If the people in Karlheinz Weinberger’s 1950s photographs could be said to have created their own version of rock’n’roll after having discovered their source material via an out of tune radio (see here at Afterhours)… well, the more contemporary Tokyo Rockabilly Club could be said to have taken their source material and refined, distilled and customised it into a black leather, foot high quiff archetypal image of sharp rock’n’roll rebellion.

A reimagining, not a recreation indeed.

Perhaps if the Elvis 68 Comeback Special fell through a portal to become mixed with The Cramps Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon, a touch of the spirit of Mr Weinberger’s subjects and some of the attention to detail that can be found amongst the 21st Century Rockers who can be found in Horst Friedrich’s book were mixed, matched and dallianced with one another – well, maybe you wouldn’t be too far away from the image of rockabilly that they have created.

It is an exceedingly photogenic subculture and style and not unexpectedly they have been photographed by a fair few shutterbuggers – almost making it into book form via the work of Paul Mueller-Rode and recently the Quarterly photography magazine featured images of and interview with the club by Noriko Takasugi (the images here are from that article).

One of the things that’s interesting about the members of the club is their age; involvement in subcultures is easier or more often found in those who are young in years. The people interviewed in Noriko Takasugi’s feature are keeping the flames alive at variously 51,41, 53, 48, 37…

More photographs, background and history can also be found at the cornucopic MESSYNESSYchic.