Glasgow Mods - R&B, British Beat Music, Motown, Northern Soul

In the early 1980s, a mod revival scene more heavily influenced by the original 1960s mod subculture developed at the Shepherds Bush nightclub Sneakers, which was run by Paul Hallam and Richard “Shirley” Early. The club featured rare R&B and soul music, and many of the attendees wore sharp tailor-made clothing. Also in Shepherds Bush through the early to late 1980s was a popular mod venue, Club MOD, at The Bush Hotel, where Tony Class DJed dance music such as 1960s soul, northern soul and songs by mod revival bands. Another main player in the mod revival was Eddie Piller, who went on to develop the acid jazz movement of the late 1980s. In the mid 1980s, there was a brief mod revival centred around bands such as The Scene, The Moment, The Risk, Untouchables (from the United States) and The Prisoners. Fanzines following on from Maximum Speed — such as Mission Impossible, Patriotic, Roadrunner, Extraordinary Sensations and Chris Hunt’s Shadows & Reflections — helped generate further interest in this stage of the mod revival.

The northern soul scene underwent a change of pace in the mid 1980s, with slower R&B-style records becoming popular at all-nighters at clubs such as Top Of The World in Stafford and 100 Club in London. Around this time, some mod revivalists became interested in psychedelic rock freakbeat and rare British and American garage rock. This interest was partly sparked by companies re-issuing recordings by bands such as The Action and The Creation.

Many revival mods joined the scooterist scene, which led to the development of the scooterboy subculture of the 1980s. Several mods enjoyed a mixture of the two styles, although some scooterboys renounced any previous involvement with the mod subculture. The mod revival also had some crossover with the 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s and early 1980s; associated with bands such The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter, and Madness. Often these bands wore mod-like clothes, and their roots in black music paralleled that of the original mods.

The UK mod revival was followed by a mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in Southern California, led by bands such as The Untouchables. The mod scene in Los Angeles and Orange County was partly influenced by the 2 Tone movement, and was unique in its racial diversity.