Mod for the 21st Century: The Chords UK and Nowhere Land

Chris Pope stopped being in his teens a long time ago, and he sees no reason to sound like he still is.

At that age, back in the late ‘70s, Pope was the leader of the Chords, one of the United Kingdom’s top mod bands. The Chords nipped at the British charts with songs like “Maybe Tomorrow” and “Now It’s Gone” and in part led a second wave of mod, along with bands like the Jam, the Lambrettas and the Purple Hearts, infusing the groovy sounds of the ‘60s subgenre with the energy and rawness of British punk’s first wave, which at the time had not yet subsided.

As always happens, that wave of mod faded out as the public’s attention eventually drifted into post-punk, new wave and other directions.  And, as often also happens, people rediscovered mod and bands who thought they’d never play together again find themselves in demand, including the Chords, who are once again putting out great music. Now the Chords UK, the group is back with its latest offering, Nowhere Land.  

The just-released album is a wonderful collection of tunes, seeing the South London-based band pulling off that difficult feat of keeping all the things we loved about their music four decades ago, yet making music that’s not just a rehash what they did in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“When you get to a certain age, you know who you are, and you really know that you’re not 16 years old anymore,” commented Pope, talking to Garagerocktopia  via Facebook from here in our home state of California.  “I didn’t want to make the music I made when I was 16. I didn’t want to recreate that, though in our latest incarnation, there are elements of what we originally were.

The band also includes Mic Stoner on bass, Kenny Cooper on drums and lead guitarist Sandy Michie. They recently completed a set of dates here in California, and Pope seemed quite satisfied both with how his band performed, as well as the reception they got.

“I’ve gotten to play in California for the first time in 30 years,” declared the down-to-earth band leader. “We did get out to Hollywood to play Madame Wong’s, but that was long ago. (With the recent dates), people found out there’s still life left in the old goat.”

Pope also commented on how the band’s audience has changed since the Chord’s late ‘70s-early’80s heyday.

“They’re all older now,” laughed Pope. “Three or four songs in, they’re as tired as we are. We just played in Pomona, and it was great, but we know we can’t expect the audience to pogo through the whole show like they used to.”

Pope and anyone else can joke about age all they want, but with Nowhere Land, The Chords UK erase any doubt about whether they still have it or not.

The title song is a scorching rocker, really more a classic rock song than mod, but perfect to get the album out the gates powerfully. Likewise, “Our World” seems more like FM mainstream rock from the ‘80s, but in a good way. The album’s closer, “One Last Shot” closes the album on a soaring, hopeful note, leaving you sorry that the album has ended.

If it’s mod you’re after, though, have no fear.  “Hipsters of London” adds another great mod song to the band’s oeuvre.  “21st Century Blues” dishes up perhaps the best lick of the album, and “All I Want is Everything” is a mod-classic rock-punk hybrid that thumps like crazy. With “Lived to Tell the Tale,” the band exposes a bit of its world-weariness without sounding weepy or wimpy.

The original go-round of the Chords ended in 1981, but Pope kept right on making rock and roll. Later in the decade, he would front Gatecrash Heaven, who plied their trade at CBGB’s amongst other venues. He would also be a part of Agent Orange (not to be confused with the very cool Southern California punk band of the same name) and make music as a solo artist.

This is the second album of the Chords UK’s comeback. In 2016 the band released Take On Life, its first full album since 1981. In reality, it wasn’t completely new as some of the material had been recorded years before.

“It started when I listened to a bootleg of a concert we did at the Marquee Club 35 years ago,” Pope recounted.  “Two songs -- ‘Burning All Around’ and ‘Home Sweet Home’, eventually made it into Take On Life. With that music, I looked at the progression of the band and heard music that sounded very different.”

“I didn’t want to try and recreate something from 1979. I have the band I have now, and it isn’t the same band as the one I had back then, and there’s no reason to expect them to sound like that band. You are what you are when you are, and that’s what I want the music to reflect.”

Nowhere Land succeeds in no small part because it frequently rocks like crazy, but doesn’t have to be screechy to do so. The first go-round of the Chords contained a subdued punk fury, clear but not overpowering. The same is true Chords UK still show it as well, albeit in more nuanced ways. Pope chalked that up to years of experience, both musical and life.

