The Strypes to support The Artic Monkeys on Arena Tour

New Mark Joseph Album, 'The In Between Effect', to be Released on 8th July 2013

Steve Cradock - New Dates Announced

Sat June 29 - Hard Rock Calling, London 

Sat July 06 - Godiva Festival, Coventry 

Sat October 26 - The Wardrobe, Leeds 

Mon October 28 - East Village Arts Club, Liverpool  

Tue October 29 – Cluny, Newcastle 

Wed October 30 - Oran Mor, Glasgow  

Fri November 01 - Library, The Institute, Birmingham 

Sat November 02 – Leadmill, Sheffield 

Mon November 04 – Scala, London 

Tue November 05 – Komedia, Brighton 

Wed November 06 - Deaf Institute, Manchester 

Thu November 07 – Bodega, Nottingham 

Fri November 08 – Thekla, Bristol

'Hubble Bubble' in Nottingham on the first Saturday of the month

'Crawdaddy!' on Friday 5th July

Hip City's DJ 'Dream Team' spin the sounds on Saturday 10th August at The Britannia, London

The Fay Hallam Trinity play at Portsmouth's Hipshaker Club on 20th July

The Moment support new 4-song 'Let's Come Together' EP with July gig at The Borderline

Mark Joesph is back with free to attend gigs in June and July

Bobby 'Blue' Bland dies aged 83

Bobby "Blue" Bland, a distinguished singer who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as "Shoes", "Turn on Your Love Light", "Further On Up the Road," and “I Pity The Fool”, died on Sunday. He was 83.

Rodd Bland said his father died about 5:30 p.m. Sunday due to complications from an on-going illness at his Memphis home surrounded by relatives. He was a pioneer of the modern soul-blues sound.

Bland was a member of the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Known as "The Lion of The Blues," was born in 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee. He moved to Memphis in 1947 where he began mixing sounds from gospel, blues and R&B music, joining the Beale Streeters, a group that included Johnny Ace, B.B. King and Junior Parker, according to Bland's biography on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website.

"His hallmark was his supple, confidential soul-blues delivery," the website said.

Bland received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

RIP Mary Love

Mary Love, the Sacramento, California born singer who went on to some fame in the mid and late 60s, has died at age 69. Later known as Mary Love Comer when she re-emerged as a Gospel singer, Love, is an American soul and gospel singer, and Christian evangelist.

After being discovered by Sam Cooke's manager, J.W. Alexander, Love began singing on sessions in Los Angeles before recording “You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet” for the Modern record label in 1965. Later records for the label met with little success until "Move a Little Closer," which made the R&B chart in 1966. Her recordings for Modern, sone of which were issued in the UK, subsequently became popular on the English Northern soul scene. She revisited the lower reaches of the R&B chart with "The Hurt Is Just Beginning" for Roulette in 1968, but thereafter made few recordings for some years.

In the early 1980s Comer returned as a Gospel singer, working with husband Brad Comer. She released the single "Come Out Of The Sandbox" in 1987, and the couple ran their own church in Tennessee. She continued to record sporadically after that. She ultimately returned to California, where she communicated with many of her fans via her website:

Faith and belief comprise a very important part of our lives.  A person's beliefs in many ways define who they are -- how they see themselves, what they want out of life, and more. On this web site I'll offer a personal account of my own beliefs.  I'll describe how my beliefs have changed my life in profound and exciting ways, and how I think they might change the lives of others.  I will share the delivering power of our God and His restoration of our souls when we trust Him and His Word.

She will be missed.

A Mod Horror Film, 'Blood and Carpet', is currently in production...

'Blood and Carpet' Film Director, Graham Fletcher-Cook, has been in touch to tell the Modernist Society Blog about “A Mod horror film set in East London. In the late 1960's there were no CCTV or crime scene DNA testing, but disposing of a dead body was still bloody murder."

'Blood and Carpet is "A feature film starring Annie Burkin, Frank Boyce, Nicola Stapleton & Andrew Tiernan."

  

"They said it couldn't be done. Making a period feature film for under £3000 pounds. So Timber Productions set out to prove them wrong. Utilising cutting edge DSLR cameras and digital media storage. Calling in favours generated through 30 years working in films and by stretching every single penny of the budget the film began principle photography in May 2013. Everyone involved offering their help based entirely upon the strength of the script."

  

"Ruby and Lyle have a problem. A dead body in the bathroom. Who it is, why it's there and for what reason we do not know. Their immediate issue is to deal with the matter in hand. Disposal. And to keep any visitors from discovering the evidence. A simple premise, but there is so much that can go wrong. And it probably will in this tale of deception, intrigue, hedonism and suet pudding.”

And to add to that, the film also features The Petty Hoodlums.

The Style Council – Classic Album Box Set (6 Discs) to be released on 15th July

Released 15^th July – currently £15.37 on Amazon

“Tired of the constraints of the Jam, Paul Weller shocked fans and the wider media world and broke up the most popular British band of the early '80s, at the height of their success in 1982

Frustrated by their musical direction, he wanted to explore more soulful, jazz and R n B paths in his music. He formed a new band with keyboardist Mick Talbot and created a loose collective of musicians, added according to the style of music they were intending to produce, known as Honorary Councillors.

Using American musical influences filtered through a fundamental European style, which harked back to some of the early roots of Mod culture, the band created a string of classic singles and albums.

2013 marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of the band and their first hit singles.

This 6 CD set features all the band s studio albums individual packed (no booklets), with rigid slipcase

The albums:

1. Introducing The Style Council

An extraordinary eclectic intro to the band - a round up of the first few British singles and b-sides.

Features the Jam-styled Speak Like a Child (UK no. 4 hit), the radical departure of Long Hot Summer (UK no. 3 hit) and the hard-hitting political Brit-funk of Money-Go-Round.

2. Cafe Bleu

The official debut album released in March 1984, reaching number 2 in the UK album chart.

An eclectic and ambitious album combining classic pop with jazzy/beat instrumentals and experimental theme throughout. Blue Note records were a big inspiration around this time.

Features top-5 hits My Ever Changing Moods and You re The Best Thing as well as perennial favourite Headstart For Happiness - three of Weller s finest pop songs.

3. Our Favourite Shop

Another diverse collection for the second full-length album and an overtly political statement from Weller - lyrical targets included racism, excessive consumerism and the effects of self-serving governments!

No. 1 in the UK - the only Style Council album to reach that spot.

Features the top-ten singles Shout To The Top and Walls Come Tumbling Down, as well as some of Weller s best songs - Come to Milton Keynes, Boy Who Cried Wolf and Down in the Seine.

I had a total belief in The Style Council. I was obsessed in the early years. I lived and breathed it all. I meant every word, and felt every action. Our Favourite Shop was its culmination. Paul Weller 2006

4. The Cost Of Loving

Released in 1987, the album saw the group concentrating on a more extreme, urban-soul style, influenced by soul music pioneer Curtis Mayfield and by the contemporary House music scene of the time, including the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis sound.

Includes top-ten hit It Didn t Matter.

Tracks from the album were included in the band s surreal film Jerusalem.

5. Confessions Of A Pop Group

Probably the band s most experimental and divisive album, with hints of Beach Boys, classical music (Weller was listening Debussy and Satie, amongst others around this time) and jazz influences.

Songs such as the nine-minute title track and the Three Piece Suite of The Gardener of Eden, an avant-garde mix of classical and jazz stylings, were new territory for The Style Council, and an even more radical departure from the sound of The Jam.

Straight pop-oriented songs exist though the hit single Life at a Top People's Health Farm, How She Threw It All Away and Why I Went Missing are regarded as lost Weller classics.

6. Modernism: A New Decade

Motivated by the underground club scene Weller chose another new direction for the last album his take on the UK deep-house or garage scene.

