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Hippie Hippie Shake - "Oz", Love, Obscenity and Me: The Truth Behind the Rumours Behind the Headlines
When Richard Neville arrived in London in 1966 after a six-month overland trek from Australia, the first thing he did was visit "The famous boutique throbbed with The Animals, cash registers and scantily clad women...the air was tinged with the perfume of Arabia, and some of its hash...I nearly fainted". Five years later he was gaoled for 15 months for publishing an obscene article, "Schoolkids Oz". In the intervening years, as editor of "Oz", the hippies handbook and monument to psychedelia, Neville was the darling of the the liberal intellectuals, writers, fashion designers, rock musicians, artists and business people. Through it all he remained amused and objective, frequently startling even his closest admirers with his unexpected views on everything from free love to the Vietnam War.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
Richard Neville
39 books16 followersIn early 1967, Neville founded the London Oz with the brilliant artist Martin Sharp as graphic designer. Many soon to be significant writers including Robert Hughes, Clive James, Germaine Greer, David Widgery, Alexander Cockburn and Lillian Roxon, amongst others, contributed. Felix Dennis (later to become one of Britain's wealthiest publishers with Dennis Publishing) came on board as advertising manager.
London Oz became increasingly influenced by hippie culture, and oscillated wildly between psychedelia, revolutionary political theory, idealistic dreams of a counter-culture, with much discussion of drug-taking thrown in. Oz campaigned to legalise marijuana through various events such as the Legalise Pot Rally in Hyde Park, London, in 1968. Oz, however, was clearly against hard drugs. There was also much discussion and theoretical rumination regarding feminism and the "sexual revolution" and by contemporary standards it often seems glaringly sexist.
While Neville had a reputation for being wild and stoned, he revealed in his autobiography Hippie Hippie Shake that he was more of a workaholic, obsessed with the magazine deadlines and his editorials, which often tried to make sense of all the competing philosophies that were exploding from the "youthquake". Neville was known as a charismatic and charming figure who had a wide circle of friends among London's intellectual and publishing elite, rock stars, socialist revolutionaries and criminals.
While Neville was holidaying on Ibiza, an edition of the magazine entirely produced by high school students—Schoolkids Oz (May 1970)—was published, edited by Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The issue depicted Rupert Bear sporting a penis (1971) and lead to the conviction of Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The then-longest obscenity trial in British history then ensued.
The Oz defendants had the brilliant and eccentric barrister, author and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer on their team, and Geoffrey Robertson, the now internationally renowned human rights lawyer made his debut in the trial. The trial turned the Old Bailey into a circus, with a bizarre array of celebrities called on to give evidence in its favour. John Lennon wrote and recorded "God Save Oz" and he and Yoko Ono marched the streets surrounding the Old Bailey in support of the magazine and freedom of speech. London Oz ended in November 1973.
In the 1990s, across a variety of media, Richard explored social responsibility for businesses in the 21st Century. This led to keynote addresses at national conferences, and the essay collection Out of My Mind (Penguin). He also published his memoir Hippie Hippie Shake, which has been adapted as a film by Working Title. The film was not released for unknown reasons.
Neville was also the co-founder of the Australian Futures Foundation.
Neville was diagnosed with early-onset dementia in his mid sixties. The Australian Oz magazine has been digitised by the University of Wollongong. He died on 4 September 2016, at the age of 74.
Yale University has acquired Neville's archive, which is now located in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. - wickipedia
London Oz became increasingly influenced by hippie culture, and oscillated wildly between psychedelia, revolutionary political theory, idealistic dreams of a counter-culture, with much discussion of drug-taking thrown in. Oz campaigned to legalise marijuana through various events such as the Legalise Pot Rally in Hyde Park, London, in 1968. Oz, however, was clearly against hard drugs. There was also much discussion and theoretical rumination regarding feminism and the "sexual revolution" and by contemporary standards it often seems glaringly sexist.
While Neville had a reputation for being wild and stoned, he revealed in his autobiography Hippie Hippie Shake that he was more of a workaholic, obsessed with the magazine deadlines and his editorials, which often tried to make sense of all the competing philosophies that were exploding from the "youthquake". Neville was known as a charismatic and charming figure who had a wide circle of friends among London's intellectual and publishing elite, rock stars, socialist revolutionaries and criminals.
