When did the Mods die out?
When did the original Mods, like the guys at Brighton in 1964, die out? There have been sundry Mod revivals since, bu twhen did the "real thing" cease to be current?
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MovieChat Forums > Quadrophenia (1979) Discussion > When did the Mods die out?
The Mod thing from the 60s was a dead duck in London really from about '66 onwards as music, fashions and attitudes all changed to 'psychedelic' or 'skinhead' depending on what you were into. However, in other areas, and particularly the North of England, mod-style scenes continued to exist and flourish in the worlds of northern soul and/or the scooter clubs, which is why they got a lot of the extras for Quadrophenia from northern clubs - several of whose members like Ginger from Bolton have no doubt had many a free drink as they recounted the tale of how 'I was the rocker in the police van with Jimmy and the Ace'.
shareSpeaking of those extras, I spotted at least one who sported a seventies-style beard and long hair. I guess someone in wardrobe slipped up?
share"Speaking of those extras, I spotted at least one who sported a seventies-style beard and long hair. I guess someone in wardrobe slipped up"?
If you watch Quadrophenia closely, you find the film is riddled with errors, not just of the barnet kind. Street scenes include MK111 Cortinas and other '70's motors, as did Pete's car breakers yard. The cinema in Brighton was showing 'Heaven Can Wait' which was released in 1979 and many of the shop fronts had definite 70's exteriors.
Franc Roddam said he actually included 7 deliberate errors when interviewed for the book 'Your Face Here'. He was probably joking, but watching the film, you wonder..........
'Culture, sophistication, a little bit more than an 'ot dog' You said it Bob!
I just talked to a Who fan that said the Who really were just dressed up to look like Mods by their manager, that after '63 or '64 it was more a trendy thing to copy. Any truth behind that?
sharePretty much that is the case. Pete Meaden managed them and changed their name to the High Numbers (a number is a common or garden mod as opposed to the style-leading faces). Daltrey was to be dressed as a face and the other three would be numbers. According to what i've read Townshend and Moon were more into being mods than Daltrey or Entwistle. Having said that though they were pretty good at being mods!
shareYeah. If you remember the sleevenotes from the 1973 Quadrophenia, Pete Townshend wrote as Jimmy commenting on The Who "They weren't really Mods but Mods liked them"
Pete T was probably the one most into Modernism as a cause and a scene and if you see photos from The Scene club etc in early 1964, he looks the part. But the initial Mod clothes which Pete Meaden bought for them got a mixed reception from the band. John in particular hated the clothes and the haircut. When you see him in the hooped jumper and Levis with turn-ups, he does look awkward. He complained that the striped boxing boots he was given to wear fell apart after the first confrontation with a puddle. Roger was a Ted at heart but wore the "Ivy League jacket" and two-tone shoes. The initial Mod phase under Pete Meaden was just not them. But when Lambert and Stamp took over and the boys got their Who name back and got their Marquee appearance sorted, they quickly grew into the part and did their own version of Mod. They chose the clothes and added their own touches: Roger with the black sticky tape arrows stuck on his jumpers and sweatshirts, Pete with his pop and op art jackets, John with his medals and badges on his short white denim jackets etc, Keith with his tee-shirts and target or Elvis motifs.
You've heard of prehistoric Piltdown Man ? Come to Edinburgh today and meet Pilton Man !
Back on the original thread, there's a couple of interesting ideas on when the Mods lifestyle started to die out.
According to Kenney Jones, the Small Faces drummer, he reckoned it was when crash helmets were introduced by law for scooters.
Another Mod, it may have been Irish Jack Lyons, who reckoned it was when pills were superseded by acid and other mind-affecting drugs.
You've heard of prehistoric Piltdown Man ? Come to Edinburgh today and meet Pilton Man !
I found this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/may/18/newsid_3014000/3014033.stm
A couple people reckon that a true Mod would never listen to The Who.
Depends what's a true Mod, where from and when.
