1960's Pop and Counter-Culture at the Royal Albert Hall

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The ’Sixties at the Royal Albert Hall started with a concert featuring both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, witnessed Bob Dylan going electric, and finished with the filming in full of an explosive concert by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. However, it was not simply the music which makes the story of the Albert Hall and the ’Sixties so interesting. The famous venue unintentionally played a major role in the formation of the 1960s underground movement through hosting some nonconformist counter-culture ‘happenings’. The period is now looked back on with a degree of pride, but at the time some of the events which took place led to institutional palpitations and blanket bans. This presentation reveals all!

After spells with the Other Cinema Collective, working on the cult children’s TV series Cloppa Castle, and managing London’s Scala Cinema, Richard Dacre ran Flashbacks film memorabilia shop in the heart of Soho for 26 years. For the past 15 years he has worked at the Royal Albert Hall where he researches its history to produce tours and presentations. In addition to writing the 2019 Royal Albert Hall: Official Souvenir Guide, Richard’s published work includes Trouble In Store: Norman Wisdom – A Career In Comedy (1991) and Movie Posters – The History of Cinema from the Origins to the Present (2020). He is currently working on a history of the Royal Albert Hall both as a cinema and as a film & television location.

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