Groovy Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Fraser

by Harriet Vyner

In this new biography, the first to have the complete co-operation of Fraser's family and friends, Harriet Vyner has not only recreated an extraordinary figure but an exciting and colourful era - sixties London. Told through the voices of those who knew Fraser best - Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Jim Dine, Kenneth Anger, Dennis Hopper and Vyner herself - Groovy Bob is both a biography and a portrait of the most exhilarating period in post-war British social history.
Fraser brought together many of the elements that made up Swinging pop music, fashion, drugs, art and cinema. Yet he was himself a curious representative of this culture. He was an Eton-educated, former Kings African Rifles officer, the son of a highly successful banker, who bridged two very different worlds. He had, Jagger said, an aura; he was a tastemaker, a hedonist, a lousy businessman whose artists adored him, a promiscuous homosexual who avoided the gay scene. By the time of his death from AIDS in 1986 he had become an almost forgotten figure, his vision no longer in tune with the conservatism of the eighties from which the sixties was a brief departure.

Genres: Biography, Music, Art

328 pages, Hardcover

First published May 16, 2001

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Fraser was a remarkable art dealer in Sixties London. Also I was lucky enough to know him as a child. He brought my father's artwork to London, and my Dad and him were good friends. We actually stayed in his Flat in the summer of love '67. He was in prison at the time with respect to the famous Rolling Stones bust. Nevertheless...

Fraser is very much the ground zero to British Sixties pop culture. As an art dealer he visited Los Angeles and arranged to have an exhibition at his gallery that featured all the great L.A. artists of that time. He also was a close friend to the Stones and The Beatles - and for sure got them interested in the fine arts of the time. Although Peter Blake designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover and Michael Cooper photographed it, it was Fraser who brought images of my Dad, Larry Bell and some others for that iconic album cover. So therefore my father Wallace Berman became part of the Beatles legend or narrative or sorts.

This is an oral history of Fraser with lots of great comments from the art world at that time. Paul McCartney also makes a big impression with his thoughts on Fraser and his gallery.

This is one of the essential books on groovy London life, and how the social world of pop music, literature, and the visual arts all met at one or two parties in London, NYC and of course Los Angeles.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Fraser was one interesting fellow, that was made clear in this book. I learned more about his life, who he was and what his friends thought of him.

The book itself was my favorite part. The pages were thick. As in, the actual paper itself was substantial. The photos were artistic although many blurry, from the time that they were taken. The book was a joy to hold in my hands and turning those heavy pages was a pleasure every time.

I ordered this book through interlibrary loan and was a bit disappointed when I received it. I was hoping for your "standard" biography. An author writing in "story" form about a human life. Instead I found quotes and pieces of interviews from friends and family and snippets of letters and newspaper articles. For me, it felt a bit lazy. I can imagine that gathering the information for this book was labor intensive but was hoping for the writer's perspective, more than the 3 or 4 half pages that she quoted herself in, a more narrative biography.

Overall, good read, learned a lot about a man before his time or who WAS his time, who MADE his time and I'm glad I took this time to learn about him, to remember him.

[Richard Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

”Groovy Bob” was what his friends called (in)famous gallery owner Robert Fraser (1937-1986) in mid sixties London. The Robert Fraser Galllery at 69 Duke Street and Fraser’s Mount Street flat were THE places to be seen and to mingle with avant garde artists, musicians and film stars. The gallery was the epicentre of Swinging London before it closed in 1969. Fraser reopened the gallery in Cork Street but it was not a success.
Harriet Vyner got to know Fraser in the seventies and was a close friend until he died of AIDS in January 1986.
Her book is made up of interviews with and reminiscences of people who knew Fraser.
The major limitation is that Vyner has only been able to talk to people who were accessible in the late 1990s when she was writng the book. Consequently, friends of Robert’s who were no longer alive in the nineties could not be heard. Brian Jones, Brain Epstein. Andy Warhol and many others’ memories just weren’t available.
Fraser may not have been the nicest of people at all times but he was certainly a trend setter.
However, Vyner’s book is a fascinating insight into a cultural giant who first introduced Pop Art to Londoners.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oral biography on a level with George Plimpton’s marvelous “Edie: An American Biography.” I was aware of Robert Fraser because of research I was doing for a play I’m writing, but until reading this book I was unaware of his true contributions to the art world in general. This is a very thorough look at a very complicated and, even after finishing the book, unknowable man.

A sensualist who yearned for spiritualism, an art lover who’s genius resided in exhibition, a gay man who was out almost from birth, a member of the establishment who admired and influenced anti-establishment art and social scenes… and at the end one who revealed almost nothing but his exceptional taste in the new.

A fascinating life and a good chronicle of that life.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone with even the vaguest interest in the Sixties would have heard of Robert Fraser - infamously imortalised as "Doctor Robert" on the Beatles "Revolver" album, he was the catalyst for the Sgt Pepper cover and was influential in many ways. An art dealer who sold to the famous and the fashionable in Swinging London, Fraser was arrested during the notorious Redlands bust, arrested along with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and served several months in prison. A photograph of Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser handcuffed while being taken to court caused outrage at the time, leading to the famous, "Butterfly on a wheel" article in The Times.

Using interviews with people who knew him, snippets of letters, etc, this book then tells the story of one of the most important people in Sixties London. From his days at Eton and the army, through his most successful period as an art dealer, his drugs bust, time in prison, Marrakesh, India and his downfall through drugs and drink to his death from AID's in the 1980's. It seems to be accepted that Fraser was wonderful at recognising and showing great art, but easily bored and not a great businessman by any standards. However, he was certainly a very influential man, intelligent, witty, argumentative and terrible with money. This is a very interesting read about a fascinating man.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining account of one of THE dealers in the London scene. Mad life at the heights of the swinging sixties through to the eighties, the ying to Kasmin’s yang, Groovy Bob Fraser was quite the character.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally engrossing portrait of this swinging 60s London scenester that will leave you wanting to read other books about the time/place.