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A Hero for High Times: A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994
‘My book of the year. Extraordinary’ The Times
A new history of counterculture in the UK, from the release of Heartbreak Hotel in 1956 to the passing of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994
Deep in a wood in the Marches of Wales, in an ancient school bus there lives an old man called Bob Rowberry.
A Hero for High Times is the story of how he ended up in this broken-down bus. It's also the story of his times, and the ideas that shaped him. It's a story of why you know your birth sign, why you have friends called Willow, why sex and drugs and rock’n’roll once mattered more than money, why dance music stopped the New-Age Travellers from travelling, and why you need to think twice before taking the brown acid.
It’s also a story of friendship between two men, one who did things, and one who thought about things, between theory and practice, between a hippie and a punk, between two gentlemen, no longer in the first flush of youth, who still believe in love.
‘This amiable and engaging blog-doc is an Odyssey for elective outsiders’ Iain Sinclair, Guardian
A new history of counterculture in the UK, from the release of Heartbreak Hotel in 1956 to the passing of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994
Deep in a wood in the Marches of Wales, in an ancient school bus there lives an old man called Bob Rowberry.
A Hero for High Times is the story of how he ended up in this broken-down bus. It's also the story of his times, and the ideas that shaped him. It's a story of why you know your birth sign, why you have friends called Willow, why sex and drugs and rock’n’roll once mattered more than money, why dance music stopped the New-Age Travellers from travelling, and why you need to think twice before taking the brown acid.
It’s also a story of friendship between two men, one who did things, and one who thought about things, between theory and practice, between a hippie and a punk, between two gentlemen, no longer in the first flush of youth, who still believe in love.
‘This amiable and engaging blog-doc is an Odyssey for elective outsiders’ Iain Sinclair, Guardian
512 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 2014
15 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Ian Marchant
20 books19 followersIan Marchant wasn't born in Newhaven in East Sussex in 1958, but he often claims that he was because of his deep embarrasment about his real place of birth.
But he really did grow up in Newhaven, and went to school there, and he still sees it as home, even though it quite clearly isn't, given that he lives 250 miles away in Mid-Wales. He didn't graduate in Philosophy from St David's University College, Lampeter in 1979. Or ever. He is currently a Masters student studying church history at Lampeter, though, honest.
He didn't make a living singing in bands in the late 1970's and early 1980's; nor did he become a civil engineer in the late 1980's, as he didn't have any facility for the maths. He was surprised to learn recently that he didn't graduate in the History and Philosophy of Science with a Creative Writing Minor from Lancaster University in 1992. He really did live in a caravan for many years, but he didn't share it with a chicken called Ginger, who was rather an occasional visitor.
He put his 'career' as a 'novelist' on 'hold' when his second novel 'The Battle For Dole Acre', (whose title he can't pronounce),didn't really sell. He decided to write non-fiction instead, because reality is so much less plausible than made up things. Like, there was the time with a pair of twins on duty at a Travelodge in Ely, which no one believes, but which really happened.
He didn't know much about railways or pubs when he started writing his acclaimed travel memoirs 'Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams' and 'The Longest Crawl: Being an Account of a Journey Through an Intoxicated Landscape or a Child's Treasury of Booze', (though he does now). He did stay awake for months to write his last book 'Something of the Night.
His latest book, 'A Hero for High Times: A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994', has not yet been optioned for a fillum, so get in quick, I would.
He no longer sings in a cheesy cabaret duo called 'Your Dad', because the other half of 'Your Dad' died.
He does still support Brighton and Hove Albion, make radio shows when he's invited, and enjoy a cooked breakfast in Elda's Colombian Coffee House, High Street, Presteigne, Radnorshire.
You can read his blog, which he doesn't update enough, via his website, www.ianmarchant.com
But he really did grow up in Newhaven, and went to school there, and he still sees it as home, even though it quite clearly isn't, given that he lives 250 miles away in Mid-Wales. He didn't graduate in Philosophy from St David's University College, Lampeter in 1979. Or ever. He is currently a Masters student studying church history at Lampeter, though, honest.
He didn't make a living singing in bands in the late 1970's and early 1980's; nor did he become a civil engineer in the late 1980's, as he didn't have any facility for the maths. He was surprised to learn recently that he didn't graduate in the History and Philosophy of Science with a Creative Writing Minor from Lancaster University in 1992. He really did live in a caravan for many years, but he didn't share it with a chicken called Ginger, who was rather an occasional visitor.
He put his 'career' as a 'novelist' on 'hold' when his second novel 'The Battle For Dole Acre', (whose title he can't pronounce),didn't really sell. He decided to write non-fiction instead, because reality is so much less plausible than made up things. Like, there was the time with a pair of twins on duty at a Travelodge in Ely, which no one believes, but which really happened.
He didn't know much about railways or pubs when he started writing his acclaimed travel memoirs 'Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams' and 'The Longest Crawl: Being an Account of a Journey Through an Intoxicated Landscape or a Child's Treasury of Booze', (though he does now). He did stay awake for months to write his last book 'Something of the Night.
