Check out the 2nd annual Steel City Mods Vs Rockers event August 13th if you are in the Pittsburgh area and help support a good cause. Here's some more information:
This year, we rally in the streets!
On August 13th the 2nd Annual Steel City Mods vs Rockers vintage motorcycle and scooter rally takes over Bloomfield with the Atomic Drops, Highway 13, DJ Llamo, pin up girl contests and more!
We partnered up with the Scootin' Yinzers City Ride, so expect lots of amazing vintage scooters competing with bikes for trophies.
Tickets are on sale now! Just $10 gets you all the good stuff & a portion of the procedes are being donated to the Children's Hospital Hard Head Patrol. A good time and a good cause!
Stick around for the after party at Howlers with DJ Junior, Neighbours and the Pressure.
Save the Date - Saturday May 7th at Ace Motorcycle and Scooter Co. ROCKERS REUNION VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE & SCOOTER RALLY More info available on the Ton-Up Club Chicago website!
If you're out in the SoCal the end of this month, make sure to check out these shows put on by our friends at Mods vs. Rockers! Always a good time, wish we could make them!
In May 1964 News stories stated that mods and rockers were jailed in seaside resort towns on the south coast of England, such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemout, and Clacton for large scale fighting, public rioting, and destruction. Although this was true, the media distorted these altercations massively. It can be safely said that the media itself may have helped to instigate these confrontations. The persistent media reporting created a sharp division between the Mods and Rockers. Prior to the reporting, there was no major rivalry or hatred between the Mods and Rockers. Through the media's distortion and manipulation of the event, the rivalry between the Mods and Rockers was amplified and a moral panic was created amongst the public. That is, as a result of the exaggerated media reports, the general public imagined the Mods and Rockers to be deviants, and became outraged at their behavior.
Fights occurred where territories overlapped or rival factions happened upon each other. There was an urban–rural split, meaning that the groups could only fight if brought together for some reason – most often the seaside during summer. Common weapons carried were blackjacks, chains and switch blades. On Easter weekend in 1964, the rivalry created by the media between the Mods and Rockers finally boiled over in the town of Clacton. The fight between the two gangs resulted in several broken windows and the destruction of some beach huts. However, the media reported the altercation in national newspapers, suggesting there had been large scale riots and wholesale breakdown of public order. In actual fact, the incidents were not serious and gained little attention in the local press. It seems that in the absence of other newsworthy material, the national press, including the "New York Times" and "New York Herald Tribune", focused upon these rather harmless events. Headlines such as "they are hell-bent for destruction" were created as well as feature articles which suggested that the Mods and Rockers had intentionally set out to cause serious trouble.
Round two took place on the south coast of England, where Londoners head for seaside resorts on Bank Holidays. Over the Whitsun weekend (May 18 and 19, 1964), thousands of mods descended upon Margate,Broadstairs and Brighton to find that an inordinately large number of rockers had made the same holiday plans. Within a short time, marauding gangs of mods and rockers were openly fighting, often using pieces of deckchairs. The worst violence was at Brighton, where fights lasted two days and moved along the coast to Hastings and back. A small number of rockers were isolated on Brighton beach where they – despite being protected by police – were overwhelmed and assaulted by mods. The Brighton riots were later immortalised as the centrepiece of the cult film ‘Quadrophenia’.
Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "sawdust Caesars", "vermin" and "louts". 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". As a result of this media coverage, two British Members of Parliament travelled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and MP Harold Gurden called for a resolution for intensified measures to control hooliganism.
Eventually, when the media 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. Newspaper writers also began to use "free association" to link mods and rockers with various social issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, amphetamines, and violence.
The term mod derives from modernist, which was a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. Jobling and Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south. Due to the increasing affluence of post-war Britain, the youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes, the first youth-targeted boutique clothing stores opened in London in the Carnaby Street and Kings Road districts.(wikipedia)
Many mods used motorscooters for transportation, usually Vespas or Lambrettas. Scooters had provided inexpensive transportation for decades before the development of the mod subculture, but the mods stood out in the way that they treated the vehicle as a fashion accessory. Italian scooters were preferred due to their clean lined, curving shapes and gleaming chrome. For young mods, Italian scooters were the "embodiment of continental style and a way to escape the working-class row houses of their upbringing". They customized their scooters by painting them with customs metalflake and two tone paint jobs. It was also common to accessorize them with mirrors, luggage racks, crash bars, fog lights, and chrome.