Featuring the gospel-tinged Promised Land - the band's final single, Sure Is Sure, which went on to become a big bootleg dance hit throughout Europe and the instrumental - That Spiritual.”

The Universal - new album and gig dates

The Universal have just released their excellent second album, 'The Outsiders', on Buster Records (review to follow shortly) and you can catch them 'live' around the UK at the gigs listed below.

2013

JUNE 29^TH - STONE VALLEY SCOOTER FESTIVAL, STANHOPE SHOW GROUND, COUNTY DURHAM

JULY 1^ST - O2 ACADEMY, LIVERPOOL - supporting Simon Townshend

JULY 13^TH - THE GLOBE, CARDIFF

JULY 27^TH - MUSIC MANIA 2013 at WORTHING RUGBY CLUB, WEST SUSSEX

AUGUST 10^TH - THE LEXINGTON, ISLINGTON, LONDON



AUGUST 22^ND - THE DOVEDALE SOCIAL, PENNY LANE, LIVERPOOL

AUGUST 29^TH - MOOCHERS, STOURBRIDGE, WEST MIDLANDS



AUGUST 31^ST - MERSEA ISLAND SCOOTER RALLY

SEPTEMBER 6^TH - THE OLD NAGS HEAD,



SEPTEMBER 21^ST - THE GARDENERS RETREAT, STOKE

SEPTEMBER 27^TH - BRIDGEHOUSE 2, CANNING TOWN, LONDON with The Last of the Troubadours, The Theme and The Sun Shadows

OCTOBER 5^TH - THE STUDIO, HARTLEPOOL with Heavy Mod

OCTOBER 19^TH - THE TIVOLI, BUCKLEY as part of the Modernistique All Dayer

OCTOBER 25^TH - DITCH THE TV at THE MAUDSLAY, COVENTRY (acoustic set)

DECEMBER 14^TH - HEAD OF STEAM, LIVERPOOL

2014

MARCH 8^TH - FIDDLERS ELBOW, CAMDEN, LONDON as part of March of the Mods

MARCH 9^TH - STAINCLIFFE HOTEL, HARTLEPOOL as part of March of the Mods

MARCH 16^TH - NOTTINGHAM LEG of March of the Mods

 

'Heavy Soul' Issue 18 coming very soon!!!!!!!

Heavy Soul Fanzine Issue Eighteen will be hitting the streets in early July and featured within its 52 pages will be exclusive interviews with Terry Shaughnessy of THE UNIVERSAL about the band’s new album, DETOUR RECORDS main man Dizzy Holmes tells all about the iconic label and Mod author TONY BEESLEY fills us in on his new novel ‘Away From The Numbers’.

IAN SNOWBALL has a chat about his great new books on OCEAN COLOUR SCENE and THE MEDWAY MUSIC SCENE and there are articles on The BO STREET RUNNERS Oak E.P., Portugese Mod band THE FISHTAILS, the reissue of the JOHN'S CHILDREN book, and the book launch of Derek D'Souza’s ‘IN THECROWD’ is reviewed. THE Q talk about their latest singles and ........

There is also the 8 page Reggae supplement and the other supplement this issue is by Cardiff Mod PETER JACHIMIAK who gives his account of life as a Mod in the '80s.

And, of course, included in the cover price is the 20-track Club Soul CD.

 

Excellent value as always.

Graham Day & The Forefathers to play 'home fixture' with The Buzzcocks and The Chords UK (Chris Pope) on 3rd August at Rochester, Kent

'Here Come The Girls' on Saturday 22nd June, 8pm start FREE admission! The Griffin, Cliff Road, Newquay, TR7 1SP!

Soulgate’s 31st Anniversary - June 22nd 2013 @ Fishmongers Arms London N14 6AQ

The blurb from the Event Guide says it all...

