OFF TOPIC with Steve Mixup. A place for me to tell the odd story or two about the post war rock generation. If they couldn’t change the world at least they brought us some wonderful music.

69ers by Jon Blake.
Book Review

When I got hold of this book I knew I was going to like it. It was about a subject I am passionate about, the 1960’s youth generation and their music, the hippies, the rockers, the guitar heroes, that from early in my life I revered. Now, that doesn’t mean it is going to be a good read necessarily, so, as with all books, I turned the first page in anticipation. Straight away there was musical reference to set a scene. This isn’t a reference with hindsight but something that would have been in the air at the time. That was the same throughout the book, the groups and people mentioned would have been current then. It is written as it may have happened to any of us if we had of been there. My first festivals were in the mid seventies and I eventually found my way to the free festival scene and The Isle of Wight festival’s were a great part of the late sixties movement that spawned the cultural ground I later trod.

This book is centered around the 1969 festival and the appearance of Bob Dylan and his mythical status among the hordes congregating but it is the many everyday characters that are the backbone of the story with Scott and his own teenage journey being the focus of the book. Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll is maybe an over used phrase but this is also one of the centre points of the book. Not that Jon is trying to impress upon us the virtues of either of them but just laying it out as it was. They were the things going on. Maybe they still are. The clumsy attempts at sexual rendezvous’s were humorous but ever so real. The speed at which friendships were made and lost around a camp fire reminds me of my own time when a few weeks, a few days even a few hours was a long time. Ludicrous almost childlike adventures, drug encounters and the wildness of a huge festival is perfectly illustrated. The book nicely touched upon the politics of that era without dismissing it or praising it. It was left for me to think upon those principles, my relationship to them, some of which have remained with me although some have changed. That’s called growing up I suppose. Naive we may have been as a generation but with an exuberance that can only come from the inquisitive and playful minds of youth. I could identify with all the characters, I could substitute them with the people I knew in my time. I’m not going to say who I was, I’m still unsure.

If you were part of this time and place you will recognise it straight away. If you weren’t you will get the essence of the era and understand how it felt. It is my belief it was a golden period but then again I’m biased.

Steve Mixup, April 2026

Jon had contacted me on another matter early this year and that’s how I later came to read his book. He has an entry in my Notts Music Archive as a member of ‘The Cutouts‘ a Nottingham based band circa 80-82. He is better known as a writer of children’s books. Jon Blake website