While Neville was holidaying on Ibiza, an edition of the magazine entirely produced by high school students—Schoolkids Oz (May 1970)—was published, edited by Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The issue depicted Rupert Bear sporting a penis (1971) and lead to the conviction of Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The then-longest obscenity trial in British history then ensued.
The Oz defendants had the brilliant and eccentric barrister, author and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer on their team, and Geoffrey Robertson, the now internationally renowned human rights lawyer made his debut in the trial. The trial turned the Old Bailey into a circus, with a bizarre array of celebrities called on to give evidence in its favour. John Lennon wrote and recorded "God Save Oz" and he and Yoko Ono marched the streets surrounding the Old Bailey in support of the magazine and freedom of speech. London Oz ended in November 1973.
In the 1990s, across a variety of media, Richard explored social responsibility for businesses in the 21st Century. This led to keynote addresses at national conferences, and the essay collection Out of My Mind (Penguin). He also published his memoir Hippie Hippie Shake, which has been adapted as a film by Working Title. The film was not released for unknown reasons.
Neville was also the co-founder of the Australian Futures Foundation.
Neville was diagnosed with early-onset dementia in his mid sixties. The Australian Oz magazine has been digitised by the University of Wollongong. He died on 4 September 2016, at the age of 74.
Yale University has acquired Neville's archive, which is now located in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. - wickipedia
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 13, 2009
Richard Neville, the editor of a little publication called OZ, was a key figure among the international underground of the late 1960s, those freaks, hippies, and political radicals with whom the era is so identified. I first became familiar with his activities during this time by reading his 1970 book PLAYPOWER, a fascinating journalistic chronicle of three years of social change when it seemed the old order of things would be completely done away with by young people with unquashable joie de vivre and international mobility. HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE, published in 1995, are Neville's memoirs of his life as a member of the Underground, from his student days in Australia until his 1971 prosecution with other OZ editors for obscenity.
As the late 1960s are the most flamboyant years of his chronicle, Neville could have started the book with his arrival in London in 1966 and still made plenty of readers happy. I'm happy, however, that he dedicates the first 64 pages to his subversive activities in Australia, when he produced the first incarnation of OZ with other students starting in 1962. For all their snubbing of the system, these youngsters in what was then an obscure part of the world led a fair tame life, with this early scene lacking the drugs and participation in international political movements that one normally associates with the Underground. Sexual promiscuity is the only extreme in the lives of these people mostly just lampooning old people. But after two prosecutions for obscenity, Neville felt it necessary to join the massive exodus of young Australians to the UK, and in 1966 he set off overland. He briefly tells of his adventures in Laos, Nepal and India.
The central portion of the book is Neville's life as editor of London OZ, when he dabbled in drugs soporific and hallucinogenic, attended cutting edge rock concerts, and hung out with dropouts from Ibiza to Morocco, from Paris to New York. Figures like Germaine Greer (whom Neville had already met in Australia) and John Lennon make multiple appearances. But the supporting cast of the book is mainly played by Neville's friends who had come from Australia, such as his sweetheart Louise and the artist (and Cream songwriter) Martin Sharp. If you've read PLAYPOWER, you'll see how he learnt of so much of what he reported in that book firsthand.
Finally, the last third of the book is dedicated to his third prosecution for obscenity, which threatened a long jail term. While Neville was in Ibiza, back in London his assistants were putting together a schoolchildren's issue of OZ. This was meant to feature the work of schoolchildren, not be published for schoolchildren. Nonetheless, the British criminal justice system under the new Conservative government had become draconian about publishing and drugs, and wanted to shut OZ and similar publications down for good. While the description of Neville's fight for justice can be a little wearying, it is fascinating to read about how corrupt the court system of an ostensibly free nation was. The judge and a detective following a personal vendetta against Neville are the best of friends. The Aussie clown with no clear political goals is depicted by the Crown as a Communist agent.
