EXCLUSIVE SHINDIG! QOBUZ PLAYLIST #31: NO WAY OUT – MOD: THE SECOND WAVE 1979-85

We’re very excited to be media partners with the truly unique online streaming platform and download store Qobuz. This month, the 31st of our monthly bespoke playlists, which take in all manner of genres and sub-genres, scenes and beyond, then and now, features an array of slashing guitar and pent up youthful emotion circa 1979-85

Play here or use the scrollable frame with track list below. You can sign up for a free trial today. Plans start from £10.83 per month. For more on Qobuz read our interview with MD Dan Mackta here

Quadrophenia did a lot for the late ’70s mod revival, as did The Jam. Whilst a lot of the bands that followed had only just stopped playing punk and decided to ride the wave, the structured song patterns and dynamics of the mid-60s sat perfectly with their spiky pop nous. A few like Secret Affair, The Chords, and The Lambrettas would even entertain hits. But the mod revival was somewhat derided as the ’80s took hold and many of the bands split. The movement was still huge though, and even when it fell out of favour, the UK still had thousands of teenage disciples, all needing new bands. These acts played scooter runs and mod events to eager fans, some continued the flame that was yet to be put out from the legacy of The Jam, others like The Prisoners offered a more accurate portrayal of the ’60s, and as the ’80s took hold the essence of psychedelia could be heard… plus a few, like The Truth, even entered the charts. By 1985 the whole thing began to dwindle, as both the bands and the mod teens discovered new things. Mod would however continue to influence subsequent generations, from the pill popping ravers and soulful acid jazzers to Britpop’s ’60s affectations. Today young bands still in and barely out of their teens are drawing on the 1979 era wholesale, whether that’s the corporate Jam-loving The Molotovs or Sharp Pins, who even recorded the entire Mods Mayday ’79 album.