Celia, whilst going through various papers found this article which had been copied, apparently in 1963, from the Hampstead and Highgate Express. It may be difficult to read, but it is worth it for those who were in and about London in the Sixties. It does strike some chords about being "With it" at the time, particularly in North London.
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| Howard and Blaikley 1960's |
The heading of NEW BEARINGS/Alan Blaikley/Ken Howard/Paul Overy seems to indicate these three as authors of, or at least responsible for, the piece. The three of them all attended University College School, which is located on the corner of Frognal and Arkwright Road in Hampstead.
In their 20’s at the time, between 1962 and 1963, they edited and ran four issues of a magazine Axle Quarterly. They had published early articles by Melvyn Bragg, Roy Gosling and Simon Raven amongst others. Blaikley and Howard went on to become songwriters and wrote a hit song “Have I the Right?” for The Honeycombs. Howard is a writer and director in film and television. Howard and Blaikley have written two West End musicals, Mardi Gras (Prince of Wales Theatre, 1976) and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Wyndham's Theatre, 1984–1986)
They are still working.
Paul Overy died, aged 68, sadly, in August of 2008. He was an art historian and published many works including De Stij, a classic work on the Dutch art movement 1917-1925, and Light, Air and Openness: Modern Architecture Between the Wars (2008. He was appointed Art Critic of the Times in the mid 1970’s.
It takes a bit of concentration to read, but worth the effort. The bottom of page one is "..out than Mykonos these days."
Halfway between the hipster and the dandy. I liked the rather sanctimonious final paragraph. I wasn't quite sure where the writer sat up until that point.
ReplyDeleteWell, Ed, I was there in 1963 ...I knew Alan Blaikley, he was a friend of my boyfriend Nick who went to UCS before he came to King Alfred's - we used to drink in The Cruel Sea (but I was banned when the landlord discovered I was underage), also The White Bear and the Rosslyn Arms and the Coach and Horses and the Holly Bush ...- the Hampstead 'scene' was made up of kids from UCS and King Alfred's and Parliament Hill School and William Ellis and Camden Girls and Highgate Boys ... parties every Friday and Saturday night, meeting in the Witches Cauldron (which then became Conrads Bistro) every Sunday afternoon and a film at The Hampstead Playhouse or Everyman on Sunday night's ... mostly middle class kids, children of Hampstead lefties, artists, politicians, psychoanalysts, journalists, etc, etc - we did, indeed, think we were pretty cool ....
ReplyDeletePS drugs of choice- dope and a bit of speed - and, weirdly, chloroform ...