The Return of Mascot Leathers

[Sloan1874]

I think that would be to do with Ken and co moving back to Scotland from London at the start of the 80s. He had a factory behind a fish shop in Moffat, in the Borders, and started making jackets that went out to Flip in Glasgow, I think it was Legends in Edinburgh, and a shop down in London - and it was during this period that he developed the Highwayman.

 

[Edward]

http://www.mascotleathers.com/#!jackets/c2404

Here's a development.... when I looked at the site again this morning, the three jacket models (plus a couple of t-shirts, which carry reproductions of products other than the jackets on offer.... I suppose this might be to do with reproduction rights, but it's a shame they're notg adds forf the jackets in their range...). WE've obviously caught them at a very early stage of developing the site.

 

[nick123]

I wonder what animal of leather they're using. I assume it's cow?

 

[Otter]

I remember Flip ! They always had a rack of G1 USN issue jackets and a pile of ex US Army gear downstairs. I bought an M65 there that was my beater for years.

 

[Edward]

I wonder what animal of leather they're using. I assume it's cow?

Cow or steer would be the default norm here for a man's jacket of this nature, lamb for fashion jackets (especially for women).

 

[Sloan1874]

I remember Flip ! They always had a rack of G1 USN issue jackets and a pile of ex US Army gear downstairs. I bought an M65 there that was my beater for years.

The Glasgow one shut in the late-90s, made me a little sad, though it came nowhere near the supermarket space that it had in Edinburgh. It closed the latter, but there's still a shop in Old Infirmary Lane, just around the corner from its original shop on Nicholson Street. The film festival is coming up later this month, so I may go and have a trawl through it, see if there's anything there. They used to have racks and racks of old, knackered 501s, we used to spend hours trying to find wearable ones.

 

[Plumbline]

But on another tangent completely would anyone care to comment on the emergence of the Aero Highwayman as the jacket of choice for musicians & fashionable types in Glasgow in the 1980's. Around '85 I was buying Converse, tshirts, levis & plaid shirts from Flip in Queen St, being 16 I wasn't really old enough to be considering leather jackets ( though I did eventually get hold of a leather biker jacket like the ones discussed above). I guess the Glasgow crowd were travelling through to the Aero shop in Edinburgh - matching them with levis, a quiff and Wayfarers. Funny how fashion comes full cycle.

Not sure it really was .... the "perfecto style" bike jacket was all I really saw playing in bands in the 80's ( I had 2 .. a "Kett" and bought from the Army Navy Stores in the Gallowgate for about £40 and I covered front lapels in pin on badges ( you had to be there .. and had to be playing a BRAND NEW white '83 Jap Squier Strat (£150 and almost broke me) .. wish I'd never sold that to Jimmy Moon !!! ) or my Mascot ( which I replaced with a Fieldsheer P-27 copy when the Mascot disintegrated in about '88 ) which I bought in P&M Boutiques ( Paddys Market) ..... "The Highwayman" was more of a "best kept secret" and there weren't that many around TBH. I guess they were expensive compared to the alternatives e.g. a really good 2nd hand leather bike jacket was around £30 and my baseball jacket was £20 from Flip ( A Highwayman would have been expensive @ £150 - £180 maybe more ! ) I must have hung around outside Virgin Megastore, 23rd Precinct, McCormacks, Listen and Sound Control every Saturday for 5 years of my life (83-88) and don't recall one Highwayman.

I had a pal who was always into really hip stuff and he brought "The Highwayman" ( it should be noted it wasn't "called" a Highwayman as I recall I think he called it an "Aero" but it was the Highwayman style and made by Aero) to my attention in the late 80's I think ( could have been early 90's) a tartan lined steerhide one with a leather inside label .. when I was in LONDON .. and man I lusted after one ! Equally there were a couple of leather jacket manufacturers in Glasgow ( one in Renfield St. which was really good) who would custom make jackets and I knew a large number of people who had jackets made there ( including me .. a B-3 copy jacket - not a very good one but the best they could do as repro's weren't really the done thing then and I hadn't found Eastman yet ) .

I never really saw them in the 80's ( and played around 20 or 30 gigs in various low level student pubs in and around Glasgow in the early 80's Doolittle Inn, Rock Garden, Solid Rock, Trading Post and attended 100's more ) The first Americana Leather I bought was from Flip ( when they were in (maybe) Wilson St and weren't called "Flip" they were called "Hollywood" or something )... a cream sleeved navy blue college baseball jacket from the 60's. Most people in my circle had no knowledge of "The Highwayman" ( which was more rock than indie) but I did get involved in bands like "Preachers Daughter" from the Borders in the early 90's and even they had no knowledge of "The Highwayman" even though they were from Langholm, Moffat and Gala.

Maybe it was an Edinburgh thing .... I only played Edinburgh once .... a place called Café Gold ( or something like that) ... I recall one of the patrons getting rather excited and screaming "You're ****e ... you wee dwarf c$nt" at me 2 inches from my face all spit and sweat spray ( this was a compliment ) ... my how we all laughed Never did like Auld Reekie that much ... all tartan, tourists and salt n'sauce !

Perhaps it was more of an early 90's thing, or maybe it wasn't a "rock" thing ..... they certainly started to get more obvious around the early 90's.

