The Touchables (1968) - A Lost Swinging London Movie

What is a title of 1968 film written by Donald Cammell, about isolated, decadent rock star surrounded by equally decadent women? Yep, It's Performance. But there's also another film which fits that description - The Touchables. Directed by Robert Freeman (photographer who shot album covers of With The Beatles, Beatles For Sale and Rubber Soul)  and released by 20th Century Fox, the film disapperared without a trace shortly after its cinematic release in 1968. It is safe to assume that it was not a box-office hit. To this day, it has never been released on VHS or DVD neither in Britain nor America. I have been trying, so far unsuccesfully, to track down a 'pirate' copy (judging from the amount of clips on YouTube, the film must be obtainable that way).

 

 Trailer for The Touchables.

The Touchables is about four London Mod girls (Judy Huxtable, Kathy Simmonds, Esther Anderson, Marylin Rickard) who kidnap a rock star (David Anthony) and keep him as a sex-toy in a Buckminster Fuller-style geodesic dome.

Marylin Rickard, Esther Anderson, Judy Huxtable and Kathy Simmonds 

 Donald Cammell reportedly based the character of a rock star on Brian Jones. For me, that's enough of a reason to watch this film.

Even if storyline sounds a bit silly, 60's space-age-era set designs, great costumes and amazing-looking girls should make-up for it. After all, films like Barbarella or Danger:Diabolik earned a status of classics for purely the same reason. Also, the soundtrack was written by great British pop-psych band Nirvana (of 'Rainbow Chaser' fame.)

Clip of the first ten minutes of The Touchables.

Kathy Simmonds

Song form The Touchables by Nirvana (UK) 

Anyway, If anybody have seen the whole film, please feel free to share your opinion...Oh, and any tips about how to get hold of a copy would be helpful too.

New Psychedelics - London 60's Revival Scene of 1980-1981 - Interview with Anne-Marie Newland

Anne - Marie Newland circa 1980

About year and a half ago, I did a post about early 1980's psychedelic revival scene in London which followed Mod revival. All I had was two great photos from Ted Polhemus' book and very little information about a shop called a Regal and designer Andrew Yiannakou. Since then, the emergence of documentary The Groovy Movie on YouTube helped  to throw some light on this obscure and almost forgotten movement. I also discovered A Splash Of Colour - a compilation from 1981 containing some of the most memorable  songs of the bands from that scene. 

Recently, I have been contacted by Anne-Marie Newland, who was one of the central figures of  1980's psychedelic revival scene. At the time, she ran a boutique called Sweet Charity, which was a part of The Regal.She was also a drummer in a psych band called The High Tide (which appeared on A Splash Of Colour) and a partner of a designer and owner of The Regal, Andrew Yiannakou. Ms. Newland kindly agreed to answer some questions about High Tide, Sweet Charity, The Regal, Andrew Yiannakou and her memories of the 1980's psychedelic revival scene in London.

DIA: How did the psych revival come about? Would you say it was a logical next step after 1978 - 1979 Mod revival?

 AMN: It came about from the Regal, a men’s clothes shop founded by Andy Yiannakou. His clothes were fantastic, he was a real tailor and of course the Psychedelic clothes were copies of the Dandy’s back in the 18th century.

The Regal shirt by Andrew Yiannakou

(Photos courtesy of Ula Wawrzynczyk, who found this amazing garment in vintage shop in a remote location of Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland)

Outfit from the Regal (photo from Surfers, Soulies, Skinheads and Skaters by Claudia Shnurrmann and Cathie Dingwall)

DIA :How did you get into it? I am assuming you were too young to actually remember original movement...What were your sources of knowledge about that era in late 70's/early 80's?

AMN:  Too young? That’s hilarious! No, I am and was not too young -  in fact, I was doing it the 2nd time around. I was born in 1955 and Andy in 1948. The Regal opened in Kensington Market in 1980/81. His name cards were made to look like the old cinema tickets. Very cool and retro. Andy started getting a young mod/hippy following. It was great to see the young guys wearing out there clothes and looking smart in the post punk era. I had been a ballet dancer then a punk drummer and met Andy in Camden lock. I had been selling vintage clothes. We became and item and seemed naturel to start designing girls clothes for the girlfriends. My resources were Mary Quant of course, Barbarella and Emma Peel…. Groovy!

The Groovy Movie  - documentary about 1980 -1981 Psychedelic revival scene (Part 1 of 4)

  DIA: I've heard from quite a few people who lived through 1980's, that apparently it was quite easy then to get original 60's clothes from charity shops. Would you say it is true?

