Underground: The London Alternative Press, 1966–74

by Nigel Fountain

In the mid 1960s a new journalism erupted in London and across the western world in the writings and graphics of the underground press. Cultural and political movements coalesced and polemicized in papers and magazines providing the backbone of a counter-culture. Its exponents were poets, artists, activists, hustlers, mystics, post-Beat and rock freaks, drawn from Britain, Europe, Australia, and the United States. What they shared was a hostility to the mainstream, and an initial ignorance of the niceties of orthodox publishing.

In Underground Nigel Fountain traces the history of that pres in London from the first stirrings in the 1950s to its demise and the aftermath in the late 1970s. It is the story of It, Oz, Black Dwarf, and many others, and a record of police raids and court cases, farce and tragedy, spectacular successes and expensive failures, from London to Sydney, San Francisco, New York – and Barnsley.

Nigel Fountain was a founder and co-editor of London’s City Limits, a former assistant editor of Time Out, and a contributor to the London underground press.

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of a fascinating era in publishing.

I read most of the magazines mentioned in this highly readable history of the alternative press in all its guises through the decades. Even "Street Life" is covered, one of my fondly remembered favourites, and now I know what was going on in the background I appreciate why my newsagent struggled to get supplies of my weekly/ monthly rags! Recommended.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nigel Fountain was a contributor to the London alternative press in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and two decades later he looked back on this historic scene in this highly detailed history, with an enormous amount of information in its mere 231 pages.

Although he focuses on the period 1966–74, Fountain begins in the mid-1950s with John Wilcock, a Yorkshireman who moved to New York and founded the Village Voice, one of the first underground publications anywhere. Wilcock's journalism celebrated the nascent counterculture in the United States, and Americans were prominent drivers of the London alternative press in its early days: Louisana-born Jim Haynes opened a niche bookshop and eventually founded the International Times (It), while the 1965 visit of Allen Ginsberg and other Beat poets to London consolidated the underground. Australia also provided an impetus when Louise Ferrier, Richard Neville and Martin Sharp relaunched their Sydney publication OZ in London. It was London's cosmopolitan nature that allowed it to pull together cultural waves from around the world and produce such a vibrant press, while in most of England it seemed like nothing changed during these years.

UNDERGROUND: The London Alternative Press 1966-74 tracks the rise of It, Oz, Black Dwarf, Friends/Frendz, Gandalf’s Garden, Ink, 7 Days, Suck and Time Out. But almost as soon as each venture was launched, it began to face challenges. Fountain's book dedicates extensive space towards diagnosing the death of the underground press in the early 1970s. The rise of feminism in the UK made the male-directed and free love-obsessed underground press look increasingly out of touch. Violent political radicalism proved more attractive to many alternative readers than the hedonism of the underground press. Perhaps the simplest reason was that the mainstream media, whose insensitivity to youth had precipitated the rise of the underground youth, discovered how to tap into young demographics: the "commodification of dissent" that we see in own time is nothing new. The last chapter examines, as a last gasp of underground spirit, the strike of Time Out writers in the late 1970s and the founding of City Limits magazine.

I've read several books now on the London underground, but I learned so much more from Fountain's book. Memoirs of this time, written by much older folks looking back on their youth with rose-coloured glasses, make the writing of It and Oz seem a nonstop party, but Fountain documents the day-to-day business activities that sustained the underground press: renting facilities, approaching investors and advertisers, and of course fleeing creditors. The author's torrent of names, places and political activists groups might have been a pain to read through upon the book's publication in 1988, but readers today with access to Wikipedia will appreciate its exhaustive listing of important figures, which they can further research.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

UNDERGROUND: The London Alternative Press 1966-74 tracks the rise of It, Oz, Black Dwarf, Friends/Frendz, Gandalf's Garden, Ink, 7 Days, and Time Out. But almost as soon as each venture was launched, it began to face challenges. Fountain's book dedicates extensive space towards diagnosing the death of the underground press in the early 1970s. The rise of feminism in the UK made the male-directed and free love-obsessed underground press look increasingly out of touch. Violent political radicalism proved more attractive to many alternative readers than the hedonism of the underground press. Perhaps the simplest reason was that the mainstream media, whose insensitivity to youth had precipitated the rise of the underground youth, discovered how to tap into young demographics: the "commodification of dissent" that we see in own time is nothing new. The last chapter examines, as a last gasp of underground spirit, the strike of Time Out writers in the late 1970s and the founding of City Limits magazine.