“We use our instruments differently now,” Pope explained. ” When you’re younger, it’s all about how much power and how much noise you can get. Then, later on, you realize you can get power from lyrics. As you get more experience in life – you have a family, you have to work -- you get a completely different outlook.”

Take on Life garnered nearly unanimous good reviews, and word on Nowhere Land, though just released, seems to be even better.

“A lot of people say that Nowhere Land is better than Take On Life,” Pope said. “We did a pledge drive, and lots of people paid to get it made which helped us to go where we needed to go musically.  I’m really, really pleased with what we did.”

“At first, it was hard to make, but with an album, it’s a lot like football. You send your best 11 forward. Some were a little wary of where we were going, but now people know what we’re all about and I think Nowhere Land will do itself justice.”

The bottom line is that Nowhere Land is a terrific collection that rocks when it should, eases up now and then, and manages to both look back fondly and look forward optimistically. Devotees of mod – and for that matter, rock and roll in general, will find this another fine addition.

Mod has a very long history, and we’re not even going to pretend to give it the full treatment it really deserves here, much as we’d like. We’ll instead give an admittedly oversimplified thumbnail for the unfamiliar.

The term “mod” was short for modernists, a British youth culture that was into, amongst other things, snazzy suits (particularly ones tailored in Italy), parkas, scooters, and musically, into both American jazz and R&B.

The subculture would grow to include its own rock bands who played at clubs frequented by mods, whose sound stemmed from attempts to play American-styled blues and R&B. What emerged was a hard-driving, powerful brand of rock and roll, though some bands would lean more to the r&b and ska long loved by mods.

Most famously, The Who started as a mod band (some say the band merely jumped to the front of the parade). Other bands, such as the Small Faces and the Action would build a strong UK following for mod.

Mod faded by the late ‘60s as the Who, the Small Faces and other bands either evolved or faded away. The subculture as a whole, though, never completely disappeared.

The music resurfaced again in the late ‘70s, almost as a sort of corollary to the first wave of punk. Bands -- the Chords chief amongst them – saw no huge difference between bands like the Who and the Kinks created and what British punk at the time sounded like. The motion picture Quadrophenia, based on the epic Who album, further fueled the revival. (Many say the feud between the mods and the rockers depicted in the film was a gross exaggeration).

There was another mini-revival of mod in the late ‘80s, and later many stalwarts of so-called “Brit-Pop” like Blur and Oasis made no effort to hide their mod leanings. Last decade, yet another generation of mod bands arose, in places like Medway and Brighton in the south of England. Groups like the Len Price 3 would turn the music back in a more traditional direction.

For whatever reason, mod never really caught on in the United States. It was said that part of the reason the Jam disbanded was that they couldn’t make the commercial dent on this side of the Atlantic they wanted, though it was much more, as with most bands, personal and creative conflicts.

Despite its assertive guitars, high energy, its close relation to punk and its influence on so many bands who did go big in North America, it’s a head-scratcher -- to us, anyway -- as to why mod stayed rather obscure in the states.

 “With the Chords, I never got to play in the USA,” said Pope. “We didn’t have a big record company to back us, so we weren’t in the game here.”

“The Who was originally a mod band,” Pope pointed out, “but they didn’t make it in the USA until they released Tommy, which was a big rock album. They also made Quadrophenia, also big, but it wasn’t a mod album at all – it was just about mod.”

“Maybe it’s the subject matter. Maybe it’s the way the mods dressed. I don’t know. There were a lot of British mod acts, and the crowds never caught on. I never saw why. Maybe someone who’s from, say, Baltimore, just can’t relate to what the mods are singing about.”

What everybody can relate to is tenacity and perseverance. It’s tough for a band – even a really good band – to get people to just listen to its music. Pope seemed quite gratified about the attention he has gotten so many years after he started the band.

“I thought that would never happen again,” said Pope of once again fronting the Chords. “It’s quite pleasant to be talking about it all over again.”

 For another feature on mod, check out our story about the Absolude, a terrific band from Osaka.

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

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