Bureau of Lost Culture

*He is widely recognised as one of the best comic book writers in the English language with works like From Hell, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Killing Joke, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Swamp Thing. He's the author of modern literary classics, including Jerusalem, a 1,266-page experimental epic novel, that have led to his legendary status and critical acclaim. *He is also an occultist, a ceremonial magician and an anarchist.   *ALAN MOORE beamed into the Bureau for a conversation about counterculture - in his own life and work, in the past, the present and in the future.   *We also dig deep into the 60s, the 70s, Thatcherism, Britpop, the power of The Arts Lab, why he doesn’t watch the adaptations of his work, the power of limitations to foster creativity and much  more.   *Alan’s storytelling course on BBC Maestro:  LONDON MONTH OF THE DEAD THE REAL TUESDAY WELD   Join us and support our wild endeavours    #alanmoore #michaelmoorcock #counterculture #artslab #london #malcolmmclaren

The People's Republic of Frestonia, a countercultural micronation, was formed in three streets in North Kensington in the heady years of late seventies London.   *Long before the Occupy movement, a group of squatters, radicals, artists and activists decided to fight back against a local authority bent on evicting them from their homes and declared the area independent of the UK. Drawing huge media interest, some derision and lot of goodwill, they had their own passports, stamps and theatre and even applied to join the United Nations.   One of them, the psychotherapist Josefine Speyer, Frestonia's minister of Culture, comes to visit the Bureau for an hour or so to tell us what it was all about - and all about the countercultural journey she made to live there from her youth in Germany. We hear of communes in Berlin and Scotland, travelling in a gypsy caravan in Wales, home births and hash cookies in a cow shed and of some of the many alternative projects initiated by her radical activist husband Nicholas Albery.   *And we learn how they came to found the Natural Death Centre, blowing the lid on the secretive cabal that controlled the funeral industry and returning death and dying back to where it belongs - with the people..   For more about Frestonia:  http://www.frestonia.org A list of Micronations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations For the Natural Death Centre: http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk More on Josefine:  https://deathcafe.com/profile/25/

The Sexual Revolution? Yes. Liberation? Maybe. Penis Envy? NO!   *Youth culture in the sixties was progressive in so many ways but when it came to the relations between the sexes, it was perhaps much more traditional than it liked to admit.   *Sleeping around, Syd Barret, Pink Floyd, Groupies, Frigidity, the Pill, abortion, Oz magazine and of course The Female Eunuch make their appearance as we dig deep into what it was like growing up as a young woman in the underground scene of swinging sixties London.   *Author Jill Drower, once a member of The Exploding Galaxy experimental dance commune returns to the Bureau along with beat traveller, model and singer Jenny Spires as we ask if the story of counterculture has largely been one told by men about men.   *For Jill's book: The Exploding Galaxy: Performance Art, LSD and Bent Coppers in the Sixties Counterculture’    *Sign up for The Bureau Newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC  #SydBarrett #Pink Floyd #Groupies #Frigidity #abortion #Ozmagazine #TheFemaleEunuch #germainegreer #jennyspires #theexplodinggalaxy

*We take a creep through dimly lit London streets populated with prostitutes, bohemians, charlatans, junkies, spiritualists, drunkards and lost souls following magician, author, occultist and drug fiend ALEISTER CROWLEY,'The Great Beast’, as he prowls Piccadilly in pursuit of pleasure, power and yet more prostitutes.   *'Do What Though Wilt shall be the whole of the law’   *Our guide is Phil Baker, author of ‘City of The Beast’, part Crowley biography, part psychogeographic odyssey and part London gazetteer. We seek the man beneath the myth, the flaneur beneath the fiend and ask why do  many still find the often deplorable Crowley so intriguing, even inspiring?   *Along the was we get fascinating glimpses into a lost era, a shadowy underworld of Victorian and Edwardian counterculture, Sex Magick, ether, drugs and .. snails..    *For The City of the Beast book : http://strangeattractor.co.uk/news/city-of-the-beast/   *For the O.T.O https://oto-usa.org/   *Sign up for The Bureau Newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC  * The Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/ #crowley #aleistercrowley #counterculture #magick #thegoldendawn #london #prostitution #occult #ether #666 #O.T.O. 

Barry Miles, an acclaimed biographer and chronicler of the 1960s counterculture, shares fascinating stories about his time on Allen Ginsberg's farm, a retreat for artists and misfits after the chaotic 60s. He details the farm's self-sufficient life, quirky residents, and Ginsberg's relentless creativity and activism. Miles also reminisces about the vibrant Chelsea Hotel, filled with icons like Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen, and Ginsberg's deep embrace of Tibetan Buddhism. This conversation highlights the chaotic charm of an era where art thrived amidst turmoil.

