Beyond the official story, the myth, of the Second World War — its maps and medals, courage and sacrifice — there is another hidden narrative. Written in rare memoirs, or in letters and diaries never meant to be read by us, it tells of a kind of underground culture that was secret, transgressive, forbidden

With millions of young men and women on military service, the transitory nature of life under threat of sudden and violent death created a charged atmosphere in which conventional boundaries loosened. In London the darkness of the blackout became both cover and catalyst.

Writer and cultural critic Luke Turner, is the author of the beautiful book  Men at War, Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945, a book that excavates the sexual undercurrents of wartime Britain, how the social upheaval of wartime had a profound effect on the sex lives of British men in particular— in the city, in barracks, in prison of war camps. 

This is a story that feels less like military history and more like testimonies from an underground scene — improvised, poignant usually invisible - and later to be deliberately repressed..

IMAGE: Cecil Beaton /Imperial War Museum

#sex #war #military #queerhistory #londonhistory #blitz #transgressive #

If you had been at the Glastonbury Festival in 1987,  you may have seen a familiar silhouette emerging in the dawn light  - upright monoliths arranged in a circle. Was it Stonehenge - magically transferred here across the Salisbury plain?

No, it was ‘Carhenge'- a circle of upright cars, their chassis standing like monoliths, the archaeology of the automobile age

And imagine ‘Tankhenge', a gateway made from abandoned Soviet tanks assembled in Berlin just after the fall of the Berlin Wall — the wreckage of the Cold War turned into a piece of anarchic sculpture

Or imagine a huge mechanical creature crawling across the desert at the Burning Man festival in Nevada

These strange and spectacular visions all come from the same source: The Mutoid Waste Company— a collective that, since the early 1980s, has been transforming the debris of industrial civilisation into giant sculptures, mutant vehicles and temporary worlds built from waste.

This is the first part of our conversation with Joe Rush, the artist at the centre of it all. It takes us into the world of late 1970s West London, the punk years, the alternative communities and squats of the People's Republic of Frestonia, and the signpist along the way to becoming a Mutoid...

And if you're listening in March 2026 it coincides with the opening of his latest exhibition -Unnatural - at The Bomb Factory

Photograph: Courtesy of Guy Mayhew

#BureauOfLostCulture

#JoeRush

#MutoidWaste

#ScrapArt

#IndustrialArt

#BurningManArt

#Counterculture

#RecycledArt

#PostIndustrial

#UndergroundCulture

In the heart of London’s Bloomsbury, behind a scruffy turquoise door, the world lies folded into drawers.

This is the second part of a conversation with Alaura O’Dell / Mistress Mix, formerly known as Paula P-Orridge.

In the first part, we traced Alaura’s journey from meeting the musician and cultural provocateur Genesis P-Orridge, as a 15-year-old schoolgirl in East London, to becoming a central actor in the underground art band Psychic TV and the occult network Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY). 

While public accounts often focus on TOPY’s founder, Genesis P-Orridge, we heard about Alaura's role in the organisation — not just as a participant, but as an organiser and practitioner, the one “who handled the workings”: the practical magick behind the grand metaphysical ideas.  

In this episode, we rejoin Alaura and Genesis as they are in Kathmandu with their kids. Caress and Genesse. Back in Britain, the police have raided their home, prompted by unfounded accusations of moral deviance and child abuse in the media, during the infamous 'satanic panic'of the 1980s. 

We hear how they embarked on a life in exile in California, finding unexpected refuge with the family of Winona Ryder and entering a new West Coast countercultural milieu that included encounters with Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna. before hearing about Alaura's life after Psychic TV, TOPY and Genesis.

Psychic TV, was a multimedia art and music project that blurred boundaries between performance, ritual, and experimentation in sound and imagery, imbued with a sense of magick (in both the occult and transformative senses)

Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY),was  a loosely structured global network of artists, occultists, and seekers that emerged in the 1980s. 

Over the last century, the word Shaman has been embraced by artists, hippies, psychonauts and spiritual rebels.

In the 1960s and 70s, shamanism had become a kind of countercultural shorthand for altered states, secret, magical knowledge, and ways of seeing outside rationalism, capitalism, and institutional power.

Shamans appeared in underground books, on psychedelic record sleeves, in communes and consciousness-raising circles. Writers like Carlos Castaneda blurred the line between ethnography and spiritual fiction. Psychedelics were framed as modern shamanic initiation rites. 

But as shamanism was absorbed into Western counterculture, the messy realities of the original shamanic cultures - land, lineage, service to the community, and sometimes danger - were replaced with personal visions, journeys and individual transformation.

Our guest today is social anthropologist Max Carocci whose work looks at how this happened. His latest book, Shamans: The Visual Culture, is an incredible portrait of the original shamanic worlds with an eclectic array of the sacred objects, tools, clothing and images shamans have made, along with the way they been photographed, filmed, and mythologised. 

Max is especially interested in how these images have turned the shaman into a symbolic figure — part spiritual rebel, part cypher for Western longing — while the original shamans continue to live under pressure from colonialism, repression and environmental loss.

#counterculture, #shamanism, #shaman, #tuvan, #galba, #newage, #spiritualisn, #magic, #ancestor

In this second part of the interview, we about the events that led to Crass and hear more about Dial House, an old rambling farmhouse in rural Essex, a long-running experiment in collective life — part commune, part refuge, part creative hub. It was here, where he still lives, that Penny's music, philosophy, artwork, debate, and daily survival are entangled.

And we hear about the founding of the Stonehenge Free Festival and the death of Wally Hope, cultural terrorism, Penny's work since Crass, and his thoughts on art, spirituality and the self.

