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BIT (infoshop)
BIT was an information service, publisher, travel guide and social centre founded in 1968 by John "Hoppy" Hopkins. It pre-dated the Internet as a free service that would try to find any information asked for, but post-dated library reference desks, and derived its name from the smallest unit of computer information. BIT BIT was initially a partial spin-off from Hoppy's earlier ''International Times'' information service, which was being overwhelmed by the number of enquiries it was receiving, then subsequently took on a life of its own, becoming a much wider organisation more akin to the later social centres. Emerging from the UK underground as a volunteer-run business, it evolved into a collective and open house based in Notting Hill above the Badge Boutique. Although often undefinable, one staff member tried with "We're open every day of the year from 10am to 10pm (telephone 24 hours) and we give free help and information about anything to anyone who wants it. Dirty, untidy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hopkins (political Activist)
John Victor Lindsay "Hoppy" Hopkins (15 August 1937 – 30 January 2015) was a British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist, and "one of the best-known underground figures of 'Swinging London' " in the late 1960s. He also co-founded the highly influential nightclub venue UFO Club, UFO. Life Hopkins was born on 15 August 1937 in Slough, Berkshire, England. After attending Felsted School in Essex, Hopkins went on to graduate in 1958 with a degree in physics and mathematics from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which he had entered on a scholarship in 1955, and he began to work as a laboratory technician at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire. When he took a trip to Moscow to attend a Communist youth festival, his security clearance was revoked. Hopkins then re-located to London at the beginning of 1960, and began to work as a photographer for newspapers and music magazines including ''Jazz News'', ''The Guardian'', ''Melody Maker'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windsor Free Festival
The Windsor Free Festival was a British free festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. Organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, it was in many ways the forerunner of the Stonehenge Free Festival, particularly in the brutality of its final suppression by the police, which led to a public outcry about the tactics involved. History The first Festival in 1972 was promoted as "Rent Strike: The People's Free Festival", reflecting the political concerns of the organisers (coming as they did from squatting and commune movements), with an anti-monarchist choice of site in "the Queen's back garden". Attendance was about 700 in its first year, rising to 8,000 in 1973, and an even larger crowd in its final year. The 1974 Festival, due to last for ten days, was broken up on the sixth morning by a large number of police. Early on Wednesday 28 August 1974 the site was invaded by hundreds of officers from the Thames Valley police force with tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DIY Culture
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, wikt:modification, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use Raw material, raw and semi-raw materials and parts to produce, transform, or reconstruct material possessions, including those drawn from the natural environment (e.g., landscaping)". DIY behavior can be triggered by various motivations previously categorized as market economy, marketplace motivations (economic benefits, lack of product availability, lack of product quality, need for customization), and identity (social science), identity enhancement (Workmanship, craftsmanship, empowerment, community seeking, uniqueness). The term "do-it-yourself" has been associated with consumers since at least 1912 primarily in the domain of home improvement and maintenance activities. The phrase "do it yourself" had come into common usage (in stan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Centres In The United Kingdom
Self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom can be found in squatted, rented, mortgaged and fully owned buildings. These Autonomous social center, self-managed social centres differ from community centres in that they are self-organised under anti-authoritarian principles and volunteer-run, without any assistance from the state. The largest number have occurred in London from the 1980s onwards, although projects exist in most cities across the UK, linked in a network. Squatted social centres tend to be quickly evicted and therefore some projects deliberately choose a short-term existence, such as A-Spire in Leeds or the Okasional Café in Manchester. Longer term social centres include the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, the Cowley Club in Brighton and the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, which are co-operatively owned. The projects draw influences from Self-managed social centers in Italy, self-managed centres in Italy, working men's clubs, and anarchist clubs such as the Rose Street C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Centres
Information is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the interpretation (perhaps formally) of that which may be sensed, or their abstractions. Any natural process that is not completely random and any observable pattern in any medium can be said to convey some amount of information. Whereas digital signals and other data use discrete signs to convey information, other phenomena and artifacts such as analogue signals, poems, pictures, music or other sounds, and currents convey information in a more continuous form. Information is not knowledge itself, but the meaning that may be derived from a representation through interpretation. The concept of ''information'' is relevant or connected to various concepts, including constraint, communication, control, data, form, education, knowledge, meaning, understanding, mental stimuli, pattern, perception, proposition, representation, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Houghton Mifflin. . (1993) p. 419. "Members of a cultural protest that began in the U.S. In the 1960s and Europe before fading in the 1970s... fundamentally a cultural rather than a political protest." A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes. Countercultures differ from subcultures. Prominent examples of countercultures in the Western world include the Levellers (1645–1650), Bohemianism (1850–1910), the more fragmentary counterculture of the Beat Generation (1944–1964), and the globalized counterculture of the 1960s which in the United States consisted prim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Underground