AMN: Yes its true you could pick up original clothes in the rummage shops as we call them up here in Leicester! But I also used to get new unused clothes from old warehouses. I had an almost diving talent when it came to getting stock that had sat there for years. I only used original psychedelic cloth too. I would find it at the bottom of rolls of fabric buried in layers from the 60’s to the 80’s. Loved that aspect of designing.

DIA: Tell us about your boutique, Sweet Charity. How did you get started? Were you a part of first Regal in Kensington Market? Did you design the clothes yourself? If yes, which 1960's designer was your main inspiration? Do you remember the prices? Who were your customers? How did you advertise it? How long did The Regal/Sweet Charity last? 

AMN: My shop was a wow to look at. I used scaffolding for the rails. I had huge pots of paint in the shop to allow people to create graffiti befitting the era. I have some great pictures taken by the famous street fashion photographer Ted Polhemus. I designed the clothes myself and had never had any formal training but had a good eye for posture so it was easy to judge how the front of a garment was not the same as the back! As I Said before I only sourced original fabrics and some of the stuff I found was truly amazing. Needle cord with paisley patterns in yellow and turquoise was one of my best finds and a roll of textured cotton with super psychedelic designs put me on the map! Mary Quant was a good inspiration but I also took a lot from the men’s designs which were originally Regency…hence Andy calling his the Regency…2 meanings in one. I was not part of the first Regal as I met Andy after. But as a natural progression I was well established in the Market anyway when I had my vintage shop there. I was next to Jesse Birdsalls and Gaz’s Rockin’Blues, a great vinyl record shop. I do remember that my hipster drainpipe jeans cost £17-50 and in the Thatcher years that was expensive. My customers were aged between 12 and 35! I had such customers as Annie Lennox, The Belle Stars, Kim Wilde, Paul Young, and Kid Creole and the Coconuts! I made clothes for bands on photo shoots in a matter of hours that gave us a great reputation. U2 visited the shop when Bono still played the drums and sang, Paul Weller popped in and to be honest the shop was buzzing most of the day…FUN! I advertised in the Face, ID and put out flyers at the Groovy Cellar. Mostly it was word of mouth. Sweet Charity lasted 3 years until I sold up and passed it on when I went off to India…it was there for another few years. Not sure Bout the Regal…6 years? 

Photo taken outside The Regal, which appeared in Ted Polhemus' Street Style. From left: Marc - violinist from band Le Mat,  Gary, singer from Le Mat, who also worked at The Regal, and unidentified girl. 

Page about Andrew Yiannakou and Psychedelic revival scene in Surfers, Soulies, Skinheads and Skaters

DIA: Tell us about your band , The High Tide. Were you sharing your time between your band and your boutique? Who were your fellow members? What were your main influences? Was the main emphasis on recreating the original 1960's sound, or did you try to give your music a little bit of contemporary, 80's feel? Did you ever tour?

The High Tide circa 1980

AMN: Our Band was The High Tide. I was the Drummer and my now ex-husband was the singer. I played in the band at night, worked in the shop in the day and also taught jazz dance…I never slept and had more energy than most people I know…that’s still true today! The members were Chris as singer, John on bass, Martin guitar and Andy on keyboards. I joined the band early on while they were still forming. We made a couple of singles and had the single from the compilation album Splash of Colour with Mood Six, Marble staircase and Doctor and the Medics. We were a psychedelic band; others were a bit hip 60's ,a bit fluffy we thought! We were in the 80’s so we would not consider doing anything 80’s if you see what I mean! We toured around London but apparently after Chris and I left for India they got another singer, Gary, and must have had a drummer and went to tour Sweden. 

'Dancing In My Mind' By The High Tide, which appeared on A Splash Of Colour compilation.

DIA: Did the bands from psychedelic revival scene of 1980-81 receive any press attention, or was it strictly an underground thing?

         AMN: The bands did get a lot of press attention…in fact I have some news paper cuttings from Melody Maker and NME somewhere. They thought us odd but interesting and there was certainly a market for it as a backlash to punk and new romantics. We did keep our underground integrity too though, I feel. 

The Groovy Movie (part 2 of 4) in which sales assistant Gary talks about The Regal

DIA: Tell us a bit more about the scene itself - What were your main hangouts? Who were the Dj's and the regulars? What sort of music did the dj's play?

       AMN: The main hang out was either my shop or Andys! I used to have the kettle on all the time and the of course LSD being part of the scene was available in around the hangouts! Our club was the Groovy Cellar then there was the Attic too…again I do have some of the tickets to these places. Of course the movie Groovy Movie also shows the scene. Our main DJ was The Doctor (Of Doctor and The Medics fame) of course! 

