Last week I made reference to the fashionable King's Road in Chelsea. This week we are going there and travelling back to the Swinging Sixties. Let's take a trip...  

In February 1966 at 488 King's Road a boutique shop opened run by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend Sheila Cohen and John Pearse, in 1969 it was acquired by Freddie Hornik and remained open until the mid-1970s. It has been called the "first psychedelic boutique in Groovy London of the 1960s" - the shop was called 'Granny Takes a Trip' ! 

I have photos and links to all of this (which will appear as extras at the end of this post). 

But first a promotional film to a single released in 1967 by The Purple Gang titled 'Granny Takes a Trip' that is a fantastic bit of time travel down the King's Road and into the actual shop in question. 

People like John Peel loved this record – but the BBC had other ideas and promptly banned it, even though the 'trip' had nothing to do with LSD. So instead of soundtracking the hippy era, it sold a measly 4,340 copies. With its honky-tonk piano and one of pop's rarest of instrumental breaks, a kazoo solo, it remains an innocent, timeless reminder of the first Summer of Love. 

Produced by Joe Boyd and recorded at the same time and same studio as Pink Floyd's 'Arnold Layne' this is The Purple Gang > [full screen a must]

Extras:-

A very short film: Excerpt from a 1967 'Look At Life' documentary (link here)  Far Out ! 

The ever changing shop front is captured along with photos of The Purple Gang band (here) 

Location - it was not really a place I remember as it was a mile away from where I was working - down the King's Road at World's End. 

(Left) in the 60s and (right) 488 King's Road today. The zebra crossing and Belisha beacon have gone. 

And anyone interested (like me): Nigel Waymouth was a designer and artist and responsible for the constantly changing shop fronts. While still involved in Granny Takes a Trip, in 1967 he teamed up with fellow artist Michael English and together they began designing many of the quintessential British pop posters of that era. See here