What do you think?
Rate this book
Play Power: Exploring the International Underground
Hardcover in good condition. Jacket not price-clipped. Original price 1.90, 38s net. Includes fold-out poster game 'Headpoly' in pocket on rear pastedown. Jacket spine is slightly sunned. Jacket leading corners, edges and spine ends are lightly bumped and worn. Boards, page block and a few pages are lightly marked. Spine ends are slightly tanned. Text remains clear throughout. Binding is sound. HCW
325 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
4 people are currently reading
103 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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 26, 2024
Richard Neville was one of the big figures of the 1960s youth scenes. After making a name for himself by founding the subversive review OZ in Australia, for which he faced an obscenity trial, he went on to issue his conterculture publication from the UK while roaming the world to report on what the "Underground" was up to. PLAY POWER is an exhaustive (300 pages) compilation of anecdotes about the Underground scene, mainly 1967 to early 1970, with a few references back to the American civil rights movement or Beatnik predecessors.
The book has very little structure, being simply a series of self-contained writings charting some event or trend that caught Neville's interest. At first this can be a little confusing, but the reader is soon absorbed in these three years of wild happenings. Neville describes topic from making love behind the Paris barricades in May 1968 to roaming the Istanbul-Kathmandu trail, from young people sleeping rough in Amsterdam to how to buy dope or even grow your own. There are sad vignettes like the plight of Europeans sentenced to thirty years in a Turkish prison for minor drug offences (though do a web search on the Dutchman, the story has a somewhat happy ending), and heartwarming bits such as an old man's reminisces about joining the Underground after a long life as a straight.
In the last part of the book, "The Politics of Play", Neville draws a useful distinction between the Underground and the New Left, two scenes which tend to be conflated in stereotypical depictions of the 1960s today. For Neville, the New Left is about working hard and working cooperatively, while for the Underground there's no desire to work at all. While the New Left sought to give work to all, the Underground shrugged off the 9 to 5 order and focused on whatever gave them pleasure, and somehow they managed to get by. At a time when digital technology and telecommuting offers people an unprecedented opportunity to make money while still traveling wherever they wish, Neville's views have a renewed importance.
Neville writes about these massive social changes with obvious delight, feeling that these self-empowered young people are a wave of the future, sure to cast the old order aside. That the Underground pretty much evaporated after the book was published makes this optimism rather poignant. But Neville's chronicles are not entirely rosy, for he does soberly discuss trends in the Underground such as conning "straights" out of their money, knowingly writing bad cheques, or turning to prostitution for quick cash. Still, one mostly can't help but share his enthusiasm for the promise of this era.
For anyone interested in the radicalism of the late 1960s, Neville's book is a must-read. It is sad that it fell out of print--though it is so much of its time that a new edition would be hard to come up with--but seek it out on the used market with zeal. If your interests are on the Istanbul-Kathmandu route specifically, you'll find the book an important contemporary account to supplement later histories like David Tomory's A SEASON IN HEAVEN.
The book has very little structure, being simply a series of self-contained writings charting some event or trend that caught Neville's interest. At first this can be a little confusing, but the reader is soon absorbed in these three years of wild happenings. Neville describes topic from making love behind the Paris barricades in May 1968 to roaming the Istanbul-Kathmandu trail, from young people sleeping rough in Amsterdam to how to buy dope or even grow your own. There are sad vignettes like the plight of Europeans sentenced to thirty years in a Turkish prison for minor drug offences (though do a web search on the Dutchman, the story has a somewhat happy ending), and heartwarming bits such as an old man's reminisces about joining the Underground after a long life as a straight.
In the last part of the book, "The Politics of Play", Neville draws a useful distinction between the Underground and the New Left, two scenes which tend to be conflated in stereotypical depictions of the 1960s today. For Neville, the New Left is about working hard and working cooperatively, while for the Underground there's no desire to work at all. While the New Left sought to give work to all, the Underground shrugged off the 9 to 5 order and focused on whatever gave them pleasure, and somehow they managed to get by. At a time when digital technology and telecommuting offers people an unprecedented opportunity to make money while still traveling wherever they wish, Neville's views have a renewed importance.
