Bureau of Lost Culture

Stephen Coates

*The Bureau of Lost Culture broadcast curious, rare, half-forgotten, half-remembered countercultural stories, oral histories and tales from the underground. *Join host Stephen Coates and a wide range of guests including musicians, writers and cultural commentators like Billy Bragg, Lisa Law, Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore, Jill Drower, Peter Coyote and Johnny Marr in conversation. *Listen live on Saturdays at 9.00am on London’s premier independent station Soho Radio or via catch-up on all major podcast providers: *The Bureau is now collected at The British Library Sound Archive read less
HistoryHistory

Episodes

The Beat Goes On: The Sounds of Allen Ginsberg
17-02-2024
The Beat Goes On: The Sounds of Allen Ginsberg
YOUTH, producer of a huge range of artists (including Kate Bush, Crowded House, The Orb, KLF, The Verve, Guns ’n’ Roses and Primal Scream) and Jesse Goodman of the Allen Ginsberg Estate come to the Bureau to talk of the beat poet’s impact on music and the British counterculture.   We hear about Youth's 'Iron Horse' project and two albums of interpretations of Ginsberg's Fall of America poems by an astounding range of artists and we get deep into counterculture, the power of poetry, creativity and the possibility of a third summer of love.. -- Youth and Jesse will be with us in  March, when we are presenting a program of happenings to celebrate Ginsberg's London Life.   See the EVENTS page for full details. -- In May 1965, Allen  arrived in London and gave a free reading at Better Books in Charing Cross Road. It was an event described by poet-provocateur Jeff Nuttall as "the first healing wind on a very parched collective mind” and one that provided the impetus for the International Poetry Incarnation at Royal Albert Hall, a hugely significant catalyst for the first British Summer of Love. Music featured prominently in Ginsberg’s work - both in his self-accompanied performances and live collaborations with artists including Dylan, Paul McCartney and Patti Smith - and in the inspiration it has had on the wide range of musicians who have set it to music. Ginsberg In London Events  Youth’s Iron Horse Album Youth at The Horse Hospital March 15th The Fall of America albums  Volume 1 and Volume 2 Images courtesy of the John Hopkins Estate
The Incredible String Band Part 2: Inside Looking Out
08-01-2024
The Incredible String Band Part 2: Inside Looking Out
*In this, the second of a two parter, we hear more of the crazy countercultural life and times of The Incredible String Band  - from the inside looking out  - with Rose Simpson   *Rose was one quarter of the band during what many regard as their creative and countercultural peak in the late 60s and early 70s.   •Her memoir 'Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden' is an incredible story, relating how she rocketed (as a student without any particular interest in music or the counterculture), via an accidental meeting in a Scottish mountain cottage, to photoshoots in American Vogue and playing at Woodstock - and then came all the way back again.   *It's a fascinating tale, not just because the ISB were fascinating in themselves, but because it is beautifully told with a wealth of detail about a time that is usually dominated by mens' voices.   •She had many psychedelic adventures along the way, narrowly escaped getting involved in Scientology and then - and then left it all behind.   *And she knows where the sitars are buried...   *We dived into drugs, communal life, the ups and downs of free love, the catastrophe of the cult, making it up as you go along, the mysterious life and disappearance of Rose's bandmate Licorice, going full on and far out.   *Rose's memoir 'Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden' (published by Strange Attractor)    *Adrian Whittaker's compilation book Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending    *Thanks to Peter Neal for the audio clips from his film Be Glad for the Song has No Ending       #tripping #psychedelics #london #consciousness #scotland #scottishcounterculture #counterculture #drug  #lsd #music  #joeboyd #1960s #scientology #rosesimpson #incrediblestringband #begladforthesonghasnoending #woodstock #stephenduffy #hippie
Remembering the Crazy Diamond
11-11-2023
Remembering the Crazy Diamond
•Cult icon, enigma, recluse, crazy diamond, he was the founding member of one of the world’s most  famous and succesful rock groups, but the life of Syd Barrett is full of unanswered questions.   •Was he a drug casualty of the sixties? Did he walk away from the pressures of the commercial music world? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness, did his muse abandon him? Was it a combination of these - or was it something more mysterious, something we can never really understand?   •'Have You Got It Yet?’, an extraordinary new film about Syd, pieces together his comet-like rise to pop stardom, his creative and destructive impulses, breakdown, his exit from Pink Floyd and his subsequent life alone, all set against the social context of the psychedelic swinging sixties. It is built around interviews with Syd’s friends, lovers, family and former band mates Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason. It is, as much as a tribute, a film about memory, friendship, lost youth, regret and the enduring power of music.   •Roddy Bogawa, the award winning co-director of the film and a crazy diamond in his own right, came to the Bureau to talk about 'Have You Got It Yet?’ - and to try to answer some of the questions about Syd.    •And along the way, we dig deep into London in the '60s, LA in the '70s, punk, underground films - and of course, counterculture.   •For more details on the film Have You Got It Yet •For more about Roddy *Join our cult   Thanks, as ever, to Jenny Spires for connecting us with Roddy.     #tripping #psychedelics #theunconscious #consciousness #truth #madness #counterculture #drug  #lsd #memorey  #pinkfloyd  #sydbarrett #haveyougotityet? #crazydiamond #darksideofthemoon #wishyouwerehere #shineonyoucrazydiamond #ufoclub #madcap
Songs of War and Peace - with Boris Grebenshikov
16-10-2023
Songs of War and Peace - with Boris Grebenshikov