DIA: How did "A Splash of Colour" compilation come about? Did it mark the end of the scene? 

AMN: I don’t know whether it marked the end of the scene because I had gone onto my next stage of life but it did not do as well as it should have done…the music scene then was really bubbling with the Eurhythmics, U2, etc.…lots of bands were making it big…we were out of time. 

DIA: Tell us briefly what do you do today? Do you keep in touch with Andrew Yiannakou or your former band mates?

       

AMN: Andy has 3 daughters who have children but he is very much a grumpy old man according to his daughters! I married the singer of High Tide eventually as I married my Yoga Teacher first and have 3 children with him. Chris and I have a daughter Talitha who is beginning to think we are pretty cool now! I have a school that trains people to be yoga teachers. It’s an international school and I travel around the world training. I manage to work around my 4 children. Not one of them has gone into the music business but all are creative and have good business acumen. I was a businesswoman in the end. I still love my time in the industry. I was part of the original Punk scene too! I am writing a book at the moment about my life which I must say has continued to be …A SPLASH OF COLOUR!!

(A Dandy In Aspic, 2012) 

'Electric Blue' - Brilliant psych epic by The High Tide

Dandy In Aspic meets Barbara Hulanicki

 Myself, my girlfriend and Barbara Hulanicki, Brighton, 15.12.12

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I met Barbara Hulanicki, legendary fashion designer and founder of Biba. Ms. Hulanicki was signing copies of her newest book Seamless From Biba at Brighton Museum.

The signing was a part of current exhibition at Brighton Museum, Biba and Beyond.

I am not going to talk about the exhibition, as it's already been covered well on other blogs, but it is a must-see for anybody interested in 1960's fashion.

The choice of Brighton as a location for this exhibition is not an accident. Barbara Hulanicki has strong links to the city. She grew up here, and she studied at Brighton School of Art (now part of University of Brighton).

Brighton also had its own Biba boutique between 1966 and 1968.

 

Poster by graphic artist Chris Price (long-time collaborator of  Barbara Hulanicki, who  contributed largely to Seamless From Biba) comemorating opening of Biba in Brighton in 1966 (first appeared in the book SInBiba in 2004)

Seamless From Biba is a fascinating account of Barbara Hulanicki's hugely succesful post-Biba career. The book contains forewords from long-time friends and collaborators Twiggy, Chris Blackwell, Molly Parkin and Felicity Green.  There are plenty of amazing photographs as well as 'verbal vignettes' by Delisia and Chris Price. Just like the exhibition, the book is a great  account of the career of Barabara Hulanicki - one of the most influential designers of the 20th century.

Our signed copy of Seamless From Biba. We had a lovely little chat with Ms, Hulanicki. She said to my girlfriend: 'I love your face, it's amazing'. Now, isn't it nice?...

Dandy In Aspic meets Mick Farren

Mick Farren was a well-known character on the 1960's London psychedelic scene. Although mostly remembered as a leader of proto-punk band The Deviants (A.K.A The Social Deviants), he was also an editor of radical underground newspaper International Times, a writer for NME, a doorman at the UFO club in 1967, and author of several novels.
Last night The Deviants - band Mick Farren has been fronting for (on and off) 37 years, played a free gig at Lewes Con Club.

For those, who don't know, Lewes is a sleepy, yet very picturesque village in East Sussex, about twenty minutes by bus from Brighton. It is a kind of place where old, posh people come to retire (It's not all bad, though - psych hero Arthur Brown is a resident). Perhaps for that reason, Lewes has unusually high number of good vintage/antique shops, and charity shops are one of the best ones in Sussex. What Lewes also has is Con Club. Con is short for 'Constitutional', not 'Conservative' as I initially thought. It is an easy mistake to make, seeing as the bar area is decorated with dusty bookshelves and paintings of Winston Churchill. The perspective of seeing a psychedelic lightshow and the band fronted by one of the most radical hippies of 1960's in such a venue sounded interesting, to say the least...

Mick Farren formed The Social Deviants in London in 1967. They shortened their name to The Deviants shortly before releasing their debut album Ptooff!!.Their sound could be described as raw, scuzzy garage rock - an attempt to be an English version of MC5. Although a lot of critics at the time claimed Mick couldn't sing, he certainly had a stage presence. With his huge afro and tight velvet flares, he was a quintessential 1960's rock star, and the music of The Deviants was few years ahead of their time.

