*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
Episodes
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
A Countercultural History of Camden Town
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
* Bureau Home www.bureauoflostculture.com
* Bureau Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bureauoflostculture/
* The Bureau Newsletter https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/N0ZYoFu/BOLC
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Countercultural Broadcasting: Urban Pirate Radio
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
* Ninja Tune head honcho and Coldcut co-pirate Jonathan More returns to the Bureau to talk about his adventures hi-jinxing and hi-jacking the airwaves in the Wild West of South London.
* For the second in our trilogy on illicit broadcasting, we hear tales of DJ derring-do during the birth Of Kiss Fm, once one of the coolest of the urban pirate radio stations and its transition to the commercial mainstream.
* And in the mix, we debate how the mainstream is dependent on the underground, the culture feeds on the counterculture, and along the way go crate-digging into how Jon caught the disease of collecting vinyl, putting on warehouse parties, life-changing meetings in London taxis, pirate TV, Coldcut's Solid Steel show - and nuclear power station ephemera..
* For Jon and Coldcut http://coldcut.net
* Jon’s Soho Radio show Out to Lunch https://sohoradiolondon.com/profile/jon-more/
Thanks for audio samples and info:
* DJ Food https://www.djfood.org/
* The Pirate Radio Archive https://www.thepiratearchive.net/
* AMFM.0rg https://www.amfm.org.uk/
* Death is Not the End https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/london-pirate-radio-adverts-1984-1993-vol-1
Follow Us:
* Bureau Home www.bureauoflostculture.com
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Sunday Feb 13, 2022
The Man Who Drilled a Hole in his Head
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
The Lives and Times of Michael Moorcock - Part 1
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
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Sunday Jan 02, 2022
The Lost World of The Self-Made Record
Sunday Jan 02, 2022
Sunday Jan 02, 2022
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Image courtesy Museum of London
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
The Countercultural World of Iain Sinclair
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
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Sunday Nov 21, 2021
Blondie, The Bowery and The Blank Generation
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
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Monday Nov 08, 2021
Raving Upon Thames
Monday Nov 08, 2021
Monday Nov 08, 2021
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Monday Oct 25, 2021
The Art and Craftiness of Sampling
Monday Oct 25, 2021
Monday Oct 25, 2021
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Monday Oct 04, 2021
Women Against The Bomb
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Forty years ago, in the late summer of 1981, a group of women walked from Wales for over a hundred miles carrying a hand-made banner proclaiming their protest against American nuclear cruise missiles that were to be sationed in the UK. Their march to the US military base at Greenham Common led to the establishment of a camp that, for nearly two decades, drew women from all over the world to make their voices heard in the name of peace - and inspired fellow protestors internationally
Artist, activist and banner maker Thalia Cambpell one of the original marchers and founders of the camp, visits the Bureau to tell tales of dancing on nuclear silos, clashes with the authorities and the creation of vibrant protest art amongst the mud and mayhem.
And we are joined by historian Charlotte Dew, author of 'Women For Peace: Banners From Greenham Common’, a book published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the protests that presents image of the amazing banners made by Thalia and her fellows celebrating the collective power of women, women’s art and the history of peace campaigning.
For more on the book, the banners and the bomb
www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/women-for-peace-banners-from-greenham-common/
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Monday Sep 13, 2021
Child of the Counterculture
Monday Sep 13, 2021
Monday Sep 13, 2021
A Zelig, a holy fool, a trickster, a black magician, a sociopath, a charlatan, a genius, a fabulist, a junkie, an alcoholic, a secret agent, a police informer, a disruptor, an often loveable preacher of Love who didn't actually seem to know what it meant?
LSD evangelist Michael Hollingshead might or might not have been all of these, but he was certainly a father.
What is it like to be the child of such a person?
Comedian Vanessa Hollingshead and writer Jeannie Hilton tell the dark and intense story of Vanessa’s tumultuous life with Michael, the working class Englishman who, according to his own claim, 'turned on the world' - or at least, many of those who did - including Timothy Leary and The Beatles - and who, like many who have advocated universal love and cosmic enlightenment, led a tragic and toxic personal life.
It's a wild and crazy trip, at times funny, at times disturbing. Be warned!
To find out more about The Divine Rascal film project
www.thedivinerascal.com
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Sunday Aug 29, 2021
William Burroughs and Friends
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
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Monday Aug 02, 2021
The Lost World of Pirate Radio - Part One
Monday Aug 02, 2021
Monday Aug 02, 2021
PIRATE RADIO first erupted in the UK in the early 1960s when stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London started to broadcast from ships moored offshore or disused WW2 forts in the north sea. They were set up by wildcat entrepreneurs and music enthusiasts to meet the growing demand for the pop, rock and underground music not catered for by the BBC who had a monopoly on the airwaves.
Music writer ROB CHAPMAN returns to the Bureau to tell the story of this first golden age of illicit broadcasting. We hear of the extraordinary life of pirate-in-chief Ronan O’Rahilly anarchist founder of Radio Caroline, of legendary broadcaster John Peel and his ground breaking show ‘The Perfumed Garden’, and of the oddities of life aboard the radio ships precariously sailing the airwaves.
