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Out of My Mind: From Flower Power to the Third Millennium: the Seventies, the Eighties and the Nineties
Richard Neville, former editor of "Oz" magazine and the author of "Hippie Hippie Shake", has been observing culture and counterculture for 30 years. The man who was at the centre of the British youth movement in the 1960s is now in his 50s, married and the father of two girls. While still a radical thinker and writer, his views have moved on. Neville remains a controversial social commentator, constantly coming up with unexpected angles on the zeitgeist. This book comprises the best of Neville, and includes articles and essays on everything from parenthood and pot-culture to art and from "Howling All the Way to the Talk Shows" - an analysis of Allen Ginsberg; to "Back Among the Fringe Dwellers", which looks at London in the 90s.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
17 people want to read
About the author
Richard Neville
46 books17 followersIn early 1967, Neville founded the London Oz with the brilliant artist Martin Sharp as graphic designer. Many soon to be significant writers including Robert Hughes, Clive James, Germaine Greer, David Widgery, Alexander Cockburn and Lillian Roxon, amongst others, contributed. Felix Dennis (later to become one of Britain's wealthiest publishers with Dennis Publishing) came on board as advertising manager.
London Oz became increasingly influenced by hippie culture, and oscillated wildly between psychedelia, revolutionary political theory, idealistic dreams of a counter-culture, with much discussion of drug-taking thrown in. Oz campaigned to legalise marijuana through various events such as the Legalise Pot Rally in Hyde Park, London, in 1968. Oz, however, was clearly against hard drugs. There was also much discussion and theoretical rumination regarding feminism and the "sexual revolution" and by contemporary standards it often seems glaringly sexist.
While Neville had a reputation for being wild and stoned, he revealed in his autobiography Hippie Hippie Shake that he was more of a workaholic, obsessed with the magazine deadlines and his editorials, which often tried to make sense of all the competing philosophies that were exploding from the "youthquake". Neville was known as a charismatic and charming figure who had a wide circle of friends among London's intellectual and publishing elite, rock stars, socialist revolutionaries and criminals.
While Neville was holidaying on Ibiza, an edition of the magazine entirely produced by high school students—Schoolkids Oz (May 1970)—was published, edited by Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The issue depicted Rupert Bear sporting a penis (1971) and lead to the conviction of Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The then-longest obscenity trial in British history then ensued.
The Oz defendants had the brilliant and eccentric barrister, author and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer on their team, and Geoffrey Robertson, the now internationally renowned human rights lawyer made his debut in the trial. The trial turned the Old Bailey into a circus, with a bizarre array of celebrities called on to give evidence in its favour. John Lennon wrote and recorded "God Save Oz" and he and Yoko Ono marched the streets surrounding the Old Bailey in support of the magazine and freedom of speech. London Oz ended in November 1973.
In the 1990s, across a variety of media, Richard explored social responsibility for businesses in the 21st Century. This led to keynote addresses at national conferences, and the essay collection Out of My Mind (Penguin). He also published his memoir Hippie Hippie Shake, which has been adapted as a film by Working Title. The film was not released for unknown reasons.
Neville was also the co-founder of the Australian Futures Foundation.
Neville was diagnosed with early-onset dementia in his mid sixties. The Australian Oz magazine has been digitised by the University of Wollongong. He died on 4 September 2016, at the age of 74.
Yale University has acquired Neville's archive, which is now located in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. - wickipedia
London Oz became increasingly influenced by hippie culture, and oscillated wildly between psychedelia, revolutionary political theory, idealistic dreams of a counter-culture, with much discussion of drug-taking thrown in. Oz campaigned to legalise marijuana through various events such as the Legalise Pot Rally in Hyde Park, London, in 1968. Oz, however, was clearly against hard drugs. There was also much discussion and theoretical rumination regarding feminism and the "sexual revolution" and by contemporary standards it often seems glaringly sexist.
While Neville had a reputation for being wild and stoned, he revealed in his autobiography Hippie Hippie Shake that he was more of a workaholic, obsessed with the magazine deadlines and his editorials, which often tried to make sense of all the competing philosophies that were exploding from the "youthquake". Neville was known as a charismatic and charming figure who had a wide circle of friends among London's intellectual and publishing elite, rock stars, socialist revolutionaries and criminals.
While Neville was holidaying on Ibiza, an edition of the magazine entirely produced by high school students—Schoolkids Oz (May 1970)—was published, edited by Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The issue depicted Rupert Bear sporting a penis (1971) and lead to the conviction of Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The then-longest obscenity trial in British history then ensued.
The Oz defendants had the brilliant and eccentric barrister, author and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer on their team, and Geoffrey Robertson, the now internationally renowned human rights lawyer made his debut in the trial. The trial turned the Old Bailey into a circus, with a bizarre array of celebrities called on to give evidence in its favour. John Lennon wrote and recorded "God Save Oz" and he and Yoko Ono marched the streets surrounding the Old Bailey in support of the magazine and freedom of speech. London Oz ended in November 1973.
In the 1990s, across a variety of media, Richard explored social responsibility for businesses in the 21st Century. This led to keynote addresses at national conferences, and the essay collection Out of My Mind (Penguin). He also published his memoir Hippie Hippie Shake, which has been adapted as a film by Working Title. The film was not released for unknown reasons.
