‘Do you take drugs? Why is your hair so long and dirty?’

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Roger Eagle was an apostle and a missionary for the R&B music that was revolutionising Britain and changing young people’s mindsets forever. Within six months, soul-crazy kids were travelling from all corners of the Isle to hear him play. They dressed smart, dropped pills, chewed hard and danced like dreams. Black music was their religion. It articulated their thoughts and it swayed their groins. 

‘In Manchester, we played the Twisted Wheel. Some bastard lent our black Mariah van for an hour and came back with a load of fucking leather coats in the back – done a job. Me and Ronnie and Kenney all got leather coats out of it. Done a job like when we were playing. I think it was Terry who suggested that these people use our van, said he wouldn’t be gone long, probably got paid a bit of whack. We finished the set and the van wasn’t back and we were out there waiting for it when it screeches around the corner and someone yells, “Get in, get in!” So we piled in the back and it’s up to here in leather coats. We screamed around to some bird’s house and they were getting the coats out and bundling them up. They said. “Take a coat, anything you want.” It was a great coat, had a belt and buttons.’

people pack in tight, rubbing, touching, sweating to the music

 

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‘See, the other night I went out with my kid brother. I’m bored and that, so I tag along with him to this club round our way. Now, I’m not kidding you but it was un-be-fucking-lievable down there. There’s all these young’uns, togged up like farmers in baggy jeans and dungarees, off their heads and going absolutely mad. They were all over the shop. You could tell. Their eyes were shot and they didn’t have a care in the world. Friendly as fuck, mind you, no bother whatsoever. Anyways, the place is rammed and there’s dry ice everywhere and these bleedin’ strobe lights going off every five seconds, you get a fucking great headache watching them. It was manic down there so I pulled my kid brother aside and asked him, what the fuck is going on? You know what he does? He pulls out these three white pills and tells me that at least three quarters of the bods there have dropped one and that’s why everyone is going beserk. They’re called Ecstasy and apparently you don’t give a fuck once you’ve dropped it or as my kid brother says, got right on one. Doesn’t sound right to me. I mean, in my day, it was blues that did the trick but this stuff is something else. I dunno, maybe I’m getting on but I told him if I saw him dropping one I’d make his life hell rather than ecstasy.’

anti middle-age, anti boss-class and anti young marrieds

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“But that’s the sort of life my parents and every other parent has been living, unless they have a lot of bread. I wouldn’t do it, so I got in a lot of trouble. I had a lot of opposition from my parents about what I wanted to do. I got in a lot of rows. Now, of course, their attitude has changed and I go home a lot – once a week. But they still can’t understand me. My mother says I frighten her. She thinks the way kids live today and the music they play is all very frightening. If I hadn’t made it, I think I’d still probably be getting stoned, going down the clubs, meeting a few nice chicks.”-Steve Marriott

once it becomes legal it loses its edge

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People would wander in at all times and check out what was going down. Later, it moved to Kingly Street where it was successfully raided for drugs. No matter. There were plenty of similar clubs in Soho, dingy basement rooms that had been taken over by musicians and fans and hustlers, dark places where they would all cram in to play and hear the music. Outside, the Soho pavements were lined with people because television had yet to keep them in their homes. But the police were onto them now. They too had smelt the marijuana smoke in the air. They didn't like it. A war had been fought for order and for decency. So they shut the joints down. Not a problem. The promoters paid them lip-service and then opened up a new premises the next night. Girls and drink and drugs were around. It was plenty time. Eddie Harvey says, forget the '60s. The Soho '50s is where he is still at.

The Stones used to turn up now and again because the best bands played there. Duffy Powell and the Fifth Dimension was the best R&B band this country has ever produced and no one remembers them. He used to play there and he was a real great singer. Anyway, one night The Stones show up with a bunch of wankers with funny suits on. We were outside doing a bit of dealing, looking over at them and saying, "Who are those dicks?" George Harrison and John Lennon is who they are. 

Amphetamines,Jean-Paul Sartre and John Lee Hooker

                                                  

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The records were played very loud over those big speakers, like fairground speakers, and in a small room, which is what the Scene club was, with concrete walls, so it comes bouncing back, hitting off the floor- there was no wooden floor, hits off the ceiling, so you're getting saturated with sound, and then they start pulling down all the stops, you're getting a psychedelic record in '64. So you're picking up on the body all the time, this is what mods are about, they're very physical people. Drynamil is a drug for Mods,because it's a functional drug, it's a drug you can work on, you can steal in the shops on it, do all the things you need to do, you can dance on it- you lose all lack of confidence, you lose guilt.-Pete Meaden