University of Huddersfield Repository Dow, Todd The Migration of Mod: Analysing the Mod Subculture in the North of England Original Citation Dow, Todd (2021) The Migration of Mod: Analysing the Mod Subculture in the North of England. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35479/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ THE MIGRATION OF MOD: ANALYSING THE MOD SUBCULTURE IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND Todd Dow (Researcher) History MA by Research University of Huddersfield March 2021 2 | P a g e Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Historiography .................................................................................................................................. 11 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 43 Contextual chapter ............................................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 1: The Swinging North – 1960s Northern Mod ....................................................................... 59 Chapter 2: Can you see the real me? – Northern Mod Identity............................................................ 77 Chapter 3: Clean living under difficult circumstances – Northern Mod in practice ............................ 103 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 134 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 138 Primary Sources .............................................................................................................................. 138 Film .............................................................................................................................................. 138 Newspapers ................................................................................................................................ 138 Magazines ................................................................................................................................... 139 Mod Fanzines .............................................................................................................................. 139 Oral History Interviews ............................................................................................................... 140 Secondary Sources .......................................................................................................................... 141 Appendices .......................................................................................................................................... 149 Appendix 1 – Interviewee details ................................................................................................... 149 Appendix 2 – Oral History Interview Schedule ............................................................................... 155 Appendix 3 – Participant Information Sheet .................................................................................. 157 Appendix 4 – Newspaper advertisements ...................................................................................... 159 Appendix 5 – Scooter Club Badges ................................................................................................. 160 3 | P a g e Introduction In its present form Mod is regarded as a national and global subculture intrinsically linked to British culture. Richard Weight has claimed that Mod is ‘Britain’s biggest youth movement.’1 A statement which holds true, as since its emergence in London’s East End in the late 1950s, the subculture has grown substantially. However, for many, Mod is still seen as a “southern phenomenon” associated with “swinging London” and the bank holiday beach battles, resulting in it being represented as a 1960s London “fad”.2 Bar a handful of publications such as Keith Gildart’s Images of England Through Popular Music, and Christine Feldman’s “We are the Mods”, most of the academic literature on the Mod subculture is plagued by these two assumptions. As such, both the academic and general literature present a partial view of the culture in terms of a 1960s monolithic London-based scene. While it would be fair to say that the Mod subculture did begin in the late 1950s in London, as Anderson rightly suggests, ‘it soon rampaged across the country like a speed-fuelled plague,’3 becoming nationwide by 1964, even if the media did not recognise it as a national scene. Mod was adopted by teenagers in the North during the sixties and re-emerged in greater numbers during the Revival of the late 1970s. Rawlings argues Mods are ‘the only group readily embraced by different generations,’ as its original values have ‘transcended their early Sixties origins’ being ‘rediscovered, redeveloped and renewed’ by successive ‘tribes of “New Mods”.’4 The period of the Mod Revival in the late 1970s through to the early 1980s, despite its clear importance as a period of increased Mod activity, has been overlooked by the academic community. The focus on London and its surrounding areas has also led to there being little to no focus on Mod in the North. Using a myriad of primary sources this dissertation combines oral history interviews with archival methods to address this 1 Weight, R. (2013). MOD: From Bebop to Britpop, Britain’s biggest youth movement. London: Vintage. 2 Hebdige, D. (1988). Hiding in the light: On images and things. London: Routledge. Page 109. 3 Anderson, P. (2014). Mods the new religion: The style and music of the 1960s Mods. London: Omnibus press. Blurb. 4 Rawlings, T., & Barnes, R. (2000). MOD: Clean living under difficult circumstances: A very British phenomenon. London: Omnibus Press. Page 5. 4 | P a g e imbalance, analysing the two areas of Mod subculture that has had little academic analysis, Mods in the North of England during the Revival. This thesis develops research from my undergraduate dissertation that focused on the changing representations and experiences of Mod over time, from the sixties to present day.5 From this research it was concluded that strong numbers of Mods were present in the North from the 1960s, and an even larger contingent of Mods during the Revival. This research fills a gap in academic knowledge by researching the experience of Mods in the North providing an original piece of historical analysis. This research aims not only to provide a broad history of the subculture in the North comparing experiences with the Southern Mods, but to provide an in depth analysis of some key issues surrounding class, identity, space, and everyday practices of Northern Mods. While addressing why so little has been written on the subject of Mods in the North and the Revival, this research will also challenge perceptions of Mod simply being a Sixties London-centric subculture. Research will also consider the distinctiveness of Northern Mod and ideas that underpinned adherence to or participation in the Revival. The area of focus in this study is the North. However, as Shields correctly identifies, ‘the ‘North’ of England is not a precisely defined and mapped out jurisdiction with clear borders’, both as geographical expression and in terms of local identity.6 As such, it is important to define what this study considers to be the North. Using Helen Jewell’s definition of the North which uses river systems, this study defines the North as the area from the Humber to the River Mersey, with attention to the Trent in between.7 This area includes eleven counties that can be considered Northern, but all have ‘different degrees of Northerness.’8 Ideas surrounding Northerness and regional variations will be explored throughout the study in relation to the concepts of place and spatial theory examining how 5 Dow, T. (2018). Mods in myth and reality: Analysing class, gender, and identity in representation and experience over time (Degree dissertation). University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield. 6 Shields, R. (1991). Places on the margin: alternative geographies of modernity. London: Routledge. Page 207. 7 Jewell, H. M. (1994). The North-South Divide: The Origins of Northern Consciousness in England. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Page 24 and 25. 8 Jewell, H. M. (1994). The North-South Divide: The Origins of Northern Consciousness in England. Manchester: Manchester University Press.