The Sixties In Poland - Part One

Perhaps it's because of Easter - a family holiday - but I feel it may be the right time to do a post devoted to a country  in which I was born - Poland. Or maybe I'm getting temporarily bored with the stuff I usually write about. Either way, I think a little change may be refreshing.

Music, fashion and culture of Swinging Sixties Britain has been my biggest passion since my mid-teens.But I often wondered what did that decade look like in Poland. My parents couldn't be of much help there - in 1970 they were both still in their early teens, too young to remember anything significant (and by that I mean what they were wearing or what music were they into). What they do remember, is that the reality generally was rather dull and gray.

Anyway, in the last year or so, thanks to the miracle of Internet, I  have discovered - much to my surprise - that Poland actually had a pretty vibrant Rock n' roll/Beat/Garage/Psych scene, especially from 1965 onwards (not that I've ever heard of any of those bands when I actually lived in Poland). In the recent issue of Shindig! magazine, there was a great article on the subject, although I did not entirely agree with the choice of bands covered. So here I gonna do it my own way. Of course, I have advantage in the fact that I can actuallyl understand Polish language (I am not so confident about speaking, though. I haven't had conversation in Polish for several years) which allows me the full appreciation of this stuff. But, to those who are regular readers of this blog, I can guarantee that once you get past unpronounceable band names and strangely sounding lyrics, there is a great music there to be enjoyed. So let me take a break from my usual ramblings about Swinging Sixties London, to see what the sixties were like on the wrong side of the iron curtain.

For the young music fans in 1960's Poland, the biggest problem was a limited availability of Western records. Although The Beatles, Stones, etc. were as popular in Poland as anywhere else in Europe, their records were not being sold in record shops. The singles were largely available on so-called 'music-postards' (a sort of floppy rectangular picture disc), but it took a lot of effort to find albums. Usually black market was your best bet. It also helped if you, or somebody you knew had family or friends abroad.

Live performances of Western artists were also limited. I am not sure whether it was a case of needing a permission from authorities, or a case of bands not being that bothered about playing Poland, or a little bit of both. The fact is, some of the big English bands of the 1960's did make it to Poland  - In 1965 and 1966 The Hollies, The Animals and even London Mod/Psych heroes The Artwoods  all successfully toured there.

Article (NME? Melody Maker?) about The Artwoods' communication problems in Poland, 1966 (via Punks In Parkas)

Then, in 1967, a miracle happened. On 13th of April The Rolling Stones came to play one-off gig in Warsaw. It was their only ever gig behind iron curtain (although they did returned to Poland twice after the curtain fell down). In Poland, this gig has a legend of its own. Anybody who lived in Warsaw at the time and was age between 12 - 30, claims to have been at that gig. Unfortunately, the capacity of the venue was only about 3000, so a lot of people did not manage to get a ticket. They showed up on the night anyway, just to be in the proximity of their idols, and caused a riot outside Warsaw's Kongresowa Hall.

A brief footage of that gig from Polish news report. The newsreader says something like: Thousands of fans gathered outside Kongresowa Hall to see band The Rolling Stones. There wasn't enough tickets for everybody. Those lucky enough to get a ticket couldn't hear anything anyway. But it doesn't matter, because this a kind of gig you experience, rather than listen to. 

To a Polish audience The Stones - at the time in the middle of their psychedelic phase - seemed exotic, to say the least. The Stones themselves also experienced a little bit of cultural shock. This is how Bill Wyman remembers that gig: Warsaw was depressingly gray and dismal. On our drive to the best hotel in town, we noticed that the streets seemed strangely quiet with very little traffic and pedestrians.After checking in, I found my room to be triangular with a huge circular concrete pillar in the centre of the room.(...) Everybody was in and out of each other's rooms to see who had the best one - none of them were very good.(...) There were large crowds of kids in front of our hotel as we left, held back by the police. They were chanting: Long Live The Stones! (...) Once inside (the concert venue), we found that the tickets for our show had not been put on sale. They were given to loyal party members. This meant all the real fans were outside, unable to get tickets, but the audience seemed to get into it as we went along. Towards the end of our set they began chanting 'Icantgetno, Icantgetno'. It took a while for us to realise that they wanted 'Satisfaction'. (Bill Wyman, Rolling With The Stones, Dorling Kindersley, 2002, p 270).

