Item #41390 White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera. Pete BROWN.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.
White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.

199.

White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns + ephemera.

London: JR Books, 2010. First edition. 296pp. + 16pp. photo-insert.

Together with a small group of flyers and leaflets from Pete Brown’s hoard of papers (listed below).

An entertaining autobiography in which Brown recounts how, inspired by Dylan Thomas, Gerard Manley Hopkins and, later, Allen Ginsberg and the Beat Generation, he began writing poetry in 1955, then set out hitch-hiking around the country, first encountering Michael Horovitz at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival in 1960 and forming a touring jazz poetry group with him, before their breakthrough appearances at the Royal Albert Hall reading in June 1965.

Afterwards, along with Johnny Byrne, Spike Hawkins and others, he organised the Goings-On Club in Soho (it “attracted one of the strangest audiences I’ve ever seen in London, a mixture of West End villains, students and fans”), while at the same time helping out with the carpentry at Indica (“I sawed shelves with Paul McCartney”), before finding work as a lyricist for Cream and, with Graham Bond’s encouragement, creating his own series of bands, beginning with the Battered Ornaments in 1968.

Fine in dw.

Together with: a group of flyers and leaflets from the author’s hoard of papers:

i) a mimeographed flyer titled “The Beat Generation” (c. 1960/61), concluding with a list of the “Main Books to Date” (a handwritten note by Brown on the back reads: “Mum: Leave Whatever You Can - I May Be Seeing This Girl. Thank you Peter”; his largely unsuccessful pursuit of girls during his youth is not infrequently mentioned in the book);

ii) Poems for CND. A pamphlet issued by New Departures in 1962, printing poems by Michael Horovitz, Bernard Kops, Adrian Mitchell and Pete Brown;

iii) a Marquee Club Newsletter from June 1963 announcing the month’s programme (incl. Live New Departures with Pete Brown, who had a residency there; the Joe Harriott Quintet; Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers; Cyril Davies’ All-Stars; Long John Baldry);

iv) a flyer for The Hole in the Ground International Folk Song Club in Swiss Cottage, listing gigs by Bert Jansch and Davy Graham, among others;

v) a mimeographed New Departures flyer, written by Michael Horovitz and issued shortly after the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in June 1965;

vi) a leaflet announcing “Poetry 66: An exhibition of Concrete/Spatial Poetry” and “A Concert of Poetry and Jazz” at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, with “poets expected to attend” John Sharkey, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Pete Brown, Spike Hawkins, Michael Horovitz, Gael Turnbull, Nathaniel Tarn, Tom Pickard, Edwin Morgan, Basil Bunting, Bob Cobbing, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri, among others;

vii) a flyer announcing the programme for “The Dance of Words” at the Guildhall, Portsmouth, May 27, 1968; acts included Pete Brown with his First Real Poetry Band, Alexis Korner, Brian Patten, King Ida’s Watch Chain, Gary Farr, Tyrannosaurus Rex, John Peel, Spike Hawkins, and Fairport Convention (includes a handwritten note on the back to Pete Brown from co-organiser Jeremy Ensor, who later joined Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, one of the evening’s other performers);

viii) a flyer printing the timetable for a concert in Trafalgar Square, October 5, 1968, a line-up that included Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments and the Social Deviants;

ix) a programme for the Live New Departures show held at All Saints Hall in Powis Gardens, Notting Hill, December 15, 1968 (front cover photograph shows Dick Heckstall-Smith, Pete Brown, Michael Horovitz and others outside the Café des Artistes, Radcliffe Gardens in 1961);

x) a double-sided foolscap-size sheet printing the programme for the Essex Arts Festival at the University, May 2-4, 1969, listing appearances by Shirley and Dolly Collins, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, Tubby Hayes, Ron Geesin, Fairport Convention, Lindsay Kemp, Jeff Nuttall, Spike Hawkins, and others, and a talk and demonstration by the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop (a handwritten note at the top reads: “To Pete, do come if you can, with or without battered ornaments”).

Most of the items show wear and tear.

Price: £175.00   Convert Currency

Add to Cart