Initially, the stations got round the law because they were broadcasting from international waters to delighted young people across the country before they ran foul of the authorities and were shut down in 1967. But their impact lived on: the government caved into youth demand for pop music with the creation of Radio 1 and many of the pirate radio DJs including Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett, Johnnie Walker, Emperor Rosko went on to mainstream success with the BBC and commercial stations of the seventies and beyond.
For more on Rob
http://www.rob-chapman.com
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Monday Jun 07, 2021
London’s Lost World of Yiddisher Jazz
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
For more on Alan’s work
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Thursday May 27, 2021
The UFO Club
Thursday May 27, 2021
Thursday May 27, 2021
Journalist and counterculture commentator Peter Watts joins us to talk about The UFO Club, the massively influential short-lived London club of the late 1960s established by Joe Boyd and John "Hoppy” Hopkins.
It featured light shows, poetry readings, avant-garde art by Yoko Ono and many rock acts (Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Procul Harem) who later became massive.
For a brief two year period, it acted as the epicentre of the whirligig of summer of love underground London with a 'who's who of the counterculture' guest list and set the standards for psychedelic fashion and design.
Peter’s blog on London and counterculture:
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Thursday May 27, 2021
The English Underground with Nick Laird Clowes - Part 2
Thursday May 27, 2021
Thursday May 27, 2021
We return for Part 2 of a trip through the English Underground scene of the 1960s and 1970s led by musician and pied piper Nick Laird Clowes of The Dream Academy.
Nick tells of his extraordinary youth deeply immersed in the political, musical and alternative scenes of West London. We hear about meeting Iggy Pop in a toilet, Nick Drake's guitar, the demise of Syd Barrett and dinner with Andy Warhol amongst many other terrific tales of living the countercultural life.
For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture
www.bureauoflostculture.com
For more on Nick
www.nicklairdclowes.com
Thursday May 27, 2021
The English Underground with Nick Laird Clowes - Part 1
Thursday May 27, 2021
Thursday May 27, 2021
We take a romp through the underground alternative and music scene of the 1960s in the first half of a two part episode. Our guide is musician and Nick Laird Clowes who regales us with stories of running away to the Isle of Wight festival, dj-ing at The Roundhouse, meeting John Lennon amongst many countercultural characters of the day and much, much more.
All this before an age when most of us had even smoked a cigarette - and all before his days of pop stardom with The Dream Academy.
For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture
www.bureauoflostculture.com
For more on Nick
https://www.nicklairdclowes.com
Thursday May 27, 2021
Tales from The Flamingo Club
Thursday May 27, 2021
Thursday May 27, 2021
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
The Lost History of Skiffle - with Billy Bragg
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Soviet Hippies
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Forget California, swinging sixties London or the Paris riots for a moment, Estonian filmmaker Terje Toomistu joins us to talk about the hippie movement of the Soviet Union.
It had all the characteristics of Western hippiedom: long hair, groovy music, esoteric spirituality and drugs. The only thing missing perhaps was the radical public politics that would have pushed the repressive Soviet authorities into drastic, brutal action
Terji’s film, with its super groovy soundtrack of rare tunes, provides a fascinating glimpse into a moving, daring subculture that flourished east of the Iron Curtain.
More about the Soviet Hippies film and Terje www.soviethippies.com
For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture:
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Days of the Underground: The Life and Times of Hawkwind
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Which One’s Pink? Managing the Counterculture
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Rebel Threads: Dressing the Counterculture
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Days in the Life: The Language of Counterculture
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Monday Oct 19, 2020
Tonite Let's All Make Love in London: The Films of Peter Whitehead
Monday Oct 19, 2020
Monday Oct 19, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
The Mysteries of T. C. Lethbridge
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
The Man Who Turned On the World - Hollingshead Pt.1
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Barney Bubbles: Designing the Counterculture
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Arthur Machen and The London Labyrinth
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
High Weirdness: Psychedelic Visions in 70s America
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
‘America’s leading scholar of High Strangeness’ Dr.Erik Davis, enters the Bureau.
We hear about Erik’s career charting the highs and lows of counterculture, esoterica and psychedelia in America and meet three of the most influential radical psychedelic characters of 1970s - the writers / thinkers / lunatics Philip K Dick, Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson.
Each had extraordinary mystical experiences in the heady days of early 1970 countercultures which kickstarted an incredible outpouring of radical theories, fiction, speculations, conspiracy theories and consciousness exploration.
We hear about radical politics, drugs, strange new religions, environmentalism, cults and the darkening of the psychedelic dream as the sunny uplands of the 1960s turn into the confused melting pot of the 1970s.
For more on Erik Davis:
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Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
The Secret History of Mescaline
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Mike Jay, the UK’s foremost historian of psychoactive plants, joins us to talk about the deeply strange hallucinogen/drug/medicine/sacrament mescaline - a substance derived from the peyote cactus.
Whilst other psychedelic compounds are more popular - and much more in the news - Mike tells us why mescaline was actually the very first psychedelic.
