Voices Of East Anglia

Grande Ballroom Detroit - Concert Postcards

2012-05-29T12:43:00.000+01:00

Michigan graphic artist Gary Grimshaw and illustrator Carl Lundgren were the designers responsible for these colourful postcards that promoted concerts at the Detroit Grande Ballroom during the sixties.

Their kaleidoscopic designs were not just for the psychedelic and hippy style bands that played at the venue. Blues men BB King and Howlin Wolf, Soul Band The Chambers Brothers and Rock and Roller Chuck Berry all received their psychedelic treatment on their handbills.

In 1966 High school teacher and local DJ Russ Gibb acquired the Detroit ballroom. The DJ was inspired when he attended a concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco - which was promoted by Impresario Extraordinaire - Bill Graham .

Russ decided to create a similar venue for the teenagers of Detroit, he managed to book a lot of the top bands and artists of the time, plus local acts The MC5, and The Stooges all appeared regularly as support acts. The ballroom also staged a few Jazz concerts for more experimental acts such as Sun Ra and John Coltrane. Since the venue closed in 1972 it has rarely been used and to this day it remains derelict.

On Campus in Seventies California

2012-05-29T10:53:00.000+01:00

These photos were taken at California's Menol School during the seventies. Amongst the college captures are some students in some cool trainers and sneakers, an end of term chair prank, a school play and an injured student who looks like a young Ray Manzarek from The Doors.

The school states on their Flickr page that "These photos are intended to showcase the best aspects of Menlo School culture and the day-to-day student life on campus" We guess that the person being thrown into the college's water feature may beg to differ.

The Big Round World of BOAC

2012-05-28T23:02:00.002+01:00

BOAC - The British Overseas Airways Corporation was a state airline that started in 1940. Later in 1974 the corporation merged with British European Airways to form British Airways.

In this post we get that summertime feeling and take a look at the airline's travel posters from the sixties and seventies.The adverts feature popular holiday destinations like the Caribbean, Bahama islands, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Hong Kong and Australia.Then it's back to Britain, which apparently is a "Great place to be happy"

Souled Out - Seventies K-Tel Television Adverts

2012-05-27T23:59:00.000+01:00

It's Soul time with K-Tel - As Advertised on television (Many years ago) During the seventies the budget record label released several Soul compilation albums. A while ago we blogged two of the adverts from the Super Bad series. We've had another dig around the K-Tel archives and this time we have a trio soulful 70s ads.

First up is an advert for the three album set "Roots of Soul" presented by Wilson Pickett, who even treats us to a bit of "In the Midnight Hour", then grab your car keys because it's off to "Soul City", the final one is a Soul Train style ad for the "Souled Out" compilation with some super soul hits.

1973 DJ Training Course in Switzerland

2012-05-27T11:30:00.000+01:00

Here we have a short video clip that shows a report from Switzerland's first DJ training course in 1973. We don't have much information on this, however what we can tell you from our Google translation skills is that the course cost 520 Francs for one week of training, you had to go to an exam in front of a panel of audio technicians and discotheque owners, then finally you received your certificate.

We should warn you that around 2.10 minutes into the clip one of the DJ Trainees is accompanied by a film which involves a large spider, which eventually gets crushed - Bizarre!

The World’s First Rock Festival – Spalding ‘67

2012-05-25T17:45:00.000+01:00

Before Woodstock, before the summer of love and way before the Glastonbury Festival, came what can arguably lay claim to being the World’s first ever rock festival. It was held in the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall in Spalding, Lincolnshire on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday 29th May 1967 with Jimi Hendrix on the bill plus Cream, Pink Floyd, the Move and Geno Washington – here we take a look at Barbeque ’67 also known as the Spalding Rock Festival an event that was not only ahead of its time but also never to be repeated.

The whole idea for the Spalding Rock Festival came in 1966 when local promoter Brian Thompson (who sadly passed away late 2011) decided to book The Move and Geno Washington, both of whom were pretty big names at the time, for a gig the following year. When he was talking to the management company in London to secure the bookings he was persuaded to take on three other acts who, whilst they were not well known at the time, were expected to go on to big things. They were Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream. (Incidentally Brian Thompson also put on an event the following year in nearby Whittlesey called Barbeque 68 featuring Fairport Convention, Donovan, Fleetwood Mac and The Move).

