Peter Meaden : I'm the face baby, is that clear .

 

 

PR news from Light & Dark Publishing .

"In just one week, we release our very first book "I'm The Face". The very hard work and toil of two men, John Hellier and Pete Wilky, who have collaborated and brought you the first official biography of Peter Meaden - one of Mods most famous Faces.

A publicist, a hustler, a pill-popping impresario and the guy who spotted the early potential in bands. The Who, Jimmy James and The Vagabonds, Steve Gibbons Band and Captain Bee...fheart were among the bands he saw as the focus of an emerging and burgeoning culture. A sub-culture called Mod.

The book has contributions by Pete Townshend, Andrew Loog Oldham, Eddie Piller, Jimmy James, Allan Merrill, Steve Gibbons, Richard 'Barney' Barnes, Irish Jack and Pete Meaden's brother Gerald, amongs others.

It is a comprehensive look at Meaden's professional and public life; his ups and his downs, his loves and his losses. It is a story of a visionary who saw the direction the Mod scene should take when nobody else saw it. He was also someone who lost sight of his goals and his own reality; paying the ultimate price."

 

 

 

Light & dark Publishing Ltd.

 

 

The New Religion by Paul "Smiler" Anderson

Real Mod World invites you to the STAMFORD HILL MODS exhibition.

Visit the expo on Real Mod World .

28.09.1965: Cheltenham Mods and Rockers]

click here to watch the footage

STAMFORD HILL MODS

We are looking for people who might remember or where part the Stamford Hill / Hackney / East London mod/ern/ists back in the original days . Any info, facts, stories, pictures , anecdotes, press cuttings, souvenirs, club info, R & B records memories ... everything is welcome may it be small or big , all highly appreciated .  This will be for an upcoming exhibition in the Hackney Museum . Thanking you in advance .

interesting links :

the secret ska history of Stamford Hill by Malcolm Imrie

Bolan as a mod

Memories & Photo's of Birmingham Mods Del Evans & Gill Taylor

Writing this takes me back to an exciting time in my life, back to July 1960 when I had just finished 3 years at Moseley Art School in Birmingham. I studied Dress Design , Pattern Cutting & Dressmaking also History of Costume as well as other Art subjects.

I didn’t want to wear what everyone else was wearing I wanted to get my own look. I cut my hair into a bob and tinted it with Color-Glo Black Tulip, I designed & made a collection of dresses, coats and bags mainly in black, navy & grey. I’d meet my friends from Art School at the Stage Door Coffee Bar just off High St. in Birmingham city centre and also The Old Stone Cross in Dale End where Spencer Davis played and Steve Winwood sang long before they were famous. It was there that I met my husband to be Del Evans, we were interested in the same things – clothes & music.

In early 1962 we were looking thru’ a French magazine and there was an advert for Gitanes cigarettes the model had his hair cut in a french crop and he had a very stylish look, we really liked it and started recreating it.

Del started designing his own suits and having them made to measure at Hepworths in New Street Birmingham. He had a navy 2 piece with chalk stripe, high lapel, 4 button with double vent and ticket pocket, a black and white tweed 4 button with flap pockets including ticket pocket and double vents,a black Irish tweed jacket with Ghillie collar and flap pockets also a Ghillie collar suit in navy pin stripe.

We bought shirts and I removed the collars so that Del could wear stiff white collars fastened on by back and front studs. Our favourite shirts were charcoal grey or black and white gingham. Del also had a black and white gingham giraffe tab collar shirt which he is wearing in one of our photos with a pale grey lambswool sweater, Ghillie collar suit and topped by a black leather coat which he designed and I made for him. When wearing his suits he would always have a silk pocket handkerchief and a knitted tie in navy or black. Del has always loved button down collar shirts and still wears them now.

It was fashionable at one point for Mod lads to have walking sticks as shown in one of our photo’s and when we went to the West End Ballroom in Birmingham on a Sunday night they would dance with them.

There was a boutique in Brighton called 13 and a half where I bought a genuine french onion sellers black and white striped top which I still have.

I designed and made many clothes for myself usually on a Sunday morning to wear at the West End Ballroom on a Sunday night amongst my favourites were a navy wool skirt and jacket with scallops and a navy and cream flowered collar,a navy crepe dress with white flounces on the collar and cuffs, a black linen skirt and jacket with large flower design, a pair of french round sunglasses, a black nylon trench mac, a denim hipster skirt with belt and a blue patterned top with flounced neck and cuffs.A brown leather jacket and skirt worn with a black polo neck jumper and a black leather waistcoat with a scoop neck. These are just a few of the many clothes we had, they are shown in our photos.