Scooters were also a practical and accessible form of transportation for 1960s teens. In the early 1960s, public transport stopped relatively early in the night, and so having scooters allowed mods to stay out all night at dance clubs and coffee shops. To keep their expensive suits clean and keep warm while riding, mods often wore long army parkas. For teens with low-end jobs, scooters were cheaper than cars, and they could be bought on a payment plan through newly-available Hire purchase plans. After a law was passed requiring at least one mirror be attached to every motorcycle, mods were known to add four, ten, or as many as 30 mirrors to their scooters. The cover of The Who's album Quadrophenia, (which includes themes related to mods and rockers), depicts a young man on a Vespa GS with four mirrors attached.
Like most gangs of their time, The Mods had a very distinct, yet common interest in music. While the Beatles were enjoying immense popularity and success among Britain's mainstream society in the early 1960's, the first-wave of Mods pursued a different sound, modern jazz. They were attracted to the "cool" demeanor and clothing possessed by jazz musicians, and strived to emulate their style. As jazz grew in popularity, Mods began listening to Blues, Soul, Rhythm & Blues, and then moved on to Jamaican Bluebeat and Ska to stay ahead of the mainstream. The Mods sparked a nationwide enthusiasm for Rhythm & Blues music that surpassed Jazz as the music of choice for young adults. They preferred the British bands who played a Rhythm & Blues style of music, such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, The Kinks, The Cyril Davis All-Stars, The Downliners, and The Small Faces.The most popular and revolutionary band who could be labeled as Mods themselves were the High Numbers, later renamed The Who. They wore Mod outfits, had Mod hairstyles, and sang blues-based songs about being Mods, such as "I'm the Face", and "My Generation".
The Mods and Rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early-mid 1960s. Gangs of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youths, and the two groups were seen as folk devils. The rockers adopted a macho biker gang image, wearing clothes such as black leather jackets. The mods adopted a pose of scooter-driving sophistication, wearing suits and other cleancut outfits.
The rockers were influenced by American music and films, prospertiy in the working class segments, new road construction around British cities, and the development of transport cafes (pronounced "caffs" by rockers of that period) that became their haunts. These factors coincided with a peak in British motorcycle engineering. Although rocker-style youths existed in the 1950s, they were known as ton up boys because ton-up was English slang for driving 100 mph (160 km/h). It wasn't until the 1960s that they became known as rockers and they were immersed in rockabilly music and fashions and began to be known as much for their devotion to rock and roll music as they were for their motorcycles.
The first rockers were primarily known for their motorcycles, standard factory-made motorcycles they stripped down, tuned them up and modified them to appear like racing bikes. By the 1960s, their subculture became associated with a specific music genre and clothing style. Many rockers mostly favored 1950s and early-1960s rock and roll by artists such as Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Elvis Presley. The rocker's style was born out of necessity and practicality. They wore leather motorcycle jackets covered with metal studs, patches, and pins. They usually sported open-face helmets, aviator goggles, and sometimes a white silk scarf. Leather caps called Kagneys, Levi's jeans, leather trousers, tall motorcycle boots (often made by Lewis Leathers), engineer boots, brothel creepers, T-shirts and Daddy-O-style shirts were also pretty common.
The first rockers were primarily known for their motorcycles, standard factory-made motorcycles they stripped down, tuned them up and modified them to appear like racing bikes. By the 1960s, their subculture became associated with a specific music genre and clothing style. Many rockers mostly favored 1950s and early-1960s rock and roll by artists such as Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Elvis Presley. The rocker's style was born out of necessity and practicality. They wore leather motorcycle jackets covered with metal studs, patches, and pins. They usually sported open-face helmets, aviator goggles, and sometimes a white silk scarf. Leather caps called Kagneys, Levi's jeans, leather trousers, tall motorcycle boots (often made by Lewis Leathers), engineer boots, brothel creepers, T-shirts and Daddy-O-style shirts were also pretty common. The rockers were influenced by American music and films, prospertiy in the working class segments, new road construction around British cities, and the development of transport cafes (pronounced "caffs" by rockers of that period) that became their haunts. These factors coincided with a peak in British motorcycle engineering. Although rocker-style youths existed in the 1950s, they were known as ton up boys because ton-up was English slang for driving 100 mph (160 km/h). It wasn't until the 1960s that they became known as rockers and they were immersed in rockabilly music and fashions and began to be known as much for their devotion to rock and roll music as they were for their motorcycles.
Check out the 2nd annual Steel City Mods Vs Rockers event August 13th if you are in the Pittsburgh area and help support a good cause. Here's some more information:
