Girlfriends of The Rolling Stones modelling for Ossie Clark, 1967

Swinging London royalty modelling clothes from 1967 winter collection by Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock (who at the time ran Quorum boutique on King's Road). From left: Linda Keith, Chrissie Shrimpton, Suki Poitier and Annie Sabroux. Three of these lovely ladies: Keith, Shrimpton and Poitier were famous for having dated a Rolling Stone. Chrissie Shrimpton, who,of course was Jean Shrimpton's younger sister, was Mick Jagger's girlfriend between 1964 and 1966. The disintegration of their relationship around 1966 was visible in Jagger's lyrics - "Out Of Time", "Yesterday's Newspapers" and "Stupid Girl" were all rumored to be about Shrimpton (Mick eventually dumped her for Marianne Faithfull).

Chrissie Shrimpton and Mick Jagger in February 1966

Linda Keith dated Keith Richards in 1966.She had played small, but important part in Jimi Hendrix's career - she introduced him to Chas Chandler, his future manager (and former bass player in The Animals). The story goes: Linda had accompanied The Stones and The Animals on a trip to the US in 1966. One night, she has accompanied Brian and Keith to The Cafe Wha, a seedy back streeet dive in Greenwich Village, New York, where the three had sat mesmerised as the young, left-handed virtuoso known as Jimi Hendrix had laid waste to his audience. Days later Linda revisited the cafe, this time accompanied by Chandler who, disenchanted with his life as an Animal, was on the lookout for pastures new. Linda suggested to Chandler that managing new acts could aid his departure from playing, and, if so, then young Jimi was the best place to start.

Having already made Jimi's acquaintance, Linda set about securing the guitarist's attention with more than just a buisness proposition. Her overtures to Jimi triggered the end of her liaison with Richards. It was finally extinguished when she repeated her suggestions to Hendrix some months later following his triumphant introduction to England (Terry Rawlings, Brian Jones: Who Killed Christopher Robin?, p 92).

When Richards started dating Brian's ex - Anita Pallenberg, Brian hooked up with....Linda Keith. But he didn't stop there. To complicate matters, he simultaneously started an affair with Suki Poitier - one-time girlfriend of Tara Browne.

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Brian Jones and Suki Poitier, 1967 (Photo from a collection of Ms. Jayme Franklin).

Considering the circumstances, I wonder whether Linda Keith and Suki Poitier were even on speaking terms during that Ossie Clark photoshoot...

The New Psychedelics Pt. 4 - Freakbeat Fanzine

Today, fanzines are something of a 'dying breed'. In pre-internet days however, every hip scene had one (at least one). Some time ago, I found in second-hand music shop a few issues of the fanzine called Freakbeat. It was a fanzine of London 60's Garage/Psych revival scene from late 80's/early 90's. The issues I got - number 4,5, 6,7 and 8 are from years 1988-1993. As it often happens with fanzines, Freakbeat was not published in any regular intervals of time. The editor-in-chief was a man called Lophophora Williamsii (not a real name, I assume). Most of the articles were written under pseudonyms.  In the layout there was a generous use of Op-Art and psychedelic patterns, which is great, but it can also be annoying , as it makes reading quite difficult.
Although Freakbeat was writing primarly about original 1960's Freakbeat (Mod meets LSD, for those who don't know) bands, the fanzine was devoting a lot of space to contemporary 60's Garage/Psych revival bands such as The Bevis Frond, The Chemistry Set, The Magic Mushroom Band, Plasticland and Oziric Tentacles.

   

 Cover of Issue 4

 Above and below: Feature about The Dukes of Stratosphear (click on the photo to enlarge)

Not many people know, that The Dukes of Stratosphear was actually a semi-secret side project of post-punk/new wave hitmakers XTC. Their 1985 EP, 25 O' Clock was 60's garage revival's finest hour. It is hard to believe that the brilliant title song was not recorded in 1960's, it sounds so authentic!

  

Feature about The Smoke - British pop-psych band famous for their 1967 hit 'My Friend Jack' (click on the photo to enlarge)

 Review of the parts 9 and 10 of Pepples Compilations (click on the photo to enlarge).

Cover of Issue 6

Article about John 'Twink' Adler - one-time member of Tomorrow, The Pretty Things and Pink Fairies.

 Article about The Chemistry Set (click on the photo to enlarge).

 Ad for Pepples Compilations

 Cover of Issue 7

 Issue 7, page 1 (click on the photo to enlarge).

 The new dawn of ???

 Back cover of issue 7.

 Ad for poster-printing company.

 Interview with Krautrock legends Amon Duul II (click on the photo to enlarge).

 Feature about Greek Psych revivalists Purple Overdose (click on the photo to enlarge).

