Club explores youth tribes

Our speaker was Joe Banks, with a talk entitled From Teds to Goths: The Evolution of UK Subcultures, looking at the history of youth subcultures from the invention of the teenager in the 1950s through Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Skinheads, Punks and Goths. He explored how each tribe reflected the social and political imperatives of its members—whether it was to display affluence or rebel against the establishment, for example—interacting with music and fashion. Much of this happened before Joe was old enough to be aware of it himself, and the talk was cowritten by his father, Gordon, who took part in its delivery, changing slides and playing musical clips associated with each subculture. With each song, the audience was invited to identify the track, the performer and the genre: the first to get it right was tossed a reward from a bag of sweets. Many thanks to Joe and Mr Banks Senior for an enjoyable and, in some cases, nostalgic discussion. Joe had invited the audience to come dressed in the youth styles of their past but, aside from Andrew Harrison's rocker, most people were evidently more comfortable in their current Chappist colours.

You can see a video of the whole talk at youtu.be/3x5bhLNWIZ8 and you can see more still photos from the evening at www.flickr.com/photos/sheridanclub/albums/72177720321777930.