Various - There’s No Stopping Us Now [CD]

'There's No Stopping Us Now: The Female Mods' Forgotten Story' - a title that pays homage to one of The Supremes' many infectious floorfillers - is a celebration of the inspirational women singers and groups who provided a brilliant and timeless soundtrack to an exciting moment in British pop culture. Bringing together the queens of Motown and Stax, classy chanteuses from around the world, and some homegrown dancefloor divas, these 98 songs on four discs were not only a key component of the enduring Mod scene, but many of the performers, musicians, songwriters and producers were the audible and visible representation of a way of life that publicist Pete Meaden described as "clean living under difficult circumstances". The origins of the male Mod style are well documented but female Mods were too often relegated to a supporting role, which makes the work of these singers, and musicians, plus the actresses, artists, designers, media figures, models and writers of the time all the more pioneering. Of course, female singers had been successful prior to the Mod era (among those included here, the great Dinah Washington made her recording debut in '44) but to add some context, in 2023 - some sixty years after the original flowering of Mod - nine of the 16 UK No. 1 singles were performed by or featured female artists. That compares to none of the 17 chart toppers in 1963. The inspiration for this new collection came from the book Ready Steady Girls: The Female Mods' Forgotten Story, first published in 2016 as a (quickly sold out) compendium of first-hand accounts by girls and young women drawn to the Mod way of life in the first half of the '60s, or the revival at the end of the following decade. In 2024 that book is being made available once again, and we have the opportunity to create a fitting musical companion piece to that volume's striking and original words and images. This stylishly packaged four disc set features female artists who went on to become household names (including a surprising number who found fame as actors), some one-hit wonders, a few acts who only found their audience years later, and a selection of deeper cuts that should get nodding approval from the Mod cognoscenti of either sex. The extensive sleeve notes provide a track-by-track commentary, with informative details of the singer and the song.