Bill Wyman was wrong, though. Although some tickets were indeed given to party members, they were definitely put on general sale as well. They were expensive and got snapped up quickly, but quite a few 'true fans' did get to see The Stones (and the footage above seems to confirm it).

Interesting thing about that gig was that during the soundcheck, it turned out that Stones' instruments couldn't be connected to Polish electricity (something to do with a different voltage, apparently) So during the concert The Rolling Stones were using guitars and amps which belonged to a support act - a Polish beat  group called Niebiesko-Czarni.

Brian Jones and members of Niebiesko-Czarni, 13.04.1967

Niebiesko-Czarni (The Black n' Blue's) were one of the first and most important Polish groups of the 1960's. They formed in 1962 around guitarist/lead singer Wojtek Korda and initially they played various forms of Twist and Rock n' Roll. In the mid-1960's they were joined by a femle lead singer Ada Rusowicz, and their career really took off.

Niebiesko-Czarni performing on Polish TV in 1966 

Onstage, Niebiesko-Czarni wore blue turtlenecks and black trousers - hence their name. They had a string of successful singles, and they recorded two albums between 1965 and 1967. Then, just like the groups in Western Europe, Niebiesko-Czarni 'went psychedelic'. Blue turtlenecks were replaced by beads and kaftans.

 Niebiesko-Czarni, 1968

  Ada Rusowicz

Cover of the album Twarze ('The Faces') by Niebiesko-Czarni, 1968.

Their sound, as well as their look became more interesting. They recorded two psychedelic-tinged albums - Twarze in 1968 and Mamy Dla Was Kwiaty ('We've Got Flowers For You'   - with a great cover which you can see at the top of the post) in 1969.I haven't heard any of the those albums in their entirety, but if the title track of the second one is anything to go by, it must be pretty good. Very influenced by what was going on in England at the time, especially S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things.

The revolving-door line-up changes of Niebiesko-Czarni made them almost 'a school for future pop stars'. Quite a few ex-members of this band became went on to bigger things. One of them was guitarist/lead singer Krzysztof Klenczon who quit in 1965 and took over vocals in a band called Czerwone Gitary ('The Red Guitars' - and no, it was not a reference to a political situation of Poland). If there is any band that deserves a title of 'Polish Beatles', it's Czerwone Gitary. And it's not just a scale of their popularity. Musically they were very, very heavily influenced by the Fab Four. But even if they were copyists, they were good copyists.Some Poles like to claim that if The Red Guitars lived in England and sang the same songs in English, they would have been as big as The Beatles. That's a bit of a stretch - they weren't that good - but they certainly would have given The Hollies or The Zombies a run for their money.

Here's Czerwone Gitary doing one of their biggest hits - 'Nie Zadzieraj Nosa' (a Polish idiom meaning as much as 'don't be so stuck-up') - a song from 1968 with a very triumphant chorus in the style of 'She Loves You' or 'Twist and Shout'. They were clearly very uncomfortable having to mime to their song on the TV , which shows through their exaggerated dance movements...

Here's another one - a nice ballad titled 'Historia Jednej Znajomosci' ('A Story of a Brief Aquintanship'). There is something about that song that really catches both, teenage blues and gray Polish reality.

That's just two of their many successful singles. In the 1960's every country tried to produce 'their own Beatles'. Czerwone Gitary were one of the few European bands that for a brief period almost managed to match the efforts of the Fab Four. They remained popular throughout the 1970's although their leader Krzysztof Klenczon left in 1972. He moved to USA, where sadly, he died in a car accident in early 1980's.

