A portrait of British youth culture in the 1980s
- Text by Huck
- Photography by Gavin Watson
When photographer Gavin Watson was a kid, he came to the decision that he wanted a pair of binoculars – in order to look at the moon. So, after receiving his Christmas money one year, he ventured down to the local Woolworths to buy them.
When he got there, next to the £20 binoculars (they were on sale) was a small camera. Up until then, the idea of taking photos had never really occurred to Watson. But in that moment, he knew that there was only really one option. “I looked at the camera,” he remembers, “and I thought, ‘Alright, I think I’ll get that instead.’”
That decision, made on a whim (though today, Watson believes fate might have been at play) kick-started a life dedicated to capturing the world around him. In his latest book, titled Oh! What Fun We Had, the focus falls on those early years: with Gavin as a young lad – a skinhead – having a laugh with his friends on the Wycombe council estate they grew up on.
“I loved being a skinhead, I loved Madness, I loved being with my mates. And I liked photography, so it happened like that. These pictures, I thought they were just useless photos of my mates that no one else [would be] interested in.”
The book, which Watson describes as a series about a “mob of people” who came together through a shared love of ska and punk, capture a simpler time: where kids could get into an innocent kind of trouble, and come away with a few scrapes at worst.
And, given that he was embedded in the group, Oh! What We Fun operates as a fly-on-the-wall account: the book operates as an intimate portrait of British youth culture in the ’80s, captured from the inside. “When I look at the pictures, I see a world without any form of technology. It could be another world,” he says. “We had more freedom back then. We’d go and play over the railway tracks, go have a tear up and it not be too serious. There weren’t cameras on your arse everywhere you fucking went.”
Oh! What Fun We Had is available now from Damiani.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
Jake Hanrahan: “Boys can cry, but we don’t all fucking want to”
Hard Feelings — In the latest edition of our column on masculinity and fatherhood, Rob Kazandjian speaks to the conflict filmmaker-journalist and Popular Front founder about his childhood, the found family and community at his Muay Thai gym, and the “complete counterculture” of ‘no rules’ fighting.
Written by: Robert Kazandjian
Euphoric portraits of queer joy and resistance at Trans Pride Brighton
Let us piss — Now over a decade old, the event grew to become Europe’s largest trans pride march. In a year when trans rights have come under the microscope more than ever, we went to this year’s edition, finding grassroots unity and collective rage.
Written by: Ella Glossop
Remembering the radical anti-nuclear Greenham Women’s Peace Camp
Life at the Fence — In the early ’80s, a women’s only camp at an RAF site in Berkshire was formed to protest the threat of nuclear arms. Janine Wiedel’s new photobook revisits its anti-establishment setup and people.
Written by: Miss Rosen
A new documentary traces the rise, fall and cratering of VICE
VICE is broke — Streaming on MUBI, it’s presented by chef and filmmaker Eddie Huang, who previously hosted travel and food show Huang’s World for the millennial media giant.
Written by: Ella Glossop
DJ AG teases that he is working on a 2026 festival
AG Fest? — The open format DJ dropped a cryptic post on social media yesterday, along with a link to sign up to a mailing list.
Written by: Isaac Muk
We are all Mia Khalifa
How humour, therapy and community help Huck's latest cover star control her narrative.
Written by: Alya Mooro
