Category Archives: History

The Day Of The Mods Part 1
The Day Of The Mods Part 2

In the 1960s groups of Mods, as they were now calling themselves, began to link up into what could be described as a coherent movement. As they gathered together they sought new ways to identify themselves in a changing and, in Britain at least, uncertain world. A major and lasting part of this was to create their own lifestyle and, with it, their own music.

Initially Mods had listened to modern jazz and American R&B but, as the movement grew and the members matured, they began to take a more active interest in the music around them.

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The Day Of The Mods Part 1

In the 1950s there were two big cults you were likely to see if you walked in the towns and cities of the UK, particularly if you looked in the South of England.

Teddy Boys (Teds) in their drapes and drainpipes were a frequent sight on the streets while, on or around motorcycles, Rockers in leather coats and boots appeared on street corners or roared in convoy along the high street.

The virtually full employment of the time and (relatively) high wages meant that young unmarried men and girls, unlike the generation before them, had money in their pockets and were eager to find both excitement and others with which to share it.

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The Mod movement, without doubt, produced ripples that changed, not just fashion, but a whole way that life for a great many people from the 1950s reaching as far as the present day.

But the label ‘Mod’ is misleading for it has embraced a wide variety of styles, ideals and people over the last fifty or more years. This articles looks at the early origins of what would, in the 1960s, explode into the Mod culture from which all other subsequent adaptations and revivals take their inspiration.

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