OZ Magazine

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

The Complete Free Online Archive Of OZ Magazine (1967-1973)

[Bored Of Education]

I have mentioned here before that I worked for Felix Dennis for a few years and my wife worked for him for even more. The OZ stuff, including the trial, is fascinating and, in some ways, quite a milestone. It was interesting that Felix went onto to do much much more - forming a massive publishing company, becoming a poet and, probably most importantly, starting to plant a 30,000 acre joined up forest of native broadleaf which is already England’s largest new native forest with 300 acres a year being planted. He was an interesting, generous, unique man who could be at times lovely and a pain in the arse. It is always said that he was spurred on by the trial judge's comment that he was "very much less intelligent" than the other two but I think that is retrospective myth-making - possibly by Felix as he loved a bit of that.

OZ, the magazine, didn't really interest me as much as the sort of phenomenon of the trial really. To me, as a younger person who grew up with punk rock, it is a load of hippy nonsense but I know a lot of people who either got into publishing by working on it or who were inspired by it. Felix had a lot of OZ stuff in his archive but all the material in this appears to have come from Richard Neville - hence the Australian location.

[tee rex]

c 1970, graffiti in Exeter: "God Save Oz". I had no idea what it meant, but it was a landmark on the walk to and from primary school every day. I asked, but the replies were ... evasive.

[wittoner]

"God Save Oz" was a song written by John Lennon and released as a single on Apple to raise money for the defence fund in the trail.

For some arcane legal reason Lennon couldn't sing it himself so it didn't sell as well as it might have done.

I picked up a copy of Richard Neville's "Play Power" in a charity shop last year.
A period piece now and utterly jaw dropping in places, particularly it's attitude to under age sex.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

There's an advert for 'Play Power' on page 28 of Oz 33. It makes for interesting reading.

[Amor de Cosmos]

There was more than a hint hint of pedophilia around London's alternative press at that time, the short-lived Suck, which Neville was also peripherally involved with, made it more explicit. As mentioned in previous threads I helped out at Oz for a few months when I moved to London, partly because it was cool, and partly because I needed to improve my paste-up skills. Mostly I was there in the evening so didn't get to meet many of the movers and shakers, though Germaine came by a few times, seemed like a nice woman, not remotely up herself.

[Sporting]

There's an advert for 'Play Power' on page 28 of Oz 33. It makes for interesting reading.

Which date is that one?

[Felicity, I guess so]

I got an ex-library hardback of play power in the 80s.

The jaw-dropping sexual element I remember was a letter asking whether cutting a hole in your scrotum and your partner inflating it with a straw could be dangerous. The reply was “YES! Stop at once”

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Which date is that one?

Feb 1971

[slackster]

Thanks for the link, VT. That’s a fascinating period piece magazine which I’m old enough to know about but young enough not to have seen it on release.

There certainly were some dodgy “ sexual liberation” cul de sacs back then that the counter-culture explored. It was on the back of some of these provocative “freedoms” being promoted that the PIE/NCCL scandal about removing age of consent laws developed from the mid-70s.

[RobM]

There's an advert for 'Play Power' on page 28 of Oz 33. It makes for interesting reading.

Not really familiar with it. What were the issues around it?

[Amor de Cosmos]

As I recall (and I read around the time it was published) there was a fair bit on how groovy it was to take teenagers home and introduce them to the pleasures of sexual liberation.

[RobM]

Got ye, teenagers below the age of 16 I'm assuming as well. Creepy hippy bastards, glad I'm a punk.