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Ready, Steady, Go! The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London
It’s the summer of 1966... The fundamental old chastity, rationality, harmony, sobriety, even blasted to nothing or crumbling under siege. The city glows. It echoes. It pulses. It bleeds pastel and fuzzy, spicy, paisley and soft. This is how it's always going to smashing clothes, brilliant music, easy sex, eternal youth, the eyes of everybody, everyone's first thought, the top of the world, right here, right Swinging London.
Shawn Levy has a genius for unearthing the secret history of popular culture. The Los Angeles Times called King of Comedy , his biography of Jerry Lewis, "a model of what a celebrity bio ought to be–smart, knowing, insightful, often funny, full of fascinating insiders' stories," and the Boston Globe declared that Rat Pack Confidential "evokes the time in question with the power of a novel, as well as James Ellroy's American Tabloid and better by far than Don DeLillo's Underworld. "
In Ready, Steady, Go! Levy captures the spirit of the sixties in all its exuberance. A portrait of London from roughly 1961 to 1969, it chronicles the explosion of creativity–in art, music and fashion–and the revolutions–sexual, social and political–that reshaped the world. Levy deftly blends the enthusiasm of a fan, the discerning eye of a social critic and a historian's objectivity as he re-creates the hectic pace and daring experimentation of the times–from the utter transformation of rock 'n' roll by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to the new aesthetics introduced by fashion designers like Mary Quant, haircutters like Vidal Sassoon, photographers like David Bailey, actors like Michael Caine and Terence Stamp and filmmakers like Richard Lester and Nicolas Roeg to the wild clothing shops and cutting-edge clubs that made Carnaby Street and King's Road the hippest thoroughfares in the world.
Spiced with the reminiscences of some of the leading icons of that period, their fans and followers, and featuring a photographic gallery of well-known faces and far-out fashions, Ready, Steady, Go! is an irresistible re-creation of a time and place that seemed almost impossibly fun.
Shawn Levy has a genius for unearthing the secret history of popular culture. The Los Angeles Times called King of Comedy , his biography of Jerry Lewis, "a model of what a celebrity bio ought to be–smart, knowing, insightful, often funny, full of fascinating insiders' stories," and the Boston Globe declared that Rat Pack Confidential "evokes the time in question with the power of a novel, as well as James Ellroy's American Tabloid and better by far than Don DeLillo's Underworld. "
In Ready, Steady, Go! Levy captures the spirit of the sixties in all its exuberance. A portrait of London from roughly 1961 to 1969, it chronicles the explosion of creativity–in art, music and fashion–and the revolutions–sexual, social and political–that reshaped the world. Levy deftly blends the enthusiasm of a fan, the discerning eye of a social critic and a historian's objectivity as he re-creates the hectic pace and daring experimentation of the times–from the utter transformation of rock 'n' roll by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to the new aesthetics introduced by fashion designers like Mary Quant, haircutters like Vidal Sassoon, photographers like David Bailey, actors like Michael Caine and Terence Stamp and filmmakers like Richard Lester and Nicolas Roeg to the wild clothing shops and cutting-edge clubs that made Carnaby Street and King's Road the hippest thoroughfares in the world.
Spiced with the reminiscences of some of the leading icons of that period, their fans and followers, and featuring a photographic gallery of well-known faces and far-out fashions, Ready, Steady, Go! is an irresistible re-creation of a time and place that seemed almost impossibly fun.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
31 people are currently reading
1179 people want to read
About the author
Shawn Levy
14 books181 followersShawn Levy is the author of eleven books of biography, pop culture history, and poetry. The former film critic of The Oregonian and KGW-TV and a former editor of American Film, he has been published in Sight and Sound, Film Comment, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Black Rock Beacon, among many other outlets. He jumps and claps and sings for victory in Portland, Oregon, where he serves on the board of directors of Operation Pitch Invasion.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
October 8, 2022
"'Swinging London' had given the world more than just the root-joke of the Austin Powers films. There were cultural artifacts of lasting merit and appeal - records and films and plays and photos and paintings. There was the notion that new styles in clothing and hair should be sexy, practical, fun and affordable. There was the sense that social wrongs could not stand. [.] These changes - wrapped up gaily, set to a danceable beat and glowing with the optimism of youth - were genuine steps into more than just modernity . . . it was also a place where you opened your mind to a better world." -- page 320
Levy's Ready, Steady, Go! (title copped from a briefly popular British pop music TV series that aired in the mid-60's) examines a handful of pop culture figures that came to prominence during the five-year 'Swinging London' period of 1963-1967 and who also were often natives of said metropolis. This includes - in no particular order - hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, actor Terence Stamp, models Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, fashion photographer David Bailey, and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. As the author explains in an astute opening chapter, the city of London was still stuck in a bit of a malaise during the post-WWII years, but with the arrival of the 'Mod' era it was if this previously drab black-and-white world was suddenly blasted into full living color. He also details some of the music, movies, and fashion / image / societal changes that became world renown during this time, and briefly gave the city a rare sort of prestige. So there is a fair amount of detailed information covered in 300 pages, but often the best parts were little moments (such as the contents of John Lennon's heartfelt 'get well soon' note to manager Epstein during his drug overdose recovery; or Jimi Hendrix's arrival and success on the club stage - amusingly shaking the confidence of Brit guitar gods Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton - after an initially cool reception in his native U.S.) dotted throughout the narrative. It sounds like it was all quite the scene, and I'll give actor Michael Caine - who was solidly establishing the start of his long movie career during this decade - the final word: "It was the time of my time. I will never have so much fun again, ever."
