sorry to hijack your site to reminisce, back to regular transmission!
Thanks for taking the time to respond Noel,
Mary.
Lovely to hear back from you Mary and you have every right to contribute, and thank you for doing so, you were and you experienced part of the wonderful Sharpie culture.
For me, they were great times, the friendships formed over those years and the feeling of belonging after a very crap childhood, will stay with me forever.
Take care and long live the memories, including the Faleron Cafe ones.
Cheers,
Noel.
mim get in touch u with magilla. ralphy
hi people; Noel with u on this one, MARY NOT MANY PEOPLE CAN DO THIS ELVIS CAN M.M CAN BUT U MARY A TEAR ROLLED. THANKS 4 TAKING ME BACK 2 A Time in my life hold ur head hi. shshshsharps
In relation to the late night food outlet as mentioned by Mary. Does anyone remember Hippo’s Hamburgers on the highway in Springvale North? Was the scene of many a standoff and testosterone display by local sharps / skins and the long hairs from Dandenong. Most of whom were pillow biters anyway.
Probably met up with a few of you reprobates when as 15 or 16 year olds we would get a few bottles of whatever and sit in the park near Festival Hall to warm up for whatever concert was playing there. The common link of clothing always brought us together as did the jeers from those not wearing the same garb and more distinctly extra and unkempt hair on their heads.
Hey Alex the Collingwood boys were a bunch of pussseys & i know your full of shit.
Never joined a gang, was more into sport but get a great joy hearing the stories of your lives and the bond you’ve all formed. Good health to all
Have you seen what they have done to Wollies. The place where I first smoked pot is now a escalator! There is a joke here about getting high which I can’t frame.
Hey Bob,
Thanks for tuning in, you are always welcome, you were the clever one!
hi crew, iv had sum bad news my dad passed away on monday and i will be in melbourne sunday till tuesday, Chris O h, like 2 catch up with u, its important that we meet bro, hope 2 talk 2 u soon u got my number.
Sorry to hear about your dad Johnpaul.