The Mod Generation

TODAY IN THE MOD WORLD

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:52:18 PDT

All the latest mod-related news, articles, blog posts, videos and photos from the mod generation and beyond.

Le Beat Bespoke

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:42:03 PDT

Le Beat Bespoke weekend brings together Mod, 60's and Rock n Roll enthusiasts in a celebration of counter culture, music and style. As the weekend covers a lot of bases it manages to draw in a large, mixed crowd and all nights are always packed right into the early hours of the morning.

Over the years the list of bands that have played the weekend is quite astounding and this years event was no different with the likes of The Pretty Things, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Poets, The Trashmen and The Sorrows all playing like the passage of time has been just a dream...yes, it was quite a dream line up!

When the singing stops, the serious business of dancing really begins and the venue is split into 3 rooms with the main hall being for Soul/Northern Soul and a smaller Psych/Beat room plus a Mod/R&B room. Although the rooms are of different sizes all are full of enthusiastic dancers, fuelled by excellent dj's, but I would have to say that the Psych/Beat room usually appears the wildest and the weekend seems geared more towards that crowd than any other. That's reflected by the compilation cd issued in conjunction with the weekend.

The cd and vinyl 'Le Beat Bespoke 5' is the latest instalment (although the weekend itself is in it's eighth year). With 16 tracks (20 on the cd!) of '60s dance floor rarities' Le Beat Bespoke 5 is a fun-filled package which, for fans of Le Beat, will be more than just a tonic - its exactly what the Doctor ordered!

Both vinyl and CD are priced £12.99 and available direct from New Untouchables.

Mod Chronicles

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Fri, 04 May 2012 05:08:08 PDT

After years of being sold out and going for exorbitant prices online, Volume One of The Mod Chronicles: This Is A Modern Life is finally available again!

The new edition has been revised and updated. It includes a new colour section as well as many new photos.

Also currently available is the second volume I'm Not Like Everybody Else which expands the mod story into the 90's.

These two volumes represent THE anthology of mod culture from the 80's onwards and are a must-have read for anybody interested or involved in the society of cool.

Having managed to get hold of the two volumes I was surprised at how much is in there. Although Volume One mainly covers the London Mod Scene there are hundreds of fantastic pictures and stories that will be familiar to anyone who was a mod during the late 70's to early 80's. In fact it's surprising just how many common experiences we have shared, up and down the country...the initial thrill of participation as an wide eyed teenager, the constant trouble from Police, Skinheads, Casuals etc and the divisions that broke out in the mod movement.

Many of the names of those interviewed and mentioned in both volumes will also be familiar wherever you happen to be and it's heartening that most of them are still involved in the mod scene.

Volume Two covers the UK scene in general and, as mentioned, continues the story through to the 90's. The amount of subjects covered is amazingly extensive; The (old) Untouchables, Scooterboys, Casuals, Britpop, Drugs, The Face...

If Richard Barnes Mods book is considered the Bible of Mod then it was merely the Old Testament. In these two Volumes and the yet to be completed Volume 3 (which will develop over the New Untouchables and the scene around the world) we now have the New Testament of Mod - and the word is COOL!

Released by Shaman Publishing, Volumes One and Two are now available via eBay or the Mod Chronicles website.

THE ACTION: IN THE LAP OF THE MODS

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:50:45 PDT

by Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepherd

With Mike Evans and Roger Powell

“We all tried our hand at getting that [Motown] sound you know... all the bands in the mid ‘60s. The best ones at it were the Action... They were an amazing band.”
(Steve Marriott, 1987)

Of all the groups to emerge during the 1960s British beat explosion THE ACTION are most deserving of the epithet “unsung”. Formed in 1964 this sharply attired North London quintet attracted a legion of diehard followers as well as the envy and plaudits of their peers. Most notably they were arguably the best Anglo outfit to successfully interpret the American soul and R&B so beloved of their Mod audience.

Comprising a rock solid rhythm section of drummer Roger Powell and bassist Mike Evans – faithfully modelled on the Funk Brothers who so defined the Tamla-Motown sound, a pair of inventive guitarists, Alan ‘Bam’ King and Pete Watson, who could harmonise like angels, and Reg King, blessed with a soulful voice that could pass for pure Chicago or Detroit, the Action were continually tipped for greatness.

And yet fame eluded the Action. While similarly inclined outfits like the Small Faces, the Spencer Davis Group and the Who turned Mod attitude into chart glory the five singles the Action released during their relatively short career failed to sell in significant numbers. However those recordings from 1965-68 were revered by a switched-on fan base and have continued to inspire successive generations of Brit Beat enthusiasts. The Action’s reputation has even belatedly spread across the Atlantic particularly in 2002 when Rolled Gold – a collection of startlingly original songs cut during the band’s final phase that had preciously circulated on lo-fi bootlegs - was released to rapturous praise.

To those with a passing knowledge of the era the Action remain an enigma due to their low commercial profile but for those lucky enough to see them – and for those who wish they had - the Action cast a considerable shadow.

Their story was played out against a backdrop of societal upheaval in which the Mod movement played an integral part. Co-author Ian Hebditch was a first generation Mod from Portsmouth - a regular at the town’s legendary Birdcage Club - and his memories and insight, untainted by revisionism, of this subculture and with exclusive comment from all original band members, In The Lap Of The Mods helps to provide a unique first hand account of what Mod and the Action were really about. Cameo appearances from the likes of the Beatles, the Who, Rod Stewart, David Bowie and Captain Beefheart indicates just some of the interesting circles the Action moved in.

Now at last after some ten years in development (worth a book in itself!) The Action: In The Lap Of The Mods provides the final word on this legendary band and illustrates how their music, image and attitude transcends the times it was made and continues to inspire.

Hardcover edition

This large format (US letter size) cloth bound book with over 200 pages printed on high quality 170grm paper features:

The Action’s story told in full detail for the first time ever based on dozens of interviews and extensive research

Contributions from all original band members – Reggie King, Michael Evans, Roger Powell, Pete Watson and Alan King, in addition to Ian Whiteman and Martin Stone

Comment from well-known Action fans and contemporaries Pete Townshend, Paul Weller, Peter Banks and Phil Collins along with other key music industry figures

Foreword by Sir George Martin CBE

Over 200 colour and B&W images many of which are reproduced for the first time including:

Previously unseen informal and promotional photographs of the band
Publicity material including rare press releases, flyers and posters
Rare items of memorabilia such as gig posters, handbills and fan club material
Single releases, acetates and recording session sheets from Abbey Road Studios

An in-depth account of the Birdcage club in Portsmouth, a legendary Mod venue and Action stronghold, together with a full gig listing of who played there

A comprehensive list of every track ever performed by the Action whether on stage, TV, radio or on record.

Accounts of the Action live at venues across the UK and Europe including recollections from fans in Holland and former regulars at such iconic clubs as the Marquee, the Goldhawk, Watford Trade and the Cavern in Liverpool.

Original gig and record reviews from the music press

The full story behind the original Action line-up’s reformation in 1998

Limited edition (400 copies, individually numbered)

This special edition includes the following exclusive bonus items (neither of which will be made available or sold individually), each housed along with the hardcover book inside a presentation slipcase:

An incredibly rare and previously unreleased one-track 7 inch single of ‘Why You Wanna Make Me Blue’ – an exact replica of a single-sided acetate/demo the Action recorded for an unsuccessful audition for Decca on 31 May 1965, prior to them signing with George Martin’s A.I.R company. This precious nugget represents the earliest known recording of the Action.

‘Where The Action Is’ – a comprehensive chronology of the history of the Action - a daily diary of events, gigs played, appearances on TV and radio, record release/tour dates/chart positions and details of every recording session at Abbey Road, supplemented with press articles, gig adverts and additional items of rare memorabilia and ephemera not included in the hardcover edition of the book. Also included in this paperback volume is an extended Action family tree (from 1961 to the present day) and a full discography of the band.

The publish date for the book has not been set yet but it is likely to be in June, or July at the latest. In the meantime you can view some sample chapters and you can reserve a copy online.

South of London Mods

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:26:04 PDT

(by David B)

I was born in Paddington but we moved south of London when I was still a small lad. I was involved in the Mod scene around Guildford starting in the summer of 1964. Since I lived alongside the A3 (the main road south out of London) that's where I first saw what subsequently became known as Mods in 1962 and 63. They were on very smart scooters - not the "mum and dad" type with a windshield, but very smart; with accessories but not overdone. The riders wore parkas and trilby hats. I was gob-smacked and knew that was what I wanted to look like - problem was I was fourteen and making ten bob a week on a paper route...

I bought my scooter - a Lambretta Li150 - in the spring of 1964, just after leaving school. I painted it in two tone red and white but ran it in 'skeleton' form, minus front mudguard and side panels, quite a bit. It made it easier to nick chrome side panels when the opportunity arose. I fitted a two tone red and black striped seat (from Pride and Clarke's?) plus lights, mirrors, carriers and a fly screen. I fitted one of those silencers with the megaphone on the end that sounded wonderful until the whole thing plugged up! I took it off and soaked it in acid but couldn't clean it out so I took a big hammer and a chisel to it and punched a hole in the front - best thing I ever did! It restored the performance but made the Lambretta sound like a Vespa GS! Instead of the putt, putt, putt of the Lambretta there was this turbine like howl of a Vespa - very cool!

I didn't have much money - I only made four pound ten a week initially, so buying clothes was a creative affair. We had a small 'boutique' tailors in Guildford at the time - I forget the name but they were next to the Ricky Tick club (as the main ballroom was named). I had my first suit made there and they took a lot of trouble over it. When I subsequently worked at Austin Reads the tailors there were very impressed with the cut and hang of this suit. Otherwise we wore what was 'the latest thing' for the London guys - striped jackets, button down collars, Levis (of course - although getting the Levis was a major operation), desert boots and parkas. The parkas were a fashion thing but they were bloody useless for stopping the cold and rain - especially the rain! I think that must be the reason we all fitted 'fly screens' to the scooters - to give us some protection, in addition to looking cool. I started out with a skinny white fur roll on the hood of my parka but when I acquired a really good brown roll I used the white fur on the epaulets - I never saw anyone else do that and it looked really good, even if I do say so myself. There had been a fashion for the 'Barrow Boy' look in about 1963 and I still had the flat 'at but I found that by undoing the clasp between the peak and the body of the hat it would stay on and also looked good - I saw others do this but I can honestly say that I arrived at this idea on my own. We stole the mirrors off Honda 50s so that we could 'accessorize' our scooters in addition to front and rear carriers, fly screens, lights and crash bars. Nobody considered the weight all this accumulated stuff was having on performance. I was one of the few people who knew how to work on an engine and I managed to make my scooter go quite well.

I became involved with the local band of Mods - all were older than me and made more money (I made four pounds,ten shillings and eleven pence a week as an apprentice compositor). I want to make a point of the age thing. The Baby Boom Generation is generally considered as those born between 1946 and 1964 (US Census info) - I was born in 1948. My mates were all generally born four or five years before me. I contend, M'Lud, that this gave them a distinct advantage - with jobs, opportunities (birds) and with 'creating' styles. There were also far fewer of them, thanks to Adolf. Think of the ages of the Beatles, Stones, The Who and I suggest, M'Lud, the early Mods. (please don't bring up Mark Feld/Bolan he was a freak of nature!). Those of us in the Baby Boom generation had to follow them - we had no bleedin' choice! M'Lud. Mod rant off.

I would say that from the summer of '64 until summer '65 me and my mates put in 20,000 miles on our scooters. Which speaks volumes for the quality of those abused machines. We would go to Brighton or Bognor (bugger Bognor!) frequently. The scene in "Quadrophenia" where they are sleeping under the bandstand I can recall well since I did it too. My favourite memory is of a time at Hastings in 1964, the police rounded all the Mods up and told us to head out of town. I was about fifty yards back from the lead scooter as we left Hastings - two abreast and probably a thousand scooters when the lead scooter simply turned around and headed back into Hastings - we all followed and the police were completely unprepared - we took over!

I recall one trip to Brighton, we had left it a bit late and it was very dark crossing the "Sarf Dans" so we started looking for somewhere to stop overnight. Somebody spotted a hay barn so we pulled down a bit of fencing and rode the scooters over the field to this barn. We all had sleeping bags of course and we just kipped down in the hay. Just as we were dropping asleep there is a commotion and it transpires that we are sharing the barn with about two dozen pigs (The four legged variety)! Not much sleep was had that night - bloody pigs didn't like us being there and let us know it.

Another trip we were going through a pea soup fog somewhere on the main Brighton road. You couldn't see more than ten feet and we were almost certainly going too fast when I see two pairs of legs standing beside the road - the bodies were lost in the mist. As I ride by I hear "DAVE!" yelled in desperation. I managed to turn around and it was two friends whose scooter had broken down and were hitching - this was about midnight! They had recognised the unique sound of my scooter - if it had been somebody else they might have got their heads kicked in.

Violence was a major part of the Mod scene, no getting away from it. The group that I hung out with were all in the building trade and were a pretty tough bunch, but it was usually a matter of six or more on one. One night at the Wooden Bridge Club there was a confrontation between us and the Guildford Mods. After this they were all gathered in a group discussing tactics and didn't notice me standing on the edge of the group listening in - I would have got my head kicked in if they had seen me. Anyway, they planned to invade our area and 'sort us out' at 7.30 the following Tuesday - as they inadvertently told me! I went back to my group, told them what I had heard and by Tuesday we had reinforcements in and were lining both sides of the street as the Guildford boys rode into town. They saw the situation and didn't stop but we exchanged some insults except for me - being the youngest, and possibly the mouthiest - I stepped forward as one of them rode by - he swung his leg, I swung mine and we both had badly bruised shins for our troubles. That was the only time I ever exchanged a blow with another Mod. I was mouthy but I was no fighter.

We made up with the Guildford boys after that. A few weeks later we went to a dance at a local village and it turned out to be a Rocker hangout. We were way outnumbered and some of our guys got roughed up quite badly. This would not do so a call was put in to the Guildford boys - would they come and help us out? They were delighted! The ensuing melee' made the front page of the Evening Standard or News, I forget which. The headline read: "More than sixty Mods on their scooters, together with Minicar loads of their girlfriends [actually the Guildford boys] invade village!" General disgust all round. If any of you computer geniuses can find that from late 64 I would love to have a copy. We saw very few Rockers generally and they stopped going to the resort towns after 1964 - they were out numbered.

We would go to dances at the Wooden Bridge Pub in Guildford (the Stones played there), the dances at the main dance ballroom in Guildford (they named it the Ricky Tick Club but it was Mickey Mouse...), the Crawdaddy Club, Eel Pie Island on occasion and the Harvest Moon Club in Guildford - anybody remember that? It was across the road from the Ricky Tick and was the cause of it's closing. We would see Georgie Fame, Chris Farlowe, Long John Baldry, Spencer Davies and of course, John Mayall. We (my buddy Alan Taylor and I) would also go to the 'Disc' on Wardour street or rarely, 'The Scene". The Scene could be pretty intimidating since you never knew if you were going to get rolled! I remember picking up a girl there and dancing for a long time with her until somebody I didn't know whispered in my ear "She is the girlfriend of the leader of the Mile End Boys"! Exit one wannabe boyfriend...

I sold my scooter in late 1965 -the whole Mod scene just seemed to be finished. Between the press and tv they had made being Mod seem passe' - if that is the right term. I would love to find my old scooter (it was either RPA215 or 215RPA - I had one number on the front and the other on the back). When I decided to sell it I only had to let it be known and it was sold - I suppose it had a bit of a reputation by then. With the money I financed a trade in 'mothers little helpers' that we got by the thousand from a club called "The Ace of *****" up near Charing Cross tube station and a friend and I sold them at the Harvest Moon Club. (sorry to those who got nineteen in a packet intended to hold twenty...). I worked the door at the Harvest Moon on Sunday nights and one night I actually bounced somebody! Since I weighed nine stone dripping wet that was as surprising to me as it was to him!

My parents emigrated to Toronto in 1966 and I announced, the week before the ship was due to sail that I was perfectly happy to stay in England with my mates. It was seven years before I saw my parents again.

In 1968 I finally decided that it was time to see the world and went up to the P&O Shipping offices right at the entrance to Petticoat Lane in the East End and signed up to work on liners for a few years. After seeing the world I realised that I preferred the look of Vancouver so moved here in 1973 - no regrets. My wifes closest friend (who emigrated to Vancouver with her) used to go on holiday with the Kray family! They had caravans together in Burnham on Sea and would spend weeks together. Charlie, the oldest Kray brother went to school with her father.

Quadrophenia is unquestionably the best movie of the era. I still remember walking down theatre row in Vancouver (never having heard of this movie) looking at the still photos that were posted outside all the movie theatres. Suddenly I was looking at scenes that I recalled like they were yesterday. It was as if I recognised the people and the scenes. It was Quadrophenia and nobody in Vancouver knew what the hell it was about. Another movie that captures the end of the sixties very well is "Withnail & I". That is how I remember it - long overcoats, always pissing with rain. He seems to be a bit more educated than anybody I knew then of course.

The Mod scene was of the time and the generation (I hope I don't offend anybody with that opinion). Nobody had any money - my father used to borrow (borrow?!) my bicycle to go to the pub since he couldn't afford a car. We all lived in Council houses - I didn't know anybody who owned their own house. None of us passed the eleven plus. There is a reason for that - we were not expected to! The eleven plus was written initially as a class based method of keeping us in our place. It was changed around 1960 to become an IQ based exam but prior to that it was not. If you look at the photos of Mods of the sixties you notice one thing - they are all skinny! We couldn't afford to eat well - there were no 'fast food' places. We were lucky to get peas with our fish fingers!

Enough drivel for now.

David B

This work is the copyright of David B. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution.

I know David would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

Hard Mods

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:59:49 PDT

Did they really exist?

by John Leo Waters

The term 'Hard Mod' has been bandied around for quite some time now and has almost been given credence as a subculture in its own right. I have been labeled a 'hard mod' (by others I hasten to add) so I felt I had a duty to try to ascertain just what the label actually represents.

So what is a hard mod? Did they really exist or was it simply a convenient label for a hard-core hooligan element? The term 'hard' has many different meanings but various dictionaries refer to the term in this context as 'someone who shows no fear and can look after themselves in a situation' another definition is 'naturally tough, strong minded'.

In the world I grew up in 'hard men' were usually violent criminals who refused to conform or submit to authority, men who would stand their ground no matter what. In fact, the kind of person you would like 'watching your back' in a fight.

Stories of legendary fighters abounded in our circle. Local villains like John Moriarty* who along with 'Mad Dog' Andrews would go up West to pick fights with bouncers just for the sheer hell of it. When he was shot in the legs on two separate occasions after feuds with other villains he refused to talk to the authorities. Guys like 'Wibby' Smith* who although tiny in stature was considered a real hard man and when he was 'offered out' by a six foot local tough nut promptly belted him across the face with a meat cleaver!

Of course the term Mod needs little explanation but one interesting definition describes Mods as a 'sixties group noted for their clothes consciousness, often as a symbol of their alienation for conventional society'. Descriptions such as this merely give credence to the theory that Mods were a gang of delinquents, but nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of sixties Mods were just normal everyday teenagers who enjoyed dressing up in the latest fashions, dancing to the latest sounds and having a good time generally. Exactly the same behaviour you would expect from teenagers the world over in any era.

The media had a field day building up the myth of the wars between Mods and Rockers. The Bank Holiday invasions were seized upon by the press and given massive coverage depicting Mods as nothing better than a drug crazed mob bent on violence and creating mayhem. Of course, there was a grain of truth in the garbage spewed out by the press. There were a hard core of Mods whose sole purpose in visiting Brighton, Margate and the rest was to create anarchy. I must admit I was a part of that core.

So, what constitutes a 'Hard Mod' and what made them different from the majority? Well, I can only draw on my own experiences and attempt to answer that question...

Elthorne Road

I was born in 1948 to Irish immigrants. We lived off Holloway Road in Archway, North London in what was basically slum property. Our living accommodation consisted of three rooms (one on each floor) of a three storey terraced house behind a shop which was shared with other residents. We shared an outside toilet and as was fairly standard in those days there was no hot water, heating etc.

My parents were hard working, good Catholics and very strict! The house suffered from infestations of mice, bed bugs and priests!! Although we were poor there was always food on the table and clothes on our backs (although patches were almost obligatory!).

