The Summer of Love 1967

Derek Shelmerdine, author of Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
is one of the guests on Tony Higginson’s Book Club

A time of hippies, peace and love, the Summer of Love in 1967 was a great time, when music was developing into rock and psychedelia was born.

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The Summer of Love – Tony Higginson’s Book Club

The Summer of Love in 1967 was a time of hippies, peace and love, when the youth of the day believed they were going to change the world…

Beat music faded away in 1966 and gave way to the harder edged rock music. Some of the beat groups made the transition. Interestingly, it was mostly the bands who wrote their own songs, such as The Beatles, Stones, Who and The Kinks.

By the time of the summer of love in 1967 a host of new bands emerged and were starting to find commercial success. The Haight-Asbury district of San Francisco was the centre of the hippie universe. The Pacific West coast was also home to many of the new American bands. Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish were at the forefront of another new musical development, psychedelic rock.

The UK music scene was also developing its own take on psychedelia. The Pink Floyd, Tomorrow and other bands were introducing lights and film projections to the live music shows. Psychedelia was a multi-media experience.

The end of the Summer of Love was also a landmark time for pop music in the UK. The BBC completely reorganised its channels and on the 30 September 1967 Radio 1 was born. This was entirely thanks to the activities of the offshore Pirate radio ships and forts who were transmitting non-stop pop music across the UK. Radio Caroline and Radio London were at the forefront, with Radio Caroline making the first broadcast on 28 March 1964. It took the BBC and UK Government three years to recognise the need but by the end of the Summer of Love rock and pop music finally came to UK terrestrial radio!

Derek Shelmerdine presents the outline of the story, with Tony and his other guests adding their own Summer of Love stories and observations. There will also be live music, poetry readings and some very lively conversation. Not to forget the recorded music from Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, Procol Harum and others, to punctuate the story.

Tony Higginson’s Beyond Books Book Club

Every week Tony Higginson hosts his Beyond Books Book Club, which goes out live on Zoom and Facebook at 7.30 to 9.30 pm (UK) on Monday Evenings.
If you are watching the show live on Facebook – join in the conversation.

Author of Rock’n’Roll Unravelled, Derek Shelmerdine is a regular guest on the Beyond Books Book Club.

The Book Club has a regular panel of writers, poets, musicians and book-lovers in general. The discussion is wide ranging with readings, poetry recitals and live performances from the musicians.

A signed copy of Derek Shelmerdine‘s book Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
is available from Tony Higginson’s online bookshop.