Sharpie Culture
Sharpies would often congregate in large numbers, regularly attending live bands at town hall and high school dances and early discos; due to their sheer numbers, they were often perceived as being untouchable by the police. Sharpies were sometimes associated with excessive violence, regularly taking part in fights .
Their dress and dance styles were strongly influenced by the British ska, mod, and skinhead subcultures, and many of the early sharpies were in fact British immigrants, recently arrived as Ten Pound Poms. Common clothing items included Lee or Levi jeans, cardigans, jumpers, and T-shirts—often individually designed by group members—with which they would try to outdo other sharpies by creating the best patterns, colours, and detail.
Mods were an enemy of sharpies, and their gang brawls were reported in the newspapers during 1966. In a 2002 interview, a former sharpie stated that despite the sharpie culture being quite violent — especially as they crossed other gangs' territories on the public transport network — the altercations were restricted to inter-gang rivalries.
The sharpies' subculture faded out partly due to mistrust and violence between different gangs, as well as due changes in society. With the rise of the Saturday Night Fever disco culture, the sharpies had to adapt their ways to fit in with the new social norms of the youth of the time. Apart from disco, some drifted into the live punk/new wave scene which sprouted from the UK and arrived in Melbourne from around 1978 onwards. La Femme, a band consisting of former Sharps attracted many ex-sharpies in its following with this new genre of music and fashion of the time.
Read more about this topic: Sharpies (Australian Subculture)
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