 

Celebrating 31 years of Northern/Deep soul Alldayers in memory of the late great 6t’s co-founder Randy Cozens.

Free entry!!!

Drink lots & remember to give kindly in the buckets as collecting for various cancer charities to add to the £20,000 already raised.

Thank you all for your loyal support over the years, let’s make the last annual do our best ever.

Big thanks to all the DJ’s who support us every year. we thank you all for making it a great day

Full DJ line up plus more information and comments, rsvps etc can be had in the event guide entry here

http://www.soul-sour...r-randy-cozens/

'Svengali' the Movie

 

SVENGALI became a phenomenal YouTube cult success and an internet hit when its original nine episodes reached the public in 2011. A year on and the existence of a massive, ready-made, worldwide YouTube audience has led directly to SVENGALI reaching the big screen in style.

The leading roles in the Root Films production of the hit music-business comedy have been secured by major British stars including MARTIN FREEMAN, VICKY McCLURE AND MICHAEL SMILEY.

The film tells the story of Dixie, a small town guy with a big dream, played by Root Films cofounder and screenwriter JONNY OWEN, leaving the Welsh Valleys for the bright lights of London, intent on becoming the manager of the best band in the world.

This feel-good British comedy will be brought to life with an award-winning cast:-

MARTIN FREEMAN is the BAFTA-winning co-star of Sherlock and lead actor in “The Office”, one of the greatest comedies of our time. He now looks set for global superstardom playing Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s two-movie series of “The Hobbit”. Freeman said of his involvement: “A friend of mine told me about Svengali after about the third episode. When he'd described it I was actually annoyed that I hadn't been asked to do it. I went home, watched the lot, and knew I was right to be annoyed. It was charming, sussed, and very funny.”

VICKY McCLURE won the 2011 TV BAFTA for Best Leading Actress as well as the Best Female Actor Royal Television Society Award and is widely known for her roles in Shane Meadow’s two films This is England ’86 and A Room for Romeo Brass.

MICHAEL SMILEY also joins the cast of Svengali: the enigmatic comedy actor and one time flatmate of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, has appeared in films as varied as Shaun of the Dead, The Other Boleyn Girl and Burke &Hare . He recently co-starred in the Ben Wheatley horror movie Kill List, and is currently to be seen as Benny “Deadland” Silver in the BBC drama Luther.

JONNY OWEN, playing Dixie, is not only an actor (Shameless, Wedding Belles and A Bit of Tom Jones) but has worked extensively as a writer and producer. His documentary production Aberfan Disaster won the BAFTA Gwyn Alf Williams Award. Owen says “The web has changed everything. Svengali was originally an experiment to see if people wanted stories. It seems they did. To be making a movie now shows that anything is possible.”

Combining Martin Root’s experience as the Creative Director of Root, an innovative multidisciplinary design studio, and Jonny Owen’s talents as a writer and performer, ROOT FILMS now have their first feature well under way.

SVENGALI also boasts the hugely respected Henry Normal from Baby Cow

Productions in the role of Executive Producer. Normal’s production company (behind Gavin & Stacey, The Mighty Boosh, The Trip etc.) was established with comedian Steve Coogan in 2002.

The movie of SVENGALI is co-written by JONNY OWEN and DEAN CAVANAGH,

writer of the virals and other acclaimed screenplays including Wedding Belles and the Bafta nominated Dose. Cavanagh began his career as a freelance journalist, contributing to UK magazines such as The Face, i-D and NME and has an on-going writing partnership with IRVINE WELSH of Trainspotting fame.

SVENGALI will see cameos from some of the biggest names in the music industry playing themselves. It’s no coincidence that SVENGALI will be directed by JOHN HARDWICK, who has worked with a host of major industry figures including Blur, the Arctic Monkeys, New Order , Travis and the Manic Street Preachers. And there’s a lot more in the pipeline, as Martin Root confirms…

“We’ve a whole slate of scripts ready to go into production. Our long term vision is to make cutting-edge British films which resonate round the world”.