When I read PLAYPOWER, I was caught up in Neville's vision of a society changed by the flower children and the freaks, and I longed to know what he felt about how it all came crashing down. While HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE doesn't go into his disappointment in depth, he does speak of how he felt the Underground suffered from a move towards violence for political ends (the Weather Underground and the Angry Brigades), and stupid aggressive stunts like Jerry Rubin's crashing of the Frost television programme. Neville doesn't discuss any of his life after he narrowly avoids jail and agrees to stop publishing Oz. He went on to be a reporter for the Australian national broadcasting company and wrote a bestselling biography of the hippie trail serial killer Charles Sobhraj. But there is a moving afterward describing a beach party in Australia in the 1990s where so many features of the old Underground still survive. I hope Neville will write more about the disruptions and continuities between the 1960s and our time.
As the late 1960s are the most flamboyant years of his chronicle, Neville could have started the book with his arrival in London in 1966 and still made plenty of readers happy. I'm happy, however, that he dedicates the first 64 pages to his subversive activities in Australia, when he produced the first incarnation of OZ with other students starting in 1962. For all their snubbing of the system, these youngsters in what was then an obscure part of the world led a fair tame life, with this early scene lacking the drugs and participation in international political movements that one normally associates with the Underground. Sexual promiscuity is the only extreme in the lives of these people mostly just lampooning old people. But after two prosecutions for obscenity, Neville felt it necessary to join the massive exodus of young Australians to the UK, and in 1966 he set off overland. He briefly tells of his adventures in Laos, Nepal and India.
The central portion of the book is Neville's life as editor of London OZ, when he dabbled in drugs soporific and hallucinogenic, attended cutting edge rock concerts, and hung out with dropouts from Ibiza to Morocco, from Paris to New York. Figures like Germaine Greer (whom Neville had already met in Australia) and John Lennon make multiple appearances. But the supporting cast of the book is mainly played by Neville's friends who had come from Australia, such as his sweetheart Louise and the artist (and Cream songwriter) Martin Sharp. If you've read PLAYPOWER, you'll see how he learnt of so much of what he reported in that book firsthand.
Finally, the last third of the book is dedicated to his third prosecution for obscenity, which threatened a long jail term. While Neville was in Ibiza, back in London his assistants were putting together a schoolchildren's issue of OZ. This was meant to feature the work of schoolchildren, not be published for schoolchildren. Nonetheless, the British criminal justice system under the new Conservative government had become draconian about publishing and drugs, and wanted to shut OZ and similar publications down for good. While the description of Neville's fight for justice can be a little wearying, it is fascinating to read about how corrupt the court system of an ostensibly free nation was. The judge and a detective following a personal vendetta against Neville are the best of friends. The Aussie clown with no clear political goals is depicted by the Crown as a Communist agent.
When I read PLAYPOWER, I was caught up in Neville's vision of a society changed by the flower children and the freaks, and I longed to know what he felt about how it all came crashing down. While HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE doesn't go into his disappointment in depth, he does speak of how he felt the Underground suffered from a move towards violence for political ends (the Weather Underground and the Angry Brigades), and stupid aggressive stunts like Jerry Rubin's crashing of the Frost television programme. Neville doesn't discuss any of his life after he narrowly avoids jail and agrees to stop publishing Oz. He went on to be a reporter for the Australian national broadcasting company and wrote a bestselling biography of the hippie trail serial killer Charles Sobhraj. But there is a moving afterward describing a beach party in Australia in the 1990s where so many features of the old Underground still survive. I hope Neville will write more about the disruptions and continuities between the 1960s and our time.
January 9, 2022
Richard Neville edited Oz Magazine in London from 1968 to 1973, writing about left wing politics, feminism, liberation movements, music and drugs. He and his co-authors faced the biggest lawsuit for indecent publication of obscenity ever seen. Reading it seems sexist as hell now, but it was ground-breaking at the time.
June 4, 2010
When I was growing up Richard Neville was shocking the public. Interesting to see this book now.
October 10, 2022
oh non mais celui là aussi il était top, les années 60 le magazine Oz ses graphismes trop cools, le LSD dans le thé et le rock psychédélique non c'est trop bien bravo
March 29, 2012
Loved this book, great pace, read like a who's who of the late sixties. I always have the feeling that New Zealand missed out on this era but maybe that's because I was born in the late 60s and my parents missed the boat too. I remember Germaine Greer being on the tv, burning her bra and the 2nd wave of feminisim that arrived in NZ around the mid to late 70s (or perhaps just my perception that it happened then?), but don't remember anything before that.
