Various Eddie Piller Presents British Mod Sounds 60s (4-CD)

(Demon Music) 100 tracks, hardcoverbook in portrait format

Demon is proud to release Eddie Piller Presents British Mod Sounds Of the 1960s, the follow-up to The Mod Revival. Featuring 100 original tracks on 4CDs, the album delves deep into the British Mod scene of the 1960s. Featuring a selection of classic and rare tracks that trace the scene from its R&B roots to a soulful finale.

Curated by Eddie Piller, founder of Acid Jazz Records and Modcast, and with new annotations by renowned author and presenter Paul Smiler Anderson.

As Eddie Piller points out in the foreword to the extensive cover notes for this collection, he chose the word sounds wisely to reflect the diversity of talent included here, from uncool session musicians without a hint of style, to acts who saw an opportunity to jump on the mod bandwagon, to bands who have wholeheartedly embraced the mod lifestyle.

And so this new collection mixes the Mod mainstays (Small Faces, The High Numbers, The Action, The Fleur De Lys) with a generous assortment of future superstars (David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Marc Bolan, Jeff Beck and 10cc's Graham Gouldman are all represented here) and some artists so obscure and rare they could never release a record in the '60s, but Eddie tracked down the tapes anyway.

"Being with the In Crowd One More Time".

Every great youth cult deserves a great soundtrack, and when the '60s Mods adopted classic American R&B with a dash of hip jazz, they undoubtedly found the right music for their exuberant and stylish lifestyle. But buying expensive imports, hoping for a local release or praying for a rare visit from overseas talent was never enough to satisfy British youth's thirst for the latest sounds. Certainly not those on the dance floor, and certainly not those with musical ambitions of their own.

It was a music scene that began with imitation before skill and imagination led curious minds to innovation, a scene that evolved from (at best) average copies of releases on the Chess, Motown and Stax labels to something more sophisticated, something quite unique, something very British.

All formats are (of course) stylishly packaged and include new cover notes by Paul 'Smiler' Anderson, author of the best-selling and highly regarded books Mods: The New Religion and Mod Art.