Life’s A Gas - Great Concerts Revisited: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Sheffield, 1968

 

by Stuart Penney

It wasn’t my first Tyrannosaurus Rex concert.  Quite by accident I’d seen them in March 1968 supporting Donovan at the 5,000 seat Royal Albert Hall.  But without a record in the shops at that point they were still largely unknown outside the London underground club circuit.  Besides, I only had eyes for Donovan on that night, so you’ll forgive me when I say the duo’s short acoustic set passed me by virtually unnoticed in the cavernous RAH.

But things moved fast in the 60s and much had changed when I next witnessed Tyrannosaurus Rex three months later on Monday, June 17, at the Memorial Hall in Sheffield.  In the interim they had signed to EMI’s impossibly hip Regal Zonophone label (see below) and their debut single “Debora” was getting a fair amount of airplay, much of it from their powerful friend and supporter John Peel on his BBC Radio show Top Gear.  So, while they were nowhere near as hot as they would soon become, there was already quite a buzz around this strange little duo comprising Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrin Took. 

(Ed. Note: music press ads and demo copies of the single showed the title as “Deborah.”  This changed to “Debora” when the record went on general release.  The Melody Maker ad for the single also misspelled Regal Zonophone as “Zonaphone”).

The Venue

The Memorial Hall sounds rather grand but it’s actually a small 400 seat annex within the Grade II listed Sheffield City Hall complex.  Opened in 1932, it’s the semi-circular structure shown at the rear of the building here.

Rear view of Sheffield City Hall showing the smaller Memorial Hall circa 1930s

On June 17, Tyrannosaurus Rex played two shows here, at 7:00pm and 9:15pm.  In the pre-decimal currency era tickets were on sale for 6s/8d (33p), 10s/6d (52½p) and 12s/6d (62½p).  My girlfriend and I caught the early show and since the hall was no more than half full, we had a perfectly decent view from our vantage point in the cheap seats.  In fact, there were only 13 rows of seats in total (10 downstairs and three in the small upstairs balcony).

1968 ad from International Times

The tickets were purchased from music store Wilson Peck which was located on the same street and maybe 50 yards from the venue.  Opened in 1896 it was Sheffield’s longest established and most famous music retailer selling pianos, guitars and musical instruments of every description, plus sheet music and records from a handsome building on the corner of Barkers Pool and Leopold Street.  Other than the actual venue box offices, Wilson Peck was virtually the only place in town where concert tickets could be bought at that time.  My first decent electric guitar, a Gibson SG Special, also came from there in 1969 (it cost 159 guineas [£167] bought on hire purchase, naturally). 

In later years the imposing Wilson Peck building (aptly named Beethoven House) would briefly contain a Virgin Megastore. Today it’s a branch of long-established Sheffield jewellers H.L. Brown and the building has been renamed Yorkshire House.  Too much information, you say?  You’re welcome.

The Liverpool Scene

Support (or perhaps joint headliners) were The Liverpool Scene, a poetry and music ensemble fronted by the rotund figure of Adrian Henri (1932 - 2000).  Along with Roger McGough and Brian Patten, he was part of a trio of esteemed Liverpool beat poets who rose to fame in the 60s.  Their 1967 book The Mersey Sound became one of the most successful British poetry anthologies of all time, eventually selling 500,000 copies over many reprints.

The success of The Mersey Sound book inspired the 1967 CBS LP The Incredible New Liverpool Scene (plus a book of the same name).  Featuring poetry by Adrian Henri and Roger McGough with music by guitarist Andy Roberts, this in turn spawned the Liverpool Scene band.  The CBS LP was cut at Regent Sound studio in Denmark Street and, according to Andy Roberts, "It took two hours to record the entire thing, in glorious mono."

With their RCA debut LP Amazing Adventures Of still five months away from release, it’s fair to say the audience had little idea what to expect from the Liverpool Scene.  Their set would have been unfamiliar to everyone except perhaps listeners of John Peel’s radio shows, where he often read selections from the poetry books and played tracks from their CBS album.  Employing his typically florid prose style, Peel wrote this about the group in the November 17, 1967, issue of underground newspaper International Times.

In Liverpool I spent an ecstatic evening with Andy Roberts, Mike Evans, Adrian Henri and, briefly, Roger McGough.  Perhaps there is a modern Olympus beneath the soot and decay of 64 Canning Street.  I came away feeling better than I have since the rape of Radio London.  Andy played me an acetate of Roger McGough reading the "Summer with Monika" poems to Andy's accompaniment.  During the past year so much love and beauty has passed through me and lingered in my mind, but nothing has surpassed this.

(Ed. Note: 64 Canning Street was the communal house in Liverpool where the group lived.  Radio London was one of the offshore pirate radio stations where Peel worked before joining the BBC in August 1967).

He may not have been much of a singer, but what he lacked in vocal dexterity Adrian Henri made up for with a commanding stage presence, bags of energy and a wildly eccentric personality.  An engaging and witty frontman (and an excellent painter to boot), his poetry readings meshed perfectly with the musical backing provided by Andy Roberts and Mike Hart, fine guitarists both.  Except perhaps for the Bonzo Dog Band, no one else sounded much like The Liverpool Scene at that time.

Their Sheffield set list has not survived, but they almost certainly played material such as “Mrs Albion, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter,” “Tonight At Noon,” “Don’t Worry, Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” “Batpoem,” “The Amazing Adventures Of Che Guevara” and “Car Crash Blues.”

One of their most popular songs was a spoof on the British Blues Boom, then in full flower.  Titled “I’ve Got Those Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, John Mayall, Can’t Fail Blues,” it didn’t appear on record until their 1969 second album Bread On The Night, but was always a live favourite.