#counterculture #crass #pennyrimbaud #anarchism #capitalism #dialhouse #artschool #wallyhope #stonehengefreefestival

For most of human history, the sea has been both a road and a riddle. It promises fortune and freedom — but it also swallows ships whole. And in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as Britain’s empire spread across the globe, the sea became seen, not just as a physical frontier, but as a psychic one  — a vast, perilous deep where faith, science, fear, and fantasy collided.

This is the story the British cultural historian Karl Bell tells in The Perilous Deep: A Supernatural History of the Atlantic, his epic study of sailors’ lore, ghost ships, sea monsters, superstitions, omens and uncanny maritime experiences.

We hear about 'the caul' - the protective embryo of an unborn baby said to keep sailors safe, the 'jonah', a scapegoat eyed suspiciously by those on board as responsible for the ship's misfortunes, H P Lovecraft, cross-dressing pirates and  more.

This is not a history of battles or trade routes, but of dreams, fantasies and terrors — of the sea as it existed in the minds of those who sailed upon it

The Perlious Deep: A Supernatural History of the Atlantic

In early 1990s South London — a time when rave culture was mutating and London’s squats were pulsing with creativity, Aphex Twin, Global Communication, Nightmares on Wax, Autechre,Andrea Parker, Scanner — could be found DJ-ing and performing in spaces where a strange new sound-world was blooming.

This is the story of Telepathic Fish, the ambient afterparty scene created by the Openmind Collective. Telepathic Fish parties and club rooms were DIY countercultural happenings with turntables, psychedelic installations, living-room lamps, photocopied zines and a lot of imagination, becoming a meeting place for bohos, ravers, multimedia explorers and a new wave of electronic musicians. 

Now, as a new vinyl compilation and a beautifully illustrated 20-page booklet, The Telepathic Fish has resurfaced to rave reviews, Kevin Foakes — DJ, designer, archivist and cultural custodian — returns to the Bureau to talk squat party ‘finstallations’, Aphex Twin, Mira Calix, illegal Roundhouse raves, ambient zines and what DIY culture can do when technology, community and youthful imagination collide.

The Telepathic Fish Compilation

For Kevin  / DJ Food

#ambientmusic #aphextwin #autechre #miracalix #orbital #theorb #counterculture #diyparties #diyculture #telepathicfish #djfood 

There are figures in counterculture whose names appear only in the margins of the story — whose influence is eclipsed, overshadowed, even dismissed, by more mythologised personalities.

Alaura O’Dell — known to many under her earlier name, Paula P-Orridge - is a musician, artist, occult practitioner, and was a co-conspirator in the band Psychic TV

For a long time, Alaura was described almost exclusively in relation to her then-husband, the arch provocateur and musician Genesis P-Orridge but she joined us to talk about life before Genesis,  the formative years of Psychic TV: the chaos, the energy, the experiments with magick and media, the turbulent times of TOPY - Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth - the global network of seekers and outsiders, where she was not merely a participant but an organiser — the one who handled the workings,  the practical magic behind the grand metaphysical gestures. 

Alaura’s life didn’t end when she parted ways with the band, with Genesis, or with the Temple. In fact, in many ways, it began anew. We will be hearing more about that in the second part of our interview in a future episode.

For more on Alaura and connect with her here (as Mistress Mix) 

#psychictv #TheeTempleOvPsychickYouth #paulp-orridge #genesisp-orridge #throbbinggristle #satanist #satanicpanic  #counterculture #coseyfannitutti #occult 

Tom Bolton went on an epic journey around the UK to explore the extraordinary, imposing locations in that landscape, from the 16 vast concrete cathedral-like power stations on remote coasts to the hidden nuclear missile silos that cast a long, physical, cultural and environmental shadow over Albion - past, present, and into the distant future.

His extraordinary new book, Atomic Albion: Journeys Around Britain's Nuclear Power Stations, not only maps the physical geography of Britain’s atomic ambitions, but also digs into their psychic, mythic and cultural impact. 

With great power comes great responsibility, as Spider-Man's Uncle Pete said. And of course, where there is state power, there has always been countercultural dissent, quite rightly in this case, because the power we unleashed by splitting the atom could bring us to the very brink of oblivion..

#atomic #atomicage #nuclear #nuclearpower #nuclearweapons #atombomb #powerstaions #albion #atomicalbion #counterculture 

When the filmmaker David Lynch died earlier this year, fans created shrines filled with coffee, doughnuts, cigarettes and blue roses; a level of spontaneous mourning more common for dead rock stars or royalty than filmmakers. His auctioned belongings sold for staggering sums, almost as if they were relics, showing how many people felt deeply connected to his work.

Why?

David was that unusual figure - an artist who had mainstream success but seemed to remain defiantly and deeply countercultural.

How?

And, this was a man who had an adjective  - ‘Lynchian’ - named after him

But what does that mean?

The writer and cultural historian  John Higgs, returns to the Bureau. His new book ‘Lynchian: The Spell of David Lynch’  tries to answer those questions while taking a deep dive into the hidden depths of Lynch's films - where beauty and horror, dream and reality, suburban innocence and lurking evil co-exist; where simple pleasures—coffee, pie, music—take on a sacred resonance in contrast to violence and decay. Where we can take a journey into darkness and out again - changed.

And we dig into art, consciousness, dreaming, ideas and the writer's life in these changing times.

#DavidLynch

#Lynchian

#TwinPeaks

#CinemaOfDreams

#SurrealCinema

#BlueVelvet

#FilmNoir

#Mulhollanddrive

#CultFilm

#DreamLogic

#transcendentalmeditation

Penny Rimbaud , who has spent more than half a century living the ideals that most of us only talk about, has been described as an activist philosopher, an anarchist, a Zen Buddhist. Though he would likely not recognise those descriptions, he is certainly a poet, a musician, an artist.

Born Jeremy John Ratter in 1943, in the late 1960s, together with artist Gee Vaucher, he founded Dial House, an open community and creative refuge in rural Essex. It became both a home and a hub — a living experiment in anarchism, art, and radical living, from which emerged Crass, a band that tore apart punk’s nihilism and replaced it with a fierce moral energy: anti-war, anti-sexism, anti-consumerism — but pro-peace, pro-freedom, and defiantly DIY.