Elthorne Rd was where I grew up. We lived above/behind the bookies Ron Nagle. The area was pretty tough with a large mixed population. We had an Italian Café on one side and a Jewish barber on the other. The Holloway Road area had large Irish population mixed with Greek Cypriots, Maltese, Italian and a few West Indians.

Crime was a way of life for many brought up in this environment. It was passed down through many families. In Peter Wilmott's 'Adolescent Boys of East London' (Pelican 1966) one sixteen year old is quoted 'Look at my family – everyone goes inside from time to time. One of my uncles has just come out after doing six years. Another uncle goes in now and then for three months. Another one is selling stolen goods – he’s been doing that for two years and he aint been caught. He’s making loads of money. It runs like that in the family.'

Soho

The block we lived on had two 'rag and bone shops' (for want of a better word) and a small scrap yard. The scrap yard in particular was always populated with some very 'dodgy' looking characters. As a youngster I would, along with a couple of mates, take out Tiny's barrow (one of the rag and bone men) and make our way around the 'posh' houses up in Highgate and Hornsey collecting for the 'cubs jumble sale' then return loaded with our swag to be rewarded.

Like all young kids we did our share of 'scrumping' and pinching empty pop bottles from the back yards of shops then claiming the deposit around the front. It was de-rigueur for young kids to do a bit of shoplifting. I had my first taste of retribution when I was caught stealing diaries in Boots (maybe I was going to write my memoirs!) and was put over Sister Aggie Joe's knee in front of the whole school and had the leg of my short trousers pulled up and my arse walloped!

It was around the age of seven that I first became involved in a 'gang'. The area had always had several notorious streets that contained a large number of young tearaways (and quite a few older villains). The most notorious was Campbell St (known as Campbell Bunk and demolished in the fifties.) but there were several others including Balmore Street.

'London Born' by Sidney Day (Fourth Estate 2004) describes Balmore St as ‘a street where there was so much vilainry going on, so many drunks and gambling and Gawd knows what, that at night the police only came down in twos. Eveyrone knew it as Tiger Bay’.

It was to the 'Bay' that I drifted. I had a few mates that attended the same school as me and they lived in the Bay. There was nothing to signify that the street was such a den of iniquity. Normal terraced houses with basements and an old mission hall at one end along with a small mews at the other. What the Bay did have was an abundance of families that were involved in crime or at very least living on the fringes.

Several denizens I grew up with went on to engage in a life of serious crime - Sidney Draper* in particular made quite a name for himself.

We did all the normal things that young kids did back then. Football and cricket in the street were the most popular pastimes but every now and again we would go to 'war' with other nearby streets! The local bombsites and derelict houses were the scenes of many battles between the Bay and rival gangs from Doynton St and Raydon St. I remember one big four storey house on a bombsite where we set up headquarters being raided by the combined forces of both enemy gangs but we put them to flight by hurling slates and bricks down on them from the roof!

London bomb site

As we developed into our teenage years we teamed up with other streets and began to congregate around Archway itself where many older teenagers already held court. We had progressed to become part of the Archway mob.

D.M.Downes states in his study 'The Delinquent Solution' (Routledge and Keegan 1966) that 'the first stage of juvenile crime begins about the age 9 or 10 and persists to 14-15, i.e. .from pre to mid adolescence. It involves almost exclusively break-ins and petty larcenies… The second stage begins around 15-16 and persists until 18-19, i.e . from mid to late adolescence. It involves taking and driving away, rowdyism, some violence…' I could not have put it more succinctly!

I had somehow passed my eleven plus and after much praying on my parents part and several interviews I was accepted into St Aloysius College which at that time was a very prodigious Catholic Grammar School. The school was run originally by Christian Brothers and then a teaching order the De La Salle Brothers. I am sure the phrase 'spare the rod and spoil the child' was invented by St. Aloysius or the 'washouse' as it was known! Many of the masters had a sadistic streak running through their veins and I was became very familiar with the headmasters collection of different canes. At one stage I co-erced my mother, who was a dab hand with a needle and thread, to manufacture a padded seat to wear under my trousers. The uniform was a bright red jacket with green piping set off by a red and green cap. It looked wonderful strolling home down the Holloway Road!!

I had continued to get into trouble outside school also. Fighting and thieving had become almost second nature and finally it was agreed that I should leave (or be kicked out!). There are those who will lay the blame for delinquency on environment, upbringing and God knows what else. I have no answer as to why one teenager goes off the rails and another doesn’t. I am sure resentment plays some part. In my case we lived in a poor area less than half a mile from Highgate and Hampstead where many of London’s rich and prosperous choose to live. There is bound to be some degree of 'them and us' when confronted by such prosperity. It is difficult to break out of a poor environment unless you are particularly gifted in some way. Many achieve their goals through sport. I tried boxing and although it was thought I could have achieved some success the dedication involved was more than I was prepared to give. No, it was easier by far to take what I wanted without all the hard work.

I was fifteen years old and the sixties were coming into their own. There were jobs a plenty for those who wanted them. I had fifteen jobs in that first year although to be fair some only lasted a day or two! The shortest, in fact, only lasted two hours! I was now a fully fledged member of the Archway and we ruled our 'manor' ruthlessly. There were strict borders between the various gangs in North London. Our closest rivals were the Highbury and the Somers Town gangs. The Highbury in particular were our sworn enemies and fights and incursions were commonplace.

By now the Mod revolution had taken off and we were quick to embrace this new revolution. We had been brought up in the austere post war years where ‘make do and mend’ was the ethos our parents lived by. Suddenly there was a life for teenagers! Music, Clothes, Clubs were all accessible - all that was needed was money! Most worked for their rewards but I had decided that work was for losers! There were much easier ways of attaining wealth than clocking on at some Dickensian factory. It was important to look the part. This was nothing new as it has long been the case that one had to look the part.

As long ago as 1935 when A.McArthur and H.Kingsley Long wrote 'No Mean City' (relating the tale of the Razor King of Glasgow) they had written -‘vanity is as much a dominant motive in the slums as outside them. Johnnie had little to be proud of except his strong body and reckless spirit. He spent much of his leisure at the Green Gym, and much of his money on his clothes. He was not ill-looking and in the Gorbals men and women too are very much judged by their appearance. A good suit of clothes wins a certain respect for the wearer. His shoes were well polished , a bright ‘tony-red’. In the language of the Gorbals, he was ‘well put-on’.

Reputation was everything. I had taken to carrying a weapon (an axe) and had shown willingness to use it when required. A reported fracas in a local burger bar ended with a guy being injured with an axe. The assailants fled and the injured party was taken to hospital. Some friends of his returned later that evening looking for the offenders. I was ensconced in a local pub when a member of our little fraternity ran into the pub telling us of the incursion. We were not interested but he wanted to go down with a few others to ‘sort them out’. He borrowed some tools including mine and went off to getting himself arrested in the process. This guy was a member of a well known South London family but as soon as he was given a slap in the cells he blamed everybody else and claimed the weapon was mine! I was put on an identity parade where a waiter picked me out (after being advised by the local constabulary!). I found myself on a charge of attempted murder! Of course, by the time the case came to court matters had sorted themselves out. The waiter decided to tell the truth and that he was mistaken and our other ‘friend’ told the court he had simply implicated me in a panic. The case was quite rightly thrown out.

This gained great kudos from my contemporaries but reputations have to be maintained and there were many moments when I came very close to being caught by our adversaries but only on one occasion did I come out on the wrong side of a good hiding when I was ambushed by four members of the 'Tolly Park' ( a small local gang aligned to the Highbury mob). I received a few lumps and a badly scored face where one guy had given me a 'wash and brush up' with a wire brush!!

Having a reputation could as often as not serve as a deterrent to others and if you could enhance that by waving an axe around whilst screaming and shouting threats then that was often enough to put adversaries to flight!

Another of our enemies was The Mars (named after a café on Blackstock Rd) were known for their devious ways. They would park up around a corner where they could keep sight of their enemies and wait for one member to head home. They would then pull up in front of the poor unfortunate and jump out attacking him with hammers. A solid member of the Archway, Jimmy Day ended up in hospital with a fractured skull and several broken bones after one such attack.

Of course, it was not enough to 'talk the talk' - one had to look the part also. The 'look' became all important. The Mohair suit was almost obligatory preferably Tonik and lovingly tailored by the right artisan. In our case this meant Aubrey Morris. ‘Mad Teddy Smith*’ often frequented the Archway as he was related to one of our number and he initially recommended Aubrey as he and several other members of the Kray firm used and if it was good enough for them…

We had started frequenting the clubs in the West End - The Flamingo, La Discotheque, the Marquee and The Scene. Soho in the sixties was very place different from the trendy 'village' it is today. Where nowadays the area is full of bijou restaurants back in the sixties it was full of sleazy clip joints and clubs. The streets were thronged with prostitutes and their punters, pimps, tourists, gangsters and of course Mods. What is now a relatively safe corner of the capital was then a very different proposition. Stabbings and 'stripings' were commonplace. Muggings and beatings were rife whether for cash or drugs or more often where strip joint customers had made a complaint about being ripped off!

The Two Puddings, Stratford

In addition we made forays into the East End. Pubs such as The Green Gate, The Two Puddings, The Ship, The Salisbury all featured live bands. Occasionally we might go for something a little different like The Dueragon (live comedians) or the Top House in Tottenham for drag artists.

Inevitably we began to mix with what I can only term as real villains. Many pubs such the Carpenters Arms, The Blind Beggar, The Grave Maurice in the east End were favoured by the Krays and North London pubs such the Favourite or Duchess of Salisbury (headquarters of the Legal and General gang*) in Hornsey Rise were frequented by some of London’s top villains.

We looked up to these people. They seemed the epitome of cool. Always 'booted and suited' and as often as not sporting Crombie overcoats, hand made shoes and shirts, they seemed to have money to burn and above all they commanded respect (albeit through fear!). It wasn’t long before we began to visit drinking dens (or nightclubs as they were called!) such as The Regency Club, City Club and ill fated Tempo Club*.

We combined the 'gangster look' with our own Mod fashions. Velvet collared overcoats were popular although we fell well short of being able to afford true Crombies. I took to wearing a pork pie trilby. A nice white silk cravat with matching silkie set off the effect nicely. We may not have been able to afford Anello and Davide but we could afford to do the next best thing and shop at Ravel! Looking good cost money and we became increasingly involved in criminal enterprise to support our lifestyle. By now I moved into a small flat in Highgate and had embarked on several small scams locally which brought in enough money to pay the rent and living expenses. I had become ‘friendly’ with the owner of a café on Highgate Hill and was welcomed every day with a slap up steak meal including change of a pound for ten bob! So although we paid for little and had a fairly comfortable life style the lure of the pubs, clubs and the all important ‘look’ required much more. I moved into what can only be described as ‘a little more serious’ criminal activity.

I was an excellent thief and housebreaking was my specialty. We would scour the streets if Highgate, Hampstead and Hendon where the pickings were rich. I often laugh when so-called villains say they never steal from old ladies or ‘their own’! The only reason they do not is because they have nothing worth stealing!! There is little honour amongst thieves and one had t be very careful who you went ‘drumming’ with. I added to my criminal resume with my proficiency as a thief. I was recently reminded by an old colleague that I held some sort of a record for turning over twenty five houses in a week!

A local villain - John Moriarty* - had found a willing supplier of Dexedrine. He purchased several thousand and rather than take the risk of pushing himself he asked us to undertake the task. We spent many happy hours counting and packaging up 'tens' in little envelopes which we duly supplied to hungry recipients 'up West'. Of course the arrangement could not last and after a couple of months the supplier found himself in trouble where he was employed and did a runner.

We had moved on from burglary to raiding 'lock-up' shops. These were small 'stand alone' shops which had no accommodation above or behind. Many of these were tobacconists and usually yielded a good haul which was easily disposed of. Wage snatches were very popular as almost all companies would send a couple of employees around to the local bank to collect the wages in those days. Close circuit was yet to arrive and the police response time was considerably slower than today! Almost all transactions were carried out in cash and milkmen, rent collectors, and 'tally' men were all considered fair game.

London fogs were still quite prevalent and would give an excellent opportunity to carry out 'smash and grabs' when the covering fog would make the risk of being spotted much less and help deaden the noise. We even tried our hand at safebreaking! A little team broke into an office in Highgate and attempted to blow the safe. They were disturbed and were forced to abandon the attempt. The local paper quoted a police inspector as saying that there was enough explosive packed around the safe to ‘blow half of Highgate off the map!!’

There were times, of course, when we let our ‘hair down’ so to speak. On Bank Holidays we would dress in something a little less formal like levis and Fred Perrys. We would catch a train down to Brighton or maybe head up to Hampstead Heath fair. In Brighton we would indulge in mindless violence fuelled by drink and drugs. Mindless rioting was the norm at the expense of any poor unfortunate who happened to get in the way.

Hampstead Fair was similar in that we were simply looking for trouble. As often as not it would be with rival gangs but occasionally a gang of Rockers might put in an appearance and we would all join forces to fight the common enemy.

Most fights were no more than a lot of 'posturing' and we would be put to flight by the local constabulary before any real violence occurred but there were odd skirmishes when blood would be spilled!

Inevitably perhaps, my criminal career came to abrupt end when I was arrested on several counts and ended up at the Old Bailey where I was sent down for Borstal training. I have read several theories that the ‘hard mod’ originated in Detention Centres and Borstals. That is a misguided conception. These institutes were full of Mods and Rockers and everything else in between! The inmates arrived fully equipped with their share of attitude rather than obtaining it whilst inside! I was ensconced in a maximum establishment where we were initially subjected to a harsh regime which was meant to break the spirit of any so called 'hard nuts'. It was very hard, of course. Getting up a six o’clock and running around the snow laden parade ground in vests, shorts and army boots was not my idea of fun!

Of course the Mod population tended to group together. Their similar tastes in music, clothes and lifestyle were a great bonding tool. Obviously it was difficult to maintain an 'appearance' inside but a little tobacco here and a 'bob or two' there ensured that there were decent creases in our trousers and haircuts were neat and tidy rather than ‘basin’ style. Old habits die hard and I was soon involved in several little schemes to make life a little more comfortable!

I was released in 1967 to find that things had changed drastically! Gone were the clubs - many had been closed by the police and others had morphed into psychedelic palaces belting out weird electronic noises and screeching guitar solos! Many Mods had turned their back on their lifestyles and joined the 'flower power' movement. Even the bands I had regarded as heroes had eschewed their roots and taken the road to 'peace and love'!

The street gangs had almost ceased to exist and to my horror I found that many of my compatriots were out drinking with lads from the Highbury Mob! I was mortified. So many former gang members had moved on to other things. A few had settled down with girlfriends, some had moved literally and quite a few more were banged up! The Krays and Richardsons had long gone and most villains seemed to be taking a short hiatus for the moment. In short, most of my former running partners had ‘grown up’. Not me though!

I made a decision to move up to Newcastle where the nightclubs were still in full swing and I could enjoy a few more years of ‘walking the walk and talking the talk!’

So, was there such a thing as a 'Hard Mod'? Well, certainly there were plenty of Mods who could be considered to be 'Hard'. It very much depends on what your conception of the term is. If, as is generally accepted, it means somebody who is able to look after themselves physically then yes, the term certainly has validity. However, if the term is to be applied to a subculture then I would have to disagree. I do not believe there was a specific genre that could be termed thus. The fact is that there have always been gangs of delinquent teenagers. They may have been Teddyboys or Punks in the past or Hoodies today but they do not constitute a culture in their own right. They are simply one small part of a whole rather than a body in their own right.

I know John would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

John is also very kindly sharing this tale of his very eventfull Mod years. The first part of his story can be found here.

The work is the copyright of John Leo Waters. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution.

*John Moriarty became a well known villain in North London. He was involved in several high profile crimes usually involving violence. He was involved in a minor degree with the Legal and General trial. He became involved with drugs and turned supergrass. His testimony put several people behind bars. He disappeared under the witness protection scheme and the story goes that he was ‘found’ some years later in Spain where two men chased him out of a bar where he ‘fell’ under the wheels of a passing lorry and was killed.

*'Wibby' Smith was involved in various criminal activities. He was shot dead in Thailand some years ago by persons unknown.

* Sydney Draper was a member of a well known criminal gang that shot a man dead during a robbery in Scotland. He later made the headlines when he escaped from Gartree prison in a hijacked helicopter. He was recaptured nine months later

* 'Mad' Teddy Smith was convicted of shooting a man called Isaacs back in the day. He was certified insane and spent time in Broadmoor. A long term member of the Kray firm he was a homosexual who figured strongly in the Driberg/Boothby affair. An impeccable dresser he was a very intelligent man who could speak several languages but ‘ could not tell the truth in any of them!’. He helped Frank Mitchell escape from Dartmoor but was rumoured to have fallen out with the twins and 'disappeared'.

*The Legal and General Gang was run by career criminal Reg Dudley. In 1977 he and Bob Maynard were convicted of the murders of two other criminals Billy Moseley and Mickey Cornwall. At one stage the thawing head of Mosely turned up in an Islington public toilet! Their convictions were overturned some years ago.

*The Tempo Club was opened at Highbury Corner by eastender Freddie Fields and was meant to be an 'up market night club'. It was beset with problems from the offset. There was the infamous incident when a very drunk Dorothy Squires was attempting to sing on stage when Jack ‘the hat’ McVitie dropped his trousers in front of stage and offered his services to Dorothy in front of her embarrassed husband Roger Moore sitting side stage! Freddie had several visits from local 'companies' offering insurance and there was an incident when a shotgun was blasted through the door one night. The final straw came when Freddie had an argument with Reggie Kray and he ended up getting shot in the leg. He closed the club down and 'disappeared'.

Once A Mod...

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:54:45 PDT

by John Leo Waters

Well, where to begin? I suppose the best place to start anything is at the beginning. So here we go...

Background

I was born in late 1948 in Archway, North London, the eldest of three boys. My parents were Irish, working class and we lived in rented rooms above a shop. Money was tight and both my parents worked. We were not poor in that we never went hungry but had little in the way of spare money and times were pretty tough. Like so many others in post war years we had the usual luxuries – outside toilet, no hot water, tin bath – Oh the joys of twentieth century living!

The area I grew up in was pretty rough. We lived off the Holloway Road which was a lively place on a Saturday night. Countless Irish pubs would disgorge their contents of big drunken Irishmen onto the street where ‘the fight’ would break out. Lots of ‘rolling up of sleeves’, ‘throwing down of caps’ and ‘squaring up’ before huge roundhouse punches would be delivered. They took so long to land that there was almost time to pop for a pint and get back before they arrived!

I attended a local Catholic junior school run by nuns which was a fairly happy environment (I still have the imprint of headmistress Sister Aggie’s hand on the cheek of my backside!) and then went on to St. Aloysius College in Hornsey, a prestigious school run by a religious teaching order.

It was around the turn of the decade and the world was changing. Post war teenagers were starting to find their feet and question a lifestyle that involved ‘making do’. The dreaded ‘national service’ had been resigned to the history books and Rock and Roll had arrived. The High Street shops were starting to cater to a whole new teenage market. Against this background I suddenly found myself plunged into a world of draconian discipline. The brothers ruled with a rod (or should I say cane!) of iron. Religion was thrust down our throats and while most teenagers were running around in winklepickers we were parading down the Holloway Road in vivid red blazers with pale green piping (to say nothing of the red and green cap!).

I was not enamoured with Latin, the finer points of Shakespeare and classical music left me cold. Inevitably, perhaps the lure of the streets became much more attractive than a stuffy classroom. I seemed to spend most of the time I was in school standing outside the headmasters’ office awaiting his wrath to descend upon me (in the form of a particularly long thin bamboo cane!). Eventually common sense dictated that it might suit my situation a little better if I withdrew from school and went out to work - in other words leave or be expelled!!

So at fifteen, I found myself free of the shackles of a stifling education system. The world was my oyster? Not quite!

The Swinging Sixties

London in the early sixties could be a pretty intimidating place. The Notting Hill riots were still fresh in the minds of a lot of people. Large areas of North, East and South London were under the control of ruthless criminal gangs such as the Krays and Richardsons. Many areas were policed by teenage gangs and the Archway was no different.