Levy's Ready, Steady, Go! (title copped from a briefly popular British pop music TV series that aired in the mid-60's) examines a handful of pop culture figures that came to prominence during the five-year 'Swinging London' period of 1963-1967 and who also were often natives of said metropolis. This includes - in no particular order - hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, actor Terence Stamp, models Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, fashion photographer David Bailey, and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. As the author explains in an astute opening chapter, the city of London was still stuck in a bit of a malaise during the post-WWII years, but with the arrival of the 'Mod' era it was if this previously drab black-and-white world was suddenly blasted into full living color. He also details some of the music, movies, and fashion / image / societal changes that became world renown during this time, and briefly gave the city a rare sort of prestige. So there is a fair amount of detailed information covered in 300 pages, but often the best parts were little moments (such as the contents of John Lennon's heartfelt 'get well soon' note to manager Epstein during his drug overdose recovery; or Jimi Hendrix's arrival and success on the club stage - amusingly shaking the confidence of Brit guitar gods Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton - after an initially cool reception in his native U.S.) dotted throughout the narrative. It sounds like it was all quite the scene, and I'll give actor Michael Caine - who was solidly establishing the start of his long movie career during this decade - the final word: "It was the time of my time. I will never have so much fun again, ever."
August 10, 2023
An entertaining and absorbing read that manages to conjure up the mood of the times rather well. The author wears his knowledge lightly and keeps the book moving along by highlighting characters and events, and tracking fads, fashions and bands in a chatty but well-paced, style.
What really comes across well here is the parody that the Sixties eventually became as it burned itself out in a fireball of ever-increasing excess and novelty-chasing. Entertaining, sympathetic and well worth a read.
What really comes across well here is the parody that the Sixties eventually became as it burned itself out in a fireball of ever-increasing excess and novelty-chasing. Entertaining, sympathetic and well worth a read.
April 25, 2021
Read this long ago, before the days of Goodreads. When I read it, the Sixties swirl and hubbub of Swinging London Carnaby Street fashion, arts, gossip and zeitgeist were only three decades past. Now, it's a full half century, with the addition of 20 more years to the tally as the contemporary world it embodied is now as distant as the Victorian Era to the majority of living souls who weren't around for it. I was alive during it, but was never there. Some Warhol paintings making the museum rounds a few decades ago was about as close to hipster mod trendiness as I ever got. Some recent research of mine into the local scene uncovered some stories about a local millionaire, former mayor of the city of Louisville, taking his family to Carnaby Street at the time and mingling with the Beatles set, bringing back with them some black-light posters, and head-shop bric a brac that were not yet common fare in the local Bohemian shops on Bardstown Road. The millionaire family had a "mod party" and it was so novel to this sleepy burg that it merited ample newspaper coverage. The locals seemed bemused by the doings of those swinging Brits.
At any rate, this, I recall, was a breezy and flavorful plunge into the scene, with most of the players we'd come to expect, the Stones, actors like Terence Stamp and David Hemmings and the circle that gravitated around projects like Antonioni's film, Blow Up, the quintessential '60s international provenance art movie. The book is gone, having not survived the shelf purge, regrettable as I kind of liked the cover.
EG-KR@KY 2021
At any rate, this, I recall, was a breezy and flavorful plunge into the scene, with most of the players we'd come to expect, the Stones, actors like Terence Stamp and David Hemmings and the circle that gravitated around projects like Antonioni's film, Blow Up, the quintessential '60s international provenance art movie. The book is gone, having not survived the shelf purge, regrettable as I kind of liked the cover.
EG-KR@KY 2021
April 4, 2018
Swinging London: for such a brief era (the mid-1960s), so much happened, with so many rapidly changing styles in photography, music, fashion, retail, clubs, films, and drugs. It's a difficult subject to corral, so the author homes in on a few main figures (photographer David Bailey, actor Terence Stamp, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, among others). It's a good approach: you could quarrel with his choice of persons, but he situates each of them in the cultural vortex and then explores events and characters around that framework. It keeps things from being too confusing. Well researched and intriguing.
April 4, 2016
Βίβλος....Το ηφαίστειο εξερράγη και ξέρασε απίστευτη τέχνη κ ενέργεια.... Και όταν το τίναξαν στον αέρα και ξεκίνησε το χανγκοβερ και όσοι μπορούσαν την κοπάνησαν και όλοι όσοι έμειναν πίσω έπρεπε να μαζέψουν την ακαταστασία, κανείς δεν παραπονέθηκε, όχι στ' αλήθεια, όχι για πολύ.
March 18, 2008
I love this book so much that I brought it with me to London so I could use the locations in it as a reference guide. It's a history of the trends that came out of London in the 60's.
March 27, 2018
It’s probably no surprise that this history of London in the swinging sixties is more than a little superficial. That it never truly grasps something that was so ephemeral and fleeting and meant so many different things to different people.
Both men are mentioned in the text, but did Terence Stamp really have the same experience of the sixties as Syd Barrett? It was a multitude of different things; a bubbling (sometimes) drug-filled soup of ambition, promise, heartbreak and despair.
And so, to pick out some individuals involved does make for a string of lovely anecdotes, but – really – nothing more substantial than that.
The narrative focuses on the lives of a few young meteors: including, the aforementioned Terence Stamp, as well as David Bailey, Mick Jagger, Brian Epstein. (There are a few women as well – Jean Shrimpton and Mary Quant – but they never emerge as much to the fore as the men.) We follow their lives, their adventures throughout The Sixties but not much more. Yes, London happened for awhile, but no one can really explain why it happened (beyond The Beatles being the most exciting thing in the world and having moved down south). Then suddenly it didn’t happen anymore. The world moved on and the book ends.