Neville was also the co-founder of the Australian Futures Foundation.
Neville was diagnosed with early-onset dementia in his mid sixties. The Australian Oz magazine has been digitised by the University of Wollongong. He died on 4 September 2016, at the age of 74.
Yale University has acquired Neville's archive, which is now located in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. - wickipedia
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 1, 2022
Pleasant enough collection of short pieces Neville wrote from the '70s to the '90s -- mostly the '90s. His self-deprecating self-awareness, egalitarianism and eco-consciousness come through strongly. How he stays with his snarky wife is a mystery. Some of the articles read like advertising copy.
May 18, 2013
The Australian expat Richard Neville was a major player in the 1960s London counterculture, writing the call to arms Playpowr at the time and the memoir Hippie, Hippie Shake a few decades later. But in 1971, after prevailing in a legendary obscenity trial for his underground newspaper OZ, Neville faced a crisis due both to the collapse of the London counterculture and his own 30th birthday. He first uprooted himself to travel the globe and report for various newspapers on alternative cultures elsewhere, then he returned to Australia and settled in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Out of My Mind is a collection of his dispatches from 1971-1996. Each dispatch collected here also comes with a short postscript where Neville looks back on the event from 1996.
After avoiding imprisonment in the OZ trial, Neville coaxed the Evening Standard into sending him to the US to report on the 1972 presidential election. He met with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffmann, two famous American activists who were themselves saying farewell to youth action. The particular dispatch included here was directed to OZ, and works somewhat as a farewell to the London counterculture. Another dispatch from New York City from 1976 expresses his shock at how many of his peers from the counterculture had become what in the 1980s would be called yuppies, leaving behind communes for the stock market.
To a great extent, Neville's idealism wasn't exhausted, just channeled elsewhere. The town of Nimbin, now (in)famous as Australia's counterculture capital, backpacker destination and place to score weed, was once a decaying dairy town before the Aquarius Festival in 1973 breathed new life into it with the foundation of lasting communes. Neville attended the Aquarius Festival, and with others convinced the student crowds to put down roots in the community and be a source of social transformation. What lifts the readers' spirits is that the atmosphere of this festival that Neville found so fresh and unusual, with its communal vegan meals, acceptance of nudity and care for the environment, can now be found at any of the Rainbow Gatherings that are constantly being held all over the world.
Unfortunately, there are only a few dispatches from the 1970s, which I found a disappointment because, after reading Hippie, Hippie Shake, I would have liked to know more about how Neville's life and views changed in the following decade. But as Neville spent the late 1970s working on a biography of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, perhaps he wasn't contributing much else to magazines. What is less easy to understand is why there are so few dispatches from the 1980s. All in all, Out of My Mind proves to be heavily weighted towards the five or six years before its publication in 1996. By this point in his life, Neville's concerns had evolved to the environment, globalization, consumerism, the evolution of technology and the budding "cyberspace".
Ultimately Out of My Mind will probably prove most interesting to readers who want a view of the changes in Austrlian society around 1990 through the eyes of one journalist. Neville always writes witty and insightful commentary on the culture around him, so in spite of my disappointment that there wasn't more from 1970s and 1980s, I still enjoyed parts of the book.
After avoiding imprisonment in the OZ trial, Neville coaxed the Evening Standard into sending him to the US to report on the 1972 presidential election. He met with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffmann, two famous American activists who were themselves saying farewell to youth action. The particular dispatch included here was directed to OZ, and works somewhat as a farewell to the London counterculture. Another dispatch from New York City from 1976 expresses his shock at how many of his peers from the counterculture had become what in the 1980s would be called yuppies, leaving behind communes for the stock market.
To a great extent, Neville's idealism wasn't exhausted, just channeled elsewhere. The town of Nimbin, now (in)famous as Australia's counterculture capital, backpacker destination and place to score weed, was once a decaying dairy town before the Aquarius Festival in 1973 breathed new life into it with the foundation of lasting communes. Neville attended the Aquarius Festival, and with others convinced the student crowds to put down roots in the community and be a source of social transformation. What lifts the readers' spirits is that the atmosphere of this festival that Neville found so fresh and unusual, with its communal vegan meals, acceptance of nudity and care for the environment, can now be found at any of the Rainbow Gatherings that are constantly being held all over the world.
Unfortunately, there are only a few dispatches from the 1970s, which I found a disappointment because, after reading Hippie, Hippie Shake, I would have liked to know more about how Neville's life and views changed in the following decade. But as Neville spent the late 1970s working on a biography of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, perhaps he wasn't contributing much else to magazines. What is less easy to understand is why there are so few dispatches from the 1980s. All in all, Out of My Mind proves to be heavily weighted towards the five or six years before its publication in 1996. By this point in his life, Neville's concerns had evolved to the environment, globalization, consumerism, the evolution of technology and the budding "cyberspace".
Ultimately Out of My Mind will probably prove most interesting to readers who want a view of the changes in Austrlian society around 1990 through the eyes of one journalist. Neville always writes witty and insightful commentary on the culture around him, so in spite of my disappointment that there wasn't more from 1970s and 1980s, I still enjoyed parts of the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews