In 1982, in Swindon, a small gang of kids were greasing their hair, stitching up their leathers, and living for Friday night. The town’s rockabilly and psychobilly scene was loud, messy, and impossible to ignore — a clash of Teddy Boy revival, punk energy, and outsider spirit.
These were kids who worshipped Gene Vincent, The Meteors and The Cramps, drank cheap cider in car parks, and turned every pub back room into their own dance floor.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Garry Stuart: “I started documenting the rockabilly scene in Swindon when I took my camera to a gig at a run-down pub called The Greyhound. The band that night was The Polecats from North London — they’d just had a hit with their cover of Bowie’s John, I’m Only Dancing. The place was packed, with rockabilly fans crammed into a shabby back room.”
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
“It was my first taste of live, frenzied rockabilly dancing and moshing, and the energy was incredible. I shot an entire roll of Tri-X — 36 frames of the band and their fans. My favourite shot from that night came afterwards: the bass player leaning out of a 1960s Vauxhall Cresta, cigarette in hand, hair slicked back like James Dean. That one photo just summed up the whole scene for me.”
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
The Swindon rockabilly kids used to hang out at a 1950s-style milk bar called The Tartan Café on Curtis Street every Saturday morning through to the afternoon. I brought a stack of 7×5 black-and-white prints from The Polecats’ gig to show them, and to my surprise they insisted on buying them at 50p each. I also started photographing them in and around the café, then bringing the prints back the next week to show and sell. The Tartan Café became a magnet — you’d walk in and immediately know you were part of something.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
"The Wrecking Crew' came from all over the South of England and attended all their gigs. Their speciality was to form a violent moshing pit of stripped-to-the-waist psychobillys who hammered the hell out of each other"
The next gig I photographed is now legendary in the scene. It was billed as Ivan’s 21st Birthday Party at Swindon’s British Rail Staff Association Club. The headline band was the infamous Meteors, who pioneered the psychobilly genre — a fusion of rockabilly, punk and horror-inspired themes. This should have been a warning to me. The Meteors had a reputation not just for their wild shows but also for the equally notorious following they attracted — a hardcore of fans known as The Wrecking Crew.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
The Wrecking Crew came from all over the South of England. Their speciality was “wrecking,” an early, more brutal form of moshing where stripped-to-the-waist psychobillys hammered the hell out of each other. The atmosphere was chaotic and photographing in that environment was challenging, but I acquired a voluntary bodyguard — a tall, mohawk-haired psychobilly who made it his mission to batter anyone who came near me and my camera.
Not long after, I went on to shoot portraits of the local goth community and then decided to focus on my passion for motorcycle-racing photography for biker magazines. But those photographs of Swindon’s rockabilly and psychobilly scene in 1982 remain a record of the energy, the style and the community that defined those nights.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photo © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved.
Photography and words by Garry Stuart.
All images © Garry Stuart, all rights reserved. No usage or reproduction of any kind without prior permission of the copyright holder.
