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Do Anything You Want To Do: England’s Beat School, from 1961
04.20.2012
07:59 pm
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Established by James East in the 1950s, Burgess Hill School (aka the Beat School) in Hertfordshire, England, allowed its pupils to do what they wanted, in the belief this was the best way for youngsters to learn. Rules were frowned upon, and “Tradition,” it was claimed, “was clinging to the dead past.” Even smoking in class was tolerated, for as Headmaster East explained to Time Magazine in 1962:

“Kids always smoke, and I’d rather know about it than have it done in secret.”

Such openness encouraged the young uns to fulfill their potential, and find happiness in doing so, which is how it should be.

Like the best of the British Pathe clips, this short clip on Burgess Hill Beat School leaves you wanting to know more. What happened to the school? Did the experiment of a Beat School work? What did these children grow up to do? Where are they now? It would make for an interesting documentary on BBC 4, and one hopes a dozen researchers are penning such a proposal right now.

A longer 4 minutes clip is viewable here.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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04.20.2012
07:59 pm
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Kinkdom Come: A beautiful film on Dave Davies, the other half of The Kinks
04.19.2012
07:47 pm
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In June 2004, Dave Davies suffered a stroke as he was exiting a lift, in BBC’s Broadcasting House.

Suddenly the right hand side of my body seized up and I couldn’t move my arm or leg. Although I didn’t lose consciousness, I couldn’t speak. Luckily my son Christian and my publicist were there, so they carried me outside and called an ambulance.

Though he had warnings signs - waking up one morning to find he couldn’t move his right hand or speak when he opened his mouth - and was examined by a doctor, nothing indicated the imminence of his stroke. As Dave later wrote in the Daily Mail in 2006:

I was told I’d had a stroke - or, in medical terms, a cerebral infraction. An ‘infarct’ is an area of dead tissue and there was a patch of it on the left side of my brain - the bit that controls movement on the right side.

The doctors told me I had high blood pressure and that this was what had caused the stroke. They thought I’d probably had high blood pressure for at least ten years….

...Two weeks after my stroke, I finally plucked the courage to pick up my guitar. I held it across my lap, pressing on the strings. I could feel everything but the hand itself was virtually immobile.

I knew I was going to have to work very hard if I was to get better, and I started using meditation and visualisation. I thought if I could visualise myself running, walking and playing the guitar, it might prompt my brain to remember how I used to be.

It took Dave 18 months of physio, determination and hard work, to get “about 85 per cent back to normal”.

I believe my stroke was meant to happen to slow me down. I’d like to write and male films and start a foundation where I can help people be more spiritual…

...For now I appreciate my slower pace of life. I feel I have discovered an inner strength which I know will see me through any adversity.

Made in 2011, Julien Temple’s pastoral documentary Kinkdom Come is a touching portrait of the other half of The Kinks, Dave Davies.

Opening with Davies in the wilds of Exmoor, where he revels in the desolation and the quiet, Temple’s film moves through Dave’s life story, examining key moments in his childhood, his career as guitarist with The Kinks, his openness about sexuality, his (some would say torturous) relationship with his brother Ray, and the damagingly high cost of that all of his fame, success and position as “iconic Sixties figure” has cost him.

Throughout, Dave comes across as an honest, gentle soul, slightly lost, beautifully innocent, almost ethereal, as if he is a visitor from some other galaxy.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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04.19.2012
07:47 pm
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‘Pop Goes the Easel’: Ken Russell’s film on 4 British Pop Artists from 1962
03.22.2012
07:36 pm
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Pop Goes the Easel was Ken Russell’s first full-length documentary for the BBC’s arts series Monitor. It focused on 4 British Pop Artists - Peter Blake, Peter Philips, Pauline Boty and Derek Boshier.

Russell was revolutionary in his approach to making this film, he developed a whole range of new techniques to capture and reflect the excitement and energy of these young artists, which was cutting edge back in 1962, but are now part of the very heart of documentary-making (you’ll may also note clues to some of Russell’s later works). It’s a beautiful wee film that captures these artists, their work and the start of the swinging sixties perfectly - though I only wish it was in color.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.22.2012
07:36 pm
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The Bonzo Dog Band: ‘Noises for the Leg’ (Take 1)
03.14.2012
05:25 pm
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Sometimes there are groups that need no introduction.

But for the record:

The Bonzo Dog Band explain “Noises for the Leg”  to Jimmy Savile, BBC December 28, 1969. Take one - lovely.
 

