Bureau of Lost Culture

TOM ROBINSON is an English songwriter who rose to fame in the 70s as an LGBT and anti-racist campaigner.  He has released over 20 albums and is an award-winning much-loved broadcaster who has made many programs on all six BBC radio channels.   In this, the first of two programs, we trace his story from troubled youth through a suicide attempt and recovery in an alternative community to coming out in the gay counterculture of '70s London.   We hear about his early activism and music, signing to Konk records with Ray Davies of The Kinks and his journey toward a huge hit with the song 2-4-6-8 Motorway.   Next time: the writing of the extraordinary, perennial protest song Glad To Be Gay, more activism, more hits with War Baby and Listen to the Radio and taking further risks on the way to becoming who you really are.   Tom's first band Cafe Society For More on Tom #homosexuality #sex #london #queer #gayliberation #quaker #sexuality #gay #tomrobinson #gladtobegay #suicide #counterculture #cafesociety #comingout #homesexuality #morality 

YOUTH, producer of a huge range of artists (including Kate Bush, Crowded House, The Orb, KLF, The Verve, Guns ’n’ Roses and Primal Scream) and Jesse Goodman of the Allen Ginsberg Estate come to the Bureau to talk of the beat poet’s impact on music and the British counterculture.   We hear about Youth's 'Iron Horse' project and two albums of interpretations of Ginsberg's Fall of America poems by an astounding range of artists and we get deep into counterculture, the power of poetry, creativity and the possibility of a third summer of love.. -- Youth and Jesse will be with us in  March, when we are presenting a program of happenings to celebrate Ginsberg's London Life.   See the EVENTS page for full details. -- In May 1965, Allen  arrived in London and gave a free reading at Better Books in Charing Cross Road. It was an event described by poet-provocateur Jeff Nuttall as "the first healing wind on a very parched collective mind” and one that provided the impetus for the International Poetry Incarnation at Royal Albert Hall, a hugely significant catalyst for the first British Summer of Love. Music featured prominently in Ginsberg’s work - both in his self-accompanied performances and live collaborations with artists including Dylan, Paul McCartney and Patti Smith - and in the inspiration it has had on the wide range of musicians who have set it to music. Ginsberg In London Events  Youth’s Iron Horse Album Youth at The Horse Hospital March 15th The Fall of America albums  Volume 1 and Volume 2 Images courtesy of the John Hopkins Estate  

Britain’s own Tin Pan Alley, Denmark Street was once alive with the sound of hammered pianos, and sung melodies and choruses. Its songwriters knocked out tunes on the fly and rushed to the street to sell them to pay for the next round of drinks. In the '60s, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks came here, so did Donovan and Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Elton John, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. A popular rendezvous was La Gioconda, an Italian cafe which most visited at some point or other – David Bowie was said to practically live there. Later when Malcolm McLaren was looking for a rehearsal space for The Sex Pistols, he was delighted to find room in Denmark Street, installing his upstarts in the heart of the traditional music industry - like Greek soldiers inside the Trojan Horse.    Journalist Pete Watts returns to The Bureau to tell us tales of this lost street of dreams  - and at least of one nightmare.   Pete's wonderful book on Denmark Street is HERE     #hipgnosis #pink floyd #london #pop music #london #musichistory #counterculture #soho #musicpublishing #music  #1960s #jimihendrix #thesexpistols #davidbowie #the kinks #the beatles #DenmarkStreet #tinpanalley

