Top 10 Fan Wars: from Doctor Who to Twilight to Star Wars vs Star Trek

Looking back, the fights between the leather clad rockers and sharp-suited mods looks like a riot at a cosplay convention, but it was serious stuff. The rivalry between the two subcultures, one faithful to classic rock ’n’ roll, the other more modern American sounds like soul, tore up Britain in the mid 1960s.

Literally. A series of violent fracas broke out at English holiday resorts including Clacton and Brighton, with mods (riding mopeds) and rockers (riding motorcycles) going at each other with deck chairs. The incidents were overblown by a youth-fearing press (their treatment inspired the term ‘moral panic’) but it definitely got bloody.

The rivalry inspired the modish Who to make the rock opera Quadrophenia, as well as the much loved, surprisingly dull film adaptation.