Sometimes on a Saturday morning we would catch the train to London to go to John Stephens and the Mod Male. We heard that Anello and David the theatrical shoe makers were selling cuban heel chelsea boots and we went to get a pair.When we got there we were amazed to see the queue of Mods waiting to get into the shop to buy them .We waited in the queue for ages but the shop shut before our turn. When we got back to Birmingham I got their phone number and arranged for 2 pairs to be sent by post. Del is wearing them in one of our photos.

The KD coffee house was a popular place to meet up especially on a Saturday morning before going to the West End on a Saturday afternoon.The West End was a great place to go to on a Sunday night there was a DJ and around 9 there would be a group on. The Whiskey ago go and The Golden Eagle in Hill Street were really good places to go.

We still wear Mod style and Del likes to wear smart suits with button down shirts in deep colours or black and white gingham. I still design and make my own clothes and work as a designer dressmaker.

By Gill Taylor now Gill Evans

The Face Twist (thanx to Robert Nicholls)

‎"Top Faces. London's top Mod hangout is an ill-lit, black-walled club called The Scene …. Mods change dances even faster than they change trouser-widths. The "Shake" and the "Bird" are both passe, and only the Rockers would be caught doing the Twist. The current dance craze is some thing called the "Face Twist," which has a tricky hand and heel movement that resembles a cross between a hula dance and a High Noon gun draw." From “Great Britain: The Clacton Giggle,”

Time Magazine, Friday, April 10, 1964

Top Face and Scene Club member, Alfredo Marcantonio recalls the Face Twist, he states “we ditched the rotating nature of the Twist and began to move forward and back, with a lot of 'heel' action.”

Robert Nicholls :

I remember the Face Twist well and wrote about it in 2009 before I’d read any of the Mod literature. It was based on the regular Twist, but done much slower, leaning forward and with one arm extended forward with the hand in a thumbs up position (or "High Noon gun draw"), and swaying the rump from side to side ("hula") with the heels pushed back. Although it was real slow it could be done to fast or medium tempo music. See http://www.themodgeneration.co.uk/2009/06/rob-london-mod.html

Cheryl and Diane in the photobooth (1966-1967)

photo 1 & 3 Cheryl , Bornemouth 1967 - photo 2 & 4 Diane, Redcar (Yorkshire) 1966

source : internet

The Lost Tribes of Leicestershire: The Mods By Mark Charlton

Chris Bushby, one of Leicester's original Mods

Stories from Leicesters original Mod scene:

John Barratt, 60, who grew up in Humberstone, was one of Leicester’s original Mods. “Silver Street was our Carnaby Street,” he remembers. “I don’t know why but it was just a big happening for us there.

“I guess it had a lot to do with Irish Clothing and the Il Rondo, and there was also a pub called the Antelope. “I think it just drew us to the area as there were places we could meet.”

Leicester was buzzing with these hip, rebellious kids who wanted to make their mark on the world by dressing smartly and listening to the hottest new sounds. It was their way of getting noticed and making a point to their elders.

John says: “In the 50s and early 60s, young people were almost penned in, everything was dictated to them. “When Mod came along, it was our way of saying ‘we are human beings’. We were trying to put over our feelings that we weren’t going to put up with being told what to do.”

The Mod scene, with its slick fashion and fascination with black American soul music, had spread north from London, fed by newspapers reporting on violent clashes between Mods and Rockers in Brighton and Margate in 1964, and by on Radio Caroline. Young people in Leicester were quick to pick up on the idea. John says: “The first Mods were in Leicester by 1964. It was sweeping the country at that time. “I was still at school and started getting into the music and the fashions. I knew I wanted to be a Mod.

“When I turned 16 I bought my scooter. At that time, I had a good job in engineering. I needed it. Being a Mod was expensive. You had to keep up with all the latest fashions, for a start.

“Then you had to run your scooter, keeping it taxed and on the road before buying all the accessories to make it look as good as possible.

“Then there was the music. You had to keep up with all the new music coming out, plus the wild life that went with it and on top of all that you had to try to keep a girl on your arm.

