Hanging Out: Youth Culture Then and Now looks at youth culture in London in the 1950s & 1960s and draws parallels with what it’s like to be young today. Memories are shared about fashion, music, film and entertainment, richly illustrated with rarely seen archive film, photographs and iconic posters. The directors Lorna Holder and Yvonne Deutschman and contributors will be joining us for a Q&A.
The film features a multi-cultural view on how youth culture has manifested itself in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Brent, Camden & the City of London, from ‘flower power” fashion to designer brand obsession, from telephone box to mobile phone, from cafe & club culture to social online networking. Mods & Rockers at the Ace Cafe reveal how the press used to pay them a fiver to fight each other on the beaches of Brighton. Young people today express their fears of crossing borders in London and how they can afford expensive designer brands.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the passionate energy young people past and present bring to anti-war or university fees protests. It also becomes clear that the older ethnic generation were quite stuck in their enclaves whereas today young people interact with ease with each other across the racial and religious divide. Music and clubs played a vital part in bringing black and white young people together.
Highlights include former MP Tony Benn, Mike Bieber of CND and BBC correspondent Kurt Barling exchanging views on protests; early 1960s archive clips of Malcolm X’s address to the Oxford Union; and Millie Small singing “My Boy Lollipop” on Top of the Pops. Freddie Notes and the Rudies, the first British ska/reggae band in Britain, tell the story of Muhammad Ali’s first visit to Brixton and we hear the story of Michael Jackson buying a safari hat “off the wall” at Laurence Corner, the iconic military clothes shop in Camden that inspired his album “Off The Wall”.
Refreshments will be available in our licenced cafe/bar.
TICKETS & PRICING
£5.
Advance tickets may be purchased from WeGotTickets, or direct from the Museum by calling 020 7840 2200 in office hours.
