Bustin’ wit the b-boys

In my school, like many others circa 1987 there was a corner of the green and pleasant land that was forever Break-Dance Alley! Every lunch time about 10-20 boys (all white as Jacko and Prod as Paisley) would congregate to show their skills. Some one would break out the, way too big to be practical, ghetto blaster and let loose some Run DMC (for ghetto read affluent and leafy south-east Belfast).

The real hard core would always wear light-weight grey and black Adidas jackets - and they were the ones everyone looked to get the party popping.

The more junior members would kick of first and it would usually involve, I shit you not, body popping. After the entrée was complete the real b-boys were pushed forward to the mat (bunch of coats) and encouraged to get out their bag of tricks. It mostly involved that thing where you do a bit of a crabs bend and spin around on your hands as quick as you can. It seemed to me that the amount of applause you got at the end was directly proportional to the aggression you put into your bad boy gangsta hand thrust.

The occasional nut-case would try to do the head spin thing. I honestly don’t think I ever saw anyone do it, and not really injure themselves. Some people would pretend to have done it, but actually they had kept their hands on the ground - but again, as long as they did a good gangsta sign off, they got some whoops and applause.

I myself, was frankly not cool enough to do it, I was more of a watcher. Still a vital cog in the whole performance I like to think.