| Reference Number (Click this to reveal full catalogue structure) | 1966JS |
| Title | 1966, Jon Savage Papers |
| Date | n.d. |
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| Extent | 7 bays |
| Description | This collection consists of the research material and manuscript drafts for the book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded by Jon Savage, published in 2015. Alongside the manuscript drafts and archival research material, the collection includes the printed books which Jon Savage used as reference material in writing the publication.
The collection contains a very comprehensive selection of pop music and youth press of the period, particularly 1955-1988, such as regular and underground publications Rolling Stone, Face, I-D, Oz, Creem, Circus, Record Mirror, Disc, Music Echo, KRLA Beat, Honey, Datebook, Time, LIFE, Newsweek, and Art and Artists, Anarchy. There are also copies of material from the Pittsburgh Archives Andy Warhol collection related to the year 1966, in addition to fifteen feet of books related to popular culture and political events relevant to the zeitgeist of 1966 such as the Vietnam War, and the Hunter's Point riot of September 1966.
The collection also contains manuscript drafts and proofs for the 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded publication, alongside RTF files and images relevant to the publication. As well as the materials collected at time of publication and for the 1966 book, there is also a large file of material from research into the essay that Jon Savage produced for the Beatles To Bowie catalogue to the National Portrait Gallery exhibit The Sixties Exposed (2009-2010). Entitled ‘Portraits of Pop’, the essay dealt with the sixties music press. |
| AdminHistory | Jon Savage was born in 1953. Growing up in the West End of London through the 1960s meant that Jon had been exposed to heavily to the pop culture that shaped the 1960s. Jon’s career as a writer started at an early age as wrote article for various school and college magazines. His first published piece was in his school magazine where he wrote a film critique of ‘Woodstock.’ In the early 1970s Jon left London to study for his degree in Classics at Cambridge and then went on to complete a post-graduate qualification law.
The life changing moment for Jon Savage came in October 1976 when he first saw the Clash live. This event set Jon a path to becoming one the foremost experts on Punk which he not only lived through but also helped to shape. After seeing the Sex Pistols and the Clash Jon Savage published his first Fanzine London’s Outrage in November 1976 which was influenced by the already successful Sniffin Glue. Jon produced 50 xeroxed copies and 1000 printed copies of the first London’s Outrage which were distributed through Rough Trader music store. Jon then moved up to the more mainstream music press with help from Dave Fudger and Vivienne Goldman in the mid to late 1970s. Jon began writing for Sounds, one of the leading music magazines of the day, in November 1977. Alongside his work in Sounds Jon wrote for developing Fanzines on the West Coast of America including Search and Destroy, BOMP and Slash. In 1979 Jon moved to Melody Maker another leading British music magazine and by 1980 he was writing for the newly founded pop culture magazine The Face. Throughout the 1980s Jon Savage continued to write for The Face but also contributed to other publications such as New York Rocker, The Observer, Mantra Records, The Sunday Times and Spin.
Jon Savage published his book in 1984 The Kinks: The Official Biography which drew extensively on the interviews with the band members. By the late 1980s Jon had amassed a huge array of material from the Punk era and with this information he began to start researching for a book that is now regarded as the definitive and comprehensive history of punk music, England’s Dreaming. A good proportion of the material used whilst researching for the book came from Jon’s own personal archives of material he had collected over the years. However through his research he collected more material which he added to his personal archives. England’s Dreaming was published in 1991 and has yet to go out of print. The book was later used by as a basis for a television programme called ‘Punk and the Pistols’ in 1995. Jon Savage worked with Paul Tickell, who he had met whilst writing for Melody Maker, on the original concept of the programme. Since the release of England’s Dreaming Jon Savage continues to write about punk and other genres and his article are still being published magazines such as Mojo and The Observer Music Monthly. Compilation CDs based on track listings created by Jon Savage have also been released, most notably England’s Dreaming in 2004 and Meridian 1970 in 2005.
1966: The Year the Decade Exploded explores how the pop world accelerated following the year 1966, focusing on the US, the UK, France, and the Netherlands following revolutionary ideas which had been slowly progressing since the late 1950s. It was the recipient of the 2016 Penderyn Music Book Prize. It was also adapted for a BBC Arena documentary, shown during Summer 2016. |
| CustodialHistory | This collection was purchased by LJMU Special Collections & Archives from Jon Savage in 2018. |
| Related Material | 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded, 2015, by Jon Savage, is the book based on the research materials held in this collection.
See reference OZ for the OZ magazines originally collected by Jon Savage within this collection, as well as other material related to the Oz Trial of 1971 concerning obscenity in the Oz underground Australian magazine.
LJMU Special Collections & Archives also holds other collections of research materials used by Jon Savage for his other publications. This includes the England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock collection of punk material, and Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945. Use reference codes ED and TJS respectively to access these collections.
Other collections which may be of interest to users studying popular culture and counterculture include: TPSS, the Ted Polhemus Street Style collection including full runs of I-D and Face magazine; EPF, the papers of the Liverpool-based underground Eric's Club and Pete Fulwell; IT, the International Times underground newspaper; FSXS, the Falcon Suart and X-Ray Spex papers related to Stuart's career as a music manager of the punk band among other artists; JN, Jeff Nuttall's My Own Mag magazine collection; JMS for the John McCready Situationist International papers; PMBM for Barry Miles's Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now writers reference library for his authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and TP/SS, TP/FF, and TP/ABAD for the subculture streetstyle, fetish, and anthropological fashion collections of Ted Polhemus. See our Popular Culture, Music, and Counterculture Collections Resource Guide for more information. |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| AccessConditions | Please note that although this collection is uncatalogued and there is no list for the archive material, a database of the 700 books in this collection is available to browse via the LJMU Library Discover: https://ljmu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?query=holdings_information,contains,1966,AND&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=44JMU_INST:44JMU_VU1&lang=en&mode=advanced&offset=0
There is currently no preliminary list of archive material for this collection, which may therefore impact our ability to make this material available. In addition, please be aware that access to some of these records may be closed or restricted because they contain personal data which identifies people who may be alive in accordance with data protection legislation, or other sensitive information. Please contact archives@ljmu.ac.uk for all appointments and enquiries. |
| Language | English |
| Creator | Chistopher Olive, Assistant Archivist 2024 |