As I write this we are coming to the end of 2025, a quarter of the way through the 21st Century, and it seems mod revival, the mod scene, power pop, brit pop and the like are refusing to lie down. Mod revival has always been cyclical of course, as new generations discover the greats from the 1960s through to the 1980s and beyond, but a new wave of young bands are going further and creating their own revival sound. A blend of the 90s, such as Blur, Ocean Colour Scene ,Kaiser Chiefs, Ordinary Boys, but also a definite call back to the unmistakable sound of ’79.
So, what does mod revival look like (or sound like) in 2025? To answer that I’m going to go back a few years to 2007 and a band I championed at the time, The White Trainers Community.
The White Trainers Community, who started out called Bank Holiday, were a Russian band heavily influenced by Brit Pop at first before focussing on earlier influences such as The Jam, The Kinks and The Specials. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the band were responsible for starting a Russian mod revival and feeding a whole generation of UK music and fashion obsessed kids disillusioned with Russian music. Their only album under the WTC name, The Long Play, was their last, but they did leave a small footprint in the UK, and played here for over a year treating London as a kind of residency. The Long Play was re-released in 2012 and 2013 under various labels which is testament to the niche mod revival die hards taking notice, and in 2009 they changed their name to The Riots and signed for Time For Action records. The Riots released Time For Truth in 2013. Both The Long Play and Time For Truth are well worth checking out for fans of the genre – the vocals especially have a naive raw quality that really does hark back to the 70s/80s style of mod revival. The influences are very obvious on most tracks – One Step from Time For Truth, for example, is almost a direct copy of Sound Of Confusion by Secret Affair, and the opener is very Jam like. It’s no bad thing, of course.
That preamble was really to illustrate the fact that mod revival was alive and kicking in the early to mid 2000s, albeit largely in countries other than the UK. Bands like The Stud (Spain), The Higher Elevations (Sweden) and The Subcandies (Austria) were all keeping the music alive and producing albums which had a small following in the UK. Labels such as Time For Action, Heavy Soul and Detour from the late 1990s were re-releasing classics as well as discovering new bands like The Itch.
The first of the ‘modern’ school of mod revivalists I want to highlight are Sharp Class. and we’ll start with this single from 2021, Keep The Faith. The release has two tracks and I’m going to call it (because I’m old) a double A side single. I think the AA side (track number 2 if you like!) Heat is by far the better track. And what a track it is, so good it made me slightly emotional. If ever there was a modern band that could transport me back to the best years of my life Sharp Class is it. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact music it reminds me of, but I guess it’s all of it. The entire mod revival scene. It sounds like all of it.
Keep The Faith is taken from the album Tales Of A Teenage Mind, the single from that album of the same name appearing on the Mods Mayday 24 LP. The latest release from this Nottingham band is called Welcome To the Matinee Show (Of The End Of The World!) and is available digitally via Bandcamp or on vinyl from Heavy Soul.
The opener and title track brilliantly introduces the album. I don’t quite know how the boys have done it, but they manage to combine late 70s and 80s revival with late 90s and 2000s Brit Pop and, really unusually for me, I can’t pinpoint the exact influences. I haven’t been this excited about new mod revival music for a long time. Incidentally, like their first album, the title track from Matinee Show appears on the new Mods Mayday 25.
After a frantic start, He Who Dares starts gently with what sounds like a semi acoustic but comes in exactly where you want it to with the drums and understated electric chords. And then joy of joys a saxophone à la a Secret Affair middle eight. What a start.
The next track, Ordinary People, and bear with me, does remind me a little of Jellyfish. It has the same feel to a track from Bellybutton whilst being vocally very different and definitely retaining the mod vibe. It works. This record is track after track of superb music – it doesn’t let up. Sugar Glass, Ivory Tower, Fly By Night – all great. I think Alarm tries to calm things down a bit, and it is a bit more of a storied ballad, but only in the same way Planners Dream Goes Wrong by The Jam is. If you’re waiting for the drop off and the ‘filler’ then you will be disappointed. Catch My Breath picks the tempo right back up and is possibly my favourite track off the album. If I have to draw comparisons then I think this is the most Lambretta-esque offering. And the whole LP finishes wonderfully with Speed Of Light. I haven’t heard a better modern album of the genre and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Another non UK band now which is sparking some interest in the music media, Food Fight from France with the album Zeitgeist Impressions (Juvenial Delinquent Records).
An album chock full of short power pop tracks immediately familiar to fans of The Lambrettas, The Chords and Squire. The crisp and highly defined bass lines in particular transport you back in time. Hat’s off to the British accent on the vocals too – pretty impressive for a French band. The album starts strongly with What’s Wrong and never really lets up. I especially like C.C.T.V. and can imagine the chorus being belted out by the crowd. Tryst In The Sun feels just slightly out of place but still retains the power pop chords and feel, but you are soon back in the groove with Döper Love, which starts off with a riff straight out of The Undertones song book. Shenanigans is another really good track and the album finishes on a very solid note with Unschooled.
Zeitgeist Impressions is a worthy addition to any mod revival collection, but more importantly for one reason or another it seems to have piqued the interest of music journalists and reviewers.
And lastly, from May of 2025 we have Block 33 with The Promised Land.
Like Sharp Class, these guys have appeared on the new releases of Mods Mayday vinyl, and they describe themselves as a ‘new mod revival’ band from the South of England. Of the bands featured in this post I’d say they were the one most trying to create a new revival sound. A mod revival for today.
It opens with Breakthrough which is certainly different from the normal 70s/80s mod revival style although there are definite nods to later Brit Pop. The difference here is most tracks are 4 minutes plus and not as instantly playable as say Food Fight or Sharp Class. I’m not saying they aren’t as good, far from it, it’s just they demand more attention and more playing, as some of the very best albums do. London Town bucks the trend a little and is more catchy than the first four openers and more what I’d call ‘traditional’ mod revival faire, I really like it. But that’s ignoring the fact that a new sound (sorry Mighty Boosh fans) is trying to be crafted here. The Monday Club feels a little like a Small Faces track, and its a decent one, then we go back to how the album started, slowing down with Lose Yourself, Drift Away and Cold Heart of Stone before picking the tempo back up with Alive & Dangerous. The album ends with the longest track on the record at 6 minutes 28, Keep On Smiling which is possibly a little too much of a ballad for my tastes.
I will definitely be buying this album and will be giving it the time it deserves as I think Block 33 could be onto something, and if it sparks a new mod revival scene then I’m all for it!
So there we are, I enjoyed writing this post as it has hopefully introduced the reader to, potentially, a new mod revival movement happening right now for a new generation, and if Sharp Class are anything to go by then the scene is in very safe hands. I’ll try and feature some more new bands over the coming months, and have some more ‘classic reviews’ to write up soon.
Until then….Keep The Faith!