*Experimental treatment of the insane, secret tests by MI5 with volunteers thinking they were helping find a cure for the common cold, Cold War weapon research by the Ministry of defence on unsuspecting troops -  the early history of LSD in the UK was rather inauspicious.   *And then all hell - or heaven - broke loose..   *Britain's foremost psychedelic historian ANDY ROBERTS returns to the Bureau to take us on a trip through the revolutions in the head caused by Acid from the 1950s to now.   *Along the way we meet some of the characters who experimented, manufactured, dealt, swallowed and were transformed by it - as well as those who tried to stop them  - including an unlikely Breaking Bad style pharmacist in Islington, The Microdot Gang and even the Kray Twins..   *So sit back, relax, blow out the candles and kick off your sandals … (thanks The Lilac Time), tune in,  turn and ... *Andy and Albion Dreaming: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Albion-Dreaming-popular-history-Britain/dp/1905736274 * Sign up for The Bureau Newsletter to get countercultural treats https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC  * The Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/ *The Real Tuesday Weld https://www.tuesdayweld.com

* From Colin Wilson to Tony Wilson, Patti Smith to Mark E Smith, what was it like coming of age in the counterculture of Manchester in the 60s, 70s and 80s?   * Johnny Marr has just released his latest record and his band's on tour with Blondie. He's worked with Billie Eilish on the Academy award winning theme for the Bond blockbuster No Time to Die and with all sorts of other artists including Hans Zimmer, Modest Mouse, The The and The Pretenders.   * He’s had chart hits with Electronic, and, oh yeah, he co-piloted one of the best loved and influential British bands of all time - The Smiths.   * We don’t really talk about that - but we do dig deep into archetypal psychology, northern peak experience, clothes, records, books, youth culture and reading the road signs along the way to your destiny..   * Image credit: Andy Cotterill   * For More on Johnny: https://johnnymarr.com   * The Bureau Home https://www.bureauoflostculture.com * The Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/ * The Bureau Newsletter  https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC 

* He stepped off a plane from Barbados onto a wet and windy runway at Heathrow airport in 1965 aged 12. * Now he’s a DJ, multi-instrumentalist and producer of hundreds of records spanning reggae, lovers rock, soul, dub, punk and pop.     * Dennis Bovell's life in music is populated by a countercultural cornucopia of artists as wide ranging as Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Slits, Madness, Bananarama, the Pop Group, Fela Kuti, Orange Juice, Marvin Gaye, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and most recently, Radiohead, The Animal Collective and Spoon. * He's even got an MBE. * We dig into all that - or as much as we can - plus Hendrix, sound systems, cutting dub plates, sound clashes with Lee Scratch Perry, police harrasment, wrongful imprisonment and the youthful joys of eating breadfruit on the beach. * For More on Dennis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Bovell   * The Bureau Home https://www.bureauoflostculture.com * The Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/ * The Bureau Newsletter  https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC 

* In 1967 and and 1968, an ordinary north London house contained an Exploding Galaxy - a psychedelic commune and carnival of theatrical performers, artists and performance poets bent on transforming the city through spontaneous happenings, countercultural interventions and street activism..   * One of them was only 15 years old. Now all grown up, JILL DROWER comes to the Bureau to talk about her time at 99 Balls Pond Road as a Galaxy member - how the whole crazy endeavour came about - and how it exploded into and out of existence   Alson the way we visit The UFO club, The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream, hear about  ‘scrudging’ , bent coppers intent on busting hippies for being hippies and the lost dream of peace, love and understanding that once might have changed everything.     * For More on The Exploding Galaxy http://www.djfood.org/category/bureau-of-lost-culture/     * For Kev's amazing psychedelic DJ FOOD archive https://djfood/org   * The Bureau Home https://www.bureauoflostculture.com * The Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/ * The Bureau Newsletter  https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC   

* Withnail and I, Poets, Spiritualists, Irish, Spanish and Hugenot immigrants, Serial Killers, Artists, Railway workers, William Blake, Rimbaud and Verlaine, Walter Sickert, Sex, Drugs, Rock’n’Roll, Music Hall, Folk, Britpop, Levitation, The Roundhouse, Cecil Sharp House, The New Jerusalem, Markets, Markets, Markets..   * Writer, researcher and walker of Lost Rivers Tom Bolton leads us up and out of The Bureau to wander through the streets and stories of the London Borough of Camden - for decades, the down and dirty end of the countercultural city - in search of the strange spirits that still pervade its highways and byways.   * For more on Tom and his work https://tombolton.co.uk   * Bureau Home www.bureauoflostculture.com * Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/ * The Bureau Newsletter  https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC