Talking with the Hippies

In this episode of Talking with the Hippies I take a break from history, and move the focus more on to what is actually happening now. I chat to Miranda and Simeon. We cover topics like Life, Living in a community, eco housing, sustainable living, and raising a family outside of the State Education System. I spent a lovely few hours in the permaculture community that they live in. I've got to say...

OK, I'm slightly misleading you with the title there. We do touch on the festivals, and they are definitely events that I do want to go into in much more detail, and my guest definitely did go to those festivals, but it turns out he wasn't really there either, if you get what I mean. Today in Talking with the Hippies I am chatting with Chris Wilko. Chris is an old hippy, a musician, a poet, a phil...

In this episode I chat with Paul Justison. Paul grew up in Tuscon, Arizona and along with 1000s of other hippies in the USA, he moved to Haight Ashbury in 1966.  What can I say about Haight-Ashbury in 1966/67. Some say it's where the scene all started out. Obviously it's not - it was happening all over - but for sure right at that time some amazing things were happening there. We chat about t...

In this episode I chat with Andy Roberts, who is without doubt one of the most knowledgeable people in the field of psychedelics that I have ever met. We cover a lot of ground, but somehow it feels as if there is still so much more. We may have to have a Part Two. We also go over some interesting Operation Julie stuff - just couldn't resist it as we are both already quite deep in to the subject. O...

In this episode of Talking with the Hippies I'm back on to the subject of Operation Julie.  I'm on a road trip to the Arts Centre in Aberystwyth to watch a performance of 'Operation Julie - A Rock Musical', followed up by a question and answers session with some of the main characters involved at the time. It's really is all very interesting stuff, and as you might be realising by now, I'm ge...

In this episode of Talking with the Hippies, I chat with Chris Voisey, and get to listen to some of his poems. Chris grew up in Plymouth during the 50s/60s and has been writing poetry all of his life. I was lucky to get to look through some of his early journals - all the poems are dated and written in beautiful handwriting. I really struggled with poetry at school and have never been near it sinc...

In this episode I chat with the German Historian, Juliane Furst.  In her recently published book, 'Flowers through Concrete', Juliane documents her ten years research into the hippy scene behind the Iron Curtain. It is an amazing subject, and an amazing piece of work. To be honest if you had asked me a year ago I would have said 'No, I don't think that could possibly have ever happened", but it di...

In this episode I chat with the author, and one time member of The Incredible String band, Rose Simpson. We do chat for a long time, and yes, we do go over the sacred 60 minutes that the podcast experts say loses listeners. We cover a lot of ground - the 60s, the String Band, being an author, getting old, love and peace, and so much more - it was a joy! If you enjoy listening to Talking with the H...

In this episode my guest is Steve Bentley, who worked in the drugs squad as an undercover cop in the 1970s. Steve was involved in surveillance and infiltration work in the infamous Operation Julie busts of 1978.  This is a good listen - I hope that you enjoy it. If you were in any way caught up in the events surrounding Operation Julie and would like to share your memories of that time, pleas...

In this episode I chat with my friend John Allen. In the 60s we used the word 'cool' a lot. Looking back I can see that I put a lot of effort into trying to be 'cool'. I tried not to make problems, and I tried not to over-react to problems. I tried to keep a level head - not always an easy thing to do in some of the circumstances we found ourselves in. Why am I saying this - because spending an ho...

In this episode I chat with my friend John about some of his thoughts and experiences of the 60s. I really enjoyed recording and producing this podcast. I hope that you enjoy listening to it. Please subscribe and share with friends who you think may also enjoy it. If you have stories of those glorious times (or maybe not so glorious for some) that you would like to chat about please do get in touc...

That difficult second podcast!  Take it from me, if you enjoyed listening to episode one then you'll love this one too. My guest today is Rose Ellis. Among other things, Rose is a potter and a musician, but most importantly of all, a genuinely nice human being. We chat about all the usual stuff, you know, drugs, rock and roll, free love, travelling, love and peace, and more. If you enjoy this...

Welcome to episode one of my new podcast. The vague plan is to build up an audio archive loosely based on the events and culture of the Hippy era - roughly speaking 1965-72, plus maybe some of what happened next. I've got two more episodes in the can, so after that, it kind of depends what happens next - It could be a series of three! My first guest is my old friend, Mr Ken Phillips. We met i...