His latest book, 'A Hero for High Times: A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994', has not yet been optioned for a fillum, so get in quick, I would.
He no longer sings in a cheesy cabaret duo called 'Your Dad', because the other half of 'Your Dad' died.
He does still support Brighton and Hove Albion, make radio shows when he's invited, and enjoy a cooked breakfast in Elda's Colombian Coffee House, High Street, Presteigne, Radnorshire.
You can read his blog, which he doesn't update enough, via his website, www.ianmarchant.com
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 21, 2023
The full title of the book:
A Hero for High Times (Being an Account of the Life and Times and Opinions of Mr Robert Rowberry)
Or: A younger readers guide to The Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-rope brew crew crusties of the British Isles 1956-1994.
It is a great read and is a comprehensive history of the counter-culture. The whole thing is built around Bob Rowberry who has lived through most of it. Bob now lives in an old school bus in a wood in Wales where he makes and mends stuff, with solar panels providing his electricity and a wood burner his heat.
However the things that Bob has done in his time are surprising. He has lived rough in London and Liverpool, frequented Soho Jazz clubs, busked with Eric Clapton (when he played the banjo) and Rod Stewart, was the first person to sell acid to R. D. Laing, the band Procul Harem took their name from his cat, was the first person to bring Afghan Coats into the country (much beloved by hippies), arrested in Iraq in the late 60s and interviewed by a military officer called Saddam Hussain (whatever happened to him). He played a small part in the Profumo affair, acting as bodyguard to Ronna Ricardo, one of the witnesses in the case. Bob spent time in a few jails. The one in Mexico was memorable as he was freed by the local population! Bob has dealt in cannabis and acid and used most drugs, but never been an addict. The story about Bob’s encounter with Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm is very 1960s (look it up). He’s played a tambourine on stage with Led Zeppelin. There’s much, much more and Bob’s love life (mainly women, but some men as well) is very picturesque.
Marchant weaves Bob’s story in and out of the times but covers music (central to it all), Situationism, anarchism, the Angry Brigade, the decline of deference, hippies and their beliefs and the fascination with Eastern religions. Marchant links this fascination with Said’s Orientalism to provide a good analysis of the phenomenon. There’s a great deal about alternative lifestyles, building a bender and living away from society. He charts those who dropped out and looks at what happened to them and where they are now. The history of the Women’s movement plays its part, but not prominently enough. There’s plenty about punk and the role of the NME and the story draws to a close with raves and New Age Travellers: until the Tories put a stop to it all in 1994 and effectively killed off the counter culture. Marchant also links the end to the gradual changes in the university fee structure and the rise of managerialism as well as Thatcher.
It’s a great read and there are references to lots of books. In the appendix there is a reading list and a music and film list with links to useful websites. It’s rather long, but full of interesting stuff. Bob is portrayed warts and all and there’s no sentimentality. It’s clear where Marchant stands politically and I’m pretty much with him. He hopes he can inspire younger readers by telling stories about what is possible and what has gone before
A Hero for High Times (Being an Account of the Life and Times and Opinions of Mr Robert Rowberry)
Or: A younger readers guide to The Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-rope brew crew crusties of the British Isles 1956-1994.
It is a great read and is a comprehensive history of the counter-culture. The whole thing is built around Bob Rowberry who has lived through most of it. Bob now lives in an old school bus in a wood in Wales where he makes and mends stuff, with solar panels providing his electricity and a wood burner his heat.
However the things that Bob has done in his time are surprising. He has lived rough in London and Liverpool, frequented Soho Jazz clubs, busked with Eric Clapton (when he played the banjo) and Rod Stewart, was the first person to sell acid to R. D. Laing, the band Procul Harem took their name from his cat, was the first person to bring Afghan Coats into the country (much beloved by hippies), arrested in Iraq in the late 60s and interviewed by a military officer called Saddam Hussain (whatever happened to him). He played a small part in the Profumo affair, acting as bodyguard to Ronna Ricardo, one of the witnesses in the case. Bob spent time in a few jails. The one in Mexico was memorable as he was freed by the local population! Bob has dealt in cannabis and acid and used most drugs, but never been an addict. The story about Bob’s encounter with Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm is very 1960s (look it up). He’s played a tambourine on stage with Led Zeppelin. There’s much, much more and Bob’s love life (mainly women, but some men as well) is very picturesque.
Marchant weaves Bob’s story in and out of the times but covers music (central to it all), Situationism, anarchism, the Angry Brigade, the decline of deference, hippies and their beliefs and the fascination with Eastern religions. Marchant links this fascination with Said’s Orientalism to provide a good analysis of the phenomenon. There’s a great deal about alternative lifestyles, building a bender and living away from society. He charts those who dropped out and looks at what happened to them and where they are now. The history of the Women’s movement plays its part, but not prominently enough. There’s plenty about punk and the role of the NME and the story draws to a close with raves and New Age Travellers: until the Tories put a stop to it all in 1994 and effectively killed off the counter culture. Marchant also links the end to the gradual changes in the university fee structure and the rise of managerialism as well as Thatcher.
