AND THE BEAT GOES ON...

S A T U R D A Y,  2 9  A P R I L

At 4.30 I cycled round to the Fox-Scotts and watched Ma and Pa, June and Des (June's great friend) play tennis. Chump was playing with Bill and Susie. At last we had tea – 14 of us! It was a jolly good tea. June's got some 1879 Encyclopaedias and it’s so funny looking at them - they predicted the population of America would be 170 million in 1925, but it’s only 150,000 million now. Then I left, to do my History project.

Saw The Monkees. In one part they all dressed up as chefs - Peter and Mickey looked adorable. Listened to ‘Pop Over Europe’ at 7.30, with ghastly Katie Boyle. They played the No. 1 of six different countries and for France it was ‘J’Aime les Filles’!

After supper Daddy put the gramophone in the dining room so we could have it blaring and Chump and me did the most ravey dances. Wiggling your arms round very fast is a terrific thing to do to The Beat Goes On - we got the idea from a girl on T.O.T.P.  

Finally we went up, I felt pretty awful, hot and shaking, but it was worth it. Lay on the floor in Chump’s room and we listened to some more fab songs on French radio including ‘Happy Together’, which reminded me of being in our room at Gasthof Post and made me rather sad.

Tooth very painful all day.

“London’s Psychedelic Beginnings”

Fifty years ago today, more than 10,000 hipsters gathered in Alexander Palace (Ally Pally) for Technicolor Dream – a 14-hour benefit party in aid of London’s International Times. Over 30 bands, from the Animals to the Pink Floyd, played (often simultaneously). There was a helter-skelter, an igloo for the smoking of banana skins, and an awful lot of acid.

My crazed dancing that night was no doubt in sympathy with this momentous event.