London celebrates Swinging ’60s
Avisit to London wi l l bring baby b o ome r s back to the Swinging ’60s when music, fashion, film, design and the protest movement defined an era of free expression that paved the way for the future of the world today. History and culture buffs transcending generations should find exploring the events of the 60s to be eye-opening. The decade marked a revolution of the mind and heart, sparked by a spirited youth wave that defied the stifling norms of what was called the “establishment.”
Last Sept. 10, the V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum on Cromwell Road near the South Kensington Station opened an exhibit called “You Say You Want A Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-70.” It’s an audio- visual walkthrough of the milestones of those five years, bringing to memory the moments of Woodstock, the moon landing, the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, the rise of black power, the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse Tung in China and the parliament of the streets with the trendy flavor of the arts as a landscape.
The exhibit will run up to Feb. 26 next year and is open seven days a week. Full price is 16 pounds or the equivalent of P960 with discounts available to senior citizens, students and 12- to- 17- yearolds. Admission to the world’s leading museum of arts and design is free but tickets are sold to view the “Revolution” exhibit. To appreciate the memorabilia on display, you’ll need at least two hours.
Among the artefacts are the Beatles’ costumes for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, George Harrison’s diary, sitar and purple coat, at least three John Lennon suits and handwritten lyric sheets, shards of Jimi Hendrix’ smashed Fender guitar, The Who’s double bass drum kit used by Keith Moon, over 200 LPs in the late Radio I DJ John Peel’s exclusive collection, the chair that the infamous Christine Keeler used in a photo session with Lewis Marley, a Viet Cong flag, a letter from a US soldier to his parents during the Vietnam War, astronaut William Anders’ spacesuit for the Apollo 8 moon orbit, a moon rock loaned by NASA and posters denouncing police brutality and fascism. There are also videos of music festivals and displays of fashion trends set by models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton. As you walk around the exhibit, you listen to music of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and others on headsets provided by the V&A so you’re hooked into the mood.
Museum director Martin Roth described the “seminal” exhibit as an “ambitious framing of the late 1960s counterculture (showing) the incredible importance of that revolutionary period to our lives today ... (to) shed new light on the wide-reaching social, cultural and intellectual changes of the late 1960s.”
We went through the exhibit last Monday, the morning of our flight back to Manila. It wasn’t only nostalgic walking down memory lane but it was also a lot of fun. Putting up the exhibit entailed much attention to detail and the V&A, as usual, delivered. The exhibit is definitely a can’t-miss proposition.
The theme of the ’60s reverberates on the theater stage, too. The popular “Jersey Boys” is showing at the Piccadilly Theater and relives the story of the ’60s band Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. “Sunny Afternoon” is at the Harold Pinter Theater off Haymarket in Piccadilly Circus and won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical last year. It’s the story of the British Invasion ’60s band The Kinks whose hits include You Really Got Me, Tired of Waiting For You, All Day And All Of The Night, Waterloo Sunset, and Lola. We had seats on the third row to watch “Sunny Afternoon” in an area marked “loud zone.” On the side near the front of the stage were round tables like giant 45 rpm records and chairs nailed to the floor. The Kinks’ songs were woven into the storyline that tracked the band’s evolution from the “dead end streets” of Muswell Hill in north London to global acclaim as Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Famers.
Another ’60s-themed musical is “All Or Nothing,” the story of ’60s British mod band Small Faces. It had a 1 1/2-month run on the West End and is now moving around the UK. We caught the act at the Hexagon Theater in Reading, a 40-minute train ride from London and just one stop from Paddington Station. Like “Sunny Afternoon” and “Jersey Boys,” songs told the story of the show with a long list of Small Faces hits including Tin Soldier, Lazy Sunday, Itchycoo Park, My Mind’s Eye and Afterglow. Additional music came in the form of impersonators of Dusty Springfield ( You Don’t Have To Say You
Love Me), P. P. Arnold ( Angel of the Morning) and Sonny and Cher ( I Got You Babe). The musical is a retrospective of Small Faces’ lead vocalist Steve Marriott’s life. An older Marriott, portrayed by Chris Simmons, is the narrator while the young Marriott is played by Tim Edwards. On the train back from Reading to London, we chatted with Edwards and actor Joshua Dowen who was bassist Ronnie Lane in the musical. Edwards, 30, remembered his father buying the record “Itchycoo Park” when he was 12 and started playing guitar at 14. Dowen, 26, learned to play bass guitar a month before “All Or Nothing” opened on the West End last March and was familiar with only two Small Faces songs when he auditioned for the part. The musical ends its tour in Billingham on Nov. 12.
As for concerts, ’60s music continues to rock all over the UK. In Dartford, we watched a Sunday matinee show called “Sixties Gold” featuring The Searchers, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, P. J. Proby, Wayne Fontana of the Mindbenders and Gary Puckett of the Union Gap. In Canterbury, we were treated to a two and a half hour-hour performance by The Hollies with guitarist Tony Hicks and drummer Bobby Elliott now on their 53th year on tour. And in Sheffield, we were amazed by Roy Wood whose previous bands included The Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.
London is beautiful and there’s no better place to relive the Swinging ’60s because that’s where it all began.