The Archway ‘Mob’ was a loose group of perhaps 80 young tearaways. We guarded the borders of our ‘manor’ tenaciously. We were surrounded by bigger gangs such as the Highbury mob, the Mars and the Somers Town gang who were all sworn enemies. Skirmishes were frequent and occasionally full scale incursions would take place. Weapons of choice were hammers, knives and razors. To be caught on another ‘manor’ meant a beating at very least. Evenings would be spent hanging around the tube station or in one of our local cafés. These cafes were always Cypriot owned and a prerequisite were a juke box, a pin ball machine and football table.

The Mod movement had taken hold by this time. A gradual process at first with its origins in the jazz clubs of the early sixties it had slowly built up momentum as the burgeoning ‘baby boomer’ generation came of age.

Countless thousands of young teenagers nurtured on a diet of inane ‘popular’ music were becoming aware of a new type of music originating in the black ghettoes of Chicago, Memphis, Detroit and New Orleans in the USA. It is difficult to determine the exact point of entry chosen by this new music. Certainly there is some credence to the theory that black US servicemen introduced many to this phenomenon in the more enlightened clubs of the capital and the same can be said of visiting seamen in cities such as Liverpool.

In the folk and jazz clubs of London early pioneers such as Chris Barber, Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner were initiating young would be R&B musicians into their magic circle. At the same time Radio Luxembourg began transmitting specifically to this new teenage audience often featuring R&B tracks. By 1963 this revolution in popular music had really taken hold. London was home to countless ‘R&B’ groups and many had started to make some headway into the British charts. The Rolling Stones, Animals, Kinks and the Beatles were all making news and relied heavily on R&B and the infant ‘Soul’ music for most of their repertoire.

The Archway mob embraced this new form of music totally. Raised on a diet of ‘Two Way Family Favourites’ and ‘Workers Playtime’ this new musical form was like manna from heaven. Listening to the Stones and Animals versions of American R&B was fine but it did not take long before we were hunting out the original versions of their covers.

Our eyes were opened to a whole new world of exciting music – Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, exotic names playing raw Blues. We pestered staff in the local Broadmeads or Co-op to order in this new music.

The emphasis began to shift slowly from the earthier R&B to the new sound that was coming out of Memphis and Detroit – Soul music. This was music we could relate to. Brought up in a poor working class environment, we were constantly reminded that we were ‘second class citizens’. The signs in lodging houses ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Pets’ were prevalent. Holloway Road may not have been Watts or Harlem but there were parallels. I believe it was Bob Geldof who said the Irish in the 50’s and 60’s were the ‘blacks of Europe’.

At the same time the powers that be running the clubs in Soho realized that here was a new market waiting to be tapped into. Almost overnight the West End of London was awash with clubs catering to this new audience. The music revolution was not the only major upheaval taking place. It was not enough to be ‘in the know’ as far as musical trends were concerned; we had to look the part also. The new ‘Mods’ felt the need to make a statement with regard to the way they looked.

This new movement took its inspiration from the sharp dressing stars of modern jazz and the Ivy League colleges of the USA. Hipster jeans, tab collar shirts, Fred Perry tops, hush puppies, desert boots, loafers and perhaps the most iconic of Mod accoutrements – the mohair suit. Sourcing clothing was difficult initially. Good tailors were few and far between (all suits had to be hand made!). We were lucky in that Aubrey Morris had a shop at Highbury Corner. A small shop that was almost unnoticeable on a small parade, but to those in the know – this was the place to go! A tiny shop piled high with wonderful colourful bales of cloth. A selection of mohair that could not be surpassed and in Aubrey Morris a true artist worthy of such a classic material.

A suit would take at least a month from initial measurement through two fittings to final completion. Every garment was a labour of love. I never knew anybody to have a complaint about an item of clothing made by Aubrey Morris. Not that Aubrey was shy about singing his own praises!! He was forever telling us of his esteemed clientele and would regale us with tales about several pop singers including Chris Farlowe along with several members of the Kray firm using his services.

Of course, we took all his tales with a pinch of salt. However a couple of years ago I was talking to Chris Farlowe and asked if he had ever heard of Aubrey Morris. Chris immediately went into a soliloquy about a silver grey Tonik suit he had made there! Then again, only six months ago, I was out in Sharm El Sheik and got talking to a chap from Blackburn, who was a bit of a ‘character’, and while talking about tailors the name of Aubrey Morris came up. His eyes glazed over and he related a story of how he was doing some work for a well respected East End family back in the sixties and he mentioned to one of them that he needed a ‘good suit’. He was directed to Aubrey Morris and so impressed was he with the results that he commissioned Aubrey and his son to travel up to Blackburn with some bolts of mohair one weekend where they were met in a local hostelry by the chap with half a dozen friends. They were promptly measured up and Aubrey went back to London. He repeated the process some weeks later for fittings and then the suits were handed over on completion!

Every suit was different in that the finer details would be personally tailored to customers’ demands. The angle and number of pockets, number of buttons on the cuff, length of vent (always a centre vent!) colour and type of lining, width and length of lapel, buttonhole, number of buttons on jacket and trouser width and length (just touching the shoe!), type of rear pocket, was a ticket pocket required, pleats and of course the colour and type of material – all were discussed at length before any decision was arrived at.

The wonderful feeling as I tried on my new two piece petrol blue three ply Tonik mohair suit – the particular attention to detail and the hand stitched finish – perfection. Of course the rest of the accoutrements were just as important. A new white tab collar shirt from Harry Fenton with a pale blue tie and silkie for the top pocket. Perhaps a pair of loafers – black, of course and some blue socks (never white!) would complete the look.

It was not always practical to wear a ‘whistle’ so other more casual outfits were popular. Wrangler or Levi jeans with a Fred Perry top and a pair of hush Puppies or Desert Boots were my favourites for ‘knocking about’. I had a beautiful Prince of Wales check jacket made by Aubrey Morris which really looked the business with jeans.

Fashions came and went. At one stage overcoats were very popular. The Crombie by Dormeuil was the real deal but due to the cost most young mods purchased readily available copies. A trilby with a narrow brim often completed the’look’.

I can remember buying an extremely expensive sky blue denim jacket ‘up west’. Three buttons with a 14 inch centre vent – it was the bees knees. I wore it to a club that night and by morning it was ruined!! Cigarette burns, ingrained dirt and God knows what else consigned it to the bin!! Another style faux pas that I remember was the fashion for wearing a roll neck jumper under a plaid ‘work style’ shirt. As wearing a jumper under a shirt was both expensive and uncomfortable Marks and Spencer had the brilliant idea of stocking a small roll neck that finished at the chest. It simply pulled over ones head – no sleeves – a bit like a breastplate. Excellent idea until I had to go to hospital one night and had to remove my shirt revealing this small piece of ‘rollneck’ jumper sitting on my shoulders! The two young nurses thought it was hilarious!

Of course keeping abreast of the changing styles was a problem. A decent suit would cost around 25 guineas and most young lads would be lucky if they were earning a fiver a week! Almost inevitably the only alternative to young street arabs like us was to turn to more nefarious means to accrue monies. The cost of keeping up with this new found life style was beyond most of us. Clothes, clubs and records – all cost money, so we turned to crime. That is not to say all gang members were criminals (only 99 %!).

We had many ways of making money – some turned to burglary, others to robbery and others to less dangerous occupations. At one stage I was employed to keep ‘doggo’ for street vendors selling Pop art jewellery on Oxford St. This was a nice easy ‘earner’. I simply kept an eye out for ‘Old Bill’ whilst my mate sold the goods out of a suitcase. We met up with our Guv’nor every morning in a café in Soho. He would dole out the material – mainly cuff links, ear rings etc – from the back of his van and off we would go. We were on commission and if caught the worst the seller could expect was a small fine. The only problem was that the material might be confiscated and in that case the debt had to be repaid and the gentleman we were working for was not the type to accept excuses!

Another little scam we had going was working as casual labour for a well known removal company. We had a friend working in the office who would inform us when there might be a lucrative job due. We would queue up outside in the morning and make sure we were picked for the right trip. The pay was 50 bob a day (£2.50 in modern money) but the pay was of little consequence. One of the better jobs was moving a small workshop to West London. They specialized in silver plating ladies dressing table sets (all quality stuff). We made a nice killing on that particular job!! We were never too greedy though as one had to be careful or we might get no more work!

We had all kinds of schemes going – another one was Record Vouchers. A young lady I knew worked in the record department of a well known electrical shop and she would supply us with large books of vouchers. We travelled all over London exchanging vouchers for Lp’s which we had on order from customers at half price. That lasted for a couple of months until the unfortunate young lady got the sack! Of course a lot of the shenanigans we got up to were much more serious such as smash and grabs (the London smog had its advantages!) and shop breaking...

John is very kindly sharing this tale of his very eventfull Mod years. In the next part he will be talking about the clubs, the drugs and his continuing brushes with the law...

The work is the copyright of John Leo Waters. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution.

I know John would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

10 Commandments of Mod

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:48:54 PDT

(I had a go at writing a '10 Commandment s of Mod' - it was aimed at newer mods but I wouldn't suggest anybody takes it too seriously)

1 A WAY OF LIFE

Mod is not just for the weekend - it's how you live your life - it's everyday - it's a way of life!

2 BE SUSSED

Don't just say you're a mod - make sure you know the score - find out what it's all about (the music, the style, the culture etc) and be sussed.

3 GET CONNECTED

Dont confine yourself to being a mod in front of a computer screen - there's no point being the coolest guy or girl in town if you're the only one who knows it! Get to know other mods - get involved in the mod scene and, if there is no scene, create one!

4 GET NOTICED

A mod is someone who wants to be different - don't blend in with the crowd - stand out - be prepared to look different and get noticed.

5 THE DETAILS

It goes back to being sussed - check out images of mods (look at record sleeves, books, online) look at the coolest guys in those pictures - notice how they button their jackets, how they wear their trousers, how they stand, the way they walk...there are things that are just right and the mod look is as much about the details as the design.

6 YOU NEED WHEELS (well, you don't really)

You don't need a scooter to be a mod but it certainly looks good if you do and, as with everything else, you want to get it right (see commandments 2, 4 & 5) - make sure it stands out and ride it the mod way...you know the score!

7 LET YOUR HEART DANCE

For mods, music is key and, whether its blaring horns, the velvet sound of strings or a wild guitar and drum beat, embrace it with your soul and let your heart dance!

8 STAY ONE STEP AHEAD

If it ever looks like something is getting too popular or becoming commercialised - drop it and find something new. Always stay one step ahead of the rest.

9 CREATE

When you're young there's 1,000's of new ideas in your head all the time (even us older mods have an idea, occasionally). Don't waste these ideas - use them - form a band, make a film, start a blog, write poetry, take pictures, create art...

10 IGNORE THESE COMMANDMENTS

Forget all these bloody commandments (especially this one) and make your own - or better still have no rules at all. Just be a mod, do anything you wanna do - do it anyway, anyhow, anywhere - and have fun!

Rob The London Mod

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:23:26 PDT

Robert Nicholls is one of the originals, a true face of the London Mod scene. Although he left Britain in the early '70s he has never forgotten his time as a London Mod in the 60's and wishes to share those memories with other aged Mods (like himself) or younger people who find Mod styles interesting. Here is part of his story (the second part is here):

Robert Nicholls

Rob the London Mod

"I am in the process of writing about the time when I was a London Mod. I can claim with some justification to have been a Face. I saw musicians like Rod Stewart, the Stones, and the Who (High Numbers) in small West End clubs. Although these acts later came to fill arenas, in those days there were only a couple of dozen people in the audience. As a Mod, I focused on clothes, music and dancing as a means of socializing with peers. In April 1963 I bought my Vespa GS Scooter secondhand. It was silver grey and I kept it plain without the multiple mirrors and decals that some scooter boys added. Instead, I attached a large mud flap at the back which reached the road. My piece de resistance was the exhaust system which consisted of twin chrome pipes, 1 1/2 inches in diameter which provided a lovely throaty drone like a Second World War bomber. I was fined for excessive noise more than once. In November 1964 my scooter was stolen and although it was later recovered it had been repainted and stripped and was a right-off."

Clothes:

My pursuit of fashion began early. Like Rod Stewart I failed the "eleven plus" and left school at fifteen. At that time I emulated Teddy Boy fashions favouring a Mississippi gambler look with a drape jacket and a homemade bootlace tie. Around October 1962, I changed my style. Before the term "Mod" was used to describe a distinctive youth faction we went through a pre-mod or maybe a "Modernist" phase. This involved collarless Pierre Cardin style jackets and flared trousers. But by 1964, I was wearing "parallels," shorter length trousers which fell three inches or so short of the shoe. They hung straight and were neither flared nor pegged, hence the name. I often wore linen or tweed sports jackets with deep vents, and shirts with Nehru collars, light woollen Fred Perry shirts, and lightweight sweaters.

Compared to later Carnaby Street and flower power fashions, Mod styles were not particularly outrageous but usually consisted of minor adaptations to established styles. Because we were innovating it wasn't possible to find suitable clothes off the peg, instead we had them tailor made. The most exaggerated modification involved the collar style and the width or length of the trousers. At any given time we conformed to the overall Mod look of the era, but would express our individuality by incorporating variations on the theme. For example, while other scooter boys commonly wore long army Parkas, I wore a short black oilskin coat from Army Surplus with a black beret. By 1964, Mods liked chunky shoes and desert boots became popular. I had a pair of matte black shoes in soft leather with thick crepe souls; their shape was not dissimilar to the brothel creepers of the Teddy Boy era. Because black shoes become invisible in dimly lit clubs, I accentuated them by fitting them with white shoe laces; moreover the laces also drew attention to my dance steps. Before long I found other Mods were also wearing white laces. Furthermore, the Hush Puppy shoe brand who was marketing suede shoes to Mods at the time, started to sell them not only with laces in white, but in pink, green and other colours. For a while I had a great pair of red woollen socks that I found at a quaint shop that had the word "Rock 'n' Roll" woven into them in yellow and green.

The Scene Club in Soho:

Rob with GS

Ronan O'Rahilly, Georgie Fame's and Graham Bond's manager opened the Scene Club in March 1963 and it closed in 1966, spanning the mod era. The décor left much to be desired. It was dimly lit with a low ceiling and an undersized stage. Along the far wall there were some cubicles with tables. A small bar offered Coca Cola and whisky and coke. In May 1963, O'Rahilly hired Guy Stevens to serve as an R&B deejay to liven-up poorly attended Monday nights. The fact that Chris Farlow, Georgie Fame, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Animals all played at the Scene, was not what secured its status as Mod central; it was Stevens' record sessions that attracted interest, he had an ear for music and his talent was knowing where to locate the most exciting American R&B around and sharing them. We knew what we liked when we heard it! In 1956, when I was twelve, nobody had to sell me on Little Richard's good points. When he sang "Long Tall Sally" in the movie Don't Knock the Rock it spoke directly to my soul and gave me goose bumps. Guy Stevens had a similar epiphany when he attended a Jerry Lee Lewis concert in 1958, and it was the same for others of our generation. For me, becoming a Mod was virtually synonymous with discovering great R&B, and later West Indian Bluebeat and Ska. At that time the imported R&B Guy Stevens played was the best, tightest, most soulful and most danceable music around; a motherload of music as yet unappreciated outside of the communities that produced it. Many British musicians, who performed, covered or copied Black American R&B got their material from him. In July 1964, Fontana released, "I'm the Face" by the High Numbers who Pete Meaden was promoting as the first authentic Mod band. Meaden simply put new words to Slim Harpo's, "Got Love If You Want It."

Music:

If I could pick two tracks which for me are emblematic of The Scene in its heyday they would be Ike & Tina Turner's "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (release date 1961) and James Brown's instrumental "Night Train" (1962). Although neither are included on the 2004 CD compilation, The UK Sue Label Story: The World of Guy Stevens (2004, Ace Records, London, CHD 1001), the album nevertheless provides a worthy sample of records played at the Scene around 1964 and includes an informative booklet as well. Comparing the CD to Guy Stevens' The Sue Story! LP record album released in the mid-1960s (Sue ILP 925) which only has sixteen tracks in contrast to the CD's twenty-six, it can be noted that the LP includes "Night Train" and Bob and Earl's "Harlem Shuffle," another Scene favorite, but these are omitted from the CD. Both albums contain up-tempo and soul-leaning R&B, while Steven's early tenure at The Scene featured more blues oriented R&B and out-and-out R&R. This evidenced by a 1963 ad for a Monday evening "Rhythm & Blues Record Session," which states: "Listen or dance to records by - Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Larry Williams, The Coasters, and many other R and B artists." In addition to these, I also remember blues-oriented numbers such as Slim Harpo's "King Bee" (1957), Lazy Lester's "I'm a Lover Not a Fighter" (1958), Buster Brown's "Fannie Mae" (1959), and Louisiana Red's, "It was a Dream," (1965), a topical song that addressed the Cuban missile crisis. In addition, Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog" (1963), was ultra-danceable as was Major Lance's brooding "Monkey Time" (1964). "You Beat Me to the Punch" was a sultry but punchy ballad by Mary Wells (1962) while Doris Troy's "Just One Look" (1963) had a soaring and majestic quality. Records popular in my later days at The Scene included Bobby Bland's "Turn on Your Love Light" (1961), Tommy Tucker's "Hi-Heel Sneakers" (1964) and Alvin Cash and the Crawlers' "Twine Time" (1963). Of course, this is just a representative sample and I have deliberately excluded "Smokestack Lightning" by Howlin' Wolf (original release date 1956), "Tell Him" by the Exciters (1962), "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen (1963); and "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MG's (1964) because they became pervasive club hits in the early-mid 1960s and entered the British charts.

Dances:

Although some of the dances we did at The Scene were individual expressions, many were adaptations of America dances that had caught on. Apart from the early Twist and the later Funky Chicken, few knew their names but they provided a structure within which to improvise and add freeform elements. Good dancing was appreciated and virtuoso dance steps might be imitated and become the vogue for weeks at a time. Whether it was The Scene's doing or simply the work of individuals, for a while, French chalk or talcum powder was dusted on the dance floor to make it more slippery and better for dancing because it gave less resistance to dancing feet. Later, swaying movements and soulful shrugs were incorporated into our dances, but in the early days dynamic dances with a lot of verve seemed to be the norm. Later, coinciding with the R&B acts that toured England, there was a more conscious adoption of Black American dances. During our visit to Norwich clubs in 1965 we learned the Jerk and the Swim from Black GI's who were stationed on nearby American bases and would visit Norwich for weekend amusement.

The Block, the Bang, and the Face Twist were home grown dances developed by the Mods at The Scene. The Bang had a sideways swaying movement with legs kicking out side-to-side. The "bang" part was when one leg shot straight out to the side while the other foot stamped on the floor providing a loud percussive accentuation of the rhythm it was performed by both males and females, but seemed to be favoured by girls, possible because their "granny shoes" had a solid heel which served this purpose well. I saw the Block on occasions at the Scene but never tried to dance it. It refers to the Mods' use of Purple Hearts which was known as getting "blocked." The Block was the dance of an intoxicated Mod "blocked" on Purple Hearts. I'm not suggesting that one had to be on speed to dance the Block, it was more in the form of a parody. I remember one young man giving an impromptu dance display and a space was cleared for him. The dance had a basically upright posture and consisted of a rhythmical but somewhat spasmodic movement of the legs and arms, crossing of the legs, twisting the torso and spinning around occasionally with lurches off to the side as if about to topple over, legs buckling but never collapsing. No announcement of the dance or its name was made, or if it was it was drowned out by the music, but we got the message loud and clear. The Face Twist was popular at the Scene and elsewhere around 1963-64. It was based on the regular Twist, but done much slower, leaning forward and with one arm extended forward with the hand in a thumbs up position, and swaying the rump from side to side. It was performed by both males and females and was very stylish and you had to have a lot of self-confidence to do it

(the second part of Rob's story can be found here)

Photo 1: Portrait taken in 1964.

Photo 2: What was left of my Vespa GS after it was recovered. I wanted a historical record before I discarded it. Although snapped in February 1965, for the photo I am wearing the clothes I wore soon after I bought it in April 1963. These consist of a short box-shaped, double-breasted jacket worn over a "Pedro" tee shirt with horizontal stripes, and Levi jeans. My hair is layered with long sideburns and the pompadour look of my Mod days.

This work is the copyright of Robert Nicholls, Ph.D. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution.

I know Rob would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

Rob is also interested in publishing his memoirs and would like to hear from anyone with any advice or with an interest in publishing them.

