Mod to Suedehead - Page 653

Originally Posted by Aces and Eights 

Interesting piece - thanks

Originally Posted by HughJ 


If that fails, some dry-cleaners are equipped to deal with suede.

Originally Posted by browniecj 

It is one of the best I have read.-but then it takes someone who has lived,smelt and tasted the Life.This is why our Book will be on par.

Originally Posted by yankmod 

Thanks HughJ.The detergent worked(so-so)Cool pic pressure_drop.Looks like 2 smart dressed gentlemen.Ed,you always look cool,cute kid.

Originally Posted by loempiavreter 

just like facebook is effectively closing down all the pages that ha to do with skinhead

Originally Posted by yankmod 

NYC is not as Hip as people think.Webster Hall has shitty sound but it's place in American Music History is deep.Bill Haleys "Rock around the clock" recorded there as well as early Elvis on RCA.Sinatra and others as well.Mostly British bands play there and the Bowery Ballroom as well.

Originally Posted by browniecj 

"Hard Mods" was another Label a Journalist made up(like Skinhead).This came out in the 70s.John Leo Waters is another Mod,who like Jeff Dexter,were about before my time.Mods came in two ways.You had one side who went to Clubs(on their own-but knew People there) dressed very smart every week and lived the life of Mod.They would have a Bedsit in a fashionable Area to look good.Pete Meaden(who managed the Who first)was a classic example.Mods like John Leo Waters would go around with a few Mates.He was no less a Mod,but their outlook was slightly different-to the Scene.They were not pretentious.If you read his Story you will get to know what I mean.People like him dismiss the next wave of Mods(which is where I came in),as a sort of Anti-Christ.We made it more popular,we visited places like Carnaby Street etc.We liked Bands such as the Small Faces,The Who etc.But we kept the Mod Ethos alive.

Originally Posted by flyfronted 

 

 

Loads of very cool places in NY last time i went Shelter / Cielo / Sullivan rooms all playing great dance music 

Originally Posted by buttons 

The term Hard Mod has been bounced around for many years but its more recently been taken as a name for a late 60s sub-set of later mods, which from all accounts I've read was never a term used at the time. As Mr Waters explained (very good reading by the way.... what a tearaway!) there were certainly mods that could be considered to be hard but that's nothing to do with the name. I think where this has stemmed from in many people's minds is, as in Nick knight's early 80s book 'Skinhead' (and I'm paraphrasing as I haven't got time to dig it out and find the exact quote) it describes mods in the late 60s splitting off into two distinct camps - the psychodelic Carnaby Street dandy types and the more down to earth, working class mods who by then were progressing into what became the skinhead style. So they split into 'psychodelic mods' and 'hard mods' and it was the hard mods that became skinheads. Now there's some underlying truth in all this as that was the path taken by many (although there was plenty of crossover in between). But the term 'Hard Mod' to describe a style, a look, a fashion or a group of youths was never (and I'm very open to being proved wrong) used at the time.
This theory has popped up in various other articles and publications along the way, so I'm not saying it all stemmed from one book.
Various other names often get mentioned like Spy Kids, Lemons, Peanuts etc but there were never a universal term used before the word Skinhead was captured by the press - no more than 'Totters' that MoM often mentions. Totters were collectors/buyers/sellers of scrap. Some skinheads (or late mods etc) were Totters but that doesn't make all such people Totters.
Because the word skinhead has so many possible connotations these days, some prefer to steer clear of the name and Hard Mod has become one of the replacements for those into the older style of dress, music etc. Call yourself what you like, but as a missing-link late 60s British Youth Culture I think it all a bit made-up.

Originally Posted by browniecj 


Nick Knight writes about the split that occurred about `67.A few hundred Pages ago,I wrote the split happened earlier.I never read any Account by Journalists concerning this.Another aspect I wrote about was the "kick back" against the way Fashions were going Gay.Do not forget Carnaby Street started about `58 with the selling of Gay Clothes.John Stephens crossed over to the Straight Fashion Market,with the colourful Clothing.This is what John Leo Waters and others were opposed against.This would be about `64/`65.the Hair was "backcombed to extreme lengths).The Style of Clothes were heading back that way-Unisex etc.,etc.I became disenchanted well before I had my hair cut with a No.4(in `67).Carnaby Street became a carricture of itself.So I followed what had been started years before.

Originally Posted by buttons 

The term Hard Mod... was never a term used at the time.

Originally Posted by buttons 

Various other names often get mentioned like Spy Kids, Lemons, Peanuts etc but there were never a universal term used before the word Skinhead was captured by the press - no more than 'Totters' that MoM often mentions. Totters were collectors/buyers/sellers of scrap. Some skinheads (or late mods etc) were Totters but that doesn't make all such people Totters.

Originally Posted by buttons 

The term Hard Mod has been bounced around for many years but its more recently been taken as a name for a late 60s sub-set of later mods, which from all accounts I've read was never a term used at the time. As Mr Waters explained (very good reading by the way.... what a tearaway!) there were certainly mods that could be considered to be hard but that's nothing to do with the name. I think where this has stemmed from in many people's minds is, as in Nick knight's early 80s book 'Skinhead' (and I'm paraphrasing as I haven't got time to dig it out and find the exact quote) it describes mods in the late 60s splitting off into two distinct camps - the psychodelic Carnaby Street dandy types and the more down to earth, working class mods who by then were progressing into what became the skinhead style. So they split into 'psychodelic mods' and 'hard mods' and it was the hard mods that became skinheads. Now there's some underlying truth in all this as that was the path taken by many (although there was plenty of crossover in between). But the term 'Hard Mod' to describe a style, a look, a fashion or a group of youths was never (and I'm very open to being proved wrong) used at the time.
This theory has popped up in various other articles and publications along the way, so I'm not saying it all stemmed from one book.
Various other names often get mentioned like Spy Kids, Lemons, Peanuts etc but there were never a universal term used before the word Skinhead was captured by the press - no more than 'Totters' that MoM often mentions. Totters were collectors/buyers/sellers of scrap. Some skinheads (or late mods etc) were Totters but that doesn't make all such people Totters.
Because the word skinhead has so many possible connotations these days, some prefer to steer clear of the name and Hard Mod has become one of the replacements for those into the older style of dress, music etc. Call yourself what you like, but as a missing-link late 60s British Youth Culture I think it all a bit made-up.

Originally Posted by Man-of-Mystery 

Exactly!
That term was always used for scrap collectors in general. I heard first it used in Steptoe and Son.
The first place I heard the term used about late mods was in Bromley, N Kent, where the practice of 'totting' by youngsters was almost unknown. Further into London, lads like the Smithies (see earlier) actually did go round collecting scrap for pocket money. The fact that there were groups of kids like that is how the name got attached to late mods, and it spread to areas where the practice itself was rare. You're right, however - it was never a universal term.
As for 'Spy Kids', that was a term first seen in the press. A case of 'Chinese Whispers' - some reporter mis-hearing a kid with a London accent saying 'Spike Heads'. I think I have pointed this out before.

Originally Posted by Pressure_Drop 

Talking of 'Hard Mods' - there's some cracking photos being posted in the Hard Mod group on F/B - quite a few I've never seen before, including this one, shame there's no details. Anyone seen it before?

Originally Posted by browniecj 

Wish I had gone into Scrap Metal-would be living somewhere nice and warm now!!!
Interesting Photo-first time I have seen a Bra and a Sheepskin in the same Picture.....hmmmm:)