According to the Melody Maker small ads, Liverpool Scene were gigging virtually every night during this period, playing endless club dates up and down the country.  A year later in June 1969 they would be chosen to support Led Zeppelin at the Royal Albert Hall.  Don’t ask me what the LZ fans made of them!

Andy Roberts went on to work with Iain Matthews in Plainsong and he was the “R” in GRIMMS, a sprawling music, poetry and comedy troupe featuring members of various multimedia bands.  He later released several solo albums under his own name.  Guitarist Mike Hart also recorded an LP for John Peel’s Dandelion label. 

(Ed. Note: operating between 1972-76, GRIMMS consisted of members of Scaffold, Bonzo Dog Band and Liverpool Scene.  The band name is an acronym formed from the initial letter of the main members’ surnames: John Gorman, Andy Roberts, Neil Innes, Roger McGough, Mike McGear and Vivian Stanshall.  Many other notable musicians including Zoot Money and Ollie Halsall also passed through the band).

John Peel

Let’s be honest, in mid-1968 John Peel was more famous than Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Liverpool Scene combined.  He’d recently been voted Britain’s top radio DJ (a position he would hold for years to come), and his name was a sure-fire drawcard at concerts and festivals throughout the land.  But you might say he had a vested interest in this particular event, being a powerful ally and mentor to both bands on the bill.  

Not only did Peel write the poem on the back cover of the debut Tyrannosaurus Rex LP My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows, but his familiar droll Liverpool accent can be heard intoning a children’s story on the closing track “Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love)” a song he sometimes narrated onstage during their live shows.  As if that weren’t enough, his photograph even appeared (albeit very small) on the lyric sheet sleeve insert.  

He was less visible on the Liverpool Scene LP Amazing Adventures Of, but his producer credit appeared in giant type, as large as the name of the band itself.  Make no mistake, John Peel was already a hugely important and influential figure in the UK alternative music scene at this time. 

Unfortunately, as T. Rex hit the big time around 1971 Peel was abruptly dropped from their inner circle, allegedly for some less-than-favourable comments he made regarding the single “Get It On.”  He'd been a loyal and vigorous supporter of Marc Bolan dating back to his time with John’s Children and few had been closer to Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Peel took it badly and, always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, even grumbled on air that he had been snubbed by his erstwhile friend.  

Tyrannosaurus Rex

But such unpleasantness was still a few years away as Peel shambled onstage in his baggy sweater, desert boots and ill-fitting corduroy jeans to introduce Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrin Took to the meagre Sheffield audience.  This was very early days for the duo, so Bolan was still using his cheap nylon string guitar which he played sitting down, elfin-like, cross-legged on the stage.  Took, meanwhile, was perched high on a stool with bongos gripped between his knees.  From there he towered over Marc, peering out from under his mane of hair. 

Although I loved their somewhat wonky, ramshackle psychedelic folk music and Bolan’s trademark wavering vocals, the major appeal of Tyrannosaurus Rex for me in 1968 was undoubtedly their powerful image, and specifically Marc’s look.  I was just 18 at the time and developed a powerful fascination (let’s call it what it was - a man crush) with the beautiful boy in the striped school blazer (worn ironically, no doubt) with undoubtedly the best haircut I’d ever seen.

At that time, we viewed Marc’s hair as a logical progression of Dylan’s 1966 halo of curls, via the Hendrix Afro.  Few of us anticipated the truly gobsmacking corkscrew apparition that would later confront us on the cover of the T. Rex album cover (aka the "Brown Album," see below) in 1970.  To this day, that’s still one of my absolute favourite LP sleeves, by any artist.

In 1968 that look seemed almost achievable.  So, before long I was off to Kensington Market to secure a pair of the blue velvet dungarees I’d seen Marc wearing.  It goes without saying that I also made a pilgrimage to Anello & Davide, the West End theatrical footwear specialists (where the Fab Four had their Beatle boots handmade) to pick up a pair of the same women’s sandals Bolan adopted around that time.  As for the hair, my tumble of curls was never quite as magnificent as Marc’s but it was a fair approximation nonetheless and it got me into all kinds of trouble, especially outside London where skinhead gangs lurked, and the natives weren't always quite as enlightened as in the hippest parts of the capital.

In Sheffield the duo played their top 40 hit single “Debora,” of course, along with the as-yet unreleased follow-up “One Inch Rock.”  We also heard tracks from the upcoming debut LP My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair... which was still a month away from release.  The set list is missing, presumed lost in the mists of time, but you can bet your life “Mustang Ford,” “Child Star,” “Hot Rod Mama” and “Afghan Woman” were played. 

After it was all over, we waited patiently with a gaggle of die-hard fans at the front of the stage hoping to meet (and hopefully greet) Marc and Steve.  Always friendly and approachable in his bumbling, Eeyore kind of way, John Peel eventually wandered out to assure us that, in true Elvis style, the duo had already left the building to grab a bite to eat before the second show of the evening.  Bowed but undeterred, we drifted out into the night with thoughts of a truly memorable concert playing on repeat in our heads.  

To see the embryonic T. Rex in such an intimate setting as this, with Marc Bolan just setting out on what would be an incredible journey of fame, fortune and, ultimately, tragedy was indeed a moment to treasure. 

But back in the late 60s big changes were afoot.  In September 1969 Steve Took was fired and replaced with Mickey Finn, who played his first gig with Marc on November 21.  Their debut album together A Beard Of Stars appeared in March 1970.  Finally, Bolan had a musical foil who looked as good as him. 

Marc allegedly said this about Mickey “He can’t play a note, but he looks FABULOUS.”  It may well be an apocryphal story, but I'd really like to think it’s true.  It sounds like something Marc would say, after all.  The band name was then abbreviated, and the aforementioned T. Rex album was released in December 1970.

Their first hit single “Ride A White Swan” - which didn’t appear on UK pressings of the LP - signaled a sea change in the way the duo sounded and that was the moment they stepped out of the underground counterculture and into the major league of mainstream pop, virtually inventing glam rock along the way. 

