A new exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970, explores the era-defining significance and impact of the late 1960s upon life today.

From global civil rights, multiculturalism, environmentalism, consumerism, computing, communality to neoliberalist politics, the world we live in has been vitally influenced by five revolutionary years – You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 -1970 investigates the upheaval, the explosive sense of freedom, and the legal changes that took place resulting in a fundamental shift in the mindset of the Western world.

The Souper Dress. Photo: Kerry TaylorThe Souper Dress. Photo: Kerry Taylor

More than 350 objects encompassing photography, posters, literature, music, design, film, fashion, artefacts and performance that defined the counterculture illustrate the way that a whole generation shook off the confines of the past and their parents, radically revolutionising the way they lived their lives.

Highlights on display show the creative, social and legal outputs of revolutionary new ways of living. They include underground magazines from Oz to the International Times, a shopping list written behind barricades during the 1968 Paris student riots, a moon rock on loan from Nasa alongside the space suit worn by William Anders, who took the defining Earthrise photograph on the Apollo 8 mission, a rare Apple 1 computer, an Ossie Clark costume for Mick Jagger, original artworks by Richard Hamilton, shards from Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, the suits worn by John Lennon and George Harrison on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and handwritten lyrics for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles.

More than 350 objects encompassing photography, posters, literature, music, design, film, fashion, artefacts, and performance that defined the counterculture

The collection of the cult radio presenter and musical tastemaker John Peel provides a musical odyssey through some of the greatest music and performance of the 20th century from Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come to The Who’s My Generation to Jimi Hendrix live at Woodstock.

Music is played through Sennheiser headsets using innovative audio guide technology which adapts the sound to the visitor’s position in the gallery. Sound is integrated with video and moving image, including interviews with key figures from the period such as Yoko Ono, Stewart Brand and Twiggy, psychedelic light shows and seminal films, including Easy Rider and 2001: A Space Odyssey, to create a fully immersive and dramatic audiovisual experience.

Anti-Vietnam demonstrators at the Pentagon Building. Photo: Bernie BostonAnti-Vietnam demonstrators at the Pentagon Building. Photo: Bernie Boston

The collection is designed in six distinct sections, each presenting a separate revolution within a highly atmospheric environment.An introduction highlights key events that had begun to challenge the prevailing conservative society of the early 1960s set against the desire for a better world that has been present throughout history, illustrated with an original copy of Thomas More’s Utopia, written500 years ago in 1516.

The exhibition begins with a recreation of Carnaby Street, exploring revolution in youth identity in 1966. This was the year Time magazine dubbed London ‘The Swinging City,’ reflecting its sensational rise as a cultural centre for fashion, music, art and photography.

The thriving fashion scene centred on new clothing boutiques on Carnaby Street and King’s Road aimed at a younger generation, illustrated with a Biba mini-dress, Mary Quant skirt suit, flamboyant striped suit by Mr Fish and a man’s jacket from Granny Takes a Trip. The exhibition explores connections between boutiques and art galleries, alongside artworks by Bridget Riley and Yoko Ono.

Costumes designed for Mick Jagger and Sandie Shaw highlight the importance of pop music during this time, with songs by The Kinks, Beach Boys and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas.

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, ‘Revolution’The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, ‘Revolution’

The second section focuses on clubs and counterculture and explores forms of experimentation, alternative lifestyles and the idea of revolution in the head, through displays relating to drugs, psychedelia, the occult, underground literature and pirate radio. It centres on an immersive evocation of London’s UFO club, an experimental venue known for combining live music with light shows and avant-garde film, where Pink Floyd were the house band and the UK’s first macrobiotic food was on sale. Audio-visual material including Roger Corman’s film about LSD, The Trip (1967) and examples of pioneering liquid light shows are presented against a backdrop of psychedelic music from Cream, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd.

On display are artworks by the most significant graphic designers of the period, including Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, Bonnie MacLean and Stanley Mouse. Alternative lifestyles are represented through countercultural publications like The Long Hair Times and objects relating to the occult.

The unprecedented influence of The Beatles is explored throughout, with an area dedicated to the ground-breaking band’s momentous release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967, including handwritten lyrics for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, original illustrations by Alan Aldridge and George Harrison’s sitar and 1967 diary.

The third section explores revolution on the street, showing how youth solidarity crossed causes and continents into politics, leading to physical protest during the late 1960s. It centres on the 1968 Paris student riots, a volatile period of civil unrest. Atelier Populaire posters pasted on walls during the protests will be shown alongside newsreel footage and music relating to the dramatic demonstrations.

The period was also marked by widespread opposition to the war in Vietnam; propaganda material collected by an American soldier in Vietnam and puppets used in theatrical anti-Vietnam demonstrations in San Francisco will be on display.

Djinn Easy Chair, designed by Oliver Mourgue. Photo: Victoria and Albert MuseumDjinn Easy Chair, designed by Oliver Mourgue. Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum

A wall of protest posters indicates the range of causes and calls for solidarity, featuring revolutionary figures from Chairman Mao to Che Guevara and Martin Luther King - all icons of the counterculture. Photographs, ephemera, literature, posters and footage relating to those calling for equality, including gay rights’ activists and women’s liberation groups during this period will be on display. These also show the Black Panthers’ militarisation of the fight for social change, following on from the civil rights movement earlier in the decade.

Slogans, adverts and jingles introduce the fourth exhibition environment, which explores revolution in consumerism, fed by a rapid increase in personal wealth and the arrival of the credit card.

The fifth exhibition environment focuses on festivals and revolutions in gatherings, showing how record-breaking crowds gathered to listen to music, often driven by a utopian vision of living together.

Instruments, costumes and ephemera will be shown against a dramatic backdrop of large screens playing early festival footage from Monterey, Woodstock, Glastonbury, the Isle of Wight and Newport Jazz Festival within a climactic double height gallery space. The focal point is Woodstock in 1969, which saw more than 400,000 people converge for four days of peace and music and live tracks recorded at the event will play throughout.

Performers’ costumes on display include a kaftan worn by American rock diva Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, a native American style suit worn by The Who’s lead singer Roger Daltry and a jacket and guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix.

The collection of the cult radio presenter and musical tastemaker John Peel provides a musical odyssey

Also on show is hippie fashion, from a Thea Porter kaftan to Levi’s jeans styled with an Ossie Clarke shirt. The exhibition goes behind-the-scenes of Woodstock, showing the organisation behind this largest ever gathering of young people, from artists’ contracts to the canteen menu for staff.

The sixth and final exhibition environment looks at alternative communities living on the US’s West Coast during the period as the birthplace of a revolution in communications.

Communities in California and elsewhere were grounded in psychedelic rock, sexual liberation, rejection of institutions and a ‘back to the land’ philosophy. They lived in parallel with a different sort of alternative community: the pioneers of modern computing. Both shared a belief that sharing human knowledge more equitably was the basis of a better world. This emphasis is epitomised by the Whole Earth Catalog, the American counterculture magazine published by Stewart Brand and later referred to by Steve Jobs as ‘Google in paperback form’.

A soundtrack evoking the spirit of communal living includes California Dreamin’y The Mamas & The Papas and The 5th Dimension’s Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, combined with footage from films including Easy Rider (1969).

You Say You Want a Revolution Records and Rebels 1966-1970 closes via a final section that aims to trace the idealism of the late 1960s to its successors and consequences, from civil rights to multiculturalism, environmentalism, consumerism, computing, communality and neoliberalist politics. The exhibition asks visitors to reflect on how the ideals of the 1960s have shaped today.

You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970 takes place between September 10 and February 26 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the UK.

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