THE MODERNISTS
Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Wednesday, June 18, to Sunday, June 22

I DON'T wanna be the same as everybody else. That’s why I’m a Mod, see?”

Jimmy’s famous quote from legendary Brighton-set movie Quadrophenia captures the paradox at the centre of any youth movement, from the Mods who changed 1960s London to the rave scene of the early 1990s.

And that paradox plays a part in Jeff Noon’s revived and revised play The Modernists, following a Mod band The Now as they stand on the cusp of making it in the early 1960s.

Having premiered the play in Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre back in 2003, Noon has teamed up with director Rikki Tarascas of Brighton-based Tanglehead Productions to revise the story.

“We did two nights last year at Komedia and got a really strong audience response,” says Noon, who moved down to Brighton from his native Manchester more than a decade ago after a memorable book reading at the late lamented Sussex Arts Club.

“Every time you put a play on you learn from the audience. This time we have put some songs into it - they are the first songs I’ve written for about 20 years - and there’s a bit more action in there too.”

Set in 1962 the play sees the original trio behind Mod band The Now clashing with new lead singer Terence who seems intent on changing the band.

Noon, who was inspired to write the play after seeing the word Modernist in Gardner Street Mod emporium Jump The Gun.

He admits the period between the late 1950s and early 1960s holds a fascination for him.

“I was born in 1957, and I thought of my older brother as a Mod,” he says.

“I wanted to move away from the whole riots in Brighton aspect and look more at how the Mods created this fashion and lifestyle. It was Technicolor in a post-war grey time.”

Like punk 15 years later, things changed when the movement went overground. Previously homemade Mod fashion suddenly became available on Carnaby Street.

“It was like being able to buy torn and safety-pinned punk T-shirts in the 1970s,” says Noon.

“When you’re young everything means so much, especially if you see yourself as an originator. The Mods had a whole set of rules they had to follow, looking at tiny details such as the number of buttons you had done up.

“There was a hierachy with the Faces at the top, and the Tickets at the bottom - the name implied they had bought their gear in a shop with the price tag still on it. It was quite militaristic in a way.”

The irony was that the Modernist movement came as National Service ended.

“The Mods were allowed to be young for longer,” says Noon. “The Teddy Boys were the first real teenage fashion movement, but after National Service they came out as men and put that to one side.

“The Mods were working class kids who didn’t want to work in factories. They’d got an education and were working in banks and insurance offices. They were into being clean and smart - which is why they didn’t like the rockers with this horrible dirty look and greasy hair.”

Noon hopes this Brighton production will launch a crowd-funded national tour, including dates in London and Edinburgh.

“Rikki and I started out taking shows in a van to Edinburgh from Manchester in the early 1980s - my first love was theatre,” says the writer of cult sci-fi hits Vurt and Pollen. “Writing novels is quite a lonely life – you never know what people think of them. In a theatre the audience is all around you - they tell you whether they like it or not.”

He is currently working on a new large novel project, possibly under a pseudonym to allow him to explore new genres without the weight of his back catalogue.

“People expect certain things and have expectations when they see your name,” says Noon. “Musicians do it all the time - using five identities to put out slightly different records.”

Duncan Hall