Alan Fletcher was an original mod in the sixties in Nottingham. A decade later, he worked as story consultant on Quadrophenia. And then, in the nineties, he published three novels – “Brummell’s Last Riff”, “The Learning Curve” and “The Blue Millionaire” – collectively known as “The Mod Crop”, with the central theme of the sixties mod scene. In 2009, “Brummell’s Last Riff” will become a stage production at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. Rob put some questions to Alan – all about Nottingham in the sixties, his novels and the forthcoming stage show. Along with his views on punk, the Mod Revival and Britpop.
1. Many of us are fascinated by the sixties and in particular the Mod scene back then. The bulk of commentary has concentrated on London. Were there a significant number of Mods around in Nottingham like, say, in London. Or did you feel you were a small pocket of like minded individuals?
There was a thriving Mod scene in Nottingham and all over the county. I remember one Sunday night in the summer of 1965 when there were more than a hundred scooters parked on Stanford Street outside the Dungeon Club. In my early days of mod …in ’64 in Newark, there were only a handful of us and it was like being in some kind of exclusive club…pretty soon though a lot of the town’s youth got the message and the numbers began to swell.
2. What were the big venues in Nottingham in terms of bars and clubs?
There were no Bars as such…the culture and the social landscape of Nottingham (like every city or town then) was radically different in the 60s to what it is now …we used to frequent the pubs and some of the coffee bars and cafes. “The Royal Children” and “The Salutation” were popular in Nottingham…because they were close to “The Dungeon Club” as was “The Sawyers Arms” (where HMV stands now at the entrance to The Broadmarsh Centre) The “Kardomah” coffee shop on King Street was a good place to hang out… along with The “L” Shaped Room on Goldsmith Street (now part of the Nottingham Trent University campus) and “The Belvedere Club” off Fletcher Gate in The Lace market.
3. Which bands did you particularly like?
I got into most of the groups who were in the vanguard of the British Beat and Rhythm and Blues scene in the early to mid 60s…..as there was a healthy touring circuit you could see most of them live for five shillings or seven and sixpence…that’s around 25p to 35p in new money ! I used to like Georgie Fame, Chris Farlowe and The Thunderbirds…Them (with Van Morrison), Who, Small Faces, Rod Stewart in his many manifestations, Long John Baldry and The Hoochie Coochie Men….slightly more obscure were outfits like The Roulettes, who were Adam Faith’s backing group, later to form the nucleus of Argent and I saw a band at The Sherwood Rooms once called The Tea Time Four. …they were a really tight band from London I think…I only ever saw and heard of them the once…now that would be a good research project on Google….. Most of the stuff we we were listening to on records down the clubs ( early Tamla and Stax imports) was really good music to dance to …and that was the criteria really …you liked it if you could dance to it.
4. Over recent years, various outlets have emerged in the city selling classic Mod attire. How easy was it to obtain the Mod clothes in Nottingham in the 60’s?
There were no shops you could say were dedicated “Mod “ shops, that is where you could go into a shop and come out with a complete set of Mod clothes. The scene in the 60s was one where you had to be creative and inventive…you got your stuff from anywhere you could ….and you protected your sources ! It didn’t matter who or what the shop was; as long as it had what you wanted that was fine…you might go to D and P School outfitters, Army and Navy Shops, Sports shops …even Woolworths !! There were a couple of good shops in Nottingham, which had set themselves out to be “modern” and where you could buy good clothes…Jeffs Menswear on Alfreton Road at Canning Circus and The Birdcage” boutique on Bridlesmith Gate were patronised by the Mods..but so were C and A and Milletts.. The boys designed their own suits which could be made by the big chains like Burtons, Hepworths and John Colliers or maybe the bespoke tailors like Hannafords (opposite The Birdcage) There was a mens’ clothing shop on Pelham Street where they guy who owned it used to take a photo of every suit he made for the Mod youths… I can’t recall his name but he went on to work for Ben Sherman…now that photo collection would be some rare kind of window on the local scene in the 60s… …a lot of the girls made their own clothes, as Mod in essence was a very neat minimal style and quite easily “run up” on your mother’s Singer machine…..
5. Let me turn to Brummell’s Last Riff and the rest of the trilogy. There’s a scene that stands out in my mind. Where Rod “The Mod” Stewart is holding court outside The Salutation flanked by Vespas. I assume that was based on a real incident – was that type of incident a regular occurrence?
