I always thought that being a Mod was a very British thing but Blake Thomas, a 23 year old graphics design student in his last year at the Indiana University in Louisville, Kentucky, is close to being a unique exception in his home town.

"There are about four or five of us who, to varying degrees, are doing 'the Mod thing'. Usually it is just me and a couple of guys but the thing is, the scooter, the clothes and having to import almost everything I own from the UK means that I have to go to great lengths to achieve being who I am. People around here have absolutely no idea what to make of me. It's hard to explain.

I've skipped at least a generation and a half and I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic. I'd love to come to Europe. My grandmother came from near Liverpool - I am descended from a scouser.

Snotty Little Punk, Age 15 I was a little pratt at this period of my life...then again, when you're 15 and a punk, I don't think it's possible to be a nice boy. As much as I got made fun of at school and people calling me everything from "goth" to "biker" (not to my face though because I think I scared them shitless) you'd be surprised the the number of girls that I got. I guess it was my "bad boy" image. It's a shame there's not more surviving pictures of me with one of my many mohawks. I was always cutting them off and letting them grow and cutting them off it was hard to get a clear picture of me at this time, this was the best I could do (although usually my shoes would be combat boots and my pants would be skintight jeans with zippers all over them, that I MADE and DID NOT buy, thank you). Also, it must be noted that this was long before this jacket was crazy. I realllllly wish I still had it, it had tons of spikes and studs and patches with a long strip of leopard print running down the zipper and the whole thing had white piping, at one point I looked like a member of the Casualties.

How did all this come about - what were your teenage influences?

"At around 14 or 15 I got in to punk rock and did the whole leather and Mohican look. I got in to British bands and got some piercings. My Mom always said 'Never get a tattoo!' but I didn't heed the warnings too well and when I turned 18 I got a tattoo.

As I got older I started getting more into like Reggae and then 60's bands - my father was in several bands during that period playing mostly British Invasion type stuff - The Beatles of course, The Hollies, Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann - all the classic big sixties bands.

I've played guitar since I was 10 years old and it seemed a natural progression for me really to go from the punk thing, as I got a little older and toned down a little, to dressing in 3-button suits, Fred Perry and Ben Sherman and stuff like that. I find the whole progression from Teddy Boy to Mod to Skinhead to Suedehead etc. very interesting."

There's very little happening by accident with Blake Thomas, it's more of a design with an eye for detail?

"That's one of the things about being a graphic designer, I pay a lot of attention to the things that I do. There's a lot of detail and I make sure everything is covered.
Louisville Mods

"There's very few of us but we scoot around and get together every Wednesday night. I DJ and spin some records and right now as the weather improves and more people come out we are trying to expand in to a proper scooter club.

Blake has also produced a series of 'modcasts' (link) He says, "The podcasts are all different; the first two are an overview of a bunch of different styles associated with the sub-cultures of Mod, Skinhead and Soul. Later on I get in to late 60's psychedelic stuff, American garage bands from the 60's.

It's funny, my parents were probably the equivalent to whatever the Americans thought at the time a Mod actually was. Before the whole hippy thing my parents tell me they listened to a lot of British music as that was where it was happening."

The Scooter?

The British 60'smusic that Blake Thomas listens to is also responsible for the name he has given to his Vespa LX150 - Carrie-Anne, after the 1965 hit of the same name by The Hollies.

"It's a twist & go automatic. I didn't really know about scooters when I bought it and didn't realise there was this whole 'modern vs. vintage' thing."

Carrie-Anne is definitely a mod bike however; mirrors, lights, front and rear carriers, flyscreen and roundels to the front and sides. The side ones are there to cover the scratches caused when Blake and Carrie-Anne parted company soon after he first bought the scooter.

So a model I ain't, in fact I look a bit creepy, but I'm wearing some new clobber as well as "remixing" some old garb. Cheers big ears! - Vintage boating blazer, thrifted (added 3rd button myself) - orange tonic Merc button-down - Vintage tonic trousers, eBay - Bass Weejuns, thrifted

So what do the residents of Louisville Kentucky make of Blake and his LX150 as he rides the streets?

"I get a lot of reaction and lot of people look twice. The people that ask me the most questions about it are the riders of big cruisers. The most common question they ask is 'why do you need all those mirrors?'

Then I have to go in to the Mod thing and explain but often I say, as I have ten mirrors on the scooter, 'two are for looking behind me and the other eight are for looking at myself'.
None of the extra lights fitted work right now - that's a summer project. The kick start only gets the scooter started about once out of every 20 times so the electric starter is essential. All the work I have done on the scooter has been carried out by myself - it's never been to the dealer to be serviced."

What about all those accessories? How do you source them - from local Piaggio dealers or form the UK?

"Piaggio USA is notoriously awful. There's not a big market for scooters here, and I guess that comes from our having so many big highways that people don't need little scooters unless you happen to live in a city going from errand to errand. Some of the parts, like mirrors and spotlights, I have got from the UK. Other parts, such as the chrome and spots on the front I got from local motorcycle shops. All of the decals were ordered online.

I have a friend who made the mud flap for me believe it or not. He had a piece of rubber lying around; he cut it to size and spray painted the checker board - and it looks fantastic! The only place I have seen a similar mud flap for sale is in England and if you are going to ship from there it will cost me twice as much in shipping as the item itself."

Geared Scooters?

"I've ridden a Stella, the LML produced 2-stroke based on the Vespa P series and I now also own a 1976 Vespa 90cc small frame."

How is it running?

"Well, not very good at the moment. I took it out at my first ever rally, the WKRP event in Cincinnati (March 29, 2008) and it ended up dying on me every time I put the choke back in. Also, it's missing the air filter for the carb, so it's bogging down like crazy and idling really, really high. When I would shift into 3rd, it would pick up speed for a second, then bog down to almost nothing. I also got a report from my buddy riding behind me that he saw sparks, which I could only assume is the piston rubbing metal-on-metal against the cylinder, so the oil/fuel mixture probably sucks - and who knows how long it's even been in there.
Once I get all new cables for the brakes and clutch, put some new gas in, get the euro-style fuel tap lever - the American one on it doesn't work anymore, get an air filter, clean out the carb, it's gonna run great!"