> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 02:24:19 GMT
> From: "Katrina Dixon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: I remember when scooters were ha'penny a dozen...
>
> > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >It just keeps getting easier to be a mod. Hell, Piaggio is even coming
> >back to America.
> > >
> > >Dan
>
> It might be easier in some ways, but it's not any cheaper. Clothes, records,
> bric-a-brac, bloody annuals - they're all collectable now. Oh, for the retro
> boom to pass and all the lovely 6ts clothes and bric-a-brac to be back in
> the charity shops like it used to be (well, OK, it wasn't the land of milk,
> honey and Mary Quant suits, but hey, just about...). Rant, rave, rant,
> rave...
>
> Katrina
Well, this will sound like "I used to walk five miles in the snow to go to school.."
and I'll catch some flak, but here goes....and this only goes for America obviously...
It is MUCH easier to be a mod now than when I first got into
it around '82 or so. MANY more hard to find records have been re-issued on
compilations, hell, THOUSANDS of records of all types...beat, soul, psych whatever.
There is a network of scooter stores across the country now...(they were all closing
back then...) Vintage scooter parts are being re-made. You have the internet (which we
did
not then) to meet and converse with people from everywhere, exchange ideas,
find out about shows, records, clothes, etc. Books like "Sharper Word" have
been compiled so you don't have to search out MICROFICHE
(notice NO COMPUTERS) at the library to track down obscure titles like "Quant by
Quant"
or "Folk Devils..." , or even"Absolute Beginners" for that matter (Not a movie at that
point and
not easy to find in suburban Virginia almost 20 years ago...hadn't been reprinted yet)
Short hair and three button suits are fucking mainstream now, you won't get beat up for
having
hair cut ABOVE YOUR EARS...I shit you not. Ben Shermans and Fred Perry and DMs
(for the skin persuasion) are found in every mall in America now...
You don't have to mail order them from England (and wait a month and get the
wrong size etc...)
Hell, we didn't even have MTV back then (not that that is anything great
but...) or even cable TV! There are constant fashion articles in magazines about
"mods".
Most of the time they get it wrong, but people have a vague idea what it is now. TIME
magazine
did an article on the return of scooters and mod.....Even that super-lame brit-pop
thing prompted
a renewed interest in the Small Faces which produced a bunch of really cool books and
that CD set.
NEED I GO ON?......
It takes MUCH less work these days. And I seem to find lots more cool stuff than I did
back then...
of course it costs more, but doesn't everything?
Dan
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