• 4CD box set celebrating the new post-Jam era and the mod scene as it progressed after their break up.
• 92 tracks showing the scene as an underground network and an influence on the mainstream music scene.
• With rarities on CD for the first time including singles by Wipeout, The Playn Jayn and Steve Cradock’s first band The Boys.
When The Jam played their last gig at The Brighton Centre on December 11 1982, it seemed to some to signify the end of the mod revival that had blossomed in 1979/80. Not every band featured here labelled themselves mods but all the recordings featured here incorporate a mod influence or spirit.
Disc 1 starts with Paul Weller’s post Jam soul/jazz/pop collective The Style Council and ex Nine Below Zero singer/guitarist Dennis Greaves’ soul/pop group The Truth, takes in undergound mod bands such as Small World and The Scene and bands blending mod with garage rock and psychedelia such as The Prisoners and The Playn Jayn.
Disc 2 continues through to the end of the decade with the 1985 mod resurgence led by The Untouchables and Makin’ Time, an imagined soundtrack theme by The James Taylor Quartet, Fine Young Cannibals taking Northern style soul into the charts and ending with the Inspiral Carpets and Stone Roses looking back to the 60s and bringing a new guise of Madchester mod.
Disc 3 commences with Paul Weller’s solo return in an era when Five Thirty and The Charlatans brought mod influences into the indie scene and bands on Eddie Piller’s Acid Jazz label played modern music that retained the spirit of mod and its links to soul and jazz.
Disc 4 mixes cult 60s inspired bands such as The Aardvarks and The Clique with Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker who took mod and psychedelia back into the charts and ends with Big Boss Man providing a timeless Hammond organ led club groove for the 21st Century.
