​I bought these a while back when I stumbled across them on the Adaptor clothing website. 

Having ordered them, I actually put them in exile for the Winter (worried about fucking them up in the rain). I had temporarily forgotten them, but they have undergone a resurgence in my wardrobe very recently, to be worn last week and have someone on the tube come up to me and ask me where I got them from.

Yes they are that epic.

And the more I think about it, the more they are genuinely the best thing I think I’ve ever bought. They are the perfect colour. A dark, red-brown shade with slightly lighter stitching that looks fab with a blue suit or with jeans. I’ve quite often seen light tan-coloured patent leather Chelsea boots, but they just seem a bit bright for a dark suit and at a glance, it looks like you could be walking barefoot. A look I wanted to avoid.

The boots have a slight heel. Always useful for a short guy. And the desert boot-suede is also much less formal than ordinary Chelsea boot leather when worn with jeans, yet still looks good with a suit.

So they ain’t cheap at £120 on Adaptor's site and £130 on amazon (made by John White Cheshire), but if you want to buy something a bit special, these are the clogs you want. 

I spent a long time researching these boots to make sure I picked the right ones and I think I did well. There are slightly cheaper versions in places like Ted Baker and Top Man, but they never quite got the right colour.

Accept no imitations.

In a way, it’s probably about time the film was updated. It would interesting to see who they cast in particular roles, especially as the Ace Face. 

Although I respect Sting as a musician, I’m not sure he’s the greatest actor they could have chosen for the role in the original.

Plus, the film does have this tendency to be a “how we were” type of thing, a film for people who wish it was still 1964/5, which is fine, but I don’t think there’s anything particularly Mod about that. The Mods of ‘64 were not looking back to films for inspiration before (save perhaps the mid 1950s and Roman Holiday perhaps but even then probably only for the style). They were probably looking forward to the next thing they were going to get for their expanding wardrobes.

So I am in two minds. I want to know what they do with it as a film, but I am also not really bothered whether it is a success or not. Mod’s moved on - it’s not all about fighting on the seafront anymore and it finds itself as much at home in the modern world as it did in 1964. 

If people do go down to Brighton or Clacton at the bank holiday (as they may indeed this very day), it’s probably through nostalgia rather than the seaside being in any innate sense closer to Mod. A 1960s Mod brought forward in time to now probably wouldn’t be seen dead in today’s Clacton on the bank holiday. Brighton is a bit different - I think its fame and continued popularity has seen it adjust towards a more modern perspective. Perhaps because of Quadrophenia itself.

So let’s see how it goes.

You could have actually bought this one. Go here for more info. Found at Modculture

One of the lesser-played, but more interesting of Weller's Jam tracks.

Weirdly, whenever I've seen him live (even on TV) he has always played Running On The Spot. Yet favourites such as The Eton Rifles and That's Entertainment are sometimes omitted, despite being far better known and more popular Jam tracks.

I can understand perhaps those other ones are so well known that he feels like he's played them to death. Or maybe he just feels ROTS still has a resonance with the youth of today (as, of course, it does).

​Either way, a good song that is often overlooked.

Although clearly the Verve don't consider themselves small enough to all get in the chair like the Small Faces did...

I’ve been listening to the Verve’s Urban Hymns.

That might sound odd, but you have to remember, I actually missed it the first time around. In 1997 I was in primary school. Probably about 9 years old. CDs were a thing. But I was more interested in video games probably.

The album is hectic. In a similar way to Oasis, the band has a swagger and an arrogance that goes well with their music. The music itself is intense. It rises and falls, a wall of synchronised sound, creating a crescendo of overlapping guitars and synthy additions. It’s completely the opposite to bands like the Jam, the Libertines or Arctic Monkeys, whose music tends to be scrappy and raw and full of holes in between the instruments.

I have a few standout tracks. Bittersweet Symphony, obviously, but also Space and Time and Lucky Man. But like listening to Be Here Now, it seems a waste to just listen to one song when the whole album has such a groove. So I just leave it on.

The more I do listen to it, the more I am reminded of Noel Gallagher’s comments in my previous post about working class bands not coming up and I think I know what he means. There's not a lot like this out there at the moment.

There is a specific sound associated with that late 90s period that really seems to hit it for me. Call it Britpop if you want. But for me, music from bands like Oasis and The Verve embody a kind of youthful optimism, bringing with it hazy sunshine and summer. I feel like the music’s in my blood.

I would say I’m being nostalgic. But as I said, I wasn’t there, man.

It's the man himself

​I was reading this bit by Parka Avenue (great blog btw, "living as a Mod in the 21st Century"), check out some of the other stuff too) and it occurred to me that he absolutely has a point. 

Literally no other “subculture” or whatever you want to call it (although I count Mod as actually lording above, not really on the same plane as, the others) cares so much about shoes as Mods do.

I would say however, that there is quite a bit of cross-contamination among the different scenes. Winklepickers for instance, must have been a Beatles thing. But then they were nicked by the Punks, with a few extra studs added.

My brother went through a bit of punk phase, he had some winklepicker-esque boots and some brothel creepers too (originally a Ted thing?), as well as some knee-high boots. But nowadays he doesn’t do the full punk get-up. Maybe he just likes shoes. Okay, that was a bad example.

​But it is true that Mod does take ownership of the shoe area.

​Everything is Mod. Oxfords, Brogues, “Broxfords”. Loafers. ALL of the loafers, from tassles to bass weejuns. Winklepickers, slip on and lace up. Chelsea Boots. Chukkas, desert boots, Jam shoes. And then everything in between. 

And believe me, there is some weird stuff in between. Check out Eve & Gray. They’re taking it to new levels.

Even Wiggo is getting in on the shoe action.

What a time to be alive.

Going through a bit of a Quadrophenia phase at the moment over here. 

I know some frown upon the film as it's very much the gangland, rose-tinted version of Mod and doesn't advertise its finer points very well. I remember trying to introduce it to some friends once and being a bit embarrassed at how simplistic and stereotypical it was in parts.

But it does have some good bits.

I hope readers appreciate the material I've selected!

Frequently lampooned, popularly unpopular, Sting's portrayal of the Ace Face in Quadrophenia is legendary.

But what do we think of his look?

Great day for it....

​So perhaps NG is have a touch of this nostalgia about the 1990s. Perhaps someone could give us their view in the comments below.

However, I do think the man has a point about the major bands. Oasis and their compatriots stand out in the 1990s as the cream of the crop. Perhaps it is about class, like he says. Kasabian, the Libertines and Arctic Monkeys just have a swagger and an attitude, whereas the likes of Coldplay and Two Door Cinema Club just seem a bit wet. 

And now nobody is taking on carrying the torch. There aren’t any standout bands for me at the moment, only a few good songs. Why? Perhaps I'm already past it.

​But I would say it seems a bit weird for NG to literally blame the AMs and Kasabian for this as if it’s their fault. I think perhaps it’s more to do with culture. NG mentions X-Factor dominating TV (with its emphasis on singing rather than instrument playing or songwriting) and so on, where presumably kids would have watched Top of the Pops in the past.

I have a theory that since everyone (including working class kids) started being forced to stay in school longer and encouraged more to go to university, their identity as strong-willed, independent people has been watered down by having to write essays when, in the past, they might have been having life experiences and writing songs. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but modern student bands usually tend to chuck out pretentious rubbish.

Speaking as someone who did go to University, I don’t doubt that this cultural change is good news for some kids. University is certainly good for boosting the career prospects of the scholarly.

But it's not for everyone and I can’t imagine it’s that inspiring for songwriters.