It's a Saturday night, the peak of a weekend. Charlie is weaving through the back streets of Soho London on his Lambretta eagerly anticipating meeting up with his mates for what will be a continuation on from their Friday night. Pulling into the yard and parking his scooter in the mix of all the other Italian scooters that have got every attention to detail, just like their owners. Chrome, lights, mirrors and other random accessories that take the scooter from being a mass produced stylish machine to an individual statement. Vespa and Lambretta are the preferred machines.

Taking a look around the yard he sees a smattering of Faces and Tickets, standing around like any other dandy proud of this weeks fashion find. The Faces always draw the most attention; they are the lads where nothing has been spared when it comes to detail on their fashion. Even the way they walk or stand makes a statement. Tailored bespoke suits with the personal touch, the height of the side vents would change weekly, as with the cut of the trousers. Narrow lapels, ticket pockets, 3 or 4 button front, sometimes covered buttons, a tonic cloth, mohair, just anything to make you stand out. Don't forget the shoes, the one item that finishes you off, basket weave, Gibson, Italian loafer, you get the picture. As for the tickets, they are not too shabby themselves, favoring their favorite polo styled sport shirts such as Fred Perry or maybe a touch of Ben Sherman, to the perfect pair of Levi's that have been shrunk to fit. A pair of Desert Boots might finish the image off going for the Ivy League look. As with all Mods it's not a strict uniform in fact it's an ever evolving fashion rapidly moving weekly.

Charlie heads to the door that leads down to the clubs basement, he can already hear the bass pumping through the walls and his heart is beating with anticipation. The music is R&B, Soul and a smattering of Blues and Jazz, not Trad but Modern, hence the name Modernist, Mod, get it? That's right it all started from the modern jazz scene, cool, hip, youth, coffee bars and all that. It's an evolution of a scene that only started a few years before it in the late 50's. But that might as well be light years away as we head into the middle of the 60's. Fast moving is what it is all about and back to the music. With the latest cuts from such great Soul labels such as, Motown, Stax, Atlantic, etc, newly imported and giving these kids a natural high. Looking around on the dance floor and there's the movers and shakers, they've got the latest dance down to a "t", as with the fashion, it'll be something else next week. Lost in the music as the dj starts to spin the latest guaranteed floor filler that nobody has heard of yet, but it will become an instant classic. Huddled in various groups you see TV presenters, fashion designers, producers, managers, pop stars, soaking it all in to send the message onto the masses. Even a few bands have now taken on the mod lifestyle or began as mods and are now forming bands calling themselves the Small Faces, The Who, The Action, The Creation, etc. It's a time and a place.

As with every scene it blows up into bigger things, Mod becomes a household name because of the publicity revolving around the seaside riots between Mods and Rockers, down in Brighton, Clacton, Margate and a few other coastal towns. It continues on into the mass media with the spotlight being pointed to the fashion hub of London's Carnaby Street, the mod culture is now popping up in magazines, television, film, art, décor and now is being swallowed into a decade that gave its birth. As with every youth scene, it moves on and evolves.

Some move onto the new psychedelic scene, others such as Charlie go further a field into the Jamaican Ska scene. Cutting their hair even shorter but still staying close to detail with their fashion but with a new twist of mixing it up with boots, braces, brogues, etc, you get the picture; it becomes a birth of the Skinhead, then to follow the Suedehead. Moving to the latest sounds coming from Blue Beat, Trojan, Pama, etc. An evolution of sorts but with a mod heartbeat. The same can be said with the Northern Soul scene coming from the clubs of Northern England. Mod in the north stayed strong until late in the decade and Soul remained a staple within its scene. The competition between DJ's to find the rarest cut of soul was the name of the game. Keeping the crowd happy and the life of the soul all-nighter alive.

Moving into the wasteland of the mid Seventies and its not all glam and flares, there's a new thriving sound of Punk and Power Pop. A young lad in the audience is watching a new band on stage called The Jam; the front man has the reflected attitude of Townsend, the sneer of Lydon and in the future the moves and writing of Marriott. The image reminds him of some old photos of his Uncle Charlie just a decade before. There's other people taking notice too, Punk wasn't for them, the fashion wasn't their taste but the attitude was right. Other bands start appearing such as Secret Affair, The Chords, The Purple Hearts, etc. Raiding his uncles wardrobe, finding hand me downs at second hand shops and jumble sales, it's a fashion that's been done before with a twist of a new time. As this new Mod movement evolves The Who release a movie that is based on their rock opera called "Quadrophenia" to the masses. It sparks the interest in the youth and scooters get pushed out of garden sheds, soul records get played at school dances along with the current bands, seaside skirmishes appear in the headlines again and a full blown Mod Revival is born. Kicking up the Eighties along with the Mod Revival, further in the north of Britain there is also a ska revival fronted by a new label called 2-Tone, with acts such as The Specials, Madness, The Selector, etc., peaking the interest of the youth and encouraging them to dig into the past of all these scenes.

As mod has done before, it constantly evolves, Mods dress sharper not too far removed from what was fashionable 20 years before them, they go underground, splinter groups break away and start a scooterist scene and others dig further into the roots that would give birth to the Acid Jazz scene. Modern music starts sampling rare soul music and bands from the now underground mod movement and scooter scene start to emerge, such as the Stone Roses (scooterists), The Charlatans (from the ashes of 80's Mod band Makin' Time), a Lambretta riding Liam Gallagher forms Oasis, and Paul Weller digs through his old 45's and picks up his guitar again, this leads us through the Nineties. Moving into a new Century and you have bands such as the Ordinary Boys, the Dead 60's, Arctic Monkeys, etc., sighting influence from music from the mod revival 20 years before it.

Mod, a youth cult that has never gone away, it gets passed down from generation to generation, with all the young Charlie's adding there own stamp to the word Mod. It's not a retro movement, in many ways it is forward thinking, taking and evolving the best of fashion, music, design, clean lines, attitude, sharp, positive, taste. Modernist, modern, mod.