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left: “Hippies in a psychedelic coffee shop“, San Francisco, 1967; right: “Pair of long-haired Londoners in a psychedelic corner of the Beatles’ Apple boutique“, London, 1968. A few of the photos which turn up when searching for pictures of the psychedelic era at Google’s LIFE archives.

By the time Yellow Submarine appeared on TV in the early Seventies I was already a keen viewer of anything showing the groovier side of the late Sixties. What I recall of that decade is resolutely unspectacular—I was only 7 in 1969, after all—but Swinging London as seen in the lighter films of the period, [...]

Further: the second version of Ken Kesey’s Merry Prankster bus. The word psychedelic, like surreal before it, slipped from its original meaning through appropriation. Humphrey Osmond’s neologism was first coined in drug-related correspondence with Aldous Huxley in 1957 and was specifically intended to describe the “mind-manifesting” quality of the hallucinogenic drug experience. The drug-inspired art [...]

The appearance of occultist Aleister Crowley on the sleeve of Sgt Pepper is well-documented—here he is looking rather grainy on my CD insert—although I always forget which of the Beatles it was who put him in the list of “people that we like”. I’d guess John Lennon who would have appreciated Crowley’s obscene poetry, copious [...]

Dilettantes by You Am I (2008). Illustration and design by Ken Taylor. Dilettantes is the eighth studio album from Australian band You Am I which is released this week sporting a very creditable Beardsley pastiche by illustrator Ken Taylor. Sleevage has more details about the creation of the CD package, including preliminary sketches. Those familiar [...]

This delightful piece of Art Nouveau-inflected grooviness is one of the new T-shirts designed by Nigel Waymouth for The Look via Topman. Waymouth, as some readers here may know, was part of Hapshash & the Coloured Coat in the late Sixties, London’s leading group of psychedelic poster artists. In addition to design, Waymouth and Sheila [...]

left: Absolutely Free by Theo van den Boogaard (1967). right: Blowin’ Your Mind by Willem de Ridder (1967). A couple of samples from similar work scattered around a Dutch auction site, along with more familiar designs from the San Francisco and London artists. All the Dutch examples are new to me; the dominance of the [...]

One of the great electroacoustic compilations, Electronic Music III: Berio/Druckman/Mimaroglu, Turnabout Records (1967). I’ve spent the past week or so immersed in the world of electroacoustic composition courtesy of torrents provided by the Avant Garde Project. Wikipedia attempts a definition of electroacoustic music and thus saves me the trouble: While all electroacoustic music is made [...]

“Freak out baby, the bee is coming!” The L.S. Bumble Bee, a single by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Decca F 12551, February 1967. Mistakenly included on some Beatles bootlegs in the Seventies, about which Dudley Moore commented: Regarding The L.S. Bumble Bee, Peter Cook and I recorded that song about the time when there [...]

Gary Oldman as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987). Ken: At least you can say you’ve sat in the same chair as TS Eliot. Joe: Yes, I’m never going to wipe my bum again. Gay playwright Joe Orton receives a welcome renewal of attention this month with a showing of films at the [...]

The Beatles get the Royal Mail treatment in a new series of UK stamps next month.

In which the lovable moptops get the official mashup treatment courtesy of George Martin’s son, Giles. Very creditable it sounds to these ears although it strains a bit much in places to shoehorn tiny bits of the very familiar songs into other very familiar songs. The added sound effects are pretty superfluous, some of them [...]

Beyond Bowie and Frankie, there’s a whole secret history of gay pop, reports Alexis Petridis ‘Wilder, madder, gayer than a Beatle’s hairdo’ It was the love that dare not sing its name—or was it? Beyond Bowie and Frankie, there’s a whole secret history of gay pop, reports Alexis Petridis Tuesday July 4, 2006 The Guardian [...]

The Chelsea Drug Store, 49 King’s Road, London, circa 1970. “I went down to the Chelsea Drug Store,” “To get your prescription filled…” The Rolling Stones, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, 1969 How much Stanley Kubrick trivia can you stand? One of the delights of DVD over VHS tape is the ability to [...]