READY, STEADY, GO – it takes its name from a pop show of the era – is an entertaining read, even as it flaunts its superficiality. Those wanting more depth should hunt elsewhere (Dominic Sandbook’s two books about the 1960s, for instance. They’re more political in nature, but do try to contextualise London in Britain’s experience of the decade). However, if you just want some facile fun, then it’s without a doubt entertaining.
Both men are mentioned in the text, but did Terence Stamp really have the same experience of the sixties as Syd Barrett? It was a multitude of different things; a bubbling (sometimes) drug-filled soup of ambition, promise, heartbreak and despair.
And so, to pick out some individuals involved does make for a string of lovely anecdotes, but – really – nothing more substantial than that.
The narrative focuses on the lives of a few young meteors: including, the aforementioned Terence Stamp, as well as David Bailey, Mick Jagger, Brian Epstein. (There are a few women as well – Jean Shrimpton and Mary Quant – but they never emerge as much to the fore as the men.) We follow their lives, their adventures throughout The Sixties but not much more. Yes, London happened for awhile, but no one can really explain why it happened (beyond The Beatles being the most exciting thing in the world and having moved down south). Then suddenly it didn’t happen anymore. The world moved on and the book ends.
READY, STEADY, GO – it takes its name from a pop show of the era – is an entertaining read, even as it flaunts its superficiality. Those wanting more depth should hunt elsewhere (Dominic Sandbook’s two books about the 1960s, for instance. They’re more political in nature, but do try to contextualise London in Britain’s experience of the decade). However, if you just want some facile fun, then it’s without a doubt entertaining.
March 13, 2023
Shawn Levy's "Ready, Steady, Go!" is a whiz-bang tour of the movers and shakers of Swinging London. All of the usual suspects are there, including the Kray brothers. It is a fun read and I learned a few new tidbits. What is really lacking are photos, so a star off for that. A great entry point for the curious and just fun for those who have read it all before.
July 13, 2015
I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the beginning--the early and mid-60s are sort of my bag, if you will. I was frustrated throughout by what I perceived as sexism (at times it was hard to tell where to draw the line between the sexism of the age and the author's own possible sexism). I also found myself not liking some of the major players very much as people (Mick Jagger and Terrence Stamp were (are?) kind of assholes, huh?). BUT, all that said, I love this era, I love the fashion and the zeitgeist. I enjoyed reading about Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon, Brian Epstein, and the lot. It's made me want to read more about Vidal Sassoon, actually. Interesting stuff! I also enjoyed reading about some of the places--the clubs and bars and boutiques that were at the center of the scene. I found myself wondering about the author's choices--what to include and what to leave out. It's probably impossible to make a book like this truly comprehensive. Overall? If this subject interests you, Ready, Steady, Go! is a good read.
May 16, 2023
At first I thought this was going to be like the "Cliff Notes" version of what I already know. I have read other books by the author and do not remember so much hyperbole. For instance he describes Terrence Stamp's star as "shooting across the sky like a meteor." It was a little much at first. However, as it went on, it got more interesting.
At least many of the people profiled were not ones that I knew that much about because they were more in the fashion/photography fields as opposed to music. Of those, David Bailey and Mary Quant are the most well-known. However, there were many others like Christopher Gibbs, who were pioneers of the Chelsea set (before the Kings Road became jam packed with boutiques).
As per usual, the pioneers of the scene thought it was over when everyone else glommed on in the wake of the Time Magazine article in 1966. (And Carnaby Street was "over" practically the minute it stopped catering to gay hustlers). Strangely, that is when the book picked up for me as it also chronicled the "fall" as epitomized in the film Withnail and I.
Actually, a lot of great music came out of London after 1966, even if it is true that the city had lost its dominant place in world of fashion and music by that point (only the Beatles and Stones remained in the top spot).
At least many of the people profiled were not ones that I knew that much about because they were more in the fashion/photography fields as opposed to music. Of those, David Bailey and Mary Quant are the most well-known. However, there were many others like Christopher Gibbs, who were pioneers of the Chelsea set (before the Kings Road became jam packed with boutiques).
As per usual, the pioneers of the scene thought it was over when everyone else glommed on in the wake of the Time Magazine article in 1966. (And Carnaby Street was "over" practically the minute it stopped catering to gay hustlers). Strangely, that is when the book picked up for me as it also chronicled the "fall" as epitomized in the film Withnail and I.
Actually, a lot of great music came out of London after 1966, even if it is true that the city had lost its dominant place in world of fashion and music by that point (only the Beatles and Stones remained in the top spot).
February 11, 2018
I had enjoyed Shawn Levy's 'Dolce Vita Confidential' despite some Italian colleagues in the music and film industry warning me that, whilst a 'really good read' the reportage was fairly well riddled with errors. I should confirm that from 1962, when James Bond author Ian Fleming got me a job as a London based journalist, that I then, also from the late sixties spent the next 40 or so years operating my own music and entertainment companies around the world. So, having been there throughout the swinging sixties, and indeed as it turned out having participated in or been at many if not most of the events reported by Mr Levy in his book I was full of more than a little anticipation to read 'Ready Steady Go'. Again a terrific read, written in a kind of 'not quite with it Vanity Fair of Rolling Stone reportage style' but then I started to notice the errors. Wildly incorrect locations of venues/clubs, and suspect descriptions of their music policy and thus their regular customers. Then there were a series of appalling errors regarding band members and their styles and influences. My comment here not made subjectively but based on Mr Levy simply getting it completely wrong. His description of the rise of Teddy Boys/Rockers and the later gestation of Mod Culture is way off the mark. So these mistakes-and lets be clear- Mr Levy has NOT written a book on a subject that he experienced but he has researched diligently and re-written history as reported by others-all of this is a shame as elsewhere he captures the mood of the day pretty well. The reality is that those wishing to enjoy or learn about the swinging sixties would be better off with any of Simon Napier-Bell's books. So why do I give Ready Steady Go **** it's not for effort, as he could have done better. It's because in this day and age of-e books and publishing on demand print-it is reasonably easy to research, make, insert and re-publish corrections. Neither are my comments in any way as I have also written about that era (although in my case from first hand experience) in my book: 'Sometimes Music Is My Only Friend.' As I have said before Simon Napier-Bell (who was never one of my favourite people) writes and reports brilliantly... and certainly both he and Mr Levy write way better than me...but as my first news editor said to me every day: Get it first and Get it right. So Go for it Mr Levy update your book... and feel free to check some facts in mine..(here one should insert one of those smiley things if one knew how!).
