Since my last update at Christmas, my research on the Chronicle Collection owned by Reading Museum has continued with the help of Project Intern, Farah Qureshi. I have worked systematically and chronologically through the collection beginning with photographs taken in the 1930s for the Berkshire Chronicle newspaper before moving on to the 1940s and 1950s.
In nearing completion of the research stage for the photographs selected for the online resource, I am now researching photographs from the 1960s, the final decade for this strand of the project.
‘The Sixties’ denotes a time of revolution in social norms and a relaxation of social taboos. It has become a period synonymous with the new, radical, and rebellious cultural and political movements and trends of the time. It is also an era I find of particular interest, so I have chosen a few of my favourite photographs from this period to share.
The first is that of ‘Screaming’ Lord Sutch at 20 years of age, performing at the Majestic Ballroom on Caversham Road in Reading at an event aimed at teenagers. Mr David Apps, the Majestic manager expressed his surprise at the popularity of Screaming Lord Sutch with the audience. The singer was backed on stage by his band, The Savages. The Berkshire Chronicle described Lord Sutch as wearing “his hair about 18 inches long” and always appearing “in odd clothes like an old tattered loin cloth or some Eskimo outfit”. Sutch gained notoriety for his horror-themed stage show, dressing as Jack the Ripper, pre-dating the stage antics of the likes of Alice Cooper. During Sutch’s music career he worked with Keith Moon of the Who, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore who would later become a guitarist in Deep Purple and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones. He later forced a career in politics having founded The Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 1983, a registered UK political party famed for its deliberately bizarre policies aimed at satirising British politics. Sutch sadly suffered from manic depression and committed suicide in 1999.
The second is American ‘Ban the Bomb’ marchers on Wokingham Road in Reading. The marchers, facing hardship and possible loss of freedom trooped into Reading after beginning their walk in San Francisco in California 6 months previously. Their route took them across America to New York where they were then flown to England. The walk was organised by the American Committee for Non-violent Action, in an effort to “make people in the West and the East see the follies of nuclear armaments”. Upon arrival in Reading they were joined by Reading Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Reading University Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. They were applauded by a 200 strong crowd of local people upon reaching the Town Hall on Blagrave Street. The marchers’ next stop was France followed by Belgium, Western and Eastern Germany as well as Poland before their final destination of Moscow in Russia.
Sophie Fitzpatrick
Reading Connections Project Officer