The festival was held in the now demolished local Tulip Auction Hall, presumably the only local venue large enough to host a sizeable concert of this nature and the tickets were priced at a fairly reasonable one pound each. In addition to the stellar line-up he had already secured Brian Thompson also booked the Sounds Force Five, a fairly popular local band, just to make sure there was a reasonable turn-out. Little did he know.

The event had been advertised nationally and from the time in 1966 when the line-up had been booked Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream had all started to get national and international recognition. Estimates vary but the general consensus is that tens of thousands of mainly ticketless people descended on the sleepy market town that Bank Holiday Monday and the concert has gone down in legend, not only for the acts that performed, but also for the poor organisation and the fact that absolutely nobody expected anywhere near the kind of numbers that arrived.

The Sounds Force Five came on stage in-between the main acts whilst roadies re-arranged the equipment for each new band. Pink Floyd were first on stage followed by The Move, they were billed as the ‘psychedelic bands’ so were grouped together, next up were the ‘blues’ performers – the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. Hendrix’s performance is generally considered not to be one of his finest but he did manage to set light to his guitar which was promptly put out with a fire extinguisher and the frazzled instrument was then dumped in a bin from whence it was never claimed. Somewhere under a large pile of landfill deep in rural Lincolnshire lies a potentially very collectible guitar. Cream with Eric Clapton on lead guitar were on next and by all accounts Clapton, who had been the subject of recent media attention comparing his skills with Hendrix, was on top of his game that night and blew Hendrix off the stage. After Cream came Zoot Money and his Big Roll Band and then, the guys who stole the whole show – Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band. As seasoned performers and non-stop tourers these guys knew how to get a tulip hall full of mods and rockers going and they tore the roof off the place.

Now whilst we’re undoubtedly a blog that focuses on pop culture from the past we are not necessarily of the opinion that the good old days were always the best. Memories tend to favour the good times after all. Having said that though you would have to go some way to beating what must have been a fantastic afternoon and night to remember – seeing six bands including both Hendrix and Clapton all for the princely sum of one English pound, in a tulip hall, in Spalding. Does it get much better?

By way of a commemoration of this completely one-off event and as a tribute to its appeal still some 45 years after the event, we understand the Nottingham based New Perspectives Theatre Company is looking at the possibility of turning Barbeque 67 into a theatre project. Now that could be a good night out.

Hip Pocket Records

2012-05-25T15:29:00.000+01:00

Over the years the trend in terms of music storage has tended towards the excessively small to the point now where you can virtually store a whole record collection on an iPod or MP3 player that you can carry on your pocket. Tracing this trend back to its roots we have come across what we believe to be the first attempt at portable mobile music and that is the Hip Pocket Record.

Back in 1967, Philco, a part of the US Ford Motors group, produced Hip Pocket Records which were basically 4” diameter flexi-discs with two tracks on the one side. They were sold as portable, virtually indestructible (being flexible they were less fragile than conventional vinyl), could be sent through the post and were also touted as lasting far longer than conventional vinyl which listeners soon found was definitely not the case. They could only be played around 10-12 times before the stylus affecting the grooves on the flexible vinyl. Philco managed to do deals with three major US record labels (Atlantic, Mercury and Roulette) selling the records through Woolworths stores and also Ford dealers.

As Philco were starting to penetrate the market with their Hip Pocket Records The Americom Company sensed an opportunity and saw what they thought was the future of selling music. They produced their own version of the Hip Pocket Record called simply the Pocket Disc and somewhat fortuitously managed to team up with Apple Records and released a number of Beatles tracks plus those of other artists on the label including Billy Preston.

Unfortunately their far-sighted optimism wasn’t shared by the record buying public of the time and both Hip Pocket Records and Pocket Discs became a thing of the past in 1969 lasting a mere two years in the spotlight. The humble cassette was responsible for their downfall and it went on to rule the portable music roost for the next generation. For those interested and the record collectors amongst you the Philco Hip Pocket Records have not really increased in value that much but, due to their Apple connection, the Americom Pocket Discs are worth a few bob now and if you happen across any can fetch upwards of 200 pounds in decent condition.

