London Free School

Last updated

The London Free School (LFS) was founded on 8 March 1966, principally by John "Hoppy" Hopkins and Rhaune Laslett.

Contents

Description

The London Free School was a community action adult education project inspired by American free universities (and the Victorian Jewish Free School in Spitalfields). The organisers have been described as an "anarchic temporary coalition" of the old guard New Left and CND housing activists from the Rachman days and the new beatnik/hippy generation. The former included George Clark of the Notting Hill Community Workshop, Richard Hauser (who ran a community scheme after the 1958 riots), Rhaune and Jim Laslett-O’Brien, Bill Richardson of the Powis and Colville Residents Association, Andre and Barbara Shervington.

To varying degrees of involvement, the hippy contingent numbered John Hopkins, Michael X, Courtney Tulloch ( IT ), [1] Lloyd Hunter, Peter Jenner (who was just starting to manage Pink Floyd), Joe Boyd of Elektra Records and UFO, Andrew King, Michael Horovitz, John Michell, Julie Felix, Jeff Nuttall, Mike McInnerney (Tommy artist), Graham Keen (IT), Neil Oram (The Warp), Dave Tomlin ( IT ), Felix de Mendelssohn ( Children of Albion ), Nigel Waymouth of Granny Takes a Trip, John Esam, Alexander Trocchi, the jazz writer Ron Atkins, the Warhol star Kate Heliczer, Harvey Matusow (the McCarthy witchtrials saboteur), R. D. Laing and "the Belsize Park shrinks", Emily Young, Anjelica Huston and Pink Floyd. [2]

According to Jeff Nuttall, "Ultimately the Free School did nothing but put out a local underground newsletter and organise the 2 Notting Hill Gate Festivals, which were, admittedly, models of exactly how the arts should operate – festive, friendly, audacious, a little mad and all taking place on demolition sites, in the streets, and in a magnificently institutional church hall." [3] Despite this opinion, the formation of the "Notting Hill Neighbourhood Service" (one of the first centres to offer drug and legal advice in London), the Notting Hill Carnival, the International Times and the UFO Club all emerged from the brief life of the LFS.

Also significant was the early development of Pink Floyd, who played at All Saints Church Hall, initially as part of the Notting Hill Fayre (Carnival), and then a series of fund-raising concerts for the LFS. These were among the earliest gigs by the band, coming between their Spontaneous Underground period at The Marquee and the start of the UFO Club. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notting Hill</span> Area of London, England

Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notting Hill Carnival</span> Annual street festival in London

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean Carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966 on the streets of the Notting Hill area of Kensington, over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

LFS may stand for:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Jenner</span> British music manager

Peter Julian Jenner is a British music manager and a record producer. Jenner, Andrew King and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Boyd</span> American record producer and writer

Joe Boyd is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, R.E.M., Vashti Bunyan, John and Beverley Martyn, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Billy Bragg, James Booker, 10,000 Maniacs, and Muzsikás. He was also one of the founders of the highly influential nightclub venue UFO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UK underground</span> British counterculture

The British counter-culture or underground scene developed during the mid 1960s, and was linked to the hippie subculture of the United States. Its primary focus was around Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill in London. It generated its own magazines and newspapers, bands, clubs and alternative lifestyle, associated with cannabis and LSD use and a strong socio-political revolutionary agenda to create an alternative society.

<i>International Times</i> Underground newspapers

International Times is the name of various underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John "Hoppy" Hopkins, David Mairowitz, Roger Hutchinson, Peter Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath. Jack Moore, avant-garde writer William Levy and Mick Farren, singer of The Deviants, also edited at various periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UFO Club</span> Former club in London, England

The UFO Club was a short-lived British counter-culture nightclub in London in the 1960s. The club was established by Joe Boyd and John "Hoppy" Hopkins. It featured light shows, poetry readings, well-known rock acts such as Jimi Hendrix, avant-garde art by Yoko Ono, as well as local house bands, such as Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. The club operated for the nine months from December 1966 to August 1967, and an additional seven months at 31 Tottenham Court Road in Fitzrovia, followed by a further two months at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hopkins (political activist)</span> British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist (1937–2015)

John Victor Lindsay "Hoppy" Hopkins was a British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist, and "one of the best-known underground figures of 'Swinging London' " in the late 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstellar Overdrive</span> 1967 instrumental by Pink Floyd

"Interstellar Overdrive" is an instrumental composition written and performed by the English rock band Pink Floyd. The song was written in 1966 and is on their 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, clocking in at almost ten minutes in length. It features long sections of free-form instrumental improvisation reflective of the group's live performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael X</span> Civil rights activist and convicted murderer (1933–1975)

Michael X, born Michael de Freitas, was a Trinidad and Tobago-born self-styled black revolutionary and civil rights activist in 1960s London. He was also known as Michael Abdul Malik and Abdul Malik. Convicted of murder in 1972, Michael X was executed by hanging in 1975 in Port of Spain's Royal Gaol.

BIT was an information service, publisher, travel guide and social centre founded, in 1968, by John "Hoppy" Hopkins. It pre-dated the Internet as a free service that would try to find any information asked for, but post-dated library reference desks, and derived its name from the smallest unit of computer information.

The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream was a concert held in the Great Hall of the Alexandra Palace, London, on 29 April 1967. The fund-raising concert for the counterculture paper International Times was organised by Barry Miles, John "Hoppy" Hopkins, David Howson, Mike McInnerney and Jack Henry Moore. It was part-documented by Peter Whitehead in a film called Tonite Let's All Make Love in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coleherne, Earl's Court</span> Former gay pub in Earls Court, London

The Coleherne Arms 1866 public house was a gay pub in west London. Located at 261 Old Brompton Road, Earl's Court, it was a well-known music venue from the 1950s, and a popular landmark leather bar during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2008, it was rebranded as a gastropub, The Pembroke.

Harry Fainlight (1935–1982) was a British/American poet associated with the Beats movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterling Betancourt</span> Musical artist

Sterling Betancourt MBE, FRSA is a Trinidad-born pioneer, arranger and musician on the steelpan, a major figure in pioneering the Pan in Europe and the UK (1951).

Andrew King is a music manager, formerly for Blackhill Enterprises, where he co-managed Pink Floyd and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhaune Laslett</span> British activist (1919–2002)

Rhaune Laslett was an English community activist and the principal organiser of the Notting Hill Fayre or Festival, that evolved into the Notting Hill Carnival.

Selwyn Baptiste was a Trinidad and Tobago-born pioneer of the introduction of the steel drum into Britain, forming the country's second steel band in 1967, and early organizer of London's Notting Hill Carnival. An educator as well as a pannist, a percussionist and drummer, he is credited with bringing about the teaching of steelpan playing throughout the UK.

Leslie Stephen "Teacher" Palmer,, is a Trinidadian community activist, writer and teacher, who migrated in the 1960s to the UK, where he became involved in music and the arts in West London. He is credited with developing a successful template for the Notting Hill Carnival, of which he was director from 1973 to 1975, during which time he "completely revolutionised the event and transformed its structure and content almost beyond recognition." He is also known by the name of "The Wounded Soldier" as a kaisonian.

References

  1. Mike Phillips, Guardian obituary - Courtney Tulloch, 13 December 2006.
  2. An historical and psychogeographical report on Notting Hill Archived 21 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine compiled by Tom Vague for HISTORYtalk.
  3. Tom Vague (1 October 2012). Getting it Straight in Notting Hill Gate: A West London Psychogeography Report. Bread and Circuses. pp. 230–. ISBN   978-1-62517-202-0.
  4. Glenn Povey, Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd, 2007.