by Jim McGuinn, Program Director and Host, Y-Rock on XPN

From Paul Weller and the Jam I got my first whiff of mod culture, and dove in. Like a landlocked sailor, I read voraciously about British pop culture, politic, literature, and sociology, and zipped musically from the ’77 era punks (Buzzcocks, Clash, Pistols) to the ska (Specials, English Beat, Madness) and mod bands (The Jam, Lambrettas, Chords, Purple Hearts, Squire) and back through to Jamaican ska/reggae and the ‘60s era original mod and their music, both indigenous (The Who, Small Faces) and imported (Motown, Jazz, girl groups). And while I never really sported any punk fashion or outrageous haircuts in high school or college, I truly dug the mod scene and vibes, and we all started dressing like extras in Quadrophenia. Unbelievably, something was in the Midwestern air, because in the spring of 1985 a strong Mod scene developed in Chicago, around a string of bands like I Spy, The Slugs, and my band Reaction Formation. All the boys wore sharp vintage suits of Italian cuts, Fred Perry polos, Ben Sherman sneakers, and those that could afford it bought Vespas to tool around the city. The girls had short dresses, tight bobs, and great eyelashes. There were house parties, soul music, and for late teens out of the house for the first time, the world was intoxicating in so many ways. The scene developed from a Sunday club night at a venue called the West End (that has long since been redeveloped into condos) and quickly grew to the point where there was a ‘zine (I wrote the closing notes in each issue in a style like Paul Weller’s Capuccino Kid Style Council sleeve notes), and monthly headlining gigs started happening at the Caberet Metro (equal to the Troc in size and stature). The high water mark for me was a show where we opened for Bad Manners, who were still at it, years after the peak of the Special and the Beat, playing the style of ska that was supplanted a few years later when the Bosstones and Toasters brought a punk element to the mashup. I was 19 and in love with it all – as Weller said in a song, “Life is a drink and you get drunk when you’re young.” I don’t know why we didn’t realize that what felt so fresh and exciting to the 300 or so of us was really just a revival of a cultural moment that peaked in England in 1964 – and that lacked the same working-class reverse snobbery irony when applied to upper middle class college kids dressing Euro and drinking espressos. The scene built from early 1984 till the end of the summer of 1985, when everyone dispersed for college and it ran out of steam. None of the bands really became anything famous (although one of the Slugs later played in Poi Dog Pondering), but the Chicago Reader amazingly did a huge feature on the impact of that scene a couple of years ago. And for me, I still get a little twinge of excitement when I see bands today take some bits and pieces of the mod look and sound and apply it to what’s new, like the Strokes or Maximo Park. The mod ideas about youth and taste and fashion and artistic aesthetic seem to re-invent themselves and always will remain a major part of rock and roll.

Movie trailer from Quadrophenia

The Who sing “My Generation,” 1966

Small Faces lipsync “Itchycoo Park” on Swedish TV, 1967, a little post-mod, but compare this to “Listen to the Flower People” by Spinal Tap!