It’s a great read and there are references to lots of books. In the appendix there is a reading list and a music and film list with links to useful websites. It’s rather long, but full of interesting stuff. Bob is portrayed warts and all and there’s no sentimentality. It’s clear where Marchant stands politically and I’m pretty much with him. He hopes he can inspire younger readers by telling stories about what is possible and what has gone before
August 10, 2018
A superb read. The best book I have read this year.
Ian Marchant tells the life story of the extraordinary Bob Rowberry, a man whose life perfectly overlays the development of youth culture through Jazz, Skiffle, and into full-on counter cultural hippiedom. And he means it maaan. His entire life has been led on his terms. Bob currently lives in a broken-down bus, with solar panels which is gifted at peppercorn rent by a couple of homeopathic practitioners.
His stories are remarkable, he was the first person to sell acid to RD Laing, Procul Harum are named after his cat, he was freed from jail in Mexico by a popular uprising of the peasantry, and so it goes, on and on.
Ian Marchant weaves into Bob's life story the history of the counterculture. As the subtitle states, this book is nothing less than A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994. That said, it is mainly the hippies, with the rest crammed into the last 50 pages or so, but that's OK, it's mainly Bob's story.
I should perhaps knock a star off as it does go on a bit, and could have done with a bit of an edit, but I'm not going to be that churlish because when this is good it's brilliant, and it is mainly very good indeed.
There's an elegiac quality to the last sections, as Ian Marchant acknowledges that this is now history and many of the optimistic ideas of the 1960s appear to have little relevance to the modern world. He's probably right but this book does a great service by chronicling the era and the story of a remarkable life.
Read it. It's great.
5/5
Ian Marchant tells the life story of the extraordinary Bob Rowberry, a man whose life perfectly overlays the development of youth culture through Jazz, Skiffle, and into full-on counter cultural hippiedom. And he means it maaan. His entire life has been led on his terms. Bob currently lives in a broken-down bus, with solar panels which is gifted at peppercorn rent by a couple of homeopathic practitioners.
His stories are remarkable, he was the first person to sell acid to RD Laing, Procul Harum are named after his cat, he was freed from jail in Mexico by a popular uprising of the peasantry, and so it goes, on and on.
Ian Marchant weaves into Bob's life story the history of the counterculture. As the subtitle states, this book is nothing less than A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994. That said, it is mainly the hippies, with the rest crammed into the last 50 pages or so, but that's OK, it's mainly Bob's story.
I should perhaps knock a star off as it does go on a bit, and could have done with a bit of an edit, but I'm not going to be that churlish because when this is good it's brilliant, and it is mainly very good indeed.
There's an elegiac quality to the last sections, as Ian Marchant acknowledges that this is now history and many of the optimistic ideas of the 1960s appear to have little relevance to the modern world. He's probably right but this book does a great service by chronicling the era and the story of a remarkable life.
Read it. It's great.
5/5
April 2, 2018
A fascinating book and a great way to learn about the social history of the UK between 1965 to 1994 from the people who were actually there.
February 4, 2021
Long Ago And Far Away
What a treasure this book is! The story of one man's life through the fifties,sixties,seventies and eighties. Bob has been there through the Beat generation and the love revolution. He doesn't love that far from me and neither does the author. As someone who loves everything about the counterculture and also manages to be a punk ( sorry Bob), I was unable to put the book down for more than an hour at a time! Buy it! It's a wonderful read.
What a treasure this book is! The story of one man's life through the fifties,sixties,seventies and eighties. Bob has been there through the Beat generation and the love revolution. He doesn't love that far from me and neither does the author. As someone who loves everything about the counterculture and also manages to be a punk ( sorry Bob), I was unable to put the book down for more than an hour at a time! Buy it! It's a wonderful read.
October 2, 2021
Super interesting book about a dude who lived through the 50s sixties 70s and 80s and basically did his own thing throughout. Your classic hippie. The book really goes into the music scene and talks a lot about the hippie movement in the 50s and 60s and especially around music and what happened with Glastonbury later on. The part that really interested me was the point at which Bob rowberry goes into Afghanistan and some of the things he gets up there. He was clearly a brave individuals and had quite a few near death experiences and was lucky enough to tell the title. Some hilarious moments definitely worth a read especially if you're into that Glastonbury type of music and want to deep dive into the beats and hippie movements of the 50s and 60s and early 70s. Here are the best bits from the book:
Capitalism is a vicious circle. People sweat and blood is used and exploited. They make us produce **** they gave us next to nothing while their class pockets huge profits the ruling class. Then when we put the overalls aside we cleaned up the mark from our faces and we take the boring bus or train home and they suddenly transform us into consumers. In other words when we are not working they make us by the same ship we produced. The miserable wage package they gave us they make us spend on useless food on machines especially designed to break down and on houses we know look and feel like prisons. Prisons we helped build. And we pay for these over the next 20 years for we never have enough dough to pay for a house or a car or anything for that matter. They have to exploit us even more by making us pay interest for that. We build the prisons and then we live in them. We produce **** and then we eat it. Producers of shite. Consumers of ****.