For more information visit www.svengalimovie.com/@SvengaliMovie

Watch the first episode here: http://www.youtube.com/svengalimovie

'Mods' Exhibition & Events at Northampton from 13th July to 29th September 2013

Keele University ‘Teenage Kicks’ Subcultures Conference on 11/12/13 July to feature Don Letts, Alan Fletcher, Shane Blackman, Bill Osgerby, Scott Wilson & Paul Hooper-Keeley

This interdisciplinary and international conference aims to bring together researchers and academics working in the field of subcultural studies, and in particular in their representation in fiction and film.

The full programme for the ‘Teenage Kicks: The Representation of Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media’ Conference has been announced by Keele University: -

Thursday 11 July

Keynote: Professor Scott Wilson (Kingston), ‘Subcultures and (Para) academia: the case of Black Metal Theory’

Subcultures Network Panel

Pete Webb (Cambridge), ‘Literary Yobs and Hooligan Misfits: Developing a Narrative and Reflexive Understanding of British Working Class Culture Through Key Literary Works

Lucy Robinson (Sussex), ‘Colin MacInnes and “The Boy” Ray Gosling’

Bill Osgerby (London Metropolitan), ‘Raw Rumbles in the Juvenile Jungle: Delinquency, Deviance and Depravity in American Pulp Fiction of the 1950s’

Panel 1: Subcultural Film in the 1950s and 60s

Rehan Hyder (UWE), ‘Youth, Hysteria and Control in Peter Watkins’ Privilege’

Johnny Hopkins, ‘”Teenagers terrorised a city last night”: The impact of the British media response to the fans’ reaction to Rock Around the Clock’

André Grzeszyk, ‘Film History and the Generation Gap’

OR

Panel 2: Subcultural Children and Young Adults

Alejandro B. Gomez (UPenn), ‘Canon X: Generation X peer group personality as seen in the Young Adult Fiction genre’

Shubhada Khedkar (York) ‘Portrayal of Street Children and Youth in Bollywood Movies’

Anthony T. McKenna, ‘Sion Sono’s Subcultures: Empowerment and the Impressionable’

 

Reading: Alan Fletcher, (author of Quadrophenia and the Mod Crop Trilogy)

Film Screening of Subcultures and Q & A session with Don Letts (director of The Punk Rock Movie, The Clash: Westway to the World, and Subcultures).

 

Friday 12 July

Keynote: Professor Shane Blackman (Canterbury), ‘Mods!: A cosmopolitan youth subculture?’

Panel 1: We Are the Mods!

Steve Glynn (De Montfort), ‘”Teenage Dreams or Teenage Wasteland”? Quadrophenia and the Cult Film Experience’

Alice Ferrebe (Liverpool John Moores), ‘Colin MacInnes’s Adventures in Teenage Anthropology’

Paul Hooper-Keeley (Derby), ‘Fact or Fiction – Mod or Myth?’

OR

Panel 2: International Hip Hop and R’n’B

Chris Warne (Sussex), ‘Curiosity, fear and control: the representation of hip-hop on French television, 1985-1995’

Dave Ellis (Wolverhampton), ‘”The New Parochialism”: Youth Cultures in Courttia Newland and Alex Wheatle’

Henry Witecki (California College of Arts), ‘Suddenly Another Me Is Dead: The Art of Tyler, The Creator’

Panel 1: Skin Games

Caitlin Shaw (De Montfort), ‘”Still Skinhead at Heart: Nostalgia and Skinhead Culture in Contemporary British Period Drama’

Tom Parry (Glamorgan) ‘”Booted and Braced”: A textual analysis of the media representation of global skinhead subculture’

Joseph Webb (Canterbury), ‘Musical subcultures and hardcore video games’

OR

Panel 2: Punked!

Will Davies (Keele), ‘Jarman’s Jubilee: An act of resistance?’