I hung around for a few more records - Electric Warrior (September 1971), the Bolan Boogie compilation (May 1972), The Slider (July 1972) - and even scored tickets for an early screening of the movie Born To Boogie at Oscar’s Cinema in Brewer Street, Soho (December 1972) before the love affair came to an end in 1973 with the album Tanx.  

Bowie excepted, the glam scene really wasn’t for me.  T. Rex was attracting a much younger audience, and I just couldn't relate to the hysteria.  After seven good-to-great albums and maybe a dozen excellent singles (not to mention Marc's wonderfully impenetrable book of poetry The Warlock Of Love), it was time to move on.  I still treasure (and enjoy) those early psychedelic folk records, mind you, and wouldn’t change a second of the time I spent with them. 

Regal Zonophone

Part of the appeal of the early Tyrannosaurus Rex records was the old-style label design of their record company Regal Zonophone.  It fitted perfectly with the late 60s zeitgeist and matched the pop/psych image of virtually all the bands signed to the label. 

The company was first created in 1932 following a merger between the UK label Regal (founded in 1914) and US label Zonophone (established 1899).  It originally issued American recordings licenced from the Columbia, Victor and Okeh labels as well as popular wartime British artists such as Gracie Fields and George Formby. 

Regal Zonophone fell into disuse in the 50s towards the end of the 78rpm shellac era before being revived (for the first time) around 1963 exclusively to handle vinyl releases by Salvation Army artists the International Staff Band and The Joy Strings.  A couple of 1964 singles by the Joy Strings even made the lower reaches of the UK charts before the label was again put on ice. 

In 1967 EMI brought Regal Zonophone back to life yet again, specifically to issue records by artists signed to music publisher David Platz’s Essex Music / Straight Ahead company.  These included Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, the Move and, of course, Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Following a trio of 45s on the Decca offshoot label Deram by the Move and Procol Harum (including "A Whiter Shade Of Pale"), Regal Zonophone got underway in August 1967 with the single “Flowers in the Rain” by the Move (which was also the very first record played on BBC Radio 1).  The inaugural LP on the label was the self-titled debut by Procol Harum released in December 1967.

Although Regal Zonophone limped on into 1975, all the big-selling Essex Music artists (including the now-renamed T. Rex) had already left the label by late 1970 and moved over to the newly created Fly records.  The debut single on Fly was “Ride A White Swan” and the first album was Looking On by The Move.

Within two years and only eight new LP releases (plus a number of compilations and Toofas) it was all-change yet again.  Fly was gone, to be replaced by Cube records who once again reissued virtually all the earlier material by the aforementioned Essex Music artists. 

Meanwhile, in 1972 Marc launched his own vanity label T. Rex Wax Company (through EMI). Kicking off with the single "Telegram Sam" (January 1972) and The Slider LP (July 1972) the label ran for around a decade before winding down in 1982. 

Note: Although the Salvation Army RZ records used the same label design as the later pop releases - and in fact the two did briefly overlap around 1967 - they employed a different numbering system and are not connected, other than both were part of the EMI parent company. 

In 1977 Regal Zonophone was briefly revived yet again for the one-off LP release Thrillington by Percy "Thrills" Thrillington, an orchestral version of Paul McCartney's Ram album. If you're Paul McCartney, I guess you have the power to resurrect a defunct record label for just one release!

Below is a partial Regal Zonophone discography covering the years 1967 - 1971. 

Regal Zonophone Discography 1967 - 1971

Albums (LRZ = Mono, SLRZ = Stereo)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1001 - Procol Harum - Procol Harum (December 1967)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1002 - The Move - Move (April 1968)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1003 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - My People Were Fair and Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows (July 1968)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1004 - Procol Harum – Shine On Brightly (December 1968)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1005 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - Prophets, Seers & Sages, The Angels of the Ages (October 1968)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1006 - Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends (May 1969)

Regal Zonophone S/LRZ 1007 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn (May 1969)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1008 - Junior’s Eyes – Battersea Power Station (July 1969)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1009 - Procol Harum - A Salty Dog (July 1969)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1010 - Tucker Zimmerman - Ten Songs By Tucker Zimmerman (November 1969)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1011 - Joe Cocker - Joe Cocker! (November 1969)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1012 - The Move - Shazam (March 1970)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1013 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - A Beard Of Stars (March 1970)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1014 - Procol Harum - Home (June 1970)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1015 - Toe Fat - Toe Fat Two (November 1970)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1016 - Masters Apprentices - Masters Apprentices (March 1971 released in Australia with the title Choice Cuts)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1017 - Idle Race - Time Is (May 1971)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1018 - J.S.D. Band - Country Of The Blind (November 1971)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1019 - Number Not Used Officially (A Tyrannosaurus Rex bootleg titled In The Halls Of Faeire later appeared with this catalogue number)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1020 - Northwind - Sister, Brother, Lover (July 1971)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1021 - Tear Gas - Tear Gas (August 1971)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1022 - Masters Apprentices - A Toast To Panama Red (December 1971)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1023 - Fela Ransome-Kuti And The Africa '70 With Ginger Baker - Live! (1971)

Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1024 - Accolade - Accolade 2 (1971)

Singles 1967 - 1970

Regal Zonophone RZ 3001 - The Move - Flowers In The Rain / (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree (August 1967)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3002 - Biddu - Daughter Of Love / Look Out Here I Come (September 1967)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3003 - Procol Harum - Homburg / Good Captain Clack (September 1967)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3004 - The Tickle - Subway (Smokey Pokey World) / Good Evening (November 1967)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3005 - The Move - Fire Brigade / Walk Upon the Water (January 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3006 - Joe Cocker - Marjorine / The New Age of The Lily (March 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3007 - Procol Harum - Quite Rightly So / In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence (March 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3008 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - Debora / Child Star (April 1968.  Promo copies show the A-side title as “Deborah”)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3009 - Junior’s Eyes – Mr. Golden Trumpet Player / Black Snake (June 1968)

