Oi! Skinhead love lasts the distance (From Hereford Times)

Oi! Skinhead love lasts the distance

3:00pm Friday 10th August 2012 in County By Lydia Johnson

WHEN skinhead couple Gary and Eileen got married, everyone said it wouldn’t last six months.

But this week saw the Hereford couple celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

It was love at first sight for Gary Davies, now 51, when he first met Eileen Keogh, now 49, at the Lichfield Waltz in Lichfield in 1979, but it took some time for her to return the feeling, as Gary explained: “She hated me.”

Eventually she did and they married at St Martin’s Church in Hereford on August 7, 1982, with the groom and guests dressed in combat boots and braces and the bride in ‘a normal dress’, walking down the aisle to their own version of a traditional hymn – All Skins Bright and Beautiful.

Gary was often getting into trouble with the police, and was once identified by his wedding photograph, which appeared in the Hereford Times , that police had pinned up on their noticeboard in the station.

Gary, now a supervisor at Wye Valley Group, said: “I had to settle down because I couldn’t afford to get in to trouble anymore, with kids and a mortgage.

“We definitely showed the cynics who only gave us six months.

“We’ve lasted so long because it’s all about chipping in together and helping each other along the way.”

The couple, who have two sons, Guy and Gary, and a daughter, Shelley, will celebrate with a holiday to Weston-super-Mare.