February 5, 2014
Ready, Steady, GO! provides a riveting portrait of ‘60s era “Swinging” London. It chronicles London’s rise from Europe’s squarest capital to a vibrant, cutting-edge city where, for a brief period, everyone wanted to be. Key players in the transformation – hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, designer Mary Quant, filmmaker Richard Lester, model Twiggy, and photographer David Bailey, not to mention superstars like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – contributed to one of the greatest cultural booms of the 20th century: an era of explosive creativity and revolutionary social changes. By the early 1960s, no other city could keep up with London’s ever-changing social scene, nor could they match its newfound cultural and artistic prowess. American clubs seemed passé compared to the sometimes shocking, always avant-garde world of London clubs. Clothing styles modeled by London partygoers were mimicked all over the world, giving rise to the iconic ‘60s aesthetic. The illusion of a classless Britain also emerged, due to the success of David Bailey and other popular members of the movement with working class roots. But in reality the scene was just as exclusive as ever – very few, rich or poor, were cool enough to run with the likes of Jean Shrimpton and Brian Epstein. And just like its rise, Swinging London’s fall was rapid and chaotic. Barely a decade of the frenzied creativity had passed when it began to spiral into an abyss of drugs and death. The fervent need to be constantly cutting edge eventually became the city’s downfall, but for a while it fueled one of the 20th century’s most creative, energetic eras.
July 17, 2007
This is an American's view of the story, with a particular focus on specific individuals, including Terence Stamp, David Bailey, and Marianne Faithful. It conveys the creative and liberating heights to which Swinging London rose, with perhaps the cross-fertilisation of different areas such as fashion, music, films, and the arts being such a strength. It also describes the darker side, and convincingly suggests why it was such a temporary phenomenon : London's weather.
January 31, 2008
A very breezy read through the London Swinging 60's years. A lot of the book is devoted to photographer icon David Bailey who is sort of the magnet or glue that holds the scene together for this particular book. The author Levy has an understanding and historical perspective of understanding a culture - he also did a nice book on Vegas hipster culture - The Rat Pack as well.
January 7, 2015
I hope they get a photo of the book jacket here because it is marvelous. I love pop culture history and this is a solidly written one.
May 12, 2016
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 22, 2016
Fun history of the rise and fall of Swinging London in the 1960s
November 16, 2021
Absolutely delightful romp through London, when it was swinging. Shawn Levy's 'Dolce Vita Confidential' is one of my most-loved books, and I've been making my way through his bibliography. The timing of my read of this couldn't have been better, I think Edgar Wright's 'Last night in Soho' also mentions this book. One of my favourite music shows to listen to on the radio is BBC's 'Sounds of the 70s'- I find it amazing that the music of one decade encompassed both the bubblegum pop stylings of Sandie Shaw and the psychedelia of 'See Emily Play', the proto-metal riffs of 'You really got me' and the sitar on 'Norwegian Wood'. This book traces the evolution of the decade, the soaring rise of the pendulum and its inevitable fall. I love the way he writes-Levy structures his chapters around a significant player in the decade, and uses that person's life to explore the social situations that led to it. His chapter on art dealer Robert Fraser, for instance, starts with his life, and goes on to link that up to Carnaby Street, and the Mods. The Beatles are a constant thread through the book, a bellwether of the changing times, and in some ways, anticipating those changes. Apart from the cast of spectacular people, Levy writes about government changes that contributed to this decade-free and subsidised art education, with a veritable Who's Who of the art and music world availing themselves of education at these colleges that acted as crucibles, for all these creative talents to meet. Apart from the Beatles, the decade was the making ( and unmaking, in some instances) of iconic actors like Terence Stamp and Michael Caine, celebrity hairstylists like Vidal Sassoon and Leonard of Mayfair, photographers like David Bailey and Terence Donovan, and a whole list of musicians- his writing on the Rolling Stones, and the slow easing-out of Brian Jones , and the invention of Mick Jagger, is absolutely fantastic. Levy's concluding chapter on the eventual decline and fall of the 60s is lovely, and he writes about all the art we have because of the 60s, and anytime you consume that, you're at the heart of it. Reading this book, too, is a deeply immersive experience, and you're right there, in go-go boots swinging with the best of them.
August 19, 2023
Man, this took me a long time to get through, and I couldn't really figure out why until I finished it and had a chance to think about it. I am all about British stuff, and a book about the Swingin' 60's in London? Right in my comfort zone. Despite the kind of jokey style of writing, though, in the end I realized this book was depressing. I can't put my finger on it, but the author is often casually dismissive of certain people, things, groups. I mean, I know that Gerry and the Pacemakers were never on a par with the Beatles, but they had more good and memorable songs than this author gives them credit for: "It's Gonna Be All Right", "Ferry Cross the Mersey", "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying", "How Do You Do It?" And this guy essentially just calls them failures who never made it. So even as he's listing all the groovy people living in London, the fabulous fashions, and discotheques, and music, there's a sort of depressing pall over everything. He just keeps pointing out how this particularly popular club burned down two years later, that person committed suicide, this one died of a drug overdose. Instead of looking forward to diving back into this world, I think I kept avoiding it. It's an older book and probably hard to find these days, and I don't think it's worth the effort to track it down.
May 22, 2018
A raucous tour of 1960’s London, including the rise of miniskirts, rock and roll (especially The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix’s devastating impact) and the onset of the Free Love culture. While you may not be able to resist the Austin Powers accent and kitschy phrasing, Levy certainly has, by writing a straight-forward account of the who-what-when-why of London’s paradigm shift to become the most happening place on the planet (a reputation it continues to enjoy 40 years hence). I will say that the chapter titles are useless in a way that only out-of-context quotes can be, but otherwise this is a great book for those who were there, those who wish they were there, and those who feel they were just born too late.
May 26, 2010
Excellent book which follows key figures in fashion,hairstyling,modelling ,music,acting and photography to offer an interesting insight into a decade when Britain did indeed seem 'cool'.
It's mentioned by one reviewer on the back of the book that this may be the 'definative' book on the sixties and it's cultural stock and this may just be so..much of the book looks at the rise and social change in the early part of the decade with the latter smaller part looking at the LSD enthused latter years of the decade.
It's a book I enjoyed..I had read and enjoyed Shawn Levy's novel about the Rat pack some years back but this more so.
It's mentioned by one reviewer on the back of the book that this may be the 'definative' book on the sixties and it's cultural stock and this may just be so..much of the book looks at the rise and social change in the early part of the decade with the latter smaller part looking at the LSD enthused latter years of the decade.
It's a book I enjoyed..I had read and enjoyed Shawn Levy's novel about the Rat pack some years back but this more so.
April 13, 2023
Levy has written a wonderfully engaging and informative book about one of the most interesting and influential periods and places in post-WW2 history. London in the 1960s was the epicentre of revolutionary developments in popular culture that still have an impact today and 'Ready Steady Go!' documents what happened and to a lesser extent what it all meant with plenty of joie de vivre, intelligence and solid biographical information. This is not a stuffy academic history nor is it a lightweight tome filled with celebrity gossip. No; Levy has written a truly evocative and well researched social history text that will pull hard on the nostalgia strings of those who remember the time and place whilst also helping younger readers get a taste of what happened in London in the Sixties.
The approach taken by Levy is well suited to his goal, in that he is focused on key people who were at the forefront of what happened in London during the 1960s and uses their lives and experiences as a means to map the changes and issues he studies. Take for example David Bailey, the renowned photographer who was romantically involved with other major personalities of the time (Jean Shrimpton, Penelope Tree) whilst also serving as a model for one of the most important films that 'documented' swinging London ('Blow Up'). He also made an attempt to document the world he inhabited through his photography; he was literally the man who tried to capture the lives of his fellow British movers and shakers. Levy refers to Bailey frequently and through his life and exploits gives the reader an avenue for exploring and understanding the book's subject.
The same goes for the likes of Brian Epstein, Marianne Faithfull, Vidal Sassoon, Mary Quant, Terence Stamp and Robert Fraser (among a panoply of other key identities); each one of these celebrities are considered as the agents for and exemplars of the social changes that reverberated around the world, starting perhaps from the East End of London or in the streets of Chelsea. Levy considers the clothes, the food, the music, the movies and the clubs that were products of those who changed London from the drab, war-damaged city of the 1940s and 1950s into a hip, happening world city. Each story and each person examined by Levy, whether they be relatively minor or perhaps more significant, contributes to the fascinating narrative the author provides.
Perhaps the centre point of the book is Levy's account of the police raid on the Redlands property of Keith Richards in 1967 where the Rolling Stones guitarist, his colleague Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and the art dealer Robert Fraser were all interested parties. Richards, Jagger and Fraser were arrested and their subsequent trials are shown by Levy as being a key battle in the fight between the then establishment and the youth of the day. From considering the drug culture that was gathering momentum at the time, through the way the media reacted to the raid and also the sexual innuendo of what happened Levy provides the reader with a showcase of how London's celebrity scene and pop culture had become seismic in its influence on the society. This was a time when there was a perfect storm of young creative personalities and they went a long way towards dismantling much of that which stood before them.
'Ready Steady Go!' reads incredibly well in that Levy has a vivid writing style that brings his subject to life. The fast pace of his text belies the considerable research and social history analysis that he has integrated into his narrative. Yes, Levy does ignore the wider implications and realities of life for the average punter in London during the Sixties. He leaves out the burgeoning non-Anglo segment of London (and British) society and it might be said he could have expanded his cast of influential celebrities to include Peter Cook, Kenny Everett or Joe Orton among others. However this is all understandable; Levy uses the cadre of 'beautiful people' selected for his narrative as a relevant microcosm of what he documents, i.e. London as the swinging capital city of the world for most of the Sixties.
So who will want to read this book and hopefully enjoy it? Those with a fascination for British pop culture of the period will definitely have lots to gain from reading Levy's work. If one is a student of pop culture in general 'Ready, Steady, Go' will also appeal. History addicts can find lots of good gear herein and maybe even younger readers today might be intrigued by what their grandparents' (or great-grandparents') generation did. The bottom line is that once you read this book the world of London in the 1960s comes alive in a way that can't be forgotten.