Man’s possibilities are very great: you cannot conceive even a shadow of what man is capable of attaining. But modern man lives in sleep, in sleep he is born, and in sleep he dies. In the consciousness of the sleeping man his illusions, his dreams are mixed with reality. He lives in a subjective world and he can never escape from it. And this is the reason why he can never make use of all the powers he possesses and why he always lives in only a small part of himself.
The Arab Spring? Funny kind of spring. Our masters delight in destabilizing the least stable part of the world. Thousands of tons of bombs are dropped on peoples homes so they pack up pick up and walk away and try to get to somewhere safe like here. What would you do? Imagine a man from sub saharan Africa with no food no clean water no prospects of economically productive work who is getting bombed by his own government but happens to speak English. He decides to head north in search of a better life. He crosses the Sahara desert somehow gets across the hellhole that is Libya and manages to find a boat on the coast. There are 354 people on a tiny fishing boat which flounders in choppy waters. They get picked up thankfully by the Italian Coast Guard and then get taken to Sicily. Your man then gets puts in a holding camp before being processed and then starts to head across a hostile Europe to Calais where he somehow survives for a few months before bunking into the back of a wagon on a ferry to Dover at which point he applies for asylum. He gets bunged into an immigration detention Center for at least six months but maybe 3,4,5 years. He's given 37 pounds a week to live on. He should be welcomed with open arms shouldn't he? Not out of altruism but because someone is smart and resourceful as him is going to come in handy
In particular the hippies views of the east smack of a particular strain of cultural colonialism called “orientalism” after the 1978 book of the same title by Edward said. According to him orientalism is the approach taken by the West and western scholars in particular towards the mysterious Orient. In the orientalist worldview the West is active and structuring while the Orient is passive and disorganized to. The West writes and the Orient is written about: the West investigates because the Orient needs investigation: the West has knowledge and produces knowledge and the Orient is raw data waiting to be shaped into knowledge. The oriental lacks knowledge of himself and needs him and can only obtain it from the structuring western mind.
Do you know why there are so many birds in my wood? isn't it because we're in the woods in the middle of nowhere? No it's because I've killed all the grey little squirrels so the birds lay more eggs. I've seen Bob do this. I've sat outside his van and watched him kill a squirrel from a ball bearing fired from a catapult.
I'm at a loss to know where besides among these dissenting young people and their heirs of the next few generations the radical discontent and innovation can be found that might transform this disorientated civilization of ours into something a human being can identify as home.
Alienation is an idea based on the early writings of Karl Marx. Alienation is the bit of the system that takes out intelligent increment wage in the world and saps all our pleasure in what we do in order that we fulfill our economic function as consumers. For example: growing a coffee bean tree on common land cropping the coffee beans with your smiling friends roasting and grinding the beans singing folksongs together about the spirit of the bean heating water from a communal well over renewable energy source pouring it over the ground beans and drinking it from a hand thrown earthenware mug together with your neighbors is a non alienated cup of coffee.I've never had one but it sounds quite nice I think. Now, going into starbucks and saying morning frank can I have a coffee and a starbucks crispy bacon sandwich please is a slightly alienated cup of coffee.
No one could think of driving to Afghanistan and buying a few coats. Imagination in the young I worry has been caused to run in deep yet narrow channels never to break free of the levee and wash the old world away.
He wrote that life is a tragedy of nutrition and that the direct rays of the sun on the naked body supply the electricity energy and vitality to the human storage battery renewing it in vigor strength and virility.
Then as now pop music is a useful map of the emotional landscape of the times.
The first time he saw Elvis: his energy was incredible his instinct was just amazing. I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it with.
Lucien carr was employed at the United press had access to teletype paper and brought home 130 foot long roll for Jack to right “on the road”. So carr had provided the beats aesthetic, thereby creating the means by which Kerouac composed his seminal book.
Hubert huncke, a friend of Burroughs, introduced the term beat to the group: it was originally a junkie term meaning beats down, ragged, whipped, outside the game. But Jack Kerouac also saw it as meaning beautified, that is to say: sainted.
The CND symbol was designed by graphic artist Gerald holtom . It incorporates the semaphore letters for N&D but holtom himself claimed that he was inspired by a Francisco Goya painting of a peasant before a firing squad. It is now universally known as the peace symbol: though not everyone seems to remember this.
various anarchists have called themselves Albion Free State and Albion is an idea that runs through much of the new age political thought. What is Albion apart from an excellent football club representing the fine city of Brighton and Hove? Heathcoat Williams was one of the anarchists of Albion Free State and in his 1974 manifesto he writes Albion is the other England of peace and love which William Blake foresaw in a vision: a country freed of dark satanic mills and similar Big Brother machinations. Albion is what the 12th century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth called the island of Great Britain claiming that before brutus came from Troy and named it after himself, Albion was the original name of Britain. It was a land once inhabited by giants, now long dead. 12th century writers could see no explanation for the stone circles dotted over the landscape (stone henge) other than they had been built by giants. Albion means the white island shining & pure.