Regal Zonophone TRZ 2001 – The Move – Something Else From The Move (5 track EP - June 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3010 - Johnny Nash - Hold Me Tight / Let’s Move and Groove Together (July 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3011 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - One Inch Rock / Salamanda Palaganda (August 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3012 - The Move - Wild Tiger Woman / Omnibus (August 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3013 - Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends / Something’s Coming On (September 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3014 - Richard Henry - Oh Girl / Lay Your Head On My Shoulder (November 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3015 - The Move - Blackberry Way / Something (November 1968)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3016 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - Pewter Suiter / War Lord Of The Royal Crocodiles (January 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3017 - Green Bean - The Garden’s Lovely / Sittin’ In The Sunshine (Unreleased)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3018 - Junior’s Eyes - Circus Days / Woman Love (April 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3019 - Procol Harum - A Salty Dog / Long Gone Geek (May 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3020 - Tucker Zimmerman - The Red Wind / Moondog (July 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3021 - The Move - Curly / This Time Tomorrow (July 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3022 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - King Of The Rumbling Spires / Do You Remember (July 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3023 - Junior’s Eyes - Star Child / Sink Or Swim (August 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3024 - Joe Cocker - Delta Lady / She’s So Good To Me (September 1969)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3025 - Tyrannosaurus Rex - By The Light Of The Magical Moon / Find A Little Wood (January 1970)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3026 - The Move - Brontosaurus / Lightnin’ Never Strikes Twice (March 1970)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3027 - Joe Cocker with Leon Russell & the Shelter People - The Letter / Space Captain (June 1970)

Regal Zonophone RZ 3028 - Reign - Line Of Least Resistance / Natural Lovin’ Man (October 1970)

You Say You Want A Revolution? A Brief History Of Protest Music

by Stuart Penney

Global warming and climate change are a major concern for the kids of today, and rightly so.  But in the 1960s we had a very different kind of apocalypse on our minds.  Back then we were convinced the world might end at any moment in a Russian nuclear attack (following the requisite four-minute government warning, naturally).  Whether by missile, bomber plane, submarine or ship, the twin superpowers had devised the perfect way to deliver mutually assured destruction to each other’s doorstep.  It was a genuinely scary time and for more than a decade we really did live under the shadow of a full-scale nuclear war.

So, how did we respond in the face of this impending doomsday scenario?  Did we invade the nearest art gallery and superglue ourselves to a Picasso or a Rubens?  Did we nail our hands to the fast lane of the newly built M1 motorway at Watford Gap during rush hour?  Not a bit of it.  We did what anti-nuclear protesters have always done.  We marched.  And we waved banners.  Together with politicians (Tony Benn and Michael Foot were early supporters of the cause), pop stars, members of the clergy and assorted learned scholars from Oxbridge, we pulled on our duffle coats and backpacks and trudged along the A40 from Aldermaston to Trafalgar Square carrying signs and singing songs.  That’ll show ‘em, we thought.  It’ll all be over by Christmas at this rate.

Rod, complete with CND stickers

I say “we” but, as a schoolkid marooned in grimy Sheffield, I was a few years too young to take part in the earliest of the CND protest marches and, in any case, I had little interest in the political side of things at that time.  At this point I’m reminded of an interview Rod Stewart gave to BBC2 TV's Reel Stories in 2019.  Asked by Dermot O’Leary about his time as a ban the bomb protester in the early 60s, Rod recalled with barely concealed glee, “We used to go on the CND marches, but I did it just to get shagged.  I didn’t care about the bomb, actually.  It was just rebellion, that’s all it was.”  

This is the kind of stuff the hubristic Stewart frequently comes out with in interviews.  To him, most things in life are (or once were) seen as an opportunity for “picking up the birds” as he likes to term it.  While not fully endorsing Rod’s carefully honed Jack the Lad arrogance or, indeed, his outrageous braggadocio, I can kind of see what he was getting at because as a college student in the mid-60s I did take part in a few ban the bomb protests for reasons that were not entirely altruistic.

 

There I was, in regulation corduroy jeans and desert boots, a selection of CND badges proudly displayed along the collar of my army surplus combat jacket.  Sometimes I even bought a copy of The Daily Worker newspaper (rebranded as The Morning Star in 1966) and stuffed it in the pocket of said jacket, making sure the masthead was clearly visible to all who passed by.  This ridiculous affectation was purely to enhance my left-wing street cred, you understand.  I seldom, if ever, read the dreary communist rag.*  Truth be told, my heart wasn’t really in it.  Despite coming from a staunchly Labour voting working-class family, I had little interest in the gloomy leftist politics of the CND.  For me and my school pals the marches were purely social events.  For us it was all about the music, the camaraderie and, like Rod, the girls.  These days you’d probably say we were there just for the craic. 

*Editor’s Note: In July 1977 I did buy (and read) an issue of the Morning Star purely because it contained a lengthy interview with John Peel.  On his radio show in 1987 Peel revealed he was a Morning Star subscriber and had been for some years.

But it wasn’t all beer and skittles.  On one occasion I tramped 13 miserable, footsore miles (21 km) in entirely unsuitable shoes on a drizzly CND march from Chesterfield to Sheffield simply to win the approval of a particularly attractive girl in my year at college.  We’d arranged to meet up somewhere along the route where I hoped to impress her with my knowledge of Dylan and the Beat Poets, but I arrived late to find she’d already left with some of my friends.  The mansplaining would have to wait another day.

The March

All of which brings us to the photographs below.  They have been popping up on the internet for years, usually on Facebook groups and the like and I’ve always found them fascinating.  So, I decided to dig a little deeper.  

