strenuous parties with wild non-stop dancing to twist and stomp music

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

Mick Farren stormed into the marquee and demanded that all food stocks be distributed to the masses. He demanded that Pepsi and Birds Eye donate their entire on-site warehouse to the crowds, in return for a favourable mention in his next speech. As a ‘symbolic act of protest against élitism’, the alliance agreed to carry out a joint assault on the main fence. From the stage, meanwhile, the harried MC kept preaching peace and love and the spirit of Woodstock. The insurrection erupted at 10 a.m., led by two French anarchists with a battering ram. ‘Zeeze kids are being toe-tally controlled by zooperpigs,’ one of them yelled, thumping at the sheets of iron. ‘Ex-source-sted, wretchyard, sleeping in zee pissoirs . . . Zeeeze kids are worse than zeee Jews, at least zeee fuck’n Jews didn’t pay to go to Auschwitz . . .’ Crash! The corrugated iron caved in. Two Angels, a Panther and a Young Liberal squeezed into the arena, where, to their astonishment, the oppressed masses joined the security guys and their Alsatians in chucking them out and repairing the breach.

an eye for the human comedy, and a tongue to transmit its flavour

epub or mobi with thanks to the original sharer

Our other stronghold was the ‘A and A Club’. According to the yellowing rules by the entrance, ‘A and A’ stood for authors and actors, but in fact those who used the premises were mostly taxi-drivers, clip-joint hostesses, waiters, small-time criminals and jazz musicians. The A and A was housed in a tall ramshackle building tucked away in an alley behind the Charing Cross Road. Although there was a door with a spyhole in it, unless the law was putting the pressure on it was usually open and you could walk right in. There were two rooms in use: a restaurant, and above it a billiard hall patronised for the most part by the taxi-drivers.We usually went there when we got back into town after a job, but the atmosphere was so lively that, although we intended leaving in time to catch the next all-night bus, we often sat until the first tube in Leicester Square.There was a jukebox which held an uncharacteristic selection of good jazz and Greek music...