Psychedelia and Other Colours: Rob Chapman

Review Brilliantly written, crammed full of original ideas and, dare I say it, a little educational too. It is a marvellous read. - Shindig Ashley Norris Psychedelia and Other Colours, a work of rare scholarship and insight, opens a window onto a much misunderstood multicoloured era. - Spectator Ian Thomson As an account of psychedelia's glorious highs and preposterous charms, Chapman's exhaustive exploration of this Arcadian age with take its rightful place as the standard text - The New Statesman Rob Young Product Description A Guardian, Mojo and Rough Trade Book of the Year Fifty years on from the psychedelic summer of love, acclaimed music writer Rob Chapman explores what was really going on during those heady times. In America he traces the multi-media history of the Light shows, Happenings, Be-Ins and Acid tests, and illustrates the thriving avant-garde scene that existed long before the Grateful Dead and the Fillmore Auditorium came into being. In the UK, he shows an entirely different history, never before explored in such breath-taking detail, where the sublime and the silly co-existed side by side in a peculiarly British take on flower power that drew inspiration as readily from fairy tales, fairgrounds and music halls, as it did from LSD. With a fascinating new perspective on the role of the Beatles, Psychedelia and Other Colours documents a cultural phenomenon, in psychedelia's seminal text. Review A fantastic, exhaustive history of the genre: comprehensive but gripping, packed with eye-opening period detail and with a brilliant analysis of everything from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the oeuvre of the Crocheted Doughnut Ring. -- Alexis Petridis ― Guardian An exhaustive, idiosyncratic and very entertaining reappraisal of an often lazily documented period. -- Jim Irvin ― Mojo 4* As an account of psychedelia's glorious highs and preposterous charms, Chapman's exhaustive exploration of this Arcadian age with take its rightful place as the standard text. -- Rob Young ― New Statesman It's not so much that Rob Chapman . . . brings new insights to the table (though it does that too): it's more that it constitutes a whole other table in its own right. -- Oregano Rathbone ― Record Collector 4* Undeniably admirable and enjoyable -- Allan Jones ― Uncut 7/10 Psychedelia and Other Colours, a work of rare scholarship and insight, opens a window onto a much misunderstood multicoloured era. -- Ian Thomson ― Spectator Book Description A seminal book on Psychedelia, that explores in crystalline detail the history, precedents and cultural impact of LSD. About the Author Rob Chapman is currently the holder of a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at The University of Manchester. He was for a long time a freelance radio broadcaster with the BBC national network and a music journalist. His work has appeared in Mojo , The Times, The Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Uncut, Word and Jockey Slut. He is the author of Selling the Sixties: The Pirates and Pop Music Radio (1992), The Vinyl Junkyard (1996) and the acclaimed biography Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head (2010). His first novel Dusk Music was published in 2008. He lives in Todmorden, Lancashire.