‘Are you a mod or a rocker ?’ a reporter asked Ringo Starr in A Hard Day’s Night. ‘Uh, no,’ he answered, ‘I’m a mocker.’ The question was a pertinent one. On 18 May 1964, just over three weeks after the film was completed, the English seaside town of Margate saw a violent showdown between ...
were the seemingly happy-go-lucky Beatles, whose guitar-and-drums-based sound infused the entire pop scene. Meanwhile, R&B-influenced rockers such as The Animals and The Rolling Stones, as well as mod outfits such as The Who, also provided contrast by way of their devil-may-care attitudes and slightly less clean-cut image. For a short time, many American artists found themselves ...
‘Groove Is In The Heart’, 1990 With the legendary P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins on bass, the equally legendary Maceo Parker (of James Brown fame – as, incidentally, so was Bootsy) on saxophone, and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip as a guest vocalist, all the elements were in place for a modern funk anthem. ‘Groove Is In ...
of sharply-dressed soul boys, and the group’s style was consciously tailored in that direction. (For a time they changed their name to The High Numbers, a nod to mod slang.) The tribal elitism of the mod underground was fascinating to Townshend and the group’s early manager Pete Meaden; the band offered those fans a stand-in for the faraway ...
signed with Berry Gordy’s Motown label in 1961, where his recordings revealed a strong tenor voice with a huge span – three octaves – on songs ranging from R&B mod anthem ‘Can I Get A Witness’ to the soulful heartache of ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. He charted with duets too, notably alongside Tammi Terrell. Gaye grieved for ...
(Mod-yest’ Moo-zôrk’-ske) 1839–81 Russian composer Mussorgsky was the most radical of the Russian composers known as ‘The Five’. Born to a land-owning family, he joined the army in 1856, where he encountered Borodin, then a military doctor, and Cui, who introduced him to Balakirev, with whom he studied. In 1858 he resigned to pursue a ...
songwriter Paul Weller (b. 1958) was born John William Weller in Woking, Surrey. He was a boyhood Beatles fanatic before discovering The Who and, through them, the mod movement. His father, who managed him for the majority of his career, bought his 12-year-old son an electric guitar for Christmas; at first, neither realized that an ...
1970s’ major rock bands, and they consolidated their position with the acclaimed Who’s Next (1971) and a second rock opera, Quadrophenia (1973), which looked back to the band’s mod roots. In between, Townshend made his first solo album, Who Came First (1972). Shortly after the release of Who Are You (1978), Moon died and the future of ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1965–69, 1975–78) After entering the UK Top 20 with 1965’s ‘Whatcha Gonna Do About It’, this pre-eminent mod group – Steve Marriott (vocals, guitar), Jimmy Winston (keyboards), Ronnie Lane (bass, vocals) and Kenney Jones (drums) – suffered a miss with self composed ‘I Got Mine’; they then replaced Winston with Ian McLagan and got back ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1965–68) This most striking of London’s ‘mod’ groups climaxed their act with vocalist Kenny Pickett splashing an action painting on to a canvas that was then set alight, and lead guitarist Eddie Phillips pioneered the scraping of a violin bow across a fretboard, most conspicuously on 1966’s ‘Painter Man’, a modest chart foray at home that ...
the follow-up This Is The Modern World (1977) was rushed and unconvincing. Work on a prospective third album was scrapped, prompting a serious re-think of the band’s direction. All Mod Cons (1978) marked the start of a remarkable resurgence. 1979 saw their first Top 10 single, ‘The Eton Rifles’, and the quasi-concept album Setting Sons. The Jam swiftly became ...
bass and Keith Moon (1947–78) on drums, The Who virtually exploded onto the mid-1960s scene in a blaze of power rock that placed them at the forefront of the mod movement. Reinforced by Townshend’s songwriting, and a stage act that saw him leap into the air, strike ear-shattering chords with a swirling windmill motion and smash his guitar ...
Trojan, 2-Tone aimed for a strong visual identity, encapsulated by the label itself – a cartoon of a well-dressed, racially ambiguous ‘rude boy’ in pork-pie hat and mod suit (a rude boy is the term for a young ska/reggae fan), illustrated in sharp, chessboard black and white. The 2-Tone name applied equally to the band’s attitude to ...
other bands offered significant variations on the stereotypical manic punk three-chord thrash. The Jam had an altogether smarter image than the punks, and In The City (1977) reveals 1960s mod leanings. After The Jam split up, singer Paul Weller went on to enjoy a successful solo career, although his solo offerings do not reflect his punk and mod ...
By the early 1990s British pop and alternative fans were crying out for homegrown pop that combined old-fashioned rock charisma with lyrics and a definitively British sound, to counteract the manufactured teen acts, Euro-dance novelties and US imports. This arrived in the mid-1990s in the shape of Britpop: a wave of guitar bands with short, sharp pop songs. ...
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