//Box advert for the Beckenham Arts Lab run by David Bowie and Mary Finnigan in IT #59, July 1969//

//News story about the Goldsmiths Arts Festival organised by Malcolm Edwards and his fellow student Niall Martin in IT #59//

Researching my archive during lockdown for a project has given me the opportunity to thoroughly assess individual publications, none more so than the 59th issue of underground paper IT, which hit the streets in early July 1969.

This particular edition features a couple of small items which provide clues as to the countercultural activities at the time of two Londoners who would go on to define pop culture in the 1970s: David Bowie and Malcolm McLaren.

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Beckenham Arts Lab, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, David Bowie, Give Peace A Chance, Goldsmiths College of Art, Harold Pinter, IT, King Crimson, L. Ron Hubbard, Mary Finnigan, Mick Jagger, Plastic Ono Band, Pretty Things, RD Laing, Rolling Stones, Sun Ra, William Burroughs

“What’s to say, save that his contempt was not reserved solely for the music business? Or the art business. Or the business of being human. There were times when he saw with his own dead eyes. But he had the sight to see through them.”

K-LS on the album’s opening track Afoju Ti Ole Riran (Dead Eyes)

Ki-Longfellow Stanshall’s sleevenotes for the 2012 reissue of the lost classic Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead are stunning, filled with anguish and joy, rather like the life and work of the LP’s creator, her much-missed partner Vivian Stanshall.

I treasure my vinyl copy, put out with much love by my old mucker Joe Foster, and heartily recommend the Afro-flavoured grooves Stanshall brewed up back in 1974 with such fellow legends as Reebop Kwaku Baah, Jim Capaldi, Neil Innes, Gaspar Lawal and Steve Winwood.

//The PoppyDisc reissue recreates the sleeve artwork of the Warner 1974 release: Cover drawing by Peter Till//

//Back cover of original release. Photo: Barrie Wentzell//

Buy a copy of PoppyDisc’s vinyl reissue of Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead here.

Tags: Barrie Wentzell, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Gaspar Lawal, Jim Capaldi, Joe Foster, Ki-Lonfellow Stanshall, Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead!, Neil Innes, Peter Till, PoppDisc, Reebop Kwaku Baah, Steve Winwood, Vivian Stanshall