To be at Art school, play in a band, wear shades a lot, have a foreign girl-friend, to have a studio in a foreign city. The primary desires of many young white males who aspire, and have aspired to, a counter culture that has become mainstream.
To be male in 1961 in England, you were either a kid in shorts, Clarks sandals and sporting short back and sides, a quiffed and dandy ted (it’s still just about possible to see the last vestiges of the original quiff and ducks-arse on men of a certain age in provincial UK towns), a duffel coated and whispy bearded beatnik or a pipe smoking bohemian in corduroys. Or just “old”.
When Astrid Kircherr cut Stuart Sutcliffe’s hair in 1961 (and Lennon reportedly laughed at it), she created a look and style, that combined with Sutcliffe’s life and interests, has lasted almost 50 years. The birth of British cool.
1 Comment
3 May, 2008 at 2:56 pm
A true and wise observation. Power to you for reminding us and even pointing it out to some for the first time (Stuart Sutcliffe? Who?)…