The First Monterey Jazz Festival

2012-05-25T13:44:00.003+01:00

As we've mentioned before in our Play Misty For Me post, sitting in the audience of the first ever Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958 is a young man called Clint Eastwood. He loved the festival so much he later used it as a film location for his directorial debut and also joined the board of directors.

The Monterey Jazz festival is held at the County Fairgrounds during the the third week of September. At the first one artists such as Billie Holiday, Cal Tjader Sextet, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Max Roach and the Modern Jazz Quartet performed. Also, two trumpeters from different ends of the jazz spectrum played that weekend, check out Dizzy Gillespie paying his respects to Louis Armstrong when they met on stage.

Source

Life In Johnstown 1968 - 1970

2012-05-25T00:50:00.004+01:00

Whilst searching the net, we came across some nice photos of one mans depiction of small time America. We see photos of college life, town life, friends, classmates, and local bits and bobs, all in black and white. The subject is Johnstown, a small town in New York state, and the photos really do capture a moment in time quite admirably. Check out some Ivy League stylings, and some 'college' haircuts amongst the pics too.... Hope you enjoy.

Everyday People - The Streets of San Francisco 1971

2012-05-25T00:10:00.002+01:00

Previously we've visited San Francisco in our Hippies of Haight Ashbury post. This time we go forward a few years to 1971 and take a look at the lives of the everyday people on the streets of San Francisco (No pictures of Karl Malden included). Most of these photos were taken in the Bay area of the city, from groups of bongo players and buskers to a courageous chap standing in a park dressed in a big collared red jump suit and a huge quiff - Super Fly!

Photos Source

Gimme Some Shade - Retro Sunglasses

2012-05-24T21:42:00.001+01:00

Now that summertime has finally arrived in the UK, we thought it would be a good time to treat you with an assortment of magazine adverts for sunglasses. Within our sunny selection there's Jean Shrimpton advertising Ray Ban's in the seventies, colourful and sassy Riviera glasses, Round Lennon style shades from Renauld and some Cool-Ray Polaroid sunglasses - Even when the heat's off, the glare's on.

1973 Bloomingdale's Book of Home Decorating

2012-05-24T20:35:00.000+01:00

While digging around the internet looking for information on this 1973 book, we found out that the author Barbara D'Arcy had recently passed away on May 10th 2012. The New York Times described her as an "Interior Design Guru" and "an interior decorator whose eclectic sense of style helped change Americans’ taste in home furnishings in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s".

The book shows a mixture of old and modern room displays from the Bloomingdale's department store. The room designs and furniture were aimed at people who had a creative streak and plenty of money - converting your lounge into a cave doesn't come cheap

T.A.M.I Show - James Brown versus The Rolling Stones

2012-05-23T22:57:00.002+01:00

The Teenage Awards Music International show was a live concert that was filmed in 1964 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in "Electronovision". The T.A.M.I Show featured a host of musical acts including Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Beach Boys, and The Supremes. A young Toni Basil also puts in an appearance as a go-go dancer.

Also included in the line-up that evening was "The Godfather of Soul" Mr James Brown, who stole the show from headliners The Rolling Stones. The band's guitarist Keith Richards has said in a web interview that following James Brown was the biggest mistake of their career. We've got both of their performances on the show here on video - take a look, Was Keith right?

London Film Festival Posters

2012-05-23T21:20:00.000+01:00

The London Film Festival started way back in 1953. It was founded by a group of film critics who thought that London deserved it's own festival. They also decided that the event would be different from other festivals like Cannes and Venice, this festival would be targetted at the general public, rather than the film stars or people in the industry.

Here we have some some of the simple but stylish posters promoting the event. We kick off in October 1962 at the sixth festival and we end on their 21st Birthday in 1977.

MAD Magazine Spoof Adverts

2012-05-22T20:44:00.004+01:00

William M. Gaines was the publisher of MAD Magazine, while he was there he refused to include any sort of advertising in his publication. This gave him the opportunity to spoof anything he wished.

Here are some of the magazine's satirical adverts, including a parody of the Foster Grant's sunglasses advertising campaign which featured various celebrities from the 1960s including Woody Allen and Raquel Welch.

