THE
AL STOKES BOOK OF
ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPHS
No:1 SMOKEY BEARS DEMO LEGALISE CANNABIS CAMPAIGN HYDE PARK LONDON, 1979
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AL STOKES was born and brought up in Greenford, West London, into an era of steam trains, when there was a King on the throne, rationing, peasouper fogs, schoolboy short hair, National Service and end of Empire. He escaped a poverty stricken background and, in that wonderful psychedelic year of 1967, appeared in Anne Jellicoe’s stage play The Rising Generation at the Royal Court Theatre, London. In 1968 Al joined the BBC Film Department as a trainee at Ealing Studio. After five years at the Beeb, learning the craft, Al left to go freelance as an editor and eventually, after a series of strange misadventures which included a spell as a war correspondent, he became a film director. In the 1990’s Al went back to acting and appeared in a number of Hollywood films, TV dramas and MTV promos. Claim to dubious fame: Al was the screaming creature in Chris Cunningham’s 1997 Aphex Twin, Come To Daddy MTv promo. In 2002 art school beckoned for a late degree to upgrade his analogue film making skills to digital. He got a 2:1, whatever that is? Currently lives in leafy Norwich where he writes copiously about obscure aspects of the media industry. “People keep telling me I’ve had an interesting life. I’ve always taken that to mean I’m an unemployable hippie who has out-lived his time. Anyone calls me a hippie, I’ll nut ‘em.” Al Stokes January, 2014 Filmography: www.issuu.com/alstokes/docs/
list of photographs at the end of this book
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LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS Only three press photographers covered the 1979 Smokey Bears / Legalise Cannabis Campaign demo in London’s Hyde Park. It wasn’t a big event but the press interest was two-fold; it was the first major London demonstration after premier Margret Thatcher took office and it was Supt. Fred Luff’s first demo as supervising officer after being removed from the Metropolitan Police Drugs Squad after a corruption scandal. The idea of him policing a drugs demo tickled the fancy of the red top picture editors. As it turned out there were more police officers than demonstrators so in some shots it looks as though the police are protesting. Page 1: sunny afternoon in the park, deckchairs and hashish. Page 2: Police line-up: centre, Supt. Fred Luff; the officer on the left isn’t smiling at the camera - I caught him in mid sneeze Page 3: Fred Luff and press photographer Tim Maylon Page 4: when we were young and had hair; heavy smokers Page 5: far out and amazing hippie smokers, ma’an Page 6: Fred Luff lays down the Law; we’ll have no dope smoking here, this a local park for local people Page 7: stoned a s a brick Page 8: a hippie happy with his string, trying find the lost cat in his cradle Page 9: the bleeding policeman; during the peaceful demonstration one policeman managed to get hit by a bottle - not thrown by a demonstrator but a tourist who missed the waste bin they were aiming at Page 10: the bleeding policeman’s co-worker’s quote to the press photographers; “... why don’t you go away and leave us alone.” Ironic because the the large policeman had spent the day hassling peaceful protestors. Page 11: The Long March: no one was expecting Fred Luff to lead a march from Hyde Park to Lambeth. It was a long way. Page 12: The Long March: Fred Luff leads the way. Page 13: The Long March: Piccadilly Page 14: The Long March: Trafalgar Square, north side Page 15: The Long March: Whitehall, Nelson’s Column Page 16: The Long March: Fred Luff and friend Page 17: The Long March: Whitehall Page 18: The Long March: pasing the Cenotaph Page 19: The Long March: passing Downing Street - before the ugly security gates were erected Page 20: The Long March: passing Parliament, Big Ben in the background Page 21: ibid Page 22: The end of the march and tired little skateboarding teddy bears Page 23: Busted! The only arrest when a protestor tripped up and stumbled over a police officer. All a bit sad, really the photographs in this book are the sole copyright of Al Stokes - please do not nick them (ask first) Page 24 : Al Stokes © 1979
W A T C H O U T ! THERE ’S A P HO TOGRAPHER ABOUT!