The approach taken by Levy is well suited to his goal, in that he is focused on key people who were at the forefront of what happened in London during the 1960s and uses their lives and experiences as a means to map the changes and issues he studies. Take for example David Bailey, the renowned photographer who was romantically involved with other major personalities of the time (Jean Shrimpton, Penelope Tree) whilst also serving as a model for one of the most important films that 'documented' swinging London ('Blow Up'). He also made an attempt to document the world he inhabited through his photography; he was literally the man who tried to capture the lives of his fellow British movers and shakers. Levy refers to Bailey frequently and through his life and exploits gives the reader an avenue for exploring and understanding the book's subject.
The same goes for the likes of Brian Epstein, Marianne Faithfull, Vidal Sassoon, Mary Quant, Terence Stamp and Robert Fraser (among a panoply of other key identities); each one of these celebrities are considered as the agents for and exemplars of the social changes that reverberated around the world, starting perhaps from the East End of London or in the streets of Chelsea. Levy considers the clothes, the food, the music, the movies and the clubs that were products of those who changed London from the drab, war-damaged city of the 1940s and 1950s into a hip, happening world city. Each story and each person examined by Levy, whether they be relatively minor or perhaps more significant, contributes to the fascinating narrative the author provides.
Perhaps the centre point of the book is Levy's account of the police raid on the Redlands property of Keith Richards in 1967 where the Rolling Stones guitarist, his colleague Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and the art dealer Robert Fraser were all interested parties. Richards, Jagger and Fraser were arrested and their subsequent trials are shown by Levy as being a key battle in the fight between the then establishment and the youth of the day. From considering the drug culture that was gathering momentum at the time, through the way the media reacted to the raid and also the sexual innuendo of what happened Levy provides the reader with a showcase of how London's celebrity scene and pop culture had become seismic in its influence on the society. This was a time when there was a perfect storm of young creative personalities and they went a long way towards dismantling much of that which stood before them.
'Ready Steady Go!' reads incredibly well in that Levy has a vivid writing style that brings his subject to life. The fast pace of his text belies the considerable research and social history analysis that he has integrated into his narrative. Yes, Levy does ignore the wider implications and realities of life for the average punter in London during the Sixties. He leaves out the burgeoning non-Anglo segment of London (and British) society and it might be said he could have expanded his cast of influential celebrities to include Peter Cook, Kenny Everett or Joe Orton among others. However this is all understandable; Levy uses the cadre of 'beautiful people' selected for his narrative as a relevant microcosm of what he documents, i.e. London as the swinging capital city of the world for most of the Sixties.
So who will want to read this book and hopefully enjoy it? Those with a fascination for British pop culture of the period will definitely have lots to gain from reading Levy's work. If one is a student of pop culture in general 'Ready, Steady, Go' will also appeal. History addicts can find lots of good gear herein and maybe even younger readers today might be intrigued by what their grandparents' (or great-grandparents') generation did. The bottom line is that once you read this book the world of London in the 1960s comes alive in a way that can't be forgotten.
September 1, 2022
I read this book a few years ago and recently re-read it, a bit shocked at myself because I couldn't remember what was in it from the first time I read it. I think part of my poor memory was caused by the fact that this book, while providing plenty of facts and information on 60s "Swinging London", contains few visuals to illustrate its essay-type text - and the photos that are included are all in black and white. Do we really need to see so many shop fronts? This presentation doesn't really do justice to its subject matter, which is largely visual, focusing heavily on photographers like David Bailey, fashionistas like Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon, models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, and other beautiful faces like movie star Terence Stamp. So my first advice would be to read this book with a copy of some colorful photo reference, like "60s Sourcebook" or similar, by your side.
Having said that, there's a lot of interesting information here, particularly about Londoners like Stamp, Quant and Tara Browne (deceased) who fell out of the limelight years ago or simply aren't around any more. The weakness of the book, as far as I'm concerned, are the portions dwelling on the overexposed denizens of the scene, such as the Beatles, the Stones, and their respective managers Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog Oldham. Perhaps the author felt it was impossible to fully capture the essence of Swinging London without delving into these admittedly important characters, but so much has been and continues to be published about the Beatles and the Stones that it's impossible to do them justice in a short section of a book without simply repeating a lot of stuff that's already been said over and over and better by others, in books specifically dedicated to those bands. The page space devoted to the Beatles would have been better given to some lesser-known figure that 100 books weren't already covering. The author also tends to harp on the same unifying points/ themes over and over - how poor East London people were suddenly able to cut across class divisions and become big stars, for example - to the point where you wish he'd just presented the book as a hodgepodge and again, devoted the page space to covering another obscure, interesting scenester. There are even books on Oldham and Epstein, so I wouldn't have given so much coverage to either one of them.
If you're interested in this subject, this book will whet your appetite, fill in a few details, and probably alert you to a few films/ books/ people that are rarely referenced today. (For example, I had no idearemembered that Lynn Redgrave was in a film called "Smashing Time." (I'd love to see that movie.) Just don't expect many visuals or much more than an overview. I commend the author for obviously doing a lot of research to cover such a broad subject, but Swinging London may be one of those topics best expressed in pictures rather than in words. At the very least, a better use of pictures rather than what we were given.
Sidenote: I did copy the bibliography that he cites as part of his research. I will be returning to that for additional reading.
