When I was a kid during the seemingly endless summer months, the television would carry news of fights between ‘mods’ and ‘rockers’. Mods were the ‘moderns’ — into fashion with tailor-made suits and parkas; their music included African-American soul, Jamaican ska, British beat music, and (original) R&B. Mods rode scooters — often embellished with many wing mirrors. The movement was also associated with ‘speed’ and dance: all night amphetamine-fuelled partying at clubs. The WHO was an archetypal mod band of the mid-1960s.
The fighting between these two gangs often took place on the south-coast of England — and especially the seaside town of Brighton. The mods opponents were ‘rockers’. These ‘leather boys’ or ‘ton up boys’ (a ton being 100 miles per hour!) were always in the minority. They developed from the 1950s ‘Wild One’ kind of image — were unconventional, long-haired, rebellious and dirty looking — real outsiders. As a child I remember seeing the news on TV where a couple or three rockers would be attacked by scores (perhaps even hundreds) of short-haired mods. Naturally my sympathies were with the biker boys. They stood their ground and fought back.
Later in life I became a biker and there was always the ‘jokey’ idea of riding alongside scooter-boys (post-mod) and kicking them off their scooters — in other words there was, well into the 70s, a residue dislike between the fashionable short-hairs and us long-haired bikers. Mods had more-or-less disappeared by the late 60s, early 70s and had morphed into skinheads, suedeheads, clean-cut boys, disco-dwellers (this before the late 70s mod-revival led by The Jam)…The old rockers became the greasers, greebos (or grebos) or simply ‘bikers’ who listened to hard or heavy rock: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Humble Pie etc. And this is where the music took an interesting turn.
The WHO were the mod band and as a young man I can recall many of my short-haired friends being into them. But as a biker and a rocker I was also into them — and if you went to a WHO concert in the 70s the fans on the whole were into heavy rock, shaking manes of thick hair and seriously ‘head-banging’. Many of these rockers would have bought the vinyl LP Quadrophenia — a double album telling the story of a mod and recalling the fights between mods and rockers! I also bought and loved this double-album and still do. What’s more the WHO themselves had transformed from their early mod image to shaggy-haired and bearded 70s rockers. And that’s why we loved them so much. They had such raw power and energy. Real solid rock with just an edge of pomposity. The lyrics also spoke directly and powerfully to us disaffected working-class youth.
The length of one’s hair; the music you listened to; the fashion — or lack of it — labelled one as a member of this gang or that. And things could still get serious and nasty. Before the mods and rockers it was the Teddy Boys (named after the Edwardian period and fashion) with their long drape coats and crepe soled shoes. These Teddy Boys were ‘hard’, listened to rock ’n’ roll music and often rucked-up against the first wave of post-war immigrants into Britain. It seems that modern culture is less divided or less recognisable in its opposing groups these days — but remnants of those 50s and 60s groups still continue to exist. Things now seem more pluralistic, with young folk perhaps going clubbing one night then head-banging the next. The essential, rebellious nature en masse appears to have dissipated.
Because all those years ago I saw those few rockers getting the living daylights beaten out of them by the numerous mods — a kind of imprint was left with me. I’m always on the side of the under-dog WHATEVER or WHOEVER that underdog is — I just can’t help myself. So if you ever catch me defending the un-defendable please go ahead and call me out. But I still identify with the rockers, so spare a thought for the influence of that tiny television box on me as a child, with its flickering black and white images and RP (received-pronunciation) sounding BBC reporter voicing over a big brawl on Brighton beach! Then think of a long-haired, idealistic youth getting into music. And if you can, also think of The WHO with that frantic windmill strumming arm of Pete Townshend; the stern and stoic bass playing of John Entwhistle; the strutting microphone throwing and catching Roger Daltrey and last but no way least the MOST energetic, creative and near crazy drum playing of Keith Moon!
Just to end this story — I sold my Triumph 500cc motorbike to buy my first drum kit. I figured I’d make enough money to buy a bike in the future. Well I never did — besides it’s hard to get a drum kit on the back of a bike! At least my bike licence meant I could legally drive a three-wheeled car! A Plastic Pig! And it was JUST big enough to post my bass drum through the rear window hatch. I am now on conventional four wheels, still banging out the drums and still listening to The WHO and it seems ‘The Kids (are still) Alright’ and thankfully no longer kicking the heck out of each other on Brighton’s beach!
This article is to be published by Counter Culture.
Tim is the author of ‘Lyrics to Live by’ — UK link below.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lyrics-Live-Self-Help-Notes-Better/dp/1916424821
