The post-hippie/glam/space rock mix-up: Alun Anderson’s beguiling photographs from the 1973 Windsor Free Festival

//Photo: Alun Anderson//

//Stacia Blake relaxes amind Hawkwind’s equipment. Photo: Alun Anderson//

“When these photographs were taken, everything about them was everyday and unexceptional. These were the clothes we wore, the Hawkwind festivals that filled our summers, the drugs we took, the love we had, the way we moved. Only looked at from a distance does something extraordinary seem to emerge. Whether it is possible to live in the present with this view of what is around you, I don’t know.”
Alun Anderson, 2015

Don’t believe the bores: British youth culture in the early 70s – the pre-punk period which is depicted as grey and charmless by know-nothings – was happening, exuding an earthy sexiness and replete with gritty street-style if you knew where to look for it, from youth clubs, discos and house-parties to the scenes revolving around space-rock stalwarts Hawkwind and captured in these images.

//Del Dettmar launches a sonic attack. Note the Barney Bubbles decorated amp and, on the mic, the late Andy Dunkley.Photo: Alun Anderson//

//Photo: Alun Anderson//

//Photo: Alun Anderson//

Alun Anderson’s beguiling photographs from the free music festival held in Windsor Great Park to the west of London over the August Bank Holiday of 1973 provide proof-positive, from Hawkwind dancer Stacia Blake relaxing in full make-up among the stage gear and the band’s Dik Mik in full flight to the glam girl hitching up her tights as her smoking pal glances insouciantly at her finger nails, the top-hatted dude in patched jeans strolling through the crowd with his feather-cut partner and model/photo-journalist Carinthia West immaculate in halter-neck, patched cut-off Levi’s and green Wellies.