Their black-and-white graphics, polemical lyrics, and uncompromising stance made them one of the most influential and challenging acts of their time.

When Crass disbanded in 1984, Penny kept on creating, often with Gee. He became a prolific poet, writer, and spoken-word performer, continuing to explore themes of love, pacifism, and spiritual autonomy.

Now in his eighties, he still lives and works at Dial House — still questioning authority, still seeking truth through art and language.

We range back and forth across Penny's personal history and his thoughts on culture, capitalism, art and the very notion of the self.  

In his own words: 

“There is no authority but yourself.”  

----

During this conversation, we hear:

'Dulce et Decorum Est’ - from What Passing Bells (The War Poems of Wilfred Owen)

‘How?’ - from How?

‘Of Summer's Passing' - with Peter Vukomirovic - from Of Summer's Passing

'Oh America'  - with Youth - from Oh America

#counterculture #crass #pennyrimbaud #anarchism #capitalism #dialhouse #artschool #

We walk the streets every day — and through parks, across squares and pavements and along beaches, and mountains, over 'The Commons' — without much thought for who really owns them.

These apparently public spaces have often been battlegrounds over public rights. From the rural enclosures that fenced off England’s open fields, through the city squares where protesters have clashed with police, to the gated plazas and shopping malls of today — the story of The Commons is the story of who belongs, who is excluded, who can gather, and who makes the rules.

In this episode, we’re diving into that story with historian Katrina Navickas, whose book Contested Commons: A History of Protest and Public Space in England traces how people have fought, for centuries, to claim, reclaim and defend shared space.

We hear about The Chartists, about The Greenham Common protests, Occupy, Reclaim the Streets, trespassing and hear some surprising answers to the question 'Who Owns The Ground Beneath Our Feet?'

We finish with a recording of 'The World Turned Upside Down' by the wonderful Leon Rosselson

#trespassing #thecommons #commonland #theclearances #protest #thechartists #occupy #reclaimthestreets #counterculture

Iceland is one of the last remaining Western countries where a substantial proportion of the population believes in the presence of other beings - The Hidden Folk.

For centuries, and until fairly recently, ghosts, revenants, trolls and elves were regarded as an integral part of everyday life. Their stories were shared during the long nights of winter gatherings, and they felt just as real to Icelanders as the people sitting beside them. 

Ethnologist Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir came to the Bureau to talk about the role of these mythical and supernatural beings in Icelandic society and landscape. Her book 'Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People: Icelandic Folktales’ opens the door to the astonishing and eerie world of folk legends in the various settings of farm, wilderness, darkness, church, ocean and shore.

We hear about her own family's ghost, how to recognise a magical being, how to scare off a troll and how construction projects in Iceland can still be delayed or rerouted in order to take account of the Hidden Folk.

#folklore, #iceland, #icelandicfolklore, #trolls, #elves, #ghosts, #supernatural, #supernaturalbeings, #sorcery #ghoststories, #counterculture

They called them the voices of the dead. Whispers in the static. Words in the hiss. Messages that—so believers said—slipped through the veil between worlds and onto magnetic tape

The story of Electronic Voice Phenomenon, or EVP begins in the late 1950s, when Swedish artist Friedrich Jürgenson was out in the countryside recording birdsong. On playback, he heard not only the birds but what he swore were voices—some speaking to him directly, including that of his deceased mother.

Latvian-born psychologist Konstantin Raudive took up the work, making thousands of recordings and publishing his 1971 book Breakthrough, which brought EVP to wider public attention and cemented its place in paranormal lore.

We explore the history and the practice of EVP—its roots in spiritualism and its connection to the technology of sound recording with Rikard Friberg von Sydow whose research examines how we preserve and interpret recorded sound, and Carl Michael von Hausswolff — Swedish sound artist, composer, and curator who has incorporated EVP into his artistic practice for decades.

William Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge, Lars Von Trier, Nigel Kneale and David Lynch also get a look in..

Thanks to  Carl Michael von Hausswolff — for the archive audio and his recording.

#Friedrich Jürgenson #Konstantin Raudive #paranomal #numberstations #EVP #electronicvoicephenomenon #William Burroughs #Genesis P-Orridge, #LarsVonTrier #NigelKneale #DavidLynch #twinpeaks 

Amongst its pages, there are many familiar names—Oscar Wilde, Quentisn Crisp, Sappho, James Baldwin, Freddie Mercury — but also many we might not expect: Florence Nightingale, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, J. Edgar Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tchaikovsky, Greta Garbo, Richard the Lionheart, even Abraham Lincoln,  along with 1000 other stories of artists, generals, politicians, kings, despots and many more figures drawn from 5000 years of hidden culture.

Keith Stern came to the Bureau to talk about his extraordinary encyclopaedia ‘Queers in History’, what drove him to write it, and why it matters.

The book is more than a who’s-who of queer life —it’s a challenge to the official version of the past, a reminder of how history gets made, unmade, and remade,  depending on who’s telling the stories, inviting us to consider how queerness has always existed, and has contributed to the culture.

And we get into the subject of whether Gandalf was Queer - yes, we really do…

What does it mean to be naked, in body or in spirit? Why has human nudity so often been revered, feared, sexualized, or weaponised? 

This episode was recorded on July 17 - International Naked Day. Our guest Philip Carr-Gomm is a writer, psychologist, spiritual teacher, and for 30 years, leader of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids—one of the largest Druid organisations in the world.  

His book A Brief History of Nakedness (Reaktion, is a rich, wide-ranging exploration of the role nudity has played in religion, protest, art, and performance, from the ancient world to the modern era. He takes us through everything from Christian flagellants and naked monks to contemporary naturists and political activists who’ve used nudity to make bold statements.

