[Music] Brighton 1964 Rockers v Mods

[Comrade Sam]

It seems, that while violence was commonplace in working class life, the bank holiday confrontations were mostly a media circus.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Sister was an extra (rocker) for Quadrophenia, handy for us to pop down from Amex house to watch the filming

Can she be seen in the film?

 

[Nitram]

Had a couple of Lambrettas in the mid Seventies, very cheap, friends taking the piss out me who rode BSA bantams and a Norton but they nearly were always off the road or broke down when out and about.
About that time was the rise of reliable Japanese bikes so gravitated to them as did most of my friends.
Worse incident on a scooter was being buzzed by Littlehampton Hells Angels.

 

[Harold]

2:03 into Brighton Beach Fight 1964, isn't that Hastings with the rounded end building?

Italian Way. Hastings had massive invasion of which a fair bit of footage and photos exist. lot of fighting between the local fishing families (proper handy bunch) and mods down on the beach. Police were really heavy handed back then and many heads cracked.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Mods

 

[zefarelly]

I was a little rudeboy/skinhead from the age of 10, into madness, then the specials etc . . . . Swiftly followed by 'other' music, and met Comrade Sam when I was 12. (Who didn't like football or ska!!! We learned a lot very quickly, especially as CS Sr took us to some cracking gigs. And our parents had good records)

Have flitted around between scenes and been a bit of a chameleon(or charlatan!) at times, playing in 'rock' bands one weekend, scooter rallies and soul do's the next . . . . I like some bikes for the engineering, but never owned one, Like the early rock n roll stars, as Sam says were all RnB based, which is great stuff, particularly early Chuck Berry and Little Richard, even early Otis was more a RnR copy of the aforementioned, they influenced all the early/mid 60's British bands . . . They were all evolving moving targets . . . David Bowie is THE Modernist IMO, The Faces were all in one. It all overlaps somewhere, and over the course of 60+ years has been stretched/distorted and bastardised several times over.

Now when you see 'Mods' & 'Rockers' together it's either pensioners who were there, or comedians, devaluing the brand

Meet Brian, local lad, still a mod, still lives in Brighton, still rides a Lambretta, still has fire in his belly! Given up slinging deck chairs though.


I've had a scooter since I was 15, Lambrettas since I was 16 and will have at least one until the day I die. Things that are in the blood are music, BHA, Lambrettas . . Cars didn't really get me until I was in my late 20's, and have faded the last few years.

 

[Comrade Sam]

And Zefarelly helped me fall in love with ska - (football was a gift from Talula!) Being a Mod has continually seen me remain accidentally fashionable as everything else comes and goes. Whenever I meet people around the world that have heard of Mod, they assume I'm from Brighton anyway. I appeared in a Mod documentary many years ago called 'Do you believe in Mod?'. I got to meet the ultimate original Mod - John Cooper-Clark.

 

[jakarta]

Was a Velocette Venom, 500cc single cylinder, just slightly tuned, man (or should I say boy) at the time. Being a 17 year old Police Cadet I made sure to stay way out of the way of trouble. I was also a member of the Southern Observers Motorcycle club that met at the Stamford Arms, Preston Circus on Thursday nights. Most weekends there was an event of some sort on, track racing at Brands, (dare I mention CP), Thruxton, Snetterton etc. Winter time saw us at grass track or trails events, often marshalling so we ensured never to be around weekends when trouble was likely.

So answering the OP's question all us true bikers stayed well out of the way of trouble - they did used to pull my leg somewhat at Lewes Police Station though!

Velocette Venom, a bike I would love to have owned, guess even basket cases are all well over £20K these days. My Dad was a BSA/Norton dealer back in the day but he always said Velocettes were almost hand built and if I could find one snatch his arm off...

 

[Gwylan]

Well we used to go round the playground at St John the Baptist in Kemp Town demanding "Mod or Rocker?". Not that we had any clue (aged 7) what they were. There was no right answer btw.

Same here ... except we were in the playground of Fairlight School. At the time I was firmly in the Rocker camp but it was all mild banter. None of us were in the business of getting into scraps.

I did see some of the barneys on the seafront; to my seven-year-old eye, it looked like a bit more than handbags.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Being just four and a quarter, this passed me by ....

But I bet it was proper fisticuffs - none of this knife-stabbing and baseball-bat malarkey - don't think anyone died ....

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Same here ... except we were in the playground of Fairlight School. At the time I was firmly in the Rocker camp but it was all mild banter. None of us were in the business of getting into scraps.

My daughters school, in her last year.

 

[Boroseagull]

Velocette Venom, a bike I would love to have owned, guess even basket cases are all well over £20K these days. My Dad was a BSA/Norton dealer back in the day but he always said Velocettes were almost hand built and if I could find one snatch his arm off...

Wow! Is that what a good one would fetch now? To think I sold mine in 1967 for £50, but I needed the money towards a 5% deposit on a mortgage for our first house. North Road, Portslade. The house cost then? £3250, so I guess it puts it all into perspective.

 

[fosters headband]

I was 20 and I was there that day, it was chaos and frightening, but invasions from young Londoners looking for trouble was all to common place back then. I remember other battles when they would come down to places like the Whiskey Go Go and the Florida Rooms, famous for where the local youngsters gathered and large fights would break out

 

[maltaseagull]

Brighton Police Force summer uniform

I was surprised how few there were in that clip.
I remember reading about one bloke's defence to a charge of obstructing the police:

"I had never seen a copper's white helmet before and just wanted a closer look"

Guilty

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Aged 11 at the time and living near Preston Park Station. Got the train into town (had been travelling to junior school by train on my own for about a year by then) as I often went into town on a Saturday to the Regent Ballroom where they had a kids music/dance on a Saturday morning. Watched proceedings from the Palace pier. The snapshot from the pier didn’t seem so bad at the time, so was a bit surprised when I saw the rest of it on the news.

 

[jakarta]

Wow! Is that what a good one would fetch now? To think I sold mine in 1967 for £50, but I needed the money towards a 5% deposit on a mortgage for our first house. North Road, Portslade. The house cost then? £3250, so I guess it puts it all into perspective.

Britih Bike prices are simply mad. My BSA Rocket Gold Star (genuine RGS not a copy) got sold after complete rebuild for £2000 in 1987, last one I saw up for sale was £27000. Lovely bike to look at, not so nice to ride btw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDeEsnNyv4Q

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

My late elder brother Tony was a Brighton Mod, Lambretta GT200, and him and his mates were all part of the bank holiday scrapes.
Here is a photo of Tony and his mates on a weekend trip.

 

[chaileyjem]

In 1978 when i was 11 i went with my mum to see Grease at the ABC in East Street. I saw it twice. It was very good.
I had to make my way past hundreds of extras all gathered for the "riot" and presumably alleyway scene of Quadrophenia.
My Auntie at the time told me they were paying you £15 to park your 1965 or earlier cars on the seafront for the filming.

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Tony on his pride and joy, had a great paint job done on it, metallic mauve and chrome, looked the nuts.
I remember as a 10 year old, being given lifts to Woodingdean junior school, sitting on the back.

 

[chaileyjem]

View attachment 131264

My late elder brother Tony was a Brighton Mod, Lambretta GT200, and him and his mates were all part of the bank holiday scrapes.
Here is a photo of Tony and his mates on a weekend trip.

this is amazing. thank you.