Smoky Soho clubs. West End cafes. John Stephen’s shop in Carnaby Street. Tracking down American pressings of obscure Chess hits in seedy back lanes. Suits hand-made at Bilgorri’s of Bishopgate.

All this was the domain of the Mod. It’s a subculture British popular culture is tremendously indebted too. They single handily changed the face of both the fashion and music industry in the UK. Another culture that has to give thanks is that of the Skinhead.

For many of us, the skinhead culture has been around for so long and evolved to such an extent that it can be hard to imagine it not simply existing from scratch. The truth is there’s several other cultures which have a distinct influence over it. This series of articles is going to investigate all of them.

Mods themselves can be traced back to around 1959. Prior to this t

here are obvious links to the British modern jazz scene which started burgeoning at the end of World War II with the modern jazz sounds of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.

Fans of the modern jazz scene felt a direct affinity with their African-American idols. Both groups had a desire to tell the upper class to stuff it. Miles Davis’ immaculate sense of style was his way of saying he wouldn’t accept the role he was supposed to have in American society at that point in time. Working class followers in Britain would soon take the inspiration and exhibit this stylistic disdain themselves.

This group was also responsible for creating the basis of the mod love of a party. Night time was the right time and all that mattered was the party. This was very shocking to a British society which had spent the last several years at war. The people were ready to bust out of the doom and gloom and enjoy themselves. People were willing to spend money on going out and having a good time and they wanted to look good while doing it.

The Ivy League look, co-opted from the American middle class by the likes of Miles Davis, was the original style craze for these cats who had begun to call themselves Modernists after the modern jazz sound they preferred. Soon casual wear, a foreign idea for many Brits who held a dislike for what they felt was an American style, was popularized by a Lithuanian immigrant, Cecil Gee. He started with one shop in 1929 and by the mid 1930′s had a three floor menswear store located on Charing Cross Road.

His shop, exhibiting new ways of present his wares and selling the now popular American button down, was soon a hit amongst the Modernists. He was giving the people what they wanted. Soon similar shops such as Austin’s and Austin Reed began to pop up.

With the popularity of American rock and roll, the Mod culture as we know it almost suffered a premature demise. The Modernists retreated to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club to preserve their music and weather the Teddy Boy storm. Soon the Mod as we know it would be back out on the town.

The mod was an entirely different creature to most. They knew what they wanted and they demanded it. There was no such phrase as “good enough” in a Mod’s vocabulary. Everything had to be authentic and of the highest quality. It was this dedication that made the culture so special to be a part of. Not everyone could be a part of it, and when the media made it seem as though they could it ceased to exist.

Britain at the time, even with the in roads made by the Modernist set, was still a very grey and dreary place. At the beginning of the 60′s imported clothes and records were hard to come by. The stylish suits and casual wear being exhibited in the French art films the Mods were so engrossed with were hard to come by and that made it all the more special.

The Mod look was originally a very much West End thing, centering around the area’s affluent young Jewish community many of whom boasted father’s who were also tailors.

They took pride not in outlandish, outside dress. Rather they revelled in the great difference an attention to detail could lead too, leaving a massive style gap between them and everyone else. They were also enamoured with clothes. They took time to notice what made one shirt better than the other. They would study the roll of a collar on a button down shirt the way an Astrologist studies the Universe. Not only were they convinced they were the smartest, they wanted to be able to tell you exactly why they were.

Music was on par with clothes with a lot of these dandy’s. A fair amount spent even more time dedicated to searching out obscure records then they did that special shirt. Once again the tunes, like the clothes, had to be the best. Only the finest would do and thus a treasure trove of tracks courtesy of Chess, Tamla, Stax and Blue Beat found their home in places like the Flamingo.

The music selection was almost exclusively black, and was not easy to come by. Not that it mattered as walking through a dodgy alley was a small price to pay to own that one piece of vinyl magic no one else had heard. American GI’s were also responsible for the sale of a lot of tunes which would become popular in London’s clubs. And London’s clubs were definitely where taste was decided.

