Blame Blur, blame Adidas retro-ism,blame the TORIES or the flop New Wave of New Wave... but Mod is back. Only it's changed. The New Mods revere Graham Coxon as much as Paul Weller. They like Elastica. They're very young, and they're very London...
London, July 1994. Outside a club called Blow Up. This is the new scene. Coming out of the ashes (already) of New Wave Of New Wave, grabbing a copy of Blur's 'Parklife' and a Ride poster on the way and heading for the only place where you can be seen as an ""Ace Face"": Blow Up in Camden, Saturday nights.
THE CLUB, BLOW UP
Paul Tunkin, 24, runs Blow Up and works in a record shop in Camden.
Also singer in daintily retro group The Weekenders.
What marks Blow Up as a 'new' Mod club?
""The old scene I find a bit too insular. It's been the same for so long. This club's got a Mod feel, but it's not a traditional Mod club. We play The Faces,
The Who and that, but we also play film themes and Blur and anything we like. It's much broader""
When did Blow Up start?
""October 1993. It's become more moddy since. The audience has got more stylish, and now we have to turn people away. The lcub hasn't been advertised since January, so it's always the same people here. It's a nice cosy club.""
Who's been to Blow Up? ""Steve Diggle from the Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley was here once too. Most 'new wave' bands.
Would you call yourself a mod?
"Dunno. I'm more likely to do with this new kind of thing, like the club and the reaction against the music scene which generally pays not much attention to detail; grunge stuff.
Mod was always about fastidiousness. Traditional Mod was stationary, looking back, but now this takes from it but moves on, incorporating new things."