We get into all that, into druidry, the difference between being naked and nude, Lady Godiva, naked Counterculture, Adam and Eve, John and Yoko, Breasts not Bombs, The Naked Rambler - and streaking.

And Philip tells why we should all get our kit off and shares some tips on how to get more naked…

Allen Ginsberg by Richard Avedon

#counterculture #johnandyoko  #naked #nakedness #nude #nudity #naturist #druid #druidry #streaking #ladygodiva #breastsnotbombs #OBOD #nakedrambler

Founded in 2005 and piloted for over twenty years by Justin Gage, it has served as a curator, a passionate advocate, and a community for those seeking sounds beyond the mainstream.

The Aquarium Drunkard podcast - Transmissions - hosted by Jason Woodbury, has become a massive resource for deep dives into music and culture via conversations and with an amazing range of musicians and cultural figures including Jeff Bridges, Jim Jarmusch, John Lurie, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Devendra Banhart, Lee Ranaldo, Bonnie "Prince" Billy,  Shirley Collins, Gina Birch of the Raincoats and many, many more.

#ElmyrDeHory

#BureauOfLostCulture

#Elmyr

#forgery

#artforgery

#fake

#artworld

#OrsonWelles

#FforFake

#Ibiza

#Stonehenge

#BureauOfLostCulture

#BattleOfTheBeanfield

#policestate

#freefestival

#wallyhope

#thatcher

#counterculture

#Stonehengefreefestival

"I wasn’t interested in playing melodies. I wanted to find out what electricity sounded like when it told the truth.”

He didn’t just make music—he made experiences. He played marathon sets in warehouses, at acid-fueled happenings, art galleries, planetariums, and with The Grateful Dead. 

His performances were long-form, trance-like explorations of voltage, feedback, and consciousness—music as transformation.

 “Those shows weren’t performances. They were portals”

His music lay largely hidden for decades until re-released by VG+Records

Doug's Music:

With Thanks to Lee Gardner at VG+

#DougMcKechnie #BureauOfLostCulture #lighshows #sanfrancisco #thegratefuldead #frankoppenheimer #goldengatebridge #ElectronicMusicHistory #ModularSynths #MoogMusic #Psychedelic60s #VintageSynthesizers #UndergroundSounds #modularFrequencies #alanwatts

#BureauOfLostCulture, #IbizaClubCulture, #Rave, #BalearicBeats, #90sClubScene, #80sClubScene, #IbizaHistory, #AcidHouse #CultureUnderground, #Dancemusic,  #LostCultureFound,#mdma, #pasha, #nickyholloway, #superstardjs 

But who were these so-called “freaks” - vulnerable human oddities driven to make a living the only way they could, cictims of exploitation, or pioneers of performance who found power in their difference?

We’re joined by Dr. John Jacob Woolf, historian and author of 'The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age', a book that offers a deeply researched, empathetic, and eye-opening look at the lives behind the wonderful posters, at the performers who captivated crowds and challenged Victorian notions of normality.

#PaulineBlack

#2ToneRevolution

#BureauOfLostCulture

#SkaPunkHistory

#TheSelecter

#WomenInMusic

#PunkAndPolitics

#CulturalResistance

#BlackBritishVoices

#MusicAsProtest

Alan Moore first gained recognition in the 1980s with his work for the comic 2000 AD, and DC Comic's Swamp Thing. He went on to create Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke, From Hell, an extraordinary take on the Jack the Ripper story, and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. 

He's often been at odds with publishers and with Hollywood, and in recent years has removed himself from the mainstream, focusing on writing novels, esoteric pursuits, and the practice of a particular kind of Magic. 

This is a slightly unusual episode. 

It's a recording of an event we held last October as part of our London Month of the Dead festival.  It features, Alan in conversation with the writer Gary Lachman and the artist John Coulthart. 

The occasion was the publication of 'The Bumper Book of Magic'. a kind of modern grimoire, which Alan had written with his friend the late Steve Moore (no relation), another writer of comics and fellow magic practitioner. It is a book that took 20 years to come to publication. John Coulthard was the main artist and designer of the book.

Alan is somewhat of a recluse these days so it was great to have him with us to talk about the book, about his friend Steve Moore, about his practice of Magic, and about the unconscious, dreams, consciousness and creativity.

Gary Lachman, a previous guest on this show, was once the bass player for Blondie before he put down the plectrum and picked up the pen, gave up rock'n'roll for writing, and has become the U.K.'s foremost writer on the Esoteric

John Coulthart is a wonderful graphic artist who worked with Alan on many projects and is a cultural phenomenon in his own right

We also hear from the audience with questions to Alan about his practice of magic.

Our previous episode with Alan on Counterculture

#counterculture, #alanmoore, #johncoulthard, #garylachman, #dreams, #magic, #magick, #magik, #paracelsus, #glycon, #stevemoore, #2000AD, #grimoire

#bureauoflostculture #magicmushroom #psilocybin #terencemckenna #psychedelic #grahamwasson #mariasabina #libertycaps #tripping #psychoactive

The Teds became notorious in the media - associated with violence, for clashes with rival gangs and for their alleged involvement in the 1958 Notting Hill riots. But was that really the case? Or was it because, as working class upstarts they rattled the middle and upper class establishment?

Embracing American rock'n'roll, they became the foundation for future youth movements, proving that teenagers could form their own cultural identity, shaping Britain’s rock and roll scene and inspiring later subcultures like the Mods and Rockers.

This morning I sat in my house, took a twenty pound note from my wallet, lit a match and set the note on fire.

Why? How did I feel as I watched it burn? Was it a waste, an immoral or stupid thing to do - or was it a deeply countercultural act?

Jon Harris, came to the Bureau to talk about his life - as a pornographer, as a rock 'n' roll tour manager, as a bankrupt - and, most importantly, as The High Priest of The Church of Burn.

