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Richard Neville | |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Clive Neville (1941-12-15)15 December 1941 Sydney,New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 4 September 2016(2016-09-04) (aged 74) Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation |
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| Notable works | OZ Magazine editor (London, UK);Hippie Hippie Shake;Play Power,Amerika Psycho;Playing Around,Out of My Mind: From Flower Power |
| Spouse | Julie Clarke |
| Children | 2 |
Richard Clive Neville (15 December 1941 – 4 September 2016)[1] was an Australian writer andsocial commentator who came to fame as an editor of thecounterculture magazineOz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s.[2] He was educated as aboarder atKnox Grammar School and enrolled for an arts degree at theUniversity of New South Wales inSydney, Australia. Australian political magazineThe Monthly described Neville as a "pioneer of the war on deference".[3]
In late 1963 or early 1964, Neville, then editor of the UNSW student magazineTharunka, metRichard Walsh, editor of itsUniversity of Sydney counterpartHoni Soit, as well as artistMartin Sharp. Neville and Walsh wanted to publish their own "magazine of dissent" and asked Sharp to become a contributor. The magazine was dubbedOz.[4]
Oz was launched onApril Fool's Day in 1963. Its radical and irreverent attitude[5] was very much in the tradition of the student newspapers, but its growing public profile quickly made it a target for "the Establishment," and it soon became a prominent cause during the so-called "Censorship Wars".[6]
During the life of AustralianOz, Sharp, Neville, and Walsh were charged twice with printing anobscene publication. The first trial was relatively minor but they pleaded guilty, which resulted in their convictions being recorded. As a result, when they were charged with obscenity a second time, their previous convictions meant that the new charges were considerably more serious.[6]
The charges centred on two items in the early issues ofOz — one was Sharp's ribald poem "The Word Flashed Around The Arms", which satirised the contemporary habit of youths gatecrashing parties; the other offending item was the famous photo (used on the cover ofOz #6) that depicted Neville and two friends pretending to urinate into aTom Bass sculptural fountain, set into the wall of the newP&O office in Sydney, which had recently been opened by thePrime MinisterRobert Menzies.
Sharp, Neville, and Walsh were tried, found guilty, and given prison sentences. Their convictions caused a public outcry and they were subsequently acquitted on appeal.
In late 1966, Neville and Sharp were early travellers on what was to become known as the "pot trail" or "the hippie trail": the overland route from Australia across Asia to Europe. The appendix to Neville's 1970 manifestoPlay Power acted as the first manual for how to do the overland trail, in advance of any guidebooks in the traditional sense.[7] Neville's sister, the novelistJill Neville, was already living in London, as was his girlfriend Louise Ferrier. Swinging London was undergoing a "youth revolution" and Neville's and Sharp's arrival was perfectly timed.[8]
In early 1967, Neville founded the LondonOz[9] withMartin Sharp as graphic designer. Many writers contributed, includingRobert Hughes,Clive James,[10]Germaine Greer,David Widgery,Alexander Cockburn andLillian Roxon, among others.Felix Dennis (later to become one of Britain's wealthiest publishers withDennis Publishing) came on board as advertising manager.
LondonOz became increasingly influenced by hippie culture, and oscillated wildly between psychedelia, revolutionary political theory, and idealistic dreams of a counter-culture, with much discussion of drug-taking thrown in.Oz campaigned to legalise marijuana through various events such as the Legalise Pot Rally inHyde Park, London, in 1968.Oz, however, was clearly against hard drugs. There was also much discussion and theoretical rumination regarding feminism and the "sexual revolution".
Although Neville had a reputation for being wild and stoned, he revealed in his autobiographyHippie Hippie Shake that he was more of a workaholic, obsessed with the magazine deadlines and his editorials, which often tried to make sense of all the competing philosophies that were exploding from the "youthquake". Neville was known as a charismatic and charming figure who had a wide circle of friends among London's intellectual and publishing elite, rock stars, socialist revolutionaries and criminals[citation needed]. Through the then editor of the LondonEvening Standard,Charles Wintour, he became friends with the youngAnna Wintour.
