Northern Soul and Mod!!

[John Paterson]

I have been a mod for quite a time,BTW i expect or demand no admiration! over the last few years theres seems to be a mixed up view of the thing we call Mod! Folks from outside the home of mod seem to think that NS and the mod movement are 1 in the same? For those who are fresh to the scene well its an easy mistake to make!! But we are talking about scenes that can live on there own merits! We the older mods have a duty to carry the torch and its mod values for there true meaning! The only reason i can see for linking the two totally adverse scenes is a profit based raeson! Why you may ask? Why have the expense of putting a nite on for 100 mods when u can have 300 of everyone!! And the answer is in the whole fabric of mod itself. Not like everybody else, well im afraid its lost its Kudos!! We the modern day torch bearers have sold ourselves down the bloody river!! Norhtern soul does not need Mod and vice versa,in fact northern soul was an opposite reaction to mod! Scooter riding people of the Revival period followed there peers of the day into the scootrboy scene,with its anything goes culture. recession was given as a reason. Coz it became too expensive and elitist to live beyond your means! But the true essence of being mod was never about how much dosh you hsd. It was about thinking outside the box, and making the best about your situation! We are carrying a legacy forward and we are making an arse of it for the new generation, we are making it so complicated for the new blood. Who's to blame, the profiteers...... bending and shaping to please everyone! Mod was never about that,in fact it was the very opposite!! its caused rifts in the past for the very same reasons......people should hang there heads in shame!!

[John Paterson]

Ive been well informed of the importance of Jazz from some of the 60's mods, always willing to lend an ear just incase there is a little gem to be learned, The two ears,two eyes and 1 mouth saying springs to mind!! I dont think that any reasonably minded person can argue that early mod definately was much influenced by the Jazz scene! Maybe the purveyors of rare vinyl could find some Jazz music to fit the Mod scene instead of dressing up Northern Soul to try and do the same job!!

[James Thomas]

Sorry folks, the Wayne Shorter album should be 'Speak no Evil'. Attention to detail is important, I should have double-checked that one. Gonna do penance by listening to Acker Bilk and some other 'trad dad' classics over the Bank Holiday!!!!!

Hope everyone's having a good time at their bank holiday rallies or whatever they're doing.

[John Paterson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhscGwKaQ8&index=2&list=PLF...  Why so much northern when there is a world of excellent R&B????????

[Chris Newport]

Spot on John ! 

Theres so much other music to be played and in the way of R&B too .

Nice vid for the Margi Hendricks track by the way , a great sound with good visuals of earlyr dance styles . Some of which i even had a go at trying to imitate whilst in the shower earlyr today , the Mrs was wondering what the fu-k i was laughing my head off at beings i had only gone in to scrub my bits (no comment on my bits please) .   XD

Im afraid ive allways been a bit of a mover instead of stand and watch type . Its probably why none of my mates want to go out to clubs with me . : )   I reckon i must embarace them too much , but there you go ... i love the music too much to stand still .

Next up for me is another healthy dose of Mousetrap . Cant wait to make a knob of myself !  :D

I just hope my slick moves catch on a bit .   ; )

[John Paterson]

Chris, burn those soles right off your shoes mate!!!  :-)

[The Lone Wolf]

Now that is what I called a healthy read. I would rather live my life with a few than the newly badged mod ensemble that includes NS. I say guilty by association so separate them all. Keep a true modernist movement going.

[James Thomas]

I don't have a strong opinion on this really. I was wondering though: what is it most about northern soul that some mods don't like: is it the late 60s full-on stompers that get played? or the seventies soul? the aesthetic? 

I still think some of the music is fantastic, especially mid-tempo stuff, but I can understand that old r'n'b is equally good, if not better, and more of a core music for mods. What I would love to know more about is the pre-northern soul scenes of the 60s: for example, when mod in London moved into either psychedelia or skinhead or various other permutations (dandy, blue-eyed soul etc), places in the midlands and other areas would have kept up a mod scene for a year or two longer. Did some of what gets called 'northern soul' now (from the 1966 to 1967 period) get imported into England at the time, before the main northern scene started in 1969/70? I guess I'm keen to know more about the regional variations in mod scenes from that period 1965-68 that sometimes gets treated just from a London perspective.

[John Paterson]

James, its two totally different scene's and the two are at different ends of the spectrum. I dont blame you that you have asked what is it about northern that mods dont like because if you have only came into the scene in say the last ten years then its understandable that you dont know. In the last 5 - 10 years the organiser's of so called MOD events have inter-twined the two to suit there own means. To try and put into some perspective for you its like playing late 70's and early 80's new wave/punk at a mod event from a musical point of view. The Buzzcocks started off as mod and the Jam started off as punk, some tried to move with the public demand and some got it wrong. It makes my blood boil to see the way the scene is playing out at the moment,because once it completely loses its roots then you will never get it back again. I may be too passionate when it comes to this subject but the easiest thing is to lie back and go with the hordes than stand your ground and shout for the scene you love!!

[James Thomas]

Hi John,

I first became aware of mod in 1979, as a wee bairn. However, I wouldn't say that I decided to 'become a mod' until about 1991. I started going to Untouchables events (as they were then) in 1992 and was regularly out and about in London from 93-95 or so. Then off to Spain where I was very involved in the mod scene. When I came back from Spain in about 2002, I didn't get up to London much and there was no mod scene where I was living, just a few 'retro' nights that played a mixed bag (there was probably a scooter scene, but that's never been my mine passion). However, I suppose I got side-tracked for about five or six years by learning to play the acoustic guitar and I got into folk music and folk/blues from the 50s and 60s. Through my reading, I realised that some Mods were into folk back in the sixties (Davey Graham had a mod look and there was certainly a crossover with people like Long John Baldry, Duffy Power )etc. This got me right back into mod, but from an older age perspective, I don't get out to the nights very often if at all. So, my question is based on the time I've spent away from any scene, and not because I don't know that some northern soul is pretty incompatible with mod. Personally, as I think I've written elsewhere, I'd like to see more modern jazz nights (whether attached to a mod scene or not). I'm sorry to hear that some nights don't seem to be tailored properly: who knows, things might change.

[John Paterson]

Lets hope thats the case,to help keep its identity. Ps dont think i meant for a minute that u (personally) had been into the scene for only the last few years. though if u had been it would have explained things a little bit! Ive always said that the young ones or the next generation are coming into a scene and are by in far being shown 2 scenes as being 1, and thats a recently new developement. If u ask the question of why? You get answers of the political type if any at all. ''Catering for all'' seems to be the most popular of any answers. Excuse me but who got to decide that Mod should be catering for all...??? Cause it was never about that!!

[Chris Newport]

Old wise man once did say - He who stands alone stands the tallest ! I aint got a clue who he was though , think i read it in  fortune cookie .   : )  

[The Lone Wolf]

James Thomas

With respect, if you have to ask then you would not understand, sorry. 

Modernism is not bound by time.

Snap shot imagery/music is for the 'Froze in Timers' (NS).