They did have a huge mob of skins back then from Eseex as well, Dagenham and Tilbury alone had a huge mob, most of the skins in Southend bank holidays we're all West Ham, 100 s and 100s and 100s of them, Sham Army etc. The 81 coach to Paris was mix of East London Essex Mods from all over that manor Romford, Rainham, Chigwell, Barking etc all we're there for the ruckus. The year before 1980 at a Jam concert same local PSG skins had kicked the shit out of the normal Mod English Jam fans there including their mates and Weller hung a Union Jack on the microphone as he watched his travelling support get terrorized to Eton Rifles so we went with intent of some serious London payback and we delivered. It was organized from East London we all knew each other from 60s Soul clubs in Soho 100 club, Beat Route ,Albany etc and bank holidays at the time, we was mates outside of football, into the ska two tone, Mod skin scene. The mod Hammer face was a big geezer called Bob who was friends with the Rejects, Southbank chicken run lot, Same circles.
As you say some of those Mods became ICF casuals, it murged. In all fairness the East London huns fought like fuck against a very tooled up french mob and I remember ICF and East London and WH cries going up in the battles and me my 3 mates would all look at each other then look at them shake our heads and be like nah we are Tottenham and we made that known to our french friends as well, which brought some smiles and in all honesty maybe the only time we all fought on the same side and got along. It wasn't about football that day.
When we arrived in Paris we posted up in a Brasserie started drinking not causing any bother to anyone then like the Warriors it began, an old broken up Renault full of French skins parked outside the bar and they had painted Die English Pigs on their car , they just stood by their car staring us out carrying bats and clubs lol, taunting us, then as time went on more of them came until they had a firm 40 or so tooled up skins. Then they started throwing bottles at us, and the bar windows came through, and they came towards us, then the cry went up and everything came off the walls, mirrors, bar stools, chairs, glasses , tables, an ornamental scythe and we steamed into them they stood for a minute but after their leader found himself wearing a bar stool with some big West Ham geezer stomping his head in yelling you want some , they scattered, he had his bird with him as well, SMH, we ran them into the metro bashing them as we went and over turned their car and set it on fire, this was lunchtime in the middle of Paris. Then they came back and we steamed them again and we ran them again into the metro, it all went off in the metro for over an hour back and forth. I vividly remember one skin swinging numchaks on the metro stairs at us and we couldnt get up near him to get him , then one West Ham geezer came up behind him with a coke can twisted in half, he stuck the cans like headphones into this skins ears and twisted them around , he dropped the numchaks went to the ground screaming and we kicked the shit out of him.
Weller looked out during the show and smiled as he saw us lot all standing in front of him with a huge empty circle around us and no French skins in the venue this year. After the armed riot police rounded us up and escorted our coach to Calais and put us on a ferry. Mental times. Not really football but Spurs were there. Not glamorizing it but it happened.