They were taken by Graham Keen on May 29, 1965, during a march through central London.  This was not one of the big Easter CND marches, but a short one-day protest called the “Peace in Vietnam Meeting” which travelled from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square.  In the late 60s Keen was art director of the underground newspaper International Times and his photographs captured some of the biggest names of the 60s counterculture.

A couple of photos show the group heading along Oxford Street.  In the background we see the Marshall and Snelgrove department store at the junction of Vere Street, indicating the march is, at that point, roughly midway between Bond Street and Oxford Circus (the store was demolished in the 70s and redeveloped as Debenhams).  Leading the protest are an array of famous (and one soon to be extremely famous) faces.  Left to right there’s Mark Feld, Olive Gibbs, Susan Robinson, Joan Baez, Donovan, Tom Paxton and Vanessa Redgrave.  Let’s meet them one by one and discover what these celebrity activists were up to in 1965. 

Over on the left is 17-year-old Mark Feld, busily networking and putting his face out there.  He may have been a virtual unknown in May 1965 but here he is, already rubbing shoulders with famous pop stars and folk music aristocracy.  He’s wearing a polo neck sweater as favoured by the folkies and has a cheap nylon string acoustic guitar strapped across his back, Woody Guthrie style.  I may be wrong but it looks to me like he’s also carrying a Collets record bag.  Collets was a famous folk, blues and jazz shop, then located at 70 New Oxford Street, only a couple of minutes from where the photos were taken.  It’s tantalising to speculate what LPs young Mark might have had in his bag.

Feld briefly called himself Toby Tyler around this time and in early 1965 had made some demo recordings under that name, including a version of Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind." Three months after the march he signed to Decca records and changed his name to Marc Bolan.  His debut solo single “The Wizard” (allegedly featuring Jimmy Page on guitar) was released on November 19, 1965.*  Following a couple more unsuccessful solo singles and a four-month stint with the band John’s Children, Bolan formed the acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with Steve Peregrin Took in 1967.  After a few moderately successful years on the John Peel endorsed hippie underground circuit (towards the end of which Took was replaced by Mickey Finn), the band name was truncated to T. Rex, Bolan plugged in his electric guitar and rapidly became the UK’s biggest pop star of the Glam era until his untimely death in a car crash on Barnes Common in September 1977.  But you don’t need me to tell you any of that.

*Ed. Note: “The Wizard” was re-recorded in 1970 for the self-titled first T. Rex album. 

Next to Mark is Olive Gibbs (1918-1995).  Olive was London Area Chairperson of CND between 1964-67.  She was also twice Lord Mayor of Oxford and the first Labour Chair of Oxfordshire County Council.  Often described as a “Labour firebrand,” in 2015 she was awarded a blue plaque at Christ Church Old Buildings in Oxford. 

A street in Oxford, Gibbs Crescent, was named after her, as was the Humanities building at Oxford Brookes (then Oxford Polytechnic).  In February 2017 Gibbs Crescent was in the news after an explosion destroyed a block of flats, killing one resident.

Alongside Olive is Joan Baez’s assistant and personal secretary Susan Robinson.  She was married to the famous anti-war activist Ira Sandperl (1923-2013) who was a major figure in the civil rights and peace movement.  His work influenced Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Allen Ginsberg and, of course, Joan herself.

This was a particularly busy time for the queen of folk music Joan Baez.  A seasoned activist, she took part in many famous events, notably the August 1963 March on Washington with Bob Dylan (where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his immortal "I have a dream” speech).  Here are just a few entries from Joan’s hectic 1965 diary:

March 5 & 6: Two concerts with Bob Dylan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Haven, Connecticut.

March 24: Joan sang at a “Stars for Freedom” rally during the five-day Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama.  The march was led by Martin Luther King.

April 17: The March Against the Vietnam War in Washington DC.  Joan appeared with Judy Collins and Phil Ochs. 

Late April / early May: She was part of Bob Dylan’s entourage during his 1965 English tour and was pictured in a series of famous photos with Dylan in the Victoria Embankment Gardens behind the Savoy Hotel in London.  Bob didn’t invite Joan onstage to perform as she had hoped / expected, and she left the tour in disappointment. 

May 29: The Peace in Vietnam March through London with Donovan, Tom Paxton, Vanessa Redgrave etc.  Bob Dylan was back in the UK for a BBC TV concert to be filmed on June 1 (it was broadcast in two parts on June 19 and 26), but he reportedly turned down Joan's invitation to join the march.

June 5: A week after the London march, Joan played her own concert for BBC TV.  Recorded at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush (now the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire), she performed 18 songs.  The concert was originally broadcast in 1965 as two separate half-hour specials, both ending with the classic French love song “Plaisir d’amour.”  The show was re-broadcast on BBC Four in January 2009

July 22-25: Joan appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, duetting with Donovan on “Colours.”  On the final day of the festival Bob Dylan went electric for the first time, stunning the Newport crowd

October: Released in October 1964, Joan’s current album at the time of the London march was Joan Baez/5.  Her sixth album Farewell Angelina (Fontana TFL 6058) was released almost exactly a year later and was her only LP issued during 1965.  The red PVC coat she is pictured with on the cover of Farewell Angelina is the same one she wore during the London march. The LP cover photo by Richard Avedon was taken on June 18 in New York.

