Welcome to 1967, the third volume of our encyclopaedic History Of Rock series, telling the stories of music's momentous years with the aid of extraordinary journalism plucked from the archives of NME and Melody Maker.
1967 is a year defined by its summer – a summer not announced by warmer weather, so much as by the Beatles release of (i)Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band(i) in June. It is also a more symbolic season, in which the tentative drug dalliance, conceptual thought and musical explorations seeded in the previous year all burst into vibrant colour. Or, in the case of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, into flames.
The staffers of NME and Melody Maker were there with The Beatles and Hendrix, with The Rolling Stones, The Pink Floyd, Cream and The Bee Gees. They reported on the spread of Flower Power and the launch of Radio 1. As The History Of Rock: 1967 proves once again, they were where it matters. At Monterey with Brian Jones, or looning at UFO. Talking Coronation Street with the Monkees. Awaiting a delivery of poached eggs, with Traffic.
Join them there. You’ll flip on it.
