- Blackburn South Sharps
The West side, Southside, northside and the Melbourne Sharps were the most prominent of the 1972-1977
Melbourne 'Sharpie' gangs. The Sharpies were unique to Melbourne and are an important element of Melbourne's history in that their clothes were not a copy of US or UK fashion and they listened to Melbourne rock bands.Fashion
The Sharpies wore custom-made leather shoes with a chisel toe and a cuban heel and a custom-made cardigan. Both of these items were made in central Melbourne by immigrant Italian shop workers. They also wore black socks with short Levi jeans. Member Peter Robinson later curated an exhibition of Sharpie fashion as part of the 2002
Melbourne Fashion Festival ( http://www.gertrude.org.au/exhibition.php?id=43)Music
The Sharpies tended to enjoy bands such as the
Coloured Balls andAC/DC .Movies
The Sharpies were influenced by
Clint Eastwood ()movies,Paul Hogan andLobby Loyde .Activities
The Sharpies would defend their local territory from other sharpie gangs. Fights would be held between neighbouring gangs over any issue affecting the two gangs. They usually involved Otis, after a dispute resulting from the underaged purchasing of liquor or the ridiculous levels of intoxication he was regularly found in.Sharpies were very much a social thing,where the main gangs, Westside,Southside,Northside would meet up with the smaller groups, Prahran sharps and Melbourne Sharps usually at Flinders st station in the mid seventies.It wasn't unusual for there to be hundreds of Sharpies milling around waiting for action!Often the events visited were dances and early discos and because of sheer weight of numbers were almost untouchable by the police.This led to excessive violence on behalf of the Sharpies who would basically fight who they wanted,take beer and money from who they wanted.Sharpies basically killed themselves off, due to mistrust between gangs and excesive violence!
ee also
*
Blackburn South External links
* [http://www.blackburnsouthsharps.com Blackburn Sth Sharps website] - contains history, interviews, and photographs.
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