Alan Clayson - Get Yer 'Air Cut

Oldcastle Books [Publication date 17.09.24]

They say you should always try and start a book with a bang, or at least a significant event.

Alan Clayson’s ‘Get Yer Air Cut’ most certainly does that, opening with a 15 year old’s suicide, the result of the trauma of having to have a haircut in an era when it meant everything.

And that sad tale is the closest this entertaining 300+ page book gets to a mission statement, namely that given the baby boomer back drop of the changing times, long hair was the most obvious way in which to make a statement. And that statement became a signifier of the counter culture.

‘Get Yer ‘Air Cut’ is both a great title and concept for a very original book, leaving the author the exhausting task of joining the dots of a unique era and making sense of it all.

In Clayson’s own case, as with many others, the ‘political’ act of resisting a haircut had repercussions at home, at school and in the work place.

Significantly many a troubled individual took to the refuge of art college (hence The Pretty Things, The Rolling Stones etc), and various secondary education outlets to provide a more sympathetic environment for the protest.

And once enough people (a mix of students, hippies, bands, artists and various cultural icons etc) adopted the fashion, there is a case to be made for long hair as being an agent of social change.

This gives the author a wide frame of reference and sundry cultural avenues to explore, with plenty of room for archive research and amusing anecdotes.

He’s big on The Pretty Things (and by association The Rolling Stones), and relies on old Beatle stories to illustrate the changing times.

He also draws on personal experiences with Screaming Lord Such (once the proud owner of lengthy locks) Dave Berry, Dick Taylor and more generally the ever present influence of Elvis.

His research takes in the late 60’s West Coast to recycle familiar Zappa and Jim Morrison stories. He digs up related news snippets and anecdotes from Europe ,and more mundanely reports on moments of angst ridden conflict concerning hair length in British and American schools.

Early in the book, former Brummy musician, agent and some time Sabbath manager Jim Simpson, says of long hair: “It was a kind of badge, saying that we were into cool things.”

Graham Nash also reflects on with long hair at the time: “You’d know how he thought – that he hated the government and was into good music.”

And while The Pretty Things front man Phil May is a very relevant reference point, being regarded as wilder than Jagger and certainly with more hair, it’s left to hippy blues musician Mick Pini (one of Leicester’s original “shower people”) to state that: “Those who called us names have now grown their hair.”

This is tempered by Clayson’s use of the famous Lennon quote, that despite the advent of long hair: “The same bastards are in control, the same people are running everything.”

The author sets about his task with a broad chronological sweep through the nascent counter culture and the links stretching from the pop world via TV, to the big screen, newsprint, sport and beyond.

There are fleeting musical antecedents such as skiffle, jazz and a sideways step into the red light district of Hamburg, through the eyes of The Move’s Ace Kefford.

It’s a book which at times loses its way in terms of its subject matter, but always finds a way back to the central theme.

It’s left to a Swede Lennart Wrigholm, to reminds us that when the Fab 4 toured Sweden; “Everyone agreed that The Beatles were a musical explosion – but it was their hair and clothing style everybody was talking about.”

And if Clayson tests our patience with a few fictive leaps of his own imagination, it’s the price the reader pays for a true wordsmith, who describes the Stones early American tours thus:

“The Stones breakthrough was, nevertheless, as low fat margarine to full cream dairy butter when compared to that of The Beatles.”

He further reminds us of pop icons like PJ Proby, The Walker Brothers and zig-zags through The Stones and Pretty Things careers, while dipping into the media scrum of The “Summer of Love”.

There are tales of dim job prospects, skinheads, drug busts, police harassment, and more, and a final update on some of our heroes.

In many respects ‘Get Your ‘Air Cut’ is like a paper back version of coffee table book, into which you can dip in and out depending on your interests.

Clayson’s role is that of a slightly judgemental guide, who does his job with due diligence.

His own angst ridden recollections, while not leading to the same horrendous repercussions reported on in the opening chapter of the book, are a reminder of just why so many of us grew our hair long in the first place. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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