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The Brits and rock: Mods (1963-64, Part I)

© Robert Whillans

This week we take a look at what was going on across the pond, to see how rock was influencing England. The British Invasion of 1964, started by the Beatles, opened up a whole new kind of music and, since it dissolved the American stranglehold on rock, offered a more refined quality of music. Noted British bands that followed the Beatles are: the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Who, The Kinks, and Gerry and the Pacemakers. In this article, we look at how the rock revolution took place in the UK and how it was brought over here.

While in North America, the end of the war brought a great economic rise. In the United Kingdom, the baby boom clashed with a severe depression. Soldiers returning from the war sired more children than the authority figures (teachers, police, parents) could handle, and by 1963, they had all become teenagers and had turned to rock. As for the depression, England's involvement to the war had left it crippled, and it continued to enforce wartime rationing until 1954. When British youths finished high school at the ages of 15 or 16, they faced what then Labour Party leader Harold Wilson called "as deserving of the utmost censure and condemnation a system of society which, year in, year out... cannot provide employment for its school-leavers." Those who couldn't find a job were turned down by the army, as well, conscription having ended.

This lack of identity provoked the creation of two major rival gangs in youth: the Mods, and the Rockers. Each was distinct, in clothes (black leather jackets for the Rockers, Italian-style clothes for the Mods), attitude and recreation. Generally speaking, being a Mod involved being able to buy many different outfits and amphetamines in order to fit in, and being a Rocker involved greased back hair and roaring away on motorcycles. Being a part of these two groups gave the youths a sense of belonging, and they followed every rule to its strictest. Although many of their principles were common, the two fought each other violently for domination, inciting dozens of riots and hundreds of arrests. England was theirs for the taking, and they let no authority figures stand in their way. Many of these warring youths, having time and lacking direction, turned to music. The loss of the draft prompted many of these teens to look to music as a way out: "Music was a way out. We all wanted to leave," said Ringo Starr. "Everyone wanted to fly. Music was my way. Back then every street had a band. You could hear it all over. Everyone was playing, and mostly it sounded bad, but we were playing. We all picked up guitars and drums and filled our time with music." "Had the government not stopped the draft," said Dave Clark, "there would have been no Dave Clark 5, no Beatles, no Stones."

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