the 1960s

In the dark early 1960s, at least we had the Beatles

9 December 2023 9:00 am

The first half of the decade saw towns bulldozed, the Beeching cuts, everyday racism, political scandal and the threat of Armageddon. But there was also Beatlemania…

The short-lived wonder of Creedence Clearwater Revival

27 August 2022 9:00 am

Million-selling rock bands are rarely happy families. They are an uneasy combination of a creative alliance and a business partnership,…

A shaggy drug story: Industry of Magic & Light, by David Keenan, reviewed

20 August 2022 9:00 am

The Scottish writer David Keenan has published five novels in five years: This is Memorial Device (2017), For the Good…

Why the mid-1960s was the golden age of pop music

4 December 2021 9:00 am

On a Monday evening in May 1966, Paul McCartney and John Lennon visited a nightclub called Dolly’s in Jermyn Street.…

James Bond and the Beatles herald a new Britain

11 September 2021 9:00 am

The word ‘magisterial’ consistently attaches itself to the work of David Kynaston. His eye-wateringly exhaustive four-volume history of the Old…

‘There were no rules then’: Dana Gillespie’s 1960s childhood

16 January 2021 9:00 am

Although I can understand why Dana Gillespie might choose to call her memoir after her most famous album, for the…

No one ‘got’ the Sixties better than David Bailey

5 December 2020 9:00 am

What caught my eye towards the end of Look Again was this conversation between David Bailey and the shoe designer…

The Sixties vibe: Utopia Avenue, by David Mitchell, reviewed

11 July 2020 9:00 am

There aren’t many authors as generous to their readers as David Mitchell. Ever since Ghostwritten in 1999, he’s specialised in…

The dark side of creativity

29 July 2017 9:00 am

In Eureka, Anthony Quinn gives us all the enjoyable froth we could hope for in a novel about making a…

Dusty Springfield at the Royal Variety Performance in 1965 (Getty).

Everything you always wanted to know about Sixties pop —and more

28 November 2015 9:00 am

It might seem an odd choice, but after reading Jon Savage’s new book, I think if I had a time…

The Kinks in their Sixties heyday— Ray Davies is far right, next to his brother Dave

Ray Davies: part of Swinging Sixties London — and apart from it too

21 March 2015 9:00 am

As Johnny Rogan notes in this new biography of Ray Davies and the Kinks, it is almost 50 years since…

Colm Toibin’s restraint – like his characters' – is quietly overwhelming

4 October 2014 9:00 am

In Colm Tóibín’s much-loved 2009 novel Brooklyn, Eilis Lacy, somewhat to her own surprise, leaves 1950s Enniscorthy (Tóibín’s own home…