OZ MAGAZINE

Never seen a copy of it though. I think the TV dramatisation even shied away from showing it.

1/ I'd put 'em up on e-bay and use the money thus raised to buy wiard synthesisers modules

2/ I'm sure there was a charles shaar murray review of roxy music's first album which was, like, THiS BaND SUX0R!!! THeY RePReSeNT THE MaN!!!", and I'd love to be able to quote it at U lot for laughs.

"ZigZag", on the other hand, I've got abt 10 REALLY old (pre punx0r) copies of that (One with k-ROWR pic of marsha hunt on a fold out cover) That really was a great magazine. Utterly excellent.

xoxo

Gd bk by Tony Palmer abt the OZ trial. One of the editors, Felix Dennis, described by Judge as less intelligent than his co-defendants, and therefore deserving of lesser sentence (he was young and impressionable and easily led astray, apparently...) Dennis now v. v. wealthy publisher - of computer mags and lots more - who made his initial fortune in 1970s w/ those giant pop star poster mags you never seem to see any more. He had the last laugh, in other words, whereas wither Richard Neville? (Neville's 'Playpower' bk also tripe, although his suggestion of planting spare marijuana seeds in Kew Gardens is a cool one - wonder if it is still done?)

What I do remember = pic of transgender ladyfella with boobs and penis (face not visible); Rupert the Bear with penis (face visible); crotch shot of girl in panties w. period-related blood-patch (face not visible)

Um: chiz chiz?

and where it is of course a landmark in the OPPOSITE direction, since they were quickly freed and Oz went on publishing and Felix Dennis is now a billionaire

Some pages on Frendz from a great book on the era called Days in the Life can be found at Philm Freax - http://www.ibiblio.org/mal/MO/philm/ - along with some excerpts from Frendz and possibly other related mags - Philm shot photos for just about all of these mags and his rock photo archives are one of the largest of vintage 60's and 70's rock bands found on the Web.

My friend Harvey Matusow is also covered there a bit and in a related site at http://www.ibiblio.org/mal/MO/matusow/. I just found the manfesto on the founding of IT, then described as the Greater London Other. It describes the original intent:

The following statement has been prepared for two reasons:

1 . To inform you of our plans to start a newspaper, THE GREATER LONDON OTHER (GLO), and our reasons for doing it.

2. If you agree with this project, we would like to solicit your moral support for the idea. In which case would you please attach your signature to page 2 of this statement.

Editorial Board:

Jim Haynes Director of Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and London. John Hopkins Photojournalist, Secretary of the London Free School. Harvey Matusow Journalist, Filmmaker. Miles Columnist, Director of Indica Bookstore and Gallery.

STATEMENT Today, in London, there is no publication dealing with the great wealth of creative activity which exists both here and elsewhere.

In other cities, however, there are publications which deal with this prolific grass-roots creative activity. In particular: LA Free Press (Los Angeles), Village Voice, East Village Other, The Realist, West SIDE NEWS (New York City), The Berkeley Barb (Berkeley, California), Provo (Amsterdam), The Fifth Estate (Detroit), The Paper (Lansing, Michigan).

There is little doubt that there is definitely a need for a publication based on London which will cover a representative cross- section of all creative activity going on at the moment.

We are at present planning to bring out the first, pilot issue of the Greater London Other, in an edition of 5000 copies. It will be in tabloid newspaper format, and primarily a carrier o£ information. At the same time, it will give an opportunity for people to advertise to each other what they are doing, what they've got to sell, what they need, etc.

On a person-to-person level such communication already exists, and we feel that, if this could be crystallised in a publication, it would not only serve the function of circulating very necessary information to a large number of people but would also serve the purpose of drawing people together, thereby increasing the possibilities of interaction on a basic creative and social level.

In the broad sense, the tone of the East Village Other is closer what we propose than any other existent publication. GLO will cover the avant-garde in Music, both Pop and other music, the Plastic Arts, Theatre, Literature and Poetry, Happenings, Film; in the interrelated, political world, Community Projects, Peace, Protest, Talks, Lectures, Teach-Ins, Speak-Outs etc; and International News in the above categories.

Some of the regular and irregular features will include:

1 Art, Theatre, Music, Literature, Film, Records.

2 An arts-oriented Classified Section for selling and exchanging of equipment & things relating to the readership, as well as pads, and a whats-happening column in calendar form.

3 Syndicated material: from the East Village Other, John Wilcock's Other Scenes column, and Miles' London column; from the West Side News, Muldoon's World , from the Long Fair Times (London), Bradley Martin's Non-Events Bureau.

4 Comic Strips and collages from various artists.

5 Controversial News Stories which we feel have either been ignored or misrepresented by the Press.

6 Arrivals and Departures / Who's In and Out of town.

7 Letters from the Readers.

8 Girl feature.

9 OTHERSCOPE : psychedelic horoscope.

10 From our spies: probably political: Peter Wollen/Alex Cockburn.

Please sign here and add any comments / suggestions. Thank you. Return to INDICA, Mason's Yard, Duke St, St James, London SW1, by Thursday 14th July 1966.

http://www.wussu.com/zines/ozimages/oz07cox.jpg

Just stumbled upon this from seeing it mentioned in a Hawkwind documentary. This website has scans of front covers (http://www.wussu.com/zines/oz01_04.htm)

Supposedly there were scans of all the issues online but they've since disappeared. Still, it has started me craving to read psychedelic magazines with psychedelic gaudy pop art design. Are scans of Oz anywhere online? Or the IT? Or any other 60s-era psychedelic joke rags?

also

http://www.wussu.com/zines/ozimages/oz31cov.jpg

Scans here, but it is almost unbearably slow to load:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060822120343/www.oztrading.net/Library.htm

Love this stuff. There's a good colour survey "200 Trips from the Counter-Culture: Graphics and Stories from the Underground Press Syndicate" by this guy called Bizot, which I've looked at, but never got around to acquiring.

Yeah for some reason the archive site only works some of the time. One of the issues has an advert for Syd Barrett's "Octopus" single! I didn't even know that was a single!!

http://web.archive.org/web/20051220201241/www.oztrading.net/library/oz/25/23.jpg

Hah this stuff is hilarious. There is an interview with Timothy Leary in issue 3:

Leary In a carefully prepared, loving LSD session, a woman will inevitably have several hundred orgasms.
Playboy Several hundred?
Leary Yes, several hundred.

Page 13 features a guy smoking a hookah framed by a childishly drawn psychedelic border, the headline Frisco Speaks written in a cloud above his head. In dopehead chicken scratch he says "Forever, fellow-blown-minds, you're super cool guru of inner-space reports from nirvana....a warning about that banana scene....it's a hoax, man, i ate 37 last weekend a(sic) just got very sick, man....very sick....very uncool."

This magazine seems very pro-freak and anti-hippie, in a way that early Mothers of Invention records were. Kind of celebrating the freak scene while at the same time treating its trappings with the same kind of satirical contempt delivered to mainstream society. Also in the spirit of Zappa, a 2-page spread of a naked lady sitting on a toilet superimposed over London, for an article about politics. Funny shit.

felix dennis notoriously took the stand in drag during the OZ obscenity trial. couldn't find a pic.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_01/09FelixDennis1ES_468x280.jpg