“I don’t wanna be the same as everyone else, that’s why I’m a mod – see?” In that sentence Jimmy Cooper sums up the feeling of many teenagers in the early 1960s, mods or not the general consensus was that this generation set out to be different and to leave their mark on the world forever.
Quadrophenia (1979) is a film about a young mod called Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels.) Jimmy, like many young working class men of the time, had a reasonably well paid job which funded his fast lifestyle, he was intent on being “one of the faces” and this eventually costs him everything, his family, his job, his friends and most painfully to Jimmy, the love of his life Steph (Leslie Ash). Although there are historical inaccuracies, such as the pork pie hat worn by several of Jimmy’s friends, the film really encapsulates what it was like to be a mod in 1963. The soundtrack especially, which includes The Ronette’s, The Who and the mod anthem ‘Green Onion’ by Booker T, gives the film an authentic feel.
The sharp suits, the Vespa’s and Lambretta scooters, the coffee bars where they would hang out, the music show on Jimmy’s television, the Bank Holiday weekends in Brighton and the ‘Blues’ (Amphetamine) they took tell us how Britain was changing into the consumerist society in which we live today. For the first time the working classes had spare cash and they were ready and willing to spend it on looking and feeling good!
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