Customer Reviews

Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fun, fascinating, engrossing portrait of one of the most exciting moments of the past several decades: London in the sixties. I think of the sixties, especially the sixties of London, as a kaleidoscope, a never ending swirl of colors and images. And just as it is impossible to capture a kaleidoscope in a single image, so it is impossible to express fully in one book the Swinging London of the sixties. READY, STEADY, GO! is a series of snapshots rather than a precise replication, but while it fails, of course, to do the period full justice, neither are the images in any sense not accurate reflections of what happened.

Shawn Levy's skills and orientation are primarily those of the biographer, and READY, STEADY, GO! is largely a series of mini-biographies that taken together contain the gist of his story. Most of the story that Levy is intent to tell is found in his recounting of the lives and careers in that decade of a few key individuals: photographer David Bailey and his superstar model Jean Shrimpton; fashion innovator Mary Quant and hair styling revolutionary Vidal Sassoon; actor Terence Stamp; Brian Epstein and the group he pushed to fame, the Beatles; Andrew Loog Oldham and the Stones, especially Mick Jagger; art dealer and promoter Robert Fraser; the unlikely superstar model Twiggy; the person who is one of the great symbols, victims, and survivors of the sixties, Mariane Faithful (read her marvelous autobiography FAITHFULL); and a supporting cast of dozens. While most of the emphasis of the book is on personalities, there is also a strong emphasis on the places they went. Levy does a marvelous job of highlighting the places all these souls went to mingle, to party, to have fun, and to be seen. The nightclubs, the restaurants, the sometimes bizarre clothing stores, all receive their fair share of attention.

While Levy mainly focuses on telling the stories of the main personalities of the period, he doesn't neglect completely the larger scene. He begins the book by describing how one thing that made the sixties possible was the fact that the youth of the time were beneficiaries of the first economic boom to follow WW II, and for the first time in decades, people had money to spend on more than merely life's necessities. He also discusses how the fashions and styles developed by what was a cultural elite sifted down to the masses, and how the ideas and trends were transformed in the migration. I have to say, however, that I found this aspect of the book to be somewhat lean. I would have liked to know a great deal more about how the sixties influenced and impacted kids as a whole. Instead of delving into this aspect in any depth, he instead continually skirts back to his core characters.

The first half of the book, about the "smashing rise" of Swinging London is, as might be expected, for more interesting and enjoyable than the second half, which chronicles first the mass popularization and more-or-less institutionalization of the trends, and then the gradual dissolution of the entire scene. The "giddy fall" derives from a number of factors, though an unhealthy number of them would seem to be drug-related. Tara Browne's death in a single car crash (immortalized in the Beatles' "A Day in the Life"); the bust of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Robert Fraser for drug possession and use; the decline and deaths of Brian Epstein and Brian Jones; the shattering of relationships as people become more and more involved in drugs; and the death of Jimi Hendrix were all more or less brought about by the increasingly large role that drugs came to play in the scene. In particular, Levy emphasizes the way in which the extensive use of LSD began to put a damper on things, as it drove people more and more into themselves and away from others.

I would have like to seen greater detail on the legacy of Swinging London. In a very real sense, it is still very much with us. Many of the clothes we wear, much of the music we listen to, the way we wear our hair. We owe much of the fabric of ours lives to London of the sixties. Still, this is a marvelous visit back to the most exciting time and place of the past half decade.

Just to clear up a point of confusion, there are more than 40 original first-person interviews in this book, with people as diverse as Terence Stamp, Michael Caine, Lynn Redgrave, Bill Wyman, David Puttnam, Vidal Sassoon, Mary Quant, Ian McKellen, Michael Apted, Rita Tushingham, John Boorman, Woody Allen, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and assorted restauranteurs, gallery and nightclub owners, models, editors, photographers, musicians, haberdashers and so on. Yes, I did rely heavily on previously published materials -- and I explain how much and why in the acknowledgements. But there is scarcely a page without a quote or bit of information gleaned from one of these interviews. It just seemed to me that the vast ocean of information out there ought not to be ignored if it could give a clear picture of the period. Sorry if I sound a little thin-skinned, but when people take the book to task for its methodology and simply get their facts wrong, it can make you a tad edgy.

Anyway, hope you like the book.

PS: Since I couldn't post these comments without ascribing a star rating, I assigned four stars, which was the average of the previous reviewers' comments.

Levy has captured the drama and glamour of the sheer novelty of London in the early '60s and, for the most part, rendered it accessible and electric for his readers. The backstories of Mary Quant and Tara Browne may be new to many readers, but the Beatles and fashion info is already out there in a multitude of other books. More focus on the lesser-known personalities would have suited this book better, but overall it's a fascinating study of why the British Invasion succeeded and failed.

I'm in complete agreement with the previous reviewer...while I enjoyed this book, I would have appreciated more comprehensive coverage of some of the lesser-known figures and incidents of the time. In addition to this title and the aforementioned FAITHFULL, I'd highly recommend Mick Farren's GIVE THE ANARCHIST A CIGARETTE--an astonishingly vivid, articulate and hilarious portrait of the more bohemian/hippie end of late-'60s London. There's also another London-in-the-'60s book I've been on the lookout for entitled DAYS IN THE LIFE by Jonathan Green.

