How it all STARTed for me ...

Like most kids growing up in the seventies, there was plenty of cults and musical direction for most, I was quit happy following bands like E.L.O , B A Robinson, that sort thing…

Kept myself to myself at school, I was always one of those kids if the bullies had no one else to beat up or had in fact killed the rest of my fellow wimps..

It wasn’t that bad for me, I could at least put up a half decent fight, that’s why I was the last resort to pick on.

The beginning of 1979 brought news of a new film coming to the local cinema, a film about Mods and Rockers, I paid no interest in this at first, mainly because all the bullies in school where raving about killing the Mods if they stepped into their school.

It was about this time I began to Dj at our school youth club, theory behind this was sad lonely kid at school turns Dj and becomes Mr popular..

How wrong can a young mind can be, “you play that fucking record or you are dead at school tomorrow” now, who am I to argue with that..

God I hated school.

The Dj’ing though 1979 was cool, I got better, the music got worse, the crap I had to play, Gary Numan, Sparks, Flying Lizzards…. There must be more than this please.

A friend at school asked me if I wanted to go to a local Mod night in the town centre, it was a Monday night and I was all up for it, of course all the questions started, such as “What’s a Mod? , What do we wear?

Now as silly as it may seem I was told Mods wore two tone suits, please forgive me, I was young and stupid, it was coming up to my birthday and my parents asked” what would you like for you birthday son” “ermm can I have a two tone suit please mum” “what’s that then son?” ok this is the bit to forgive and to this day I still feel stupid as hell about “ well it’s a suit, a different coloured jacket to the trousers”

I settled for school trousers and a sports top a cheap version of a Fred Perry.

Monday came and me and my mate kept very quiet about our proceeding trip into town that night, in bloody fear of getting beaten up before getting to the place.

We met up outside the town hall in the high street in Colchester and set off down the hill towards the town house, I still remember to this day, the smell, the feel, the sweet sound of the Music coming from THE PIT in the town house, Brooker T and the Mgs with green onions, we both walked up to the main door “that will be 50 pence each please” we looked at each other. Oh come on 50p was a lot of money for us back then.

The look was enough, we both knew without saying a word, why oh why did we come out without any money.

A slow and very disappointed walk up the hill, but still I had a tingling feeling down my neck, this was cool, the music, so different, the noise of people laughing and having a good time over the sounds of tunes that my parents played on their record player, The Beatles, The Stones.

We reached the top of the hill almost back into the high street, when I looked up from my own little world I had created in my head, the image of being in the town house next week, when I fucking nearly jumped out of my skin, a mob, a group of kids walked straight into us. I was almost waiting for the first punch “sorry mate, didn’t mean to walk into ya” what, what “no problem” about 15 green parka lads stood there in front of me.

“Where’s is mod night then” one of the lads asked.

Like a bloody fool I stood there and said nothing. “Town house, mod night” another lad said. “oh yeah” I came around, wasn’t sure what to say. ”ermm down the hill, half way down on the right hand side, just listen out for the music, you cant miss it”

“Cheers mate; you not going in then” one bloke asked, “nah got no money, but maybe

Next week” “fuck that mate, come on we will pay for ya both”

Now I have never ever in my life up to that point known anyone to pay diddle shit for me, I was as chuffed as chuffed could be, we all walked back down the hill, the feeling was great, I was in a group, a gang for the first time in my life I felt apart of something, just shows you how sad my life was before hand.

We walked up to the door and straight in past the doorman, and smiled at him, “what you want then can of coke, shandy, what?” Christ they are buying drinks for us now, and they did all night, well I say all night, it finished at 10:30.

After having a chat to one of these guys I found out they where from Harwich and they had all caught a train to Colchester . We all walked down the stairs to THE PIT and opening the doors sent us into a world which I was never to return from, a world of liquid oil lights, kaleidoscope lights and the music was awesome, a band called the Small Faces was playing on the decks with Hey Girl.

The dance was much the same, stand still and let your top half swing to the music, then over the sound system came the Dj’s voice “this folks is the new song by Secret Affair, TIME FOR ACTION” the whole place went nuts, jumping around apart from the FACES who stood still with the top half swinging. What a tune, THIS WAS SEPTEMBER 1979. I was now a mod, the scene was so close knit, so friendly, I wanted more of it…………………….

Tuesday morning dawned, and I was still dancing about like a prat, in my room before school, had already nicked my mums Beatles and Rolling Stones records when I got in last night. The buzz from my first night at a Mod do was, well heaven.

Now forgive me, but there was two of us that went to the Mod night, so how the hell, did I have a welcoming, lets beat the Mod up, party waiting for me at school that morning.

Bloody reality hit home hard that morning, my so called mate, didn’t like the way I got on with the Harwich Mods the previous night, something to do with the fact I left him there on his own while I danced and chatted all night. So he thought it would be cool to tell everyone about the night before.

Brownie points for him, brown marks for me. I had the shit kicked out of me that day, and for some reason one of the bullies would not leave me alone from that day onwards, until leaving school that coming spring of 1980.

Its amazing how things stay with you like that, 20 years later I bumped into said bully and only if I had a knife, gun, stick of tnt, or something that would have KILLED that day I would have used it. The only thing stopping me going for his neck that day, was the fact I was carrying a radiator on my shoulder, yes the thought did cross my mind to throw it at him.

Do school bullies really know how much they affect the people they bully for the rest of their lives, I could very easily go to prison because of him.

Unlike most Mods of 79 I came from a poor back ground, so trying to get clothes, a parka was not easy, I had to do with second hand clothes and a coat which didn’t even look like a parka, but it went over my knees and in the daylight my shadow made it look like a parka, and I had painted the who on the back, I was chuffed. One day, a few weeks later after painting the Who on the coat, my mum asked if I had seen my dad’s coat!!!!!!! Well you can guess the rest. The clothes side of things was not too bad, I always had button down shirts for school, and the trousers were handy too. I was set, a real mod (well in my mind, but must have looked a right prat) walking down the street, pork pie hat on, button down with a Mods narrow black silk tie, black trousers, desert boots, and me dads coat, say no more.

School for the rest the year was sheer bloody hell, we had rockers, punks, soul boys, casuals, and a Mod, I used to walk from one class to the next, and some how from the heavens I would be soaking wet, with spit. I only really looked forward to school for one reason, school club at reed hall, where I was the disc jockey. I was left alone as long as I played the crap they wanted to hear, rainbow, acdc, you know the sort of thing. 7pm till 9pm every Tuesday and Thursday it was great, as long as the hard nuts could dance to what they wanted I was safe and other kids got the shit kicked out of them, the amount of blood shed in that club was unbelievable, but it was safe in my dark little corner. Being safe was during those hours Dj’ing and asleep at home, the rest of the time was spent running the gauntlet. It soon came to me, that if I bunked off school I would stay dry from spit and not get hit.