Description
Book SynopsisWelcome to the world of the sharp-suited faces'. The Italianistas. The scooter-riding, all-night-dancing instigators of what became, from its myriad sources, a very British phenomenon.
Mod began life as the quintessential working-class movement of a newly affluent nation a uniquely British amalgam of American music and European fashions that mixed modern jazz with modernist design in an attempt to escape the drab conformity, snobbery and prudery of life in 1950s Britain. But what started as a popular cult became a mainstream culture, and a style became a revolution.
In Mod, Richard Weight tells the story of Britain's biggest and most influential youth cult. He charts the origins of Mod in the Soho jazz scene of the 1950s, set to the cool sounds of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. He explores Mod's heyday in Swinging London in the mid-60s to a new soundtrack courtesy of the Small Faces, the Who and the Kinks. He takes us to the ModRocker riots at Margate
Trade Review
This [is a] highly entertaining and discursive mixture of social history and cultural theory… As an analysis of Britain’s youth tribes of the past 50 years…Mod: A Very British Style is definitive -- Mick Brown * Daily Telegraph *
Richard Weight’s splendid new book… The writing is witty…the judgments are pinpoint accurate… The research is formidable in its scope and detail -- Alwyn W Turner * New Statesman *
MOD is an important book because it shows how a style so often dismissed as trivial is in fact an important determinant of Britishness... This is a great book because it has the courage to celebrate what is wonderfully modern -- Gerard DeGroot * Sunday Telegraph *
Well-written throughout, crackles with reflection on fashion, music and film -- Ian Thompson * Observer *
A serious and worthwhile insight into a fascinating aspect of youth identity -- Will Hodgkinson * The Times *
