Had a love affair with Nina
In the back of my Cortina
A seasoned up hyena
Could not have been more obscener
She took me to the cleaners
And other misdemeanours
But I got right up between her
Rum and her Ribena

Poetry from Ian Dury

Last edited by RobbieB (2021-10-27 10:16:42)

In 'No Sleep to Canvey Island' Ian Dury mentions wearing "Tuf boots, rolled-up jeans and nice macs" while at art school.

It isn't what JS put up, they are fairly careful. It is others do using it as a totem. 'Is my elasticated knee support with a JS badge on it Mod?'. A real tweet from yesterday. Or 'Just had a delivery from John Simons, it smells of Mod', 'The godfather of Mod clothing', 'Top Mods sre off to John Simons' tweets and so on. '.  'A Mod for all seasons', 'The man who dressed the mods'. There is loads of it. Search John Simons Mod at twitter for some. A lot of it if not retweeted or liked fades away fast.  None of it even mentions Ivy Style. (nor actually does that mission blurb above). I write copy continually as part of what I do and the wording in that second paragraph is interesting.

The Mumper writing about John Simons in The Modernist magazine (not Mod, a 20th Century architecture and design journal, he seems the unofficial spokesperson somehow). 

The pics with the JS incrowd of Freeman etc etc always look a bit smug, but that's just me.

I'm just explaining - as it isn't JS posts often than the famous faces sometimes.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-10-27 15:48:00)

John Simons has no interest in mods, suedeheads, soulboys or any of the labels. I've discussed it with him over the years and I think he basically sees it as rather trivial and brainless. He himself was a modernist in the original way that word was used in the mid-late 50s - as someone who is aligned to modern jazz and its music and its culture and way of seeing the world. I believe it is difficult for us to understand the original mod-trad split and (mild) antagonism in that period. Absolute Beginners of course captures this period very nicely. John learned to play the saxophone in the Clapton branch of the Jewish Lads Brigade in the mid 50s and the music, architecture, design and painting of the period 1920 to 1960 are a great passion for him. I made a start on his biography many years back and spent many hours interviewing him but my sloth and indecision got in the way of me actually committing much to paper. So, for me, discovering J.Simons in 1986 it was extremely joyous as here was somebody who actually, for a change, knew what he was talking about. He was and is the real deal - an original thinker, a man of taste and ideas, who has seen, felt and understands much of the stuff we all obsess about here. And what was wonderful, speaking as somebody who was immersed in the mistakes and confusions of the mod revival and really wanted to be free of much of its nonsense, was that the shop on Russell Street rarely attracted a mod. I worked there part time from 87 to 90 and I may have seen a dozen in all that time. They'd look at the shoes, moan about the prices, laugh at the tweed and the 'wide' lapels, maybe mutter an anti-semitic comment or two then scuttle back without making a purchase. That shop was rooted in John's take on the traditional American clothing store with goods packed in and a wholesome, unshowy way of displaying and selling. It was harking back to a gentler age. John used his training as a window dresser at St.Martin's to conjure up brilliant windows that we all stared at like we were in front of a Picasso. So I share some of the reservations about how the Chiltern Street shop has marketed itself. I love Paul and believe in many ways he is completely aligned to his father's history and aesthetic. But John rejects the internet and online retailing and marketing. It just doesn't interest him at all. He is from a verbal culture rooted in connections with real people. Paul has decided to use the mod thing in a way his dad never would have. It probably makes sense from a business perspective and as JS himself said about the old shop "I can't be pure anything, we're in Covent Garden, not the V&A". But I don't like the 'mod' characters who 'work' for the shop, however well-intentioned they may be. I thought the documentary was pretty awful, and Baxter, Freeman, Weller and the rest just seem lumpen, predictable and loaded with all the same old bullshit we've heard before. JS was always about so much more than this. As I wrote in my essay at the start of The Ivy Look - his customers came from all walks of life - cabbies, architects, actors, law lords, anti-apartheid activists, ordinary blokes going to the theatre, and hardly a mod in sight. That was part of the appeal to me. Clued-in, low key, under the radar people who liked these very good clothes with a great backstory fantastically and evocatively conveyed by John himself, who became loyal and passionate about a certain way of dressing. Nothing subcultural, nothing to do with modernism (not sure this is a term you can accurately apply to clothes). Now, as to The Ivy/Squire shops and who shopped there then, that's a bit before my era, but I have my theories. Maybe I'll put that in another post!

