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I was only about 12-14 and remember it always kicking off down there with hundreds of Mods/skinheads? I'm not sure I was to young but I seem to recall it was always Pre planned event for a ruck. Was it Barry Island or Porthcawl? Im sure this happened?
Are you sure your mind's not playing tricks on you.
I think you're about 20 years out!!
I think every teenager / youth from Barry worked on the Island at some time in their life.
I did Butlins, the Fairground (the Log Flume) and various arcades.
I really don’t recall skins/mods battling away on the island, but it was always pretty lively in the evenings…. The Friars, the Pelican, the Bier Keller
…… but I do remember the London Road Rats MC turning up one Bank Holiday and mayhem breaking out that night.
Ok, anyone put a name to this bar on the Island?
...... as you exited the train station, it was on your right, you didn't need to cross any road, perhaps just 60 metres or so from the station entrance.
Small bar, with a pool table I recall. I only went in there the one time, but often wondered about its opening hours - was it only open during the summer period and what kind of trade did it do?
I couldn't imagine it being open in the winter, of course I might be wrong on that.
Not sure how long ago you're talking about, but It's Finnegan's Inn now. It was The Acropolis for as long as I can remember. It was a bar/nightclub and they also had the chippy next door (but they knocked through to extend the bar after changing owners). They opened the Quasar upstairs in the 90s too.
It's open throughout the year now (as it was back in the day) as a restaurant/bar.
Bank holiday was always lively early 80s in Barry Island.
I used to see hundreds of skinheads there every bank holiday along with gangs of punks i never saw many mods.
I remember a load of bikers turning up at a pub near the seafront and it kicking off i think some of the bikers got stabbed or beaten up as i remember a few ambulance and lot's of police turning up.
As for Porthcawl my family always stayed on trecco during the miners fortnight early 80s. It was popular to gang up with other young skins, punks and trendies as we called them and fight the fair boys who were a tougher older bunch than us.
I also remember joining up with Merthyr , Rhondda and Aberdare boys and fighting a biggish gang of Newport boys outside jolly jesters in Trecco..
I did one summer as an 18 year old at Porthcawl. Hard work for rubbish money as mostly clearing up the rubbish and looking for parents whose kids had wandered off. They were normally in the bar! No idea about the original query although I do remember the Echo used to run scare stories about bank holiday bedlam in the late 70’s but aside from one incident I think the only issue was rubbish weather.
I remember going down the Island with my mates probably 1985 on a bank holiday.
We could get a 353 bus from the top of Ely.
We were all dressed as trendies pringle fila etc when we got off the bus we were accosted by a group of skinheads who were a bit older than us they talked to us and said we were OK it was the Mods they were after.
We walked over to the front and there was a good 50 or 60 scooters parked up. There was also a certain message board owner with about 30 of Cardiffs finest with him.
It all went off the mods did a runner leaving their scooters they ran around the headland to the bay by the causeway.
The fun over they turned their attention to a man with his Mrs on the beach wearing a jack top.
I'm not the message board owners biggest fan but he intervened and stopped the bullying.
Me too, I’d say it continued until the mid 80’s. Mods were always young it seemed though, hanging out in littlewoods cafe average age must have been 16. I was about 13. Had run ins with skins too used to chase us around the place. All part of the fun going into town back then. It was like the warriors on a very small scale....
In the original Mods /Rockers era the Mods had motor scooters and wore Parkas and the Rockers rode motor bikes and wore leather jackets. I forgot about the later Mods who wore smart suits and cut their hair short but I can't imagine those guys wanting to fight as any kind of scuffle would put their hair out of place.