Hippies in London
Here is a crowd outside the St. Marylebone Registry Office on Saturday 15th June 1968. It was a non-event as they got the date wrong! Getting "married" are John Hopkins (Hoppy) and Suzie Zeigler (Suzy Creamcheese of Frank Zappa song fame). There are quite a few famous faces of the time. These pictures were splashed across every newspaper except the Daily Telegraph. "King and Queen of Hippies wed". Just to the right you can see the sandles of Sid Rawles – still around as a Druid, or as a Digger as required. Other faces in the other (not shown pictures) include Mick Farren (Pink Fairies), Mick Brown, someone who looks like John Lennon (very possible), someone who looks like Ringo Starr (unlikely), the girl on the very left is Kathy, the fellow who looks like Rolf Harris was Peter Stansall who was my immediate boss as editor of International Times (IT). Two people to his right looking a bit like Woodie Allen is Mike Henshaw who was the accountancy brains behind various projects like Centre 42, UFO, IT and others. Below is Sid Rawles in his Druid outfit. Also, below the letter "w" with frizzy hair is Mick Farren who I believe was working at the time for Richard Neville (now Beyond 2000) and Felix Dennis (major UK and US magazine publisher now) on Oz Magazine and Jack Henry-Moore and Jim Haynes at the Arts Lab. Mick is a succesful writer of over 50 science fiction books.
We have now identified the gentleman on the right whose head is partly obscuring the Sombrero as Josh Wallace who was a house guest of Sid Rawles at that time. He wrote "Besides Europe, I went to UCLA, worked briefly in business, became a screenwriter, had very limited success and have been a technical translator from French to English for almost twenty years. I am based in Montreal (not Paris) have two boys (7 and almost 10) and a girl, 10 months. I live with my wife, Ikuko, in downtown Montreal and fly a Cessna 150 out of Plattsburgh NY.
Yvonne Wuamett write: Alice Pollock and Raphael Poole are sitting on the ground to the right in the photo, she has short dark hair he has a beard.Alice was part of Quorum. Ossie Clarks shop where the most wonderful clothes were sold…..and Raphael was the manager of the store prior to that he worked at Apple. I went to school with Mick Farren we still communicate via email.At the time Raphael and I and some others lived in a flat in the Portobello Road, a key hung inside the letterboxand anyone could come in.The walls were black with paint thrown on them,the cushions on the floor came from outside a house in Rillington Place,they were crazy times
The wedding took place the same day as Dudley Moore to Suzy Kendall.
If you know any other faces please email steve@atlantic-coast.com.
Picture copyright Mirror Group – shown here for non-commercial purposes – not to be reproduced.
Click here for a link to web pages set up by Alex Gross regarding the late 1960s in London
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