Speaking of festival compilations, I also picked up a two-disc set the other
day entitled *Mods Mayday '79*. The bands and songs on it are probably
familiar to a lot of British Auditeers, but I'm guessing that not a lot of
people on this side of the pond know what this is all about. The album
chronicles a single-day mod extravaganza held at a London pub called the
Bridge House back in May '79 during the height of the second wave of mod.
It's not a completely representative package in terms of showcasing the
movement; the top dogs of the mod revival, the Jam, weren't there that day,
nor were such other significant acts as the Purple Hearts, the Lambrettas,
and the Chords. But it does feature multiple songs by each of six bands,
several of whom were significant in that movement: Squire, the Merton
Parkas, Secret Affair (whose entire 45-minute set is included), plus an
also-ran who broke up before they made it big in the UK, the Small Hours,
whose tracks on *Mods Mayday '79* are excellent.

The original *Mods Mayday* album, which was released on the Bridge House
label owned by the pub's proprietor, was apparently pretty successful in the
UK, as it has been re-released more than once over the years. The version
that came out last year, the two-CD set that I bought, is the first to
contain all 39 of the songs that were recorded at the event.

I've known about many of these bands for years, but had never actually heard
any of their songs until I bought this comp. Mod has always been a
distinctly British phenomenon, and much like the original mod movement's
musical output (the early Small Faces, the early Who, the Action, the
Creation), the mod revival's music never really made it across the Atlantic,
with the exception of the fluke New Wave hit "Turning Japanese" by the
Vapors. The Jam was the only mod band that toured the States in the late
seventies, and even though they were the definitive British band of their
era (even more so than the Clash or the Police) they never became anything
more than a college-rock cult act here. Thus, it was a new experience for me
to hear these six bands. And while a live recording doesn't present their
songs in either the polished setting of a studio release or with the sweaty
immediacy of actually being at the show, I was pleasantly surprised at just
how many really strong songs each of the bands offered. There's a lot of
quality up and down the lineup of the six bands.

It's interesting to note that there were two distinct musical approaches
within second-wave mod, the ramalamalamalama punk sound of the first couple
Jam albums and the more classic sixties soul sound that hearkened back to
the musical roots of the movement (and which the Jam itself would embrace
before that legendary trio broke up in the fall of '82). Both approaches are
represented on *Mods Mayday '79*. But, overall, what really separated the
mod revival from such other flavors of New Wave as pub rock, power pop, and
punk was the scene's fashion and tribalism rather than its music.

Any power pop enthusiast on these shores who wants to tap into a long-gone
but exciting era in Britain that passed unnoticed on this side of the ocean
should look for a copy of *Mods Mayday '79*.


Gregory Sager