We try to understand what money is, what it might be and what burning it can mean.

We hear of Jon's own history of burning money and of the rites of The Church of Burn. Of course The KLF get a mention, as does Serge Gainsbourg and Youth of Killing Joke as we explore the history of the intentional sacrificial destruction of somethign that mainstream culture seems built around and compleltey obsessed with.

The Church of Burn

Jon's substack

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I have often been asked about the music that plays during the Bureau episodes. Most of it is from two albums by The Real Tuesday Weld: 'Junskshop Melodies' (which will be released in 2025) and 'Songs For Crow' which has just been released. Detaisl HERE

#money #moneyburning #cash #currency #churchofburn #daisycampbell #johnhiggs #youth #killingjoke #klf #theklf #thekfoundation #sergegainsbourg 

What is a mystic, what is mysticism, what is the mystical?

Many of us have sense that there is something mystical, or at least mysterious, underpinning things, some countercultural force that defies explanation but survives even in our 24/7 social-media drenched, junked up internet world of money, career and self promotion. Philosophy, along much modern science and many formal religions, poo-poos the mystical - relegating it to the woo-woo, of interest only to the less sophisticated, the superstitious - or the deluded.

#drugs #drugwar #opiumwars #psychoactive #opium #heroin #mescaline #lsd #cocaine #khat #betel #psychedelics #highsociety #gettinghigh #addiction #cartels 

“Ima­gin­a­tion thrives in dark­ness” 

We talk about The Undergound often at the Bureau - not London’s subterranean rail sytem, but the countercultural alternative society of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

But that is just one of the undergrounds - the underworlds - that are the subject of this episode Dizzying ossuaries, freakish creatures of the deep sea, astounding colors of agates, lava and crystals,  mind bending organic structures of mycorrhizal fungi, caverns, crevices, burrows,  bunkers, burial chambers, ghistly shipwrecks, religous hellscapes and surrealist dreamscapes, natural and constructed subterranean realms and the imagined and unconscious worlds of dreams and the human psyche.

In 1964 he was a working class hippie student crossing Haight Street, a road in San Francscso, when hit by a vision  - and life as he knew it was over

When musician ARTHUR RUSSELL died in 1992, at age 40, of complications related to HIV-AIDS, he was an obscure figure — though a legend in the 70s and 80s underground music scenes at downtown New York clubs such as The Loft and Paradise Garage. 

RICHARD KING, author of 'Travels Over Feeling'(Faber) a poignant and evocative visual chronology of Arthur's life and times, came to the the Bureau to tell us about him and why he matters.

Despite his prodigious output, his inability to finish songs, and the genre-busting uniqueness of much of his music, meant that he released only two albums under his own name in his lifetime. But in the decades since his death, a series of posthumous releases have generated a deep love and admiration in many who have been lucky to come across his music.

We also get into indie record shop culture, music sobbery, the underground New York club scene of  the mid seventies and ask the question: 'How do you know when, a song, a book or a piece of art is finished?'

Thanks to Dan Papps at Faber, to Steve Knutson of Audika Records and Cat Corrigan of Beggars Banquet who have posthumously released much of Arthur's unpublished work, for permission to include his music.

We also included two selections from Matt Wolf’s film 'Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell'

*Whatever happened to the Greek Gods? if you are a teenager living half way up a 1970s tower block listening to Drill, should you even care?

*On this epside we travel in time and space to Ancient Greece, the classical psycho-geographic birthplace of Western Culture (and therefore of counterculture), specfically to the mythic landscape of Epidavros and the sacred temple of Asclepius.

*Our guide and guest is Sarah Janes, one of Britain's foremost lucid dreamers, explorer and teacher of ancient mysteries. 

*We hear how the Temple of Asclepius's treatment of the sick involved diet, excercise, theater - and comedy - in addition to surgery and medicine.

*We revisit the subject of dreams, nightmares and countercultural consciousness  - and hear why the gods are still with us, whether we ignore them or not.

•And the Scottish band The Proclaimers make a surprise apearance.... 

For more on Sarah and her work

#dreaming #psychedelics #theunconscious #consciousness #truth #madness #counterculture #sleep #luciddreaming #dreams #neuroscience #consciousness #nightmares #epidavros #ancientgreece #greekgods #asclepius #jung #ecstasy #thegods

How Queer Culture Shaped Pop Culture

"The 1972 version of David Bowie didn’t spring from nowhere.  Although he refused to affiliate himself explicitly with gay liberation, he had found both artistic and social inspiration in the gay world, in particular the renewed sense of freedom and possibility that rippled through the British gay subculture in the early 1970s."

We finally lured the award-winning, bestselling author, pop-culture, punk penman Jon Savage to the Bureau to talk about his life and epic new book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979)

It's an electrifying, massively entertaining - and at times, tragic - look at key moments in music history between 1955 and 1979, which helped move gay culture from the margins to the mainstream and changed the face of pop forever – from the ambiguous sexuality of stars such as Little Richard in the 1950s through to David Bowie, glam rock and Sylvester’s ‘You Make Me Feel(Mighty Real)'.

We talked about all that, about Punk, Joy Division, Tony Wilson, Johnny Marr, Factory Records and about how Jon grew up in the London of the late '50s and '60s, how he became a writer during one of the most exciting times for music journalism in the '70s and '80s - and about his own Secret Public Life..

More on the book here

More on the compilation album here

More on Jon here

#homosexuality #sex #london #queer #gayliberation #musichistory #sexuality #gay #tomrobinson #gladtobegay #queerculture #counterculture #punk #comingout #homesexuality #joydivision #theclash #sex #johnnymarr #factoryrecords #johnnymarr #faberandfaber #littlerichard #glf #gayliberationfront #bisexuality #pride #london #queer #gayliberation #lgbtq #sexuality #gay #thesecretpublic #musicpress #gaydisco #jonsavage #thesmiths #bowie

#counterculture #rockagainstracism #backpanthers #blackpower #angeladavis #racism #thebeats #oakland #tomothyleary #activism #socialism #revolution #rockrevolution #eldridgecleaver #bobdylan #motown #johnandyoko #thewattsprophets 

What was it like to live in a commune? What was it like to grow up in a commune?

