Millwall brick

A "Millwall brick" is an improvised weapon made of a manipulated newspaper, used as a small club. It was named after supporters of Millwall F.C., who had a reputation for football hooliganism. The Millwall brick was allegedly used as a stealth weapon at football matches in England during the 1960s and 1970s. The weapon's popularity appears to have been due to the wide availability of newspapers, the difficulty in restricting newspapers being brought into football grounds, and the ease of its construction.

Millwall brick
Folded newspaper held in a fist
TypeBlunt hand-held weapon, Improvised weapon
Place of originEngland
Service history
Used byFootball hooligans and Martial artists
Specifications
Head typeRolled and folded paper
Haft typeRolled paper

History

In the late 1960s — in response to football hooliganism at matches in England — police began confiscating any objects that could be used as weapons. These items included steel combs, pens, beermats, horse brasses, Polo mints, shoelaces and boots.[1] However, fans were still permitted to bring in newspapers. Larger broadsheet newspapers work best for a Millwall brick, and the police looked with suspicion at working class football fans who carried such newspapers. Because of their more innocent appearance, tabloid newspapers became the preferred choice for Millwall bricks.[2] The book Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible describes the use of Millwall bricks by British football hooligans in the late 1960s: "Newspapers were rolled up tightly to form the so-called Millwall Brick and another trick was to make a knuckleduster out of pennies held in place by a wrapped around paper. You could hardly be pulled up for having a bit of loose change in your pocket and a Daily Mirror under your arm."[1] The book Skinhead says, "The Millwall brick, for example, was a newspaper folded again and again and squashed together to form a cosh."[2]

Design

A Millwall brick is constructed from several newspaper sheets stacked and tightly rolled lengthwise. The resulting tube is then bent in half to create a handle (a haft) and a rounded head at the fold.[3]

Cultural references
  • The term "Millwall brick" appeared in a 2001 Times column about the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which writer Mick Hume sarcastically proposed that airlines get rid of newspapers since "football hooligans used to fold them into something called a Millwall Brick."[4]
  • The Millwall brick was mentioned in a 2004 Spiked column about Britain's knife culture.[5]
  • A 2004 column in the New York Sports Express (NYSX) includes an expression of hope that Millwall F.C. would "upset Manchester United and put the infamous Millwall Brick inside the famous FA Cup."[6]
  • A skinhead reggae zine series, Millwall Brick, addressed topics such as the film The Harder They Come, Motown Records and football.[7]
  • The 1994 CD Chello, by Irish pop/rock band Blink includes the song, "Millwall Brick Mix".[8]
  • In 1995, guitarists Doug Aldrich and his hard rock band Bad Moon Rising released an extended play CD entitled Millwall Brick.[9]
  • In the film The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) fashioned a similar weapon out of a magazine.
  • In the TV production Lilyhammer, Season 2 Episode 1, Duncan Hammer (Paul Kaye) produced a Millwall Brick out of the Norwegian tabloid newspaper VG, some coins and his own urine while ranting about how he [the character] and his fellow football hooligans invented it to circumvent the police's weapon prohibition on football matches back in England.

See also

References
  1. Marshall, George (1991). Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible. S.T. ISBN 0-9518497-0-0.
  2. Knight, Nick (October 1982). Skinhead. Omnibus. ISBN 978-0-7119-0052-3.
  3. Samboboy (15 March 2000). "Fifty rules of fighting". Stickgrappler's Martial Arts Archives. Archived from the original on 13 November 2006. Take about two sections of a newspaper (thirty pages or so) lay [them] flat out, start rolling from one corner to the other making sure the roll is really tight, when done you should have a tube shape, bend it in half.
  4. Hume, Mick. (October 20, 2001). The Times.
  5. O'Neill, Brendan (16 December 2004). "Knife culture? Cut the crap: There is little evidence for a 'rising tide of knife crime' in Britain". Spiked. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Why not newspapers, which as every football hooligan knows can be folded up to form the 'Millwall brick', hard-edged enough to smash anybody's face in?
  6. New York Sports Express. (April 8, 2004) Millwall-Cardiff Yobs Prep for FA Cup Fun. Archived 2006-11-19 at the Wayback Machine Obtained November 9, 2006.
  7. Out Knocked. Millwall Brick #2, Millwall Brick #3. Obtained November 9, 2006.
  8. Sneeze, Mr. (June 3, 2001). Sneeze's Blink Page. Blink discography. Archived 2006-11-27 at the Wayback Machine Obtained November 6, 2006.
  9. Warpigcat; Tbieri; Chrysostome; _jmc_. (2006). Rate Your Music dot com. Albums by Bad Moon Rising. Obtained November 6, 2006.
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