Article about early incarnation of The Flaming Lips - who will become an indie senseation of late 90's/early 2000's (click on the photo to enlarge).

Groupie Girl (1970) - The Original Almost Famous?

I was pleasantly surprised, when I recently watched this British drama from 1970. Usually described as 'trashy' or 'exploitation film' , it actually does not fall under neither category, and is much better than posters advertising it suggest. It is a film about...you guessed it, a groupie. Do not expect however, fun or glamour of Almost Famous. It is in fact, a bleak and pretty depressing movie that was definitely taking a critical view of the whole groupie phenomenon.

The film follows the misadventures of Sally (Esme Johns), who, bored with her life in a provincial town, decides to run away from home and sneaks into the van of a rock band that just played her local dancehall. Lads agree to take her with them - why wouldn't they? From that point  on, she is used, abused, subjected to various tasteless pranks and generally treated worse than dirt - and that's putting it mildly. She gets passed on from one band to another, until the inevitable tragedy occurs.

In America,  the film was released as I Am a Groupie. I don't know who that girl on the poster is, but it's definitely not Esme Johns.

The script was written by Suzanne Mercer, who wasa former groupie herself. Make no mistake, this IS a B-Movie. The acting could be a bit better and the script tries too hard to portray musicians as almost inhumane monsters (although, having hung out with struggling musicians for the large part of my life, I can vouch that they are not generally the nicest of people). But it shows the reality that is all-too-well known to anybody who has ever been in a touring band - dodgy managers, grotty B&B's , traveling in vans with no heating, ego wars and petty fights. At this point I must mention that arguments between band members portrayed in the film, for some reason reminded me of the infamous Troggs Tapes (In 1972, shortly before they split up, The Troggs had a fierce argument in a studio, not realizing that the tape was left running. The tape circulated for years in the underground achieving a cult status and apparently served as an inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap)

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  Opal Butterfly - band which appears in Groupie Girl - (from Marmalade Skies)

Another downside to the film is godawful soundtrack. For some bizarre reason, all the bands in the film, seemed to have had a Badfinger obsession. Well, I guess Badfinger were quite big in 1970...

The original soundtrack. If you ever see it, don't buy it.

Costumes in the film are quite interesting. 1970 was a moment in fashion history when two decades stylistically clashed, therefore we get examples of sixties fashions - frilly shirts for men, mini skirts and go-go boots for girls, and premonition of what was about to come in the seventies - Flares, big fur coats and platforms (for both sexes). It is worth to point out that none of the groupies in the film dresses in a style which today is referred to as 'boho chic' and often associated with 60's/70's groupies. Clothes worn by everybody during a party scene are quite amazing - most of them look quite cheaply made, but it gives you a chance to see what 'real people' wore in 1970.

Overall, I would say that the film is definitely worth watching. It gives you a chance to take a look at the English groupie scene of late 60's/early 70's with certain amount of cold realism, and without heart-warming nostalgia.

And you don't even have to buy it. Some kind soul has uploaded the whole film on YouTube.

  

Peacock Style according to Brooke Bond Picture Cards

Recently, I picked up in charity shop something called Brooke Bond Picture Cards of British Costume. It is sort of a mini album for collecting cards that came with Brooke Bond tea bags ( "In the interest of education", apparently). The album was fully completed with 50 cards, each one depicting a different era of British costume. Card number one shows clothes from 1050. The last one, number 50, shows 'Day Clothes' from 1967 (I assume that is the year album was printed and completed) and it caught my attention for obvious reasons.

Man in the picture is wearing what looks like Dandie Fashions jacket, although illustrator made it slightly too long - it should end around the area where girl's left palm is. This mistake led to another - that is, describing the jacket as mid-Victorian tail coat with military trimmings (where are they?)

Alan Holston wearing Dandie Fashions jacket, 1967

The drawing of a girl is clearly 'inspired' by famous photo of Donyale Luna - one of the first prominent black models - from 1966 modelling a dress by Paco Rabanne.

Donyale Luna in 1966 photographed by Guy Bourdin

The description of a girl seems pretty sloppy as well. Natural hairdo? Exotic make-up?and also, these are not day clothes!  The descriptions were written by Madeleine Ginsburg, B.A., A.M.A. of Victoria and Albert Museum, who clearly was not a fan of contemporary fashion. Picture number 49 depicts Christian Dior's New Look from 1947, which means that everything that happened in British fashion between 1947 - 1967 was not worth attention according to Ms. Ginsburg (although 1920's get three different pictures). Another suspicious thing is the fact that C.W. Cunnington's books figure prominently in the bibliography. At the time, he was an influential fashion historian but a lot of his research had long since been discredited as sexist and misleading.