Also in October 1965 several photos from the May 29 march were used in a feature about Joan in the British teen magazine Rave.  Titled “When Joannie Goes Marching Home,” the piece carried a quite bizarre sub-heading “A Girl In A Girl’s World becomes A Girl In A Man’s World as this month it takes a look at Joan Baez, folk star beautiful, protest marcher extraordinary”

October 12-21: Seven date tour of UK & Ireland:  

12 - Sheffield (City Hall)

14 - Bristol (Colston Hall)

15 - Birmingham (Town Hall)

16/18 - London (Royal Festival Hall)

19 - Belfast (King’s Hall)

21 - Dublin (National Stadium)

Although aged just 24 in May 1965, Baez was already an established star with five LPs to her name, including two live albums.  By contrast Donovan, then a mere stripling of 19, stood at the threshold of an unimaginably successful recording career.  Let’s find out what he was up to in 1965:

January/February/March: Donovan burst on the UK pop scene via an estimated five TV appearances on Ready Steady Go!  

February 8: He signed a recording contract with Pye records

March 12: His first single “Catch the Wind” was released, reaching #4 in the UK charts  

April 11: Donovan’s first big live show of 1965 was the NME Poll Winners Concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley (now the Wembley Arena) where he received the quaintly named “New Disc or TV Singer” award.  He performed a short two song set on the same bill as some of the biggest names in UK pop, including the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Kinks  

May 14: His debut album What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid (Pye NPL 18117) was released in the UK, reaching #3 in the LP charts  

May 14-23: He took part in a seven date UK package tour with the Pretty Things, Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders, Unit 4 + 2 and others  

May 28: Donovan’s second single “Colours” hit the shops just one day before the march.  Like “Catch the Wind” it also peaked at #4 in the UK singles chart  

May 29: The Peace in Vietnam March through London.  In Donovan's wonderfully hubristic 2005 autobiography The Hurdy Gurdy Man he wrote: "That June [sic] I marched with Joaney [sic] to the Protest Rally in Trafalgar Square, linking arms with Vanessa Redgrave (British actress), Tom Paxton (US folksinger), Olive Gibbs (chairperson of the CND) and a very young, very small Marc Bolan. I gave my support that day and yet I felt that protest in the streets would not be as successful in spreading the message as would the singing of songs." Later the same day, Donovan attended a Variety Club Star Gala at Battersea Park Festival Gardens, a charity event where he signed autographs, together with other pop stars and TV celebrities 

June: The What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid LP was released in the US, retitled Catch the Wind (Hickory LPM 123)

August/September: A summer season at the Britannia Pier Theatre, Great Yarmouth playing four Sunday shows with, variously, the Who, the Fourmost and the In Crowd (featuring Keith West, who hit the charts in 1967 with “Excerpt from A Teenage Opera”). Don also played a similar show at the North Pier, Blackpool with the Walker Brothers and the Merseybeats.

August 5-17: After a few US dates (during which he bought his famous Gibson J45 cherry sunburst acoustic guitar in Hollywood), Donovan embarked on another UK package tour, this time co-headlining with the Byrds.  Also on the bill were Them (with Van Morrison), Elkie Brooks, Kenny Lynch and others.  The Four Pennies and Unit 4+2 alternated on some dates.  The final date in Portsmouth was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.  The compère on the tour was Ray Cameron, who was the father of UK comedian Michael McIntyre

August 13: The politically charged Universal Soldier EP was released in the UK.  It sold well, reaching the singles charts in some of the music papers (if not the national charts), no mean feat for an expensive 7” EP retailing at almost twice the price of a single 

October 15: Donovan played two shows at “Folk ‘65,” a CND benefit concert at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon.  Also on the bill were Julie Felix, Bob Davenport and the Ian Campbell Folk Group 

October 22: His second album Fairy Tale (Pye NPL 18128) was released in the UK, reaching #20 in the albums chart

October 29:  Donovan’s third single “Turquoise” was released, reaching #30 in the UK.  The song was apparently written for / about Joan Baez who later recorded it for her 1967 album Joan (Fontana TFL 6082) 

November: His second album Fairy Tale (Hickory LPM 127) was released in the US, reaching #85 in the Billboard charts

By 1966 he would leave folk music (and those insidious Dylan comparisons) behind to become a major force in the pop / psych field with million-selling US hits like “Sunshine Superman” and “Mellow Yellow.” 

Next up is US folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton. Like Donovan he was also at the start of a long and distinguished career in 1965.  His 1964 acclaimed debut LP Ramblin’ Boy (Elektra EKL 277) contained possibly his biggest song, the much covered “The Last Thing On My Mind.”  “Goin’ To The Zoo” and the title track also became enduring concert favourites.  His second album Ain’t That News (Elektra EKL 298) was released in October 1965.  

Tom played his first UK live dates during early 1965 and just weeks earlier on May 4 he had performed at the famous Troubadour folk club in Earls Court.  By 1966 Paxton would be headlining the Royal Albert Hall and appearing on British TV.  He was aged only 28 when these photos were taken, yet he was already fast losing his hair.  Before too long Tom would seldom be seen without his trademark peaked fisherman’s cap.  Tom Paxton is still releasing music in 2022, with 50 studio albums and a dozen live LPs in his back catalogue. 

On the far right of the line we see actress Vanessa Redgrave.  She was no stranger to political activism, having joined the Committee of 100 (a CND affiliated anti-war group) in 1961.  Along with her brother Corin she joined the Workers Revolutionary Party in the 1970s and unsuccessfully ran for parliament several times under the WRP banner. 

 

Part of a famous British showbiz dynasty, Vanessa is the daughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.  Her siblings Lynn and Corin were also successful thespians.  Aged 28 at the time of the march, Redgrave was better known as a Shakespearean stage actress in 1965, having made only one film up to that point, Behind the Mask in 1958.  That would soon change, however, with Morgan - A Suitable Case For Treatment, A Man For All Seasons and Blowup gaining cinema release in 1966 and 1967, with Camelot, Isadora Duncan and Oh! What A Lovely War (also featuring her father and brother) following soon after.  As of 2022 Vanessa has appeared in over 100 films, plus an equally impressive number of stage plays and TV productions.   She has collected numerous accolades including an Academy Award and two Golden Globes.  Her political activism continues unabated.

