Middle of last
year, Careless Navigator contacted me to call Tony Robinsons’ production team,
they were looking for 1960s sharpies that had knowledge of a fight outside the
Mad Hatter night club in Little Lonsdale street with the tow truck drivers from
Kernow Motors across the street. I left messages on skinsnsharps and on
Facebook but wasn’t able to find anyone, so I forgot about it.
Later on I
hear from Christo, one of the 1970 Camberwell boys, he had located two 1960s
sharpies that knew about the fight and he invited me and another mutual friend,
Cliffy to come along and observe the filming in November 2011. The production team had also found an
original sharp with the fabulous name of The Williamstown City Stomper.
Cliffy arrived
with armfuls of conny cardigans and before we knew it, we were both included in
the segment. Luckily I had dressed in sharpie style clothes, just in case. Not
authentic, just close enough for an old fat lady, I had a black t shirt, a
black A line skirt and my black treads (which Dad found in the back shed)
Peter Cliffy Julie Mac Tony Robinson The Willy Stomper Larry Christo
We filmed for
nearly three hours, and each section was filmed three times, first part was
Tony coming across us taking photos against the wall and we discussed the
sharpie subculture. Next part was talking about the nightclub, then we all did
the sharpie strut in pairs up the hill to the pub. At the pub, the boys started
sculling, which was hilarious and the in-famous ‘Williamstown City Stomper’
gave us a demonstration/lesson for the dance, the Sharpie Break. As I have two
left feet, (I can’t do the Nutbush or drive a manual car) I was kinda happy
that they didn’t show that part.
The episode
went to air early September, I didn’t really tell anyone, but of course, Bev
and Dad sniffed it out. Bev rings me and says ‘Are you going to be on telly? Rosco
at the pub told us his brother Larry is going to be on telly and that you are
on there with him’. Talk about six degrees of separation! Bev has always had
this uncanny knack of finding out what I am up to. Like the time she said to
me, ‘I know your boyfriend Tom is in jail’. She wouldn’t tell me how she knew,
I thought she was magic. But maybe it was common sense, why else would a young
man write and post letters. Plus in the 70s, stamps from any of the jails had
the letters VG (Victorian Government) perforated through them, so they stood
out like dogs balls.
After we
finished filming we had lunch with Tony and the crew, the boys had a ‘Beer sandwich, hold the bread’.
I didn’t watch
the episode the night it went to air and only a couple of people mentioned it. When I saw it the next day, I was happy the bits that I knew were going to make us look like dicks
(nearly all of it!) had been cut. Although I didn’t mind too much about looking
like a dick, it is worth it to have our sub-culture recognised and remembered.