Brighton Mod Weekend 2010

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:47:29 PDT

Brighton 2010 - where to begin?!? How about 8pm Friday and heading down to the Coaltion to see The Chords - the first person we meet is Rob Bailey outside handing out flyers for the New Untouchables weekend - aparently there's a mod thing going on... First band, The Universal, look the part and knock out some fine Welleresque tunes but the weekend doesn't really start til The Chords hit the stage and blow the crowd away - for a band that last played together 30 years ago, they certainly are tight.

Luckily it's only a short stroll along the prom (passed the zero tasters and drunken wasters littering the streets) onto the Mod nirvana of Volks. We step through the doors to be immediately hit by the amazing size and style of the crowd within which, it turns out, is a good indication of the weekend as a whole. The place is completely crammed, the dancing and music are spot on - it's a mod thing!

On Saturday we do the Quadrophenia thing (you've got to). Up the alley - Beach Cafe - couple of drinks and we're on our way. Having seen scooters go by all day we head down to Volks where the gleaming chromed Italian machines are lined up all along the road - with the pier as the back drop and mod characters all around this is Quadrophenia for real! Two bands played on Saturday, The Faithkeepers and Peppermint Beat Band, both off whom had the crowd jumping and both included excellent versions of some real classics and, for me, The Faithkeepers were a band I would definately want to see again.

Saturday night starts off inside The Dorset - and outside The Dorset and, as the street gets so busy, we take over the pub across the road too. It's suits - smart suits - very, very smart suits - all around. The chat is great, meeting new people from all over Europe, young mods and old. And those younger guys - they get it so right - really sharp dressers!

Then, for those with tickets it's onto the Komedia. Quite a few people are unfortunate enough to turn up without a ticket - they don't have a chance to get in. The place is packed (and it's a good sized club too) but you couldn't have squeezed any more in.

If the guys in the pub had looked good in their suits then the mod girls in Komedia look absolutely fantastic! You think to yourself that girl looks good, then you pass another, and another, and you realise the place is full of class mod girls! And the music is great - best of all when the crowd tears it up to the ska. Of course it gets hot - very hot - I dont think there's a mod club in this country that actually has ventilation?!?

If you were down in Brighton and you survived Friday and Saturday then you did well 'cause the best is yet to come! Come Sunday, after taking a few more Quadrophenia shots around town, we headed down to Volks to catch up with all the good, good people. Some only came down for the Sunday - no harm in that - and the weekend was all the better for seeing them - hello Mark and Lou! And with even more scooters on display in the glorious Sunday sunshine and a mixture of mods from the 60's to the present day it made for a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Sunday night in Brighton and every pub on North Street is mod happy - the Komedia had an extra room open so even more could be packed in - even then there were still some left outside. With the larger room playing pure soul and the smaller pure mod - the music, wall to wall, was amazing! (I cant remember the names of all dj's during weekend but Glasgow's supergirls Holly and Sarah, as well as Ginger Taylor and the live wire Jamie Parr were among those keeping the crowd very happy).

Some of us decided to head back to Volks on monday morning for a farewell drink. You could easily have thought the mod weekend hadn't finished the day before as there appeared to be as many scooters around on monday as there had been the rest of the weekend - and this was even before the guys heading back from the IOW showed up.

There's some grafitti in Jimmy's alley saying 'Bring Back The Mods' - well, we all know that they've never gone away - and on the evidence of this Brighton weekend they are not only still around but have as healthy a scene today as at any time in the last 30 years. No trouble, no wasters - just mods out to have a good time, look good and listen to good music. The scene's out of sight!

Glasgow Mods Weekender 2011

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:15:55 PDT

MODS! Over 400 of them filed into the Balcony Bar of Strathclyde Uni for Saturday night of the 9th annual Glasgow Mods Weekender, making it one of the biggest nights in the history of the event - and the number of young, very sharply dressed mods among them is a sure indication of where this event is going.

Significantly, in addition to the large number of youngsters who turned up this year, there was a big increase in the number who travelled from outside Glasgow - including the very large group from Northern Ireland. Whether you were actually born in Glasgow or not, when you show up at the mod weekend you become one of the gang and the Belfast guys and girls have become a big part of the scene.

One outstanding highlight of the weekend was the performance by Big Boss Man. Their fantastic 'heavy Hammond hybrid of pop, 6T's R'n'B / Latin soul and funk' could fire up an empty room so, in the absolutely heaving cavern of McChuills, it became like a furnace of sound, sweat and soul as they tore through their set list. Go out and buy their fantastic cd, Full English Breakfast, right now!

As always, Sunday night was a scene of mod mayhem - one long time Friday Stree regular was found wandering aimlessly around looking for the toilets...and the shenanigans on the dancefloor were positively maniacal as dj's dug out dusty tracks from their collections which probably haven't seen the light of day since the 80's!

As well as providing a perfect introduction for new faces to the mod scene, the Glasgow Mods Weekender has always been a place to meet old friends and every year more and more old faces appear to take part in the 'friendship update'. With great poignance, the last song of the last night was dedicated to one old friend, Wee Garfield, who sadly passed away this year and to whom a special Friday Street 11th Anniversay night will also be dedicated on 29 July.

Congratulations must go, once again, to the Friday Street team for their dedication to the cause and what Mikey says was 'the best weekender in 9 years' - roll on the 10th Anniversary!

The Who, The Mods and the 60s

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:35:22 PDT

by Irish Jack

I went to London when I was 17 years old. Re-emigrated, really. I lived in London as a child with my mum. Her and my dad were always breaking up. He was a classically trained violinist and saxaphone player but was too fond of the Guinness. We lived there while I was a year old in 1944. The bombs were dropping and half the Irish were running out of England but my old lady was running in the opposite direction. We lived in Hampstead with a bunker in the back garden. Then we went back to Cork for a few years and when I was 17, in August 1960, I re-emigrated. This time, to the centre of the universe: my beloved Shepherd's Bush. I lived in Askew Road around the corner from the Goldhawk Club. I lived with my aunt and uncle Carrie and John Sears and my cousin Janice. My aunt and uncle were very protective of me and he didn't want me hanging around the tea stalls of Shepherd's Bush Market so my uncle marched me down to the Youth Employment Centre on Shepherd's Bush Green and I started as a postboy in the London Electricity Board on 24th August, two weeks after I arrived. So my first job was as a postboy in 1960 which is the job Jimmy did in Quadrophenia. Fifty years later, I'm a postman.

"Hello Jack from Shepherd's Bush, I'm Pete from Ealing."

In 1962, when I was 19, I went to my first ever dance with a live band (up to then I'd only been to school record shops back in Cork). My cousin Joey Wagner told me about this little dance hall called Boseleys in Faroe Road in Shepherd's Bush where they had a dance band on Saturday nights. I knew my aunt and uncle wouldn't allow me to go to a dance so I told them I was going to the Odeon in High Street Kensington. I walked across the 'Bush to Faroe Road looking like a man on a mission. My get up was a pair of winkle-picker shoes, a pair of Prince of Wales check trousers (narrow), a shirt, a collarless cardigan with wooden buttons, a white Colombo-shorty mac and, on my head, was perched the inevitable green Robin Hood hat complete with a mandatory feather.

All I was short of to complete the look of perfection was a pair of black spectacle frames a la Hank B. Marvin. ‘Cos Hank B. Marvin was bloody God at the time...long long before Eric Clapton got wind of him. So, it's 1962, May, I think, and I walk up the little steps of Boseleys and I pay three shillings and six-pence admission. I looked around the big ballroom and there were 32 people in there – 37 if you counted the band. This place was huge and the stage was colossal – you could have had your own dance on the stage! The band had elected to come down and play on the dance floor. People were jiving and doing the twist. I was standing there looking at everybody else enjoying themselves while I stood on my own, like a born loner.

At the time, I had four main complexes about myself, which had been building up inside me. I'd been working for two years as a postboy at the London Electricity Board and what I discovered as soon as I started there was that anytime someone would ask me my name, I'd say "Jackie", which is a boy's name in Ireland. But in London, I'd get a funny look and someone would say in that Cockney accent: "Jackie? No, that's a girl's name. Your name's Jack!" So I'd be "Jack" all day at work and as soon as I'd get home my aunt would ask "How did you get on at work today, Jackie?" Trust me, I didn't know who I was. The other complex was my hair. It's gone straight and grey now ‘cos I'm in my 60s but back then when I was 19 it drove me to despair. It was like a coiled spring, as curly as Art Garfunkel. I used to dip my head in a sink of cold water and my hair would be straight for a couple of hours. My aunt was always complaining about wet towels all over the bathroom. My third complex was my height. I reckoned I was a fucking midget at five foot seven. My dad was short like a whippet and so was everyone else in my family, but I would have given anything to be six feet tall. My fourth complex was my accent. When I started at the London Electricity Board everybody started calling me "Taffy", thinking I was from Wales ‘cos the Cork accent sings. That was a big thing in my life. I remember when I went on to Corona Academy drama school in Chiswick my tutor asked me one day, "Why are you trying to sound English? You have a lovely Irish accent." I could've said, "Try speaking like that mate in the Flamingo up West," but I didn't bother. I don't think he'd have understood.

The Detours

So, there I was standing at the side of the dance floor in this run down ballroom in Shepherd's Bush called Boseleys and wondering why in God's name I had decided to come into this place with my quad-fold complexes. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself as all loners of 19 would do and then I discovered it took as much courage to collect my coat and leave as it had taken me to come in. I was waiting for the right moment to make my exit and found myself kind of focusing on this guy in the band. The band were wearing dark funeral suits with white shirts and ties and three-cornered cardboard hankerchiefs in their top pockets. They were really very much like a kind of Shadows Mark 111 and they played everything by them and did the dance steps as well. I didn't know anything about them but discovered shortly after that they were in fact a wedding band called The Detours. The singer who looked like Cliff Richards was called Colin Dawson and he worked for a wine company. The bass player was John Entwistle who worked as a tax officer in Acton. He also played trumpet. The lead guitarist was Roger Daltrey who worked as a sheet metal apprentice in Shepherd's Bush. He also played the trombone. The drummer was Doug Sandom who worked as a brick layer in Acton. And the fifth member was Pete Townshend who played a jumbo rhythm guitar and who had just started at Ealing Art College.

This was the bloke who I found myself focusing on. He was tall. I wanted to be tall. He had straight hair. I wanted straight hair. He had a nose, or a trowel, that resembled Rembrandt's beret. I remember zeroing in on him and studying him thinking, "If I had a nose like that it would be a weapon. People would be so busy looking at it they would forget all about my name, my height, my accent and my hair. That moment has always stayed with me. It was like a piece of mystical light when I found myself looking at the real me. I couldn't wait for the dance to finish with the excitement in me. And when everyone had loped off into the night I crossed the floor to this guy with the nose and just put my hand out and declared, "Hello. I'm Jack from Shepherd's Bush." He looked at me amused and in that funny kind of Cockney manner he said, "Hello Jack from Shepherd's Bush, I'm Pete from Ealing." He was Pete Townshend from Ealing Common, and that was 49 years ago.

Meaden was the ace face...

So, that was 1962...but Mod for me happened a year later in the summer of 1963. There were stylists around in 1962. People like Marc Bolan – Mark Feld from Stamford Hill as he was then – did a lot of modelling in Town magazine. Early in ‘63 I'd already been to the Goldhawk Social Club to see Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages and, of course, the early Who. They'd dropped their Cliff Richards-type singer, Colin Dawson, and Roger Daltrey had stopped playing lead guitar to concentrate on vocals. They'd decided to do this after supporting Eddie Kidd & The Pirates at St Mary's Hall in Hotham Road in Putney where I used to go on a Sunday night. When they saw the four-man power of the Pirates and Mickey Green (their lead guitarist), that's when they went from being a wedding band to a beat group. Pete Townshend had taken over lead guitar and things were beginning to look serious. By 1964, a friend of mine who was at art college with Pete (Richard Barnes, widely known as 'Barney', who had thought of the name Who and who later went on to write the MODS! book) ran the Railway Hotel in Harrow-and-Wealdstone.

The Who had a Tuesday night residency and I used to go there with my Mod friends from Hammersmith. Then Peter Meaden came along and in late June he changed the name of the band to The High Numbers but we still carried on with the residency.

There's no doubt about it, Meaden was the ace face. You couldn't get any more Mod than him. The only thing that Peter Meaden didn't have was hair. Well, he did have hair but it was terrible. It was sort of half curly and, to be honest, not very Mod. But he was the geezer to be seen with. What I liked about him was the speed of his life – even talking to him it was like he was excited to be born. The pills made him speak like an American DJ at a hundred miles an hour – sort of clipped, and everyone was, of course, 'bay-bee'.

Goldhawk Social Club

He lived his life a word, a sentence, a style, a dance step ahead of us all. He told everyone that he lived in a tiny room in Monmouth Street, which was in London WC2. And that was flash. When you asked most people where they lived, they might have said Acton and that was W3, or say, Hammersmith W6 and so on, but Meaden knew that Monmouth Street WC2 was different to everywhere else and that's what made him the ace face. He lived in a tiny cramped room, he had a sleeping bag instead of a bed, he had a filing cabinet – I mean, what did he need a filing cabinet for with nothing in it? But a filing cabinet was the thing to have if you were Peter Meaden. He had an ironing board and his prized collection of Sue records. And he had a Dansette record player and a box of tea bags and a kettle. That was all you needed back then if you were the ace face. I fell out with him on one occasion. Here's what happened: Meaden approached me one Friday night in the bar of the Goldhawk Social Club and said, "You know this new single 'I'm The Face' which we've (The High Numbers) just released? Well, I'll give you a dozen copies. You go down Shepherd's Bush Market tomorrow and if you sell them I'll give you a commission. They'll go like hot cakes." I was already under his spell. I wasn't "Jackie" any more; this was the real me: "Jack, the local Mod."

Anyway, he gave me the dozen copies of 'I'm The Face' and the next day it was a boiling hot Saturday in July. I felt like a bit of a promoter or band manager as I took up my pitch in the middle of the market walk-through. This was a really hip thing to be doing. This was going to be a doddle. A little Mod face selling records for my friends The High Numbers. It was exhilarating and a bit like being on speed except that as the afternoon wore on, and after three hours, I still hadn't sold a single copy. Soon it went from being a hip bit of posturing to a big depression. By half-past five I had sold three copies. It was so soul destroying. I thought nobody cares, nobody bloody believes in this great band The High Numbers. When I met Meaden down the Goldhawk that Saturday night he looked positively wrecked. Not from a come down but literally out on his feet from exhaustion. He'd been all over London trying to sell the single to shops who'd mark it down as a sale and hopefully get it into the lower reaches of the chart. There were certain record shops who'd take a bribe and exaggerate your sales – that's how it worked in those days.

When I told him I'd only sold three copies in the whole afternoon, his jaw dropped. And then he buried his head in his hands when I told him the nine unsold singles were not with me but back at my aunt and uncle's flat. He asked me if I would go home and get them. I told him I couldn't but I would give them to him the following week. Then he very unwillingly handed me a little brown envelope that looked like a factory wage packet. I opened it up to discover that Peter Meaden's "commission" was not crispy English sterling notes but a supply of fucking leapers.

At the time I used to keep all my Who flyers and posters in my bedroom. My aunt Carrie was always going on about not tidying my room, so as soon as I'd usually hear her approach armed with her feather duster I'd scoop everything off the floor and hide it down the back of my uncle's piano, which was strategically placed at the bottom of my bed. I'd usually remember to retrieve everything after she'd gone, but on this occasion I forgot.

A week later, I got home from work and headed into my bedroom to change my clothes. In the corner was a big space where the piano used to be. I walked into the kitchen and asked aunt Carrie what happened to the piano. She looked at me and said, "Oh listen, uncle John is going to be so pleased when he comes home..." I looked at her a bit speechless as she continued, "a rag and bone man called this afternoon and took away the piano, so now we'll have room for uncle John's new electric organ". I was dumbfounded. Stuck down the back of the piano were dozens of flyers for The High Numbers and the earlier Who now worth a small fortune AND nine mint copies of 'I'm The Face' on the Fontana label. Jesus wept! Meaden was convinced I'd sold all the singles and conned him out of his money. He didn't speak to me for ages after that. So that's what happened. Steptoe & Son had a bloody field day.

Being a 60s Mod…

Back then, what was regarded as bad table manners was turning up at a dance wearing a Parka if you didn't own a scooter. It was unthinkable. There might have been the exceptions that did it to try and get off with a girl by giving her the impression they could drive her home on their scooter. But it was a practice frowned upon. And Parkas didn't have anything written on the back, none of that happened until about '78 or '79. And we didn't wear any badges either. We were a pure styled movement. I think what's really a bit silly in retrospect is how the original Mod history seems to have got appendages over the years, like the Avengers for instance – they had nothing to do with Mod. And James Bond – all that is “designer” Mod.

We appear to be fascinated by the 60s, but nobody talks about the '70s or '80s. Yet the 60s seem to be an epoch with so many different reference points – in many ways, it appears to have been the longest decade we've lived through. Somebody says to me, “Do you remember the 60s?” And it's like, “Hang on, what part are you talking about? Are you talking about Woodstock '69? ‘66 when England won the World Cup? ‘63 when President Kennedy was shot and we had the Cuban missile crisis? Or ‘62 when I met the Detours?” Whenever one of my kids starts asking me, "Dad, what's all this about the 60s?" I just have to smile and say, “which part of the 60s do you mean?” You could say that the Mod era lasted from '63 to '65, maybe it dipped into '66, but I was still walking around dressed up as a Mod in '67. I've got this great love inside me for the Small Faces. I don't know why but way back then they were regarded as The Who's rivals, yet Ronnie Lane who I got to know was a huge admirer of Pete Townshend and The Who. I just wish the Small Faces were still around. If you listen to their music, some of it is so old English music hall – almost a backdrop to Charles Dickens’ Fagin and all his little pickpockets earning their keep in the East End markets. Without the Small Faces a lot of things wouldn't have happened. I've got a commissioned piece called 'History' in Paolo Hewitt's book The Sharper Word and I'm so proud of that.

Getting back to the Mods: they lived on the edge. Mods were effeminate, girls in a way became a bit more masculine. You had to have a certain amount of effeminacy to be a Mod. I didn't have a problem with that. I did have a problem with sex – I wasn't very good at it. I always lacked confidence. I could talk to a girl all night as long as it was about being a Mod or about Pete Townshend. But when it came to ABC sex, I was terrified. I couldn't do it.

Irish Jack with Maureen

Whenever I meet young Mods today they seem to have a batch of target questions for me. And some of them are, I dunno, disappointed? Surprised? When I tell them that I wasn't at Brighton. It's like if you weren't at Brighton on that appointed day on May 17 1964 then you couldn't have been a genuine Mod. And that is very ridiculous. It's true that most of the young Mods I meet are more interested in WHY I wasn't at Brighton, and the reason why is a lot more interesting than not being there. Brighton?... Of course I wasn't at Brighton. I was doing a much better thing. All those poor blokes trying to keep warm in damp sleeping bags on the beach? I was at Penge with this adorable girl trying to get her in between the sheets. Her parents had gone away for the weekend and I'd gone over there with a stack of blues albums under my arm and a few bottles of brown ale thinking “paradise, here I come!” I felt sorry for some of my mates from the Goldhawk Club who told me they were heading for Brighton and there I was with this fantastic looking girl. I'd been there for about two hours and everything was looking promising, as they say. Then the phone in the hallway erupted into life and it was her old man to say their caravan had been kicked to shit, and her parents were on their way back. That moment ruined everything. She became very concerned about her parents and I just felt like a spectator to this unraveling tragedy. I went into a kind of sulk and didn't speak for a while. She switched the telly on and there were news reports about all the trouble in Brighton. I was sitting there watching it and I thought, "Fuck me, what am I doing here? I should be down there with my friends." Me going over to Penge, now that was what an ace face did. Only it didn't work out for me as planned. And anyway, a real ace face thought more of his suit and brogues than getting into a soppy fight. And a real ace face wouldn't dream of sleeping on the beach at Brighton. He would've booked himself into the Grand Hotel and ordered a carton of leapers for breakfast.

