Editing Mods and rockers (section)

== Physical conflicts ==
[[BBC News]] stories from May 1964 stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns in [[Southern England]], such as [[Margate]] in Kent, [[Brighton]] in Sussex, and [[Clacton]] in Essex.<ref>{{citation | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2511000/2511245.stm | title = 1964: Mods and Rockers jailed after seaside riots | publisher = BBC {{pipe}} On this day | location = London, England | date = 18 May 1964 }}</ref><ref name=Brawl>{{citation | last1 = Covach | first1 = John | last2 = Flory | first2 = Andrew | contribution = Chapter 4: 1964–1966 The Beatles and the British invasion {{pipe}} XII Other important British blues revival groups {{pipe}} E. The Who | editor-last1 = Covach | editor-first1 = John | editor-last2 = Flory | editor-first2 = Andrew | title = What's that sound?: an introduction to rock and its history | publisher = Norton | place = New York | year = 2012 | quote = 6. The rockers emulated Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang leader character in "The Wild One" film (a) wore leather clothes; (b) rode motorcycles; and (c) often engaged in brawls with the mods | isbn = 9780393912043 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/whatsthatsoundin0000cova }} [http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/rockhistory/outlines/ch04.htm Book preview.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422122803/http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/rockhistory/outlines/ch04.htm |date=22 April 2016 }}</ref>

Conflicts took place at Clacton and Hastings during the Easter weekend of 1964.<ref name=Carder>{{cite book |last=Carder |first=Timothy |title=The Encyclopaedia of Brighton |publisher=East Sussex County Libraries |location=Lewes |year=1990 |isbn=9780861473151 }} [http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8300_path__0p116p167p.aspx Excerpt at My Brighton and Hove {{pipe}} Home {{pipe}} Topics {{pipe}} 1960s {{pipe}} 1960s: Mods and Rockers] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816151941/http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8300_path__0p116p167p.aspx |date=16 August 2016 }}</ref> A second round took place on the south coast of England over the [[Whitsun]] weekend (18 and 19 May 1964), especially at Brighton, where fights occurred over two days and moved along the coast to [[Hastings]] and back; hence the "Second [[Battle of Hastings]]" tag. A small number of rockers were isolated on Brighton beach where they – despite being protected by police – were overwhelmed and assaulted by mods. Eventually calm was restored and a judge levied heavy fines, describing those arrested as "sawdust [[Caesar (title)|Caesars]]".<ref name=Museum>{{cite news|last1=Ainsworth|first1=Clark|title=Margate capitalises on 1964 Mods and Rockers' riots |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15094293|access-date=30 June 2014 |publisher= BBC News | date=1 October 2011 |location=Margate, Kent |quote=An exhibition called Talking Bout My Generation is being hosted in the building where the offenders were sentenced.}}</ref>

Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "vermin" and "louts".<ref name="Moral_Panics" /> Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a ''[[Birmingham Post]]'' editorial in May 1964, which warned that mods and rockers were "internal enemies" in the UK who would "bring about disintegration of a nation's character". The magazine ''[[Police Review]]'' argued that the mods and rockers' purported lack of respect for law and order could cause violence to "surge and flame like a forest fire".<ref name="Moral_Panics" />

As a result of this media coverage, two [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|British members of parliament]] travelled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and MP [[Harold Gurden]] called for a resolution for intensified measures to control hooliganism.  One of the prosecutors in the trial of some of the Clacton brawlers argued that mods and rockers were youths with no serious views, who lacked respect for law and order.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

There were occasional incidents thereafter. In 1980, during the [[mod revival]], the [[punk rock]] band [[The Exploited]] recorded the song "Fuck the Mods" on their [[Extended play|EP]] ''Army Life'', whose back cover stated "To all the Edinburgh punks and [[skinhead|skin]]s – keep on mod-bashing!!"  The band performed in [[Finsbury Park, London|Finsbury Park]], London in 1981 on the same night that [[The Jam]] were playing nearby, and there was fighting after the gigs between the mods who had watched The Jam and the rockers who had watched The Exploited.<ref>George Same (2009), ''Backward Moddy Boy'', AuthorHouse, page 20</ref>