Sawdust Caesar: The Pioneers of Youth Rebellion

The early to mid-1960s was when youth ran wild for the first time. Unlike their Teddy Boy predecessors, those in their teens openly defied society's rules. School-boys, school-leavers, mere kids, took to wearing brightly-coloured clothes. In direct contrast to the white music beloved of the Rockers, these "Mods" - as they were soon labelled by the media - listened to little but the music of their black friends in the clubs of Soho and the basement parties of Brixton. Black and white youngsters mixed freely. This was a period of spontaneous and exuberant rebellion untouched and unadulterated by market forces, which paved the way for a host of less pure and more celebrated cults: hippies, yippies and punks for example. This is an exploration of this little-known period of popular culture, charting the fashions, the music and the ideologies of the time.