There were true mods who did like The Who, otherwise they never would have got to play at the Goldhawk Club so often. They also got a hardcore Mod audience behind them early in their Marquee residency. Of course the Mods at the Goldhawk were local Mods from Shepherds Bush, Acton etc. Chances were Mods from East London wouldn't go up the Goldhawk Club and so wouldn't be attached to the West Londoners' local band.
Likewise, some Mods consider the Small Faces were a true Mod band, while others reckon they were poseurs. Even Ian McLaglen reckoned there were some gigs they did to Mods which went badly, with the Mod audience threatening to do them over because they didn't see them as true Mods.
Modernism wasn't (and isn't) one true faith for all.
If I gotta die for a word - my word's P O O N T A N G !
I found this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/may/18/newsid_3014000/3014033.stm
A couple people reckon that a true Mod would never listen to The Who.
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As is pretty well known, The Who weren't real mods. Pete Meaden made them in his image to represent the mod culture. But that period, as the High Numbers, was not universally popular with the band. Only when they started to do their own thing (under new management), as a self-proclaimed pop-art group, did they get ahead, using mod inagery as well as striking pop-art symbolism and auto-destruction etc etc.
As PT said in Quadrophenia as Jimmy about the Who "They weren't real Mods, but Mods liked them". Not surprisingly, cos Roger was a would-be teddy-boy, Keith was an Elvis and surfing fan, John liked black leather and Pete was the only really mod-orientated one of them.
When I was trying to get introduced into the mod scene in Scotland as a young teenager in 66/67 - the only music I recall today with the dancehalls I was in was Motown, Stax, James Brown and some ska. I can't recall The Who, Stones, even Small Faces etc being played - but it could be a selective memory.
If I gotta die for a word - my word's P O O N T A N G !
Mind you, thinking about it ? did the Mods truly die out ?
No they didn't ! They survived the late sixties and early seventies courtesy Northern Soul and the ska/early skinhead scene, there was the late 70's revival of course and we've had mods regenerating in newer forms ever since. The 80's, 90's and 2000's are all Mod times. Look at the music groups who have carried the Mod banner in the 90's onward till today to some degree or other.
Mod also develops - just because there is dedication to style doesn't mean slavishly sticking to one or two snapshot years. Styles develop, that's why they're Modernists !
I read with delight that Chicago, NY, SF etc all have lively Mod scenes and I think that's great. Europe, Australia are the same. In Britain, Modernism will never die, it will just keep getting more modern, whilst keeping the faith - the faith of style. Modernism is doing what it does best and what it originally intended, keeping itself to itself, a secret society recognisable only to those who know how to read the signs.
You wanna f * * k with me? Okay. Say hello to my little friend! (Tony Montana)
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The Who Sell Out is an album dedicated to Mod culture and it was released in 1967 so presumably it was still going then.
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I remember the huge "bundle" that ensued in Southend in 1964, between the Mods and Rockers. There was a similar confrontation in 1969 between Skinheads and Greasers, the late 60's update version. In 1985 I was working in a seafront pub there. There was a large contingency of Mods in our pub which was spotted by a passing mass of bikers. "Everybody duck !".
Dedicated to Mod Culture? How so?
share"The Who Sell Out" is most certainly NOT "an album dedicated to Mod culture". It's an album dedicated to 60s pirate radio and the advertising industry. The Who were well on their way to being semi-psychedelic by 1967.
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I was a MOD in the 80's, so there were indeed revivals.
Mod had a big revival around 1979 allied with the Ska movement. Bands such as Madness, Bad Manners, Jam, The Beat, Specials were very much in the vanguard and The Who mainly because of Quadrophenia were the modfathers. Although The Who were very much a rock group to me.
Its that man again!!
Modernists died out when Eric Clapton joined/started Cream.
sharethey get together in Brighton down Madera Drive every year, but mostly it's self-aware dress-up for those in their 40's or later . .
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