This was all before stadium rock. Most of the venues were quite “intimate”. The stage at the “Dungeon” was easily accessible from the dance floor and consisted of no more than a raised dais really…in fact when we saw the Small Faces there for the first time we could just about make out the machine head of Steve Marriott’s guitar from where we were standing about 10 feet away from the group. The rest of the band were obscured by the clamouring audience and dancers. Most of the members of the groups who played at the local clubs all used to drink in the pubs in the locality and they all mingled with the Mods…..this was what made that connection…that solid bond … this was all broken when the bands realised they could make more money playing football ground an the like. I recall being with The Nashville Teens one Saturday night in the Sawyers Arms during the break in their set….yes, it was fairly regular occurrence. The incident described in the book would have been typical of what happened regularly … I think most 60s Mods in Nottingham would have what could be loosely termed a “Rod Stewart” story. Many of the people who performed in those early days of their careers weren’t making a great deal of money and a lot, including Rod, would quite often have nowhere to stay after a gig and no spare cash for a hotel and would end up crashing on someone’s floor for the night.
“Brummell’s Last Riff” made it into print on the August Bank Holiday of 1995. The Learning Curve” in 1996 and “The Blue Millionaire” in 1998. I’d had the stories of “Brummell” and “The Learning Curve” in my head for years though, before their eventual publication dates.
7. What led you to publish Brummell’s Last Riff in the nineties?
I’ve no idea really !!! It just seemed right the right time…I think there is in fact a right time for most literary or artistic projects…When I was writing “Brummell” for the page I had this feeling that there was something bubbling underneath it…but not something I could put my finger on I had no idea that there was still such an interests in the period or such a wealth of fanzines and magazines still keeping the faith.
8. Is Brummell’s Last Riff your favourite of the trilogy?
To be truthful I like them all. I suppose “Brummell”, being the first born of the Trilogy makes it kind of more special for me…..although I’m told that “The Blue Millionaire” is a better book than the other two, in terms of literary construction etc etc. “Brummell” is probably the most raw of the three……
9. All the novels in trilogy – starting with Brummell’s Last Riff – contain a central point – a particular Bank Holiday weekend in 1964. Is that an autobiographical description of that particular weekend?
All the books are “loosely” based on real life characters…me and a couple of my mates…one of whom I’m still in contact with…most the events portrayed in the books actually happened, although not necessarily to the characters in the book. The incidents may have been from the stories of people we knew at the time or people we knew of. The idea of having a common time frame in all of the books appealed to me. It is not a word for word portrayal of the Bank Holiday weekend of August ’65 but there is, in the “Skegness” sections of all three books a lot of “drama” based on actual incidents… I think in the books what I wanted to try and create was more of an ambience …an atmosphere of what it was like to be Mod out on the streets of England in the mid 60s. Kevin Godley of Godley and Cream read the books a few years back and he mentioned to me in a telephone conversation that reading the books gave him a yearning after that time of life….whether the books are successful commercially or artistically it’s that sort of comment which makes all the hammering on type writer keys worthwhile.. job done !
10. I understand that Brummell’s Last Riff is going to be on stage. Tell me a bit about it.
This really is the story coming full circle. “Brummell” started its life as a visual piece. Last year I went to see a musical at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham, written by Steve Wallis and Joshua Goodman, This was entitled “Make Do And Mend” and was based on Steve’s grandmother’s recollections and experiences in wartime Nottingham in the 1940s. I liked the show and emailed him the following day with the proposition of turning “Brummell” into a musical… the upshot of this is that the musical will premiere at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham on 2nd June 2009 where it will run for a week. The show is titled “Mod Crop – the musical” and will have a soundtrack of iconic songs from the 60s, sung live and also with a lot of underscoring from the actual records themselves. The songs are all well known and part of our collective psyche…not all are pure “Mod” tunes but all are classic 60s songs. We have already cast some of the leads….Mark Joseph is playing the part of Andy (me !) and we also have Dave Berry on board with a cameo performance of “The Crying Game”. Without wishing to sound conceited the story would work with or without the songs If we can get clearance on the ones we want then it really should be quite a spectacle. I have bought a 1965 Lambretta Li 150 series 3 scooter which was partly restored…the guys at Scooter Restorations in Nottingham are currently finishing the project off for me. This will be on stage, along with Dave Wyburn’s “Quadrophenia “ Vespa – VCB 160 (Sting’s machine). There is a web site for the show currently under construction, to be finished shortly – http://www.themodcrop.co.uk/
11. Tell me about your role in Quadrophenia.
Well it all started with a film script I’d written in the mid 70s. This was called “Two Stroke Sonata” and was in fact the first incarnation of “Brummell”. I had tried to get it produced on TV, with some encouraging “reviews” but with no offer of production. I saw Townshend on television one night and he was saying they were getting into films so I sent the script down to him asking him if they were able to produce it. I put a PS on the letter saying I could write them a script for “Quadrophenia” if they were interested and that’s where it all started. To cut a long story short I was credited as a story consultant on the film and also wrote the Corgi novel which tied in with it.