In the 60s, later on in this story, people said that the personal is the political and everyone nodded. Now of course politics has gone and the personal is all that's left. It is hard for younger readers with their high emotional intelligence and their low knowledge of history to comprehend. But it's true. Homosexuality was illegal until 1967.
It was this that did it for Oscar Wilde in 1895 and Alan Turing in 1952. Wilde was sentence to two years hard labor, turing was sentenced to a cruel course of some synthetic, which killed his libido and made him grow breasts. He killed himself two years later by eating an apple laced with cyanide. Well known gadget salesman Steve Jobs thought this so hilarious that he used an apple with a bite out of it as the logo for his products: doubly annoying since his machines are not computers in the sense that turing envisaged.
The dialectics of liberation held at London’s Roundhouse in 1967 was a hip academic conference if you can imagine such a thing. Speakers included Ronnie laing, Herbert Marcuse, Allen Ginsberg, Tim Leary, and black power leader stokely Carmichael. Entertainment was provided by the social deviants by all accounts the best really shit band ever. The social deviants singer, Mick farren gives a brilliant account of the occasion in his excellent autobiography “give the anarchist cigarette”: stokely Carmichael delivered what appeared to be a set speech, which was received with something close to a standing ovation. He then turned the tables by announcing he'd been reading a speech by Adolf Hitler and castigated the crowd as a bunch of white ****** ******* closet Nazis.
Until about the 1860s spiritual hunger in the West was fed by Christianity. There may have been innumerable sects, but they all could agree on a few things: that the earth was created by God for a purpose and that Jesus Christ was his son, who died on the cross for the sins of humankind, he was resurrected three days later and ascended into heaven to be with his father. Biblical criticism theological revisionism mass industrialization in scientific innovation meant that it was not so easy for people to agree on these principles by the end of the 19th century.
Due to a strike by coalminers between 1st of January in 7th of March 1974 the Tory government ordered the three day week, in an attempt to save power. Workplaces and homes only got electricity for three days a week. TV companies shut down at 10:30 PM every night.
No because I had a taste of where I could buy anything I wanted. And I saw what having lots of money bought. It bought ******** toadies, basically. No day past when there wasn't someone coming round because you've got good drugs, a nice place, wine, food, a decent sound system that's all thing. No, money isn't the great panacea.
Including the day of “reflect the base” in December 1983 when 50,000 women surrounded greenham base holding up mirrors so that the soldiers guarding that base could see what they had become.
In the Middle Ages and up to the beginning of the 19th century theology was the queen of sciences and at the center of universities concerns. They were run by ordained priests. In the early 19th century new kinds of universities appeared which had philosophy, including natural philosophy or science at is as it is now known at their heart. And so universities came to be run by philosophers and scientists. From 1989 onwards the central subject increasingly became management studies. So now the universities are run by managers. The universities keep the humanities only out of nostalgia or guilt.
Capitalism is a vicious circle. People sweat and blood is used and exploited. They make us produce **** they gave us next to nothing while their class pockets huge profits the ruling class. Then when we put the overalls aside we cleaned up the mark from our faces and we take the boring bus or train home and they suddenly transform us into consumers. In other words when we are not working they make us by the same ship we produced. The miserable wage package they gave us they make us spend on useless food on machines especially designed to break down and on houses we know look and feel like prisons. Prisons we helped build. And we pay for these over the next 20 years for we never have enough dough to pay for a house or a car or anything for that matter. They have to exploit us even more by making us pay interest for that. We build the prisons and then we live in them. We produce **** and then we eat it. Producers of shite. Consumers of ****.
Man’s possibilities are very great: you cannot conceive even a shadow of what man is capable of attaining. But modern man lives in sleep, in sleep he is born, and in sleep he dies. In the consciousness of the sleeping man his illusions, his dreams are mixed with reality. He lives in a subjective world and he can never escape from it. And this is the reason why he can never make use of all the powers he possesses and why he always lives in only a small part of himself.
The Arab Spring? Funny kind of spring. Our masters delight in destabilizing the least stable part of the world. Thousands of tons of bombs are dropped on peoples homes so they pack up pick up and walk away and try to get to somewhere safe like here. What would you do? Imagine a man from sub saharan Africa with no food no clean water no prospects of economically productive work who is getting bombed by his own government but happens to speak English. He decides to head north in search of a better life. He crosses the Sahara desert somehow gets across the hellhole that is Libya and manages to find a boat on the coast. There are 354 people on a tiny fishing boat which flounders in choppy waters. They get picked up thankfully by the Italian Coast Guard and then get taken to Sicily. Your man then gets puts in a holding camp before being processed and then starts to head across a hostile Europe to Calais where he somehow survives for a few months before bunking into the back of a wagon on a ferry to Dover at which point he applies for asylum. He gets bunged into an immigration detention Center for at least six months but maybe 3,4,5 years. He's given 37 pounds a week to live on. He should be welcomed with open arms shouldn't he? Not out of altruism but because someone is smart and resourceful as him is going to come in handy
In particular the hippies views of the east smack of a particular strain of cultural colonialism called “orientalism” after the 1978 book of the same title by Edward said. According to him orientalism is the approach taken by the West and western scholars in particular towards the mysterious Orient. In the orientalist worldview the West is active and structuring while the Orient is passive and disorganized to. The West writes and the Orient is written about: the West investigates because the Orient needs investigation: the West has knowledge and produces knowledge and the Orient is raw data waiting to be shaped into knowledge. The oriental lacks knowledge of himself and needs him and can only obtain it from the structuring western mind.
