British `Mods’

The British `Mods’ were effectively a social group, a social group mostly made up of teenagers who liked the same music, bands, fashion – and who also liked to ride `scooters’.

The Mod movement was most popular during the late 1960’s, but it is still fairly popular today, although most of the original Mods are now aged in their 50’s and 60’s.   
These veterans sometimes wear the kind of outfits which were worn by the original Mods – green coloured `parkas’ , a kind of long, weather-proof coat. But they are more likely to wear the kind of outfit that was also worn in the later `Skinhead’ era - green `combat’ jackets, jeans or combat pants and `Doc Marten’ boots, which are always well-polished. Like the Skinheads, their hair is usually cut short, but not as short (or close shaved) as the original Skinheads’ hair was.

So really, although they are men aged from about 30 to about 60 they dress and sometimes behave like the teenagers of the late 1960’s and 1980’s  - they dress and sometimes behave in the same way they did when they were teenagers. 

This attitude of identifying with the past is probably uniquely British.  American or Canadian teenagers don’t have this attitude. So why do they have this attitude? Is it because they are `living in the past’?

They are living in the past,  but there’s a good reason for this: when they were Mods or Skinheads they had a distinct identity, they had their own distinct brand of music and they had their own favourite Mod bands - most famously `The Who.’

In other words, they were tribal, they belonged to a distinct tribe – the Mods or Skinheads – and this gave them a sense of pride, a sense of of belonging.  

Both the Mods and (obviously) the Skinheads could be pretty violent, and these men – many of whom are fathers and even grandfathers - give the impression that they are still capable of violence, despite their age. But despite this, they are usually fairly friendly, depending on your attitude towards them and what kind of mood they are in.  

One thing that has to be admired about them, is the fact that they are pretty  hardy, resilient You have to be hardy and resilient to ride a scooter – a mode of transport which was originally designed for the weather in Italy, in the often cold and windy British weather. And scooters aren’t very reliable, they tend to easily develop mechanical faults.

This pretty unusual photograph shows two modern Mods, probably aged around 30, repairing their scooter, which has a mechanical problem (click on the photo to enlarge it.