“I earned good money in engineering, but I didn’t save a penny.”

Another young Mod was Chris Busby, from the West End of Leicester. He recalls choosing to be a Mod when he was still at school.

“I was 14 in 1964 and we thought ‘should we be Mods or rockers?’. I looked at the rockers, they were greasers and horrible. I looked at the Mods, they were so clean looking and smart with their scooters. I wanted to be like that.”

Chris remembers Leicester was a great place to be at that time.

“There was so much going on,” he says. “The music was fantastic, there were some great places to go and lots of house parties.”

Chris was part of a Leicester Mod band called CERT X. Other notable Mod acts from the city’s scene were The Cissy and Legay.
John saw them perform at several gigs in the 60s. He says: “CERT X was a really good local band, really good.”
The highlight of the band’s career was supporting Cream at Nottingham University.
The music scene was vibrant at that time.

Chris remembers: “A place called the Night Owl opened, in Newarke Street, in 1966, which put on all-nighters. I think (soul singer) Geno Washington recorded an album there.
“Bands like Amen Corner also appeared there. There were a lot of people taking drugs like blues and dexys, and I think that is why it got shut down quite quickly. “The Green Bowler, in Churchgate, was popular too.”

Leicester in the mid 60s was already something of a cultural melting pot. Lots of young black kids were mixing with white lads at nightclubs and gigs.

Chris says: “It was a good time. We were friends with a lot of the black lads, there was never any trouble between us – we all respected one another. The only time we ever had aggro was with the rockers.”

The Mods’ cats-v-dogs relationship with the rockers is well documented. Seaside skirmishes at Brighton and Margate and made national news but there was plenty of trouble in Leicester, too. John says: “The rockers used to hang out down at the Roman Cafe, in Humberstone Road. It was part of the life of a Mod to have problems with the rockers, or Hell’s Angels.
“They were so different from us. We would roll up at the Roman Cafe on our scooters just so we could have a scrap. They would come looking for us, too.”

Chris remembers one incident: “We were at the Casino Ballroom at the top of London Road.
“A popular boxer, Alex Barrow, was there, a black guy, with two of his friends. Two rockers walked in, and one of the lads with Alex said ‘you hit my mate’ and knocked one of them flying. Within 30 minutes, hundreds of rockers were flying down London Road on their motorbikes heading for the club.”

There was an unwritten hierarchy within the Mods. If you were particularly cool, you were a ‘face’. If you could not keep up with the pace of the scene, you were seen as a ‘ticket’.

Chris says: “The older lads, who were about two or three years older, were working and could afford better clothing. We looked up to them, they were the faces to us.
“There wasn’t a rank as such, but we were subconsciously aware the differences were there. We knew the older ones to nod at, there was never any problem between us.”
John says: “There was a lad called Tony Weston. He was king of the Mods to us. “He was the organiser, our leader, always coming up with ideas and things to do. We all looked up to him because of the way he dressed and his scooter.” John had a Vespa 125cc GL scooter. “Registration 461 BBC,” he says.
“I’ll never forget it. It had all the gear – spotlamps, a big aerial at the back, a slimline windscreen and so many mirrors it was a wonder it moved, it was so weighed down.
“I had so many spotlamps that if I turned on the lights without the engine running it would flatten the battery.”
“But keeping your scooter up to scratch was a big part of it. It cost a bloody fortune.
“The main place for buying scooters at that time was a place called Readers, in Aylestone. We all went there.”
“Scooters were appealing at the time because you could do hundreds of miles on a tank of petrol. “A group of us went to Yarmouth. It took us the best part of six hours to get there. It was a steady run and we only used a tank-and-a-half of petrol there and back.”

Chris had a Lambretta li 150 with green and white stripped side panels and fur on the seats. “It cost me £30 in 1966 and wasn’t anything special compared to some of the scooters around but it was special to me,” he says. “It would be worth £2,000 if I still had it.”

Chris also did his fair share of going to Mod events at coastal resorts, even taking a job in Skegness. But there was plenty going on in Leicester. Wednesday at Il Rhondo, in Silver Street, was Mod night, on Sunday, Mod music was played at The Palais de Danse, in Humberstone Gate, and the Casino Ballroom, in London Road, held regular live events. Music was the lifeblood of the scene. All-night dances, or parties were often fuelled by the use of amphetamine-based drugs. Some were known as blues, or purple hearts.
John says: “People were taking them because, if you didn’t there was no way you would last the amount of time you were awake for.
“The main thing was the music,” says Chris. “It was so new and fresh.”
John says: “There were certain songs that were important to us, for example the Sir Douglas Quintet’s She’s About a Mover and Louie Louie, by the Kingsmen.”