*He is perhaps the biggest name in Russian rock music, famous as the leader of the band Aquarium throughout his homeland and 'Outer Russia’ (as the huge and growing number of Russian emigres are called), but he is now listed as a “foreign agent” - basically an anti-patriot, a traitor, for criticising Russia’s war *Aquarium were pioneers of the clandestine homegrown rock scene that was born in early '70s USSR before emerging from the underground to become the pied pipers of perestroika, selling millions of albums (but usually getting paid nothing). *After a long and illustrous career, Boris Grebenshikov now lives in London and in response to the conflict has put together an extraordinary compilation aiming to help children in Ukraine - and for the friends and fans he has had to leave behind.   *The album features a star-studded ensemble including Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, Jethro Tull, Marianne Faithful, Marc Almond, The Waterboys, Jackson Brown, Crowded House and many others.  *We talk of the USSR in the 60s, cultural censorship,the power of music, the KGB arresting your friends, being back on the outside yet again - and we hear selections from the 'Heal the Sky’ album.   Thanks to Alex Kan for making this happen.   *For more details and to support the project: Heal The Sky *Let us know where you are at (a few questions about you) *Get Our Bulletin   #counterculture #music #ussr #soho #aquarium #ukraine #russia #war #borisgrebenshikov #perestroika #coldwar #russinemeigre #russianrock
The Soho Bibles: The Secret Porn of Post-War London
18-09-2023
The Soho Bibles: The Secret Porn of Post-War London
*Under the counter-culture..   *They were handmade illegal obscene books, a little like early punk zines, typewritten mimeographed manuscripts with two or three pornographic stories or a novella.   *Many contained drawings or photographs and were sold in post-war London and provincial second hand bookshops  Thousands were produced, but only a small proportion survive today.     *Titles like Orgy Twins, Lust and Agony in Double Domination Nunnery Versus Fuckery or Discipline in the Home gave a sense of the contents to eager suburban punters wanting their share of the sexual revolution.   *Archaelogist and curator of forgotten, neglected, stigmatised or hidden phenomena, Dr. HELEN WICKSTEAD, who has written first major study of The Soho Typescripts (or The Soho Bibles as they have become known), takes us through the door and under the counter to take a peep through the curtain at a lost world of smut, desire and money. *And we talk about Mickey Mouse having sex, the secret room of The British Museum, the private case of The British Library, a prehistoric phallus, erotic fish, police corruption, The Obscene Publications Act, Holywelll Street -  and pornography as counterculture..   *For more of Helen *Let us know where you are at(short survey about You) *Join Us   #counterculture #pornography  #porn #sohobibles #sohotranscripts #soho #sohohistory #londonhistory #zines #sex  *Images courtesy of Helen Wickstead /Dave Notaro
The Music of the Cults
20-08-2023
The Music of the Cults
*Their number encompasses the darkest bogeymen of countercultural nightmares- including Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh and the Reverend Moon -as well as saintly figures devoted to the good of others; outright charlatans, narcissistic psychopaths, deluded New Age prophets as well as genuine gurus. *Since the 1950s, certain charismatic individuals have taken it upon themselves to collect others around them in ‘cults’, rejecting mainstream religion and society in favour of a claim to secret knowledge of the path of liberation. The consequences have often been disastrous, involving the devotees actually getting liberated from their money, freedom - and sometimes, their lives.   *Artist and archivist MICAH MOSES has spent twenty years not only studying cults, new religious movements and individuals of a spiritually inspired nature, but broadcasting their soundtracks to a wider world.   *Micah came to the Bureau ahead of his ‘GODBODY' exhibition around the theme of the New Age showing in London at The Horse Hospital in September 2023.   *This episode of the Bureau contains a selection of strange, esoteric and sometimes sinister sounds from the vast archive he has gathered over the years.    *For more on Micah’s WFMU Music of Mind Control radio show *For the GODBODY exhibition *Join our cult #counterculture #cults #cultleaders #newage #thenewage #secretsocieties #jimjones #jonestown #marshallapplewhite #heavensgate #thechildrenofgod #manson #charlesmanson #davidberg  #scientology #guru #godbody #thehorsehospital
So You Say You Want a (Sexual) Revolution?
23-07-2023
So You Say You Want a (Sexual) Revolution?
The pill, Profumo, pornography. Love, liberation and libido. Larkin, Lady Chatterley, Lolita,  *No era in recent history has been both more celebrated and more vilified than the 1960s.  *For some it was a time when music, fashion and drugs enabled young people to express their individuality and freedom and their hopes and dreams of a better world.  For others, it marked the advent of the permissive society, the undermining of authority, family values and common decency.  *And at the heart of this continuing controversy was ..sex.  *PETER DOGGET, journalist, cultural critic and writer, whose book 'Growing Up: Sex in the 60s' takes an unflinching look at the dark underbelly of the sexual revolution, came into the Bureau to explain that while the orgiastic hedonism, ever-changing partners and polymorphous perversity of countercultural myth was enjoyed by a tiny minority, the vast majority of the British population could only gawp from the sidelines, still living in a world  with a moral code that stretched back to the Victorian Age.   We talk about the battle between two opposing forces: the urge to free the body from guilt, and the desire to control, cannibalise and exploit that liberation for profit or pleasure - plus VD, groupies, The Beatles miniskirts, Germaine Greer and Jane Birkin (RIP).   *For more on Peter and his work   *Get our Counterculture newsletter   *The Bureau of Lost Culture Home   #sex #counterculture #sexualrevolution #sexualliberation #libido #permissivesociety #thepill #miniskirt #hippie #commune #blowup #janebirkin #sergegainsbourg #nabokov #freelove #sohoradio