Chris Hunt – “The Mod Revival” (2005)
Taken from the New Musical Express, April 2005…
No one really had expected the mod phenomenon to achieve a second coming, but in the late summer of 1979, parkas, scooters and target T-Shirts were once again a regular sight in the High Streets of Britain. Some elements of the original mod ideal had been preserved through the ’70s within both the scooter clubs of the north and the northern soul scene, but it wasn’t until 1977 that the first real shockwaves of the new mod hit with The Jam. Inspired by hearing The Who’s ‘My Generation’ for the first time, the young Paul Weller had been swept away by the power and energy of the record, and gradually he turned his band into the uniformed mods of ‘In the City’. He flirted with other mod imagery too – Union Jackets, Rickenbacker guitars, pop art action painting – and peppered his live set with old Who and soul songs, but at the onset of the mod revival The Jam were still thought of as mods working within punk and gradually a new breed of mod band began to evolve in complete isolation from one another.
In Romford, Jeff Shadbolt, Bob Manton and Simon Stebbing of the Purple Hearts were brought to the idea by their love of ’60s music. “Jeff’s mum and dad used to have a stall on Romford market,” recalls singer Manton, “and we started to get a lot of ’60s records through that stall, some quite obscure stuff. It all sounded so refreshing.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Beat Patrol 