Having said that, there's a lot of interesting information here, particularly about Londoners like Stamp, Quant and Tara Browne (deceased) who fell out of the limelight years ago or simply aren't around any more. The weakness of the book, as far as I'm concerned, are the portions dwelling on the overexposed denizens of the scene, such as the Beatles, the Stones, and their respective managers Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog Oldham. Perhaps the author felt it was impossible to fully capture the essence of Swinging London without delving into these admittedly important characters, but so much has been and continues to be published about the Beatles and the Stones that it's impossible to do them justice in a short section of a book without simply repeating a lot of stuff that's already been said over and over and better by others, in books specifically dedicated to those bands. The page space devoted to the Beatles would have been better given to some lesser-known figure that 100 books weren't already covering. The author also tends to harp on the same unifying points/ themes over and over - how poor East London people were suddenly able to cut across class divisions and become big stars, for example - to the point where you wish he'd just presented the book as a hodgepodge and again, devoted the page space to covering another obscure, interesting scenester. There are even books on Oldham and Epstein, so I wouldn't have given so much coverage to either one of them.
If you're interested in this subject, this book will whet your appetite, fill in a few details, and probably alert you to a few films/ books/ people that are rarely referenced today. (For example, I had no idearemembered that Lynn Redgrave was in a film called "Smashing Time." (I'd love to see that movie.) Just don't expect many visuals or much more than an overview. I commend the author for obviously doing a lot of research to cover such a broad subject, but Swinging London may be one of those topics best expressed in pictures rather than in words. At the very least, a better use of pictures rather than what we were given.
Sidenote: I did copy the bibliography that he cites as part of his research. I will be returning to that for additional reading.
June 3, 2021
Shawn Levy, author of the equally excellent Rat Pack Confidential, turns his attention to that most mythical of decades, and that most mythical of places - Swinging London. And does so in style.
Taking a view of the decade by tracing the arcs of the lives of a handful of movers and shakers (such as David Bailey, Brian Epstein, Mick Jagger, Terence Stamp, Jean Shrimpton, Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon and Robert Fraser) Levy manages to distill the very essence of the decade. The sixties was the technicolour, all singing, all dancing explosive response to the buttoned up, repressive 1950s and the ripples spread out from London across the world.
Levy, by not concentrating on the obvious (such as The Beatles, although the inevitably feature, how could they not?) builds a picture of how the decade’s revolutions in music, fashion and attitudes began. He interviews the protagonists (those that survived) and gets to the root of that burst of creativity. Covering everything from Mods, photography, the Beat Boom, fashion (how Carnaby Street and the Kings Road set the style) to movies, drugs and death, Ready, Steady, Go! crams an entire decade into 350 pages, busting a few myths along the way.
This is extremely readable and Levy lets his subjects tell the story, rather than coming in with a “point of view” and in this way we can see how a few hundred interconnected celebrities, musicians, models, actors and “faces” made the scene. From the bright, anything is possible feeling of the first half of the decade, where to be British was to have the keys to the castle handed to you, to the dissipation of all that promise in the second half, as the sixties curdled into cod-mysticism, violence and a drug-addled stupor, Levy fits all the pieces of the jigsaw together brilliantly.
His conclusion, that the world we live in would not be possible without what happened in London for those few, brief years, is entirely plausible. The old ways were questioned, if not swept entirely away; youth found its voice and art and music became central to the world we live in (even if you don’t realise it). A great and hugely enjoyable book.
Taking a view of the decade by tracing the arcs of the lives of a handful of movers and shakers (such as David Bailey, Brian Epstein, Mick Jagger, Terence Stamp, Jean Shrimpton, Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon and Robert Fraser) Levy manages to distill the very essence of the decade. The sixties was the technicolour, all singing, all dancing explosive response to the buttoned up, repressive 1950s and the ripples spread out from London across the world.
Levy, by not concentrating on the obvious (such as The Beatles, although the inevitably feature, how could they not?) builds a picture of how the decade’s revolutions in music, fashion and attitudes began. He interviews the protagonists (those that survived) and gets to the root of that burst of creativity. Covering everything from Mods, photography, the Beat Boom, fashion (how Carnaby Street and the Kings Road set the style) to movies, drugs and death, Ready, Steady, Go! crams an entire decade into 350 pages, busting a few myths along the way.
This is extremely readable and Levy lets his subjects tell the story, rather than coming in with a “point of view” and in this way we can see how a few hundred interconnected celebrities, musicians, models, actors and “faces” made the scene. From the bright, anything is possible feeling of the first half of the decade, where to be British was to have the keys to the castle handed to you, to the dissipation of all that promise in the second half, as the sixties curdled into cod-mysticism, violence and a drug-addled stupor, Levy fits all the pieces of the jigsaw together brilliantly.
His conclusion, that the world we live in would not be possible without what happened in London for those few, brief years, is entirely plausible. The old ways were questioned, if not swept entirely away; youth found its voice and art and music became central to the world we live in (even if you don’t realise it). A great and hugely enjoyable book.
March 7, 2023
Levy, Shawn - Ready, Steady, Go!
Swinging London and the Invention of Cool.
The rise, exhilarating peak, and demise of Swinging London, circa 1960 - 68
To be frank, however, the blazing time you want to visit in your Tardis is 1962 - 66.
Music, movies, fashion, photography, art galleries are key areas.
I was fairly steeped in music of the British Invasion, cinema I had caught up with later.
Fashion, not really, though my wife is very knowledgeable.
That’s the thing, you roll from sphere to sphere, in fairly chronological time.
Levy does a great job focusing on key movers and shakers. Illuminated, sometimes dissected.
This is a period fondly recalled, though few, extremely few, swirled in the hot nucleus.
Meritocracy and class distinctions meant 99% of society never had admittance.
Addictive history with a surprising amount of blunt interviews. Little glossing over.