Striking Designs - German Matchbox Labels

2012-05-21T23:28:00.001+01:00

Great graphic designs pop up in the most unlikely places, as we've seen before in our Medicated follower of fashion post which feaured some very groovy adverts from a Spanish Medical Magazine.

This time we take a look at some cool vintage matchbox labels from Germany. We're by no means experts in Phillumeny (The hobby of collecting match related items) however we hope this selection lights your fire.

Boss Radio - Sixties and Seventies Promo Material

2012-05-20T23:14:00.004+01:00

As English station Radio Caroline was soundtracking the swinging sixties from a ship on the North sea, a new station had just hit the airwaves of Los Angeles called Boss Radio -93/KHJ - providing the latest tunes to the hipsters of Hollywood.

Recently we stumbled upon this collection of sixties and seventies promotional material for the radio station. There's a business card for resident Disc Jockey "The Real Don Steele", Top Tens and some souvenir brochures - keep an eye out for an appearance from Batman.

We also came across this nine minute video of various Boss Radio concert promos from the 1960s, including dream line-ups like The Supremes, The Seeds, Brenda Holloway, Buffalo Springfield and The 5th Dimension all playing the same night at the Hollywood Bowl.

Miles Davis Chili Recipe – Cool and Hot

2012-05-19T08:37:00.004+01:00

Miles Davis – probably the greatest jazz musician ever to walk the Earth, the man who changed the course of popular music more than once, one of the best dressed men of the 20th Century and of course, the creator of the finest chili known to man.

Whilst others have written much about Davis, his music, his attitude, his clothes and his inclination to be very rude to Nancy Reagan (more on that later), fewer have written about his ability to create a storm in the kitchen. We’ve previously featured cookery advice from the stars with Vincent Price showing us how to pickle mushrooms and Norman Jay talking about his love of Sugar Puffs and his intense dislike of celebrity chefs.

Here at VoEA Heights we like to mess around with new recipes especially on a weekend so here’s a little something you may want to try if you’re stuck for ideas for dinner tonight.

Miles Davis's South Side Chicago Chili Mack

¼ lb. suet (beef fat)
1 large onion
1 lb. ground beef
½ lb. ground veal
½ lb. ground pork
Salt and pepper
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin seed
2 cans kidney beans, drained
1 can beef consommé
1 drop red wine vinegar
3 lb. spaghetti
Parmesan cheese
Oyster crackers
Heineken beer

Put on a Miles Davis album of your choice.

Melt suet in large heavy pot until liquid fat is about an inch high. Remove solid pieces of suet from pot and discard.

In same pot, sauté onion.

Combine the meats in a bowl; season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin.

In another bowl, season kidney beans with salt and pepper.

Add the meat to onions; sauté until brown.

Add kidney beans, consommé, and vinegar; simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Add more seasonings to taste, if desired.

Cook spaghetti according to package directions, and then divide among six plates.

Spoon the meat mixture over each plate of spaghetti.

Top with Parmesan and serve oyster crackers on the side.

Open a Heineken.

Serves 6 people

Now, while you’re sat around the table enjoying your mighty fine chili you can impress your guests even more with this amusing (and possibly apocryphal) tale from when Miles Davis was invited to the White House for dinner in 1987 by the then president Ronald Reagan. A number of the guests seemed nonplussed as to whom Davis was - eventually Nancy Reagan turned to him to ask what it was he had done with his life to justify an exclusive invite to dinner at the White House. Davis replied: “Well, I’ve changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the president?”

Enjoy your dinner.

Colin Tully - Gregory's Girl, Cado belle and John Martyn

2012-05-18T08:54:00.002+01:00

After recently watching the classic, lo-budget Brit movie 'Gregorys Girl', we were struck by the soundtrack that was written by Sax player Colin Tully, and so decided to dig deeper. We all know the story of Gregorys Girl, teen school, girl-playing-footy-coming of age drama from 1981, it was a major hit, and starred Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan amongst others. It was a gentle, quirky movie, but it's the soundtrack and it's composer we are interested in.

Colin Tully was a Scottish Sax player that had been round since the 70's in various guises, his band from 1976 'Cado Belle', were highly regarded for their LP of the same year on the disco scene. Hailing from Scotland, it's perhaps more of an achievement to gain such critical acclaim in a genre of music more often associated with Manhattan than Montrose. He was later asked by Bill Forsyth to pen the soundtrack for his first film 'That Sinking Feeling' (1980), and so when Bill Forsyth made his next film 'Gregorys Girl', Tully was again asked to compose and record the soundtrack. A jazzy, synthy, light kinda feeling is given to the music, and it certainly captures the feel and timing of the film. It fits nicely into a British equivalent of a Yacht Rock sound... British Smooth? It's an area we like to delve into occassionally. It certainly deserves a post and a bit of praise. Music from 'That Sinking Feeling' is a lot more harder to come by. A DVD of the film was recently released in an overdubbed form, and was roundly panned, so a definitive DVD version is needed, you can still find the video apparently.

Tully went on to join the John Martyn band for a few years, playing on several Lp's, and in the early 2000's he was a member of Celtic Jazz band Sensorium. In 2010 he wrote and produced a musical about Charles Rolls, one half of Rolls Royce who was tragically killed at the age of 32. He's certainly had a varied career! Enjoy the following clips as we did.

Spy Story - It's a Mystery

2012-05-17T18:31:00.002+01:00

Now here’s a strange little tale. Len Deighton, famed 1960s author of numerous spy thrillers, creator of Harry Palmer and The IPCRESS File wrote a book called Spy Story that was turned into a film in 1976. Now, to our knowledge, this film is now only available on Betamax (for our younger readers you may want to ask a parent or responsible adult what Betamax was) and we cannot, despite extensive research, find any posters or stills from the film - it’s almost as if it never existed in the first place. Mysterious indeed.

Len Deighton, noted British military historian, novelist and cookery writer wrote Spy Story in 1972. It is the fifth in his series of ‘Harry Palmer’ Cold War thrillers albeit that the name Harry Palmer was only used for the film adaptations - in the books the main protagonist is anonymous. Many of the characters involved however have been featured in all five books. These started with 1962’s The IPCRESS Files, followed a year later by Horse Under Water, Funeral in Berlin in 1964 and Billion Dollar Brain in ’66. Deighton took a break for a few years to write books on various other subject matters (prolific is definitely a word you can apply to Len Deighton’s work rate) and returned to his most successful series in 1972 with Spy Story.

Without wishing to quote the whole book or give away plot spoilers our anonymous hero gets wrapped up in lots of Cold War shenanigans, spends six weeks on a nuclear submarine, finds out someone is trying to steal his identity, gets involved with the KGB and also a plot to re-unify Germany (don’t forget kids this is when there was still a divided East and West Germany).

The film version was produced and directed by Canadian Lindsay Shonteff who later went on to shoot the almost legendary Licensed to Love and Kill starring the almost legendary Gareth Hunt. Shonteff, a man with an incredible belief in his own film-making abilities, regularly re-mortgaged his home to finance the movies he made but never quite hit the big time. His determination, distinctive tongue-in-cheek style and numerous low-budget films make him an admirable figure and someone we hope to feature in a future post. But back to the plot, the film starred Michael Petrovitch and also featured Nicholas Parsons as Tory MP Ben Tolliver and was hyped as ‘the most exciting spy adventure ever filmed’. We believe it went on general release but since then it appears to have sunk like a nuclear submarine. There are no posters or stills from the film that we can find anywhere on the Internet (and if you have anything that we’ve not been able to find please tell us) and it has not been re-released on DVD.

We’re not suggesting a bizarre conspiracy theory here but with the amount of information available out there it does seem strange that this movie is so hard to locate and we cannot, despite some serious digging, even find any images from it. Most peculiar. Despite our distinct lack of success finding any still images though we’ve managed to find a short trailer on You Tube for you to enjoy so have a look and just imagine the delights you’re missing out on by not seeing the full feature-length version.

The Opening of Circus Circus Casino in 1968

2012-05-17T08:50:00.004+01:00

Ladies and Gentlemen - Roll up, Roll up! witness the high flying trapeze artists, the snazzy polka dot shirt wearing card dealers and the owner dressed like Willy Wonka at the opening of The Circus Circus Casino Las Vegas in 1968.