 

[breezer]

Thanks for sharing your memories Plumbline - but I thought all those Glasgow bands - Llloyd Cole, Hipsway, Love & Money etc were all rocking the Flip / 50's retro look - and the Aero jacket was part of that, no? So maybe it was the jacket you bought when the fat advance came from the record company?

 

[Plumbline]

Thanks for sharing your memories Plumbline - but I thought all those Glasgow bands - Llloyd Cole, Hipsway, Love & Money etc were all rocking the Flip / 50's retro look - and the Aero jacket was part of that, no? So maybe it was the jacket you bought when the fat advance came from the record company?

Ha Ha ..... fat advance .... could be .... never made any real money making music and made more cash as a student doing mobile discos than playing in bands ( £100 between 5 isn't life changing TBH )

Regards Hipsway etc. and a 1950's vibe .... Indeed they were ( sort of) but it was more of an "Indy" thing and "Black Leather Uniform" ... my recollection is more of slim fitting perfecto style bike jackets than "The Highwayman" though when I eventually ound it .. it was the coolest jacket . I remember a guy from Hipsway having a Highwayman like jacket ( I think it might have been a Schott) on the cover of one of their albums .. might have been "Ask The Lord" ... Graham Skinner rocked an amazing bike jacket because I saw him in it several times ( there was a little café round the corner from the Mitchell Library that a lot of the Glasgow music scene used to frequent .. all "acoustic guitars bollocks" in the words of someone .... we played a couple of afternoon gigs there 83-87 which were a bit BoHo. Great memories though )

 

[cloudylemonade]

Thanks for sharing your memories Plumbline - but I thought all those Glasgow bands - Llloyd Cole, Hipsway, Love & Money etc were all rocking the Flip / 50's retro look - and the Aero jacket was part of that, no? So maybe it was the jacket you bought when the fat advance came from the record company?

I'm reliably informed (it's before I can remember for myself) that these bands all did wear the Highwayman around that time, aside from Lloyd Cold, Hispway and Love & Money (see photo) it was also worn by the Jesus & Mary Chain, Deacon Blue, The Rezillos, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and, erm... Wet Wet Wet. Probably a whole load more we're unaware of too!

 

[Plumbline]

I'm reliably informed (it's before I can remember for myself) that these bands all did wear the Highwayman around that time, aside from Lloyd Cold, Hispway and Love & Money (see photo) it was also worn by the Jesus & Mary Chain, Deacon Blue, The Rezillos, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and, erm... Wet Wet Wet. Probably a whole load more we're unaware of too!

View attachment 30486

Great info Holly .. I know Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera had one .. but I thought he got his in the 90's.

I guess it was the sign of getting signed and having a few extra pounds in the pocket

 

[breezer]

Graham Skinner rocked an amazing bike jacket

He lives just down the road from me so next time I see him I'll ask him all about what jackets he wore…….we'll get to the bottom of this!

 

[Plumbline]

Graham Skinner rocked an amazing bike jacket

He lives just down the road from me so next time I see him I'll ask him all about what jackets he wore…….we'll get to the bottom of this!

If he has, that might be worth a few quid ... and ask him if he's still got the bike jacket .. it's was awesome

I don't doubt there were numerous who wore "The Highwayman" ... it is a cool as feck jacket .. and you can find the odd pic if you search. BUT, I'd suggest that the the perfecto style bike jacket or Jean jacket was much more of a uniform of the music scene in the 80's rather than "The Highwayman" ... especially in and around Glasgow. In any case the Deacon Blues, Hipsway's, Love and Money's and Wet Wet Wet's of the world were way above my pay grade .... we were playing 2 1/2 hours in pubs for £100 and reached the dizzy heights of playing "The Kelvingrove Rock Festival" and had people throw full bottles of cider at us ( except it wasn't cider)

Just MHO and not detracting at all from the heritage of "The Highwayman" just didn't see that many around. As I said, the Highwayman was like a "best kept secret".

 

[Edward]

Bollocks. Typed a long reply and the damn ting disappeared into the ether.

Anyhow, the gist....

The pvnk music scene is alive and well. Didn't trouble the mainstream for long (or anywhere near as much as seems the case in retrospect), but much like the rocker thing, rockabillies, and so on, it's still around. It's easier to keep an underground scene going in the web era. A lot of the bands are still on the go and tour regularly. The fans have mostly diversified their look. It's hard to find decent bondage trousers once you're over a size 34" waist.... (still, an old pvnk looks better than a balding mod, by a long chalk!). Most have diversified into rockabilly (sometimes via psychobilly), or others have followed Dave Vanian's lead and embraced a string thirties look. Always was a big crossover with the ted look and pvnk, whether the teds liked it or not...

 

[Edward]

Oh... photos now up on the Mascot page show the Black Rock has a straight yoke, so the batwing is unique to the Black Night. Not sure if that was always the case as they do say that the Black Rock being repro'ed is 'circa 1960', so it may have varied over time.

 

[Otter]

I am surprised the filter allows bollocks !

 

[Sloan1874]

I think it's a very specific Brit/Australian thing. I remember an interview in which Radiohead's lead guitarist said that having discovered the word's meaning hadn't really registered over the pond, he committed to using it in every radio interview that he could no matter the time of day.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Never heard that word used here in the states.

 

[galopede]

Never heard that word used here in the states.

It's the dogs!

 

[Edward]

It's a great word. And perfectly legal, to.... as plod found out to their cost when they tried to prosecute Virgin Records in 77.