Scottish folk singer Alex Campbell was pictured in some photos (without his trademark beard at this point) as the procession moved along Oxford Street. As usual the march terminated at Trafalgar Square where Joan Baez performed a few songs up on the plinth alongside Landseer’s lions.  Although he wasn’t spotted marching, Bert Jansch was pictured on the stage at the foot of Nelson’s Column (an unfortunately positioned banner reading “West Ham Anarchists” sits right behind him). 

Bert’s self-titled debut album (Transatlantic TRA 125) was released just six weeks earlier on April 16, 1965, and at age 21 he was fast becoming the hottest name on the London folk club scene.  I initially thought it was Ralph McTell seated next to Bert at the very edge of the photo, but Ralph was still three years away from releasing his first album in 1965. Others say it's more likely to be guitarist Mac MacLeod, an early influence on Donovan who backed him on some 1965 dates.  The jury is still out on this one.

The figure in front turning to speak to the woman in the leather cap behind Vanessa Redgrave could well be Eric Winter, a left-wing journalist from Manchester who sometimes wrote for Melody Maker.  Winter founded Sing, Britain's first folk music magazine in the style of the American Sing Out and it was he who wrote the poem “The H-Bomb’s Thunder” which, when put to the tune of “The Miner's Lifeguard,” became the Aldermaston marchers’ anthem.  A recording by The London Youth Choir with Leon Rosselson appeared on the 1959 Topic LP Songs Against The Bomb (see below).  Another esteemed Melody Maker folk writer and musician Karl Dallas was also heavily involved with the early marches, providing music to welcome the marchers as they entered the towns along the route.  

The Music – A Brief Overview

As early as 1949 the bomb and its political and social implications had found its way into popular music.  Four years after two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan, ending World War II, Gospel group the Charming Bells recorded Lee McCullom’s “Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb.”  The song was covered multiple times within the first year and is still a popular gospel / doo wop song today with notable versions by Ry Cooder (1987) and the Blind Boys of Alabama (2005).  In 1998 the third album by Dallas, Texas band Tripping Daisy was titled Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb but, other than the title, this seems to have no connection with McCullom’s song. 

In 1950 came the talking blues “Old Man Atom” by country & western vocal group Sons of the Pioneers.  Other versions by Ozie Waters, Sam Hinton and Bob Hill appeared the same year, while Pete Seeger recorded it as “Talking Atom Blues” in 1958.  

The early CND protesters in Britain had marched to the accompaniment of trad jazz and skiffle provided by the likes of Ken Colyer’s band and journalist / musician Karl Dallas.  But folk music would soon make its presence felt.  Ewan MacColl was a key figure in the political protest movement and as early as the 1950s he was writing songs such as “The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh,” “Against the Atom Bomb” and “The Ballad of Stalin” (“Joe Stalin was a mighty man, and a mighty man was he / He led the Soviet people on the road to victory”).  Speaking to The Daily Worker in 1958, MacColl said “There are now more new songs being written than at any other time in the past 80 years - young people are finding out for themselves that folk songs are tailor-made for expressing their thoughts and comments on contemporary topics, dreams and worries.”

Songs Against The Bomb (Topic 12001) a 13 track album containing cuts by MacColl, Peggy Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and others was issued in 1959 and Ewan would hand out lyric sheets for his song “That Bomb Has Got to Go” along the route of the marches.  Among those who sang it was his future wife (and co-writer), Peggy Seeger, who went on to fight many campaigns with MacColl as well as writing numerous crusading songs of her own.

The Transatlantic label, soon to become home to Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Pentangle and a host of other famous folkies, released a 1962 album by Sheila Hancock and Sydney Carter titled Putting Out The Dustbin (Transatlantic TRA 106).  Carter wrote all 15 tracks and the vocals were shared, with Sheila singing 10.  The opening track, an up-tempo ditty titled “Coming Down from Aldermaston,” told the story of a famous protest march.  It sounds a little dated now, but it was the first time I recall the CND movement namechecked on a record.  In 1963 Carter would pen the much-loved folk song “Lord of the Dance” (sung in schools across the land and later covered by Donovan on his 1970 album HMS Donovan), while Hancock was a busy comedienne and actress who was then starring in the famous BBC sitcom The Rag Trade which ran from 1961-63.

In 1963 Ian Campbell, leader of the eponymous folk group (and father of UB40’s Ali and Robin Campbell), wrote about the Cuban Missile Crisis in “The Sun is Burning”, which became a powerful Aldermaston anthem.  This song was covered by Simon & Garfunkel on their 1964 album Wednesday Morning, 3am and was later recorded by The Dubliners (1972), Christy Moore (1978) and others. 

Bob Dylan brought the anti-war protest song into the 60s mainstream with a string of timeless classics including “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War” and “With God On Our Side.”  Meanwhile Donovan (him again) released the Universal Soldier EP in August 1965.  Three of the four tracks were covers of protest songs with a strong anti-war theme - "Universal Soldier" (Buffy Sainte-Marie), "Do You Hear Me Now?" (Bert Jansch) and "The War Drags On" (Mick Softley).  The fourth track was an edit of Donovan’s own “Ballad of a Crystal Man.”  References to “Vietnam,” “murdered negroes” and, inevitably, “the bomb” are shoehorned into almost every track on the EP. 

US singer / songwriter P. F. Sloan (1945-2015) saw which way the wind was blowing and conjured up “Eve Of Destruction,” an unashamedly commercial protest song, very much in the style of Bob Dylan.  After the Byrds turned it down, the Turtles included the song on their debut LP It Ain’t Me Babe.  It was then released as a single by gravel-voiced Barry McGuire (late of the New Christy Minstrels folk group) who turned it into a worldwide hit in August of 1965.

