Planet of the Nu Mods

"I wanted to meet Steve Marriot from the Small Faces and Brian Jones. I thought they were both still alive. I was like where are they? Then people told me they were dead."

"Mod is a multi-layered, multu-lingual thing. You can't pin it down to one particular look or style"

Jimmy wants to appear so distinctly like a British mod that he has a list on his wall of foods he should eat, Baked Beans and Marmite are highlighted on his list as 'Very British'.

"London is one of the best places for fashion and music especially for the Mod scene."

Only purists see the scene as exclusively British. If you go anywhere in the world you'll will find a mod scene.

"It's the graphic language and music that appeals visually and socially to most people. It is a very aesthetic thing, people come to me for mod hairstyles who can't even speak English."

So you think you know what mod is? The hair cut, the scooter, the Ben Sherman Brit boy, a real Quadrophenia type. Think you've got it sussed? Think again. The nu mod scene isn't about trying to relive the 60s, There are as many definitions of mod as there are mods defining it for themselves world-wide.
By Laura Jane Preston

Mod in the 90s is an eclectic mix of the old and new. As a subculture, mod has its roots in late fifties Soho, making it old enough to be the father if not grandfather of today's club land. Yet the underground mod scene in London is thriving, in fact if you ask the older generation of mods about a mod revival they'd tell you it's never really been away.

Sampling together the most obscure sounds from TV kids theme tunes to sixties modernistic styling, ID magazine described him as "coming to occupy an irreverent middle ground between the boys Beastie and Beach". Someone who knows just where Cornelius is coming from is Alex Lord who runs the 'Art Gallery' Held at the Clinic once a month in Gerrard Street.

"Swedish Mod girls are big on the scene at the moment and the Japanese Mod crowd is crazy. Everyone takes a different angle on what mod means personally to them. Mod is a mutli-layered, multi-lingual thing. You can't pin it down to one particular look or style. Mod is just short for modernist. In fact you could say now that a true modernist listens to drum and bass because that is what is current in this cultural climate."

When he arrived in London in 1996 he made his way straight for Carnaby street, "I wanted to meet Steve Marriot from The Small Faces and Brian Jones. I thought they were both still alive, I was like 'Where are they? Then people told me they were dead, I had no idea. Then I met Alex Lord." Jimmy 22 now DJs his collection of original 45s for Alex at Lordy Lord and Happiness Stans in Farringdon. Before coming to London Jimmy's original name was Tatsuya.

Jimmy wants to appear so distinctly like a British mod that he has a list on his wall of foods he should eat, Baked Beans and Marmite are highlighted on his list as 'Very British'.In June'98, Jimmy travelled to Osaka to DJ at the Yellow Elektric Ballroom under the name Jimmy Jimmy Ko-Ko-Bop. Iin May he went back there with photographer Rebecca Lewis, who documented the scene there who feels "Japanese Mods are very different, quite extreme and eccentric."

Originally from Atlanta Georgia he has been based in the UK for three years. "London is one of the best places for fashion and music especially for the mod scene. I came here because I wanted to see the world. I travel to mod rallies in Italy, Spain, France, all over. But the diversity of influence on the London mod scene is vast. Mods are looking to all the different periods of the sixties.

It's the graphic language and music that appeals visually and socially to most people. It is a very aesthetic thing, people come to me for mod hairstyles who can't even speak English."
What is new and different about the international mod scene today is it's entry into technology, from samplingmusic to creating thousands upon thousands of world wide web sites as mod fanzines.

Mainstream chart entries such as 'My mate Paul' by David Holmes and Rockerfella Skank by Fat Boy Slim both rip off classic mod dance floor fillers and Alex Lord is all for it, "A lot of the new mod tracks that are being made, use samples of sixties music with drum and bass. I think the original samples give the tracks soul. Mixed with computer technology, it's very interesting. I don't think it's sacrilege to break up and mess around with the older tracks. It is taking everything forward and moving on."

Hipsville mirror Club dates andrally information, written in German from Dietmar Haarcke Harnenkamp 11, 22765 Hambourg Germany. Fever!
Spanish newsletter written in English. Includes details of recent record releases, website addresses, tapes for sale, and club dates. Subscribe for £5, 10DM, 1000 ptas or 10.000 Lr Eneida, c. sant Jordi 24-2n 1a, 08190 Sant Cugat, Barcelona Spain.

Among a range of new artists being embraced by the current international mod scene is Japanese musician Cornelius, the alter ego of Keigo Oyamada. Cornelius, who took his name from the sympathetic simian in Planet of the Apes released his second album Fantasma on Matador records last year. The album is a musical blender that takes a future journey down 60s Carnaby street and treats it to a break beat make over.

This is where a younger group of mods , tired of the meticulous re-enactions of the sixties, come together to celebrate modern mod. 'Lordy Lord' is the name of this unpretentious night which endeavours to take mod philosophy and push it forward with a whole new generation of international ideas. Run by Alex Lord and his brother Chris, the night is popular with mods of all nationalities.

Describing himself as a "Japanese Supermod", Jimmy was born in Hiroshima, Japan and discovered the movement at the age of twelve, listening to The Beatles, Spencer Davis Group ,The Small Faces and The Who. By the time he was 14 he was sourcing and wearing original 60's clothing.

Changing his name may of course be his way of paying homage to Jimmy the main character from Quadrophenia but its more likely to do with his previous interest in Jimmi Hendrix. Taking on a traditionally British name is not the end of his obsession.

Currently Jimmy is sampling his music "making mad noise" with his friend Danny also a DJ at Happiness Stans, in between he hunts out 60s clothes to sendback to a mod shop in Japan called 'Blackberry way' as well as writing for the Japanese mod fanzine 'eva'.
Another International mod is Francois Nordmann a member of the nu mod band Quant.

You have to understand that the music and the fashion were ever-changing back then and ever changing now."
Mike Vango mod and graphic design student from Canada, originally trained as a hairdresser, and now cuts the styles of a good percentage of London's mod scene.He believes that "Only purists see the scene as exclusively British. If you go anywhere in the world you'll will find a mod scene.

"I think as we struggle into the millennium, the sixties is a good period that can inform the future As for the music if people get into sixties tracks from hearing some breakbeat sample from somewhere then that's fine" says Mike.

International mod fanzines
Eva Japanese fanzine with reviews of London shops and clubs. Akebono-so 101, 4-15-5 Biwajima Nishi-ku Nagaouya, Japan. Turkey@aaj.ilc.or.jp Newsletter club Monthly 60s mod news letter, includes dates, new,s record reviews, club nights and parties. 5 issuesfor 10DM from Andreas Shultz, Mathildenstr. 19, 50679 Koln, Germany.

Smart Express Italian fanzine. Available from Roberto Staniscia, via Soliano, 2059, 47038-Santarcangelo di Rimmini, Italy. Pussycat Spanish fanzine. 350 ptas from Alejandro Diez, Apartado de correos1.273, 24080 Leon Sapin. Heard it through the Grapevine German fanzine with CD and Fanzine reviews. Avaliable from Spellbound, Bogenstrassa Be 52, 20144 Hamburg, Germany.