As soon as I left her house that night, I knew she wouldn't speak to me again. I was devastated. So bad that I jumped the ticket barrier and rode all the way up to Hammersmith without a ticket. When I got to the ticket collector it was some old codger looking really pissed off ‘cos he had to work on the Bank Holiday. I proffered sixpence into his hand. He looked at me and asked, "Where'd you get on mate?" I said the first place that came into my head, "West Brompton." He looked at me with a sneer and said, "That's strange, ‘cos West Brompton's usually closed on Sundays." I looked at him and just made a run for it. I got to the exit and turned round at shouted back at him like a madman, "Brighton, mate. That's where I got on... fucking Brighton!" Then with half a dozen blues albums under me arm I ran like the romantic idiot I have always been down Shepherd's Bush Road. The helpless dancer. Is it me for a moment?

Kit Lambert christens me "Irish Jack"

Kit Lambert

Yes, Kit Lambert christened me "Irish Jack". The band were actually calling me "Irish Jack" before I became aware of it. My first experience of being called "Irish Jack" was in the bar at the Goldhawk Club. Some geezer came up to me and asked: "Are you 'Irish Jack?’" "Yeah," I said, "I'm Irish." Then he turned to his friend and said, "There y'are, I told you he was "Irish Jack". I was listening in to this so I said to the geezer, "I thought you told me your name was Tom? I didn't know you were Jack?" The geezer looked at me like I had two heads. "You taking the piss?" he asked. We were staring back at each other and there was a bit of tension. Then Kit Lambert came up and said, "Irish Jack, will you hand out some flyers for me?" I said okay and then suddenly the penny dropped. I was Irish and my name was Jack. So I was "Irish Jack". Kit Lambert was a hero of mine but again, like Meaden, his hair was terrible. Chris Stamp had fantastic hair, like something out of Brideshead Revisited. Lambert was intense. I knew he was homosexual but I was raised by broad-minded parents.

I'd seen Kit Lambert become the butt-end of a lot of homophobic jokes and snide comments ‘cos some of the Goldhawk lot could be unmerciful. But Lambert had a tongue like a rapier and I'd seen him cut a lot of people down to size. He was no pushover and he had a command of the English language: he'd use certain words and make an image become real. He was the son of the English composer, Constant Lambert, and his godmother was the famous ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn. He also went to Trinity at Oxford. When I used to be in Townshend's company during that time I'd be in awe of him. Even before he was anyone and attending Ealing art college he was my hero. When I met him I knew straight away that I wanted to be just like him. I loved him as a person. I would've given anything to be tall like him with straight hair and playing a Rickenbacker guitar in the only band that ever mattered. Townshend was the whole reason the earth revolved on its axis. But Kit Lambert's homosexuality scared me. And the more he scared me the more I liked it, ‘cos I loved that edge.

The first time The Who went on Ready Steady Go, Townshend asked me if I wanted a couple of tickets. My friend from the White City estate, Joey Bitton, called up to the studio and Pete got him in. Kit Lambert had handed out quite a few to as many Mods as he knew. The trouble with Ready Steady Go was that you had to be there in the studio for the afternoon dance rehearsal and that meant you had to bunk off from work. Well, I was a clerk filing bloody legal papers in Kensington Square. It was a very snooty Victorian building and I was Mod from head to toe, I loved it and the pay was good. I thought about phoning in sick for the day but remembered that a friend of mine who worked as a shipping clerk did exactly that and when Ready Steady Go burst on the screen at one minute past six on the Friday night there's the bloody cleaner goggle-eyed watching him doing the Monkey with Mickey Tenner. When the poor geezer went into work Monday morning it was all over the job that he'd been seen dancing his socks off with somebody who looked like a male model. I didn't want that to happen to me so I took a deep breath and watched half the Goldhawk Club on the TV waving scarves around and almost taking over The Who's stage.

Maximum R&B at the Marquee

We started our residency at the Marquee at 90 Wardour Street on Tuesday November 24th 1964, supported by a small band called The Sneekers. We had been The High Numbers since July 3 up to October 28 . In the space of two weeks, Peter Meaden got paid off in the Intrepid Fox bar on Wardour Street and Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert secured a Tuesday night residency at the Marquee: up to then on a Tuesday night there had been jazz with Dick Charlesworth Big Blues. On Wednesday November 18 we were back to The Who and played at Wolsey Hall in Cheshunt. Word had got round the Goldhawk Club that the band had got a residency at the Marquee. Everyone was gob-smacked at this news ‘cos the Marquee was the complete opposite to the Flamingo and the Scene club.

We had already done a Wednesday night residency at the Scene Club for a few weeks, but the Marquee: it wasn't a place for Mods, no way. It was full of long-haired CND beatniks who listened to Johnny Dankworth and the Dick Morrissey Quartet. The Marquee was run under the strict guidelines of the National Jazz Federation and – horror of horrors – it ended at 11pm sharp, and had no bar. And you had to fucking behave in there. You had to go up to the Ship at the interval if you wanted to have a glass of brown ale. Anyway, on Tuesday November 24 1964, I met my two Mod friends: the brothers Martin and Lee Gaish from Riverside Gardens, at Hammersmith tube station. As far as I can remember, it was pissing out of the heavens and I had walked down the King Street like a drowned rat. My socks were wet and my hair was plastered to my face and impossible. We met and looked at each other as if to say, “Shall we bother?” Then Martin whined, "We have to go, we've promised Kit we'll be there." We arrived at the Marquee to find it deserted. In the hallway stood a forlorn Kit Lambert next to the admission desk. Inside the desk was a toff geezer called John Gee in a suit that meant business. Across from the desk and leaning against the wall was a huge bouncer. I can still see those moments to this day. On the table was a mound of Maximum R&B black-and-white posters which was later included in the 'Live At Leeds' sleeve. Next to the posters were these little concession cards, like birthday-card size, with an image of Townshend's nose all over Wardour Street. They looked arty, flash and so bloody creative. They'd been designed in Soho and of course most striking of all was the arrow sitting on the “o” in “Who”.

I couldn't believe that anybody could be so inventive, artistic and dangerous. AND in classic black-and-white. I mean, no other band anywhere had anything like these, not the Stones nor the Beatles. And it was these little two-shillings and six-pence (2/6) concession cards that myself, Martin Gaish and his brother Lee had promised Kit Lambert we would hand out to the public to try and coax people into the Marquee. The rain lashed down outside and it looked like it was going to be a disastrous opening night. Nobody spoke, we just watched the door to see if anyone, anyone at all, would push it open and come into the Marquee. Suddenly, the door was pushed back and three well dressed Mods sauntered in, looking around them at the black-and-white striped wall (which were Marquee themed colours – same as the stage background). They walked a bit unsurely, right up to the admission desk. The first two paid the required five shillings admission. While the third was waiting he noticed the small concession cards on the table and asked, "Can I have one of these?" Anxious to help, I said, "Yeah, sure," and handed him the card. He stepped up to the pay box and John Gee in his effeminate, managerial manner said, "That'll be five shillings please, young man." The guy looked at him and said, "No. It's only two-and-six with this, innit?" John Gee looked at Kit Lambert and Lambert looked at me with a not-very-pleased expression on his face. I had just cost him two-shillings-and-sixpence on the opening night when every penny would count to pay the band and cover expenses. I felt like such an idiot. Kit took this to his immediate advantage. He handed out 50 of each of the cards to the brothers Martin and Lee Gaish and said, "I want you to stand outside the club and just hand out these to people." I picked up another 50 from the table and said, "Will I do the same, Kit?" He said, "No, Jack. I want you to go up to Oxford Street and hand them out, bound to be plenty of Mods up there."

Irish Jack

The Gaish brothers were outside huddled in a doorway sheltering from the rain. I walked up Wardour Street like a lunatic trying to keep 50 concession cards dry inside my jacket, head down, my hair impossible and plastered to my face and half in ecstasy, half in a foul mood that here I was helping out the only band that ever mattered, the only band that meant anything to me, and I knew that Kit Lambert was already taking me for granted. When I reached Oxford Street there weren't very many people around – not even tourists. I handed out some of the cards to people who just glanced at them and carried on unimpressed. Presently, two Mod girls came up and I handed them each a card. "What's this then?" they asked. "It's a concession card for the Marquee. If you go along with this you'll be able to see The Who for just two-and-six instead of five bob." One of them opened it out and said, "Oh look, Kath, The Who!" The other girl looked and said, "Blimey, look at the size of that bloke's nose. Is that on tonight then?" "Yeah," I said, "But you'll have to hurry before the concession ends." One of the girls looked at me inquiringly. "Are you their manager?" I hesitated, and in a flash had the answer: "Sort of. Well, ASSOCIATE!" I had hit the word “associate” like a spitfire from Oxford. There wasn't a trace of my Irish accent – that had been well buried. "Tell you what," I said, "my other associate's down in the foyer of the Marquee. His name's Kit. Tell him I sent you down and you're to get in for free." The girls hurried off down to the Marquee. The rain was running inside my collar and down my back but I might as well have been on a sun-kissed island for all I cared. I took another look at the concession cards and put two into my inside pocket. One to carry everywhere with me, the other for my bedroom wall. I was soaked to the bone but I was a fucking face handing out these brilliantly designed cards. "Yes", I thought, "Lambert had used me alright and probably would do so again but he was a fucking genius – and that was the difference. Paid? Who'd want to be paid for this? I could think of a hundred Mods who'd give their right arm just to stand here in the pissing rain and hand out cards for a band like The Who. My payment was the “edge” I just experienced telling two Mod girls I was Kit Lambert's “associate”. And as for the claim “associate”, I wondered, would I have the bottle to face Kit when I returned to the Marquee?

When I eventually did, there was no sign of Martin and Lee Gaish. The crafty beggars had got shot of their cards and were now drying themselves off and enjoying a coke inside. I could hear The Who from the door the way you do when you know from the echo that the place is half empty. My heart sank. I walked up to the admission desk where Kit Lambert was talking to the bouncer. The bouncer continued talking but eyed me and, realising I hadn't paid, put his arm out and stopped me. Lambert turned around and when he realised it was me, he said, "Oh, he's ok. He's one of my eh..." "ASSOCIATES!" I practically spat the word. The bouncer stood down and Lambert looked at me in surprise with a knowing look on his face. If anything, he was sussed with a cool sense of irony. I thought Kit was going to tell the bouncer that I was one of his band helpers but I had stopped him in his tracks. I'd found the bottle alright. Found it more from anger than anything else. And Kit had recognized it. I was even with him and he knew it.

He followed me through to the dance floor where all 30 lost souls of the audience were gathered in a miserable knot watching The Who's opening night at the Marquee. "Coffee, Jack? You must be soaking?" Lambert placed his hand on my shoulder and I felt nervous. And instead of saying something like, "Have you got a job in the office for me, Kit?" the bottle I had five minutes earlier totally deserted me and I said rather meekly, "They didn't take too long to get rid of..." "What didn't take too long to get rid of?" he said. Lambert's train of thought was obviously focused on a more personal nature. "The concession cards, Kit. You sent me up to Oxford Street." "Yes, yes, of course I did." I thought I might as well ask: "Did two Mod girls come in, Kit?" Lambert looked back at me holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a saucer in another with an attracting degree of delicacy. "Yes, I met them." He looked at me and smiled. Neither of us said anything for a few moments, then Lambert said quietly, "Associate??" I ignored it and asked, "Did you let them in?" "Of course not, they paid like everyone else." "Whaaat?" I replied, in surprise. "Only joking," Lambert laughed, "Yes, I let them in for free," before adding, "I like your sense of humour, very Irish, Jack." I looked back at Kit Lambert – there was something about him that I instinctively liked. He was articulate, spoke like the BBC, he had a command of the English language that I would never attain. I was aware of his homosexuality, and I was nervous.

Chris Stamp had style as well but was straight and an East End geezer from Plaistow. Like Lambert, he was more cool than face but was always chasing skirt. As I stood trying my best to make small talk with Lambert it occurred to me that in the space of a single evening we had established an unspoken camaraderie, almost a pact. But I was chicken and I had to run. In the few weeks that followed, the Gaish brothers and I continued to hand out concession cards and run around with posters. As more and more people began to come into the Marquee in the following weeks it occurred to me that the compact size of the club with its black-and-white striped theme colours and, of course, its jazz-inspired surroundings was inch perfect for The Who. The tiny stage suggested a kind of avant-garde West End Revue.

John Entwistle

Each Tuesday night John Gee, the Marquee manager, would appear on stage in a dark suit and bow-tie to introduce The Who in his posh tones. And then they came on and they’d hit your ears with an assault called 'Heatwave' by Martha & The Vandellas and James Brown's 'I Don't Mind'. Townshend windmilling and spearing the neck of his Rickenbacker into a Marshall speaker, falsetto chorus lines and feedback like chamber music in the middle of an air raid. Daltrey, whacking his tambourine off the mike stand in his pullover with a black diamond on the front, Moon's facial expressions and huge eyes popping and his 16 pairs of hands and Entwistle... oh yes, Johnny Entwistle, looking like he'd prefer to be anywhere else. Nobody watched him of course yet he was the driver of this runaway train. Yes, this was the hippest act in Soho. This was Maximum R&B at its best. We even had a single in the charts and we were still playing Tuesday nights at the Marquee. The first night that the really big crowd turned up I couldn't believe the length of the queue as it snaked down Wardour Street. I still had my prized concession card in my inside pocket. The whole thing sent a tingle up my spine. It was like someone in your family had become famous. I just felt so proud to be part of all that.

This work is the copyright of Irish Jack and Zani Media. The article originally appears in ZANI online magazine and photographs are from Jack's private collection. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution.

I know Jack would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can add any comments in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

You can also find many other great articles, interviews and reviews on ZANI.CO.UK

The First Mods I Saw

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:19:18 PDT

by Robert Nicholls

Part 1: Early Modernist Fashions

Lyceum Ballroom, Aldwych

A case can be built for London dance palais being the spawning ground of Mod, rather than R&B clubs as conventional wisdom suggests. I, like many fledgling Mods gravitated to the West End clubs after an “apprenticeship” in a Mecca ballroom (the Royal in Tottenham). I first saw Mods in significant numbers at the Lyceum ballroom in Aldwych in autumn 1961 and they were mostly Covent Garden labourers and Holborn secretarial workers. Original Mod, Alfredo Marcantonio confirms, “The Lyceum in London was a Sunday afternoon dance and that was a big Mod club.” (1) In these venues the DJ’s who selected the records we danced to were major architects of teenagers’ musical tastes. Accordingly, Ian “Sammy” Samwell and Jeff Dexter are owed a debt of gratitude.

It seems that many of my teenage girlfriends were named either Pat or Pam. Elsewhere, I have described Pat Beckett, a Mod girl who I met at The Scene Club in November 1963, but from 1959 until the summer of 1962 I was going steady with Pat Smitherman. In fact our break-up precipitated my transition to Mod. When I first met her I was wearing Teddy Boy styles. I was fifteen and already working full-time in the greenhouses at Rochford’s Houseplants. From the mid-1950s, working-class high fashion consisted of drape jackets, often with a waistcoat, and tight drainpipe trousers. Ideally, shoes were suede, crepe-soled brothel creepers sometimes worn with luminous pink socks (green, blue, red). Hairstyles for boys (and some girls) were variations of the Tony Curtis with a D.A. Males might wear a bushy forelock or a brilliantined “elephants trunk” which pointed to the front. Jefferson (1975, p. 85) includes a general description: “It was usually long, combed into a ‘D-A’ with a Boston neck-line (straight cut), greasy, with side whiskers and a quiff.” (2) The “south bank” was a variation which combined a crew-cut brush on top with swept-back hair at the sides and the obligatory sideburns. Teddy Boy styles seem to have arisen somewhat democratically from grass-roots impulses, but by the end of the 1950s, according to the more commercially contrived dictates of fashion, the jacket length had swung to the other extreme and the long drape style gave way to short Italian bum-freezers while the chunky creepers were supplanted by pointed winkle-pickers.

Rob and Pat 1961

I met Pat at the local fairground. I was sporting a Mississippi gambler look with a light gray drape jacket with velvet on the shoulders, drainpipes, and a homemade bootlace tie. Pat was wearing a short white plastic mac, a tightish knee-length skirt, and seamed stockings. She also wore a felt Robin Hood hat with a feather in it which I held for her during the rides. These were fashionable for both sexes in North London in 1959-1960. My mate Gordon Harris wore one to cover the bald patch he got when his fluffy ginger quiff was torn from his scalp by his machine at the Rolling Mills in Brimsdown. Gordy’s old man was a dustman and he lived, like Pat in a council house to the east of the Great Cambridge Road in Enfield.

Under the influence of “going steady” I moderated my Teddy Boy persona by wearing dark Italian style suits. By 1961, according to the dictates of fashion, I had progressed to bum-freezer jackets and winkle-picker shoes. Around this time the term “Modernist” began to be used. Barnes (1979, p. 122) states, “Modernists were the earliest Mods. The forerunners of the style.” (3), while Penny Reel explains, “The maiden wave of modernists emerges out of the East End and Essex some time around 1960, as a reaction in style against the … striped drainpipe trousers, winklepicker shoes [and] Tony Curtis hairstyles” (4). Helen Shapiro from Hackney uses the term Modernist in her memoirs. Shapiro emerged as a pop singer at fourteen in 1961 with her portentous “Please Don’t Treat Me Like a Child.” Her record “You Don’t Know” was No 1 in the charts in August 1961, and an incident took place involving fourteen year old Mark Feld (Marc Bolan):

“We were up at the club one evening playing ‘You Don’t Know’ when … Mark Feld came in with a load of his pals from a rival club up the road at Stamford Hill. They were ‘modernists,’ dressed up to the nines in Italian suits, with short ‘bum-freezer’ jackets and smart trousers…. He walked in like he owned the place…. which didn’t go down too well. We were just a little club but we thought we were terribly ‘in,’ and here was this guy making a big entrance.” (5)

Portrait of a Modernist (John Watney '61)

In his article “Portrait of a Modernist” (August 1961), John Watney describes eighteen-year-old Modernists of that time, “bum-freezer jackets; narrow trousers, sometimes with a button or two by the ankle; and long winklepicker or chisel-toed shoes.” In my attire I was veering towards Modernist fashions, but although I saw ankle buttons on trousers they were too fancy for me, and despite everything else, my hair was still swept back with a Brylcreemed quiff, unlike the hair of Modernists as described by Watney: “the uniform is short hair-style brushed forward over the brow, never backwards and never a sideboard.” (6) I didn’t change my hairstyle until August 1962 when I switched totally to the Mod look.

Pat Smitherman had fair hair which she lightened further and wore in a blonde beehive (bouffant) and occasionally put on a headscarf in Teddy Girl style. According to Watney “[Modernist] girls dress their hair in a flashy imitation of the latest women’s magazine styles; wear too tight and too short dresses” [relatively short that is, the mini-skirt did not appear until 1966/67; the illustration shows a knee-length skirt]. Helen Shapiro recalls Mark Feld’s female companions, “The girls’ winkle pickers were at least nine inches long and they had tight, tight dresses.” Pat wore white high-heeled winklepickers, tightish dresses, frilly blouses and chunky white cardigans. Watney also recalls “round skirts with a multitude of petticoats frothing about their knees.” For a while when they were popular, Pat wore such belled skirts that stuck out. Hooped petticoats were used to support the flare and often the hoops didn’t gracefully accommodate sitting-down, and they would bounce up, much to Pat’s distress. That’s probably why the fashion didn’t last very long.

Jeff Dexter

The Sangamo Weston factory where Pat assembled light meters had a weekly dance which we sometimes attended during our courtship, slow-dancing to anemic tunes like “Whose Sorry Now” by Connie Francis (1958) and “All I Have to Do is Dream” by the Everly Brothers (1958) and jiving to fast numbers such as “One Way Ticket” by Neil Sedaka (1959), "Sweet Nothin's" by Brenda Lee (1959), “Runaway” by Del Shannon (1961), and “Take Good Care Of My Baby” by Bobby Vee (1961). In 1960, Pat and I started going to the Royal’s “Under Twenty-one Night” held on Tuesdays, but my mates Pete Hammett and Gordy Harris were intimidated by the dress code which required a suit and tie; no Teddy Boys allowed. I complied with the code but my hair remained the same. We took our fashion cues from blokes like Royal DJ Ian ”Sammy” Samwell, who Jeff Dexter describes as part of the “rocker brigade” with dark hair “slicked back.”(7)

At the Royal there were embryonic Mods; individual stylists, fancy dressers, who were not yet identified as a group and by no means in the majority. For example, I remember a bloke with pompadour hair who danced in heeled footwear. He was definitely ahead of the pack, but at the time I thought he looked a bit poncy, but nevertheless he stood out. Ironically, by autumn 1962, I was striving to look like him and had my own pompadour hair style with a high parting. Penny Reel states, “Precursors of the new look wear their hair short in the French style back-combed, and with a centre parting.” At this point I have to state that although we hear about Mod males back-combing their hair, and later during the psychedelic era I did tease my hair in a freaked-out style, I never did as a Mod. Instead I achieved my high crown by careful grooming. I cut my own hair at that time and the hair of many of my mates.

