Peter Dormer - Undiluted Lies

Sadly Dormer died before completing his final work though it did find posthumous completion and publication. 'The Art of the Boot Boy', 'You're gonna get your fucking heads kicked in', now discredditted by many in some quaters the work was finished by Sebastian Fellows, a boot gentleman too and accolite of Dormer. The chapter on the oxe blood polishing of the Dr Martin boot, a craft Dormer took up to gain understanding of tacit knowledge or 'know how' . Indeed it is a sad fact that the seminal writings of Richard Allen, 'Skinhead', 'Skinhead Farewell', 'Boot Boys', published by New English Library are no longer in publication though his discourse on youth culture still rings strong in days where computer games have replaced true 'agro'.
Dormer, himself was fond of a 'row' or a 'swedge' as the art is known as north of the border. Fellows, though a youth, saw Dormer lead many a taking of the oppositions end and was an honourary member of Dormers 'firm' formed by himself and other academics to carry out hands on research in to the art of the hooligan. I remember well, sat safely in the stand with my father, seeing Dormer escorted by two policeemen, a Leeds scarf tied to his left wrist, down the side of the park after a solo assault on the Stretford End, a mortar board on his head, (later to become attire of the Pringle boys and casuals who followed his teachings). The gesture from his right hand was the two fingered, not as many later writers have claimed the American single finger. Dormers gesture dates back to Agincourt where captured archers were brutally defingered, the gesture of defiance still holds sway in these isles.
Pyes' 'The Nature and Art of Agro' spawned the 'Kick football out of hooliganism' campaign. To this day many academics keep this noble charrity afloat. This grew from the fact that rival villages would Swedge over a roughly woven leather ball in a kind of all in row. Football developed to sanitise this honourable tradition. Where Dormer disagrees with Pye lies largely in Pyes seperation of 'The Row of Certainty' and 'The Row of Risk'. His resaearch involved tools, going in tooled up with the element of surprise Pye was able to take a small firm to take the ends at Chelsea, Birmingham City and even trump the Inner City Firm of West Ham, thus proving his 'Risk' and 'Certainty' theories.
No one can deny that Dormer was a hard case and important academic though David Pye, Professor of Furniture for many years at the RCA is a true terrace legend.