We hear strange stories of drug use in 19th century London, Native American medicine ceremonies - and Bovril..
For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture
www.bureauoflostculture.com
More about Mike's work
Monday Sep 14, 2020
The History of the Self - Made Record
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Monday Sep 14, 2020
We are joined by oral historian and broadcaster Alan Dein.
We discuss the history, culture and technology of the coin-operated machines that allowed ordinary people to make a record of themselves in the West (and, in adapted bootlegged form, to create records of forbidden music in the Soviet Union) long before the advent of tape or digital recording.
We hear a selection of extraordinary recordings of strange, moving voices from Alan’s collection and learn how the records were used to send messages home from the war, record visits to tourist destinations or to capture the sounds of loved ones in a way that had never been possible before.
For More on X-Ray Audio
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Monday Sep 14, 2020
The Soviet 'Punk Frank Zappa'
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Monday Sep 14, 2020
We meet with film director Olivia Litchenstein and BBC Russian Arts presenter Alexander Kan to hear about the extraordinary musician Sergey Kuryokhin, ‘the Soviet Punk Frank Zappa’ who with his underground cohorts in Leningrad tried to soundtrack perestroika as the cold war crumbled around them.
Olivia tells of the strange circumstances of the making of the BBC TV series Comrades during the twilight of the Soviet Empire, with tales of tapes smuggled in diplomatic bags and a bizarre intervention by Ronald Reagan.
Alex tells of his friendship with Kuryokhin, an incredibly talented, charming musical provocateur whose live performances astonished Russian audiences. And we learn of the bizarre prank Kuryokhin played on National TV claiming Lenin was a magic mushroom, just one of many dadaist interventions he made before his tragically early death.
The Comrades program featuring Sergey Kuryokhin: https://youtu.be/ibY2lXdgdnM
For more on The Bureau of Lost Culture:
Monday Sep 14, 2020
The Invisible Battle of the Cold War Airwaves
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Monday Sep 14, 2020
This Episode explore three stories of cold war era radio in the USSR: Soviet Radio Jammers, the Russian ‘Woodpecker’ and the Soviet Radio Hooligans
We meet with Russian broadcaster Vladimir Raevsky to talk about radio jamming in cold war era Soviet Union.
As East and West super powers square up to each with nuclear weapons, a parallel invisible war is being fought in the airwaves.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on broadcasting propaganda and music into the Soviet Union - and on attempting to block them from being heard.
Stephen tells the strange story of the ‘Russian Woodpecker’, a dystopian broadcasting station near the Chernobyl nuclear reactor and alleged attempts to brainwash the West using radar.
BBC Russian Arts correspondant Alex Kan, sits in a London cafe and tells of the brave young ‘Radio hooligans' who broadcast their own individual pirate radio shows during his youth in the USSR.
For More on the Bureau of Lost Culture:
Monday Sep 14, 2020
The Smallest Country in the World
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
A Short History of Soviet Counterculture
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Was counterculture possible in the oppressive, repressive circumstances of the Soviet Union?
Join us as we meet with broadcaster, author and cultural commentator Artemyi Troistsky - the 'Russian John Peel’ - to find out.
We hear some entertaining, comical, tragic, moving and frankly strange stories including tales of the ‘Stilyagi' Soviet Hipsters, the first disco in Moscow, Che Guevara and Lenin as a mushroom.
And we hear how rock music evolved in secret before breaking into the light as perestroika transformed Soviet society.
For more on Art:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemy_Troitsky
For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture
www.bureauoflostculture.com
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Drugs, Doctors and Rock 'n Roll
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
In this episode, we meet with radical doctor Sam Hutt who ministered to countercultural London in the 1960s and with Hank Wangford, English Country and Western singer par excellence.
Sam tells us about growing up in a 1950s communist household in a posh part of London. We hear stories of sixties Soho and psychedelic marmite, about buying heroin from Boots and about prescribing cannabis for some very famous musicians.
We learn how Sam frequented underground clubs like The Flamingo, dropped acid, made one of the greatest psychedelic singles of all time, hung out with rock stars and witnessed the tragic decline of Syd Barrett
Hank tells how Sam Hutt became Hank Wangford after a broken love affair. We hear how he and Keith Richards were turned onto country music by Gram Parsons and about his days as part of the Red Wedge anti-Thatcher movement in the 1980s - all along with two tunes recorded live at Soho Radio.
For more on Hank Wangford
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Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Sweat, Drums and Rock 'n Roll - with Twink
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
We meet with legendary drummer and songwriter John Alder / Mohammed Abdullah, best known as Twink, who played for the In Crowd, Tomorrow, The Pink Fairies, The Pretty Things, Hawkwind, The Aquarian Age, Pink Wind and Stars - amongst others legendary acts.
One of the foremost figures of the late sixties London music scene, he tells us what it was like - from the inside.
We hear what Jimi Hendrix said to him when they jammed at The UFO club, about Syd Barrett’s tragic last gig and about a life beating out the rhythm of the counterculture from Colchester to Morocco and back again.
You can find out more about Twink’s legacy at www.thinkpink50th.com
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