Saturday is Ton-Up Chicago’s annual Mods vs. Rockers rally/ride/showdown at Delilahs in Chicago. We can’t speak for the “bad guys,” but the Mods are meeting up at The Globe (1934 W. Irving Park at 11am to ride down en force. The rideout leaves the Globe no later than 11:45. (If you want breakfast, be there by 10:30.)
Category: Mods
Mods, Trons, Natchos, and Soldiers
Mods, Trons, Natchos, and Soldiers. If you say so, Serpents.
Our Way of Thinking 6
6 already!? It sort of snuck up on us this year, but MODchicago’s sixth annual weekender is coming up in a couple days. If you’re not circling a great lake this weekend, check it out.
Julie Plug’s “Blue Sky Propeller”
Once again, YouTube (via John Rana) serves up a great music video that slipped by unnoticed (to us anyway) a few years ago. Julie Plug (on MySpace) is a Bay Area band influenced by Britpop and the Sundays. Their 2003 “Blue Sky Propeller” video is pretty much the Filipino-American “Lloyd, I’m ready to be Heartbroken”, only a few years older and more scooter-ific. Read John’s post for more about the band.
2/3rds Mod Cons?
Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler are reuniting the Jam for a tour in May. No word from Paul Weller, who might prove useful in such a venture, but Sammy Hagar is presumably available this summer. Thanks, Matty!)
Rockin’ with the J.C. Penney Mods
NYC freeform radio station WFMU has unearthed a long-forgotten fad of the sixties: the “corporate musical.” One such musical, J.C. Penney’s “Spirit of 66,” featured a tribute to our well-dressed, pill-popping, basement-club-dwelling friends across the Atlantic: Rockin’ with the Mods. Crazy. (Thanks, Coudal.)
Dance Crazes of the Sixties
Handy for the next rally: if this isn’t the land of a thousand dances, I don’t know what is.
BBC America goes mod
BBC America unveiled a new identity this week, designed by mOcean. The new logo is a modified “mod target,” aka “Royal Air Force rondel,” let’s hope they have better luck with that than Lambretta Clothing. A new series of channel IDs include this one, featuring a euro-spec Vespa P200E (right-click to download) parked at a biker bar. (Thanks, Steve. Video and still: mOcean.)
Bringing Back Those Memories
Surprised I’ve never seen this, it’s from 2004… Elvis just hepped us to Mark Joseph’s “Bringing Back Those Memories” video. It’s a fantastic clip with lots of vintage scooters and a great retro mod feel, but the song isn’t really my thing. The opening riff sounds like Bettie Serveert, but it quickly descends into teen-idol neoOasisness. Sure, I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t like Oasis, and Mark apparently made quite a stir in the UK when it came out, and Cy probably has a Mark Joseph tattoo on his arse, so maybe I’m crazy, you might love it.
Lloyd I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken
Here’s a moddy pop masterpiece from Camera Obscura with a great video to match. It’s the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, Style Council, and Kirsty MacColl all wrapped into one and dropped into a world of IKEA lamps and Repro Depot fabrics (Not a terriblly manly song, no). “Don’t You Dare Cheer Up Tracyanne” (from the comments) should be their next single.
Quadrophenia based on Skegness?
A Skegness newspaper actually found something interesting to write about Skegness. Actually, it’s a neat story, maybe Cy can track down the TV show it refers to. Can I find another excuse to say “Skegness?” I believe I just did!
Twisted Wheel remembered
The historic Mod and proto-northern-soul club, The Twisted Wheel gets a lovely writeup in the Manchester Evening News.
Spacehopper Quadrophenia
The mighty Spacehopper Quadrophenia, endorsed by no other than Pete Townshend, who describes the original, “…it’s just a boy getting on a train, and going to fucking Brighton.” (Thanks, Cha-cha)
Be a pocket mod
It looks like even the Razor scooter has been given a retro styled makeover.
Named the “Pocket Mod Bistro”, quite how much it is “Reminiscent of the classic Vespa” and how it “radiates Euro-spy chic” we’re not sure…
The ultimate pose?
From Gome: British company Retrovesp is manufacturing plexiglas panels to disguise your Vespa P-series as an earlier 60s-style Vespa. The kit would presumably also work for the Stella,. It seems like an awful lot of money and effort (the panels need to be cut and bondo’ed together, and then it all needs to be painted) but the horncast is cool if you’re looking for a quick way to improve the looks of your P.