Mods and rockers

{{Short description|Conflict of two British youth subcultures}} {{for|the film festival|Mods & Rockers Film Festival}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Use British English|date=September 2017}} [[File:Chelsea-Bridge-Rockers.jpg|thumb|Three rockers on Chelsea Bridge]] thumb|Two mods on a scooter Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the late 1950s to mid 1960s. News coverage of the two groups fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and they became widely perceived as violent, unruly trouble-makers.

The rocker subculture was centred on motorcycling. Rockers generally wore protective clothing such as black leather jackets and motorcycle boots or winklepickers. The style was influenced by Marlon Brando in the 1953 film ''The Wild One''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rockers!|last=Stuart|first=Johnny|publisher=Plexus|year=1987|isbn=0-85965-125-8|location=London|pages=24}}</ref> The common rocker hairstyle was a quiff or pompadour, while their music genre of choice was 1950s to early 60s rock and roll and R&B, played by artists including Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Bo Diddley, as well as British rock and roll musicians such as Billy Fury and Johnny Kidd.

The mod subculture was centred on fashion and music, and many mods wore parkas and rode scooters. Mods wore suits and other clean-cut outfits, and listened to music genres such as modern jazz, soul, Motown, ska and British rhythm and blues-rooted bands like the Who and the Small Faces, and later the Yardbirds and the Jam. The Who wrote a portrait of the cultures with their 1973 album and movie score ''Quadrophenia''.<ref>[http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/modsandrockers2.html The Liverpool Project; The Scotland Road Group website; Part 2 – The Mods] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501150209/http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/modsandrockers2.html |date=1 May 2016 }} Retrieved 14 February 2012</ref>

== Physical conflicts == BBC News stories from May 1964 stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns in Southern England, such as Margate in Kent, Brighton in Sussex, and Clacton in Essex.<ref>{{citation |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2511000/2511245.stm |title=1964: Mods and Rockers jailed after seaside riots |publisher=BBC {{pipe}} On this day |location=London, England |date=18 May 1964 }}</ref><ref name=Brawl>{{citation |last1=Covach |first1=John |last2=Flory |first2=Andrew |contribution=Chapter 4: 1964–1966 The Beatles and the British invasion {{pipe}} XII Other important British blues revival groups {{pipe}} E. The Who |editor-last1=Covach |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Flory |editor-first2=Andrew |title=What's that sound?: an introduction to rock and its history |publisher=Norton |place=New York |year=2012 |quote=6. The rockers emulated Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang leader character in "The Wild One" film (a) wore leather clothes; (b) rode motorcycles; and (c) often engaged in brawls with the mods |isbn=9780393912043 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/whatsthatsoundin0000cova}} [http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/rockhistory/outlines/ch04.htm Book preview.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422122803/http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/rockhistory/outlines/ch04.htm |date=22 April 2016}}</ref>

Conflicts took place at Clacton and Hastings during the Easter weekend of 1964.<ref name=Carder>{{cite book |last=Carder |first=Timothy |title=The Encyclopaedia of Brighton |publisher=East Sussex County Libraries |location=Lewes |year=1990 |isbn=9780861473151}} [http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8300_path__0p116p167p.aspx Excerpt at My Brighton and Hove {{pipe}} Home {{pipe}} Topics {{pipe}} 1960s {{pipe}} 1960s: Mods and Rockers] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816151941/http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8300_path__0p116p167p.aspx |date=16 August 2016}}</ref> A second round took place on the south coast of England over the Whitsun weekend (18 and 19 May 1964), especially at Brighton, where fights occurred over two days and moved along the coast to Hastings and back; hence the "Second Battle of Hastings" tag. A small number of rockers were isolated on Brighton beach where they – despite being protected by police – were overwhelmed and assaulted by mods. Eventually calm was restored and a judge levied heavy fines, describing those arrested as "sawdust Caesars".<ref name=Museum>{{cite news|last1=Ainsworth|first1=Clark|title=Margate capitalises on 1964 Mods and Rockers' riots |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15094293|access-date=30 June 2014 |publisher=BBC News |date=1 October 2011 |location=Margate, Kent |quote=An exhibition called Talking Bout My Generation is being hosted in the building where the offenders were sentenced.}}</ref>

Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "vermin" and "louts".<ref name="Moral_Panics" /> Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a ''Birmingham Post'' editorial in May 1964, which warned that mods and rockers were "internal enemies" in the UK who would "bring about disintegration of a nation's character". The magazine ''Police Review'' argued that the mods and rockers' purported lack of respect for law and order could cause violence to "surge and flame like a forest fire".<ref name="Moral_Panics" />