Melani Schroter (Reading), ‘Normality Kills. Discourses of Normality and Denormalisation in German Punk Song Lyrics’

Joan Ormrod (MMU), ‘British surfers’ reception of pure surf movies in the 1960s and 1970s’

Reading, Film Screening and Discussion

Guy Mankowski (Northumbria), ‘How I Left The National Grid: a Creative Writing PhD concerned with post-punk subculture and identity’

Graham Roberts (Leeds Trinity) and Stephen Hay (Leeds), JOE STRUMMER SLEPT HERE

Reading - Alex Wheatle (author of Brixton Rock, East of Acre Lane, and The Dirty South)

Saturday 13 July

Panel 1: Rave On

Matthew Cheeseman and David Forrest (Sheffield), ‘The Narrative Nightclub and Individual Agency in British Cinema’

Andre Rinke (Kingston), ‘“The Weekend has landed! – Rave and club cultures on film’

Pete Dale (Oxford Brookes), ‘Chava: Underclass Subculture in the North East of England’

OR

Panel 2:  Subcultural Noir

Jo Croft (Liverpool John Moores) ‘”Destruction After All is a Form of Creation’: Donnie Darko, and the Spatial Dynamics of the Teenage Dreamer’

Catherine Spooner (Lancaster), ‘Makeover / metamorphosis: techniques of transformation in Goth(ic) narratives

Gerry Carlin and Mark Jones (Wolverhampton), ‘Charlie’s legions: the Manson Family and subcultures of nihilism’

     
Panel 1: Subcultures: Forms, Histories and Theories

Jens Holze (Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg), ‘Identifying patterns of 20^th century youth culture using neo-formalistic film analysis’

Maria A. Velez-Serna (Glasgow), ‘”Like nothing I’ve heard before”: Popular music and historical perspective in multi-strand films’

Keeley Hughes (Keele), ‘From Exaltation to Abjection: positive and negative subcultures in Quadrophenia and Ill Manors

OR

Panel 2: Metalheads

N.A. Hassan (Liverpool John Moores), ‘Metal goes to Hollywood: a critical analysis of heavy metal in 1980s cinema’

Abigail Gardner (Gloucester), ‘Vice TV, Norwegian Black Metal and Telling it like it always has been’

Andy Brown (Bath Spa), ‘‘‘You’re all partied out, dude!’: The mainstreaming of heavy metal subcultural tropes, from Wayne’s World to Beavis and Butthead’

Research Methods Workshop        

Interviews, Representation and Authenticity: How to Record Subcultural Experience.

The conference organizers are Dr Nick Bentley, Dr Mark Featherstone, Dr Beth Johnson and Dr Andy Zieleniec. The conference is in association with the Keele University’s Humanities Research Institute, Keele Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, and the Subcultures Network: The Interdisciplinary Network for the Study of Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change.

Cult classic Quadrophenia sells out in Tamworth says Tamworth Herald

No empty seats were seen at the Tamworth Assembly Rooms last month when cult classic Quadrophenia took to the stage for two nights.

The exciting and innovative production, presented by the Tamworth Repertory Company, enjoyed two sold-out performances on May 24 and 25.

An ambitious project, the rock and roll theatrical explosion featured new material by Simon Quinn, Staffordshire's Poet Laureate Mal Dewhirst and choreography by Emma Smith.

In total 80 people from all over Tamworth were involved in the production, which was set to a background of The Who's legendary album Quadrophenia played ‘live’ by mod band The Pinch.

Throughout the show archive film footage of the mod era was projected on to a backdrop on the stage, where a cast of talented actors brought to life the story of Jimmy exploring issues including counter culture and identity.

Councillor Steve Claymore, cabinet member for Economy and Education, hailed the show as a "successful community arts project". "I'm delighted that it has been such a huge success and would like to thank those who worked so hard to bring it to life," Cllr Claymore said.

