mods hour

[alps]

radio 4 saturday at 20:00 (8 o clock for those not in the afsc) the archive hour are doing a history of the mods from the jed and simmos days up to our days. happy listenin' ;D

[Spence]

Cheers for that Ray, I might just check it out.

Oh, and those of us in the AFSC would've said 2000hrs (twenty hundred hours). A bedside alarm clock says 20:00.

[alps]

i stand corrected sir!

[Devo McDuff]

Sounds interesting, will give it a go. I'm not getting involved in the military vs civvy time debate though!

[Feed Your Head]

cheers for the heads up.

[joey]

Was that 2000hrs Zulu?

[alps]

no its the witching hour watch out for low flying brooms

[Spence]

As Stuart Maconie is always getting bigged up by us here on vespa.org.uk, I hope he won't mind if I reproduce his article from this week's Radio Times here for you. Stuart probably won't, but the Radio Times might, we'll just have to see.

My Regeneration

From menace to society to national institution, the mod revival seems complete

During a recent documentary about British pop, the narrator announced, with easy authority, that mods "liked nothing better than fighting with their enemies the rockers". It was one of those moments when your faith in what you're watching is so undermined that you have no choice but to reach for the off button.

Mods liked a great many things far, far more than they liked fighting with rockers, the extent of which has always been exaggerated by the tabloids in a moral panic. Among the things mods liked better were Italian suits, sex, American soul, dancing and drugs.

Arch-mod and former Who mentor Pete Meaden famously described mod as "an aphorism for clean living under difficult circumstances". That depends on what you take clean living to mean (for most people it doesn't include amphetamines and barbiturates), but you take his point. Whereas from hippy to punk to grunge, many youth cultures sought to distance themselves from straight society by dodging the soap and eschewing the razor, mods believed in regular bathing and all things razor-sharp. As Secret Affair put in their mod revival anthem Time for Action in 1979, "Looking good's the answer/And living by night". The fact that Secret Affair frontman Ian Page became something big as a writer in the fantasy gaming industry only slightly undermines this.

Musically and aesthetically, mod remains the most attractive British subculture. It's also the one that you can stay with long-term without looking absurd. A 50-year-old with a lime-green mohican feels faintly tragic, whereas you can get away with a three-button suit and a Crombie for ever, if not a Lambretta (or a Vespa Stuart! - Ed). Whatever you think about the music, Paul Weller does seem to be going through middle age better turned-out than, say, John Lydon or Captain Sensible.

That Radio 4's Archive Hour (Saturday) is now recalling with some affection a movement that was once seen, however smart the clothes, as the last word in hedonistic corruption, shows how things have changed since that other establishment bastion, The Daily Telegraph, declared in 1965, "The Who are clearly a new form of crime". Happy days!

The Archive Hour: Mods! Is on Saturday Radio 4 at 8pm

Described in The RT as:

A pumping, music-driven history of the most stylish cult that Britain has ever produced - mods - and why having an "ace face" never stopped those 60s seaside skirmishes with gangs of rockers.

[Spence]

So, did anyone listen to it?

I was pleasantly surprised that it was a quality documentary, rather than just an hour of cheesy cliches and stereotypical 'mod' tunes. Nice interviews and archive recordings.

I was disappointed in its concentration on The Who and the lack of reference to acts like Geno Washington, The Yardbirds and The Small Faces though.

All in all a good effort by Eddie Pillar as producer. When it's available on Listen Again I'll post the link on here.

[alps]

hello spence, yeah gave it a listen but missed the 1st half hour, like the end piece about brighton, just shows how the media exaggerate, even though it was 6 years before i was born i can still remember it like it was yesterday (my dad tells me stories) ;D

[Devo McDuff]

I thought it was beltin'!

Liked the soul and R&B music they were playing when talking about the Soho club stuff. Anyone recommend some good stuff to get hold of like that as a starting point, I mean I'd heard the name Georgie Fame but had never heard ought by him. Probably up your street this one Spence!

[Spence]

Go here:

www.soulclub.org/

Enter the Online Jukebox, put in a number of tracks for the random playlist, say 20 for instance, click Choose Playlist then Click to Play. It's a great way to start listening to some of the rarer soul and R&B that you might not otherwise hear.

As is always the case with 'rare' soul, there's plenty of naff ones in there, but there's also some absolute gems.

You'll need RealPlayer to listen by the way.

[Devo McDuff]

3 tunes in and I'm hooked, exactly what I was after. Top site. This could end up being very detrimental to my bank balance though

[gary]

try this one too..its free!!
www.thesoulgirl.com/music/andromeda1.php

[Spence]

Here's the Listen Again link, it's under Saturday - The Archive Hour Mods!:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml

Lu can you add the link to the homepage article for me pleeeeaaaaassse?
;D

[Lucia]

Men

[elviswasamod]

wow really enjoyed this mod link good old phil daniels its 2.45 in the mornin this got me hooked need me bed superb a must listen good job i aint up early this morning cheers spence & lu

[Feed Your Head]

I enjoyed the programme too. Agree with Spence about the omitting of certain other artists (i would add The Creation to the list too as well as the modern jazz artists of the late 50's) but then it was only 50+ minutes long and i think for a more indepth look, it would need to be a series. All in all, a good pointer and introduction for many.

[llew]

I was disappointed with it. Thought it was too arty and possibly the BBC's take on it.

Sorry

[retrogirl]

I agree with you Llew but there were parts I enjoyed!

[Spence]

Too arty??!! It was on Radio 4, the home of Desert Island Discs and The Archers - what did you expect?

I think we're all agreed it wasn't 100% brilliant, but as Stuart Maconie said in his article, for a station that caters for a listenership that would side with the magistrate rather than the Mods, it was very sympathetic.

[Feed Your Head]

I doubt it was meant to speak to the converted and knowledgable ( if it was, then it would have been a whole different programme) but rather, give a very generallised account to a general listenership; a broadsheet sunday supliment version of radio.

[Devo McDuff]

spence said:

I think we're all agreed it wasn't 100% brilliant, but as Stuart Maconie said in his article, for a station that caters for a listenership that would side with the magistrate rather than the Mods, it was very sympathetic.

I download a lot of Radio 4 current affairs programs and I'm with the Mods