And no I don't mean meeting up with random people for a night of unbridled passion...

Casuals were young people who adopted a mode of dress linked to certain brand names. They adopted their own style which inevitably involved wearing V neck sweaters as mini me's paying homage to Val Doonican. Would you believe it? Who would think an artist such as Val could be a fashion icon?

With slick short hairstyles they were the mods of the 80s. It was all about the labels Lyle & Scott, Pringle, Sergio Tacchini, Lacoste and who would have the latest items. Some people say they stole most of the items particularly trainers.

The focus on most casuals identity was football and football culture. Born out of the late 70s and often associated with hooliganism, many police forces on the lookout for skinheads and punks were fooled by their choice of clothing as it was often the perfect disguise. Who would think that someone wearing a golfing sweater would be a football thug was quite shocking. It was all about looking good and it is said that their love Italian sportswear and labels developed from following football teams to matches on the continent. Baby pink and pale blue suddenly became the in colour.

For me being a North London girl it was all about blue and white. Despite not following this trend I was still aware of the fashion as I preferred black and drifted off in to a perfumed haze of deepest darkest Gothdom. I don't know who feared who.

Brighton's contribution to this fashion explosion was helped by those casuals who supported the local team Brighton and Hove Albion, who in the mid 1980s were based at the Goldstone Ground. Known as the West Street Gang or West Streeters. Their name came from the fact that at night they used to congregate at the bottom of West Street, particularly around the Crystal Rooms amusement arcade.

In the mid 1980s Brighton and Hove Albion were based at the Goldstone Ground, a place that inspired many fond recollections from Brighton Casuals who were interviewed for Brighton and Hove Museums' Renegade collection.

"Goldstone Ground is gone now, it's a retail park. I saw my first game there in about the mid 1980s. I didn't spend a lot of time watching the game but actually watching the crowd. I obviously started going and supporting the team and gradually the ground started getting really dilapidated and you know, there was a great spirit in the ground, it was like wonderful. You stood in the same place all the time, you saw the same people, everyone used to meet at a certain bit and same people sitting in other stands and there was an atmosphere..."

"Nobody actually said they belonged to it, so it was just like you knew you were down there and who was what, but you never admitted that."

Of course the most feared of these were West Ham fans aka ICF or Inner City Firm. Trends come and go. Football attire has come a long way since the flat cap and overcoat of the 1920s and 1930s. Unfortunately now the name Casuals has been hijacked by that odious group the English Defence League. Looks like Casuals have taken a turn for the worse and ended up in Casualty.

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