We Are The Mods

Though I worshipped at the altar of Paul Weller I was never a (nouveau) Mod myself. I was never anything really (you can't pigeonhole me!) though I did have a blue-striped, button-down shirt exactly like one Terry Hall of The Specials wore (there was a very thin line between Mod and Rude Boy). But during the Mod revival of the late 70s lots of my school mates really got into the scene: buying Vespas, wearing Parkas, Clark's desert boots and mohair suits, fighting (skinheads mostly), doing lots of speed, and trying to dance like Sting in "Quadrophenia". One of them even bought a Rickenbacker guitar (because Paul Weller played one) and started a band whose short career highlight was playing an end-of-term gig at the local girl's school. Most of them eventually morphed into being Soul Boys during the 80s which was the contemporary equivalent of being a Mod anyway.

The word "Mod" comes from "Modernist" so the whole idea of a Mod revival is actually fairly oxymoronic, and though The Jam were hardly the most original band in the world themselves they spawned an army of imitators. Secret Affair, The Chords and The Purple Hearts were probably the best of the bunch (the least said about The Merton Parkas, Squire, and The Lambrettas the better) who recorded a few cracking singles between them. The Purple Hearts and Chords tracks sound the most Jam-like, full of blazing Rickenbackers, while Secret Affair's "Time For Action" is a bouncy brass rave-up. These were all released between 1979 and 1980 and the Mod revival pretty much died (in the public eye anyway) when The Jam split up in '82. I saw them on their farewell tour and was very disdainful of all the 14-year-old boys in cheap, knock-off Parkas in the audience. I was only 19 myself at the time and felt old in that crowd. Once a "movement" has got to that stage it's time to call it a day - which is just what Paul Weller did, and moved onto ripping off Curtis Mayfield instead.

Download: Somethings Missing - The Chords (mp3)
Download: Jimmy - Purple Hearts (mp3)
Download: Time For Action - Secret Affair (mp3)
Visit: Mod Culture