The fashion and hair styles still have a huge influence today. Chris has been a barber for 36 years and now has a shop, in Northampton Street. But when he needed a Mod cut back in the 60s, there was only one place to go. “Everybody went to Ron’s, in Church Gate. It is still there. “At the time, there was a look that was something close to how Paul Weller wears his hair now.
“Another was how Roger Daltry (singer in The Who) wore his, with a parting, although some people just wanted a close-cut, clean look.” Mods felt the way they looked set them apart from the rest. Attention to detail was vital. Clothes would be made-to-measure and tight fitting. Shirts and suits would be sent to the tailor for more buttons to be added or taken away, depending on the mood. “We’d have bigger vents put in or more buttons put on our shirts, just to make them different. We were always trying to stay one step ahead,” says Chris.

Having such smart clothes proved a problem motoring around town on a scooter. A US Army fishtail parka was ideal for keeping clean on the move.
John says: “I had a parka and a mohair suit – well, several. We were always buying clothes, trying to have something new and to stay ahead of everyone else.”
Chris says: “I never really got into the suit thing. Lots of people did, though. On a Saturday, there was Jackson’s the Tailors, in Gallowtree Gate, and Burton’s, in Church Gate, which would have queues outside all day from the moment they opened, with people collecting clothes they had ordered, or being measured up for something.
“Jackson’s was seen as a cut above the others because the staff would offer advice to the customers.
“Personally, I preferred wearing Levi Jeans, desert boots and a Ben Sherman shirt rather than a suit. I wanted to feel comfortable. Also jumpers with targets on, or shirts similar to those Roger Daltry was wearing at the time.
“I bought an overcoat from Irish for £22. That was four weeks wages to me. I have still got it.”

By 1967, the Mod scene was changing. Some were moving away from the slick looks and sounds and moving into psychedelic music.
“They were what we called the ‘flower children’, says John. “They were getting in to what became the hippy thing. I guess bands like The Who and Small Faces had become more psychedelic, particularly the Small Faces with their album Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. I moved on to other things but I have never stopped feeling that I am a Mod. Even now, I’m still a Mod. I love the Mods.”

Some stuck to their cause of being a Mod and others became interested in the skinhead scene, which was emerging in the late 60s.

Chris, a married dad of three, remembers: “I was working in Skegness in 1969 and I could still see running battles between Mods and rockers. “I went on to become interested in other things, but years later I was thinking about the look and how much I enjoyed wearing the clothes, so I went back to it. “So now I wear a Ben Sherman, Levi jeans and desert boots. I love it, and the music, of course.”

In 1979, The Who brought out the movie Quadrophenia. It told the story of the Mods, their clashes with rockers, the girls, the drugs, the parties. The film was to coincide with and widen the impact of a Mod revival, which had started in London a few months earlier.
Chris said it was very true to life. “It’s pretty close,” he says. “Particularly a scene in Brighton as Jimmy (Phil Daniels) walks along the seafront with all the other Mods. “Somebody asks him what the best thing about being a Mod is. He says something like ‘being here, amongst all this’. And it was spot on.
“That buzz, the buzz of being part of it at that time, that is exactly how being a Mod felt.”

source

Shirley Rawlings : You've got a grey suede coat and a soul like fire

source : The Hipster (80s modzine)

Skegness, 1965 - Nottingham mod girls .

source : internet archives .

Mod Girls in Skegness, 1966

source

Sheffield - Steve Bellamy - Mod Memories

That Driving Beat

Detroit may be the home of Tamla Motown and Memphis the home of Stax but for my money the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg did more for English Mods than either of the other two. Let me explain.