NANCY THOMPSON came to the Bureau to tell us. She was born in The Shrubb Family Commune - one that was set up in a big old farmhouse in rural Norfolk in 1970 - and, remarkably, one that is still going today.

In the early to mid '60s many Western cities were magnets drawing the young and hip in from the regions, shaking off the austerity of the '50s, joining their urban peers in experimenting with new and radical ways of loving and living. Communes and squats sprung up all over places like London.

But as the '60s drew to a close, there was a reverse movement and many left the cities heading back out into the shires to try to build a new kind of sociey in the quieter, slower life of village and market town.  Some settled in North Suffolk and South Norfolk, an open countryside of low hills and wide plains with few towns and many villages where a commune movement had been established from 1965.

Nancy's is a complex, tumultous tale  - at times a rather bewildering tapestry of overlapping relationships and familes, the British class system, rural life, travellers, gypsies and the gentry, encounter groups, blackmail, rogue psychiatrists, lsd - and horses..

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*For more on Nancy and her childhood in the commune, check out her Substack HERE

*For more on the British commune and intentional community culture of the 60s and 70s see below

The countercultural movement of the 1960s and 1970s in Britain gave rise to a surge of communal living experiments known as hippy communes or intentional communities. These collectives emerged as an alternative to mainstream society, rejecting consumerism, conventionality, and materialism in favor of a more liberated, eco-friendly, and cooperative way of life.

The origins of this communal living trend can be traced back to the mid 60s, when a confluence of social, political, and cultural factors created an environment ripe for such experiments. The rise of the hippie counterculture, and the burgeoning environmental and back-to-the-land movements all contributed to the growth of communal living arrangements.

One of the earliest and most influential British hippy communes was Findhorn in Scotland, established in 1962 by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. Originally a small caravan park, Findhorn evolved into a thriving spiritual community centered around principles of sustainability, meditation, and harmony with nature. Its success inspired many other like-minded groups to establish their own communes across Britain.

As the movement gained momentum in the late 1960s, a wave of new communes emerged, each with its own unique philosophy and approach to communal living. Some, like The Diggers in Cornwall and the Laurieston Hall community in Scotland, focused on self-sufficiency through organic farming and sustainable living practices. Others, like the Freestone community in Essex and the Newbold Trust in Worcestershire, emphasized artistic expression, alternative spirituality, and personal growth.

Many of these communes adopted a back-to-the-land ethos, seeking to reconnect with nature and escape the constraints of urban living. They often established themselves in rural areas, repurposing abandoned farmhouses, old mills, or purchasing inexpensive land to build their communities from scratch. This allowed them to embrace a more self-reliant and environmentally conscious lifestyle, growing their own food, generating their own energy, and living off the land as much as possible.

While each commune had its own unique character and rules, they shared several common principles. Communal living, non-hierarchical decision-making processes, shared resources and responsibilities, and a commitment to peace and environmentalism were hallmarks of these communities. Many also embraced alternative lifestyles, such as polyamory, nudism, or open relationships, challenging traditional societal norms.

As the 1970s progressed, the hippy commune movement faced various challenges, including internal conflicts, financial struggles, and external criticism from more conservative segments of society. Some communes disbanded or evolved into more structured communities, while others managed to endure and adapt to changing times.

One notable example of a long-lasting commune is Braziers Park in Oxfordshire, founded in 1950 and still active today. While not initially a traditional hippy commune, it embraced many of the same principles in the 1960s and 1970s, becoming a hub for alternative living, education, and environmental activism.

Another enduring community is the Findhorn Foundation, which has grown from its humble beginnings into a thriving eco-village and spiritual center, attracting visitors and residents from around the world.

Beyond the more well-known communes, countless smaller collectives and intentional communities also emerged during this period, often existing independently or flying under the radar. These included urban squatting communities, housing co-operatives, and alternative living arrangements that embraced the communal ethos without necessarily adopting the full-fledged "hippy" lifestyle.

These communities served as laboratories for experimentation, pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable or possible, and leaving an enduring legacy that continues to influence various aspects of modern life.

Many of the principles and practices pioneered by these communities, such as sustainable living, cooperative decision-making, and alternative education, have been adopted and adapted by various organizations and movements.

The communal living ethos has remained alive, albeit on a smaller scale, with contemporary intentional communities and eco-villages continuing to explore alternative ways of living and coexisting with nature.

#communes #counterculture #findhorn #findhornfoundation #utopia #alternativecommunities #intentionalcommunities #esoteric #hippie #shrubbfamily #globaltruckingcompany #drugs #lsd #psychiatry

Being the further adventures of English musician broadcaster and LGTBQ activist TOM ROBINSON, as he gets deeply involved in the gay counterculture of London in the '70s whilst on his journey to having a huge hit with the song 2-4-6-8 Motorway We hear about the genesis of another hit - (Sing if You're)Glad to Be Gay - a remarkable, unprecedented protest song that climbed into public consciousness in the late 70s (despite the best efforts of some in the establshment), and about Tom's later hit War Baby.

We talk about the desperate times in between, about his activism - not only for the queer commmuity but as part of the Rock Against Racism movement - and how he had to face one his greatest challenges in coming out for a second time, risking the disapproval of the very community he had fought for for many years…

In May 1965, Allen  arrived in London and gave a free reading at Better Books in Charing Cross Road. It was an event described by poet-provocateur Jeff Nuttall as "the first healing wind on a very parched collective mind” and one that provided the impetus for the International Poetry Incarnation at Royal Albert Hall, a hugely significant catalyst for the first British Summer of Love.

