THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT BRIGHTON MOD WEEKENDER 2018

Surprisingly, despite numbers of scooters in attendance reaching well into the thousands, it’s not a standalone scooter rally. It’s a Mod weekend. Situated on the south coast, the East Sussex seaside resort has had something of a fractious relationship with scooter riders, which stretches back almost 55 years. Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend 1964 saw the red top tabloids (over) report, by sensationalising incidents that took place there, (as well as at other south coast resorts). Bank holiday weekend visits to the seaside inevitably, as had happened for many decades previously, resulted in a bit of civil unrest as day and weekend trippers let their hair down. Over time those incidents in Brighton 1964 have been immortalised in print (Stanley Cohen’s Folk Devils And Moral Panics), vinyl (The Who’s rock opera album Quadrophenia) and on the big screen (Quadrophenia, the film). To be fair, Brighton Council and East Sussex constabulary after bank holiday invasions year on year probably had every right to not be that welcoming to invading hordes