Among British Pathé’s newsreel films made for UK cinemas up until 1970 vis this wonderful time of Swinging Britain capsule from 1967. Shot on 35mm film and backed by the lilting holiday camp music, a narrator these videos are not a little kitsch.
In Swinging Britain we take an 8-minute tour from the Portobello Road in West London to Carnaby Street in the city’s West End, step inside the offices of Intro magazine (launched that year with the tagline ‘“youth talks to youth in its own lingo” with illustrations by Antonio Lopez, check out Mary Quant’s boutique, hang out at a “happening” in a park, go to nightclubs (not but the UFO) and get a glimpse of early Pink Floyd. We also head to Margate in Kent for Keith Albarn’s ‘Fun City’ (Keith is singer Damon Albarn’s dad) and take in sights and sounds of Manchester and Newcastle
We meet DJs Simon Dee (the ‘shagtastic‘ inspiration for Mike Myers’ Austin Powers) and David Symonds (his father was head of the country’s security service MI5), and artist Paul Whitehead who paints his compact car in swirly colours – he went on to design the cover art of the 1970 album Trespass by Genesis).
The fashion is all around, but we linger on a look at “paper dresses” and a young woman in a bikini who when her dress is thrown away, simply pulls on another, this one carrying the face of Bob Dylan. Groovy!
Via: John Coulthart
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