Do you know why there are so many birds in my wood? isn't it because we're in the woods in the middle of nowhere? No it's because I've killed all the grey little squirrels so the birds lay more eggs. I've seen Bob do this. I've sat outside his van and watched him kill a squirrel from a ball bearing fired from a catapult.
I'm at a loss to know where besides among these dissenting young people and their heirs of the next few generations the radical discontent and innovation can be found that might transform this disorientated civilization of ours into something a human being can identify as home.
Alienation is an idea based on the early writings of Karl Marx. Alienation is the bit of the system that takes out intelligent increment wage in the world and saps all our pleasure in what we do in order that we fulfill our economic function as consumers. For example: growing a coffee bean tree on common land cropping the coffee beans with your smiling friends roasting and grinding the beans singing folksongs together about the spirit of the bean heating water from a communal well over renewable energy source pouring it over the ground beans and drinking it from a hand thrown earthenware mug together with your neighbors is a non alienated cup of coffee.I've never had one but it sounds quite nice I think. Now, going into starbucks and saying morning frank can I have a coffee and a starbucks crispy bacon sandwich please is a slightly alienated cup of coffee.
No one could think of driving to Afghanistan and buying a few coats. Imagination in the young I worry has been caused to run in deep yet narrow channels never to break free of the levee and wash the old world away.
He wrote that life is a tragedy of nutrition and that the direct rays of the sun on the naked body supply the electricity energy and vitality to the human storage battery renewing it in vigor strength and virility.
Then as now pop music is a useful map of the emotional landscape of the times.
The first time he saw Elvis: his energy was incredible his instinct was just amazing. I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it with.
Lucien carr was employed at the United press had access to teletype paper and brought home 130 foot long roll for Jack to right “on the road”. So carr had provided the beats aesthetic, thereby creating the means by which Kerouac composed his seminal book.
Hubert huncke, a friend of Burroughs, introduced the term beat to the group: it was originally a junkie term meaning beats down, ragged, whipped, outside the game. But Jack Kerouac also saw it as meaning beautified, that is to say: sainted.
The CND symbol was designed by graphic artist Gerald holtom . It incorporates the semaphore letters for N&D but holtom himself claimed that he was inspired by a Francisco Goya painting of a peasant before a firing squad. It is now universally known as the peace symbol: though not everyone seems to remember this.
various anarchists have called themselves Albion Free State and Albion is an idea that runs through much of the new age political thought. What is Albion apart from an excellent football club representing the fine city of Brighton and Hove? Heathcoat Williams was one of the anarchists of Albion Free State and in his 1974 manifesto he writes Albion is the other England of peace and love which William Blake foresaw in a vision: a country freed of dark satanic mills and similar Big Brother machinations. Albion is what the 12th century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth called the island of Great Britain claiming that before brutus came from Troy and named it after himself, Albion was the original name of Britain. It was a land once inhabited by giants, now long dead. 12th century writers could see no explanation for the stone circles dotted over the landscape (stone henge) other than they had been built by giants. Albion means the white island shining & pure.
In the 60s, later on in this story, people said that the personal is the political and everyone nodded. Now of course politics has gone and the personal is all that's left. It is hard for younger readers with their high emotional intelligence and their low knowledge of history to comprehend. But it's true. Homosexuality was illegal until 1967.
It was this that did it for Oscar Wilde in 1895 and Alan Turing in 1952. Wilde was sentence to two years hard labor, turing was sentenced to a cruel course of some synthetic, which killed his libido and made him grow breasts. He killed himself two years later by eating an apple laced with cyanide. Well known gadget salesman Steve Jobs thought this so hilarious that he used an apple with a bite out of it as the logo for his products: doubly annoying since his machines are not computers in the sense that turing envisaged.
The dialectics of liberation held at London’s Roundhouse in 1967 was a hip academic conference if you can imagine such a thing. Speakers included Ronnie laing, Herbert Marcuse, Allen Ginsberg, Tim Leary, and black power leader stokely Carmichael. Entertainment was provided by the social deviants by all accounts the best really shit band ever. The social deviants singer, Mick farren gives a brilliant account of the occasion in his excellent autobiography “give the anarchist cigarette”: stokely Carmichael delivered what appeared to be a set speech, which was received with something close to a standing ovation. He then turned the tables by announcing he'd been reading a speech by Adolf Hitler and castigated the crowd as a bunch of white ****** ******* closet Nazis.