The British counter-culture or underground scene developed during the mid-1960s, and was linked to the hippie subculture of the United States. Its primary focus was around Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill in London. It generated its own magazines and newspapers, bands, clubs and alternative lifestyle, associated with cannabis (drug), cannabis and LSD use and a strong socio-political revolutionary agenda to create an alternative society. Beat generation influence Many in the blossoming underground movement were influenced by 1950s Beat generation writers such as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, who paved the way for the hippies and the counterculture of the 1960s. During the 1960s, the Beat writers engaged in symbiotic evolution with freethinking academics including experimental psychologist Timothy Leary. An example of the cross-over of beat poetry and music can be seen when Burroughs appeared at the Phun City festival, organised in 24–26 July 1970 by Mick Farren with un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Subcultures
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid discipline. Similar debates surround the purpose of history—for example, whether its main aim is theoretical, to uncover the truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a more general sense, the term ''history'' refers not to an academic field but to the past itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past. Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism is used to evaluate these sources, assessing their authenticity, content, and reliability. Historians strive to integrate the perspectives of several sources to develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture Of The United Kingdom
The culture of the United Kingdom is influenced by its History of the United Kingdom, combined nations' history, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the individual diverse cultures of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the impact of the British Empire. The culture of the United Kingdom may also colloquially be referred to as British culture. Although British culture is a distinct entity, the individual Culture of England, cultures of England, Culture of Scotland, Scotland, Culture of Wales, Wales and Culture of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland are diverse. There have been varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness between these four cultures.British literature is particularly esteemed. The Novel, modern novel was developed in Britain, and playwrights, poets, and authors are among its most prominent cultural figures. Britain has also made notable contributions to Theatre of the United Kingdom, theatre, Music of the United Kingdom, music, British cine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underground Culture
Underground culture, or simply underground, is a term to describe various alternative cultures which either consider themselves different from the mainstream of society and culture, or are considered so by others. The word "underground" is used because there is a history of resistance movements under harsh regimes where the term ''underground'' was employed to refer to the necessary secrecy of the resisters. For example, the Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes by which African slaves in the 19th-century United States attempted to escape to freedom. The phrase "underground railroad" was resurrected and applied in the 1960s to the extensive network of draft counseling groups and houses used to help Vietnam War-era draft dodgers escape to Canada, and was also applied in the 1970s to the clandestine movement of people and goods by the American Indian Movement in and out of occupied Native American reservation lands. (See also: Wounded Knee Occupation). Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glastonbury Festival Line-ups
Glastonbury Festival is a greenfield land, greenfield music and performing arts festival on farm land near Pilton, Somerset, Pilton, England. It was first held in 1970 and has been held in the majority of years since then in the summer. Its line-up is diverse, including music, comedy, circus and theatre, taking place on many different stages and performance areas. 1970 Line-up included: *T. Rex (band), Tyrannosaurus Rex *Amazing Blondel *Ian A. Anderson *Keith Christmas *Quintessence (English band), Quintessence *Duster Bennett *Sam Apple Pie *Wayne Fontana *Stackridge *Steamhammer (band), Steamhammer *Al Stewart *Planxty *Marsupilami (band), Marsupilami *Roy Harper (singer), Roy Harper 1971 Line-up included: *Joan Baez *David Bowie *Edgar Broughton Band *Arthur Brown (musician), Arthur Brown *Fairport Convention *Family (band), Family *Gilberto Gil *Gong (band), Gong *Hawkwind *Help Yourself (band), Help Yourself *Henry Cow *Magic Michael *Marsupilami (band), Marsupil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Panthers
The White Panthers were an anti-racist political collective founded in November 1968 by Pun Plamondon, Leni Sinclair, and John Sinclair. It was started in response to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was asked what white people could do to support the Black Panthers. Newton replied that they could form a White Panther Party. The counterculture era group took the name and dedicated its energies to "cultural revolution.” John Sinclair made every effort to ensure that the White Panthers were not mistaken for a white supremacist group, responding to such claims with "quite the contrary." The party worked with many ethnic minority rights groups in the Rainbow Coalition. Michigan years The group was most active in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and included the proto-punk band MC5, which John Sinclair managed for several years before he was incarcerated. From a general ideological perspective, Plamondon and Sinclair defined the White P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