 
With thanks to the bi-ped Nellym!
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.14.2012
05:25 pm
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The Rolling Stones hanging out at Brian Jones’ apartment 1967
03.05.2012
11:23 am
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The Rolling Stones hanging out at Brian Jones’ Courtfield Road apartment for an Italian news item, in January 1967. Jones tickles the ivories, Jagger smokes, and Richard lies in bed strumming his guitar. The Stones were about to release Between the Buttons, their 5th U.K. and 7th U.S. studio album, and the last produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. As was the practice back then, the U.S. version differed from the U.K. release with tracks replaced with the singles “Ruby Tuesday”, and “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. The album was a glorious pop masterpiece, and contains the first hint of psychedelia (“Yesterday’s Papers”), which The Stones would focus on with the next album Their Satanic Majesties Request, and Keith Richard’s first lead vocal on “Something Happened to Me Yesterday”.

Though this clip has been over-dubbed, it doesn’t take away from its cultural importance, as it captures The Stones in a relaxed mood at the start of what would be one of their more difficult and controversial years. Within the year, Jagger and Richard were arrested, tried and sent to prison for drug possession. Jones suffered a similar fate, though escaped jail. Where their experience strengthened the bond between Jagger and Richard, it left the fragile Jones broken. Interesting then, to see from this clip, that Jones was the main focus and appeared to be the group’s leader, what a difference 12 months would make.
 

 
With thanks to Simon Wells!
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.05.2012
11:23 am
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A Glossary of Television Terms, from 1964
02.23.2012
04:31 pm
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This is rather delightful: “A Glossary of Television Terms” illustrated by John Alcorn, under the art direction of Lou Dorfsman, as an advertisement for CBS Television, published in the New York Times February 10th 1964. The ad amusingly explains such terms as:

Juic’er. Any television electrician who is especially trained and equipped to work with heavy power lines.

And,

Lock’jaw. (a) A performer who delivers lines without expression (b) A vocalist who lacks inspiration.

As well as,

Drop. Scenery which is suspended from metal frame-work or grid near the studio roof and is not framed.

Originally posted by somuchpileup and a larger version can be found here on thecuriousbrain.
 
With thanks to Maria Salavessa Hormigo Guimil
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.23.2012
04:31 pm
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Chris Jagger: The Rolling Stones’ photo-shoot for ‘Beggars Banquet’ 1968
02.22.2012
10:14 am
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Chris Jagger presents a short film on Michael Joseph and his famous photo-shoot of The Rolling Stones’, for their Beggars Banquet album at Swarkestone Hall Pavilion, in 1968. Though Joseph’s photographs are now considered “among the best ever” taken of The Stones, a dispute between the band and their record label saw a plain R.S.V.P. invitation card used for the cover, which was later replaced by the infamous photograph of a graffiti-covered toilet.

A selection of Michael Joseph‘s Rolling Stones photos can be viewed here.
 

 
With thanks to Simon Wells
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.22.2012
10:14 am
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Batman sings: Adam West on the ‘Milton Berle Show’ from 1966
02.17.2012
04:04 pm
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Holy vocal chords! Batman sings! Adam West gets all matey on the poop deck while charming (shurely hams? - ed.) his way through “This Is The LIfe”, from The Milton Berle Show. But first pop fiends Mr. West gives his rendition (shurely torture? - ed.) of a darling little heartfelt ditty “You Only See Her” found on the wonderful site Lord of the Boot Sale.
 

Adam West - “You Only See Her”
 

 

Bonus - Adam West sings “Miranda”
 
With thanks to Neil McDonald

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.17.2012
04:04 pm
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Reflections on Love: Swinging Sixties Pop Candy
02.04.2012
06:41 pm
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Looking like an advert for Swinging London, Joe Massot’s 1965 short Reflections on Love mixes pop documentary with scenes devised by writer Derek Marlowe and (apparently) an uncredited, Larry Kramer. Though everything looks rather beautiful, it is such a terribly straight film, and considering the talent involved, and doesn’t really offer much love for the audience to reflect on. Then, this was the Sixties, when everything was new and exciting, and getting hitched in a registry office was daring and rad. O, how innocent it all seems. Massot went on to direct George Harrison’s Wonderwall and later, Led Zeppelin’s concert film The Song Remains the Same. Kramer went on to script Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967), and Ken Russell’s Women in Love (1969), before writing his novel Faggots in 1978. As for Marlowe, he wrote the classic double-agent spy thriller, A Dandy in Aspic, and followed this up with a series of idiosyncratic and stylish novels (from crime to Voodoo to Lord Byron), which are all shamefully out-of-print, and not even available as e-books - publishers please note.

The original version was twenty-one minutes long, and this is the revamped, re-scored (by Kula Shaker), re-edited (12 minutes) re-release from 1999, and still watchable pop-candy.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

A Dandy in Aspic: A letter form Derek Marlowe


Wonderwall: The Ultimate Sixties Flick?


