THIS IS A JOURNEY INTO SOUND

As my journey into the world of all things Mod continues, so my discovery of and passion for music grows. The Modculture website, the Heavy Soul label and fanzine, Start! and Dedicated Follower fanzines, Totally Wired radio, not to mention various groups and pages on social media: these all contribute to my moducation. The amount of music, books, films etc - there aren't enough hours in the day to absorb it all! My tastes in music have always been fairly eclectic, but you can now add Jazz, Acid Jazz, swathes of Rhythm & Blues, sixties girl pop, French music, Soul, Freakbeat and Blues to the equation, plus all the bands associated with the revival since the late seventies, and more recent acts. Barely a week goes by without the postie bringing me more vinyl and cds. So much music, so little time! Of course, the one name who comes up frequently is the Modfather himself, Paul Weller.  A prominent figure in Mod since his days in The Jam, he has undoubtedly stayed true to the princi...

New Rave, they called it. One of the scenes created by the NME in order to sell issues and tickets to the yearly awards tour, by lumping together a bunch of similar sounding but unrelated acts. This year it was the turn of a group of artists who fused indie rock with acid house and rave sounds, adopting the fashions that went along with that. To be quite honest, the only ones who matter - and had any success - were Klaxons. Littering their rave-rock with philosophical, metaphysical, psychedelic, and science fiction referencing lyrics, dressed in day-glo garb, and making bonkers music videos, it would have been hard for them to not be a hit. They'd surfaced the year before with a couple of independent releases, of which "Atlantis To Interzone" was one of my regular downloads. Another single, "Magick", cracked the Top 30 in the latter part of 2006, the band now signed to Polydor. When "Golden Skans" was released early in 2007, it raised my expectations f...

Several years ago when i began my discovery of Mod culture, i mistakenly believed that i needed to listen to "mod" bands. But what constitutes such a thing? Obviously certain acts either identified as Mods or were tagged with the label, but what did it mean musically? In the early days of the movement, they listened to Modern Jazz, then Rhythm & Blues became part of it, joined later by early Soul and Ska. But these were records played at the clubs, coffee bars, and house parties that Mods frequented, and danced to all night long. Soon, homegrown bands started forming, influenced by the imported sounds from the USA, and playing their own version of them. Surprisingly, British Mod bands were a bit thin on the ground in the sixties, or at least ones who defined themselves as Mods. Obviously there was The Who, The Small Faces, The Action, and The Creation, and several less well known and short lived acts who imploded after a couple of singles or even after a few months of gig...

Around the time that i met the woman who became my wife my feeling that i needed to belong to something faded into the background. I had connected with someone for the first time in years, and fell madly in love. I still loved music, and still went to both Whitby Goth Weekender events, but my heart wasn't in it. After years of singledom i naturally wanted to do "couple things", and i gradually withdrew from that part of my life. At the same time, i no longer wanted to dress the part. A few months earlier i had a windfall, and treated myself to a couple of Ben Sherman shirts, a Harrington, and some Levis. Being, well, fat at the time these were hard to come by in my size, so they were from Jacamo (i've struggled with my weight for a long time). But they looked decent, and i suppose were my first Mod clothes.  Over the next few years i began to find out about the history of this subculture, its origins and influences, and in turn what it influenced. A lot of the music i...

I have always had a passion for music from a young age. My questing nature has led to fairly eclectic tastes, and with that a wish to learn all about the various genres, scenes, and subcultures that have always been associated with music. My long standing ability to appreciate music from bygone eras has led to a fascination with the youth cults and tribes that once filled our isles. The current proliferation of bearded hipster types on our streets is a trend, but there are no common interests between the people who have adopted this look. The era of tribes would appear to be over in an increasingly connected world where every interest and influence can be accessed and discovered at the touch of a screen. But...... look past the homogenization of the high street with its identical Starbucks and Costas, fashion outlets, and sportswear shops, and you will spot them. Old Punks, Rockers, Mods, Hippies, Goths...... people who adopted not just the music, but a way of life, a code, a set of ...

We are living in unprecedented times: the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every corner of the world, and every walk of life, including the world of music. I was saddened to hear about the passing of Dave Greenfield, keyboardist for The Stranglers, who died on Sunday 3rd of May after contracting the virus during a hospital stay for a heart complaint. He was 71. Dave's arpeggiated, Doors-esque keyboard sound made The Stranglers sound stand out from the punk crowd they were associated with, adding a melodic brightness to the gruff and thuggish themes of their early albums: hits like Peaches, No More Heroes and Something Better Change elevated the band above the 3 chord thrash of their contemporaries. He developed his style further as the band moved into more experimental waters, from the synthesizer meltdown solo on Top 20 single Nice 'n' Sleazy and its parent album Black And White, through their most accomplished album The Raven - which featured the keyboard-heavy hit Duchess ...

As i'm currently giving away my late Dad's record player - one of those Crosley briefcase-types that i bought him as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago - i've also got the record box that i bought him with it. Inside is a collection of mainly used albums and 45's i got him every so often, things that he had in his collection as a young man: Status Quo, 10CC, The Who, some Country music, glam rock and 70's pop. I'm currently spinning some of them, nursing a beer and raising a toast to the man who unwittingly provided the match that lit my burning passion for music. Here's to you, Dad 🍺