Warning: this episode contains discussions of sexual and other adult themes. Julie Peakman is a historian of eighteenth-century culture who specialises in the study sexuality and pornography. She is the author of 'Sexual Perversions, 1670-1890', 'Whore Biographies 1700-1825', The Development of Pornography in 18thC England' and many other books. She came to the Bureau to discuss her latest: 'The Pleasure's All Mine - A History of Perverse Sex' which contains many affecting stories of how benign sexual difference has, in the past, lead to what we would now perceive as unjust and brutal persecution. 'Perversion' has been defined as 'showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable' or 'contrary to the accepted or expected standard or practice' - rather like 'counterculture'. It has at different times included masturbation, male and female homosexuality, cross-dressing, bestiality, sadomasochism, necrophilia, incest, exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, even straight-up vanilla heterosexual sex in certain circumstances. Julie's conviction is that the very word and concept of 'perversion' has reached its expiry date - we discuss. #perversion #sex #london #pornography #fetish #bdsm #sexuality #gay #necrophilia #incest #masturbation #bestiality #prostitution #flagellation #homesexuality #morality   

*In this, the second of a two parter, we hear more of the crazy countercultural life and times of The Incredible String Band  - from the inside looking out  - with Rose Simpson   *Rose was one quarter of the band during what many regard as their creative and countercultural peak in the late 60s and early 70s.   •Her memoir 'Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden' is an incredible story, relating how she rocketed (as a student without any particular interest in music or the counterculture), via an accidental meeting in a Scottish mountain cottage, to photoshoots in American Vogue and playing at Woodstock - and then came all the way back again.   *It's a fascinating tale, not just because the ISB were fascinating in themselves, but because it is beautifully told with a wealth of detail about a time that is usually dominated by mens' voices.   •She had many psychedelic adventures along the way, narrowly escaped getting involved in Scientology and then - and then left it all behind.   *And she knows where the sitars are buried...   *We dived into drugs, communal life, the ups and downs of free love, the catastrophe of the cult, making it up as you go along, the mysterious life and disappearance of Rose's bandmate Licorice, going full on and far out.   *Rose's memoir 'Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden' (published by Strange Attractor)    *Adrian Whittaker's compilation book Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending    *Thanks to Peter Neal for the audio clips from his film Be Glad for the Song has No Ending       #tripping #psychedelics #london #consciousness #scotland #scottishcounterculture #counterculture #drug  #lsd #music  #joeboyd #1960s #scientology #rosesimpson #incrediblestringband #begladforthesonghasnoending #woodstock #stephenduffy #hippie  

They were artists, myth makers, story tellers, tribe leaders, psychedelic troubadours; they pioneered "world music” with albums like The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter; they experimented with theater, drugs, film and lifestyle and inspired The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Pet Shop's Neil Tennant, The Lilac Time and many, many others.   They lived the hippie dream of communes and free love, dressed like mediaeval princes and princesses, were the very essence of the Scottish counterculture, played Woodstock, became cult stars, were acid evengeleists; gathered a following, a tribe that stayed loyal to them long after they had gone.. In this, the first of a two parter, Adrian Whittaker who compiled the epic new book Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending and Peter Neal who made the film Be Glad for the Song has No Ending back in 1970, take us on a trip through the crazy countercultural life and times of The Incredible String Band.    Thanks to Peter for the audio clips from his film Be Glad for the Song has No Ending    #tripping #psychedelics #london #consciousness #scotland #scottishcounterculture #counterculture #drug  #lsd #music  #joeboyd #1960s #scientology #thelilactime #incrediblestringband #begladforthesonghasnoending #woodstock #stephenduffy #hippie  

He was friends with Burroughs and Ginsberg, wrote their biographies along with those of The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Frank Zappa, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kereouc and penned books on The Beat Hotel, Pink Floyd, The Stones - amongst about 70 others.   Barry Miles (known just as Miles) came back to the Bureau to tell us all about it.   We hear how he set up Indica Gallery where Lennon met Yoko, started International Times - the bible of the underground - was instrumental in the UFO club and the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream and jow his wife Sue gave Paul McCartney his first hash brownie - and that was just the sixties.    We will do the seventies next time..     #tripping #psychedelics #london #consciousness #beathotel #thebeats #counterculture #drug  #lsd #memory  #pinkfloyd  #1960s #barrymiles #indica #lennon #mccartney #ginsberg #burroughs #betterbooks

