What we wore: pollock-style paint splattered shirts, fringed jackets, scarves (various), dark velvet, boots with heels worn down, voluminous hair.
What we read: Spike Milligan, George Melly, Henry Miller, James Joyce, Thomas Pynchon, french symbolist poetry.
What we listened to: Coltrane, Ayler, Kirk, John Cage, Barbirolli conducting Vaughan Williams, Ewan Maccoll, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Doc Watson, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Tim Hardin, The Left Banke, The Byrds, Dylan (of course).
What we consumed: the best water-ices and lemon tea at Marine Ices, Chalk Farm; Danone yoghourt; exotic breads from Golders Green; free food parcels from Kingsley.
What we believed in: nothin' that we could be sure of...
What we saw: Muswell Hill broadway and Fortis Green road free of glogging traffic, subtitled french films at Hampstead's everyman cinema, Jimi Hendrix close-up, all-niter music clubs and milkmen starting their morning rounds, heads smoking a lot of dope, the inside of many an old BBC radio studio, the inside of an old van...
What we did to pass the time: sketched, painted and doodled, wandered the streets of London, north of the river, on foot, picked our spots, attended sundry music clubs like Cook's Ferry inn, The 100 Club and The Marquee,acted like human blotting paper...
What we experienced: THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, THE MOST COLOURFUL AND CREATIVE PERIOD OF BRITISH HISTORY (discounting the Elizabethans).
Ashley Hutchings. Summer 2002.