Were you a Dirty Stop Out in '60s London? If so, the author of a forthcoming book would like to hear from you.
The 'Dirty Stop Out's Guide to 1960s London' is set to tell the story of the 'Swinging' decade through the personal memories and photos of hundreds of people that lived through it.
The book will go beyond the well worn voices of the era's cultural aristocracy and include the lesser known stories of the people that were swept away by the excitement of the scene; those that were queuing for autographs, those that never made the guest lists and those that bought the records that turned the era's music makers into enduring stars.
Author Neil Anderson said: "No city came close to London in the 1960s. It was the fashion and popular music capital of the world. It was Cool Britannia decades before Tony Blair brought the Gallagher's into No 10 Downing Street. If you weren't lucky enough to live amongst it, odds on you were drawn to making the pilgrimage from the provinces - or overseas in many cases - to see what all the fuss was about."
The 'Dirty Stop Out's Guide' originally started in Sheffield in 1995 as nightclub guide. It launched its first retrospective edition, the 'Dirty Stop Out's Guide to 1970s Sheffield', in 2011.
The book became an Waterstones best seller and went on to become famous nationally as the title that persuaded Chris and Ann Jackson to remarry after 26 years apart: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359380/Divorced-couple-rekindle-romance-spotting-1977-wedding-book-picture.html
It was followed by the 'Dirty Stop Out's Guide to 1960s Sheffield' which was written with help from 'Mr Nightclub' himself - Peter Stringfellow - and the biographer of his '60s venues, Dave Manvell.
The book was launched at a sold-out Leadmill in Sheffield that recreated Peter Stringfellow's legendary King Mojo club of the era.
Though Neil Anderson was too young to remember the 1960s, he has an endless fascination with its allure.
He said: "No decade before or after has matched the cultural legacy of the era. The fifties were painted as dour and austere, the seventies a car crash of bad fashion and endless strikes and the eighties a dystopian mix of impending nuclear war and Thatcherism. The 1960s could seemingly do no wrong.
"I've written about the '60s scene in the provinces and I thought it about time I got to the heart of the matter in London."
Neil Anderson is keen to speak to people willing to tell their own stories.
"Were you a mod, a rocker or did you sit on the fence? Were you at one with the Beatles or were you firmly in the Stones' camp? Were you a flower child or too stoned to care? Were you at the earliest London gigs of The Who, the Small Faces or Jimi Hendrix?
"Did you frequent the boutiques of Carnaby Street or the Kings Road or just enjoy London becoming the most fashionable place in the world?
"The Dirty Stop Out's Guide has been a massive hit in the North of England, I'm hoping for the same reaction in the South."
The 'Dirty Stop Out's Guide to 1960s London' is set to be published later this year. Please contact Neil at neil@dirtystopouts.com
