Saturday Evening Film– Quadrophenia: Can You See The Real Me?

I could write a long essay about my time Jack Lyons, around 1993, came to my NYC kitchen and drank something like two pots of coffee, explaining all of this early Shepherd’s Bush/Goldhawk/Quadrophenia Mods and Rockers history to me.

It happened in the wake of a series of interviews and an article I’d written about Townshend, (in SPIN) that caused Jack to write me a long letter, with a hand drawn, multi-mirrored vespa at the top of the first page. He was insistent that we speak.

Turns out I was the first to spell out the story of how Jack and his fellow mods were the inspiration for Quadrophenia.

But when I went trotting off to Townshend pitching a documentary about it, I was summoned to Madison Square Garden, during the last Quadrophenia tour, when John Entwistle was still alive; He shot it down. It was kind of like a bear paw.

I remember exactly what he said but will take it to my grave, lest it set off WW3 among Who fans. Likely Pete was just in one of his moods. In any case, I dropped the documentary. But the idea, developed with my late friend Rob, had been to make a documentary about how the fates of a British rock star and an Irish mail carrier become entwined, producing one of the greatest albums ever made.

This much I think I can safely quote: Pete was trying to push back on the idea that his central mod character was based on Jack, as such, which Jack had claimed.

With characteristic dramatic delivery and a touch of frustration, his voice rising, he said:

”Jimmy Cooper is a composite.”

“Ok ok!” I said.

Well, somebody finally made the documentary I was disabused from making over 30 years ago.

And it’s great.