miscellaneous

Engagingly told story of the violence as a pastime escapades of the Welsh soccer team Cardiff City's Soul Crew. There is a self-deprecating honesty to the book, since Tony and his hooligan mates don't win all their confrontations, and admit to being intimidated by opponents on several occasions. The designer label name dropping exemplifies the sartorial obsessions of the hooligan Casual scene, which appear to be as important as kicking the daylights out of some "up for it" blokes from another firm. The peculiar phenomenon of organized gangs of men (many into their 40s) attacking each other as a sport, in the name of a sport will strike many as repugnant and nihilistic. The sociologists and assorted boffins who attempt to mitigate this behavior by apportioning blame to 'lack of opportunities' and other throwaway vacuous slogans miss the point. Gangs like the Soul Crew exist purely because their members find acts of mass violence thrilling and cathartic. Tony Rivers & David Jones eloquently make this clear.