Cork man, Irish Jack, who inspired the Who: ‘There’s no Quadrophenia pension. Life’s not like that’ by Carl O’Brien of The Irish Times

It was 1962 and Jack Lyons, a painfully shy 19-year-old from Cork, sneaked out from his aunt and uncle’s London home to go to his first dance. “There was a wedding band called the Detours. They had black suits, white shirts, ties and three-cornered handkerchiefs. They were playing everything by The Shadows. They even had the dance steps.” It’s hard to believe now, he says, but the band would later change its name to The Who and become one of the hottest tickets in rock’n’roll .

And Lyons, who was just a young man with a mop of curly hair, lamentable dress sense and a thick Cork accent, became an unlikely inspiration for the acclaimed album Quadrophenia. “At the time Roger Daltrey played lead guitar and trombone. John Entwistle was on bass and trumpet,” says Lyons. There was “a singer called Colin Dawson who modelled himself on Cliff Richard, and Pete Townshend played a rhythm jumbo guitar. The Detours was Roger’s band, really, and if you disagreed with him on band policy you could get a bunch of fives”.

At the time Lyons was a clerk with the London Electricity Board, filing documents – the job “Jimmy” has in Quadrophenia. After seeing the band perform, Lyons was transfixed. “There was just something about them. I was there on my own, feeling very self-conscious about my height – I’m just five foot seven – my curly hair and my accent. I was too embarrassed to chat to anyone,” Lyons says.

“But I focused in on this guy playing guitar: six foot, straight hair, probably even has a girlfriend . . . . I just keyholed him afterwards and introduced myself. “Hello, I’m Jack from Shepherd’s Bush,” I said. Townshend replied in that cockney twang, “Hello Jack from Shepherd’s Bush, I’m Pete from Ealing.”

Even though Lyons was two years older than Townshend, he looked up to him as if he was an older brother.

Band mascot
He became, he says, a kind of band mascot, travelling to early gigs in a van to Oxford, Cambridge and Nottingham. He helped with selling tickets or helping to set up.

“I wasn’t a roadie. I’m a bit of a snob like that. I never got paid, and never looked for money. I became a friend of the band. It was around this time the manager, Kit Lambert, christened me ‘Irish Jack’. They were actually calling me that before I became aware of it.”

Soon Jack was doing his best to kit himself out in the mod gear that became the uniform of the band’s followers – with mixed results.

He recalls the moment he saw a mod cruising through Hammersmith on a scooter with chrome crashbars, spotlights, a six-foot aerial, feet pointed out sideways, wearing a parka jacket over a suit. “It was like seeing Caesar on a Roman chariot,” he says. “Just sublime. But I was a struggling mod. A failed mod. I never had a scooter with 24 lamps or wing mirrors.”

After returning to Cork in 1967, Lyons met his future wife Maura. She too was a big Who fan. Lyons settled in Cork and became a bus conductor and, later, a postman. But he kept in touch with Townshend, visiting him in London occasionally.

The singer later acknowledged in interviews that Quadrophenia was based on a character, Irish Jack.

Character parts

“He was collecting character parts about me through the years,” says Lyons. “I suppose I see a bit of myself in ‘Substitute’, written about someone who’s trying to be someone else.

“The germ for Quadrophenia was a song called ‘Long Live Rock’. It has the lines, ‘Jack is in the alleyway selling tickets made in Hong Kong / Promoter’s in the pay box wondering where the band’s gone / Back in the pub the guv’nor stops the clock / Rock is dead they say.’

“I never made a penny out of it. Was I ever supposed to? I never took a copyright on my name. My grandchildren might talk about it all in years to come. I’m 69 – but there’s no Quadrophenia pension. Life’s not like that.”

Lyons admits he felt deep shock when Townshend was investigated over possession of child pornography in 2003 – but says he was relieved when police cleared him later. The singer said he had been doing research for his autobiography as the singer claimed he had been sexually abused as a child. “It was an unwise thing to do, but then he’s always been on the edge of reason.”