Neville writes about these massive social changes with obvious delight, feeling that these self-empowered young people are a wave of the future, sure to cast the old order aside. That the Underground pretty much evaporated after the book was published makes this optimism rather poignant. But Neville's chronicles are not entirely rosy, for he does soberly discuss trends in the Underground such as conning "straights" out of their money, knowingly writing bad cheques, or turning to prostitution for quick cash. Still, one mostly can't help but share his enthusiasm for the promise of this era.
For anyone interested in the radicalism of the late 1960s, Neville's book is a must-read. It is sad that it fell out of print--though it is so much of its time that a new edition would be hard to come up with--but seek it out on the used market with zeal. If your interests are on the Istanbul-Kathmandu route specifically, you'll find the book an important contemporary account to supplement later histories like David Tomory's A SEASON IN HEAVEN.
December 7, 2020
Richard Neville è stato una delle più grandi figure dell'underground australiano e non solo. Le sue riviste (in particolare OZ) sono circolate anche al di fuori dell'Oceania e lui stesso è stato partecipe delle controculture tanto in Inghilterra quanto negli States. Il libro è la prova e il resoconto di quegli anni.
Nella prefazione lo stesso Neville illustra come si è predisposto per la stesura del libro, se scegliere un report accademico della controcultura degli anni '60 o se seguire un resoconto degli eventi più informale, più vicino al gonzo journalism che ad un semplice riportare gli eventi: Neville opta senza esitare nello scegliere questo secondo metodo.
Il libro quindi si presenta senza una rigida struttura degli argomenti riuscendo però a rappresentare in maniera più coinvolgente l'enorme calderone dinamico dell'underground sapientemente rifiutando di raccontare i fatti esclusivamente in prima persona nella maniera egocentrica in cui solitamente rischiano di scadere i memoriali di personalità della controcultura dell'epoca. Anzi, Neville non ha peli sulla lingua, e quando c'è l'occasione giusta non si frena dal criticare anche numerosi elementi di quello stesso underground di cui lui fa parte, mostrando come non tutte le sue ramificazioni seguissero coerentemente i propri ideali.
E' un libro decisamente divertente, anche più di quanto mi sarei immaginato. Vi sono suggeriti tantissimi aneddoti curiosi e tantissime pubblicazioni assolutamente da ritrovare. Bellissima ovviamente la parte in cui si parla delle pubblicazioni e delle fanzine underground nel mondo, in cui emerge in evidenza anche Pianeta Fresco della premiata ditta Fernanda Pivano ed Ettore Sottsass. Essenziale per chi si vuole informare sui movimenti degli anni '60.
Nella prefazione lo stesso Neville illustra come si è predisposto per la stesura del libro, se scegliere un report accademico della controcultura degli anni '60 o se seguire un resoconto degli eventi più informale, più vicino al gonzo journalism che ad un semplice riportare gli eventi: Neville opta senza esitare nello scegliere questo secondo metodo.
Il libro quindi si presenta senza una rigida struttura degli argomenti riuscendo però a rappresentare in maniera più coinvolgente l'enorme calderone dinamico dell'underground sapientemente rifiutando di raccontare i fatti esclusivamente in prima persona nella maniera egocentrica in cui solitamente rischiano di scadere i memoriali di personalità della controcultura dell'epoca. Anzi, Neville non ha peli sulla lingua, e quando c'è l'occasione giusta non si frena dal criticare anche numerosi elementi di quello stesso underground di cui lui fa parte, mostrando come non tutte le sue ramificazioni seguissero coerentemente i propri ideali.
E' un libro decisamente divertente, anche più di quanto mi sarei immaginato. Vi sono suggeriti tantissimi aneddoti curiosi e tantissime pubblicazioni assolutamente da ritrovare. Bellissima ovviamente la parte in cui si parla delle pubblicazioni e delle fanzine underground nel mondo, in cui emerge in evidenza anche Pianeta Fresco della premiata ditta Fernanda Pivano ed Ettore Sottsass. Essenziale per chi si vuole informare sui movimenti degli anni '60.
December 10, 2013
Very much of its time, and just as irritating as you might expect an exposition of hippie ideology to be. However, Neville does have some really interesting ideas particularly in section four on work and leisure. Begs the question how might we be living today if 'more leisure time' rather than 'more consumer goods' havd been our primary motivation.
June 30, 2019
Yes, Richard Neville, on the one hand you gave us Oz, and on the other this pile of self indulgent drivel.
July 14, 2020
Bought a second-hand copy of this in the early 1970s so have probably read it a few times.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews