Dennis the Menace

This week I have experienced a minor sync flap in relation to black and red horizontal stripes.prompting me to recall a reoccuring dream I used to have as a child in which I was somehow stuck in a war between two opposing tribes one of whom wore red and the other wore blue. My sync flap began on tuesday evening as I sat down with my family to watch the World Cup Semi final.We were surprised to see Germany turn out in a strip consisting of Red and Black horizontal stripes. Germany usually play predominantly in white .It is however not unusual to watch footballers in Brazil playing in Red and Black horizontal stripes because one of the biggest Brazilian club teams "Flamengo" from Rio have the exact same strip. much of my family in Brazil are Flamengista's and I have supported them ever since I first went to Brazil.Flamengo are often use as their mascot Black Urubu (a kind of vulture).

I first became aware of black and red horizontal stripes as a young child as the colours of the comic book character "Dennis the Menace" from the Beano. Apart from Dennis the Menace I didn't much care for comics much and forget all about them until my teens when as a skater I became interested in punk music and was introduced to characters like Tank Girl & Judge Dredd from 2000AD. I was mostly into American hardcore punk bands ,but I dipped my toe into the British punk scene and during my UK punk phase my favourite t-shirts were perhaps those of "conflict" or the "uk subs" i tended to wear my Kronstadt Klub or Class War anti poll tax tshirt with  my black and red stripped "Dennis the Menace" jumper (given to me by my mum of all people). 

In the late eighties I discovered the acid house culture. I remember The Shamen of "Ebeneezer Goode" fame holding one of their early Synergy events in Bristol not long after that I was baptised by the Dub of hardcore jungle drum and bass at Warehouse Raves and free party movement of the early nineties, where Dennis the Menace was a regular on the scene. I further explored the techno punk aesthetic at Sabresonic , which I always associated red and black tartan ( the sabrettes in the punk threads of  Viviene Westood.

During these years I became aware of Japanese anime/manga , "Akira" which resonated some of these revolutionary themes for me.

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