Music featured prominently in Ginsberg’s work - both in his self-accompanied performances and live collaborations with artists including Dylan, Paul McCartney and Patti Smith - and in the inspiration it has had on the wide range of musicians who have set it to music.

Warning: this episode contains discussions of sexual and other adult themes.

Julie Peakman is a historian of eighteenth-century culture who specialises in the study sexuality and pornography.

She is the author of 'Sexual Perversions, 1670-1890', 'Whore Biographies 1700-1825', The Development of Pornography in 18thC England' and many other books.

She came to the Bureau to discuss her latest: 'The Pleasure's All Mine - A History of Perverse Sex' which contains many affecting stories of how benign sexual difference has, in the past, lead to what we would now perceive as unjust and brutal persecution.

'Perversion' has been defined as 'showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable' or 'contrary to the accepted or expected standard or practice' - rather like 'counterculture'.

It has at different times included masturbation, male and female homosexuality, cross-dressing, bestiality, sadomasochism, necrophilia, incest, exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, even straight-up vanilla heterosexual sex in certain circumstances.

Julie's conviction is that the very word and concept of 'perversion' has reached its expiry date - we discuss.

#perversion #sex #london #pornography #fetish #bdsm #sexuality #gay #necrophilia #incest #masturbation #bestiality #prostitution #flagellation #homesexuality #morality 

*He is perhaps the biggest name in Russian rock music, famous as the leader of the band Aquarium throughout his homeland and 'Outer Russia’ (as the huge and growing number of Russian emigres are called), but he is now listed as a “foreign agent” - basically an anti-patriot, a traitor, for criticising Russia’s war

#counterculture #cults #cultleaders #newage #thenewage #secretsocieties #jimjones #jonestown #marshallapplewhite #heavensgate #thechildrenofgod #manson #charlesmanson #davidberg  #scientology #guru #godbody #thehorsehospital

#pagan #counterculture #wicca #heathen #dionfortune #psychedelicsound #witch #esoteric #thegoldendawn #aleistercrowley  #magic #pre-christian

#joujouka #counterculture #themastermusiciansofjoujouka #sufi #brianjones #psychedelicsound #psychedelicrock #williamburroughs #briongyson #rollingstones  #beatgeneration #thebeats

*In 1965 the psychiatrist R.D.LAING formed a commune in an East London community centre called Kingsley Hall where the psychotic and the schizophrenic could live on equal terms with their carers. There were no locks and no anti-psychotic drugs but there were all-night therapy sessions, dinners with visiting mystics and high grade LSD available to any who chose to take it

*DEE PEYOK joins us to talk about 'Away From Beloved Lover'(Granta), her extraordinary book detailing the lost world of amazing music that flourished between 1955 and 1970 in Cambodia.  

*And we hear of Dee’s own journey - an extraordinary odyssey into the heart of darkness -  and light -  in search of this lost world.

For more on Away From Beloved Lover: https://granta.com/products/away-from-beloved-lover/

For The Bureau of Lost Culture: www.bureauoflostculture.com

#Cambodia #KhmerRouge, #Sinsisamouth, #DeePayok, #PhnomPenh, #killingfields, #surfrock, #censorship, #Cambodiarocks, #Vietcong,  #genocide #vietnamwar

Feeding the Woodstock thousands, acid, the Summer of Love, the Haight Ashbury, Timothy Leary, anti-Vietnam war protests, the problems of free love and living in communes, the Monterey pop festival, The Diggers, Wavy Gravy, Owsley, Bob and Sarah Dylan, Peter Coyote, helping Dennis Hopper though a bad trip..

#Dylan, #TheVelvetUnderground, #JanisJoplin, #TheBeatles, #OtisRedding, #PeterFonda, #DenisHopper, #TimothyLeary, #RamDass, #AllenGinsberg, KenKesey, #thehogfarm, #themerrypranksters, #wavygravy, #peterpaulandmary #haightashbury, #hippies, #psychedelicmushrooms, #lisalaw, #vietnamwar

Images copyright Lisa Law

#Dylan, #TheVelvetUnderground, #JanisJoplin, #TheBeatles,  #OtisRedding, #PeterFonda, #DenisHopper, #TimothyLeary, #RamDass, #AllenGinsberg, KenKesey, thehogfarm, themerrypranksters, #wavygravy, #peter,paulandmary #haightashbury, #hippies, #psychedelicmushrooms, #lisalaw

#RodStewart #Madness #GeorgeMichael #Quadrophenia #JimJarmusch #DavidBowie #KeithRichards #BobDylan #JackNicholson #DavidBailey #TheClash #IggyPop #TomWaits #JohnnyMarr #NickCave #TheStrayCats #barryadamson #ThePretenders #lloydjohnson #larocka

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#SydBarrett #Pink Floyd #Groupies #Frigidity #abortion #Ozmagazine #TheFemaleEunuch #germainegreer #jennyspires #theexplodinggalaxy

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* Ninja Tune head honcho and Coldcut co-pirate Jonathan More returns to the Bureau to talk about his adventures hi-jinxing and hi-jacking the airwaves in the Wild West of South London. 

* For the second in our trilogy on illicit broadcasting, we hear tales of DJ derring-do during the birth Of Kiss Fm, once one of the coolest of the urban pirate radio stations and its transition to the commercial mainstream.  

* And in the mix, we debate how the mainstream is dependent on the underground, the culture feeds on the counterculture, and along the way go crate-digging into how Jon caught the disease of collecting vinyl, putting on warehouse parties, life-changing meetings in London taxis, pirate TV, Coldcut's Solid Steel show - and nuclear power station ephemera..  