 Now, on to my favorite part - Freakbeat and Garage. I'll start with a band called Chocholy ('The Hollows') doing an aggressive Rhythm n' Blues number titled 'Amor A Kysz' (Stay Away, Cupid!) which wouldn't sound out of place in London's Marquee club. (song from 1965)

Chocholy were a popular R n'B group. When their lead singer Wojciech Gassowski quit in 1967, they changed name to Akwarele ('The Watercolours') and became a backing band for a popular Prog-rocker Czeslaw Niemen (a former member of Niebiesko-Czarni).

Here's another great track - Stale To Samo ('Always The Same') by appropriately named Dzikusy (The Wild-Ones). Their Farfisa-led Freakbeat wasn't million miles away from what teenagers across America were doing around the same time (1966).I couldn't paste it in here, so just click on the link.

Another great Polish band from that time that crossed into Freakbeat territory were Polanie ('The Polans' - named after medieval tribe - the fore-fathers of Poles). They were heavily inspired by aggresive, organ-led R n' B of The Animals. One of their best tracks was 'Nie Zawroce' (I Won't Turn Back') which combined R n'B with heavy soul.

 

  Polanie covered a lot of  British Mod/Psych songs like 'Cool Jerk' by The Creation or 'Can You Hear Me?' by The Artwoods. Here's their absolutely insane version of Animals' 'I'm Crying'.

 When The Animals toured Poland in 1966, Polanie were a support act. Reportedly, Eric Burdon was very impressed with the energy of their live performances, and he invited Polanie To Britain to tour with The Animals. These plans came to nothing when Polanie couldn't get UK visas. Still, they were one of the few Polish bands which toured Western Europe - France and West Germany (where they supported The Animals again).

In the last few years some few compilations of Polish Beat/Garage/Psyche were released in Britain - two volumes of Wrenchin' The Wires  and Working Class Devils (rubbish title, if you ask me..). They contain some great gems from the Polish 60's beat scene.

           More details at Paradise Of Garage Comps

Now I am gonna move into late-60's Hippie territory. In Poland, the undisputed leaders in that field was a band called Breakout.The band was led by Tadeusz Nalepa, who was thought to be the greatest blues/rock guitarist  in Poland. They started in a mid-1960's as a beat combo called Blackout, changing their name to Breakout after they were joined by a female lead singer Mira Kubasinska. Their music was a mix of heavy blues and psyche with progressive undertones and pop sensibility. Think Hendrix jamming with Jefferson Airplane or a much heavier version of Shocking Blue..

Here's Breakout doing their 1969 hit 'Poszlabym Za Toba' (I Would Follow You) 

  

Another good song by Breakout  was called 'Gdybys Kochal, Hej!' ('If You Only Loved Me, Hey!'). I don't know whether Tadeusz Nalepa and Mira Kubasinska were a couple, but in this video they they seem like they have a Sonny Bono/Cher thing going on. Bassist clearly has a lot of fun hiding behind the tree. The main riff clearly owes a lot to Hendrix's version of 'Hey Joe'.

Breakout continued to record great music after the departure of Mira Kubasinska in 1971. That year, they released an album, unimaginatively titled Blues. It is a great heavy blues-rock album full of fiery guitar solos complemented by Hammond organ and soulful vocals of Tadeusz Nalepa. One of the best songs on the album was called  'Pomaluj Moje Sny' ('Paint My Dreams').

Since I crossed into early 1970's, I want to mention two other important Polish bands from that period. First one is a progressive rock band called Klan. Their 1971 album 'Mrowisko' ('The Hive') is a mix of psychedelic heavy rock and jazz. It resembles early stuff of The Soft Machine or Colosseum, but it's much less self-indulgent. I'm not sure wheter the band got much recognition for it, as they seem to be pretty obscure even in Poland, which is a shame, because 'Mrowisko' is one of the best Polish records of the time.

