Scooter insurance chat – whatever happened to the Mods?

The Mods were a predominately working class subculture that began in England back in the late 50's and early 60's. The word Mod is an abbreviation of the word “moderist”. The Mods had their own unique clothing styles, musical preferences (particularly Jamaican ska and beat music) and a passion for scooters (though, not necessarily for scooter insurance!). Drug taking (particularly amphetamine consumption) was also an element of Mod culture.

The preferred scooters of choice for the Mods was Lambretta's and Vespas. Those models (both Italian) were admired for their minimalistic streamlined shape, their generous use of chrome. Most Mods treated their scooters as fashion accessories, often customising their scooters with astounding levels of fanaticism. Some of the more popular modifications included; elaborate paintwork, additional chrome racks for luggage, fox tails on the end of aerials and mirrors – lots of mirrors.

Back in the 60s the Mods were regarded as being the alternative subculture to The Rockers. Whilst Rockers had an image of being rough, leather jacket wearing motorbike lovers, the Mods seemed to represent an entirely different ideology. The Mods were aspiring to be more refined and elegant. They often wore expensive designer suits, thin ties and pointed leather shoes. They regularly gathered at trendy night clubs such as La Discotheque, The Scene and The Marquee. They were associated with exclusive branches of musical styles such as Northern Soul.

Around 1966 the mods were in sharp decline. Some believe that this decline was brought about by commercialisation (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_(subculture)). In other words, their clothes, choice of music and lifestyle was being dictated from large, faceless companies rather than from the Mods themselves. However, an even more critical factor was almost certainly the rise of rock and roll. The Beatles were in their prime, the Rolling Stones were too and even bands like the Who and the Small Faces (previous cornerstones of the Mod music scene) had abandoned their Mod heritage and repackaged themselves as rock bands.
In the late seventies a film called Quadrophenia sparked a revival of the Mod subculture. The mods were back and this time their scooter modifications would be ever more outrageous that ever. Areas like Scarborough and the Isle of Wight were hosts to massive scooter rallies (a scooter insurance company's dream come true!). There was also an explosion of exciting new bands that were strongly associated with Mods. Bands like The Jam, The Specials and Madness were taking over where The Who had left off.

Unfortunately (perhaps!), the Mod revival of the late seventies and early eighties didn't last for too long. But rather than a sudden and dramatic decline, like we saw in the mid sixties, this time around the mods seemed to simply fade away. Their sense of fasion and music was evolving so quickly that they struggled to retain which marketing experts might call “brand identity”. Furthermore, a range of Mod offshoot subcultures such as skinheads made the numbers dwindle ever more.

Today most online searches related to “mods subculture” will return websites which are selling “Mod clothing” and merchandise. There are however, a small handful of Mods clubs still in action. Clubs such as the Bristol Mods and Torbay Mods Scooter Club are active and their numbers appear to be increasing! Those clubs are proudly flying the (Mod) flag today and are actively arranging social events and even scooter rallies. From time to time we see musical bands appearing on the scene which are clearly influenced by “Mod music”. Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene and The Verve are all examples. Perhaps then, the Mods have not died but have merely evolved or taken a new form. And with the price of running a car increasing exponentially along with the promise of hotter summers thanks to global warming, it's not entirely impossible that Mods and their scooters might roam our glorious highways in vast numbers once again.