* For Jon and Coldcut http://coldcut.net

* Jon’s Soho Radio show Out to Lunch https://sohoradiolondon.com/profile/jon-more/ 

Thanks for audio samples and info:

* DJ Food https://www.djfood.org/

* The Pirate Radio Archive https://www.thepiratearchive.net/

* AMFM.0rg https://www.amfm.org.uk/

* Death is Not the End https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/london-pirate-radio-adverts-1984-1993-vol-1 

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Forty years ago, in the late summer of 1981, a group of women walked from Wales for over a hundred miles carrying a hand-made banner proclaiming their protest against American nuclear cruise  missiles that were to be sationed in the UK. Their march to the US military base at Greenham Common led to the establishment of a camp that, for nearly two decades, drew women from all over the world to make their voices heard in the name of peace - and inspired fellow protestors internationally Artist, activist and banner maker Thalia Cambpell one of the original marchers and founders of the camp, visits the Bureau to tell tales of dancing on nuclear silos, clashes with the authorities and the creation of vibrant protest art amongst the mud and mayhem. And we are joined by historian Charlotte Dew, author of 'Women For Peace: Banners From Greenham Common’, a book published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the protests that presents image of the amazing banners made by Thalia and her fellows celebrating the collective power of women, women’s art and the history of peace campaigning.  For more on the book, the banners and the bomb www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/women-for-peace-banners-from-greenham-common/

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A Zelig, a holy fool, a trickster, a black magician, a sociopath, a charlatan, a genius, a fabulist, a junkie, an alcoholic, a secret agent, a police informer, a disruptor, an often loveable preacher of Love who didn't actually seem to know what it meant? LSD evangelist Michael Hollingshead might or might not have been all of these, but he was certainly a father.  What is it like to be the child of such a person? Comedian Vanessa Hollingshead and writer Jeannie Hilton tell the dark and intense story of Vanessa’s tumultuous life with Michael, the working class Englishman who, according to his own claim, 'turned on the world' - or at least, many of those who did - including Timothy Leary and The Beatles - and who, like many who have advocated universal love and cosmic enlightenment, led a tragic and toxic personal life.

It's a wild and crazy trip, at times funny, at times disturbing. Be warned!

To find out more about The Divine Rascal film project www.thedivinerascal.com

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PIRATE RADIO first erupted in the UK in the early 1960s when stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London started to broadcast from ships moored offshore or disused WW2 forts in the north sea. They were set up by wildcat entrepreneurs and music enthusiasts to meet the growing demand for the pop, rock and underground music not catered for by the BBC who had a monopoly on the airwaves. Music writer ROB CHAPMAN returns to the Bureau to tell the story of this first golden age of illicit broadcasting.  We hear of the extraordinary life of pirate-in-chief Ronan O’Rahilly anarchist founder of Radio Caroline, of legendary broadcaster John Peel and his ground breaking show ‘The Perfumed Garden’, and of the oddities of life aboard the radio ships precariously sailing the airwaves. Initially, the stations got round the law because they were broadcasting from international waters to delighted young people across the country before they ran foul of the authorities and were shut down in 1967. But their impact lived on: the government caved into youth demand for pop music with the creation of Radio 1 and many of the pirate radio DJs including Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett, Johnnie Walker, Emperor Rosko went on to mainstream success with the BBC and commercial stations of the seventies and beyond. For more on Rob http://www.rob-chapman.com

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Journalist and counterculture commentator Peter Watts joins us to talk about The UFO Club, the massively influential short-lived London club of the late 1960s established by Joe Boyd and John "Hoppy” Hopkins.

It featured light shows, poetry readings, avant-garde art by Yoko Ono and many rock acts (Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Procul Harem) who later became massive.

For a brief two year period, it acted as the epicentre of the whirligig of summer of love underground London with a 'who's who of the counterculture' guest list and set the standards for psychedelic fashion and design.

Peter’s blog on London and counterculture:

www.greatwen.com 

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We return for Part 2 of a trip through the English Underground scene of the 1960s and 1970s led by musician and pied piper Nick Laird Clowes of The Dream Academy.

Nick tells of his extraordinary youth deeply immersed in the political, musical and alternative scenes of West London. We hear about meeting Iggy Pop in a toilet, Nick Drake's guitar, the demise of Syd Barrett and dinner with Andy Warhol amongst many other terrific tales of living the countercultural life.

For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture www.bureauoflostculture.com

For more on Nick www.nicklairdclowes.com

We take a romp through the underground alternative and music scene of the 1960s in the first half of a two part episode. Our guide is musician and Nick Laird Clowes who regales us with stories of running away to the Isle of Wight festival, dj-ing at The Roundhouse, meeting John Lennon amongst many countercultural characters of the day and much, much more.

All this before an age when most of us had even smoked a cigarette - and all before his days of pop stardom with The Dream Academy.

For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture www.bureauoflostculture.com

For more on Nick https://www.nicklairdclowes.com

He has published Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Robert Crumb, J G Ballard, Hunt Emerson, Eddie Campbell, Brian Bolland, Dave McKean, Martin Rowson and Melinda Gebbie amongst others. 

His publishing house Knockabout Comics has put out books on marijuana, magic mushrooms and many other aspects of alternative living from West Wales to Ladbroke Grove. And he's fought the law (though the law has frequently won). With special guest DJ Food / Kev Foakes, we flick through the pages of the countercultural life of Tony Bennett hearing tales from the wild world of underground publishing, radical bookshops, obscenity trials, censorship, customs busts - and, of course  a crazy cornucopia of comics, including Gilbert Shelton’s hippy-slacker masterwork The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. For more on Tony and Knockabout Comics https://www.knockaboutcomics.com For more on DJ Food https://www.djfood.org For more on the Bureau of Lost Culture www.bureauoflostculture.com

The image is courtesy the incomparable ALAN LODGE To see his extraordinary archive of images of festivals and alternative culture: www.alanlodge.co.uk