Cover of 'Mrowisko' by Klan, 1971 (listen to the album here)

Another Polish  band from that time worth mentioning was Nurt ('The Stream'). Their only album, released in 1972, was also a mix of Heavy Psyche, Prog and Jazz, but with a lot of emphasis on 'Heavy'. I was pretty blown away by virtuoso musicianship of Nurt (especially their guitarist). Unlike a lot of Prog albums from early 1970's, this one avoids a trap of being overly self-indulgent or boring.

This is a song called 'Pisze Kreda Po Asfalcie'  ('I Write On Asphalth With a Chalk') from Nurt's self-titled 1972 album..

     

I'll end with something from the mid-Sixties..

This charming lady is a pop singer Helena Majdaniec. She was sort of a Polish Cilla Black or Sandie Shaw. After having a string of incredibly twee pop hits in Poland, she emigrated to France, where she continued her musical career, apparently achieving considerable popularity in continental Europe. Here's a footage of her performing a song in English on German TV in 1966. The audio is pretty bad and the song is not particularly good, but she and her French backing band, as well as he audience look absolutely amazing..

Make no mistake, the life in Socialist Poland in the 1960's was far from perfect. But that didn't stop the youth of that country from producing their own interesting music or, as I intend to show in part two of my 'Polish Special' , films and fashion icons.

Granny Takes A Trip

Nigel Weymouth (right) outside Granny's in 1966

A boutique called Granny Takes a Trip had opened its doors in December 1965 at 488 King's Road  - an area known as World's End. The entrepreneurs behind the boutique were graphic designer Nigel Weymouth  and his girlfriend Sheila Cohen - part time actress and fanatical collector of vintage clothing. Her collection constituted a large part of early stock at Granny's - mostly second hand Victoriana and oriental garments. It was a true mish-mash of influences - garments had to be either colorful or unusual or both. The name of the boutique was giving away its policy - 'Granny' symbolized the influence of the past, and 'Trip' , a colourful world of bougeoing hippie movement and its drug of choice - LSD. The third important person behind the boutique was John Pearse  - an ex- mod  and former apprentice tailor at Hawes & Curtis on Savile Row. He was using his tailoring skills to adapt vintage garments to the contemporary trends. When he reminisces about early days of Granny's and his influences, he says: "We were dealing in vintage clothes. What appealed to us was Aubrey Beardsley and the Victorians, 'Against Nature' by Huysmans. So we were all doomed Romantics at the time. Not new Romantics, Doomed Romantics. So that was the influence - art Nouveau" (Max Decharne.King's Road, p.182). He indicates the Beardsley exhibition that took place in Victoria and Albert Museum in the summer of 1966 as a source of inspiration. The ever changing facade of the shop was also expressing its eclectic influences. The author of mural paintings was Michael English -  graphic designer involved with a company called Hapshash and The Coloured coat. In 1966 shop front portrayed big painting of Chief Running Bear - a nod to Native American culture favored by the hippies. Year later it was changed into an Art Nouveau-style painting of 1920's Hollywood star Jean Harlow.

1967

 In 1968 the whole shopfront was painted yellow and decorated with a front half of 1947 Dodge Automatic.

