Oh great, it's a mod Judy Blume. Does he dance his way into the heart of the girl next door?? I can't wait to find out!

This isn't a comment on the book but I was around Soho as a Mod in 1984 and none of the Mods looked like the 'Art Gallery' label chap in the photos here who has a more authentic sixties look than was around at the time.   

The retro-authentic look hadn't yet been created so there was a real mish-mash of looks from Jam inspired pop-Carnabyism to Style Council's Euro-American, those starting to stray into psychedelia (particularly the Milton Keynes/Northampton Psychodots set) and towards acid-jazz/funk had looser interpretations.  '84 I tried to look like Keith Moon, by '85 it was like someone from The Factory by '86 (which as a simple look also worked well for moonlighting on more electronic, up to date dance music of the time). I'd transitioned from Mod to both niter Northern Soul and niter early House music in parallel.  Quite incredibly through Facebook I found that 60% of my friends from the time are still together as Mods and running events very happily.   Good for them.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2016-12-03 05:16:34)

'The power and the glory' by Gary Bushell?

A Mexican whisky priest who finds redemption through Oi music?

The Style Council Weller and Talbot look was already ahead of Mod, as soon as they arrived. Happy days, getting all those style tips from the 12" covers 83-85. And then they had to go and blow it all with the orange album.

John Simons - The Man Who Didn't Necessarily Dress The Mods.  Shhh...  don't tell anyone at the BBC, 'Guardian' or 'Independent', will you? 
Some of these threads are rib-tickling.

The entire 'sub-culture' thing has been a problem from beginning to end.  I know even my beloved Gibson will disagree but this style is American, American, American, all the way through.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  Of course, if it wasn't American, what were he and his Merseyside chums so worked up about when viewing those old copies of 'Esquire' all those years ago? 
Back in 1979 (or whenever that bloody film showed up at our local ABC and sparked off so much trouble) I had only contempt for 'Mods'.  They were simply not part of my world, which was embracing the USA in a major way: Brooks Brothers, Montgomery Clift, hints and whiffs of jazz and blues.  The 'Mods' listened to pop music. 
Baggy shirts?  This has been touched on elsewhere - the 'Mod' misunderstanding of shirts, tweed jackets ('Nah, yer lapels r' too wide, squire), chinos, sweatshirts, loafers.  TRS knows ALL ABOUT IT.  He was there.

Having said the above, much that goes on in life is tentative.  I'd heard of Brooks Brothers before I knew the words 'Ivy League'.  'Preppie' I was made aware of by a friend of my father, who had emigrated to the United States and was in and out of NYC a fair amount.  It was not meant as a compliment.

I don’t think talk of sub culture does any good really.

‘Ivy’ isn’t one. Not over here as far as I can see. It’s much more subtle than any sub culture could ever be. Attempting to fully intertwine it with mod/suede/rockabilly or whatever is a bit naive. JS could stand alone perfectly well enough without the associations. And any sub cult would have managed just as well without his services.

It’s interesting to read the points above Re The Style Council. They really did a lot to indicate that life could be about more than bowling shoes and sulking around on beaches. And they did encourage the listener to go out and find it for themselves. Weller wore some pretty good gear in their early years I always thought. And they mixed up the sounds really well. Constantly switching and mixing it up made you really alert to where their influences were coming from.

The Mod revival coincided with the onset of my teenage years. I can only talk from a personal perspective based on the people I met who were slightly older than me.

I think the key thing that's overlooked was that the early Mod revival was more rooted in Punk /New Wave than is now recognised. I never met anyone who was originally interested  in recreating the Sixties Mod or the late fifties Modernists. You must remember that in a pre-internet age trying to get credible information, imagery and clothing was really difficult and everything involved a load of painstaking hunting out.

By '78 Punk had run it's course. A lot of the original energy had burnt itself out pretty quickly. The smarter older kids took refuge in the big cities at Bowie nights. The younger kids liked the energy of Punk and there were still plenty of back rooms in pubs to catch live music in. Smarter looking groups emerged who saw the antithesis of modern being the long haired rock and prog groups and their fans who were more rooted in the late Sixties/early Seventies. Just look at Pete Townsend as an example.

Little pockets of like minded souls appeared up and down the country and would follow groups that had a similar aesthetic.

Anything slim fitting and narrow that looked different from the flares, tank tops and big collared shirts was picked up. Typically from charity shops  or finding some back street  shop that was selling deadstock. Nobody really called themselves Mod. Things like wrap around glasses, skinny ties, polo necks and chelsea boots were all popular. The cover of Blondie Parallel lines is a good point of reference for '78.

By 79 a lot of the kids were now referring to themselves as Mods. The look was slightly bizarre as most were still wearing their hair quite long but with retro clothing. The music was still rooted in new wave rather than oldies. New bands claiming to be Mods were emerging every week it seamed. Inspired by the ethos of Punk, most were rubbish. Some got deals and would record a few singles before breaking up or going back to obscurity.

A good example of this evolution is a band called New Hearts who recorded Teenage Anthem in '78.A classic bit of new wave. They changed their name to Secret Affair and toured with The Jam very early in their career. There is also a compilation called Odd Bods Mods and Sods from around this time

Quadraphenia and the Barnes book were really interesting reference points but like all things it evolves. By 1980 the mod revival was a pre-packaged for kids in market stall parkers and that awful place in Carnaby Street selling black satin ties with band logos on it.

^ Excellent.

I had a Summer job in '79 working in fancy goods shop in Brixham.

I was listening  to a load of soul and funk played in the shop. I remember Earth Wind and Fire September, The Jones Girls and Shalamar Take that to the bank were on heavy rotation.It was all about baggy jeans, POD shoes and canvas belts with square buckles. We called them utility belts

Two guys came into the shop wearing really pointed shoes, dayglo socks, tight trousers and short spikey haircuts. I had never seen anything like them before. The thing I vividly remember was one of the guys had a pin badge with the word MODS on it with the pop art arrow.

I didn't know what "MODS" was and didn't want to look like a nebbish so kept quite .