Swinging Sixties

The Swinging Sixties was a youth movement emphasising the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the British economy after post-Second World War austerity, which lasted through much of the 1950s. During the 1960s, London underwent a "metamorphosis from a gloomy, grimy post-war capital into a bright, shining epicentre of style". British GQ magazine described: "In the early Sixties, the East End was as different from the West End as England was from France." David Bailey who was a major figure of the Swinging era, described his native London East End as: "rows and rows of little 1880 houses. People were so poor you'd see market stalls covered in second-hand false teeth. It was quiet there, too, and cars were still something of a novelty, even in the early Sixties. == Name ==

"The Swinging City" was defined by Time magazine on the cover of its issue of 15 April 1966. In a Piri Halasz article 'Great Britain: You Can Walk Across It on the Grass', the magazine pronounced London the global hub of youthful creativity, hedonism and excitement: "In a decade dominated by youth, London has burst into bloom. It swings; it is the scene", and celebrated in the name of the pirate radio station, Swinging Radio England, that began shortly afterwards. The term "swinging" in the sense of hip or fashionable had been used since the early 1960s, including by Norman Vaughan in his "swinging/dodgy" patter on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. In 1965, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue magazine, said that "London is the most swinging city in the world at the moment." Later that year, the American singer Roger Miller had a hit record with "England Swings", although the lyrics mostly relate to traditional notions of Britain. == Music ==

in 1967 Already heralded by Colin MacInnes' 1959 novel Absolute Beginners which captured London's emerging youth culture, Swinging London was underway by the mid-1960s and included music by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, Small Faces, the Animals, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and other artists from what was known in the US as the "British Invasion". Psychedelic rock from artists such as Pink Floyd, Cream, Procol Harum, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Traffic grew significantly in popularity. Large venues, besides former music halls, included Hyde, Alexandra and Finsbury Parks, Clapham Common and the Empire Pool (which became Wembley Arena). This sort of music was heard in the United Kingdom on TV shows such as the BBC's Top of the Pops (where the Rolling Stones were the first band to perform with "I Wanna Be Your Man"), and ITV's Ready Steady Go! (which would feature Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1" as its theme tune), on commercial radio stations such as Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline and Radio London, and from 1967 on BBC Radio One. The Rolling Stones' 1966 album Aftermath has been cited by music scholars as a reflection of Swinging London. Ian MacDonald said, with the album the Stones were chronicling the phenomenon, while Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon called it "the soundtrack of Swinging London, a gift to hip young people". == Fashion and symbols ==

During the Swinging Sixties, fashion and photography were featured in Queen magazine, which drew attention to fashion designer Mary Quant. Mod-related fashions such as the miniskirt stimulated fashionable London shopping areas such as Carnaby Street and King's Road, Chelsea. Vidal Sassoon created the bob cut hairstyle. The model Jean Shrimpton was another icon and one of the world's first supermodels. She was the world's highest paid and most photographed model during this time. Shrimpton was called "The Face of the '60s", in which she has been considered by many as "the symbol of Swinging London" Like Pattie Boyd, the wife of Beatles guitarist George Harrison, Shrimpton gained international fame for her embodiment of the "British female 'look' – mini-skirt, long, straight hair and wide-eyed loveliness", characteristics that defined Western fashion following the arrival of the Beatles and other British Invasion acts in 1964. Other popular models of the era included Veruschka, Peggy Moffitt and Penelope Tree. The model Twiggy has been called "the face of 1966" and "the Queen of Mod", a label she shared with, among others, Cathy McGowan, the host of the television rock show Ready Steady Go! from 1964 to 1966. The British flag, the Union Jack, became a symbol, assisted by events such as England's home victory in the 1966 World Cup. The Jaguar E-Type sports car was a British icon of the 1960s. Bailey's photographs reflected the rise of working-class artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs that characterised London during this period. Writing in his 1967 book The Young Meteors, journalist Jonathan Aitken described Box of Pin-Ups as "a Debrett of the new aristocracy". == Film ==

became an icon of 1960s popular culture, and featured in the 1969 British caper film The Italian Job. The phenomenon was featured in many films of the time, including Darling (1965) starring Julie Christie, The Pleasure Girls (1965), The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965), Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup (1966), Alfie (1966), Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), Kaleidoscope (1966), The Sandwich Man (1966), The Jokers (1967), Casino Royale (1967) starring Peter Sellers, Smashing Time (1967), To Sir, with Love (1967), Bedazzled (1967) starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, Poor Cow (1967), ''I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967), Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1967), Up the Junction (1968), Joanna (1968), Otley (1968), Interlude (1968), The Strange Affair (1968), Baby Love (1968), The Touchables (1968), Wonderwall (1968), Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1968), All Neat in Black Stockings (1969), The Italian Job (1969), Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969), The Magic Christian (1969), Performance (1970), and Deep End'' (1970). The comedy films Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), written by and starring Mike Myers, resurrected the imagery of the Swinging London scene (but were filmed in Hollywood), as did the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked. Another film about the era, Hippie Hippie Shake, was shelved. == Television ==

• The ITV spy-fi series The Avengers (1961–1969), particularly after it began broadcasting in colour, revelled in its Swinging Sixties setting. • In the episode "Beauty Is an Ugly Word" (1966) of BBC's Adam Adamant Lives!, Adamant (Gerald Harper), an Edwardian adventurer suspended in time since 1902, was told, "This is London, 1966 – the swinging city." • The BBC show Take Three Girls (1969) is noted for Liza Goddard's first starring role, an evocative folk-rock theme song ("Light Flight" by Pentangle), a West Kensington location, and scenes in which the heroines were shown dressing or undressing. • "Jigsaw Man", a 1968 episode of the detective series Man in a Suitcase, opened with the announcement: "This is London ... Swinging London." == Books ==

• How to Stay Married by Jilly Cooper and Coronet Among the Weeds by Charlotte Bingham have been compared due to their portrayals of London in this period. == See also ==