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The Inter City Firm (1985)

September 12th, 2007 · or link to (permalink)

51 min 6 sec Sep 11, 2007

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As Punk disappeared and the Mod and Ska revival faded, in the mid 80s, football hooligans in Britain morphed from Doc Marten wearing Skinheads to proto-mulletted, Pringle sweatered ‘Casuals’. Worse than the horrible violence they stirred up were their terrible sartorial inclinations and, unintentionally camp, bouffant hairdos.

This celebrated documentary followed the most famous contemporary gang, West Ham’s ICF or Inter City Firm, so called because their members were aspiring, middle class, season ticket holders who traveled to away matches on the Inter City rail network.

It was the epitome of the worst of Thatcher’s Britain and as such is an historical piece that transcends its narrow subject matter.

tags: history society sport

19 responses so far »

  • j.sterling ellison : Sep 18, 2007 at 2:23 am

    Oh Yes! Another great program about Britain’s football firms. I could watch documentaries like this all day. Wait…because of this site…I CAN!

  • Top_Gooner : Nov 4, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    Hooligans morphed did we ? what a load of pig shit. I never wore doc martens nor had a skin head, and those that did, were doing so in the mid to late 60’s . If you want to make a social comment on these things, please, at least get your facts right.

  • admin : Nov 5, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    @Top_Gooner.

    Most people wearing Doc Martens and sporting skinheads, during the Ska revival were in their diapers, sorry nappies, during the 60s.

    Anyway, I am more interested in the fact that you are actually proud of being a football hooligan? Amazing. I hope you haven’t reproduced.

  • MOTC : Dec 4, 2007 at 12:07 am

    Strooth, would you Adam and Eve it? What a panto…Well the geeza with the placard reading (I think) “perilous days god commandeth all people everywhere to repent” sums all this up nicely with “ we’ve had it lads, repent!” Wonderful.

  • Stepney Iron : Dec 11, 2007 at 9:00 pm

    Down Upton Park we “morphed” from being skin heads around 1970. We kept the DM’s through until the late ’70’s then converted to trainers and other footwear. Yes, we were aspiring, but definitely working class (not middle class) boys.

    Most of the main (senior) faces kept well out of camera range for this documentary.

  • cool hand luke : Dec 16, 2007 at 11:23 pm

    Stepney Iron’s time line and facts are far more accurate.

    As for ‘admin’s’ little slag at Top_Gooner: you can’t change your past - people did what they did.

    Top_G isn’t saying he is proud (all these things seem daft in hindsight but at the time there was a fantastic sense of belonging) - he is just saying if you are going to tell it, you should at least do some accurate research and get the basics correct.

  • iron joe : Dec 17, 2007 at 2:00 pm

    those where the days irons irons irons

  • hammerhead : Dec 29, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    well this bring back loads of memories for me and i b a hammer till i die and hahaha to man u west ham 2 wanker red devils 1 lol haha

  • Bannednomore : Jan 20, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Its hard to believe that the so called “top firm” in London found time to make a documentary. The editing of their run-in with chelsea at victoria was clever. THEY GOT RUN EVERYWHERE. Any of you hammers remember the white transit van driving around that day? perhaps they were to busy looking after their “DEL BOY” style camera. Still those days are gone now and i suppose i wish more firms had recorded the moments we craved then.

  • Hammer For Life : Jan 21, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    Bannednomore….THEY GOT RUN EVERYWHERE.
    Thats Rubbish and i dont think you was there with a comment like that.
    What the film dosnt show is the West Ham that slipped Plod and went after Chelsea backstreets.
    Or should i say what was shown on the day.
    Butch the fella doing the recording came with us and filmed us clearly turning Chelsea in.Thats footage was only made available to West ham but i think it is now available.I beleive Jason M has it so go find it you mug.

  • Stepney Iron : Jan 27, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    Although this documentary sheds some light on the terrace culture of the 1980’s, fact is it only tells half the story. West Ham’s mob from about 1968 onwards was made up of several different firms from around the East End and Essex hinterlands. The Mile End and TBF being the most prominent, but there were many. They all came together as West Ham for away matches. The term ICF was coined around ‘78 and became a sort of umbrella name to describe the West Ham mob, particularly away from home. However, the real hard cases, with one or two exceptions, did not appear on this programme. They had been following West Ham long before the ICF was ever thought of, and some still go today (retired). The documenatery was a revelation at the time, and as a piece of social history well worth the effort, but in reality it did not reflect the formidable nature of the West Ham following at the time, or the individuals involved.

  • visit now : Feb 2, 2008 at 7:34 am

    This is great, look forward to looking into every area. Thanks for being there.

  • rangers : Feb 6, 2008 at 10:50 pm

    QPR ran the lot of you …

  • Eastend 1 : Feb 28, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    WHERE CAN I BUY THIS ON DVD? CHEERS.

  • Englands number 6 : Mar 25, 2008 at 8:06 am

    i wished i was as thin and had as much hair as i did in the footage, classic documentary , happy anniversary……

  • goonerman : Mar 31, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    Bring back the days off us all fighting at football, to late history repeats itself, its only a matter of time and i can’t wait ;o)

  • northern casual : Apr 5, 2008 at 8:54 am

    the service were the top boys

  • hammer : May 10, 2008 at 11:22 am

    In these days west ham were feared,we ran from no one even when heavily outnumbered,top firm of all time.

  • Hamed the Hammer : Jun 23, 2008 at 5:30 am

    You stink of blow offs

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