The Twist

The Royal had an impressive play list which included: Johnny Otis’s “Willie and the Hand Jive (released 1958), “Sea Cruise” by Frankie Ford (1959); “Money” by Barrett Strong (1959); “Shop Around” by the Miracles (1960); “Stay” by Maurice Williams (1960); and “New Orleans” Gary U.S. Bonds (1961). In 1961 the Twist became the rage when Chubby Checker released his cover of Hank Ballard’s “The Twist” and followed up with “Let’s Twist Again.” Later that year “Peppermint Twist” by Joey Dee and the Starliters was popular and was featured in a movie. I twisted with Pat at the Royal. It was an energetic dance but the Royal teenagers gave it their all. In due course Little Eva released “Do the Locomotion” (1962) which included conga lines of dancers snaking like a train, but by this time I had become weary with going steady. I felt confined and my future seemed to be closing in. This wasn’t helped by Pat hinting she wanted to buy some knives and forks “for the bottom draw,” which augured a seemingly inevitable and unwelcome fate.

My change of heart first began in autumn 1960, when, as part of a dental technician apprenticeship I attended classes in Kingsway, Holborn, once a week. I made new friends Allan Cowell and Terry Bunyan who had modern soft hairdos. While Terry wore his fair hair in a short college boy style, Alan had the fringe brushed over his forehead in the style which later came to be known as the Beatle cut. One classmate, who I only remember as Englar was very stylish, a prototype Mod really, with dark hair parted in the middle ala Ray Davies. He was not a dental technician but a trainee chemical lab technician and he had a superior manner and stayed aloof. Allan and Terry dressed well, but they were just regular geezers, not a trendsetting Modernist like Englar. The first Mods I saw in significant numbers were at the Lyceum ballroom in Aldwych in the nearby Lyceum Ballroom in early 1961, though they were not yet known by that name.

At midday Allan and Terry and I would go to the lunchtime Lyceum dances where secretarial workers in Holborn socialized with Covent Garden boys from the adjacent fruit market. Entrance was a shilling apiece. Although a variety of music was played, the only tracks I definitively remember are both instrumentals; Johnny and The Hurricanes’ “Rocking Goose” (1960) and Bill Black Combo’s, “Don’t Be Cruel” (1960). Watney in his 1961 article states, “The Modernist wears an Italian-style V-neck pullover or a cardigan.” Although predating the term Mod, these young men were setting trends. They were adopting a French look with soft hairstyles and continental clothes. I remember neat sleeveless V neck sweaters worn over shirts, with tweed trousers, baggy but not belled; and that mustards and pastel colors held sway. Similarly, the young ladies at the Lyceum were chic, and for me, Pat to whom I returned in the evening, compared unfavorably. “The prettiest girl in the village” was no longer “the prettiest girl in the world.” Barnes reminds us that “In the fifties, girls were still corseted and strapped up in suspender belts, pantie girdles and all that corrective brassiere stuff” (1979, p. 16). I found out recently that Pat passed in the early 1990s, may she rest in peace, and I feel like a cad for saying so, but at the time Pat, with her bouffant, suspender belts, stockings and lace petticoats, seemed to belong to an earlier generation. I felt that there must be more to life than this!

To be continued...

References:

(1) Alfredo Marcantonio, originally published in QX Magazine, from Jack That Cat Was Clean website.

(2) Tony Jefferson. 1975. “Cultural Responses of the Teds.” In Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. Eds. Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson. London: Hutchinson.

(3) Barnes, Richard. 1979. Mods! London: Eel Pie Publishing Ltd.

(4) Penny Reel, 1979. “The Young Mod’s Forgotten Story,” New Musical Express, from Jack That Cat Was Clean website.

(5) Excerpts from Helen Shapiro's 1993 autobiography, Walking Back to Happiness, courtesy of Brian Nevill, Original Modernists 1959 -1966 website, May 13, 2011.

(6) John Watney, “Portrait of a Modernist,” Men Only, August 1961. Courtesy of Michael Ferrante, Original Modernists 1959 -1966 website, May 12, 2011

(7) Jeff Dexter interviewed by Bill Brewer, 1999. www.djhistory.com/interviews/jeff-dexter

Robert Nicholls

This work is the copyright of Robert Nicholls, Ph.D. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution (except where stated).

I know Rob would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

You can also read Rob's memoirs of being a mod in 60's London - the first part of his story can be found here) and look out for the next part of this article in which he will talk about the Original Mods in the Media.

Events Calendar

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:49:05 PDT

You can find all events added by members HERE

Poll Results 2011

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:39 PST

The Best of 2011

What's your opinion? You can discuss the results in the forum HERE.

BEST EVENT

Brighton Modernist
and 60's Weekend

20% of vote

Glasgow Mod Weekender
Project 11

18% each

Moddingham

14%

Other answers...

Manchester Mod Weekend
Small Faces Convention
Riviera Affair
Ayr Mod Rally
Cavern Club Weekend
Ham Yard
Dublin Weekend
Sunday Best, Enfield
Blast Off Festival

BEST CLUB

Friday Street (Glasgow)

38% of vote

Chitlin Circuit (Nottingham)
Cavern Club (Liverpool)

11% each

Hideaway Club (Manchester)

Other answers...

Brittania Club, Nottingham
Sink Club, Liverpool
Crossfire, London
Basics, Edinburgh
Alley Club, Cambridge
Friday on my mind, Torquay
Afterglow, Belfast
Harry Palmers, Nottingham
Ham Yard, London

BEST CLUB SONG

Richard Kent Style
All Good Things

8% of vote

Toots and the Maytals
Pressure Drop
Don Fardon
I'm Alive

5% each

Little Willie John
I'm Shakin'
Small Faces
All or Nothing

2% each

Other answers...

Manny Corchado
Pow Wow
The Dynamics
Misery
Mitty Collier
My Babe
Gary US Bonds
Working For My Baby
Mel Torme
Comin Home
Hayes Cotton
Black Wings Have My Angel
Vermon Harrell
Slick Chick
The Afex
She's Got The Time
Etta James
Mello Fellow

BEST NEW RELEASE

Miles Kane
Colour of the Trap

33% of vote

Nick Waterhouse
Is That Clear

20%

Amy Winehouse
Lioness
Clairy Browne
and the Bangin' Rackettes
Baby Caught The Bus

13% each

DC Fontana
La Contessa
Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues

7% each

Frootful

Fish in the Sea

Broken Vinyl Club
Broken Vinyl Club

5% each

Other answers...

Towerbrown
I Wanna Know
The Brassic
Loaded Girl
The Laynes
Wet time

BEST COMPILATION

Rare Mod 3

20% of vote

Heavy Soul Comp

18%

British Freakbeat Vol 4

17%

Ska Madness

New Breed R n B
With Added Popcorn

Other answers...

Trojan Presents: Mento and R and B
No Way Out Vol 2
Chitlins circuit Anniversary

BEST MOD/FAN ZINE

Heavy Soul

56% of vote

Double Breasted

11%

Darlings of Whapping Wharf

10%

Other answers...

The Mod Genration (?)
Scootering

BEST NEW BAND

The Strypes

22% of vote

Beady Eye

17%

The Movement
High Flying Birds

3% each

Other answers...

The Raybandos
The Brassic
Broken Vinyl Club
Button Up
Viva Brother
The Faithkeepers
Joel White & The Esquire

BEST LIVE ACT

Heavy Mod

19% of vote

The Modest

13%

Big Boss Man
Geno Washington
The Specials

9% each

The Moons

Sharon Jones

The Universal

6% each

Small Fakers
The Get Go

3% each

Other answers...

Purple Hearts
Berry Tweed and the Chasers
The Movement
PP Arnold
Eli Paperboy Reed
The Bambi Molesters
July
Fleurs Des Lys
Kings Go Forth

BEST CONTEMPORARY BAND

The Universal

22% of vote

Miles Kane

17%

High Flying Birds
Kasabian

11% each

Other answers...

Kings Go Forth
Vintage Trouble
The Moons
Kaiser Chiefs
DC Fontana

MOST STYLISH PERSONALITY

Paul Weller

40% of vote

Martin Freeman

35%

Karla Milton

10%

Other answers...

Miles Kane
Ozwald Boateng
Liam Gallagher

Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1960's Sheffield

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:13:52 PST

Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1960s Sheffield is the story of the clubs, the bands and the personalities who made up the niteclub scene in 60's Sheffield. Written by Neil Anderson, with contributions from Dave Manwell and Peter Stringfellow, it brings the era back to life with rare memories and photos, plus interviews with the stars and fans.

A special night to launch the book will take place at Sheffield's Leadmill on 23 November, where nightclub impresario Peter Stringfellow, 60's star Dave Berry and guitar legend Frank White are all set to take to the stage to celebrate in particular the King Mojo club which Peter ran from 1964 to 1967.

Neil is very kindly adding an excerpt from the book relating the King Mojo club. The book is available from Amazon or the publishers, ACMRetro.

King Mojo

by Neil Anderson

Geoff and Peter Stringfellow were flamboyant, confident and born and bred in the working class Sheffield heartland of Pitsmoor – an incendiary combination the city (and later the world) would soon realise. Their ventures shaped the nightlife era in Sheffield like nothing else and the city was soon struggling to contain their ambitions. One of Peter’s first jobs was at Attercliffe’s Regal Cinema where he was projectionist.

Peter Stringfellow: “I had my 16th birthday at the Regal. I used to play records between the films and I got told off for doing that. I used to play ‘Green Door’ by Frankie Vaughan. We used to have parties on stage after everyone had left.”

Things could have turned out very differently for Peter: his next few years included work at English Steel Corporation, a stint in the Merchant Navy and a prison sentence. Though he admitted to being a bit dyslexic there was nothing wrong with his mental arithmetic. Whilst the majority were enjoying the new breed of shows and local talent like Dave Berry, he was busy working out the profit margins of promoters. He also wanted to do things rather differently to Terry Thornton.

Peter Stringfellow on Club 60: “I was impressed but not impressed. I was like a townie kid in those days. It was the definitive club in a basement which is what I thought clubs were. At least it stood up to that. The only thing was that there was no excitement to it. It was very jazzy. It was Terry Thornton’s and he was a jazz man.”

Peter Stringfellow was soon out scouring the city for a suitable venue with his brother.

Peter Stringfellow told Top Stars Special in the early 1960s: “There is not enough room in some pubs for a really swinging session, and a lot of young people do not like going into pubs anyway. And if we make any money my idea is to get a hall of our own which we can decorate as we like and have rock and twist sessions every day of the week.”

Peter Stringfellow at King Mojo

Sited on the border of two of Sheffield’s biggest council housing estates - Manor and Arbourthorne – they opened their Black Cat Club in St Aidan’s Church Hall, City Road, on Friday, August 17, 1962. They paid two pounds and ten shillings a week to hire it for weekly twist sessions. Rotherham outfit Stewart Raven and the Pursuers played the first night. It was also the first outing for their mum’s radiogram which was commandeered for the occasion with Peter Stringfellow on DJ duties. Despite a queue outside, the inaugural night lost £25. The figures didn’t improve much in the second week.

Peter Stringfellow: “Against all the odds and with everybody screaming at me I persevered for one more week. I had Dave Berry next and I knew he was bound to pull a large crowd. I was convinced it would work, but just to be sure I took out a big £6 advert in the Sheffield Star.”

The Berry-effect and advertising worked – the brothers cleared £65. Similar happened the following week thanks to an appearance by Johnny Tempest. A host of up and coming acts and hit parade artists from across the country followed in their wake including Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, The Searchers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, The Hollies, Freddie and the Dreamers and scores more.

Local ‘ghoul’ bands, inspired by the likes of Screaming Lord Sutch, became a big hit at the club. Count Linsey III and his Skeletons and Frankenstein and the Monsters were particular favourites.

King Mojo girls

Tony Baker: “Peter Stringfellow came onto the stage to introduce the backing group the Savages, who were to open up with their signature tune, ‘Lucille’. The Savages ran from the back of hall the clad in leopard skins and the audience erupted. After their opening number Lord Sutch appeared in top hat and tails singing ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ then going into ‘I’m A Hog For You Baby’, bringing out pigs trotters concealed in his shirt and throwing them into the screaming audience. For his rendition of ‘Jack the Ripper’ he emerged with a large dagger and candelabra, whipping the audience into a frenzy as he came amongst them.”

The event the Black Cat Club will always be remembered for will be a sell-out show by The Beatles that ended up being moved to a bigger venue in Gleadless due to unprecedented ticket demand (see Chapter Nine) and near riots.

Geoff and Peter Stringfellow’s next outing was their Blue Moon Club regular Sunday night sessions. They took place in an old church school turned warehouse on Johnson Street. It opened in May 1963. The brothers were soon earning a reputation for their uncanny ability to book bands just as they hit the big time. They didn’t do it better than The Kinks who performed at the Blue Moon Club on September 20, 1964, just as they were riding high in the charts with ‘You Really Got Me’.

Dave Manvell: “The club will always be remembered for the famous collapsing floor incident when Peter couldn’t understand why all the small people were stood in the middle of the club!”

The brothers also promoted shows at Sheffield City Hall and were managing acts like The Sheffields.

The club they were undoubtedly most famous for was King Mojo which opened in the former Dey’s Ballroom which then sat on the junction of Burngreave Road and Barnsley Road in Pitsmoor. The brothers rented it for £30 a week from local businessman Ruben Wallis who gave them his blessing with one stipulation – they kept the pictures of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh hanging on the wall. The venue made waves immediately and they’d got over 800 members within eight weeks of opening who couldn’t wait to sample King Mojo’s (it originally opened as the Mojo) alcohol-free environment. Though it was a massive hit it totally divided opinion – you were either into the Stringfellow scheme of things or you weren’t.

Fashion, as far as King Mojo was concerned, was as important as the music. Peter Stringfellow said at the time: “Eventually, I’d like to open every night if there’s the demand. On Saturday night we can draw a crowd of 600 – and if we were allowed we could have more than 1,000 for Long John Baldry. We aim to bring all the top class R&B stars to Sheffield. I think the kids are willing to pay for them.”

By the end of April 1964 – two month into the life of King Mojo – the brothers were running all three clubs and Peter Stringfellow was also being tipped as a possible Radio Luxembourg DJ. Whilst Terry Thornton sometimes seemed one step removed from the media, Peter Stringfellow courted the media from the early days and was never out of the press.

The Yardbirds perform at King Mojo

As the music scene diversified to include London’s thriving R&B movement and then soul in the latter part of the era, the Mojo truly found its calling and started landing gigs by bands that were set to spawn global stars that are still as big today. They included six visits by John Mayall alongside the likes of Eric Clapton and Peter Green; Graham Bond Organisation (with Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Diane Stewart) and probably the first ‘supergroup’ of the era Steam Packet (with Long John Baldry, Brian Auger, Vic Briggs, Richard Brown, Julie Driscoll, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Mickey Waller and Rod Stewart).

The list of artists that graced the King Mojo stage in Pitsmoor is formidable by anyone’s standards. They also included: The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, Isley Brothers, The Who, John Lee Hooker, The Hollies, Wilson Pickett, The Drifters, Jimi Hendrix, Ike and Tina Turner, Edwin Starr, Geno Washington, The Troggs, The Animals, The Spencer Davis Group, the Small Faces, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd and scores more.

As styles changed so did the interior design of the club with management always looking at ways to lead the scene and keep one step ahead of the Esquire. The club regularly developed fashions all of its own.

Dave Manvell: “With the advent of mod groups like The Who and the Small Faces, hair styles changed yet again becoming slightly shorter and lots of back combing going on. I think this was when the Mojo’s own fashion styles started to take off and went that bit further than the mod styles of the time." "One of the fashions at the time was pin stripe suits, brown brogues and the need to carry a blue nylon mac - a derivative of the black pac-a-mac. This then seemed to develop into the gangster period which coincided with the American TV series The Untouchables; a story of the prohibition."
"Things just went wild at the Mojo with fashions changing every week. The length of vents in your suit would be changing daily. Many of the coats were doubled breasted and even the number of buttons became important with hand stitched lapels and button holes. The trousers bottom sizes ranged from normal to Oxford bag sizes going form 19 inches upwards.”

The original King Mojo crowd

Though Peter Stringfellow was always on hand to give a snippet to the press, it was salacious media allegations of illicit drug taking and sex in the gardens of nearby residents that helped bring about the eventual downfall of King Mojo. Things got so bad early in 1967 that the club stopped all nighters in an attempt to keep drug pushers away and have any chance of surviving the radical shake-up of the licensing laws set for the same year.

The club had plenty of support – local social workers spoke up for it and it even counted Sheffield’s Lord Mayor as a visitor. Many cite the club’s application for an alcohol licence as the beginning of the end. It was rejected, the hearing not helped by the motley crew of regulars that showed up to give their support. King Mojo’s council argued it would be beneficial to keep such “oddballs” in one place. The strategy failed spectacularly. But worse was to come with the arrival of the new 1967 Private Places of Entertainment (Licensing) Act – the Government’s strategy to regulate clubs that, up until that point, had slipped under the radar because of not serving alcohol. A visit to the club by the Spencer Davis Group the year before definitely seem to make a valid case for it...

Peter Stringfellow: “There was no such thing as capacity in those days. We’d just cram them in. Never saw a policeman in the Mojo. We knew we were really full when the Spencer Davies Group played and the coffee bar floor collapsed.”

Though the club was said to be well run it was dogged by on going noise issues and deemed to be lacking sufficient sound proofing.Local residents had already petitioned against Sunday afternoon sessions at King Mojo. One neighbour said he regularly found his 20 month old daughter stood up in her cot dancing to the sounds of the club.

Things were already looking beyond bleak for King Mojo. When a local drug dealer stated he’d sold pep pills at the club’s all nighters its reputation was in tatters and it was curtains. King Mojo closed its doors in December 1967 and with it went Peter Stringfellow’s Midas touch – for a couple of years at least...

The brothers’ next move centred around 33, High Street, under the then Stylo shoe shop. Down Broadway was scheduled to open in August 1968. Peter Stringfellow described it as the city’s first ‘bistroteque’. He told Top Stars Special at the time: “Bistroteque’ is simply a name for a place where one can go and eat and drink, listen to music and dance. This is what our coffee bar/restaurant in High Street will be. We have spent nearly £9,000 on the project and it will be a real luxury job – by far the most luxurious coffee bar/restaurant in Sheffield.”

The glitz, though it would end up being Peter Stringfellow’s trademark and his ways to decades on the top of his game, was all a bit of shock to former King Mojo club-goers used to the edgy, atmosphere of the former dance hall in Pitsmoor. Many were soon giving it a wide berth. Within weeks Peter Stringfellow was set to follow their example. He’d had enough after his business partners started telling him what he could and couldn’t spend money on and demanded receipts for everything.

Peter and Geoff Stringfellow sold their shares and it was thank you and good night.

Dave Manvell: “I remember seeing Pete Barden’s new avante guard band Village at Down Broadway - they weren’t very popular with the Mojo crowd. Also John Peel’s Road Show came after he left the BBC following problems with his play list. For the Mojo soul fans they put on Edwin Starr, Percy Sledge and Billy Stewart.”

The Stringfellow brothers’ Sheffield swansong lay a few hundred yards away on Castle Market.

This time they landed an alcohol licence for their new Penthouse club. It should have worked like a dream but sadly didn’t. The venue opened in 1969 and was painted by mural artist Paul Norton who adopted a Greek/Roman theme. Several flights of stairs above ground level, the Penthouse boasted stage, DJ booth, lighting rig, bar, dining area and dance floor. Unfortunately the music-loving King Mojo set were soon in the minority as the Dixon Lane venue became the preserve of West Street’s hard drinking set.

Dave Manvell: “Although the music was good and attracted large crowds, it was the Stringfellows’ first club to sell alcohol. This, mixed with the large crowds, gave rise to fights and its early demise. “After one fracas a leg was found at the bottom of the stairs, fortunately it was a false one!”