Until about the 1860s spiritual hunger in the West was fed by Christianity. There may have been innumerable sects, but they all could agree on a few things: that the earth was created by God for a purpose and that Jesus Christ was his son, who died on the cross for the sins of humankind, he was resurrected three days later and ascended into heaven to be with his father. Biblical criticism theological revisionism mass industrialization in scientific innovation meant that it was not so easy for people to agree on these principles by the end of the 19th century.
Due to a strike by coalminers between 1st of January in 7th of March 1974 the Tory government ordered the three day week, in an attempt to save power. Workplaces and homes only got electricity for three days a week. TV companies shut down at 10:30 PM every night.
No because I had a taste of where I could buy anything I wanted. And I saw what having lots of money bought. It bought ******** toadies, basically. No day past when there wasn't someone coming round because you've got good drugs, a nice place, wine, food, a decent sound system that's all thing. No, money isn't the great panacea.
Including the day of “reflect the base” in December 1983 when 50,000 women surrounded greenham base holding up mirrors so that the soldiers guarding that base could see what they had become.
In the Middle Ages and up to the beginning of the 19th century theology was the queen of sciences and at the center of universities concerns. They were run by ordained priests. In the early 19th century new kinds of universities appeared which had philosophy, including natural philosophy or science at is as it is now known at their heart. And so universities came to be run by philosophers and scientists. From 1989 onwards the central subject increasingly became management studies. So now the universities are run by managers. The universities keep the humanities only out of nostalgia or guilt.
February 8, 2021
Ian Marchant is the sort of writer you are either going to love or hate; you will either be engaged and pulled along by the authorial 'voice', or you will be repelled by his tendency to make every historical event a backdrop to his own autobiographical story., there's no middle ground. This book, a comprehensive account of the 'counter culture' as it was experienced in this country between 1958 and 1994 told through the life experiences of one of Marchant's friends from the margins of 'normal' society, will test your patience for the Marchant style to the limit. The dates are chosen deliberately: 1958 for the year when Elvis's joined the army; 1994 for the infamous 'Battle of the Beanfield' and the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act that effectively outlawed most of the 'traveller' lifestyle. Really, the star of this book is Marchant's itinerant friend, Bob Rowberry: the stories told are so improbable, the involvement in every significant counter-culture event so critical, that I at first assumed that 'Bob Rowberry' was fiction, a confection created by conflating many other characters of the period. I was wrong; this is the chronicle of a real person who actually experienced all the episodes in the book, pretty much as described. Along the way we discover. amongst other things, "situationism, skiffle, Gurdjieff, Profumo, CND, women’s liberation, Glastonbury, the Angry Brigade, drugs and more drugs" (to quote Iain Sinclair's review in the Guardian). It's mind-blowing stuff. Man.
Try it if you like: turning on, tuning in, dropping out.
Try it if you like: turning on, tuning in, dropping out.
March 23, 2019
H gave me this, rightly thinking that I would find it interesting.
He's trying, via a sort-of biography of his mate Bob, to reconstruct the development and history of the counter culture, 1950-date. Perhaps his mate is fictional? Nice idea, but I think not.
I enjoyed this, although it took an unconscionably long time to finish as I kept putting it down for other things. Some of the stories that are told are great anecdotes ... people who were there at the time. Even if only half of them are true, they are good entertainment.
Does it succeed as a history? I'm less sure. There is a sense of shoe-horning sociological observations onto selected facts and the big conclusions don't really stand up. It deteriorates toward the end when it becomes Marchant's stories rather than Bob's, but hey ho.
It was 300 pages before he introduced someone I had known (Sid Rawle), closely followed by Ziggy who I suppose I do till know. In the end, well worth it for the tales, and some of the serious background, but I'm not sure it became more than that. Not the first Marchant I have read, & prolly not the lst.
He's trying, via a sort-of biography of his mate Bob, to reconstruct the development and history of the counter culture, 1950-date. Perhaps his mate is fictional? Nice idea, but I think not.
I enjoyed this, although it took an unconscionably long time to finish as I kept putting it down for other things. Some of the stories that are told are great anecdotes ... people who were there at the time. Even if only half of them are true, they are good entertainment.
Does it succeed as a history? I'm less sure. There is a sense of shoe-horning sociological observations onto selected facts and the big conclusions don't really stand up. It deteriorates toward the end when it becomes Marchant's stories rather than Bob's, but hey ho.
It was 300 pages before he introduced someone I had known (Sid Rawle), closely followed by Ziggy who I suppose I do till know. In the end, well worth it for the tales, and some of the serious background, but I'm not sure it became more than that. Not the first Marchant I have read, & prolly not the lst.
March 16, 2019
I loved this book. A potted ;-) history of the counter culture and a biography of one of its unsung instigators, Bob Rowberry. Some great stories, a social commentary and history of the counter culture as well as a lament for all that has been lost with its passing. Maybe even a call to arms to the youth of today.