It’s 1960. Rock and Roll from Sun records rules the America airwaves. Elvis is King and in Detroit and Memphis the sound of Soul music was just getting off the ground. People like Berry Gordy (of Tamla) and Jim Stewart (of Stax) were recording the R&B and gospel acts that had, up to now, only been on the local circuit but were destined for the Soul hall of fame. Marvin Gaye, Jr. Walker, Wilson Pickett, and Rufus Thomas to name but a few. It was a seminal era for 'that driving beat'

Meanwhile in England it’s still World War II at the BBC. Vera Lynne is still singing 'We’ll meet again' Billy Cotton is still doing his 'Armed Forces Band Show' and the hottest dance tunes are played on the BBC light service. Real toe tappers like 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' and 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B' There wasn’t a top ten of *anything* and kids like me didn’t have any say whatsoever in what 'tin pan alley' was foisting on the public as 'pop' music. Things weren’t looking too good for our Sheffield hero, Steve.

Then my uncle Alf (bless him) gave me a transistor radio for my birthday. Wow, my very own personal sound machine that actually ran on batteries and I could carry around with me. Very nifty indeed. Of course, the choice was still limited to the four BBC radio stations on the long wave and whatever you could pick up on the medium wave, which consisted of mostly foreign language stations broadcasting cooking recipes in Czechoslovakian for all I knew. Then late one Sunday night I hit that magic 1440khz and suddenly out of the ether the voice of my personal saviour DJ Chris Denning was saying 'hey kids, get your dancing shoes on, your tuned to the US Top Forty show on fabulous 208, Radio Luxemburg' Good God in heaven! Was I dreaming?

Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Contours and of course Chubby Checker doing 'The Twist' all poured out of that magic box and into my heart and soul. I was hooked. For the next five years I was one of the late night 'under the bedcovers' kids that made Radio Luxembourg the lbed coversegend that it has become. We listened nightly to DJ's spinning new chart records from the US. There were R&B shows with Howling Wolf and John Lee Hooker. Jazz shows with Ramsey Lewis and Ray Charles and the one that truly made it all worthwhile 'Soul Sounds' from the US billboard charts. It was from Radio Luxembourg thaLuxembourgt I learnt about the Detroit sound, The Philly sound and that new funky Soul music being made in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Later on the famous UK pirate radio stations added to this bounty of dance music that was being pumped into my ears. In particular Mike Ravens R&B show was a 'not to be missed' broadcast especially as he opened with Phil Upchurch’s 'You can’t sit down' – my kind of guy.

Of course I bought a record player and started going out with the girl who worked at the local record shop. Hey, a Sheffield soul man’s got to do what he’s got to do, right. It was with this wonderful girls help I managed to order ultra rare imported records direct from the US. How she managed to do it I will never know but when toothy Ken Dodd and those insipid, always smiling 'Bachelors' were topping the charts and putting Britain to narcoleptic sleep I was rocking my kitchen roof off with Fontella Bass’s 'Rescue me' and Shorty Long’s 'Devil with a Blue Dress on'
Unfortunately, although the music said 'you can’t sit down' I had to. There was nowhere to go to dance to 'that driving beat' except the local youth club and the church hall dances held every Saturday afternoon but, trust me here, you really don’t want me to tell you about them. It was, again, a bad time for our boy Steve. Talk about all dressed up and nowhere to go, I was all tuned up and nowhere to go.

And then my other uncle, who was a Sheffield bus driver at the time, came to visit us and upon hearing one of my precious records said 'bloody hell fire Jack sounds just like that jungle music them idiots play at that fucking Esquire club round the back of the bus station'. Words that changed my life. Thank you Uncle Frank. Eloquently put.

The next day I declined the charms of Mr. White’s English language, P.E and Physics, took the day off from school and went in search of the Esquire. Didn’t take too long to find it. I mean it had a reputation in Sheffield and everybody over 40 who you asked, knew just where it was and why it was to be avoided. – my kind of place.

My first night at the Esquire was in many ways better than my first night of sex. Well almost. I walked into the club to the beautiful sound of Sam Cooke singing Chain Gang and saw a dance floor full of kids, all my age, actually dancing and enjoying themselves. Talk about coming home. Talk about my generation. I felt like crying. In fact I think I did. It was a revelation. So, I wasn’t the only 'nutter' in the city after all.

"I’m in with the in crowd, I go where the in crowd goes, I’m in with the in crowd and I know what the in crowd knows"

From then on I lived only for the nights when I could jump on the 6:30 bus to Sheffield, pay my two shillings and sixpence entrance money and dance the night away. I made some great friends, learnt about clothes, drugs, girls and above all the music. The Northern Mod scene started there and I was part of it. We travelled around to other clubs (The Wheel, Clouds etc) and wherever we went we met other kids, who dressed like us, talked like us and above all liked our music. We were bound together by a common love of the music. We were Mods and this was our generation.

So while England and the rest of the world were going Beatle crazy we at the Esquire were in a way insulated from it. After all we knew who the Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds and Small Faces were copying and we preferred the originals, thank you. It was a good time for our boy Steve.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on R&B or Soul music. I don’t have an encyclopedic memory of record titles, artists and labels. Dave Godin once tried to turn me onto some ‘real deep soul’ recorded by some obviously very depressed guy in Chicago who sounded so miserable I really thought he was having a nervous breakdown on the record. I like my soul music fast, snappy and above all danceable. I suppose I am a shallow self-centred old school Mod but we all have our faults right.

Eventually I had to go to the US and see it all for myself. I went to New York’s Apollo theatre and saw The Impressions. I went to Chicago and saw Sam & Dave. I went to Detroit and actually sat in the studio while Martha and The Vandellas recorded ‘Heat Wave’ It was all good and I had a great time.
Sometimes my oldest kid likes to quote Cicero (106-43 B.C.) at me "No Sane man will dance" but what the fuck did Cicero know, he never went to the Sheffield Esquire now did he?



source

Well, it's dance time

Out on the floor each night I’m really moving
The band is wailin right, I feel like groovin
The chicks are out of sight, and I am approovin
The crowd is in tonight beggin for more
While I’m getting my kicks out on the floor’

Mod Dance!England won the World cup in 1966, Alf Ramsey became a knight and every kid playing football in the school yard and in the park wanted to be Geoff Hurst or Bobby Charlton. I didn’t. I wanted to be Charlie Foxx. Well every kids got to have a hero right, mine just happened to be a bit more esoteric than most. Ah - such is the stuff of an OM (original mod) Read on…..

By 1966 I was well into the Mod way of life. My backcombed hair was the spitting image of Steve Marriot (ala Small Faces), my shirt collection was the envy of the western world, and my scooter had more headlights on it than Fireball XL5. To say that I lived for the weekends would not be an exaggeration because after an amphetamine fuelled Saturday and Sunday I felt like death for the rest of the week.

Yet strangely, what I had become seemed to be out of sync with what was going on in the wider world of youth culture. The Beatles had all grown mustaches, started wearing Mexican rugs for clothes and singing about ‘purple raindrops in my eyes’ Phrases like ‘peace, love and brotherhood’ and ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’ could even to be heard on BBC radio I – my God even Tony Blackburn was wearing a paisley shirt and bell bottom trousers. Mike Raven (my R&B hero) had been usurped by John ‘hey cool man’ Peel (who I personally consider to be the fucking Anti-Christ when it comes to dance music) and trying to talk to my dad about my life was leading nowhere as you can imagine.

'Dancers are the athletes of God.' -- Albert Einstein

Steve, our hero, was happy enough but frustrated. After all I was Mod – which means modern, not a hippie freak, not a nasty greaser, a Mod, a sophistiCAT, at least in my mind that is but nobody seemed to appreciate it or understood it except my weekend mates. Then I had an epiphany. My uncle Alf (of portable radio fame) came over for Xmas dinner and in-between The Queens’ speech and the Morcombe and Wise show we got to talking. Turns out my mom and dad had a secret past, well at least one they could talk about to their friends, but never with me, after all I was just their only begotten. They were – wait for it… Ballroom dancers. Don’t stop reading just yet - it gets better. They had been Yorkshire champions five times in a row and my dad had represented England in the World Championships. So that’s what they had been doing Friday and Saturday nights. Of course I never knew – I was never there. Even if I had been – all I knew about ballroom dancing was from a TV show called ‘Come Dancing’ – which might still be on the TV by the way. From what I saw Ballroom dancing was a bunch of stuck up women being pranced around a wooden floor by these fellas dressed up like Fred Astaire and who I seriously suspected of being ‘poofs’ – the PC word these days is gay but these were the more coarser 60’s. Ballroom dancing – fuck me. I could dance but I didn’t think mom and dad had any idea what kind of dancing I was doing. Still it was something to talk about Sunday afternoon sitting around the telly watching match of the day reruns.

'One may judge a king by the state of dancing during his reign'.--Chinese proverb

So in between runs to the bathroom to throw up my guts (remember it’s the day after the all nighter) I got to talking about what my dad had done for entertainment before the war (could have been cave drawings for all I knew) – so he says…..

‘Oh I did a bit of socializing’
‘Oh yeah – how’d you mean?’
‘Well you know go down to the local dance club a few nights a week’
‘Oh yeah – dancing eh’
‘Yeah – nothing much – just the odd waltz – foxtrot, tango you know’
‘I like dancing’
‘You do?’
‘Yeah, that’s what I did last night’
‘All night?’
‘Yeah – lots of fun’
‘Oh well I know what you mean, let me tell you…….’

Suddenly my dad remembered he had a son, he turned off the telly, called my mother in from the kitchen (washing up) got out a photo album I’d never seen and we spend the next five hours just talking and talking and talking. I never had to explain myself to him again. I was a dancer and my dad was proud of me.

’A good education consists in knowing how to sing and dance well’.-- Plato

Going to the Mojo in Sheffield was like attending the holy mother church of dancing. Mods dressed well, rode scooters, liked soul music and took blues and bombers but all that wasn’t the heart of being a mod – dancing was. It was on the dance floor that everything made sense. It was no good being high without something to do with the energy. It was no good loving the R&B beat without being able to jump up and express it through physical action.

The whole reason for all-nighters was dancing. Get dressed, meet your mates, wait outside the dance club, meeting and greeting all the out of towners as they arrived by scooter, car or bus. Hello to ‘the Notts crew’ ‘the Donny boys’ (hi Mick) ‘the Wheel crew’ all of them mates and all of them there for just the same purpose as you. Get blocked, dance all night, and go home. Funny no different from today if you think about it.

I met all my friends in the Mojo toilet. No, hold on don’t stop reading, Yes, the toilets were dank, smelly and crowded all night but they were the haven you went to when it all got too much, when you wanted to cool down and catch your breath for a few minutes. Of course you were as high a weather balloon and just about everything you said came out sounding something like from ‘Bill and Ben the flowerpot men’ but who cares, you loved everybody and everybody loved you. You could stand there your mouth as dry as a bone , masticating furiously (I said MAS ticating) your eyes as wide as Blackpool tunnel and you felt as if you were on top of the world.

‘Of course I like you – I dance with you, don’t I?’ - Me

The Mojo was a converted all time dance hall – when I say converted I mean all they did was to turn down the lights, remove the revolving ballroom globe and put in strobe lights which made all the girls panties shine bright white through their mini dresses. Actually that’s about the only time girls got noticed, nobody really was bothered too much with ‘chatting up the birds’ and even if you did nothing was going to happen. Amphetamines have a rather startling effect upon your ‘wedding tackle’ – a fact which tended to make male bonding all the more fraternal. Twenty functional eunuchs standing around the Mojo toilet all talking about how great a time they were having and nobody is talking about sex. Try explaining that to your kids.

’Every day I count wasted is one in which there has been no dancing’. -- Nietzsche

The Mojo stage was recessed into one wall at the front of the club with the DJ’s corner off to the left and a raised runway stretching across the front. This runway was the realm of the Gods. It was here that the best dancers climbed up and showed off their stuff. It was here that reputations were made or broken. Nobody, no matter how charged on blues they were would have had the temerity to get up there without the tacit acceptance of the dozen or so ‘gangplank’ regulars. Yes folks I was one of ‘em and we guarded our status like Gordon Banks guarded the English net. We knew we were ‘the faces’ we knew we were the leaders, the guvners, the elite. We were the Gods and it was a like nothing I have every know since. Forget the anonymous adulation given to rock and roll stars by the stadium mobs and stage door groupies. This was acceptance and fawning admiration by your mod peers. Your mates looked at you with awe and respect and yes a little fear. Your word was law and you had kids falling over themselves to talk to you, dance with you, eat and drink at your table. You ‘could have’ had any bird in the place but we’ve already covered that particular depressing aspect to the Mod scene at the Mojo haven’t we. Ho hum

'La danse, c'est le mouvement, et le mouvement, c'est la vie'.--Ludmilla Chiriaeff

The highlight of the dance scene at the Mojo was the Christmas all nighter. Pete Stringfellow (owner, operator and DJ) lined up all the best acts for that one night. Geno Washington, Zoot Money, and Georgie Fame all on the same night with one big name US act headlining. Ike and Tina Turner, The Drifters, The Miracles, The Temptations all played the Mojo Christmas ‘nighter’ plus the whole staff of ‘Ready Steady Go’ were invited up from London. It was during this night that the Mojo dance contest was held. First prize was always something like free admission for year – don’t laugh we considered that a very valuable prize but actually it was the format of contest that provided all the interest. You see RSG had several resident dancers whose job it was to circulate through the studio crowd beforehand and sort of get everybody charged up for the live broadcast The undisputed ‘Queen’ of the RSG dancers was a 16 year old blonde chick called ‘Sandy Sargent’ – I never knew if that was her real name or not. (Later in life Sandy got married to Ian McLagan of the Small Faces in a secret ceremony at Marylebone registry office. Unfortunately the planned honeymoon was dashed when McLagan was caught with a lump of hash on him at the airport and they both got arrested. The band had to get them bailed out)

’Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.’. -- George Carlin

The idea of the contest was that after several rounds of dancing, in which the best dancers were selected by the milling crowd cheering or booing for them as Pete Stringfellow pointed a spotlight at them, the finalists would have two minutes to do their stuff up on the gangplank partnered by, yes you guessed, Sandy Sargent. Kids would live for months beforehand dreaming of those two minutes of fame. I know I did. Finally, when the winner was announced the whole floor was cleared and the winner together with Sandy would do a two minute dance of honor – Those two minutes were as close as any Mojo Mod could come to beatification – you were made for life. I won in 1967 and I have lived on that reputation ever since. No shit. Thirty five years later grown men, now fat, balding and distinctly over the hill (which of course I’m not –grin) still come up to me at Soul do’s throughout the world and say ‘Fucking hell - Steve Bellamy. I saw you win the Mojo dance contest in ’67, you were great mate – buy you a pint?’

Hey, life doesn’t get any better than that, now does it?

source

The King Of Carnaby Street: A Life of John Stephen

out since june, 1st 2010

buy it now

"Original Modernists 1959 -1966" on Facebook

new facebook page created by Lloyd Johnson (original modernist)
This group is for all the original Modernists to post their old photos and memories...the cut of date is 1966 as I think it is fair to say the that was the end of the first Modernists...

click here to join

New discussion group

new discussion group created .

click here


the online mod/ern/ist archives .
Where you one of the original mod/ern/ists or R&B enthusiasts in the sixties and would like to share some stories, information , memories, pictures , ....
All subjects are welcome : clothes, clubs, local hangouts, music, scooters, ...
Where you a regular at the Scene , Flamingo, La Discotheque, Twisted Wheel, King Mojo, Dungeon, ....

welcome (back) to the world of a touch of french je ne sais quoi, italian style, black american and jamaican music .

keep it in style .... all aboard the night train .

please only join if you were around at the time or you are interested in the pre '70s modernist period (the following sites have forums who cover the later periods http://www.modculture.com and http://www.modrevival.net)

Cyril Davies All Stars featuring Long John Baldry. 1963

source : http://www.cyrildavies.com/

JR. WALKER & THE ALL STARS live at the RAM JAM CLUB, BRIXTON, 1967

from modernism to mod

Mods, Beatles & Rockers

from the french television archives

coiffure, parfum français, scooters et chaussures italiennes .

click here to watch

Get into the right gear

Zoot Money's Big Roll Band live at Klooks Kleek .

A must for all R-AND-B fans .

Jazz Beat , Jan 1965

NME, Jan 1964

The Flamingo Club in Wardour Street and the fight between Johnny Edgecombe and ‘Lucky’ Gordon

It’s not widely known but Georgie Fame was slightly connected to the Profumo affair, the political scandal that led to the resignation of John Profumo the Secretary of State for War in October 1963, and ultimately the Conservative government a year later in 1964.

 .....

read full article here :  Another Nickle In the Machine

Nottingham and Midlands part 2

interview part 1 interview part 2 interview part 3

Alan Fletcher mod crop trilogy interview

Dave Hill, Alan Fletcher - Stodman St Newark 65

Dave Kimberley, Alan Tinsley Mac scooter

Newark Mods Cross Keys -no waiting

Newark and Grantham Mods inside Jolly Fisherman

Henry Anderson and crowd skeg scooters

source : Alan Fletcher , writer of the "Quadrophenia" and "mod crop" trilogy novels . - BBC Nottingham

also check out Nottingham and Midlands part 1