While Neville was holidaying onIbiza, an edition of the magazine entirely produced by high school students—Schoolkids Oz (May 1970)—was published, edited by Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. The issue depictedRupert Bear sporting a penis (1971) and led to the conviction of Neville,Jim Anderson andFelix Dennis. The then-longest obscenity trial in British history ensued, which ended inOz supporters burning an effigy outside the court ofJudge Michael Argyle, who was presiding over the case. In his evidence for the defence, the philosopherRichard Wollheim said that the trial represented a threat to tolerant society and risked provoking the generational polarisation that was dividing the United States with such disastrous consequences.[11] The Court of Appeal of England and Wales quashed the sentences, holding that Argyle had made "very substantial and a serious misdirection" to the jury that had prosecuted theOz editors.[11]
TheOz defendants' legal team included barrister and screenwriterJohn Mortimer andGeoffrey Robertson. Several celebrities gave evidence and statements during the trial in support ofOz.John Lennon wrote and recorded "God SaveOz"[12] and he andYoko Ono marched the streets surrounding the Old Bailey in support of the magazine and freedom of speech. LondonOz ended in November 1973.
Neville returned to Australia where he met his future partner, the journalist Julie Clarke. He began work on a new magazine,The Living Daylights, reporting on youth cultures, social inventions, and the shape of the future. He was a regular broadcaster onABC Radio and wrote for an array of newspapers and magazines. He moved to New York City in 1977 to join Clarke, and wrote forThe New York Times,New York magazine, andThe Village Voice. Due to his experience on the hippie trail, publishersRandom House commissioned Neville to write a book about a serial killer, then incarcerated inNew Delhi,India, who had preyed upon Western backpackers in Asia. The resulting biography ofCharles Sobhraj, co-authored by Clarke, was a global best-seller. It inspired several TV drama documentaries, includingShadow of the Cobra.
In the 1980s, Neville and Clarke returned to Australia and purchased the property "Happy Daze" inBlackheath, in theBlue Mountains. He joined theNine Network's popularMidday Show, where he reported on popular culture, innovative ideas, and sustainability. His segments often aroused controversy, such as when he inhaled marijuana on camera (to test its effect on one's ability to drive). These segments evolved into theNetwork Ten seriesExtra Dimensions, looking at sustainability and human potential. Neville and Clarke have two daughters, Lucy born in 1983, and Angelica born in 1989.
In the 1990s, across a variety of media, Richard explored social responsibility for businesses in the 21st century. This led to keynote addresses at national conferences and the essay collectionOut of My Mind (Penguin). He also published his memoirHippie Hippie Shake, which was adapted as a film by Working Title. For unknown reasons, the film was not released. Neville had sent the manuscript of his autobiography to Germaine Greer so that she could check its content, but she did not read it. When the book was published, however, she took offence.[13]
Neville was also the co-founder of theAustralian Futures Foundation.
The AustralianOZ magazine has been digitised by theUniversity of Wollongong.[14]Yale University has acquired Neville's archive, which is now located in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.[15]
Neville was diagnosed with early-onset dementia in his mid-60s. He died on 4 September 2016, at the age of 74.[1]
On 14 July 1975, Neville hosted an episode of the ABC Radio seriesLateline entitled "Pederasty" in which "three men in their thirties who admitted sex relations with boys, and a teenage boy who said he had been involved in such relationships since he was 12, discussed their experiences frankly with (Neville)".[16][17] One letter to the editor published inThe Sydney Morning Herald described the adult men interviewed as "chuckling" as they described "waiting outside playgrounds to seduce young boys".[18] A tape of the episode was turned over to police byFred Nile[17] andPeter Nixon of the then-National Country Party called for a public inquiry into the ABC.[19] Asked about the program, ABC chairman Richard Downing initially commented that he had not heard it himself but that the ABC's general intention is to "try to inform people about what (is) happening so that they might be forewarned and forearmed".[17] Later, he added: "In general, men will sleep with young boys and that's the sort of thing the community ought to know about".[20] The ABC's response was only to introduce guidelines around the use of "four-letter words" and "crude expressions" but they rejected introducing further guidelines on program content, with Downing commenting that he wanted ABC staff to be "adventurous and imaginative (but not) titillating".[21]
In the television dramaThe Trials of Oz (1991), Neville was played by British actorHugh Grant.
Irish actorCillian Murphy starred as Neville in the unreleased filmHippie Hippie Shake. Produced byWorking Title, the film was directed byBeeban Kidron, and co-starredSienna Miller andEmma Booth. The film recounted howOZ was established, and the motley crew of Antipodean expatriates, led by Neville and others such asBrett Whiteley, Martin Sharp, andPhilippe Mora, cut a cultural swathe through London.[22][23]
