Drugs and their Influence on the Mod Movement

By: Matt Tucker 421001604

Anyone studying the mod culture immediately cites the use of amphetamines as an integral part of the movement.   After the sexual revolution in the 1950’s, fueled by the creation of Rock and Roll and the dancing that accompanied it, the youth of Great Britain began to congregate in night clubs to dance and listen to the new generation of music.  This new nightlife was supplemented by new types drugs that didn’t create the same intoxication effect that alcohol did. This was noted in an article for the London Evening Standard written by Anne Sharpley

They [the teenagers] are looking for, and getting, stimulation not intoxication.

They want greater awareness, not escape. And the confidence and articulacy

that the drugs of the amphetamine group give them is quite different from the

drunken rowdiness of previous generations on a night out (3 February 1964).

The stimulating effects of the drugs were often used as an excuse to escape the mods “hostile and daunting everyday work lives and the inner world of dancing and dressing up in their off-hours”¹.  It was a common thing to see young people wandering out of clubs early in the morning with dilated pupils and large bags under their eyes, and even at times, suffering from severe hallucinations.

 Naturally, since the drugs were being used by the followers of the subculture, the leaders, the bands themselves, began to use them and it inspired several famous songs that are still popular today.  One such song, The Kinks ‘Big Black Smoke’, mentions the drug Dexamyl² under its street name purple heart in the line ’And every penny she had was spent on purple hearts and cigarettes’.  Purple heart was used very often, and was known to cause euphoria and even sometimes hallucinations.

Another very popular song from this time period is The Beatles ‘Day Tripper’.  Unlike Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which many people theorize is about LSD, Day Tripper is without a doubt about acid.  Acid is a hallucinogen, and it is well known that The Beatles used to use this psychedelic drug to inspire a lot of their lyrics.

1. Dr. Andrew Wilson (2008). "Mixing the Medicine: The unintended consequence of amphetamine control on the Northern Soul Scene" (PDF). Internet Journal of Criminology. Retrieved 2008-10-11.2.

2. Hebdige, Dick. "The Meaning of Mod," in Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, eds. London. Routledge, 1993. Page 171