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Introduction to the Revised Version In the course of the piece of writing that follows, whichI’ve elected to call
an experiment in memoir compositionin the form of a novella
, I’ve tended to avoid the use of names, but in the cases of those who
have
been named, atno point – with the exception of deceased persons, as wellas family members, and those I consider to be publicfigures – are actual names used, apart from in one case, anickname. Rather, names have been changed out of fear of invasion of privacy. If I’ve inadvertently harmed any person or institution through the creation of this work, Ifirstly apologise, and would beg those so affected tocontact me in the first instance, so I might make duealterations. 
Chapter One - The Gambolling Baby Boomer
 
Birth of a Rock and Roll ChildI was born Friday 7 October 1955 at the tail end of WestLondon's Goldhawk Road and my first home was inBulmer Place near Notting Hill Gate.My brother was born two and a half years later, by whichtime my parents had bought their own house in BedfordPark in what was then the London Borough of Acton. Built by Norman Richard Shaw, Bedford Park was the world'sfirst Garden Suburb. By the 1880s it was a Bohemiancentre for intellectuals and artistic free-thinkers itsresidents going on to include most famously the great Anglo-Irish poet WB Yeats. The painter Arthur Pinero wasanother resident; as was the actress Florence Farr, wholike Yeats was deeply involved in mysticism and the occult.Some time after the dawn of the next century the area had
 
- significantly perhaps - declined to the extent that busconductors would shout out "Poverty Park!" when their vehicles stopped on the Bath Road. However, thefoundation in 1963 of the Bedford Park Society led first tothe government's listing of 356 houses, and then much of the estate becoming part of the Bedford Park Conservation Area. During my boyhood it was still demographically quite mixed, but well on the way to being completely gentrified.By '63, I'd been at South Kensington’s French Lycée forabout four years and my brother (born on the 2cnd of May 1958) had since joined me there. The sixties' social andsexual revolution was already well under way; and yet forall that, seminal Pop groups such as the Searchers and theDave Clark Five - even the Beatles themselves - werequaint and wholesome figures who fitted in well in a stillinnocent Britain of Norman Wisdom pictures and well-spoken presenters on the BBC Home or Light Service, of coppers, tanners and ten bob notes, sweet shops and
tuppeny chews
. It wasn't until the Rolling Stones achievednational infamy that the new Pop they'd first called Beatstarted to present a serious challenge to the moralestablishment of the UK, and so perhaps start to evolveinto the far more threatening music of Rock.On the day I was born - 7 October 1955 - Nation of Islamleader Elijah Muhammad reached the age of 58, andScottish psychologist RD Laing, 28, while Beat poet AmiraBaraka, revolutionary leader Ulriche Meinhof andFalklands hero Major Julian Thompson all hit 21. Thefuture Colonel Oliver North celebrated his 12th birthday,Judee Sill her 13th, Paul Weyrich his 8th, Vladimir Putinhis 3rd.It was a day marked by an event which had a colossal if largely unrecognised influence on the evolution of ourculture, when at San Franciso's Six Gallery about 150people gathered to witness readings of poems by AllenGinsberg, Phillip Whalen, Phillip Lamantia, MichaelMcClure and Gary Snyder. All went on to be leading lights
 
of the Beat Generation, as did Jack Kerouac, the shy Canuck from Lowell, Massachusetts, who attended butdidn't read, preferring to cheerlead in a state of ecstaticinebriation. His "On the Road" published two years later,and dealing with his wanderings across America with hismuse and friend Neal Cassady remains Beat's most famousever work. After the Six Gallery reading, the Beatmovement which had existed in embryonic form sinceabout 1944, left the underground to become aninternational craze, with the Beatnik taking his place as auniversally recognised icon with his beret, goatee beard,turtle-neck sweater and sandals.1955 was also the year in which Rock and Roll assaultedthe mainstream thanks to hits by Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry,Little Richard and others, although it's "The BlackboardJungle", which, released on the 20th of March, is widely credited with igniting the Rock' n' Roll revolution, indeedlate 20th Century teenage rebellion as a whole. It did so by featuring Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around theClock", over the film's opening credits. Originally a ratherconventional blues-based song recorded by Sonny Dae andhis Knights, Haley's version, which was remarkable for itsearth-shaking sense of urgency, ensured the world wouldnever be the same after it. In August Sun Records releaseda long playing record entitled "Elvis Presley, Scotty andBill", featuring the so-called King of the Western Bop who went on to become Rock's single most influential figureapart from the Beatles.On the 30
th
of September, James Dean died in hospitalfollowing a motor accident aged 23 after having made only three films, the greatest of which, Nicholas Ray's "Rebel Without a Cause" emerged about a month afterwards. Itcould be said to be the motion picture industry's definingelegy to the sensitivity and rebelliousness of youth, withDean its most beautiful and tortured icon ever. As such hisimage has never dated, nor been surpassed. The moderncult of youth was born in the mid 1950s.Many theories exist as to how the staid conformist fifties
of 00

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