Like the previously featured Elrod house, the Vegas casino was also used as a location in the James Bond Film Diamonds are Forever. Later in 1997 it was used in the Mike Myers film - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Hunter S Thompson's perspective of the hotel was less than favourable in his famous book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, he wrote, "The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich. The ground floor is full of gambling tables, like all the other casinos . . . but the place is about four stories high, in the style of a circus tent, and all manner of strange County-Fair/Polish Carnival madness is going on up in this space." When the book was made into a film in 1998 the owners of the hotel must have remembered Thompson's words as they refused to give permission to the filmmakers to shoot there.

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn - Vintage Ephemera

2012-05-16T20:18:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Voices of East Anglia Hotel and Motel ephemera post. Here we have a mixture of brochures, menus, postcards, pamphlets and magazine adverts from the sixties and seventies.

Amongst the selection there's ol' blue eyes himself Frank Sinatra in illustrated form promoting The Sands hotel, a psychedelic Motel 6 directory and a cool Saul Bass influenced Hotel Doina luggage label. We hope you enjoy stay and please come back soon.

Bolwoningen – Globe Housing

2012-05-16T10:39:00.000+01:00

Here at VoEA we like a bit of groovy architecture as we’ve demonstrated previously with our features on the Futuro House , the Kunstoffhaus and of course the legendary Pierre Cardin’s Bubble House. Now we travel to the flatlands of Holland to take a look at what the Dutch call Bolwoningen meaning Globe Housing and what seems to be one architect’s obsession with a design he came up with some thirty years ago.

In the early 1980s the Dutch government granted a large subsidy to the municipality of ‘s-Hertogenbosch situated north-west of Eindhoven. The idea was to create housing for experimental living and from this was born the Bolwoningen. They were the idea of architect Dries Kreijkamp and he wanted to create ‘the optimal experience of nature in all its facets’. Quite how living in a giant golf ball constitutes living with nature is beyond us here but the idea is that with a 360 degree view and the living area on the top floor every window has a view of the surrounding natural environment plus also presumably the neighbour’s windows as well which are all on the same level.

They were constructed in 1984 and are basically PVC structures with a thermal lining placed on pre-cast concrete blocks with access via a staircase. The layout comprises the sleeping area on the bottom floor with two bedrooms, the bathroom and kitchen on the first floor and then the living area with its panoramic view on the top floor. They are relatively small being only 5.5 metres across and consequently tend to be inhabited by single people or couples who like a cosy existence.

Almost unbelievably, they are still inhabited to this day and Mr Kreijkamp, the architect, is still ploughing a lonely furrow promoting his view of future living with the same design but now suggesting we could use them to live on water using a floating woonball as he calls them or for those who can’t manage stairs perhaps a half- woonball at ground-level. Have a look some great photos of Bolwoningen below and also Mr Kreijkamp’s website and see what future living looked like 30 years ago and to some still represents the future today.

Photos from Teddy Qui Dit

The Natural Choice - ARP Synthesizer

2012-05-15T23:41:00.001+01:00

Our knowledge of synthesizers could be written on the back of a very small stamp. However, what we do know is the ARP 2600 synth was designed by Alan R. Pearlman with Dennis Colin and one was used in the film Star Wars to create the voice of R2-D2.

Apart from being knowledgeable about designing synths, Pearlman was also a good salesman. During the early 1970s he gave successful musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Page, Billy Preston, Pete Townshend and Herbie Hancock a free synthesizer in exchange for their endorsement, and here we have some of those adverts along with a video of the ARP Demonstration record.

Button Up - Pin-Back Badges

2012-05-15T19:45:00.004+01:00

The button badge was first used to show your loyalty to a political party in the late 1700s. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln's campaigners created the first badge that featured a photo, however the design that we know today wasn't patented for another thirty six years. A patent was issued to Benjamin Whitehead on 21st July 1896 for a "Badge Pin or Button" .

These badges come from the mid sixties to the early eighties. We've picked out some groovy Atari, Seven-up, Pizza hut and Wonka badges, then to finish off we have ones promoting popular UK 1980s Kids programmes Tiswas and Magpie.