Eddie Piller & Wayne Hemingway talk Mod on Channel 4's 'Sunday Brunch'.

Did you spot Eddie Piller on Sunday Brunch on Channel 4 this weekend? With the media focus on Mod in full swing now that Bradley Wiggins cycling heroics have brought our scene back into the spotlight, Channel 4’s ‘Sunday Brunch’ show was the latest media attempt to focus on the Mod scene. 

We had Wayne Hemingway and Eddie Pillar on the show to discuss Mod – thank goodness Eddie was there to give the piece some balance and factual correctness. Hemingway was banging on and on about cycling being ‘the’ Mod sport and how popular it has been on the Mod scene for the last 50 years. Firstly, what’s it got to do with Wayne, who was a New Romantic back in the day (why do we have to suffer him again and again in documentaries and pieces about Mod culture?), and secondly he’s missing the point that it’s all about sport when it is actually about the aesthetic and getting the right look. Within the 60s Mod scene (and thereafter), with Mod fashions moving quickly, cycling shirts were worn, as were Fred Perry tennis shirts, golfing jackets and bowling shoes for their stylistic qualities. Amusingly, when asked about this, Eddie said (with tongue firmly in cheek) that the sport of Mod is darts – qualifying this with the fact that in the sixties darts was played in suits and ties. Furthermore, he also said he had asked Bradley Wiggins about cycling and Bradley had said it was nothing specifically to do with Mod but purely his job! 

Hemingway also focused on 3 pairs of the most hideous shoes you could imagine, stating that these were part of the new Mod look, hanging on the fact that they were Hush Puppies. I detected a wry smile from Mr Piller at this. 

Eddie made a great point that you can’t be a 45 year old punk with any credibility, but the Mod style is classic and timeless and can work for those that originally saw Tubby Hayes at the Flamingo Allnighters through to today’s youth who are listening to Miles Kane. Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer, hosts of Sunday Brunch, appeared to have more of a clue than Wayne Hemingway, observing that the smart Mod style has allowed Mods over the years, in bespoke suits, to look better than their bosses in the office – subversion from within. 

Well done Eddie, the voice of reason. Media companies – please stop using people from outside of our scene to talk about it as all you are doing is reinforcing a number of erroneous stereotypes!!!