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Fact #105444

When:

Short story:

A seminal underground event "The International Poetry Incarnation" is held in The Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. Beat poets Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso and others read their works to an unprecedented 7,500 listeners.

Full article:

Bill Nelson (later to found Be Bop Deluxe) : There was a club in London called the UFO club, reviews from this club were often published in the International Times. English people my age will probably remember this, but for anyone else, it wasn't a newspaper in the traditional sense, it was a magazine in a newspaper format. It covered the alternative or counter culture. The thing that had grown from the beat generation, the fledgling psychedelic generation. They covered things like Allen Ginsberg's famous poetry reading at The Albert Hall. I read about this band called Pink Floyd and it sounded very exciting.

John 'Hoppy' Hopkins (London counter-culture leader, co-founder of the UFO club and International Times) : The Albert Hall poetry reading was a pivotal point. It was sort of like a paradigm shift. Something happened at that point. It was significant, for sure. Everybody was surprised at the turnout, except the people who thought it could be done.