Anyway this is a rolicking autobiography, funny, a little egotistical but Neville is fully aware of that himself. Hard to imagine that the people in this book are now grannies and grandads. I always thought we'd missed out on something to have been born too late to experience this time in history until I spoke to someone who was there and remembers the OZ trial and said it was very hard for so many people, for women, for gay people, for young people in general. We have such choice in our life and largely due to the people in this book, everyone should read it and thank them for putting themselves through all that they did so that we had the freedom they were fighting for in our lives.
Anyway this is a rolicking autobiography, funny, a little egotistical but Neville is fully aware of that himself. Hard to imagine that the people in this book are now grannies and grandads. I always thought we'd missed out on something to have been born too late to experience this time in history until I spoke to someone who was there and remembers the OZ trial and said it was very hard for so many people, for women, for gay people, for young people in general. We have such choice in our life and largely due to the people in this book, everyone should read it and thank them for putting themselves through all that they did so that we had the freedom they were fighting for in our lives.
January 4, 2024
I read this about a year after it was first published. I was living in London at the time and saw it in a bookshop I was working in and vaguely knew of Oz Magazine and the Oz Trials and the connection with Geoffrey Robertson. I was surprised when reading it that I had a few things in common with Richard Neville in terms of background and also surprised to read that John & Yoko had once summoned him to their abode for discussions. That was quite impressive to me and I have since seen footage of Lennon at a "God Save Oz" rally. I was also surprised to read in the book that Neville's Aussie pal Martin Sharpe had written the lyrics for Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and that the song is really about Sharpe's yearnings to spend summer back in Sydney rather than suffer through a gloomy, freezing London winter. Richard and his friends and collaborators really led a fascinating existence in the 60s.
What's weird is about a month after I'd finished reading this book I was drinking in a Soho pub and saw Richard sit at a nearby table and of course I immediately went up to him to discuss his book. He was delighted I'd read it and in the book he said that he's sure he'd gotten a few historical facts wrong so I did mention a few trivial errors in the book which made him laugh and nod in agreement. I was only about 20 at the time and all the events had happened before my birth but here's me telling him that no the Stones didn't sing "Let's Spend The Night Together" during their 1965 Sydney concert coz they hadn't written that song yet. I asked him what it was like going to Lennon's house and he said that with so many people in the house vying for Lennon's attention it was difficult having a conversation. I also asked him if he had any other book ideas and he said he'd like to write a book about his schooldays but thought that no one would want to read it. It was great talking to Richard and I was chuffed when he shook my hand and told me "you've made my day". It was sad to hear of his passing, thank you for being so cool Richard.
What's weird is about a month after I'd finished reading this book I was drinking in a Soho pub and saw Richard sit at a nearby table and of course I immediately went up to him to discuss his book. He was delighted I'd read it and in the book he said that he's sure he'd gotten a few historical facts wrong so I did mention a few trivial errors in the book which made him laugh and nod in agreement. I was only about 20 at the time and all the events had happened before my birth but here's me telling him that no the Stones didn't sing "Let's Spend The Night Together" during their 1965 Sydney concert coz they hadn't written that song yet. I asked him what it was like going to Lennon's house and he said that with so many people in the house vying for Lennon's attention it was difficult having a conversation. I also asked him if he had any other book ideas and he said he'd like to write a book about his schooldays but thought that no one would want to read it. It was great talking to Richard and I was chuffed when he shook my hand and told me "you've made my day". It was sad to hear of his passing, thank you for being so cool Richard.
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Visit his website at; https://drwakan07.wixsite.com/drwakan... Also follow his homepage at; https://www.facebook.com/drwakan07/
Dr Wakan can help you regardless to what your problems are:
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* Black magic expert Vodoo, Jadoo and evil protection
* Child and family problems
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November 22, 2023
This book was a pleasant surprise.
I do not have a great interest in the 60s and counter culture from that time, but the book is actually far more about freedom of speech and the laws which the UK and Australian government put in place to limit it.
I enjoyed the later third of the book more than the beginning set in Australia; while it does show the author's origins and his first subversive actions during his school days, the best parts of the book focus on London and the sixties there.
I have to say I also appreciated the writer's honesty and candour when it came to discussing some of the less pleasant members of the underground community; he doesn't just cover for them because they are on "the same team".
Overall a pleasant read and insight into underground publishing, free speech, obscenity and the law.
I do not have a great interest in the 60s and counter culture from that time, but the book is actually far more about freedom of speech and the laws which the UK and Australian government put in place to limit it.
I enjoyed the later third of the book more than the beginning set in Australia; while it does show the author's origins and his first subversive actions during his school days, the best parts of the book focus on London and the sixties there.
I have to say I also appreciated the writer's honesty and candour when it came to discussing some of the less pleasant members of the underground community; he doesn't just cover for them because they are on "the same team".
Overall a pleasant read and insight into underground publishing, free speech, obscenity and the law.
January 2, 2018
Great book covering such a manic time late 60’s early 70’s. You have to concentrate as the narrative doesn’t flow easily with lots of transient characters coming and going. Which in turn keeps it such an interesting read!
Read
December 8, 2023en vrai c’était intéressant mais j’ai pas tout lu…. fin en diagonale quoi…c’était trop long…. bref… franchement quand on voit les procès et condamnations pour ce qu’ils ont fait c’est tellement injuste… la justice est mal faite depuis toujours !!!!
April 21, 2016
This is the 3rd Neville book I've read. Playpower and the Sobrajh book I read long ago. This is a more mature book than I recall the other two being. Neville made a bit of a splash in hippie journalism in London in the 60s and 70s, publishing and editing Oz magazine. He gives us an unvarnished memoir of his boyhood in Australia in the 60s Sydney University with Germaine Greer, Clive James and Jenny Kee and on to Oz Australia and Oz UK. Neville shares his mixture of pride and embarrassment at his actions and achievements of the time. Politicians, revolutionaries, writers, lawyers, policemen and rock stars populate the scene. He lets us into the relationship he had with fellow Australian Louise Ferrier, who he alternately adored, misappreciated and ignored. Their relationship fizzled with the hippy dream, the yippie revolution and swinging London. Neville comes out of it looking like a well intentioned, brave but foolish man of modest talent and some drive.
January 11, 2014
This book is in sheer contrast with those of Barry Miles, who describes the sixties as a somewhat weird but gentle era as British gentlemen normally use to do. Neville writes about police brutality, raw sex, dangerous drugs, mad people. Obviously he was some kind of an arsehole himself, trying to get all the pussy he could get, to stay in line with the sexual revolution. Germaine Greer hates him. Good book.
October 20, 2015
"But the delusions of hope, if they are delusions, among radical intellectuals, are often more rewarding for society, if not for their own lives, than the realistic assessment of the evils of human nature... by those who are wise in their times."
Mostly froth apart from the inside view of the OZ obscenity trial which highlighted the inherent hypocrisy of the British establishment once again...
Good times, I miss them. And for the record the Schoolkids OZ was pretty tame...
Mostly froth apart from the inside view of the OZ obscenity trial which highlighted the inherent hypocrisy of the British establishment once again...
Good times, I miss them. And for the record the Schoolkids OZ was pretty tame...
July 6, 2015
As an American reading this book, I was amazed at what goes on in a British courtroom. The trials of Oscar Wilde must have been somewhat similar (otherwise it would not be remembered over 100 years later). Needless to say, this makes Alice in Wonderland look like a serious documentary. And just when you thought American-style police brutality did not exist in Britain.
September 14, 2013
A wickedly entertaining guide to the sixties - read it to reminisce or find out what you missed! Really interesting to look back now and see how the Establishment of the day dealt with the perceived threat of the hippie generation. Bring back Flower Power say I!
January 26, 2008
why do hippie chicks look such babes when young and so so haggard when old ?
May 5, 2009
This is a great book to read, especially at around half past five in the afternoon.
January 27, 2010
I absolutely adored this peek into sixties sub culture. Neville is a charming guide to the world of Oz
February 9, 2013
Starts slow in Australia but picks up speed in London. The obscenity trial and the description of the British justice system are gonzo. Freedom of speech activists should take notes.
April 11, 2017
Ugh, this should have been fascinating--Neville gets telling a good story about the Stones, or Hendrix or Germaine Greer's outrageous behavior for a few pages and you think, ah this book is finally taking off, and then plop, right back to his narcissistic whining about his girlfriend, his book, his legal problems with OZ magazine. I got to about 1970 and threw the book in the trash.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews