With two weeks to our warm up gig and month to Mods Mayday, we are in full preparation mode! And this weekend is Modstock in London. This is an alternative celebration of modernism. Whereas Squire are always connected to Mods Mayday and the term has become an umbrella description for international events, so modstock was born out of the 1990s scene which takes 1964 as a year zero influence, and tends towards a freak beat, soul and post Britpop identity. You can remind yourself of the influence of the Mod Revival and later mod scenes in the ‘From West London To The World’ video.
There are parallel connections to Modstock for Squire as well! We played Modstock, held at the 229 Club, London in 2014, alongside Secret Affair.
The Squire Facebook banner at the top of the page is actually a photograph of Squire on stage at Modstock 2014! You can see highlights of the performance in a video here!
The Squire ensemble included Anthony & Kevin, James on bass and Henrik on second guitar which created a power pop energy. Henrik first played in Sugarplum and joined Squire in Los Angeles, and was a member of James Speedkillers band,
Modstock is curated by Rob Bailey who founded the New Untouchables, with monthly club, magazine and compilation albums, and had the great idea if involving 1960 icons such The Pretty Things, The Creation, P.P. Arnold etc to perform, so bypassing the mod revival bands in favour of a more authentic slant. The 2014 event features Eddie Phillips from The Creation, Brenda Holloway and The Velvelettes. This year has P.P. Arnold and Kenney Jones.
Rob is also well known to Squire! In 1999 he was part of the Squire entourage when we headlined the forum Mods Mayday. Here we all are back stage after performing!
The Squire line up included the Quant singer Francois Nordmann alongside Anna as dancers! Quant were stalwarts of the 1990s modern scene - Francois now owns the The Vintage Collection, near Mod Father in Camden Market.
https://www.instagram.com/the_vintage_collection/?hl=en
So while we prepare for Mods Mayday we also have an eye on the alternative mod events. You can read about the 2024 Modstock here.
And are looking forward not only to our Mods Mayday but also aware that is also ‘A Mod Mod World’ all over the world!
We close the newsletter with a really exciting never been seen clip of Squire’s performance at the 1999 Mods Mayday with Francois and Anna at the front of the stage! This was the final song of the entire night and Squire’s 2nd encore!
Encore!!