Smashing.
Swinging London and the Invention of Cool.
The rise, exhilarating peak, and demise of Swinging London, circa 1960 - 68
To be frank, however, the blazing time you want to visit in your Tardis is 1962 - 66.
Music, movies, fashion, photography, art galleries are key areas.
I was fairly steeped in music of the British Invasion, cinema I had caught up with later.
Fashion, not really, though my wife is very knowledgeable.
That’s the thing, you roll from sphere to sphere, in fairly chronological time.
Levy does a great job focusing on key movers and shakers. Illuminated, sometimes dissected.
This is a period fondly recalled, though few, extremely few, swirled in the hot nucleus.
Meritocracy and class distinctions meant 99% of society never had admittance.
Addictive history with a surprising amount of blunt interviews. Little glossing over.
Smashing.
May 4, 2022
Extremely well written and packed with amazing detail.
I was a teenager growing up in the north of England in the 1960s. It took me back and fired a few long forgotten memories.
How an American can write such a book amazes me.
I was an apprentice mechanic and 1963, 64, 65 and 66 we would go to the Motor Show in Earls Court. Afterwards we would do the sights, including Carnaby Street. We didn´t have money so we could only window shop. We were unbelievably innocent at the time. But we did have a great time in "The Smoke" as London was called.
The music at the time was everything. I am fortunate to have grown up in this period.
I was a teenager growing up in the north of England in the 1960s. It took me back and fired a few long forgotten memories.
How an American can write such a book amazes me.
I was an apprentice mechanic and 1963, 64, 65 and 66 we would go to the Motor Show in Earls Court. Afterwards we would do the sights, including Carnaby Street. We didn´t have money so we could only window shop. We were unbelievably innocent at the time. But we did have a great time in "The Smoke" as London was called.
The music at the time was everything. I am fortunate to have grown up in this period.
July 7, 2025
This was a romp and I learned a ton.
Unlike most folks, I actually saw the first Austin Powers movie in the theater and was excited to do so because I love Swinging London movies. Well, mostly Blow-Up and A Hard Day's Night and Quadrophenia, all of which I discovered for musical reasons, but also Bedazzled, because it was often paired with Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the repertory theater where I mis-spent my youth, and To Sir With Love, which I suppose is only Swinging London-adjacent and was on tv a lot when I was a kid. 60s London was sort of the mythical background for all of my adolescent hard-rock heroes and it remains endlessly fascinating to me.
Until I read Shawn Levy's entirely successful argument, I just thought that Swinging London was "yeah, baby" cool. I did not think of it as ground zero for popular culture as we understand it. When I was growing up, Vidal Sassoon was a just a guy on tv who made shampoo. I had no understanding at all how his ideas changed the way so many women wore their hair and lived their lives. I had heard of Mary Quant and David Bailey, but, again, didn't realize how groundbreaking each of them had been. Huge fan though I am, it remains impossible for me to really understand, having been surrounded by them my whole life, how thrilling the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were when there had never been anything like that before. In so many ways, the cultural world that formed me was less than a decade old, and it had all started over there.
Well-researched and well-written, with only a couple cringey moments of blithe misogyny which I doubt that I would even have noticed had I read it when it was published in 2002.
Unlike most folks, I actually saw the first Austin Powers movie in the theater and was excited to do so because I love Swinging London movies. Well, mostly Blow-Up and A Hard Day's Night and Quadrophenia, all of which I discovered for musical reasons, but also Bedazzled, because it was often paired with Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the repertory theater where I mis-spent my youth, and To Sir With Love, which I suppose is only Swinging London-adjacent and was on tv a lot when I was a kid. 60s London was sort of the mythical background for all of my adolescent hard-rock heroes and it remains endlessly fascinating to me.
Until I read Shawn Levy's entirely successful argument, I just thought that Swinging London was "yeah, baby" cool. I did not think of it as ground zero for popular culture as we understand it. When I was growing up, Vidal Sassoon was a just a guy on tv who made shampoo. I had no understanding at all how his ideas changed the way so many women wore their hair and lived their lives. I had heard of Mary Quant and David Bailey, but, again, didn't realize how groundbreaking each of them had been. Huge fan though I am, it remains impossible for me to really understand, having been surrounded by them my whole life, how thrilling the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were when there had never been anything like that before. In so many ways, the cultural world that formed me was less than a decade old, and it had all started over there.
Well-researched and well-written, with only a couple cringey moments of blithe misogyny which I doubt that I would even have noticed had I read it when it was published in 2002.
October 17, 2017
Pulls together some excellent anecdotes and quotes. The first half the book is stronger, as the second half falls into repeating Beatles/Stones history we can all recite in our sleep.
Worth reading if interested in the subject and the book would have been a classic with another round of edition (some repetition and some quoted sources appear from nowhere near the end of the book) and a stronger momentum to the writing.
Worth reading if interested in the subject and the book would have been a classic with another round of edition (some repetition and some quoted sources appear from nowhere near the end of the book) and a stronger momentum to the writing.
July 17, 2021
This is a difficult kind of book to do well--part nostalgia, part journalism, part real history--and Levy pulls it off beautifully. Building the chapters and narrative around a set of recurring personalities--Mary Quant, David Bailey, Mick Jagger, Robert Fraser, Terence Stamp, Marianne Faithful--he traces the rise and fall of an idea that was always as much myth and reality, but no less influential for all of that. Clearly, the best book on an important part of the Sixties.
March 10, 2023
Well written, thoughtful and fun. I've read a lot about the Beatles and Stones, but this book really helped fill in the background as to what was happening in London at the time in art, fashion, and youth culture.
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