Return to Oz: the most controversial magazine of the 60s goes online
March 7, 2016 5:08 PM Subscribe
Everything the establishment hated most was in Oz, the enfant terrible of the underground press. Now, 45 years after its famous obscenity trial, the entire archive has been published on the web
That's really cool. I could spend some time clicking around that.
posted by hwestiii at 6:29 PM on March 7, 2016
posted by hwestiii at 6:29 PM on March 7, 2016
Joyous news! Warms an old Aussie's heart. Somewhere in the depths of my memorabilia I still have an early Australian edition from before the London glory days - '66 I think - bought while I was in high school. But must, MUST resist the urge to drop everything and hunt for it right now. It usually only turns up when I'm looking for something else entirely.
Anyhow, well done Richard Neville and good on Wollongong Uni for providing a home. And many thanks misterbee for posting.
posted by valetta at 6:29 PM on March 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
Anyhow, well done Richard Neville and good on Wollongong Uni for providing a home. And many thanks misterbee for posting.
posted by valetta at 6:29 PM on March 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
Why is Horace Rumpole not commenting here?
posted by dannyboybell at 8:20 PM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by dannyboybell at 8:20 PM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
As someone who was born in the 60s and has always been fascinated by the zeitgeist , I'm surprised I hadn't heard of Oz before. Looking forward to exploring it. Having said that, man, that "Great society blows another mind" cover is pretty brutal. Not that I don't see where they were coming from, but it just really got to me.
posted by TedW at 8:48 PM on March 7, 2016
posted by TedW at 8:48 PM on March 7, 2016
Who knew the 60s happened in Australia too?
Well, admittedly, most of the 60s happened here in the 70s.
posted by valetta at 9:40 PM on March 7, 2016 [5 favorites]
Well, admittedly, most of the 60s happened here in the 70s.
posted by valetta at 9:40 PM on March 7, 2016 [5 favorites]
There was an exodus of talented Australians to London in the 60s- Germaine Greer, Clive James, Barry Humphries, Robert Hughes as well as Neville and Sharp. The media in Australia reported on these people and English culture extensively. Australia was extremely Anglophile at the time so there was a lot of influence both ways.
posted by bhnyc at 10:32 PM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bhnyc at 10:32 PM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Looking back on the obscenity trial I have to say that in retrospect it now seems less like a moral watershed and more like a dispute between two different kinds of arsehole.
These days, of course, I tend to see things from the point of view of an old git.
posted by Segundus at 2:08 AM on March 8, 2016
These days, of course, I tend to see things from the point of view of an old git.
posted by Segundus at 2:08 AM on March 8, 2016
> As someone who was born in the 60s and has always been fascinated by the zeitgeist , I'm surprised I hadn't heard of Oz before.
As someone who was born in the early '50s and was part of this zeitgeist, I'm amazed I hadn't heard of Oz before, and I thank misterbee for this great post!
posted by languagehat at 8:03 AM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
As someone who was born in the early '50s and was part of this zeitgeist, I'm amazed I hadn't heard of Oz before, and I thank misterbee for this great post!
posted by languagehat at 8:03 AM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wow languagehat that suprises me. Dig deep there is plenty of gold in there.
On a quick read through you might like to start on #8 ; Russia you have bread but no roses - - Angelo Quattrocchi on the Russian Revolution.
posted by adamvasco at 11:09 AM on March 8, 2016
On a quick read through you might like to start on #8 ; Russia you have bread but no roses - - Angelo Quattrocchi on the Russian Revolution.
posted by adamvasco at 11:09 AM on March 8, 2016
I'm amazed I hadn't heard of Oz before
Well, it was an Australian / British rag. I never saw a print copy in the US. when it was in print.
The Mona Lisa cover was done by Martin Sharp, best known in the US for Cream's Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire album covers, plus providing the lyrics for "Tales of Brave Ulysses".
"Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers . . ."
the most controversial magazine of the 60s . . .
Hmm. Anyone remember Ramparts magazine?
posted by Herodios at 12:17 PM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well, it was an Australian / British rag. I never saw a print copy in the US. when it was in print.
The Mona Lisa cover was done by Martin Sharp, best known in the US for Cream's Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire album covers, plus providing the lyrics for "Tales of Brave Ulysses".
"Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers . . ."
the most controversial magazine of the 60s . . .