Wonderwall Music: George Harrison’s little-known 1968 solo album


 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.04.2012
06:41 pm
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John & Yoko: Discussing Art on David Frost’s show 1968
01.25.2012
07:55 pm
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The Fab Two, John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave their first interview together on the David Frost show Frost on Saturday, August 24 1968. On it they discussed how they met, their personal and artistic philosophies, and explained some of the ideas behind their shared exhibition You Are Here:

Frost: Yes, you gave me one of these badges beforehand. Now, what, this is really the basis of what you’re talking about isn’t it, You Are Here.

Lennon: It’s that show, yeah.

Frost: Now what exactly does it mean, You Are Here?

Lennon: Well, er, You, are, here.

Ono: Usually people think in vicarious terms, they think ‘Somebody’s there,’ ‘John Lennon’s there,’ or somebody. But it’s not that. YOU are the one who’s here, and so in art, usually art gives something that’s an object and says ‘This is art,’ you know, but instead of that, art exists in people. It’s people’s art, and so we don’t believe in just making something and completing it and giving it to people, we like people to participate. All the pieces are unfinished and they have to be finished by people.

As part of the interview, two audience members tried out Yoko’s Hammer and Nail Piece, where they hammered nails into a block of wood. Both found the experience “satisfying” and “unbelievable”. When Lennon encouraged Frost to have a go, the “bubonic plagiarist” said he felt like “a man hammering in a nail”, to which Lennon countered, “I felt like one hammering it in on TV”.

The interview over-ran, and ends with Lennon conducting the audience to sing-a-long on “Hey Jude”, as the closing titles played out.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

John and Yoko: The Dentist Interview 1968


 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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01.25.2012
07:55 pm
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The Beach Boys: Vintage concert form March 1964
12.27.2011
06:26 pm
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This is The Beach Boys’ so called lost concert from March 1964. The line-up includes Brian Wilson, and in a 20 minute set, The Beach Boys rip through a selection of 9 superb songs, including tracks from their freshly released album, Shut Down Vol 2.

These are: “Fun Fun Fun”, “Long Tall Texan”, “Little Deuce Coupe”, “Surfer Girl”, “Surfin’ USA”, “Shut Down”, “In My Room”, “Papa Oom-Mow-Mow”, and “Hawaii”.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.27.2011
06:26 pm
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‘No One Cares’: Short documentary on the regeneration of Liverpool in the 1960s
12.27.2011
09:22 am
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It’s a myth still perpetuated by lazy BBC producers and bourgeois Guardianista’s that the 1960s in Britain was a golden decade of freedom, wealth, happiness and health. This may have been so if you were young, white, male, middle class and living in London, but for the majority of Brits, the swinging sixties was a decidedly average decade, where very little changed.

Sex meant marriage. Money was debt. Drugs came from the pharmacy. And revolution was the ticking of the second hand around the clock face towards aged obsolescence. As for housing, this was the small concrete blocks built indifferently up towards the sky.

This short documentary, No One Cares , on the destruction of Liverpool’s working class communities, gives a good idea of what the Swinging Sixties was like for those living beyond the suburbs of north London.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.27.2011
09:22 am
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Ali MacGraw sells the Polaroid Swinger, from 1965
12.13.2011
06:54 pm
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The Polaroid Swinger was one of the cutest cameras ever made. It was also the first inexpensive instant camera at only $19.95. Add to this its beautiful, sleek design, with built-in flashgun and its ‘YES’/‘NO’ function in the view-finder, allowing users to know when the exposure was set, all ensured it was one of the biggest selling cameras of all time.

Before finding fame in Love Story, a young Ali MacGraw makes an early appearance in this advert for the Polaroid Swinger, from 1965.
 

 
Bonus poster, ‘Meet the Swinger’, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Neil McDonald
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.13.2011
06:54 pm
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Michael Fish: Apocalyptic fashion from 1969
11.22.2011
07:41 pm
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Fashion designer Michael Fish created some of the most memorable outfits of the 1960s and 1970s, most famously the “men’s dress” as worn by Mick Jagger and David Bowie. His designs were also graced the films Modesty Blaise and Performance.

Here is Mr Fish as he introduces a brief taster of his 1969 collection, from German TV’s Aktuell.
 

 
With thanks to Maria Salavessa Hormigo Guimil
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.22.2011
07:41 pm
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Carnaby Street in Color, from 1968
10.22.2011
04:07 pm
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Color photographs and footage of London’s Carnaby Street from 1968. Doesn’t look all that swinging, does it?
 
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Via How to be a Retronaut
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.22.2011
04:07 pm
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