Format Details: Jewel Case
Description
Since the dawn of club culture modernists have looked for the very best black American music. Here are 24 tracks that would have filled dancefloors at any time in mod's history. For some the iconography of the original mod scene was a siren call. Starting from about 1978 - and inspired by the Jam's first flush of success and the publicity around the soon-to-be-released film Quadrophenia - the first of what seems to be a continual series of mod revivals began to take place. It was a look back at the popular mod images of 1965 and 1966, when the very best of the early British mod groups broke through. Within a year, as the Jam broke through to the Top 10, there was an army of parka-wearing kids attending gigs by a slew of new bands. On the whole just too young for punk, rather than reviving something they were drawing upon influences from the past to champion a new set of groups. Some, of course, were looking for more, wanting to go deeper. They were given the chance by a group soul collectors who wanted to revive the musical fun of the original mod clubs. These included my colleagues DJ Tony Rounce and co-compiler Ady Croasdell, who with Randy Cozens ran the influential 6Ts Rhythm 'N' Soul club nights with a music policy that comprised a mixture of soul, R&B and whatever else worked. Randy in particular was evangelical about the new mods getting into the sounds the original mods had danced to. He wrote to the music papers and eventually Sounds asked him to compile a list of the Top 100 original mod records. The list was of 99 records - all original UK issues - plus one made-up title, set as a trap for anyone who claimed to have all 100. The list seemed to have little effect at first. Fans of the Jam and Secret Affair didn't rush to find a copy of 'It's Rough Out There' by Jerry Jackson, but it was a pebble in a pond whose ripples made it highly influential. Around the country small groups of mods were paying attention and spreading the word. Eddie Piller was an East London Jam fan who wasn't yet 16 when he saw Randy's list: "For me it changed everything. I immediately began collecting and DJing with those records, and started my own club night."� Eddie was typical of a small sub-set of the revivalists who began to look beyond the new bands and into the esotericism of the original mod scene. At first this sat happily alongside the new groups and a love of 60s mod bands. But as the revival faded and the bands became less exciting, the lovers of soul and R&B became more distinct. When Eddie re-ran Randy's list in his fanzine, it reached an audience ready for its message. As the scene became smaller, groups of sharply dressed mods appeared, with their own clubs playing almost exclusively soul and R&B-based music. Seeing this as an extension of what the original mods would have liked, at first there was a bias towards records that had seen a British release. This was not only the result of Randy's list but also the pictures in Richard Barnes' 197
Tracklisting
Z.Z. Hill
Wilson Pickett
Willie Bollinger / Willie Walker
William Bell
William Bell
Wee Willie Walker
Warren Raye & The Infernal Blues Machine
Walter Jackson
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