Hmm. Anyone remember Ramparts magazine?
posted by Herodios at 12:17 PM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
> Wow languagehat that suprises me.
Well, as Herodios says, it wasn't American, and the US counterculture was pretty parochial. The UK was where some great rock bands came from, obviously, but I don't think most of us sixties lefties knew anything about the UK in that context. I certainly didn't.
> Anyone remember Ramparts magazine?
Now you're talking! See, that I have vivid memories of.
posted by languagehat at 1:13 PM on March 8, 2016
Well, as Herodios says, it wasn't American, and the US counterculture was pretty parochial. The UK was where some great rock bands came from, obviously, but I don't think most of us sixties lefties knew anything about the UK in that context. I certainly didn't.
> Anyone remember Ramparts magazine?
Now you're talking! See, that I have vivid memories of.
posted by languagehat at 1:13 PM on March 8, 2016
Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive article on Oz magazine's history in Australia and the UK .
Wanted to show you a whole lot of the inimitable Martin Sharp's other artwork, but his official site is under reconstruction. Found this gorgeous poster for sale, which was blu-tacked to my wall(s) for many a long-ago year till it disintegrated. Didn't pay 250 quid for it though.
I do have a big Sharp screenprint on perspex, of Van Gogh's chair on a background of psychedelic swirls. Stunning thing, hangs on the wall across from my desk. Was a gift for my 19th birthday from my boyfriend-at-the-time, who, straight outa high school, had done a stint as office junior for Sydney Oz a couple of years before. I think he got a good deal on the print on the strength of that.
Back in the '90s I wrote a fan letter to Richard Neville after reading his book "Hippie Hippie Shake", a memoir of the Oz years. I mentioned the Sharp print and offered it for loan if Sharp ever wanted to include it in an exhibition, and added my phone number in case he wanted to discuss it. Richard Neville rang me and we had a nice chat, but he said Sharp was v. reclusive and I probably wouldn't hear from him. I didn't.
Sharp died in 2013 at age 71. His post-Oz history is interesting - the Yellow House, the recurring "Eternity" motif, the Tiny Tim fixation, the Luna Park saga. Wikipedia has an article. Marsha Rowe, who worked in the Oz Sydney office (and later became a co-founder of British feminist magazine Spare Rib) wrote a nice obituary in the Guardian.
posted by valetta at 5:05 PM on March 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
Wanted to show you a whole lot of the inimitable Martin Sharp's other artwork, but his official site is under reconstruction. Found this gorgeous poster for sale, which was blu-tacked to my wall(s) for many a long-ago year till it disintegrated. Didn't pay 250 quid for it though.
I do have a big Sharp screenprint on perspex, of Van Gogh's chair on a background of psychedelic swirls. Stunning thing, hangs on the wall across from my desk. Was a gift for my 19th birthday from my boyfriend-at-the-time, who, straight outa high school, had done a stint as office junior for Sydney Oz a couple of years before. I think he got a good deal on the print on the strength of that.
Back in the '90s I wrote a fan letter to Richard Neville after reading his book "Hippie Hippie Shake", a memoir of the Oz years. I mentioned the Sharp print and offered it for loan if Sharp ever wanted to include it in an exhibition, and added my phone number in case he wanted to discuss it. Richard Neville rang me and we had a nice chat, but he said Sharp was v. reclusive and I probably wouldn't hear from him. I didn't.
Sharp died in 2013 at age 71. His post-Oz history is interesting - the Yellow House, the recurring "Eternity" motif, the Tiny Tim fixation, the Luna Park saga. Wikipedia has an article. Marsha Rowe, who worked in the Oz Sydney office (and later became a co-founder of British feminist magazine Spare Rib) wrote a nice obituary in the Guardian.
posted by valetta at 5:05 PM on March 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also worth noting that the "the entire archive" link in the FPP is just to the London OZ archive. They've also got the whole Sydney run and Neville's followup, The Living Daylights, and a whole crapton of other great stuff just one step up the directory.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:20 PM on March 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Sys Rq at 7:20 PM on March 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
Thanks for that link Sys Rq, I learnt my (still unfound) copy of Aussie Oz was published/unleashed upon the populace in 1965. Hell, I was a little bitty teen then, I must've found it in a second-hand bookshop sometime later.
posted by valetta at 1:01 AM on March 10, 2016
posted by valetta at 1:01 AM on March 10, 2016
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posted by Sys Rq at 5:55 PM on March 7, 2016