Tuesday 3 September 2013

Brighton Mod Weekender 2013







New Untouchables Brighton Mod Weekender is traditionally a high point of my summer. Especially since Brighton's own (once great) Mod/Psych scene went from being rubbish to being virtually non-existent in the last 2-3 years.  This will be my last ever summer in Brighton, therefore I was determined to enjoy NUTs weekender even more than usual.

As regular readers of this blog probably know, it is not the 'Mod' part that I love the most about those weekenders. Having literally no interest in scooters, I usually skip daytime events at the seafront. In  the evenings, not being a fan of soul music, I hardly ever pop in to the main room at Komedia, which is usually full of ageing blokes with Paul Weller haircuts. No, to me, the back room at the Studio Bar at Komedia is where the action is - a place where on Saturday and Sunday you can hear some of the best 60's Freakbeat, Garage and Psychedelia.

I always talk about NUTs events with a mixture of love and hate. I love dancing to my favourite obscure Psych tracks in clubs. Moustrap (Fuzz For Freaks) in London - bi-monthly clubnight organised by NUTs is the best 60's psych night in the country and I discovered some of my favourite tracks there. But, every now and then, I find some things about NUTs slightly annoying, like for example, unnecessarily strict djing rules - original 60's 7-inches only and no re-issues/compilations allowed. Ok, I understand why they wouldn't want dj's to use LP's - there is a discernible difference in sound (although I wouldn't say it sounds worse, but maybe it's just me). But why no re-issues? Does it really take away so much authenticity? DJ's are also afraid of playing too obvious or too popular tracks. They don't seem to understand that expensive and rare does not equal the best. Or even good for that matter. Also, having seen some of the dj's multiple times before, I can say that the sets of some of them have become a little too predictable - every time I see them they play the same records. Of course, if you only buy 7-inches priced £500+, how many new records per year are you gonna get? Not too many probably.... But then again maybe I am not the best person to talk about these things. You see, I belong to a very rare breed - passionate 60's music fan NOT interested in vinyl. I don't mind it, but I never saw it as a superior format. If dj's at The Mousetrap were playing the same tracks they always play, but from their Ipod's instead of vinyl, I'd still come. I love the tune, not the format (I'll probably get banned for saying this, though).



Anyway, on Brighton weekenders, Sundays are traditionally the best for psychedelia. This year, I would say it was Saturday. Sunday turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax. Still, I had a great time that weekend, and I certainly encourage anybody who's into Psych/Garage and, most of all, Soul to come and check out Brighton Mod Weekender in 2014.

I stopped taking photos on my nights out long time ago, so here, I am using some from New Untouchables website. The photos were all taken by Carlo Sesto.





 That's me on the right..

I'll end with some photos of my now ex-girlfriend in her amazing original Biba dress..


Also, I heard this great tune for the first time at this year's weekender - 'Kicks And Chicks' by The Zipps - I've been listening to it on repeat ever since..








7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fab time ! Some brilliant clothes there I see !

Ana said...

At last someone who understands it! Although I do prefer when DJs use records instead of iPods I agree that the "only originals" rule makes it very restrictive. I gave a break from some nights because, although I love the music, it was getting too repetitive. I'm going to Mousetrap for the first time in a year which I'm quite excited about.
I've never been to the Brighton events but mainly because what I've heard about was the downsides you pointed out. Now I know about the other side I might give it a go next year. If you don't mind me asking, where are you moving to? xx

Peter said...

I'm moving to London.
I'll probably give Mousetrap a miss this saturday. I'm gutted, but I need to save every penny I have, at the moment...

I had fun that weekend, but if I wasn't living in Brighton, I definitely wouldn't travel especially for that weekender. Not even from London. Maybe if you're a Mod and you're really into Soul it's worth it ,but for psych/garage fans it's a bit of a waste of money. Perhaps that's why there were hardly any young people there this year.

I sure look forward to living in London. No more train journeys to Brighton at 5 a.m. every time I want to have a decent night out..

Sarah said...

I've never been to this event before, I keep meaning to go but then something always comes up. It's a shame that there weren't more young people there!

I'm not bothered about vinyl either to be honest, I'll happily listen to the music regardless of the format.

Wilthomer said...

Well put about the reissue 45's bit. When I used to DJ 10-15 years ago I thought nothing of hauling orginal Birds, Action, Artwoods et al 45's out. In retrospect it was an insane idea, crazy expensive 45's + a bar + drunk people. WTF? They sound the same whether they're reissues or originals, it's not like they're CD's or even...well don't get me started on "iPod" "DJ"s". Keep the faith.

Catherine said...

great photos! id give my right arm for any kind of mod scene or 60s type event here. There was one club which we thought would be alright, but they were playing more popular 60s - Beatles and the Doors type thing so we just left. No one was dressed up either except my boyfriend and i. It was just like some guy turned up to the pub with a bunch of Greatest hits records.

I own most of the albums i like on digital for the obvious reason of it being mobile. But i have started buying records only because i had money to burn at the time, but nothing super rare, $30 is my limit for now.

Lisa said...

Hi,
It is nice to see that there are so many people with a great style , wicht i really adore !

With love , Lisa