Mods embraced the coolest blues and jazz and dressed as sharply as their wage packets (or pocket money) allowed. Mohair suits, smart shoes and pressed shirts were de rigueur for a weekend on the town - along with a U.S. Army surplus fishtail parka to protect all this finery from the elements. The best-dressed, coolest Mods were known as 'faces'. Lesser individuals were 'numbers' or 'tickets'.

Urban phenomenon
With most of their money spent on clothes, there wasn't much left for transport. So Mods adopted relatively cheap Italian Lambretta or Vespa scooters, often customising them with white-wall tyres and extra mirrors.

Mods were a mainly urban, southern phenomenon. Elsewhere, many youths still clung to 1950s rock and roll style. In their leather jackets and jeans, Rockers were deliberately scruffy, preferring to spend their cash on powerful, stripped-down, British-made motorcycles known as 'cafe racers'. These machines were capable of 100mph, or a 'ton': the Rockers who rode them were also known as 'ton-up boys'. They tore from cafe to cafe along Britain's new trunk roads - serious injuries and even deaths in motorcycle accidents were all part of the macho culture.

Poles apart
Mods and Rockers were poles apart. And each tribe was readily identifiable to the other. So clashes between them were no surprise. But fighting among members of the same subculture was just as common.

Antagonism between Mods and Rockers reached its peak during the spring bank holidays of 1964. Hundreds of youths fought running battles with each other and with the police in the seaside resorts of Clacton, Margate, Bournemouth and Brighton. The national press was outraged but the violence probably wasn't as bad as the newspaper reports claimed. And it didn't last long: after a couple of years, many Mods turned to the altogether more laid back hippie movement for stylistic inspiration.