London had no shortage of clubs packed out with the young jet set. Ronnie Scott’s, The Flamingo, The Scene and the Lyceum were just some of the biggest clubs. There were numerous other clubs scattered throughout the city but these were generally the places to be seen. It was here the Faces would peacock about in their latest outfit while the rest looked on in envy. It wouldn’t be quick to last though as soon as the shops were open everyone was out hunting down that look.

The DJ’s of these clubs were the filter between what was good and what was great. They set the scene’s taste and were always finding more and more great tracks. Guy Stephen’s, the DJ at the Flamingo, record collection was considered to be the greatest in the country. When he started playing blue beat the music quickly took off in popularity. Stars such as Prince Buster were treated as King’s as they toured across England. These blue beat records also introduced their own style to the mods.

It wasn’t long ’til the short trousers and pork pie hats favoured by the young Jamaican stars began to figure in the wardrobes of their young Mod fans. This was the beginning of what was to become some of the staples of Skinhead style and the start of British youth’s love affair with Jamaican music.

With all this said, live music still had a place in the hearts of Mods. Homegrown groups such as Geno Washington had huge followings. But groups such as the Rolling Stones, who received their start in Mod clubs, never received the same respect. They were seen as uncool, the fact they dared cover some of the R&B classics almost blasphemous. The same can be said with the Beatles and their covers of some of the great Tamla groups.

Buying English records was generally seen as uncool. And that wouldn’t do for the Mod. Soon the popularity of groups such as The Stones would lead the media spotlight to shine on the Mod culture and lead to its eventual demise.

August of 1963 heralded the arrival of a TV show directed towards the growing Mod scene. It was originally well received by the Mods, as they would watch it to see some of the latest styles being word by the Faces who had been hand-picked at one of the West End clubs. The hottest new dances were also performed and many a Mod got to see their favorite artists for the first time of Ready, Steady Go!.

But while providing an outlet for their favorite artists, the show soon spread was once the exclusive Mod imagine across all of England. The style was no longer a London thing, everyone was now in on the wonderful secret Mods had been keeping to themselves.

Shining the spotlight on this word led to even more unwanted attention, but this time from a far more sinister source: the Police.

Drug use was widespread in the clubs, as it was needed to keep up the hectic social schedule most Mods adhered too. One would have to be otherwise superhuman to have the sort of weekend most Mods did. The drug use had gone almost unnoticed ’til the arrival of RSG!, but when these clubs and this lifestyle became known to the Average Joe questions began to be asked. Soon clubs were regularly being subjected to Police raids.

So you now had RSG! on the airwaves, sharing what was once a private club with the nation. As a result of RSG’s popularity there was an abundance of boutiques selling cheap knock offs of the gear you had at one time had to search out with gusto and your treasured soul music was all over the radio. Sounds like the culture was half past dead. The media coverage of  ”riots” at seaside resorts was the final nail in the coffin.

Negative stereotypes and media lies are of no surprise or shock to any Skinhead. The press have practically perfected it with us. But when the media began to report riots between Mods and Rockers in the spring and summer of 1964 it was still a relatively new occurence. Sensationalistic headlines rang out from the front pages of newspapers all around England.

What had in truth been relatively typical teenage rebellion quickly became a gold mine as the press fed England’s insatiable appetite for information on Mods. As soon as it was reported, you had gangs of kids with no clue of true Mod ideals calling themselves Mods and heading to the seaside looking for a fight. Mod culture was dead.

It had went from a lifestyle based around exclusivity and secrecy to a national phenomen over the course of a few years. It’s clubs had went from being full of only those in the knows, Mods with a strict dedication to fashion and black music, to full of a bunch of tossers in target shirts wanting to take claim in something they could never be a part of.

As unfortunate as the situation, this was a factor in the creation of the Skinhead cult. While some of the original Mods went into the world of student protests and prog rock others retreated deeper into criminal activities and a world of violence. These Mods became known as Gang or Hard Mods.

Often they were Mods unwilling to give up the look to the mass influx of morons. Some of the ranks also came from those attracted to the violence of the seaside battles.

Soon the Mod culture was going to be born anew, very much different but very much the same.