Underground Press

The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific recent (post-World War II) Asian, American and Western European context, the term "underground press" has most frequently been employed to refer to the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In the United Kingdom, the underground press offered a platform to the socially impotent and mirrored the changing way of life in the UK underground. In London, Barry Miles, John Hopkins, and others produced International Times from October 1966 which, following legal threats from The Times newspaper was renamed IT. Richard Neville arrived in London from Australia, where he had edited Oz (1963 to 1969). He launched a British version (1967 to 1973), which was A4 (as opposed to IT's broadsheet format). Other publications followed, such as Friends (later Frendz), based in the Ladbroke Grove area of London; Ink, which was more overtly political; and Gandalf's Garden which espoused the mystic path.
The flaunting of sexuality within the underground press provoked prosecution. IT was taken to court for publishing small ads for homosexuals; despite the 1967 legalisation of homosexuality between consenting adults in private, importuning remained subject to prosecution. Publication of the Oz "School Kids" issue brought charges against the three Oz editors, who were convicted and given jail sentences. This was the first time the Obscene Publications Act 1959 was combined with a moral conspiracy charge. The convictions were, however, overturned on appeal.
(Read more at Wikipedia.)
== Links To Peel ==
"The most important newspaper in the country".
(John Peel on International Times, first "Perfumed Garden" column, IT 18, 1967-08-31, p. 9)
 
After his return to the UK in 1967 and acclaim for his influential Perfumed Garden show on Radio London, Peel became involved with the London "hippy era" underground press through his links to Mick Farren of International Times, writing a "Perfumed Garden" column for IT and for publications including Gandalf's Garden, as well as publicly expressing his support for Oz and others in the face of harassment by the authorities and attending related benefit events.
London's underground alternative press spawned imitators in other cities as well as promoting the many "little magazines" which dealt not just with music, but poetry and other aspects of the alternative culture. On the Perfumed Garden, Peel mentioned International Times and Oz and after he joined the BBC, he continued to do so. On Night Ride and elsewhere Peel introduced magazines such as the US Rolling Stone (distributed in the UK through the underground press network), Time Out and 'Student' (edited by Richard Branson), as well as non-corporate music publications such as Zigzag and (later) Let It Rock. He first met Bob Harris when his future Sounds Of The Seventies colleague, then a journalist, interviewed him for the magazine Unit in early 1968. 
 
But by the mid-1970s most of the London-based underground papers had either closed down due to financial difficulties and police harassment or (as with Time Out and Rolling Stone) become more commercially-oriented publications. Some writers who made their names via the underground press were able to find work in mainstream Fleet Street newspapers or pop music weeklies - especially NME, who recruited Mick Farren and Barry Miles from IT, Charles Shaar Murray from Oz and Nick Kent from Frendz. They brought to the paper an irreverent, anarchist point of view, reflecting their underground press background. Some pop weeklies, including Disc & Music Echo and Sounds, for which Peel wrote regular columns, even began to adopt the layout of cheaply-produced early 1970s underground publications. 
However, the DJ began to distance himself from the underground in the early '70s, being unimpressed by its leading figures and not sharing their preoccupations (drugs, revolutionary politics, mystical religions). He expressed his disappointment in an interview with Friends magazine in 1971. But after his involvement with IT and the underground scene had ended, Peel was keen to promote the fanzine culture that later grew across the UK as part of the DIY spirit of punk and indie - itself a further development of the ideas propagated in the underground press. 
In 2022, "1960s Underground Press: A Collection Of Frendz/Friends Newspapers, 1969-1971 (approx. 22)", "Oz Magazine: A Large Collection Of Magazines And Letters, Feb 1967 - Nov 1973 (Approx. 60 magazines)", "The Perfumed Garden: The Original Artwork By Ken Hayes Created For John Peel's Article In The Magazine 'Gandalf's Garden', 1967" and "Oz: An Obscenity Trial Vest Top, 1971" were among the rare items from Peel's Record Collection and archive that were sold by his family at an auction. 
==Related Music Events==
(Benefit events and fundraisers linked to the underground press that were attended by Peel.)
*29 Apr 1967 Alexandra Palace, "14 Hour Technicolour Dream": Attended by Peel. Pink Floyd headlined the event (presented by International Times as fund-raiser)
*19 May 1968 Middle Earth "Gandalf's Garden Benefit": Bill includes Tyrannosaurus Rex, Junior's Eyes, Third Ear Band, Edgar Broughton Blues Band, David Bowie(apparently the opening act) - Peel was advertised but cancelled to attend Beefheart gig.The report on the event in the magazine itself (issue 2, pg 10) thanks the performers and "Also to Dee-Jay PAT BEE who stepped in to save the day when we discovered that JOHN PEEL had been suddenly called away on tour." Many thanks to Colin Ellis for this information.
*26 May 1968 Middle Earth, "Oz Magazine Benefit" Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, Social Deviants, Blonde On Blonde, Alexis Korner, Miss Kelly, The Flamingoes, Buddy Lloyd Glenn Povey, Echoes: The Complete History Of Pink Floyd, p. 1959, accessed via Google Books
*6 March 1971 43 King Street, Covent Garden (The Old Middle Earth), "Oz Police Ball - A Gala Benefit For The Oz Obscenity Trial": "A star-studded all nighter starting at 8.30 with: Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come/Viv Stanshall's Seanhead Showband/Gene Vincent's Houseshakers/Pink Fairies/Egg/Third World War/Gnidrolog and John Peel holding it together." 
==See Also==
*John "Hoppy" Hopkins
*Peace News
*Fanzines
== References==
Category:Periodicals