As a result of this news coverage, two British members of parliament travelled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and M.P. Harold Gurden called for a resolution for intensified measures to control hooliganism. One of the prosecutors in the trial of some of the Clacton brawlers argued that mods and rockers were youths with no serious views, who lacked respect for law and order.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

There were occasional incidents thereafter. In 1980, during the mod revival, the punk rock band the Exploited recorded the song "Fuck the Mods" on their E.P. ''Army Life'', whose back cover stated "To all the Edinburgh punks and skins – keep on mod-bashing!!" The band performed in Finsbury Park, London in 1981 on the same night that the Jam were playing nearby, and there was fighting after the gigs between the mods who had watched the Jam and the rockers who had watched the Exploited.<ref>George Same (2009), ''Backward Moddy Boy'', AuthorHouse, page 20</ref>

== Academic debunking == The sociologist Stanley Cohen was led by his retrospective study of the mods and rockers conflict to develop the term "moral panic". In his 1972 study ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics'',<ref name=Moral_Panics>{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Cohen (sociologist) |title=Folk devils and moral panics: the creation of the Mods and Rockers |publisher=Routledge |location=London New York |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-415-26712-0 }}</ref> he examined news coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.filmeducation.org/filmlib/BFC.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704060550/http://www.filmeducation.org/filmlib/BFC.pdf |archive-date=4 July 2008 |title=British Film Commission (BFC) |publisher=Film Education}}</ref> He conceded that mods and rockers had some fights in the mid-1960s, but argues that they were no different from the evening brawls that occurred between youths throughout the 1950s and early 1960s at seaside resorts and after football games. He argued that the U.K. press turned the mod subculture into a symbol of delinquent and deviant status.<ref name="Cohen, Stanley page 27">Cohen, Stanley. ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics'', p. 27.</ref>

Cohen argued that as hysteria about knife-wielding mods increased, the image of a fur-collared anorak and scooter would "stimulate hostile and punitive reactions".<ref>Cohen, Stanley. ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics''. page 28</ref> He said the news media used possibly faked interviews with supposed rockers such as "Mick the Wild One".<ref>Cohen, Stanley. ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics''. page 31</ref> The press also tried to exploit accidents that were unrelated to mod–rocker violence, such as an accidental drowning of a youth, which resulted in the headline "Mod Dead in Sea".<ref>Cohen, Stanley. ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics''. page 29</ref>

Eventually, when the press ran out of real fights to report, they would publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading "Violence", even when the article reported that there was no violence at all.<ref name="Cohen, Stanley page 27" /> Newspaper writers also began to associate mods and rockers with various social issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, amphetamines and violence.<ref name="Moral_Panics" />

== In film == The 2010 remake of the 1948 film ''Brighton Rock'' is set in the era of mods and rockers, with Bank Holiday tribal clashes on Brighton promenades and beaches.

The 1979 film ''Quadrophenia'' starring Phil Daniels as Jimmy, Leslie Ash as Steph and Sting the lead singer of the English band the Police as Ace Face, is set against the background of the 1964 Brighton clash with the incident featuring prominently.

In the Beatles' 1964 film ''A Hard Day's Night'', Ringo Starr was asked by a reporter, "Are you a mod or a rocker?" Starr answered, "I'm a mocker."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://filmforum.org/film/a-hard-days-night-60th-anniversary-screening |title=Film Forum · the Beatles in a HARD Day's NIGHT}}</ref> Paul McCartney originally gave this response in an April 1964 interview.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Beatles - Famous 'Mockers' Interview 1964 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9e6zHA6eOY |publisher=YouTube |access-date=13 April 2026 |date=17 July 2012}}</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|1960s}} * Mods & Rockers Film Festival

== Footnotes == {{Reflist}}

== External links ==  * [http://the59club.com/public_html/rocker.html Rocker Reunion website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20021111182856/http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/modsandrockers1.html The Mods and Rockers] * [https://www.h2g2.com/entry/A707627 Mods – 1960s Fun Lovin' Criminals] * [http://the59club.com/public_html/amerocker.html Rockers] {{Prone to spam|date=February 2014}} <!-- {{No more links}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mods And Rockers}} Category:Youth culture in the United Kingdom Category:Social history of the United Kingdom Category:Motorcycling subculture in the United Kingdom Category:Working-class culture in the United Kingdom Category:Moral panics in the United Kingdom Category:Counterculture of the 1950s Category:Counterculture of the 1960s Category:British subcultures