*Niels Bohr discovered the structure of the atom in a dream, Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan after a dream, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was inspired by a dream, Hergé ’s 'Tintin in Tibet' - the first of many Tintin stories - the same. *Keith Richards claimed to have dreamed the riff to 'Satisfaction', Paul McCartney the melody to 'Yesterday’ - the most covered pop song in history. Hell, even Aphex Twin says that 70% of his album 'Selected Ambient Works Volume II' was written whilst lucid dreaming *This episode is all about The Dreaming - and our guide is one of the UK’s foremost dream researchers: SARAH JANES. *We talk about dreaming as countercultural consciousness, lucid dreaming, dreams and psychedelics, neuroscience, dreams as creative inspiration, the imagination, sleep cycles, REM, memories in dreams, alchemy, wet dreams, the dream space as the underworld - and dreaming as preparation for the afterlife. *Sarah gives some great tips on how to become a lucid dreamer, tells us about her work - and drops a couple of mind bombs on us. *For more on Sarah and her amazing work   #dreaming #psychedelics #theunconscious #consciousness #truth #madness #counterculture #sleep #luciddreaming #dreams #neuroscience #consciousness

•Cult icon, enigma, recluse, crazy diamond, he was the founding member of one of the world’s most  famous and succesful rock groups, but the life of Syd Barrett is full of unanswered questions.   •Was he a drug casualty of the sixties? Did he walk away from the pressures of the commercial music world? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness, did his muse abandon him? Was it a combination of these - or was it something more mysterious, something we can never really understand?   •'Have You Got It Yet?’, an extraordinary new film about Syd, pieces together his comet-like rise to pop stardom, his creative and destructive impulses, breakdown, his exit from Pink Floyd and his subsequent life alone, all set against the social context of the psychedelic swinging sixties. It is built around interviews with Syd’s friends, lovers, family and former band mates Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason. It is, as much as a tribute, a film about memory, friendship, lost youth, regret and the enduring power of music.   •Roddy Bogawa, the award winning co-director of the film and a crazy diamond in his own right, came to the Bureau to talk about 'Have You Got It Yet?’ - and to try to answer some of the questions about Syd.    •And along the way, we dig deep into London in the '60s, LA in the '70s, punk, underground films - and of course, counterculture.   •For more details on the film Have You Got It Yet •For more about Roddy *Join our cult   Thanks, as ever, to Jenny Spires for connecting us with Roddy.     #tripping #psychedelics #theunconscious #consciousness #truth #madness #counterculture #drug  #lsd #memorey  #pinkfloyd  #sydbarrett #haveyougotityet? #crazydiamond #darksideofthemoon #wishyouwerehere #shineonyoucrazydiamond #ufoclub #madcap

*Psychedelics have made a comeback but they remain deeply mysterious.   *They may be now seen as potential 'breakthrough therapy' for mental illness but we still have only a vague idea how they work, and there is a limit to what studies in labs can reveal. Any one who has used them knows that to really understand them, we must broaden our experience of what they actually are. *Neuropsychologist ANDY MITCHELL decided to investigate for himself, taking ten different drugs in ten different settings - from a London neuroimaging lab to the Colombian Amazon via Silicon Valley and his friend's basement. Along the way, in a picaresque, deeply strange and often wild odyssy, he encountered scientists and gangsters, venture capitalists and con men, psychonauts and shamans.   *In this episode  - Number 100 - we follow him and wonder if, whilst big pharma is closing in and whilst psychedelics are being hailed (and monetised), can they still be countercultural, transformatory, consciousness raising?    *Can in fact they still be just .. fun?   *Andy's book TEN TRIPS *Join our cult #tripping #psychedelics #theunconscious #consciousness #truth #madness #counterculture #drug  #lsd #ayahuasca #neuroscience #consciousness