Lyons is still in occasional contact with the band. He’s due to meet them again when the band plays Quadrophenia in Dublin at the 02 arena, 40 years after the album was released.

Sharp suit

Today Lyons is still a mod at heart. He’s the proud owner of a scooter – a Vespa 50 – and still wears a sharp suit and polo neck. “People walk down the street and see me and say, ‘Is he in theatre’, or ‘Jesus, he’s a mod!’

“I’ll always be a mod. I’ll take it to the grave.”

The Who, SECC, Glasgow – “Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend can still command Quadrophenia's magic”. A 5-star review by David Pollock of The Independent

“One of the most telling moments of this 40th anniversary revisit to The Who’s best-known album Quadrophenia came in one of the least likely locations, amidst the video montage which accompanied martial instrumental “The Rock” on the three circular screens hanging behind the band.

A reel of political snippets flashed by - Vietnam, Reagan, Princess Diana, Thatcher, Blair, 9/11, Baghdad falling and Occupy Wall Street – and it felt as though this was part of an attempt to recast The Who as an immortal soundtrack to the times, whatever times those are.

In the event it was impossible to evade a certain sense of nostalgia for youths lost while the album was played in order by singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend and their eight-piece band (including Townshend’s brother Simon), although much of this was built in to the show. The group’s departed members made unlikely guest appearances through the medium of archive footage, first John Entwistle playing a bass riff on the ever-dynamic “5:15”, then drummer Keith Moon vocally ‘duetting’ with Daltrey on “Bell Boy”. Townshend would also offer up a later dedication to the departed Scots novelist Iain Banks before “Behind Blue Eyes”, earning a heartily respectful cheer.

It’s to The Who’s credit that much of the songs they have written – especially those on Quadrophenia itself, a piece which literally and metaphorical leads a young man to the very precipice of adulthood – work both as flashback and an urgent commemoration of the moment. Perhaps not the proggy “The Rock” itself, but certainly the fevered demand for identity that is “The Real Me”, the exceptional “Drowned”, which saw Townshend escalate hostilities to an angry roar with the line “bring on that storm / bring on that fuckin' hurricane” as Daltrey wailed on his harmonica and a Union Jack sank beneath the waves on the screen behind, and a hypnotic “Love Reign O’er Me”.

It was a show which could have buckled under both the limitations of age and the commercial nature of its staging. Daltrey, shirt half unbuttoned and doused in sweat, seemed finally almost wilted by the heat, while Townshend found himself in the odd position of thanking their musical director for impressive arrangements with which he had nothing to do. Yet instead the magic happened, and something about the timeless crux of rebellion and uncertainty in these songs – "Pinball Wizard", "Baba O’Riley" and "Won’t Get Fooled Again" finding their way into a mountainously epic encore – translated into something truly special.”

‘Between The Streets and the Stars’ single by The Electric Stars available from Detour Records now.

This week saw the release of The Electric Stars new 3-track CD and iTunes single on the Paisley Archive imprint of Detour Records.

 
‘Between The Streets and the Stars’ is a great A-side song, starting with a bit of a northern soul feel and developing into an extremely radio friendly and catchy track. The production is excellent, the mix is spot on, and I could see this rising up the charts rapidly if picked up by the TV and radio media (easier said than done!). This A-side deserves to do well and will undoubtedly create a lot of interest in, and new fans for, The Electric Stars.

Next up is the previously unreleased ‘Every Now and Then’ which starts off with a sound bringing The Faces to mind before quickly continuing with a Country feel (not a genre that personally works for me). Third in line is ‘Bedtime Stories’ with its espionage/cold war film title soundscape before the vocals come in and is medium paced and brooding and features an 80s sounding keyboard in places and, for some reason, had me thinking slightly of Mood Six.

Overall, this is a trio of high quality recordings that confirm The Electric Stars rising status and contains an A-side that we should all be enjoying on the radio on the way to work this summer.