The Mod Revival, sometimes known as Punk Mod, is a name given to a genre of rock music in the late 1970s and early 1980s, mainly centred in Southern England. Its mainstream popularity was relatively short, and it has been criticised for lack of originality.
The Jam during their Mod phase
Largely spurred on by The Jam, who were far and away the biggest band of the genre, and also the film Quadrophenia, which romanticised the original Mods, it took its energy from the New Wave of the time, and its inspiration from 1960s Mod bands such as The Who. The movement post-dated a Teddy Boy revival. The Mod Revivalists would often come to blows with the Teddy Boy revivalists (literally) as well as clashing with Skinheads (partly a successor of Mods), casuals and punk rockers.
Many of these later mods were fans of bands such as The Jam, The Chords, The Purple Hearts, The Merton Parkas, Secret Affair, The Lambrettas, and The Scene.
In the North of England, the Huddersfield band, The Killermeters (fronted by Vic Vespa) produced the anthem SX 225, and formed the nucleus of a small local scene. Bradford's own The Scene played support to The Killermeters at many of their early gigs.
In the early and mid 80s a scene closely linked the original mod ethics grew up around the Shepherds Bush club Sneakers. Run by Paul Hallam and Richard "Shirlee" Early the club encouraged rare rnb and soul mixed with tailor made smart clothes. Another main player at the time was soon to be Acid Jazz creator Eddie Piller.
Contemporary bands such as The Ordinary Boys take much of their inspiration from the Mod Revival, and Britpop was also highly influenced by it musically and in terms of fashion. In some ways it had more direct influence than the original movement.
Differences from original Mods
There were several notable differences in the Mod revival from the original movement...
- A strong New Wave influence (although it was maintained it was a backlash)
- An interest in Ska and Reggae, and other West Indian genres, rather than American soul.
- Sometimes less peacockish, colorful, and dandified clothing.
Mod revival influence
The Mod revival also influenced the Ska revival & Two Tone of the early 1980s, best known from such bands as The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter, and Madness. Often these bands wore mod-like clothes, and their influence in "black music" paralleled that of the original mods.
Although not strictly a Mod revival band, The Vapors, were often seen as allied with it, and were championed by Bruce Foxton of the Jam.
Various Mod Revival members such as Paul Weller were to form The Style Council, a mid-1980s Soul influenced band, and Weller would later be nicknamed "The Modfather" for his idolisation by the Britpop movement.
Notable Mod Revival bands
The Jam
The Merton Parkas
Secret Affair
The Scene
The Chords
Purple Hearts
The Lambrettas
The Killermeters
Bands associated with the mid eighties mod revival :
- The Gents
- Makin' Time
- The Risk
- The Moment
- The JetSet
- The Threads
- The Inclyned