Mods androckers were two conflicting British youthsubcultures of the late 1950s to mid 1960s. News coverage of the two groups fighting in 1964 sparked amoral panic about British youth, and they became widely perceived as violent, unruly trouble-makers.
The rocker subculture was centred onmotorcycling. Rockers generally wore protective clothing such asblack leather jackets and motorcycle boots orbrothel creepers. The style was influenced byMarlon Brando in the 1953 filmThe Wild One.[1] The common rocker hairstyle was apompadour, while their music genre of choice was 1950srock and roll and R&B, played by artists includingEddie Cochran,Gene Vincent, andBo Diddley, as well asBritish rock and roll musicians such asBilly Fury andJohnny Kidd.
The mod subculture was centred on fashion and music, and many mods wore parkas and rodescooters. Mods wore suits and other clean-cut outfits, and listened to music genres such as modernjazz,soul,Motown,ska and British blues-rooted bands likethe Yardbirds, theSmall Faces, and laterthe Who andthe Jam. The Who wrote a portrait of the cultures with their 1973 album and movie scoreQuadrophenia.[2]
BBC News stories from May 1964 stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns inSouthern England, such asMargate in Kent,Brighton in Sussex, andClacton in Essex.[3][4]
Conflicts took place at Clacton and Hastings during the Easter weekend of 1964.[5] A second round took place on the south coast of England over theWhitsun weekend (18 and 19 May 1964), especially at Brighton, where fights occurred over two days and moved along the coast toHastings and back; hence the "SecondBattle 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 "sawdustCaesars".[6]
Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "vermin" and "louts".[7] Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as aBirmingham 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 magazinePolice 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".[7]
As a result of this news coverage, twoBritish 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]
There were occasional incidents thereafter. In 1980, during themod revival, thepunk rock bandThe Exploited recorded the song "Fuck the Mods" on theirE.P.Army Life, whose back cover stated "To all the Edinburgh punks andskins – keep on mod-bashing!!" The band performed inFinsbury Park, London in 1981 on the same night thatThe 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.[8]
The sociologistStanley Cohen was led by his retrospective study of the mods and rockers conflict to develop the term "moral panic". In his 1972 studyFolk Devils and Moral Panics,[7] he examined news coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s.[9] He concedes 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 argues that the U.K. press turned the mod subculture into a symbol of delinquent and deviant status.[10]
Cohen argues that as hysteria about knife-wielding mods increased, the image of a fur-collared anorak and scooter would "stimulate hostile and punitive reactions".[11] He says the news media used possibly faked interviews with supposed rockers such as "Mick the Wild One".[12] 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".[13]
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.[10] Newspaper writers also began to associate mods and rockers with various social issues, such asteen pregnancy,contraceptives,amphetamines and violence.[7]
The2010 remake of the 1948 filmBrighton Rock is set in the era of mods and rockers, withBank Holiday tribal clashes on Brighton promenades and beaches.
The 1979 filmQuadrophenia starringPhil Daniels as Jimmy,Leslie Ash as Steph andSting the lead singer of the English bandThe Police as Ace Face, is set against the background of the 1964 Brighton clash with the incident featuring prominently.
In the Beatles' 1964 filmA Hard Day's Night,Ringo Starr was asked by a reporter, "Are you a mod or a rocker?" Starr answered, "I'm a mocker."[14]
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 modsBook preview.Archived 22 April 2016 at theWayback Machine
An exhibition called Talking Bout My Generation is being hosted in the building where the offenders were sentenced.