Although this little picture album cannot be treated seriously, it does remind me of lot of 'serious' books I went through, while doing a research at University, with drawings that focus on general impression, rather than details. My advice to anybody who does a research in the field of fashion and dress history is to stay clear of those kind of books altogether. You'll know them when you see them. Use the primary sources instead.

    

 
 

Kaleidoscope on French TV in 1967

This footage has been up on YouTube for quite a while, so most of hardcore  fans of British psychedelia probably already know about it, but for those who don't (I only discovered it few days ago) it is quite a treat. It is the only known footage of Kaleidoscope -  a 60's psychedelic band from London, performing a song "Flight From Ashiya" from their album Tangerine Dream on French TV show Le Petit Dimanche Illustre in late 1967 (22nd October, to be precise).

The singer Peter Daltrey is sporting a perfect Peacock look - velvet jacket and white frilly shirt spiced up with a massive brioche.

Hanging around the studio are two great looking French dolly birds. The one with a bob is called Haydee Politoff. She was one of the top fashion models in France at the time, known for her work for Paco Rabanne. Around the time when this footage was shot, she appeared in Eric Rohmer's film La Collectionneuse, where she played promiscuous "Minet" (French for Mod) girl who constantly leads boys on, only to dispose of them after sex (sounds a bit like a French, female version of Michael Caine's character in Alfie. I haven't seen La Colletionneuse - I usually can't stand French New Wave - but I must say I am quite curious about this one).

The girl with long blonde hair is of course, one of the most famous French singers of 1960's, France Gall - a winner of Eurovision Song Contest in 1966 (It is hard to imagine that there was a time, when Eurovision was actually good). In this program, she performed her newest hit "Teenie Weenie Boppie" (Sadly, it's not included in this footage). Accompanying her on the piano was the author of the song, legendary French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg  - although you can barely see him in the footage.

Serge Gainsbourg and France Gall

It is great that this long thought lost TV performance, finally re-emerged. It brilliantly depicts the music and the fashion of 1967  London psychedelic underground. 

    

Where am I going, where have I been..

Apologies for going AWOL in the last couple of months. I won't bore you with the reasons why I had to put my blog on hold, but I will try to resume a normal service from now on. When I logged into my e-mail recently, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a rather large amount of very nice e-mails from the readers prompting me to continue with a this blog. The amount of followers doubled, and number of daily visits almost quadrupled since my last post. Frankly, I had no idea that this blog would generate such an interest. I'd like to thank everybody who reads this blog, leaves comments or share it via facebook. One of the most exciting surprises was when I found out that the list of my readers evidently includes Andrew Loog Oldham - a man who discovered and managed The Rolling Stones throughout 1960's. Mr. Oldham used  a photo of my lovely girlfriend on his official facebook page as an example of 'contemporary modette'. That is quite a complement indeed (Many thanks to Peter Markham for bringing it to my attention - I am not a facebook user anymore - I left last year, when I realized everybody on it annoyed me). I am always thrilled when somebody who 'was there' in 1960's complements this blog.

Speaking of people who 'were there' - during my time away from internet, I have met David Bailey after a interview/Q&A session he did in Victoria and Albert Museum in June.

David Bailey with Yours Truly, June 2012

The interview/Q&A itself is not much to talk about, really. Straight from his all-day photoshoot for Vogue, where, at 74, he still is a top photographer, David Bailey was not in the mood for serious discussion. His evasive answers however, were so charming ,witty and funny, that I doubt anybody in the audience was disappointed. When asked about "We'll Take Manhattan" - a recent BBC dramatisation of the story behind first New York trip with Jean Shrimpton in 1962  (and that famous photoshoot they did there), Bailey replied that he liked Aneurin Barnard, who played him, but thought that Karen Gillian (who portrayed Shrimpton) completely lacked that special quality that made Jean Shrimpton such a great model.

He talked about  various fascinating people he photographed over the years and his experiences with them, the pleasant ones (like photographing Sir Laurence Olivier shortly before his death) and the unpleasant ones (an aborted session with Oskar Werner - a German star of "Jules and Jim" who tested Bailey's patience, first by commanding him to turn off the pop music and putting some Beethoven on, and then complaining that he was an actor, not a model. Bailey eventually told him to 'piss off').

When asked , whether there was anybody in the world he wanted to photograph, Bailey replied: "Anybody in this room.."

The way he'll be remembered: David Bailey with his then wife, Catherine Deneuve in 1966
 

After the Q&A session (during which I wanted to ask him about what happen to his 'lost' film  - G.G. Passion from 1966, but I lacked courage, and anyway, I doubt he would have given me a straight answer) I got him to sign my tarnished copy of British Vogue from September 1966 (cover photo was shot by Bailey, obviously).

    

Anyway, there it is, my first post in six months. More will follow soon, so do watch this space.