We are the mods!

                                    We Are The Mods!



     

Mod culture was born from London's west end underground jazz clubs in the late 1950s.
The name "mod" came as a result from their taste in modernist jazz, this early incarnation of mods had very little impact outside of London.
This somewhat group of so called intellectual and elitist mods gave way to the next incarnation of mods, and it's in this second incarnation that the scooter boys on Brighton's beaches can be found! Mod culture, with it's symbols,fashion and music was very much a working class movement. It influenced the masses and infiltrated the high street at every level.
It was all encompassing, and it was very much a product of it's time!
In one of The Daily Mail editions of 1963 it was reported 'to be a mod... is more than a fashion. It is almost a way of life!

Looking at the mod culture for anyone who likes pop music and pop culture of yesteryear, is a great way to examine the British pop music and youth fashion explosion of the 1960s in general.

Partly as a result of no more military conscription and partly as a result of teenagers having jobs and a little more money to spend!

Popular pop television show, Ready, steady, go! that was televised every friday night was clearly aimed at the the "mod" market!

Fashion boutiques across the country benefitted enormously from this with the programs bands, singers, male and female dancers alike wearing mod fashions and the latest styles and look being

freely advertised. Mod culture was changing the face of british life and challenging  politicians who were struggling with the horror of losing cultural control over the youth media with the `onslaught of pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London! Teenagers wanted more air time for their favourite pop groups! The Beatles, The Who, The small faces, The Kinks, The rolling stones ect

And back in the day The BBC only had 1 to 2 hours a day for this massive market! 

The British government of the day fought hard and aggressively to close those stations down.

Mod culture brightened up dreary and finically crushed post war Briton and also with the international success of bands like The Beatles opening the flood gates for other Brit pop outfits sending mod culture all over the world!

The British Taxman had a huge mod smile on His or Her face!

Piagio whom make vespa scooters and lambretta scooters the two most popular brands of motor scooters amongst mods also did very nicely out of the mod explosion! 

My 1996 PX 200 Vespa is a pleasure to ride! Motor bike riders just don't get it! They still feel the need to ride up along side me and the drag me off! As if i don't know a motor 10 times the size of mine has more power...

But hey.... They can't understand can they? It's a way of life!

 

The Who !!! PT 1!!!

                                                The Who PT 1 !!!

The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964. The best known line-up consisted of singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and drummerKeith Moon. For much of their career they have been regarded as one of the three most important British rock acts along with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.^[1]

The band developed from an earlier group, The Detours, before stabilizing around a line-up of Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle and Moon. After releasing a single (billed as The High Numbers), the group established themselves as part of the mod movement, specialising in auto-destructive art by destroying guitars and drums onstage. The group achieved national attention in Britain after support by pirate radio and television, with their first single (as The Who), "I Can't Explain" reaching the top ten, and achieved a number of further hit singles including "My Generation", "Substitute" and "Happy Jack". Although initially regarded as a singles act, they also found success with the albums My Generation and A Quick One. The group achieved success in the US after performing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and the top ten single "I Can See for Miles". They released The Who Sell Out at the end of the year, and spent much of the following one touring the US.

The release of their fourth album, Tommy, in 1969 was a major commercial and critical achievement, and subsequent live appearances at Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival, along with the live album Live At Leeds transformed The Who's reputation from a hit-singles band into a critically acclaimed rock act. The success brought pressure on lead songwriter Townshend, and the follow-up to Tommy, Lifehouse was abandoned in favour of 1971's Who's Next. The group subsequently released Quadrophenia (1973) and The Who by Numbers (1975), oversaw a film of Tommy and toured to large audiences before retiring from most live performances in 1977. The release of Who Are You in 1978 was overshadowed a few weeks later by the death of Moon on 7 September, at the age of 32.

Kenney Jones, formerly of The Small Faces and The Faces, replaced Moon and the group resumed touring. A film of Quadrophenia was released in 1979 along with the retrospective documentary The Kids Are Alright. The group continued recording, releasing Face Dances in 1981 and It's Hard the following year, before breaking up. They occasionally re-formed for live appearances such as Live Aid in 1985, a 25th anniversary tour in 1989 that drew mixed reviews, and for a tour of Quadrophenia in 1996. The Who resumed regular touring in 1999, with drummer Zak Starkey, to a positive response, and were considering the possibility of a new album, but these plans were stalled by Entwistle's death in June 2002 at the age of 57. Townshend and Daltrey elected to continue as The Who, releasing Endless Wire (2006), which reached the top ten in the UK and US. The group continue to play live on a regular basis, and in 2012 they began a further tour of Quadrophenia.