COUNTERCULTURAL MAGAZINES

 

See Also: THE COUNTERCULTURE; MAGAZINES, CLOSED & NON-EXISTENT

The New Musical Express hired several people who had worked for the underground press. Their number included: Mick Farren (1943-2013) (International Times), Nick Kent (Frendz), and Charles Shaar Murray (Oz). International Times and Oz published cartoons by Ray Lowry (1944-2008), who went on to work in the mainstream press.

 

Ambit

Ambit was a quarterly cultural magazine that covered art and literature. It was founded in 1959 by the paediatrician and novelist Martin Bax. Writers whose work was published in it included: the novelist J.G. Ballard, the poets Carol Ann Duffy and Stevie Smith, the critic Peter Porter. It was also publishing material by people who had not yet developed a literary reputation. Artists whose creations were featured in it included: the painters Peter Blake and David Hockney, the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, and the cartoonist Ralph Steadman.

In the 1960s Ambit published numerous pieces that sought to challenge existing social conventions. It developed a reputation for being the most frequently stolen magazine from Harvard University s library. For a period, Michael Moorcock co-edited the magazine with Bax. In 2013 the poet Briony Bax (n e Mitchell) became editor. She put the publication on a charitable footing and opted to increasingly use guests editors. In 2020 she became editor emeritus. Ambit suspended publication in 2023.

 

Black Dwarf¹

Clive Goodwin ran Black Dwarf.

Tariq Ali edited Black Dwarf.

Clive Goodwin was a Socialist literary agent. His clients included the young David Hare. He took the youth to have a sense of humour and complimented him upon, stating that there had not been someone like that before on the literary Left. In fact, at the time Hare regarded himself as being essentially a director and had only written the play because someone had failed to deliver one. It had been influenced by the work of Howard Brenton.

¹. Thomas Wooler s Black Dwarf was an early 19^thC radical newspaper.

 

Frendz

Frendz was aided financially by Mick Jagger

Those who worked on the paper included Rosie Boycott.

At the prompting of two members of the Angry Brigade, Frendz produced a women s issue.

Location: 305 Portobello Road, W10 5TD (blue, orange)

 

Ink

Ink was founded in 1971 by Richard Neville, Felix Dennis, and Ed Victor (1939-2017). The first pair wished it to be another Oz, whereas he envisaged it being a British Village Voice.

Location: 52 Princedale Road, W11 4NL (orange, grey)

 

International Times - IT

Barry Miles was managing Better Books on the Charing Cross Road. He played a role in organising the June 1965 Royal Albert Hall poetry reading, which was a catalyst for the underground press. It pulled the separate strands of the underground together.

During the 1966 Aldermaston march Hoppy and Miles distributed a free sheet. They decided to launch an underground paper - IT. Jim Haines, the American founder of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, became involved. Tom McGrath became the editor. Launch for the IT was at The Roundhouse.

14 October 1966 the first edition of the IT.

Boyd and Hoppy opened UFO on the Tottenham Court Road.

IT moved into the basement of the (White Cube) bookshop

Obscene Publications Squad was taking payments from Soho s pornographers. They needed to cover their tracks. To them the underground press represented a soft target.

While in the Indica bookshop David Robins (1944-2007) met its manager Barry Miles. This led Robins becoming the editor of IT. (Robins went on to become a youth sociologist.)

In 1965 the accountant Michael Henshaw (1930-2007) set up a magazine company for John Hoppy Hopkins and Barry Miles to act as a vehicle for poetry and spoken words. Within a year International Times had emerged.

Jim Haynes, John Hoppy Hopkins, and Barry Miles invited Tom McGrath (1940-2009), the features editor of Peace News to become the founding editor of IT. McGrath embraced the publication s experimental culture. He acquired a heroin habit and left after twelve issues in order to leave behind the infighting and retain his own sanity.

Those who wrote for International Times included Heathcote Williams (n John Heathcote Williams) (1941-2017).

International Times was raided by the Obscene Publications Squad. The publication found itself mired in legal actions. Hopkins and members of the publication s staff organised the 14-Hour Technicolour Dream as a fundraiser. A large amount of cash was turned over but little was realised in the way of profit and this money for legal defence. However, the event helped to advance the momentum of the hippy movement.

 

Oz

Oz s contributors included the Black activist Courtney Tulloch (1942-2006).

 

Spare Rib

A meeting of women who worked in the underground press. Led to the birth of Spare Rib.

 

Suck

Suck s claimed that it sought to be a paper of sexual liberation. Those who wrote for it included: Germaine Greer, Jim Haynes, Bill Levy, and Heathcote Williams.

David Backhouse 2024