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An infuriatingly catchy record, complete with random harmonica stabs à la Dylan, “Eve of Destruction” covered all the protest bases and ticked every conceivable social issue box (Cold War, Red China, middle east, Vietnam, civil rights, the draft, nuclear weapons, the space programme etc) along the way to the top of the US pop charts (#3 in the UK).  The threat of Armageddon had now become part of the teenage entertainment industry and was therefore big business.  There was even an early film clip of “Eve of Destruction” which was shown on US teen pop shows like Hullabaloo.  Set in what was presumably meant to be a dystopian post-apocalyptic world (but it actually more closely resembled a car scrap yard), this extraordinary film featured McGuire clad in what looked like a pair of jodhpurs frowning and wandering disconsolately between piles of gloomily lit wreckage while a bunch of teenagers performed a carefully choreographed go-go dance of despair atop the cars.  

Watch that video HERE :

Below are just a sample of the lyrics.  The glut of apostrophes in place of the dropped letter “G” was plainly an attempt to ape Dylan’s freewheelin’ style (which Bob had, in turn, lifted wholesale from Woody Guthrie):

The eastern world, it is explodin',

Violence flarin', bullets loadin',

You're old enough to kill but not for votin',

You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'.

At the other end of the pop spectrum were The Fugs, a loose collection of underground poets and self-styled noise terrorists led by Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg.  On their 1966 self-titled second album the Fugs recorded “Kill For Peace” an anarchic track - think early Mothers of Invention minus Zappa’s musicality – which satirised the Vietnam war.  

“Gimme an F!  Gimme a U!  Gimme a C!  Gimme a K!  What’s that spell?” inquired Country Joe McDonald from the stage at Woodstock 1969.  It was one of the finest examples of audience participation the anti-war movement had seen up to that point.  He was performing an updated solo version of the Country Joe & the Fish medley “The Fish Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I’m Fixin’-To Die Rag” which opened the band’s second album released in November 1967.  

Joe’s Vietnam war spoof dated back to a 1965 EP but it would soon find a much wider audience, first on the 1967 Fish album and then even more so at Woodstock two years later.  With hard hitting satirical lyrics like this, it perfectly captured the American protest mood at that time: 

“And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam

And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates

Well there ain't no time to wonder why

Whoopee! we're all gonna die”

Recorded mid-1968 for the album Beggars Banquet (Decca LK4955), “Street Fighting Man” is possibly the Rolling Stones’ most politically charged song.  The band already had the tune, but Mick Jagger supposedly wrote the lyrics after attending an anti-Vietnam war rally in March 1968 at the US embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square together with political activist Tariq Ali.  There he witnessed mounted police charging the crowd, a rare event in Britain in 1968.  Similar instances of civil unrest were also happening in Paris around the same time.

  

Inspired by the 1968 protest marches John Lennon recorded two distinctly different versions of the song “Revolution” with the Beatles.  An up-tempo version of the song ended up on the B-Side of the “Hey Jude” single, while a slower, bluesy take (titled “Revolution 1”) was included on their self-titled double album, aka “the White Album.”

At this point Lennon was still unsure whether it was wise to fully align himself with the violent tactics of the left-wing protesters and hedged his bets with the ambiguous lyrics “But when you talk about destruction / Don’t you know that you can count me out (in).”  But, with “Give Peace A Chance” he took things to another level entirely. 

John and Yoko hit the headlines in 1969 with their extended peace campaign which started with the single “Give Peace A Chance.”  Credited to the Plastic Ono Band and recorded while Lennon was still a member of the Beatles, it reached #2 in the UK singles chart (#14 in the US).  The song instantly became an anthem of the American anti-Vietnam war movement in the 70s, where it was adopted by veterans such as Pete Seeger at peace rallies.  “Give Peace A Chance” may have been a simplistic message, but it proved to be a powerful and enduring one, still cropping up across Europe in 2022 following the attempted Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is ongoing at the time of writing.  This was followed in 1970 by another politically charged single "Power To The People" which reached #6 in the UK.

Also in 1970 Tony McPhee’s blues rock outfit The Groundhogs released their third album Thank Christ For the Bomb.  The title track took what would probably be seen as a simplistic and controversial stance today – ie that the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ultimately a positive thing and probably ensured that such weapons would never be used again.  The lyrics went, in part:

But, in the final year of that war, two big bangs settled the score,

Against Japan, who'd joined the fight, the rising sun didn't look so bright.

Since that day it's been stalemate, everyone's scared to obliterate,

So it seems for peace we can thank the bomb, so I say thank Christ for the bomb

But times change and causes come and go.  Eventually the once-terrifying threat of nuclear war receded, to be replaced in the 70s and 80s by new musical crusades such as Rock Against Racism, Nelson Mandela, South Africa, Live Aid, Farm Aid and a host of other worthy causes.

The mushroom cloud itself had already been reduced to an artistic cliche years earlier and the image was often used in an ironic (if not exactly light-hearted) way on album covers by everyone from Count Basie (The Atomic Mr. Basie 1958) and Tom Jones (A-tom-ic Jones 1966), to Jefferson Airplane (Crown of Creation 1968) and Iron Maiden (2 Minutes To Midnight 1984).

  

Inevitably, the world of heavy rock had embraced the stark imagery of Armageddon and in 1981 Gary Moore and Greg Lake recorded separate versions of the song “Nuclear Attack.”

In 2004 it’s likely few of those who bought the U2 album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb gave its title* a second thought, or even knew what a mushroom cloud was.  The album went on to sell 10 million copies.  OK Boomer, indeed.

  

The CND / Vietnam peace marches of 60 years ago may be a distant fading memory, but they left an abiding legacy, certainly in the world of folk music.  The causes may be different today but the strength of feeling about the horrors of nuclear war lingers on.  

*Editor’s Note: The U2 title came from a line in the song “Fast Cars” which was a bonus track on the album in most territories.