I thought this book presented a good overview and flavor of the era. Clearly, extensive research was involved. The different aspects I had read about, however, seemed different in my memory from what was in the book. For example, Lennon-McCartney did not form Northern Songs for their own music. They were not major composers when they first arrived in London with a contract and Brian Epstein arranged for their music to be handled by this company. It was later a source of grief for them when the company and their creations were sold, completely out of their control. Most of the information about the Rolling Stones seemed to be from Marianne Faithfull's autobiography, which was very well written. Paul McCartney's book, Many Years from Now, had a very lively discussion of the '60's art scene. Michael Caine's autobiography, also, was clearly used for much background material. In translation, the data from these works was much less lively than the originals. Reading only a few of them gave me a sense of the patched together quality of this book.

Shawn Levy's book is vivid and well-written - a book about a time and a place that really seems to know its stuff. I appreciated his strong mix of first-person sources and already published material. He's got a flair for describing people and events in crisp, colorful language, a flair that suits this material well.

I'm not sure he proved all his conclusions about the greater influence of "Swinging London" but that does not diminish the impact of the book much. Recommended.

Ready, Steady, Go! (The Smashing Rise and the Giddy Fall of Swinging London) is a tale told with a great deal of affection by its author Shawn Levy. This is a wonderful book for the summer and a nice answer to the Austin Powers movie, as the actual time and place was more giddy than any satire could ever imagine. There was a darkness to this time as well but that is not the story the author wants to focus on as, other than the last few pages, the book is about the first half of the sub-title, and is it a smashing story indeed. Some of the stories (read: gossip) will be familiar but the author spins them out with delicious care. This book was successful in making me envious of those who were there but also effective in making me happy that I did ultimately get to spend a little time there through this book. There is no depth and no analysis, per se, in the stories only a tapestry of a time but it adds up to a fun read.

Levy does a fantastic job of weaving together the various scenes and personalities that made Swinging London happen. A fast, fun read, even if you're not that familiar with the subject matter. I learned a lot about Vidal Sassoon, for example, but more than I actually cared to know.

Every now and then, culture bounds forward completely -- and takes art, movies, theatre, music, and society along with it. Swinging London was one such time, and "Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London" takes a balanced, informative look at this colourful, taboo-shattering time.

As the opening chapter tells readers, 1950s London was the uncoolest city in the world -- the US was booming with rock'n'roll and teen rebellion, while Italy and France were sophistications zones. All that changed in a few years, with the introduction of new kinds of everything: shocking new fashions, sexual habits, hairstyles, music, and a subculture of excited sophistication and (allegedly) classless communication.

Among the new royalty: models, photographer David Bailey, stylist Vidal Sassoon, designer Mary Quant actors such as Terence Stamp and Michael Caine, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, their managers, and a wide sprinkling of others -- Marianne Faithfull, Twiggy, and a bunch of "in" bluebloods. But like any era, it didn't last -- its own popularity drowned it, as drugs, death and the psychedelic fashions took over.

Charting an entire cultural era is pretty difficult, without making it boring or turgid. But Shawn Levy succeeds with "Ready Steady Go!", outlining how this colorful -- and still influential -- period began, how it flourished, and how it lost its relevance as time went on.

Levy writes in a crisp, easygoing style that makes it remarkably easy reading, especially since he's tracing a dozen different stories at once, while charting how the "Swinging London" scene metamorphosed over time. Some of these stories are well known -- such as the stories about the Stones -- but others are not nearly as well known, and just as exciting (Jean Shrimpton, Bailey and Stamp, for example).

And he does a good job describing the fashions, music and excitement of the times, without ever seeming to be too enamored of it. It's too easy to romanticize a past era, and Levy is aware of its weaknesses as well as strengths. Perhaps the only problem is that occasionally he gets a bit swept away by it all, and starts writing in a novelesque style, such as Shrimpton and Stamp's breakup.

"Ready Steady Go!" is a colourful, fast-paced look at the Swinging Sixties -- kind of like the era itself. Levy may not have been there, but you'd never know that by reading this.

Swinging London! It's already one of those legendary times & places, not quite real, inviting younger generations to wonder if the world could ever have been even remotely like this, even for a brief time. Well, this insightful volume comes as close to answering that question as possible, offering a thorough, glittering history of the period.

Having been a teenager during those years, I can confirm that it seemed to be a whole new era every six months or so back then, even to someone living in the less than swinging suburbs of New Jersey. And author Shawn Levy truly captures that incredible feeling of change, excitement & endless possibilities as he examines the lives & impact of several prominent personalities who exemplified Swinging London: David Bailey, Jean Shrimpton, Mary Quant, Terence Stamp, to name just a few.

While this is a history, it puts you right in the middle of the action, so that you're living it as it unfolds. The reader is there to witness the sudden flowering of the era, its dazzling heyday, and its swift disintegration as too much exposure & fame took its toll. It had the life of a mayfly ... but it was a gorgeous, baroque mayfly that blazed with color & energy.

The films & music of the time will give you a real flavor of its look & atmosphere, but this book provides both juicy details & an intelligent analysis of the phenomenon -- the factors leading to its birth, and those leading to its demise. For those who were alive then, it's a return to a past that doesn't seem quite believable now; for those too young to have been there, it's a window into another world. Recommended!