Gig - Modway

Fishtail parkas, The Marquee, Soho, scooters, chrome wing mirrors, rabbit skin aerial decorations, Purple Hearts, Dexedrine, Clacton, Margate, Brighton, Hastings, Ready Steady Go, Secret Affair, The Lambrettas! Quadrophenia, The Face, Stay-press trousers, narrow lapels, Ben Sherman shirts, Fred Perry, Levi’s, DM shoes. And I’m down in a tube station at midnight, oh-oh-oh. The Who, the Small Faces, target badges, neat haircuts, slim shades, The Jam, Paul Weller, Rick Buckler, Bruce Foxton’s crazy dance. The Kinks, Two Tone, Two Stroke, Madness, they call it madness. Don’t call me ska face!

Is it time for a Mod re-revival? Stuart Fletcher, who is performing a Mod-culture show ‘Modway’ at the Black Horse, clearly thinks that there’s something afoot. “Rick Buckler’s playing at the Concorde tonight, and Paul Weller was down in Brighton last week,” he says, “so there’s something going on. I love singing songs related to the London and English way of life, like Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks. There are so many rock cover bands out there. I’m flying the Mod flag, and paying tribute to the era. In the North there’s still a Mod scene, based around the magazine The Scooterist, and I hope it’ll build up more here, too.” You don’t have to be wearing the gear to enjoy the show, he continues, but he’s expecting a few ‘faces’. So is he himself a Mod? “Very much so. I’m a suited and booted Mod, not a fishtail parka Mod. I won’t be coming down to the gig on my scooter though. I’ve got too much gear.”