I’ve had the pleasure recently of catching up with two good mates of mine Bax and Snowy who along with with Jason Brummel are compiling a book titled, ‘Ready, Steady, Girls’ which delves deeper into the world of the Mod Girl. An area which I feel has been merely glossed over in recent years. I’ve asked the key questions which will tell you more about this upcoming release, enjoy!
DP: So Mod girls they're sort of the unsung heroines of the mod scene?
Bax: Very much so, they were/are there but the main focus was always on the chaps, but of course the female side of it all had a story too
Snowy: It was important to us to include as many mod girls from as many generation and nations as possible. To do an ‘elitist’ type thing was never an option, bollocks to that. In the book some of the 60’s mods have their views aired on the 70’s mods and them in the present day mods…get the book and find out more and make your own minds up…that’s really all that matters!
DP: What drew you to write about this area of the scene?
Bax: In all honesty, it was because no one else had explored or examined it in book form.
Snowy: For my part I still enjoy hearing stories that have a mod connection. I like a lot of other things too from rave to punk to soul. For me it’s all good and all important, but in the beginning it was mod for me and those are my roots and the foundations where upon everything else has been built.
DP: Do you feel Modernist girls needed a voice?
Bax: When we started speaking to the girls who had been/ or were on the scene, it soon became obvious they wanted someone to state their case
Snowy: YES! I enjoy a lot of the mod related books that are out there but for me the females needed a bigger shout. So we have done that. They have their stories, they know what moves them, there would be no mod ‘scene’ without them, we love them!
DP: What's the aim for this book?
Bax: In my view, to show the other side of the coin so to speak and present it in a stylish way
Snowy: I’m always on the hunt to do something that hasn’t been done, not been attempted, not tried and I think I speak for Bax and Jason on this matter too. It’s in our DNA as writers with a Modernist intent. What’s for sure is that there will and can only be one book like this-the originals are always the greatest-right?
DP: It's going to be a coffee table book is there a particular reason for this is it to coincide with the cafe culture?
Bax: We've always seen it as a 'photo led' book, and design for that is key, so in a way it all fits in with that way of life yeah
Snowy: Indeed it is! This book need to be classy and smart and cool-everything that a mod is and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides its always nicer to invite friends around and have a copy of a book like RSG on the coffee table rather than Hello Magazine eh!
DP: How did you and your fellow authors decide which pieces you would pen?
Bax: We've collated the first hand stories and recollections, so we've let the girls speak for themselves. That was very important to us all
Snowy: The book is more compiled by us rather than written. That was the position that we agreed upon. It was important that a book like this should be from the mouths of the females. It’s captured a certain feel because of this.
And it wasn’t that we couldn’t have written the book on this subject. We could have done quite easily and it would have been brilliant, and we saw no reason why a man couldn’t write about mod girls In fact, that it was fella’s doing this book is kinda right. It was always meant to be a tribute to our amazing and stunning mod girls from the past 50 years.
DP: Do you feel this book will inspire a new breed of mod girl?
Bax: I think it is refreshing to see there is a new breed already there, but if it is seen by someone who is looking to get involved and it encourages them to do so, well, that would be great.
Snowy: I hadn’t thought about that, but yes, wouldn’t that be fantastic. I got into the mod thing 35 years ago, my mum was a mod in the 60’s. In the book there’s a three-part interview with Scarlett (Bayliss) and her mum and her nan, three generations of mod. This most enduring of youth cults for some reason just keeps going on and on. Yes, we hope that RSG helps to fuel that further, but in an evolving way.
DP: How can we get involved to support the pledge campaign?