12. Did you and the rest of those involved anticipate it would be such an iconic film?
No. I had no idea that it would become so huge. I thought the album was just so atmospheric. It had that feel about it and the photos in the booklet which accompanied the original album were so perfect a re-creation of “the look”. “Quadrophenia” seems to have slipped into the nation’s collective psyche. Everyone of a certain age seems to have a spot for it in their lives. I think it will remain a near perfect study of growing up and all the attendant adolescent pressures…from peers, from society. There is a web site in America, apparently, which regards “Quadrophenia” as akin to the Bible ! ..and this is despite all the chronological mistakes and continuity gaffs in the film. It was the class of ’79 made good, when you consider the careers of the actors involved with it.
I thought it was just fantastic. Although I was a tad too old to be actually involved in the scene I followed it quite closely….there are so many analogies to be drawn between Mod and Punk. In essence Punk captured that same spirit of inventiveness that drove Mod forward in the 60s but with the attitude levels ratcheted up a lot more. The beautiful Punk priestess in a black bin liner was living a life parallel to the cool Mod diva dancing in a long leather coat. I thought it was a real breath of fresh air after the excesses of Glam Rock in the early 70s…in much the same way as the new British “R and B” and beat groups blew away the sanitised pop of the late 50s and early 60s. I was able to pitch in my two penn’worth about Punk in “The Learning Curve” – the second book in the trilogy. In fact I have been criticised for not putting enough about the new wave of Mod in the “Curve” ……
14. As an original sixties Mod, the 1979 Mod Revival, stemming from both punk and Quadrophenia, must have an interesting development. What was your take on it?
I overheard a conversation in a pub shortly after “Quadrophenia” came out in which this guy was saying that the Mod revival movement was engineered by all the Army and Navy type stores to sell more fishtail parkas!! I don’t subscribe to that view !!! The Jam, when they first came out, were almost note for note Who but they evolved and made it happen for a new generation faith keepers. I know many people of my generation can get so “sniffy” about the new wave of Mod…. but it’s all a matter of what gets you through your life. Some of the pseud journalists who have written so vitriolically about bands like Secret Affair and the rest of the tribe have probably never experienced their breast bones being vibrated by the notes in a buzzing bass guitar riff. When it came around again it was…had to be…. different from the experience in the 60s…times had changed social attitudes had altered. The landscape was different. At the end of the day it was a group of young musicians telling the story of their generation’s life…..this is a time honoured tradition from the medieval troubadours through to Cold Play.
15. For many who weren’t there in the sixties, the Britpop phenomenon appeared to contain definite Mod elements. Would you agree?
Yes undoubtedly. Again it was a peculiarly British thing …a mirror to the working class credentials of Mod in the 60s. The Blur / Oasis axis springs to mind. The Britpop scene was again reflecting the times…you keep coming back to Peter Meaden’s epithet…”trying to live cleanly under difficult circumstances.” Oasis, and their association with Weller, were probably the most closely allied with the spirit of Mod in whatever decade….although the notion of the Gallaghers as Mod fashion icons is not something I’m too comfortable with… I like their music though.
16. The Mod influence appears to have continued to this day. Bands like The Small Fakers, The Carnaby’s from Leicester, and Nottingham’s own Censored – to name but three – are flying the flag. Are there any current bands you would mention?
Now this is where I do sound like a really boring old fart and so out of touch with the culture of youth as it is these days……I don’t have much knowledge of current Mod bands… I have performed on stage with Paul Hooper- Keeley’s “Threads” a few times , including a gig at The Small Faces Convention at The Ruskin Arms in Manor Park and I’ve appeared on the same “bill” as Mark Joseph…..apart from that you could write all I know about the current Mod music scene on my bus pass…… but who knows….. all that could change in the not too distant future?
17. What does the future hold – are you planning more writing?
The show is taking up quite a bit of time at the moment…the script is completed and the couple of “read throughs” so far have confirmed its on the pulse of the period….although when you start rehearsing then you really start writing !! There will be a couple of exhibitions to tie in with the Musical next year…one at Newark Millgate Folk Museum and the other in the foyer of Nottingham Central Library on Angel Row. The Newark exhibition will have more space so we are aiming to make this a rather quirky and eclectic showing of Mod…not just throwing in a couple of scooters and mannequins decked out in Mod gear….. and it won’t just be 60s Mod. I have enough material to make the Trilogy in a quartet …and the time is right to look back on the ‘90s – which is the period in which the main part of the fourth book would be set (again flashing back to August 1965). There are a couple of other things in my head. One of them is a “time slip” story set in Italy and revolving around Mod. However whether any of these ideas will materialise is in the lap of the Gods……..