REVIEW: '79 The Mod Revival - Garry Bushell book

The Mod revival period of the late 70’s going through to the mid 80’s helped many woman and man touch various tailor-made pieces of cloth in various changing colours including wearing bowling shoes, ten pin alleys were never as popular fashion haunt. Arriving with this fashion statement importantly came music and a number of band influenced by Mod including Secret Affair, The Merton Parkas and The Modettes.

Most notably the mod revival period was firmly engraved on people’s memories when The Who’s Quadrophenia film was released in 1979 featuring a gang of likeable mods plus at the forefront of the mod explosion plus a band who had not only embraced mod but their front man was a mod, heck he has been quoted as saying he’ll die a mod, the boy about town Paul Weller. This is where we get the beginnings of ’79 the Mod Revival Essays From The Frontline by well-known journalist Garry Bushell. With Garry being at the heart of this revival whilst he was writing for the Sounds weekly music paper the intimate gigs plus with the releases heaped on the Soounds doorstep created a movement that couldn’t be ignored plus it heavily influenced it’s followers to still be purchase tailor made zoot suits 40 years later.

The written content of the book contains republished reviews of gigs notably reviews of The Jam, The Purple Hearts, The Lambrettas, The Small Hours whilst near the back of the book contains a big shout to The Bridge House in Canning Town, East London including the special paragraphs reserved for Tony Class (resident DJ, Squire, The Spiders, Dolly Mixture and Department S. One striking thing to me whilst flicking through the pages is the many bands that came out at this time might’ve lacked that knack of writing a cracking tune or becoming an absolute icon of the period, but that matters little when you think these bands gave something to the young crowds of the time, something that that grabbed the youth of the time more than what Thatcher was preaching at the time.

With endorsements from Gary Crowley and Brett Ascott (The Chords) you know before you even start to sit down with it, it’s going to be good. 337 pages of words and an impressive array of gig photos, memorabilia, original posters, gig tickets plus personal photos showing the mods of the time, this is an affectionate, nostalgic and charming look back at this sharp music revival.

’79 The Mod Revival: Time For Action is available via Red Planet books via this link