I don't agree with some of the author's thoughts on music (e.g. on Techno) but, for the most part, we're on the same page. Minor moan aside, there is a lot about music and it's relationship to the counter culture, as well as some great anecdotes in which well-known musicians feature. I found much of the thinking inspiring and there are books I'll have to read and films I'll have to watch after reading this.
You may notice I have given it 5 stars, that's because there is so much to enjoy within. I need to persuade my sons to read it. If only I could have read it when I was 16 or 17 (yes, that would be impossible for several reasons!) I also think you should read it, it is immense fun :-)
I don't agree with some of the author's thoughts on music (e.g. on Techno) but, for the most part, we're on the same page. Minor moan aside, there is a lot about music and it's relationship to the counter culture, as well as some great anecdotes in which well-known musicians feature. I found much of the thinking inspiring and there are books I'll have to read and films I'll have to watch after reading this.
You may notice I have given it 5 stars, that's because there is so much to enjoy within. I need to persuade my sons to read it. If only I could have read it when I was 16 or 17 (yes, that would be impossible for several reasons!) I also think you should read it, it is immense fun :-)
April 2, 2018
An account of the life of one Bob Rowberry, friend of the author, who stands as representative of the “freak” culture described in the book. He has lived an adventurous life to say the least, taking in crime, guns, drugs, fashion and so on. He has wound up for the past 15 years living in a static van in a wood in central Wales (where else)? Marchant is clearly very fond of his friend, and the book is really a biography rather than a serious account of the counter-culture. The conceit is that the book is being written for Marchant’s grandchildren, and “Young Readers” are addressed directly on many occasions. However this is probably best read by people in their 50s, 60s and 70s since they are likely to find much to enjoy, reminisce about, and take issue with.
January 2, 2025
A fascinating and fun read, following one man's life through the counter-culture from the fifties through to the nineties. A bittersweet read, too, because the book also covers the death of the counter-cultural era.
I like to think we're approaching a new counter-cultural era these days. I have hope.
I like to think we're approaching a new counter-cultural era these days. I have hope.
April 4, 2021
My husband loved this so much he read it twice. I began with great interest and lost it quickly. The man's ego is the size of a planet. Mostly, I couldn't stand the way he talked about women. Posh girls were easy lays and working class were tricky. He banged on and on about that. The book bored me to death and I gave up on it. Too much macho for me.
February 14, 2024
A great read about alternative ideas in the years 1956 to 1994, told through the story of Bob Rowberry who lived through it all, with extra information on background and history added by the author. Much of the story relies on what Bob tells the author, who claims to have checked it out.
Drops a point for minor factual errors.
Some of Bob’s information is dodgy, for example, Bob claims to have watched Eric Clapton playing banjo when busking with Long John Baldry and that Baldry taught Clapton how to play guitar.. As it happens, I have just read Eric Clapton’s autobiography, it never once mentions him playing the banjo and describes how he taught himself to play on a guitar his parents/ grandparents brought him.
Some of the information provided by the author is wrong.
For example, he repeats the completely discredited urban myth that the Apple logo was based on Alan Turing committing suicide by eating a poisoned apple.
When writing about the Altamont Festival he claims that anyone who has seen the movie will know that Meredith Hunter was murdered while the Rolling Stones played “Sympathy For The Devil”. However, anyone who has seen the movie (or watched the clip on YouTube) will know that he was killed as the Stones played “Under My Thumb”.
Drops a point for minor factual errors.
Some of Bob’s information is dodgy, for example, Bob claims to have watched Eric Clapton playing banjo when busking with Long John Baldry and that Baldry taught Clapton how to play guitar.. As it happens, I have just read Eric Clapton’s autobiography, it never once mentions him playing the banjo and describes how he taught himself to play on a guitar his parents/ grandparents brought him.
Some of the information provided by the author is wrong.
For example, he repeats the completely discredited urban myth that the Apple logo was based on Alan Turing committing suicide by eating a poisoned apple.
When writing about the Altamont Festival he claims that anyone who has seen the movie will know that Meredith Hunter was murdered while the Rolling Stones played “Sympathy For The Devil”. However, anyone who has seen the movie (or watched the clip on YouTube) will know that he was killed as the Stones played “Under My Thumb”.
August 2, 2022
Interesting investigation into what made the countercultures / sub-cultures of the 60s - 90s tick following the life of someone who lived it all - from being deliberately homeless in 50s London to listen to skiffle bands and jazz, to blazing the hippie trail. Its blends the sociological and historical around these times tying it to the tale of one man, Dave Rowberry.
It can be a bit meandering and bloated at points, but very very very interesting if you're into the culture of those "high times".
It can be a bit meandering and bloated at points, but very very very interesting if you're into the culture of those "high times".
January 8, 2021
An excellent account of remarkable adventures. I also grew up in the 1950s and subsequently travelled the hippie trail to Afghanistan and beyond. I may well have crossed paths with some of the characters mentioned without knowing it. For anyone fortunate enough to have led a similar life, this is a delightful reminder of happy, care free times.
Robert C. Wood. Author of 'Indelible Images'.
Robert C. Wood. Author of 'Indelible Images'.
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