1968

1969

 The interiors of the shop were painted purple and decorated with Aubrey Beardsley's erotic prints. The was a heavy scent of incense in the air. The overall effect was supposed to be intimidating for customers who were not a part of an 'In' crowd. And so were the prices. The high prices at Granny's were determined by the use of expensive fabrics. Weymouth and Pearse were buying Liberty fabrics at retail prices and they were using the same outworkers as Savile Row tailors. As a result, shirts from Granny's were prized at anything between 4 to 10 guineas. A floral jacket inspired by William Morris designs would set a buyer back an extortionate 15 guineas. Skinny trousers made out of velvet or satin ("They were sort of more foppish alternative to levi's" - John Pearse(Decharne, 182)) would cost 6 guineas, and satin ties were priced at £1.10. However, the quality of the clothes was very good and John Pearse was putting a lot of emphasis on fine tailoring. Velvet suits were tightly-fitting with tight buttoning. Double - breasted jackets were tailored in floral-printed fabrics. One of the sales assistants, Johnny Moke remembers: "We used to cut up blouses and dresses and turn them into shirts or tops for men. What was great about Granny's was that there were no boundaries. Anything went and they kept on changing"(Paul Gorman. The Look - Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion, p 78).The effect of Granny's clothes was foppish, flamboyant and decadent - a 1960's reinvention on fin-de siecle dandyism.

Probably the most iconic garment made by Granny Takes a Trip - William Morris chrysantenum print jacket as worn by John Lennon...

Dennis Hopper..

 Dick Taylor from The Pretty Things (1967)..

..and Roy Wood from The Move (1967) 

 Jess Down, Rufus Potts Dawson, Nigel Weymouth (wearing William Morris chrysantemum pattern jacket) and future disco queen Amanda Lear, 1967

George Harrison wearing William Morris Golden Lily pattern jacket from GTAT, May 1968

Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, 1967

Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience wearing William Morris pattern jacket, 1967

Noel Redding wearing Granny Takes a Trip Liberty print jacket, 1967

Granny Takes a Trip jacket from 1967. It is made of William Morris 'bachelor's button' pattern, which was first produced by Morris & Co. in 1892.

Granny Takes a Trip quickly developed elite clientele. Nigel Weymouth says: " The first people to sniff us out were the mixture of Chelsea gays and debutantes(...) Then pop stars started quickly coming after them. We had all these personalities coming through, and groups like the Animals would have their photos taken outside".

The Animals outside Granny Takes a Trip, 1967

 Julie Driscoll outside Granny Takes a Trip, 1967

 

Short promotional film for a single "Granny Takes a Trip" by The Purple Gang from 1967. The song title  was supposed be an ad for a boutique.

Promotional poster for the single by Michael English (1967)

The Purple Gang outside Granny's , 1967

  

Ad from 1967

Ad from 1969

John Pearse also points out that: "We were the first bisexual shop, if you like - We had woman's clothes  big time, frocks and blouses, and there was no hard sale because everyone knew everyone else"(Gorman, p 76). One of the female clients of Granny Takes a Trip, actress and model Anita Pallenberg remembers: "If I wore mini-skirts, I'd have them made by Granny's. We'd try on clothes and have a joint in the back. Granny's was very small, just two rooms, so everyone knew each other" (Mojo Classic, vol.2, issue 4, 2007, p59).

Plan of the interior of Granny's in London Magazine, October 1966.

 Actress Linda Thorson in Granny Takes a Trip, 1967

This is how another famous customer - Salman Rushdie, remembers interior of Granny's: The air was very heavy with incense and patchouli oil and also the aromas of what the police called Certain Substances. Psychedelic music, big on feedback, terrorised your eardrums. After a time you became aware of a low purple glow, in which you could make out a few motionless shapes. These probably were clothes, probably for sale. You didn't like to ask. Granny's was a pretty scary place (Gorman, 79).

Jacket from Granny Takes a Trip in a collection of Metropolitan Museum in New York 

 Jackets from Freddie Hornick-era Granny - early 1970's ( via Freakshow)

Velvet 'Western' jacket from Granny takes a Trip

 Customer being fitted for red and black velvet 'western' jacket at Granny's, circa 1971

Velvet 'panel' jacket from Granny Takes a Trip, around 1971

Green velvet jacket with worn by Keith Richards, from around 1971

Dress from Granny's from around 1967 as worn by Jane Asher

Poster by Nigel Weymouth advertising Granny Takes a Trip, circa 1967

Article about council - ordered removal of famous half-Dodge, 1969

The relaxed atmosphere  was one of the attractions of Granny's. Anybody who was rich enough to shop there - young upper middle class men, young aristocrats and pop stars (Such as The Rolling Stones who wore clothes from Granny Takes a Trip on the cover of their 1967 album Between The Buttons, or The Beatles who wore Granny's shirts in the photo on the inner sleeve of Revolver ) enjoyed buying fancy clothes in the casual atmosphere of the boutique which epitomized Swinging London as a fashion epicentre in the 1960's. Granny's initiall success, however started losing its momentum by 1969. When Granny started selling Afghan coats, there was a row between Pearse and Weymouth over the priorities of their business establishment. Pearse did not like the increasingly hippy image of the shop: "My partners went more in that direction, but I was considered to be more urban creature(...) I never wore jeans (...) I was always more streamlined in my appearance. We may have been construed as being in the centre of hippydom, but we weren't; what we did had a subtle difference"(Gorman,p 80). Weymouth's involvement with Hapshash and the Colored Coat as a designer caused his gradual withdrawal from shop's affairs. Weymouth, Pearse and Cohen ended up selling the shop to manager Freddie Hornick (who previously co-managed Dandie Fashions boutique with Alan Holston) in 1969.

Press profile of Freddie Hornick

 Hornick's arrival provided much needed shot of fresh energy and ideas. He brought in two American managers - Gene Krell and Marty Breslau. Krell had a tailoring experience, and Breslau took care of a business side. Under their directorship, rejuvenated Granny Takes a Trip has become a mecca for rock stars - by early 1970's clientele of Granny Takes a Trip included Paul McCartney, Gram Parsons, Robert Plant, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Miles Davis, David Bowie, Marc Bolan and Rod Stewart. And that's just for starters...

Glam Rock-style jacket from Granny Takes A Trip (via Freakshow)

 Gold and black lurex suit made for Marc Bolan (now in V&A collection), 1971

 

The Faces on TOTP in 1971, Rod Stewart is wearing a  Granny takes a Trip jacket

Rod Stewart wearing leopard print suit from Granny Takes a Trip, 1972

Roger Taylor from Queen wearing velvet western jacket from Granny Takes a Trip circa 1973

Velvet trousers from Granny Takes a Trip worn by Keith Richards around 1971

Jacket from Granny Takes a Trip. Model unknown (or is it Steve Peregrine Took?) .

Granny Takes a Trip in early 1970's

Boots from Granny Takes a Trip, early 1970's 

Keith Richards wearing snakeskin boots from Granny Takes a Trip, 1969

 Hornick opened highly successful branches of the boutique in New York and Los Angeles. 

 Granny Takes a Trip on Doheny Drive in Los Angeles, which opened in 1972

Granny Takes a Trip after the move to Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles circa 1974 

Paul Raymond outside LA branch of GTAT, circa 1973

Granny Takes a Trip and its American branches enjoyed great success and continued to cater to the young and hip until late 1970's.

Granny Takes a Trip became a legendary boutique that defined King's Road of the 60's.Original garments from Granny's - especially from Pearse-Cohen-Weymouth era, are highly sought vintage items which often reach prices of thousands of pounds.

Royal Mail stamp from 2012, commemorating contribution to British fashion by designers from Granny Takes a Trip.

As far as the original founders of Granny's are concerned, two of them are still around. Weymouth is a graphic artist living in Los Angeles. John Pearse had left tailoring in the 1970's but came back to it in the mid-1980's. He opened his own shop in Soho, and today is one of the most successful London tailors. One of his most famous clients (as well as his Meard Street neighbour) was (recently deceased) artist, writer and dandy Sebastian Horsley

Sheila Cohen has not been in touch with her former partners for years and her whereabouts are unknown.

Sadly, Freddie Hornick passed away in 2009.


Photos used here come from personal collection of Roger Klein (former employee and manager of LA branch of Granny's) who shared them via Granny Takes a Trip Facebook fan page.