They sold the lease within months of the unveiling and opened Cinderellas in Leeds.

Peter Stringfellow: “Down Broadway had been similar to the Mojo in that the crowd were young and didn’t drink. I hoped they would follow me to the Penthouse, but instead I got an entirely different crowd. Many of them had grown up in a Working Men’s Club environment and they were used to drinking, but they hadn’t experienced drinking, dancing and live music. I began attracting the kind of clientele I should have never let in the place.”

Nightclub impresario Peter Stringfellow, singing star Dave Berry and guitar legend Frank White are all set to take to the stage to mark the launch of a new book, Neil Anderson’s ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1960s Sheffield’.

The event, which is held on Wednesday, November 23, is set to re-create Peter Stringfellow’s iconic King Mojo club that ran in the city from 1964 to 1967.

Playing centre-stage will be Frank White’s son, Joel, and his band The Esquire. Star guests are set to include Frank White and Dave Berry. There’ll be joined by Stevlor & The Spinning Orphans playing full King Mojo DJ sets, a question and answer session with Peter Stringfellow, the return of The Leadmill’s popular ‘Beat Club’, and stage dressed by the city’s own Okeh Cafe.

All profits from the launch night will go to the ‘Sheffield Blitz Memorial Fund’.

Tickets for the King Mojo are £10 in advance and available from The Leadmill box office, Sheffield Arena, Sheffield City Hall, Okeh Cafe and other outlets. Credit card bookings: 0114 221 2828. The events starts at 8pm. www.leadmill.co.uk

Brighton Mod Weekend 2011

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:59:17 PDT

A Trip to Mod Mecca

by Chris Cameron

Michael, Jim and Chris at The Dorset

Well they do say that good things come to those who wait. I had wanted to visit Brighton since I was a 16 year old Mod back in 1980, and last weekend that wait finally ended.

Sometimes having such weight of expectation can cause things to be either a slight or major disappointment. But on this occasion I have to say that both myself, and the large contingent we travelled down with were left with only one disappointment, and that was that it all went past so quickly.

We travelled down on the nine o’clock flight from Glasgow to Gatwick and there was a good number of Mods along to add to our crowd. By half past ten (much to my relief) we had landed in Gatwick and then took the 30 minute train journey to Brighton. As we all crowded on to the train we noticed one part was particularly quiet and so took our seats in there. It may well have been the first class compartment but then we were all Mods after all, and any Mod worth his/her salt is more than worthy of that status.

Above Volks

The first thing we did after reaching Brighton was go in for a small refreshment in a nearby bar. I am not sure about anyone else, but I most certainly need something alcoholic after enduring any sort of time on a flight. We checked in at our digs after being helped to locate it by Stevie Hughes. Thankfully I don’t think any of us managed to get too lost after that.

The majority of people were meeting up down at Volks bar on the front and that was where we all headed next. But prior to that I have to say that it was an amazing feeling to walk down the street and see Brighton Pier in front of me.

The walk from there to where most of the people had met up was not far, and although there was only maybe a couple of hundred scooters there, it looked really impressive in that setting. One of the first one’s that we saw was Andy from the east end of London’s TV 175, which I have to say is class. Well done mate, you have a scooter nearly as cool as mine ha ha.

Down at Volks we caught up with more of the Glasgow crowd, of whom around ten had travelled down by van in order to bring their scooters with them. We also bumped into a few people that we knew from the Mod Generation site including Harry, and Paul. I thought I saw a glimpse of Monkey T when I was at the bar, but by the time I had got served and gave the drinks out she was not there any more. Although it had started to rain slightly at this point it was one of the few times throughout the whole weekend when the weather was not so hot. After ten minutes the sun came out again and stayed that way for the majority of the time we were there.

I think we stayed down on the front for quite a while, soaking up the atmosphere and having a few drinks before heading up to the digs around 7 pm. A short resting of the eyes followed and then we were up again around 8 pm to get ready to hit the bars near to the Komedia for the night time do.

Mod dancers (courtesy of TimeTunnel Vince)

If the atmosphere down at Volks bar was great, I would say that it was even better outside the Dorset and Heart and Hand pubs, and that is despite the dodgy name of the latter if you know what I mean Mr Lawson. Both pubs were jam packed and everyone was on the pavement drinking outside enjoying the chat and the music coming from both boozers (provided by The Modesty dj's). Everyone looked great gear wise, and now and then a few lovely modded up scooters would buzz past adding to the overall feel of the place. I think we headed into the Komedia around half eleven just to make sure there was no hassle with the printed tickets we had.

Size wise I would say that the venue for the Brighton Mod weekender was similar to the one at Strathclyde University used for the Saturday night do in Glasgow. The first part we headed into was the top section where Holly, one of the Glasgow girls was doing a Psych DJ slot. It was fairly quiet at that point I have to say although it did become very busy later on. The bottom section saw a more Soul and R&B record selection and we headed down there after a while. By 1 am a few of our crowd had headed home completely tired out, and I was going to do the same thing myself. But the DJ’s kept on playing these brilliant tracks and I had to have a few dances. I eventually gave up some time after 2 am and walked the short distance from the Komedia to Kipps B&B.

Glasgow Mod, Ralph, on his trophy winning TV

As far as I remember we woke up next day around nine and went for breakfast some time after that. Stevie Hughes then came down to give us a great wee tour around all the Quadrophenia hot spots, including the bit where Chalky and Dave kipped down next to the Greasers, the café that was smashed up, the Grand Hotel, and the alley where Jimmy and Steph took a quick break away from the fighting (or a quickie anyway). From there it was down to Jump the Gun and the many great wee clothes shops that are close by. After a while we then took a walk back down to the front and joined the others in the Volks bar. The run out was great although I must admit that if any of these run out’s ever start on time I will probably faint from the surprise of it all.

Sunday evening was actually spent taking a small rest for once. We only had one night remaining and we were all determined to make the most of it. By 8 pm we were back at the pubs that had been so good the previous evening. And although they were not so busy to start off with due to a lot of people going to watch Quadrophenia on the big screens, it soon became packed once more. We even met up with a London Mod who had lived the first few years of his life in Glasgow and even went to the famous (or infamous) St Roch’s school. If the Komedia had been great the previous night it was even better on the Sunday. A fantastic atmosphere, and some of the music was just excellent. I don’t usually like to single DJ’s out but I thought the set done by Jo Wallace (must be Scottish blood ha ha) was top class. I stayed on to well after 3 am and then staggered merrily back to the digs for a few hours sleep.

All in all I have to say that the Brighton Mod weekender was very special. Maybe it was to do with the fact that I had always wanted to visit Brighton for such an event, or maybe (and more likely) it was the fact that everything was just so brilliant. The people were great and we hardly stopped laughing or chatting all weekend. The music was fantastic, whether it be in the Volks, the Dorset, the Heart and Hand, or the Komedia, so cheers to Rob Bailey of The New Untouchables and all the dj's. The scooters and their riders were also mostly brilliant looking, and the whole place just had a fantastic comfortable vibe about it.

Sunday night at Komedia

To all the Glasgow Mods who made it: Anita, Suzanne, Holly, Sarah, Kevin, Marc, Q, Tam Armstrong, Wullie Smith (and son) Tam O’Neill, Gloky, Paul Molloy, Drummy, Peter, Davie Kerr, Andy Wylie, Ralph, Stevie Martin, Andrea, Andy fae London (a Glasgow Mod now) Jo Jo, Elaine, Jim Copeland, Stevie Hughes, Algie, and Andy Doyle cheers for the laughs. To everyone else who I spoke to and enjoyed company with, thanks for making us all feel so welcome, even if you may have struggled to know what we were saying.

Chris Cameron

I know Chris would love to hear any feedback on this article or your thoughts on the weekend itself. You can add any comments in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

Roots of Quadrophenia

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:08:40 PDT

'Irish Jack' is one of the mods from the Goldhawk Social Club in West London, where The Who first built up their mod following. His name has been associated with the band ever since and he has, over the years, shared stories of his life and times with audiences all over the world. Jack is very kindly sharing part of his story here (hopefully there will be more to come...). You can also find many more stories from the great man on his site:

The work is the copyright of Irish Jack. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution.

I know Jack would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can comment on the article in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

Dont miss the excellent interview with Irish Jack in Zani :

21st Century Mods

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:53:00 PDT

In the late 50's/early 60's there emerged a desire among British youth to break away from the stiffness of 50's 'fashion' and uncouth look of the Teddy-boys. That desire led to the creation of a movement formed of individuals who wanted to look stylish, or modernist, and they became known as the mods. In the same way the mod revival of the late 70’s/early 80's was a reaction to the dreadful styles of the 70’s, the anti-style attitude of punks and, again, a desire to display a more stylish form of dress.

Those original mods saught their inspiration from the more stylish Italian, French and, latterly, American fashions. Todays 21st Century Mod, being uninspired by the fashions of the day and uninterested in the scruffy street look of 'emo' 'skaters' and 'chavs', looks to the styles of the 60's and Mod revival era for direction.

In the 21st Century, more than at anytime before, the mod movement has become international, with mod societies thriving in places as far afield as Moscow, where the Secret Affair played a recent gig - the mod crowd's exuberant reaction and stylish attire prompted Tracey, who runs the band's fan club, to say: 'It was like 1979 all over again!' (check out the Moscow Mods website for pictures of the gig and their cool scene).

In Italy Mod events take place throughout the year, with large enthusiastic crowds, and the desire for the complete look is so high that Italian mods are occasionally having to reverse trends and import classic scooters back to Italy from the UK! (see the Italia Mods website for more details of events in Italy).

Another aspect of todays mod movement is the mixture of different generations. At any given event in the UK you will find a mixture of mods who have been part of the movement from the time of the late 70's/early 80's revival, plus originals mods from the 60's, and (more and more) younger mods. For those taking part it's not a matter of the older or younger generation - today they are all part of The Mod Generation. However, in the main, it's the older, more established mods who arrange these events (and are keeping the scene alive) but, already, the younger, newer mods are starting to arrange clubs nights and events for themselves and the future is assured in the hands of the 21st Century Mods.

Mod Hairstyles

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:41:33 PDT

A guide to the Mod Hairstyle

HAIRSTYLES:

The Crew Cut/Crop

A short cut in which the hair is cut an even, short length (usually around 1/4 inch or less) all over. In America ‘crew cut’ is used more broadly to refer to a range of short haircuts and a traditional crew cut would be known as a Burr Cut. In general the U.S. definition refers to a cut that is tapered at the back and sides but may be up to one inch on top.

The Caesar Cut

A moderately short cut worn in the style of Julius Caesar. The hair is layered to a round 1 to 2 inches all over. The hair is brushed forward to a short bang or fringe at the front.

The French Crop

Similar to a Caesar. The difference is that the French Crop is worn a little longer and may be feathered near the front, if the wearer chooses.

The Fringe Cut

In Amercia known as bangs. When one has a fringe cut, the hair has been deliberately cut (with scissors) in a way that causes the hair to cover the forehead.

The Ivy league/Short Back & Sides

The sides and back are cut short and tapered across the crown, and the hair gradually becomes longer and fuller toward the front. In a classic ivy league, enough hair is left in the front so that it can be neatly parted and styled, usually with pomade or gel. More contemporary ivy league cuts may style the hair upward or forward in the front, but are still generally neat cuts that follow the shape of the head.

The Layered Cut

The layered cut may be the most basic, yet most popular hair cut in history. It is a type of cut that may frame any type of face frame, but especially those with longer faces. When cutting the hair in this style, the hair is actually cut in what appears to be layers. The hair is cut at different lengths and then blended together in a way that doesn’t allow you to see where one layer began and one ended.

FINISHING:

Square/Blocked Back

The square back, known as a hairstyle in which the back, at the bottom level, is cut as a defining straight line. The hair is full and the sides are not tapered. This style can range in a number of different styles, including a crew cut, an ivy league or a flat top.

Backcombing/French Combing

Back-combing, also known as teasing, or ratting, is a process that involves taking sections of the crown of the hair and combing it from underneath. With one hand holding your hair and the other holding a thin comb, back-comb hair in the opposite direction from it’s natural growth pattern.

French combing is mode of dressing the hair by combing it upwards and outwards so as to create the illusion there was more hair than there was

SOME OTHER STYLES:

The Horseshoe Flat Top

The horseshoe flat top is a extremely short version of a flat top. The name comes from the fact that hair on the head resembles a horseshoe type shape. The center area of the hair, which lies flat, is bigger than most flat tops. This cut is sometimes also referred to in the US as a burr with a bumper. The front of the cut is 1/4 inch. The sides of the actually flat part of the hair is about 1/8 inch. You can’t get any shorter without going into a full Crew Cut.

The Beatle Cut

Also known as the mop-top (for its resemblance to a mop) is a mid-length hairstyle named for and popularized by the The Beatles. It is relatively short in the back and sides, and incorporates long bangs (fringe). It is essentially a type of bowl cut.

The Pageboy Cut

An extension of the Mop-Top and first seen historically by English pageboys (thus the name). In this hairstyle, the overall length of the hair is the same from top to bottom. The hair is also curled under from the bottom. The hair can then be worn parted in either the center or at the sides. The length usually falls from the shoulders or longer.

FINALLY:

A Mod’s a Mod from ‘Head to Toe’ - so check out my guide to Mod Shoes

And finally, be careful out there - dont let this happen to you!

Dig The New Breed

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:34:59 PDT

Bandung Belongs To Us, Indonesia

The Wikipedia definition of Mod states that it is a subculture that originated in London, England, in the late 1950s and peaked in the early-to-mid 1960s. There was a mod revival in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, which was followed by a mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in Southern California.

Of course, that was not the end of the story - in addition to the other movements that developed from mod (skinhead, soul boys, scooterists, rude boys, casuals etc) the mod scene itself continued uniterrupted through the 80's, 90's and into the 21st century. At some point during that time though it become something other than a youth movement. Although there were, and still are, plenty of young mods about there has been a growing appreciation within the scene that this was 'a way of life' rather than a disposable youthful preoccupation, as it had been in the 60's and at the start of the mod revival. Consequently, today you'll find mods of all generations taking part in mod events throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.

Mod Swing 11, Singapore

And yet, still, should you want to find the youthful spirit that lead thousands of kids onto the beaches at Margate and Brighton in the 60's and filled the city centres of Belfast and Glasgow and all over the UK in the 80's, it does still exist - it is out there right now in the streets of Indonesia, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. They are the new mod breed.

Indonesian Scooterists

There has been a large scooter scene in the islands surrounding the Java Sea since the 90's and in 1996 "Scootering Magazine" proclaimed the Scooter Owners Group of Indonesia 'the biggest scooter club in the world'. But the large scooter rallys across the archipelago usually involve cut-up machines and participants who are a mixture between 'a hippie, a biker and a rastafarian'. Younger Indonesians, however, reject the scruffy scooterist styles and, taking influences from everything 60's to Britpop, adopt and adapt their own mod style.

Bandung Belongs To Us, Indonesia

At the forefront of the mod scene are the band Innocenti who's ever more soulful sound sets out to 'inspire the working classes' and 'fight against disparity'. This agenda is dynamically expressed in their newly released single HUMANIORA and the forthcoming album of the same name.

Innocenti recently took part in one of many Mods Mayday events that are now a massive fixture of Indonesian and Singaporean youth culture, Mod Swing '11 in Singapore.

Mod Swing 11, Singapore

Some of the biggest Mods Mayday events across the islands are Jakarta Mods Mayday, Bandung Belongs To Us, and Mod Swing (Singapore).

Overall, many thousands of young sharply dressed guys and girls will indulge in a very British phenomenon (the underlying Britishness of the scene is quite evident from the number of Union Jacks on display and the common international language used - which is of course English).

The enduring appeal of 'clean living under difficult circumstances' continues to be an inspiration for adolescents all over the world and the young mods of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are just part of a worldwide movement which, having spread from it's core in the UK to Europe and the US, now has roots in cities as far apart as Mexico and Moscow. This is the new generation of mod, let's DIG THE NEW BREED!

What's your opinion? You can discuss the new generation of mod in the forum HERE.

The Mods Book Discography

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:34:32 PDT

The Mods book, compiled by Richard Barnes, is as close as there is to a 'Mod Bible'.

As a good friend of Pete Townshend, Richard Barnes had a perfect insight into the mod movement at it's peak and, in the Mods book, provides as accurate a portrayal as you are likely to find of the life and times that were the background to the early movement. Plus, with the benefit of first hand accounts from original mods, he recounts the ideals, aspirations and boundless ingenuity that were integral to Mod.

Published in 1979, one of the main attractions of the Mods book was, of course, the great selection of images of original mods. These photos would provide profound inspiration to the young mods who carried on the movement in the 80's and were a major influence in the direction of the Mod revival, which transformed from it's punk inspired beginings into a far more stylish and musically aware scene - and it's in this form it continues to thrive today.

Ranging from Pop, Blues, R&B, Soul, Ska, Rock & Roll and Surf, the exceptional variety of sounds listened to by mods are displayed by the discography in the Mods book. These sounds are what set mods apart and are a vivid demonstration of their phenominal good taste.

Here are those songs:

What's your opinion? You can discuss the Mods Book Discography in the forum HERE.

Mod Crop

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:32:59 PDT

Mod Crop is a brand new musical written by Steve Wallis & Alan Fletcher (Quadrophenia novelist and film consultant) and is based on "Brummell's Las Riff" - the first novel from Alan's Mod Crop Trilogy.

Mod Crop is the story of three young mods daring to be different while coping with the traumas of teenage life. The show features mod classics such as Wipeout, 1,2,3, Iko-Iko, Walking the Dog as well as many other fantastic tunes from the 60's - some of which will be performed live by a five piece band.

Mark Joseph will be starring in the musical, alongside Dave Berry (Crying Game).

Mod Crop debuts at the Nottingham Theatre Royal on 9th June for one week. Subject to contract a nationwide tour will then follow.

For more details of this production see Mod Crop or for bookings goto: Royal Centre - Nottingham

The Tamla Motown Appreciation Society

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:15:10 PDT

(by Robert Nicholls)

TMAS badge courtesy of Alvaro Rubio

Sometime in 1964 I joined Dave Godin’s Tamla Motown Appreciation Society (TMAS) of the UK although I have long since lost my TMAS membership card and other insignia. The membership badge was a white pin-on disc imprinted with “Tamla Motown Appreciation Society” in large red letters with the phrase “Swinger & Friend” in a semicircle around the top. Apparently these badges are now collectors’ items because by 1965 there were no more than 300 members of TMAS. An early soul fan, Dave Godin (d. 15 October 2004) founded the TMAS and was the president. When I was a member in 1964 and 1965, I would receive regular updates on the Motor City and reports of TMAS activities through the mail. Periodically Godin would issue a magazine containing text and B&W photographs which had a bright cover and, printed in the pre-computer era, was composed of colorful geometric shapes. Occasionally we would be invited to social events at Dave Godin’s house in Bexleyheath, for example, I remember meeting Smokey Robinson’s wife, Claudette, who was an original member of the Miracles. She was not very tall but was cordial and charming. I found Dave Godin to be soft spoken and a rather unlikely looking R&B fan. Although not a Mod, he was neat and slim with a beard and spectacles and a rather mournful looking face. During 1964, he organized an important get-together for TMAS members to meet Catherine Anderson and Gladys Horton of the Marvelettes who were in Britain on a promotional tour. While music played in the background we chatted with these lovely, well-spoken ladies in their beehive hairstyles, ate from a buffet table, and met other TMAS members.

Dave Godin

Dave Godin interacted with the Tamla Motown headquarters in Hitsville USA on our behalf, specifically with Margaret Phelps who was President of the Hitsville International Fan Club. Impressed by Dave Godin’s enthusiasm, Berry Gordy invited him to the USA in 1964 to meet Motown artists and Margaret Phelps helped to organize Godin’s trip. This was a major event and was reported on in detail in the TMAS newsletter including photos of Godin with various Tamla Motown stars (reproduced as the “Detroit Report” in Paolo Hewitt’s The Sharper Word, 2009). During his visit, Motown made a 45 rpm record for TMAS which we subsequently received. On this “Hitsville U.S.A. - Greetings To Tamla Motown Appreciation Society” disc, a musical background which begins and ends with the foot-tapping “Where Did Our Love Go,” and includes “Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying,” “Can I Get a Witness,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Quicksand,” “Do you Love Me (Now That I Can Dance,” “Love Me All the Way,” and others, as a setting to a greeting from Margaret Phelps who introduces Berry Gordy Jr., followed by Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Marvelettes, Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Contours, Eddie Holland, Kim Weston, and Diana Ross and the Supremes (Diana Ross calls herself “Diane”). I don’t know if I still have the original disc in storage, but I taped it onto a cassette. This item of memorabilia has subsequently been made generally available as an MP3 sound file for downloading. The greetings text is reproduced below.