Mick Farren onstage with The Deviants in Hyde Park, summer 1969

The Deviants playing guerilla gig at the stairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, May 1969

Mick Farren with The Deviants circa 1969

Mick with a friend, circa 1969

I am Coming Home - great song from Deviants' first album. Remember, this came out before The Stooges!

 Although Ptooff!! - initially self-released - was picked up by Decca, it received very little attention. The original Deviants were going for two years playing gigs around London, some of them pretty high profile.

The Social Deviants at UFO Roundhouse, 1967 (poster by Martin Sharp)

In 1969 The Deviants, along with Joe Cocker, Arthur Brown and John Lee Hooker supported Led Zeppelin in Roundhouse (poster by Alan Aldridge).

As well as fronting The Deviants, Mick Farren was also an editor of radical counterculture newspaper International Times.

Some of the covers of International Times (via their online archive)

Very radical in his views, Mick Farren was regular protester and was frequently arrested. When in 1967 Jagger and Richards got sentenced for drug offences, Farren took it to the streets and staged the protest outside the offices of News Of The World - a tabloid responsible for a set-up of two Stones.  Farren got arrested and beaten up by the police.

Mick Farren at the protest during OZ trial, 1971

He also participated in infamous incident David Frost's chat show in 1970, during which Frost got into heated argument with  Jerry Rubin after Mick Farren and others, who were speaking on behalf of the counterculture, invaded the stage.

 

When The Deviants split up in 1969 (the ex-members formed  Pink Fairies - a band which came to considerable success in the 1970's) Mick Farren recorded a solo album, before quitting music for a few years. During that time he concentrated on organising music festivals and writing for the NME. In one of his articles, titled The Titanic Sails At Dawn from 1975, he correctly predicted the dawn of punk music. In the early 1980's, he moved to New York.
Mick was also a very prolific writer who penned over thirty books - which included many science fiction novels, a history of rock poster (Get On Down, first published in 1976), a history of black leather jacket as a symbol of rebellion, and his most famous book - Give The Anarchist A Cigarette (first published in 2001) an autobiographical account of Farren's days on London scene in late 1960's/early 1970's.

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Give The Anarchist A Cigarette is probably one of the best and the funniest 1960's autobiographies I've ever read. It is a simple must-read for anyone interested in 1960's London.

Mick on the cover of The Daily Telegraph Magazine issue dedicated to underground press, 1973

In the past three decades, he would occasionally reform The Deviants. In 2011, the original 1960's line-up played 'Spirit of 71' stage at Glastonbury festival. It was the same line-up that played Lewes Con Club on Friday.
It turned out to be a fun night. Although Mick Farren looked slightly unwell, the band still projected a lot of energy. Wife of the bassist spotted me and my girlfriend in the audience (which wasn't hard - anybody younger that forty at that gig stuck out like a sore thumb), complemented our look, and invited us backstage to meet Mick Farren. She wanted to show him that, as she put it, 'young people still dig his shit'.

My girlfriend, Mick Farren and myself. Lewes, 14.12.12 

He seemed pleased with that as well. We had a brief chat about recent documentary about 1967 UFO scene titled Technicolour Dream in which Farren is one of the talking heads.

Edited to note: Sadly, Mick Farren passed away few months after. In July 2013, he collapsed onstage while playing a gig with The Deviants at Borderline in London, and died shortly after. We were certainly lucky to have met this amazing character in person, albeit very briefly. Read great tribute to Mick by his friend Charles Shaar Murray in The Guardian.

