In the ‘60s, the mods – in green parka jackets purchased in Soho’s Carnaby Street – were whizzing around London on Vespa and Lambretta scooters, soon-to-be humming anthems by The Who and The Yardbirds. Their rivals, the rockers, were Johnny Kidd and Billy Fury devotees with black leather jackets, who congregated at the infamous Chelsea Bridge Tea Stall on the Thames. Their violent clashes have been well-documented. But these groups also gave a voice to working-class culture:

It was arguably the mods and the rockers who sparked the ‘British Invasion’ of the US by UK bands in the years thereafter. After all, The Beatles – who spearheaded the assault – had modelled themselves on both subcultures at various points in their early career. They’d switched from leather jackets to mod suits in the early ‘60s, leading drummer Ringo Starr to humorously claim in 1964 that he was, in fact, a “mocker”. The rival subcultures’ confrontational attitudes would then go on to light the fuel for acts like The Clash and The Sex Pistols a decade later.

In fact, they were the crux of a symbolic, tribal identification so strong that it has left an indelible mark on society to this day. A devout global following endures.