Dave Godin & Motown artists

As a result of Dave Godin’s US trip, Motown brought the Tamla Motown Review to the UK on a major tour in 1964. Featuring their headline acts, this was the high point of my TMAS membership. We attended the show at the concert hall in Finsbury Park that later became the Rainbow Theatre. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, (Little) Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes performed, accompanied by the Earl Van Dyke Sextet. I have read recently that the tour, which surely was ahead of its time, had a disappointing audience turnout, however I think the Finsbury Park venue was well attended, but we (the TM Appreciation Society) were sitting in the front rows and I didn’t turn around to look at the audience much. At the end of the show we festooned the artists with flowers. During that period a TV spectacular was taped for later broadcast which I attended as part of the studio audience, and got to chat a little with some of the artists and obtain a few autographs. Melvin Franklin the bass singer with the Temptations impressed me with his sociability. The Temptations performed some of their early hits, they did not have many at that time and were promoting “Girl, Why You Wanna Make Me Blue?" with Eddie Kendricks singing lead. I loved Martha Reeves, she had a kind heart and more soul than most. She and the Vandellas performed “Heat Wave” and were publicizing “Nowhere to Run.” Diana Ross, of course was stunning looking and was friendly and not at all aloof. The Supremes were promoting “Stop in the Name of Love” with its legendary dance routine. Stevie Wonder was just fourteen in 1964 and was still known as Little Stevie Wonder, his latest release was “Kiss Me Baby.” Somewhere around I have the Tamla Motown show program but I can’t find it. It contains autographs and dedications from Diana Ross, Martha Reeves, Melvin of the Temptations, Stevie Wonder (Stevie's attendant guided his hand when he wrote his autograph), and others. It eats me up that I cannot currently lay my hands on it.

Rob at RSG Motown Special

I have recently been able to view the RSG Motown specials that were broadcast in 1965. It is a moving reminder of those days and not all the performances involved lip-synching either, for e.g., “Shake” by the Supremes and “Mickey’s Monkey” by the Miracles were sung live. How good it is to see the Supremes and the Miracles doing the Jerk at the end of the Mickey’s Monkey sequence. In the autumn of 1966, Dave Godin and his friend Robert Blackmore started the Soul City record shop, which was based first at Deptford in Southeast London, then at Monmouth Street in the West End. Godin came to be referred to as the “Godfather of R&B in the UK,” he coined the phrases “Deep Soul,” and gave birth to the phrase “Northern Soul.”

(Rob appears on the screen 1.27 in - as the camera moves away from Smokey and the Miracles singing Shop Around)

Text of TMAS Greetings Disc

A-side:

Margaret Phelps: Hi Tamla Motown fans and especially members of the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, this is Margaret Phelps of the Hitsville USA fan club. Since we have been receiving many letters from you asking for information about our president, Mr. Berry Gordy, Jr., we thought we’d like to take this opportunity to have you meet him, well here he is:

Berry Gordy, Jr.: Thank you Margaret, greetings to all of you swingers and friends, this is Berry Gordy, Jr. It was a real pleasure meeting Dave and getting first hand information about the music scene over there. We over here really appreciate the sincere effort you’re making to publicize and promote our artists in Great Britain and throughout the world. I hope that one day I may have the opportunity of meeting each of you personally. Thanks a lot.

Smokey Robinson: Hi there swingers and friends, this is Smokey Robinson of the Miracles extending our greetings to all the Tamla Motown fans in England. We’re looking forward to coming over and seeing you very soon.

Stevie Wonder: Hi this is Stevie Wonder and I’d like to thank all of my fans for buying my records in Great Britain and I’d enjoy being there very much, and I’d like to thank very definitely al of my fan members in the TMAS and I’d like to say until I come over there, I just wanna have everybody to keep on saying, Yeah!

Marvin Gaye: Hello this is Marvin Gaye speaking and I’d like to say a special thanks to all of Great Britain and especially to the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society for voting me no. 2 in their poll for top artist of the year. It’s certainly appreciated. I’d like to also say that we’ll be seeing you all very very soon when we arrive there in England. Thank you so much.

Gladys Horton: Hi this is Gladys of the Marvelletes. It was such a pleasure meeting Dave today and we hope to meet all of you over in Great Britain soon.

Melvin Franklin: Hi this is Melvin Franklin and I’m speaking for all the Temptations and all the rest of the people here at Hitsville USA, and we want to say we’re grateful and very happy at all the enthusiasm that you people in Britain have been giving us and we’re looking forward to coming over and seeing you very soon. It’s a pleasure to meet Dave and if all the rest of you are as friendly as he, we just can’t wait to get there.

B-side:

Martha Reeves: Hi this is Martha of Martha and the Vandellas. I’d like to tell all of the Tamla Motown swingers and friends that I appreciate the card to the highest. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever received. It was a little early but I appreciate it because it was one of the first, and I’ll enjoy my birthday and think of each and everyone of you. Dave has been wonderful and I really appreciate meeting him and I hope to see you all soon. Bye bye.

Contours: Hi this is Billy Gordon speaking for the Contours we want to thank all of you swingers and friends of Tamla Motown for helping to make our record “Do You Love Me” a big hit in Great Britain. Keep on swinging, we hope to see you soon.

Eddie Holland: Hello swingers and friends this is Eddie Holland telling you to keep swinging and we hope that one day each and every one you will be able to visit us here at Hitsville USA.

Kim Weston: Hi there this is Kim Weston I would like to say hello to all of the Tamla Motown fans and I would like to say that I’m glad you enjoyed “Love Me All the Way” and I hope very soon I will be over there to see you. Dave has been wonderful to everybody and we have enjoyed him since he has been over here and I’m sure that we will enjoy everyone else. Bye.

Supremes [in unison]: Hi Dave, we’re the Supremes, [solo] I’m Diane, I’m Florence, and I’m Mary. We miss you very much and in our book you are a very swinging fella.

Robert Nicholls

This work is the copyright of Robert Nicholls, Ph.D. The views expressed are purely those of the author and are not attributable to any other person or institution

I know Rob would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.

You can also read Rob's memoirs of being a mod in 60's London - the first part of his story can be found here)

Top 100

admin@themodgeneration.co.uk (stephen hughes) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:26:16 PDT

(John Leo Waters' Top 100 tunes from back in the day)

I have tried to be objective in my choices. Whilst I love every track listed I have picked tracks that take me back to that period between 1964 and 1967 when I felt that the Mod influence was at its peak.

Every song personally takes me back to that period whether they were featured in clubs, on jukeboxes, pirate radio or just on someone’s Dansette. I am sure that other Mods from the same period would probably pick completely different tracks but all these tracks relate specifically to my own Mod experience. And so, as they say – in no particular order...


James Brown Night Train (1962) Papa’s got A Brand New Bag (1965)	Two from the man who must rate as the most influential Soul artist of the sixties. I could have included ‘I got you’ 'Cold Sweat’ and many others – all huge Mod faves

Otis Redding Mr. Pitiful (1965) Respect (1965)	Every Mod loved this man with a passion!

Chubby Checker At the Discotheque (1965)	This was the B side of ‘The Freddie’ a big tune at La Discotheque – no surprise there!

Eddie Floyd Things get Better (1965)	Very popular in the clubs probably more so than ‘Knock on Wood’

The Ethiopians Train to Skaville (1966)	As Blue Beat became known as Ska this was a classic

Martha and the Vandellas Nowhere to Run (1965)	Motown at its very best – huge in the clubs

Charlie and Inez Foxx Tightrope (1967)	They always suffered a little in the shadow of Ike and Tina but they were appreciated far more by many music lovers – classic dance track.
Mary Wells My Guy (1964)	The one that really put Motown on the map in the UK.


Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs Wooly Bully (1965)	A garage classic with a driving beat. Great for the dancefloor

Wilson Pickett The Midnight Hour (1965) Don’t Fight It (1965)	Two huge club classics from the Wicked One. I could have picked 6345789,Mustang Sally or any one of several others.

Solomon Burke Everybody Needs Somebody (1964)	My first abiding memory of a classic Soul artist live at the Flamingo – A precious memory!

Joe Tex Hold on to What You’ve Got (1965)	Another artist who is sadly often neglected when great Soul singers are discussed

The Skatelites Guns of Navarone (1967)	Another Ska monster track

Don Covay Sookie Sookie (1965)	Don wrote some great stuff and was no slouch when it came to cutting a few classics himself!

Darrell Banks Open the Door to Your Heart (1966)	I said that my tracks are in no particular order – but if there were a No1 this would be it!!

Eric Morris & the Drumbago All Stars Humpty Dumpty (1961)	Early Blue Beat which was very popular – Georgie Fame did a great cover on his ‘Blue Beat’ EP

Homer Banks A Lot of Love (1966)	I can remember rushing out to buy this at Broadmeads (they were a chain of shops back in the day!!)


Chuck Wood Seven Days is Too Long (1966)	Fantastic dance track that became a Northern favourite some years later


Four Tops I Can’t Help Myself (1965) Something About You (1965)	Hugely popular. I remember these two tracks in particular but could have picked any one of half a dozen


Jimmy Smith Walk on the Wild Side Pts 1 & 2 (1962) Got my Mojo Working (1966)	When it came to the Hammond organ he was the master. A major influence on so many keyboard players and a big Mod hero


Junior Walker Shotgun (1965) Shake and Fingerpop (1965)	I think if any one artist personified the music of the clubs in the sixties it would be Junior Walker – Pure class


Isley Brothers This Old Heart of Mine (1966)	Sounds a fresh today as it did forty odd years ago!


Rufus Thomas Walking the Dog (1963) Can Your Monkey do the Dog (1964)	Did anybody make more ‘dance’ records that Rufus? I doubt it. These were the ones I remember as being particularly popular


The Miracles Going to a Go Go (1966)	The title says it all – impossible to sit still to this!


The Impressions I Cant Satisfy (1966)	Another hugely influential group (those mohair suits!) and in Curtis Mayfield they possessed one of Soul music’s true geniuses.


Phil Upchurch You Can’t Sit Down (1961)	Another instrumental classic


Brother Jack McDuff A Change Gonna Come/ Down in the Valley (1966)	A double headed classic from another master of the Hammond. If anyone ever asks how instrumental music can be classed as Soul tell them to listen to Bro. Jack’s version of ‘Change’.


Derek Martin Daddy Rollin Stone (1962)	I never really knew what to make of this but it was hugely popular. I know the Who featured this number on stage and Entwhistle added a mean bass line.


Hank Jacobs So Far Away (1964)	Another organ classic. Brilliant!


Prince Buster Ten Commandments (1965)	I wonder what feminists would make of this. The king of Blue Beat. The Prince was loved by Mods. So many classic tracks – ‘Al Capone’ ‘Madness ‘Judge Dread’ etc. This was his only track to make the US R&B charts!


Rex Garvin Sock it to em JB (1966)	There was a plethora of James Bond/Spy records around at the time but this one was a big hit on the floor.


The Elgins Heaven Must Have Sent You (1966)	Another classic Motown track that was a hit on more than one occasion over the years.


Four Seasons Lets Hang On (1965)	Frankie’s boys made several great records over the years but this neo-Motown track was the one that got the punters dancing.


Roland Alphonso Phoenix City (1966)	Coxsone Dodd production – Immensely popular.


Billy Butler Right Track (1966)	Another favourite that went on to become a Northern monster.


Lee Dorsey Ride Your Pony (1965)	Lee had a few hits in the UK but this was the one that was played in clubs


Fontella Bass Rescue Me (1965)	It was and is played to death but still gets the old toes tapping!


Bessie Banks Go Now (1964)	A true Soul classic. Am I alone in thinking the Moody Blues did a pretty good version of this?


The Drifters Baby What I mean (1966)	The Drifters do Motown! They had many club classics back in the day but this was a huge club fave.


Ikettes Peaches and Cream (1965)	Ike and Tinas backing group on an excellent number


Mel Torme I’m Comin Home (1962)	A strange one. Torme was a Jazz/Crooner in the Sinatra style but he cut this great slab of Ray Charles styled R&B and Mods took it to heart.


Dobie Gray The In Crowd (1965)	The ultimate Mod song. Every related to every line – we were the Incrowd (in our mind’s anyway!)


The Kingsmen Louie Louie (1963)	Everyone and his brother cut a version of the Richard Berry classic (including a good version by The Kinks) but this version got the nod.


Roy Head and Traits Treat Her Right (1965)	Storming track. I remember seeing Roy feature this on TV (TOTP I think). He was some performer!


Marvin Gaye Aint That Peculiar (1965)	It would be impossible to pick 100 best 60’s tunes without including at least one Marvin track. This was the one that did it for us.


Nina Simone Don’t Let me be misunderstood (1964)	The High Priestess of Soul’, a fitting epithet and Soul with a capital ‘S’


Sam Cooke Shake (1965)	Along with Ray Charles he probably did more to bring what came to be known as Soul music to public awareness. This track perhaps gave a hint of what would have come had he not been so tragically taken from us.


Arthur Alexander You Better Move On (1961)	Early classic which was brought to our initial attention courtesy of the Stones cover. A complex character who suffered greatly with nerves by all accounts. Apparently ‘did a runner’ at his gig at the Flamingo?


Billy Preston Billys Bag (1965)	A great organ instrumental from the man with the huge grin! Massive in the clubs


Bob and Earl Harlem Shuffle (1963)	Dance classic that made several return visits. I caught them live at the Mayfair in Newcastle. I can also recall seeing them on TOTP once when one of them vanished halfway through the song. The same thing apparently happened to one of the Tams (he fell off the stage!!)


Roy C Shotgun Wedding (1965)	Another artist who had problems performing live apparently. A great songwriter though.


Gene Chandler Nothing Can Stop Me (1965)	The ever reliable Gene Chandler! I still want to get up and dance when I hear this one!


Betty Everett Getting Mighty Crowded (1964)	This was a real favourite. The best thing Betty ever did!


Ben E. King Stand By Me (1961)	The term ‘classic’ is bandied about very freely but if ever a track deserved the title this one does.


Major Lance Um Um Um Um Um (1964)	His thunder was stolen by Wayne Fontana’s cover version but there is no comparison once you hear the original.


Willie Mitchell Everythings Gonna Be Allright (1965)	Storming dancer that still evokes memories


Lovin Spoonful Do You Believe in Magic (1965)	The Spoonful were not Mod favourites by any means but this track (their first hit) ticked all the right boxes.


Bo Diddley Cant Judge a Book by the Cover (1965)	Another track that was covered by countless R&B bands but the original is still the best.


McKinley Soul Mitchell The Town I Live in (1962)	A real left field number but had quite a lot of play on the pirate stations.


Jimmy Reed Shame Shame Shame (1963)	Great bluesman. ‘Big Boss Man’ was also very popular with Mods.


Roscoe Gordon Just a Little Bit (1960)	R&B (that’s the original R&B!) as it should be. Liverpool’s Undertakers did a good version of this backed by Solomon Burke’s ‘Stupidity’.


The Anglos Incense (1965)	Is it or ain’t it? The question of whether this is actually Stevie Winwood has never been fully answered but who cares – a great track


Oscar Toney Jnr. Your Precious Love (1967)	Would bring tears to a glass eye! One of the few cases when a cover is better than the original. We loved this record.


Booker T and MG’s Bootleg (1965) Green Onions (1962)	The backbone of the Memphis sound. Two wonderful slabs of Stax.


The Pyramids Train Tour to Rainbow City (1967)	Ska had arrived by the time Eddie Grant put his stamp all over this great record.


Tommy Tucker High Heel Sneakers (1964)	They don’t make them like this anymore. R&B gem. His ‘Long Tall Shorty’ was very popular as was the Kinks cover version


Shirley Ellis The Name Game (1965)	No one did a ‘nonsense’ song like Shirley. Not as popular chartwise as ‘The Clapping Song’ but we preferred this.


Small Faces What’cha Gonna Do About it (1965)	The best and possibly the only thing they ever did that really appealed to the Mod generation. A rip off of ‘Everbody Needs Somebody’ perhaps but a great dance track. Unfortunately as soon as they hit the big time they kissed goodbye to their R&B roots and became a ‘pop’ band with a legion of teenybopper girl fans!! (Am I jealous? You bet!)


Donnie Elbert Little Piece of Leather (1965)	The UK Sue label was a big favourite with Mods and this is one of the best tracks they ever put out.


Folkes Brothers Oh Carolina (1960)	Probably the first Blue Beat record most of us ever came across and indelibly imprinted in our minds forever.


Stevie Wonder Uptight (1966)	Little Stevie with his first big UK hit


Sam and Dave You Don’t Know Like I Know (1966)	Stonking record – say no more. I can remember dancing with an umbrella at a blues party to this!! Well, I had to dance with someone or something. I have a feeling drink might have been involved!!


Georgie Fame Yeah Yeah (1964)	A real Mod hero in the early days. A great version of the Jon Hendricks number.


Mongo Santamaria Watermelon Man (1963)	Much beloved number although I remember hearing a version by Trini Lopez (?) which I preferred?


Ike and Tina Turner I Can’t Believe What You Say (1964)	A real stormer on Sue. Oh for the Tina of old!


Charlie Rich Mohair Sam (1965)	Mod anthem –‘who is the coolest cat? That is what I am’ That was us!


Ad Libs Boy From New York City (1965)	Another song that mentioned mohair suits! Had to be a fave!


Len Barry 123/Bullseye (1965)	A touch of blue eyed Soul. The B side was very popular also


John Lee Hooker Dimples (1956)	My God – 1956! Absolute Blues classic still sounding fresh to my ears.


Howlin Wolf Smokestack Lightning (1956)	Talking of Blues classics – here’s another just as old and just as popular with sixties Mods.


Sonny Boy Williamson Help Me (1963)	A big following in the UK. Appeared on RSG and this was his biggest record. A touch of ‘Green Onions’ in the background?


Rolling Stones Little Red Rooster (1964)	Yes the Stones were very popular with many Mods in the early days as they were a premier R&B band. Their early Lp’s brought many great tracks to our attention for the first time and to be fair they have always acknowledged their debt to R&B adding artists such as Bobby Womack and Ike and Tina Turner to their earlier tours. This is a classic. Brilliant slide guitar from Brian Jones.


Spencer Davis Group Keep On Running (1966)	Excellent band that did much to keep the flag flying for UK R&B a lot longer than many contemporaries (although they succumbed eventually). Great version of Jackie Edwards number.


Righteous Brothers You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling (1965)	We could be romantic if we wanted! This was/is great record in anybody’s book surely


Ezz Reco & Launchers with Boysie Grant King of Kings (1964)	Ezz Reco and Launchers with Boysie Grant– King of Kings 64 – Great Blue Beat track. Cover of early Jimmy Cliff number. Even made the UK charts!


The Toys Lovers Concerto (1965)	This was very popular in the clubs and still fills the floor today


The Animals We Gotta Get Out of this Place (1965)	Newcastle’s finest were never a Mod band as such but they were very popular due to their no nonsense R&B sound. In Eric Burdon they possessed one of the best voices the UK ever produced


Lou Johnson Always Something There to Remind Me (1964)	Lou Johnson never achieved any great measure of success which is a great shame as he certainly had the right credentials! We loved this by Sandie Shaw until we heard the original – no comparison!


Kim Weston Helpless (1966)	Kim really hit the spot with this cover of the Tops classic.


The Velvelettes Needle in a Haystack (1964)	Classic Motown. I defy anyone to sit still to this. A huge favourite. All together now –‘Do lang, do lang, do lang ….


Desmond Decker and the Aces 007 (1967)	Massive track. A big Mod hit if we hadn’t a clue what he was singing about!!


The Who My Generation (1965)	They may have been a ‘manufactured’ band in the Mod sense and soon moved away from the scene once popularity had been attained but in ‘My generation’ they captured the essence of a whole youth movement

I know John would love to hear any feedback on this article. You can discuss it with him in the forum here or I will pass on any messages to him using the contact address.