Last edited by Tworussellstreet (2021-10-27 17:56:48)

Three great posts in a row! This quiet corner of the internet is showing its worth.

Oh, and who is The Mumper?

Thanks, Tim.  I kept seeing the name and wondering.  Ah, 'Tubby Hayes At The Dancing Slipper'.  Not sure if my old Dad was a fan.  I don't think AUS is keen on any of it (though I might be speaking out of turn). 
My distaste for the likes of Weller and Rowland (each only a couple of years my senior) keeps me away from the DVD. 
Isn't the term 'mumping' originally something to do with buying and selling stolen goods?

Tim, I'm glad you're here.

50s British Modern Jazz is one of my areas of enjoyment, so I do like some Tubby Hayes.  He tried a bit too hard though, more about the number of notes than feel for me in a lot of his music. But more than that, I'm less than a mile from the Dancing Slipper itself and in the 80s it was our Mod haunt.  It's now a language school.

Talking of Mark Baxter/Mumper - he has taken to writing a very shallow, second hand blog for Mod clothing label Art Gallery.

He has produced an Ivy League copy cardiagn with them: https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/love-letter/ 

I call it a shallow blog as he doesn't actually know much. His text on Kenny Lynch missed a lot of the most interesting aspects, as he is essentially just collating from online comments that are themselves collated from books. He co-wrote the recent book on Skinhead that has JS interviewed in it.  I'm pretty sure a fair amout of his content was cribbed from this and other fora. Indeed, some of those titles look suspiciously familiar below and I've seen some of my earlier content reused I think.

He wrote at the blog about JS here:
https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/the-1950s-new-bohemian-tasty-london-lad-beatniks/
https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/natural-shoulder-spoken-here/
https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/boss-bass-weejun/
https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/in-search-of-that-elusive-roll/
https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/heading-for-suede/
https://www.artgalleryclothing.co.uk/the-blazin-mod%e2%80%a8/

He is often around JS and seemingly become an influence on them, especially having done the DVD. You can see him in those launch/summer party pictures alongisde Jules, Freeman, Weller etc.

If you haven't seen the DVD, I suggest you do - just so we have your take on it.  I watched it once and sold it, it's pretty slight and in that format of endless talking heads, quick cut shots and not much actual content. Most importantly if I recall correctly - none of the original buyers seemed to be interviewed or talk about it.  You'd think as an extra there might be a decent length interview with John and Paul, shown 'as is'  - but there isn't.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-10-28 02:27:33)

Just going back to my original, rather incoherently spluttering comments, please note I put John Simons in inverted commas.  Tim, of course, is quite right about The Guv'nor agewise.  He deserves a bit of peace and quiet as well as respect.  I hope he's still managing to practise his playing. 
Setting aside the Twitter/IG/Weller/Baxter/Freeman bollocks I'm bloody glad the shop is still there, but it was fairly certain to be different, wasn't it? 
Still some cracking jackets and coats.

'The Jewish Lads Brigade'.  That's great.  I remember JFMs mentor, Paddy, telling me how it had been to grow up as a Jew in post-war London.  His father advised him to keep his head down.  He was even given the name Patrick.  Just to fit in, I think, at a time when Mosley was beginning to make a comeback around the East End. 

TRS needs to get to work on that book on Jewish Ivy.

Ha ha, I get what you're saying. Never been a Mod, (2nd time round) was probably to old, the music didn't really interest me, the old soul stuff did though. As I've said my introduction came by stumbling on Harrington in Guildford, to finding the Ivy Shop Windsor by accident moving on to the Richmond branch and then seeking out JS, all in the space of a couple of years. Looking different to a lot of people, I suppose early 80's it was a little bit unconventional.
But people always wanted to know where I bought my clothes, I did convert quite a few.

On a lighter note:

The trouble with Mandy
Was that to get her randy
She had to have a brandy
But she'd only drink a shandy...

Is that how it goes?

"What you doing wearing that 3/2 roll jacket done up with a full three buttons?  You're nicked me old son, under the crimes against Traditional American Clothing act of 1956". Detective Inspector Marsh is going to throw the book at you. The Ivy Look book actually so you can read it in the cells and get back on the straight and narrow."

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-10-28 06:09:44)