London In The Sixties by Rainer Metzger

In the recent few years, there has been a surge in numbers of new publications about 1960's London. The subject continues to fascinate fashion historians (like Richard Lester or Paul Gorman), pop historians (Barry Miles, who must have published at least a dozen books which touched upon a subject one way or another) or historians in general (Dominic Sandbrook, Jonathon Green, Arthur Marwick). Then, of course, there are all the photographers' albums, Taschen coffee table books, biographies and autobiographies of designers, pop stars, film stars and etc. London In The Sixties - Rainer Metzger's book published earlier this year by Thames & Hudson , does not quite fall under any of these categories, and although it is probably the closest in spirit to a coffee table book, it offers far more in-depth critical analysis. It is an ambitious attempt of analising every major form of art and culture that was happening in 1960's London - art, design, fashion, pop music, cinematography, theatre, literature, architecture and television. With 342 illustrations on 365 pages it does manage to get a point across really well. The book is a part of the series by Thames and Hudson about revolutionary cities in revolutionary (in cultural, not political sense) times. Previous books include: Berlin In The Twenties, Munich - Its Golden Age of Art And Culture (both by Metzger), Paris Between The Wars, and Vienna 1900 and The Heroes Of Modernism. Given the main subject of previous publications, it is not surprising that Rainer Metzger devotes a lot of space to painting and graphic design. The works of Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, Eduardo Paolozzi, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Pauline Boty are thoroughly analised and put in a social context. Same goes for illustrations of Alan Aldridge, Martin Sharp or Hapshash and The Coloured Coat. There is a competent review of cinema -  from early 1960's kitchen sink dramas - films of Tony Richardson, John Shlesinger and Karel Reisz through, of course, Blow-Up and swinging comedies of Richard Lester to decadent excesses of Donald Cammell's Perfomance. The importance of fashion is outlined through mentions of Mary Quant, John Stephen, Ossie Clark, King's Road boutiques and 'obligatory' images of mini-skirted dolly birds  strolling down Carnaby Street. Rainer Metzger also takes a look at the brutalist architecture of Erno Goldfinger , television programs such as The Avengers and The Prisoner, Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, The Anti-Vietnam protests and rise of counterculture , and many other cultural events that shaped 1960's London. Then, of course, there's the Pop Music. In this section, quite a lot of (and by quite a lot, I mean slightly too much) space is devoted to The Beatles. Let's face it, The cultural importance of  the Fab Four had been written about to death, and for some readers any mention of it is an instant page turner. What's more, there are some mistakes in the chapters about pop music. For example this photo on page 175:

  
It is captioned as 'The Kinks, c. 1967'. But actually, the photo is from 1976, when The Kinks were promoting their album Schoolboys In Disgrace (Hence the uniforms) released that year. John Dalton and John Gosling (the bearded ones on the photo) joined the band in 1969 and 1971 respectively, and were not in the line-up of The Kinks in 1967.
Similar mistake is on the page 223, where this photo of  Mick is dated 'January, 1969'.

But, in reality, the photo is from 1972, and I know it because Mick is wearing Ossie Clark stage outfit custom-made by Ossie himself especially for that 1972 American tour. Also, The Stones did not tour in January 1969, in fact they did not play any gigs between Rock n' Roll Circus (December 1968 - it was Brian Jones' last gig with The Stones) and Free Concert in Hyde Park (July 1969 - Mick Taylor's first gig).

Ok, so these are not massive mistakes, but any kind of mistake is surprising in such a high-profile publication. Perhaps Rainer Metzger - an Art History professor at University of Karlsruhe - was not that familiar with Pop history. Or maybe his team of researchers had let him down. Either way, it is a proof that you can't always trust what you read, no matter how respectable the publication might be.

The book could be described as 'Swinging London for Dummies' - if you have a good knowledge about 1960's London , there is little chance that this book will tell you something you don't already know. Still, it has enough great photographs to make it enjoyable. Some of the images might be interesting for readers of this blog..

 

   

Early incarnation of Granny Takes A Trip, circa 1966.

Michael Rainey outside his boutique Hung On You

Feature about Granny Takes a Trip and Hung On You from Nova magazine

 I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, 1967

 Cover of OZ magazine from April 1967, designed by Martin Sharp.

 

   Ray Brooks and Carol White in Cathy Come Home (1966)- an uber-depressing and brutally realistic debut feature of director Ken Loach. The film tells a story of working class family which, as a result of various misfortunes, is forced to live a life of poverty and homelessness. This rarely mentioned but nevertheless important film highlighted many social issues of the time, and served as a sad reminder, that for most of the people in  1960's Britain, life was not ''Swinging' at all.  The surprising inclusion of it in the chapter about movies shows that Rainer Metzger tried to avoid easy cliches and explore the darker side of the 1960's.

  

Chair by Allen Jones, 1969

Eduardo Paolozzi, The City of The Circle And Square, 1963-1966.

Eduardo Paolozzi, Signs of Death and Decay in the Skies, 1969-1970.

Bridget Riley inside her installation Continuum, 1963

Poster for This Is Tomorrow - a very influential 1956 exhibition in Whitechapel Art Gallery which predicted direction art and design would take in 1960's.

Overall, London In The Sixties is a really enjoyable book, and I'd recommend it to anybody interested in the subject. It would also make a great Christmas present...    

Suki Poitier modelling for Ossie Clark, 1968

Too good not to post it...a photo of Suki Poitier (third from the left) modelling for Ossie Clark's Quorum in 1968. I am not sure whether the male models are also wearing Ossie Clark's designs, but, whoever made them, these are very fine examples of the Peacock Style (gent on the far right, that coat is amazing!) and psychedelic/posh hippie style (two other models).

(Photo from personal collection of Ms. Jayme Franklin)