Leon is 'mod'
I have had close contact with the mod world since I was very young: I am from León, a small city (north of Valladolid and on which the weight of Asturias and its landscapes rest) that since I can remember has been a redoubt or, rather, bastion of this subculture that emerged in the late 1950s in London and whose name comes from the English term modernist.
Perhaps it was just my personal perception, but in León it was not unusual to see at any time of the year (for example at my school) girls with curly hair in knee-length skirts and turtlenecks and boys on vespa with green parkas Among whose stripes there was never missing that pop art logo based on the Royal Air Force cockade.
In addition, we have always liked to boast - this is very provincial - that The mod group Los Flechazos is from here (when I say here, I delve into my provincial role, not my 'Latinian' registration). So much so that his success 'Living in the Pop Era' was to León what the 'Here there is no beach' of Refrescos is to Madrid (the usual thing was to sing it in unison in bars regardless of your adopted tribe). In fact, they were the ones who promoted and promoted the creation in León of one of the most important mod festivals in Europe: the Purple Weekend (which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year), or simply 'el Purple', as we 'countrymen' say.
Disco Fair at Purple Weekend
In addition, to this series of more general factors, we had to add that my best friend's brother was 'El Cheto' (I know there are too many quotation marks, but I need them to emphasize), a faithful follower of the mod movement in the city (we are talking about the 90's), so every weekend, when I stayed over at Monica's house, it was quite common to hear on the other side of the wall those rhythms associated with jazz, soul, beat style and those british R&B that made me know who were The Who before even from my rebellious days (if I ever had one) .
The British band The Who pose in a Parisian metro station in 1966.
This associated with the fact that 'El Cheto' could be considered one of 'those unattainable-good-old-guys' at school (in the style of any school, I guess), made being a mod in León cool. Even later, In times when Estopa revisited the Catalan rumba and 'Depende' did not stop hammering the neck, the mod continued to hit hard in the Leonese capital: The Purple had become international and attracted more than 10,000 people (mods and not so mods) to the city who came in search of that alternative music by The Bluetones, Los Salvajes or The Zombies, to give just a few examples.
The Nikki Hill band will play Friday at the Purple.
Today I read in other media that León goes 'mod' for Purple Weekend (December 5, 6, 7 and 8), **with headliners such as the North American group The Black Angels ** (whose only concert in Spain will be ours, the provincial one), living soul legends like LaLa Brooks and the already mythical allnighters sessions at the Oh! Leon and El Gran Cafe, where the dj's dust off the most vintage vinyl. But you only have to spend any weekend in the Móngogo to discover the real truth, that León is, has been and will always be a mod, in the same way as 'El Cheto', now turned into Luis, I'm sure he's still one of 'those unattainable-hot-old-men' (okay, I admit it, I've gossiped about his WhatsApp photo).
Leon has always been and will be mod