Like overseas gangs, New Zealand motorcycle club members preferred American or British motorbikes, such as Harley Davidsons and Triumphs.
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The Hell’s Angels’ formal structure of elected president, vice-president and sergeant-at-arms, and membership denoted by a circular back patch with top and bottom bands (called rockers), became the template for most New Zealand gangs. In 1961 a chapter of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club in Auckland formally affiliated with its American counterpart and became the first chapter to be chartered outside of California.
By 1959 there were about 51 different gangs in Auckland and another 17 in Wellington, many centred around motorcycle ownership.
The Coffin Cheaters were active in Dunedin. Motorcycles, gangs and violence were glamorised in films such as Marlon Brando’s 1954 The wild one (originally banned in New Zealand), James Dean’s Rebel without a cause (1955), Elvis Presley’s King Creole (1958), and hit songs like ‘Black denim trousers and motorcycle boots’ (Cheers, 1955), ‘Rebel rouser’ (Duane Eddy, 1958), ‘Rumble’ (Link Wray, 1958), and ‘Mac the knife’ (Bobby Darin, 1959).įrom the mid-1950s teenage gangs such as Currie’s Cowboys and the Saints became common in Auckland and Wellington. They adopted new styles of dance, dress and haircuts. In the 1950s young New Zealanders flocked to buy hits by Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and others.
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