Mods and Rockers in the 60s: Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll and street battles - Right? Eeer, not quite; not as I remember them. Sex was something you had to careful about, I mean if you got a girl pregnant you married her, so, unless drunk, you only did it with someone you would be happy to spend the rest of your life with. Drugs belonged mainly to the very late 60s and the 70s. The Mods indulged to a degree, but for the Rockers adrenaline from hard riding a motorcycle was the drug, though God alone knows what strange substances lurked in the foul muck that came out of the tea urns of the transport cafes we inhabited. Rock and Roll was the music, sure, but for the Rockers it was 50s stuff with Merseybeat thrown in. The Mods shared the Merseybeat, but flavoured it with Rhythm and Blues. However, tastes varied, and several of my mates, were Traditional Jazz fans. There were also big band and classical music lovers amongst us. The Bank Holiday street battles did happen. Mostly they consisted of a lot of shouting and posturing with physical contact usually coming about by accident. My own crowd tried to time and plan jaunts that avoided potential trouble spots! Yes there was trouble, and yes they were dangerous and exciting times, but mostly they were just fun, and both Mods and Rockers a load of youngsters out to enjoy themselves with the Rockers doing it by racing their motorcycles through the streets of London and on the near-bye bypasses.
Geoff Boxell, English
