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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Sue Steward's rating
Reader rating
Phone: 020 7312 2463
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square; Rail: Charing Cross; Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 77A, 88 
Icons of the Sixties: Tom Jones goes back to his roots with Tony Frank, 1967
Icons: Pink Floyd by Angus McBean, 1969
Original: David Bowie and Jeanette by Fiona Adams, 1965
The subtitle to this autumn blockbuster, “the 60s exposed”, carries a whiff of sex’n’drugs’n’ rock’n’roll revelations. In fact, it is a nostalgic, impressive documentary marking the rapid changes in pop, contemporary design and photography between 1960-69. A shot of press photographers in raincoats waiting for the Beatles at York Station, by Northern photo-journalist, Ian Wright, epitomises the generation gap.
Each year of the decade, occupies an exhibition space that includes a vitrine-decorated like a Sixties teenager’s bedroom with record covers, signed portraits and leading pop magazines, Rave and Fabulous. Opening pre-Beatles, the silk-suited, Elvis-quiffed Billy Fury, Cliff Richard and Adam Faith are still lodged in Fifties America then everything explodes into pop, psychedelia, rock, mods and soul boys, and the music industry discovers modern marketing, experimental typography and myriad photographic styles.
Old masters such as Norman Parkinson come on board (shooting the Beatles at Abbey Road in deck shoes and slacks), and Angus McBean is keyed into Modernism with hand-painted backdrops to his portraits. Publications chart the new psychedelic lettering and acid colours, designers imitating photographers such as David Bailey. His iconic portrait of Mick Jagger in a parka occupies his personal enclosure. The experimenters were at their peak: Gered Mankowitz making meticulously artfully composed pictures with The Rolling Stones, and Vic Singh experimenting with prism lenses to match the Pink Floyd’s psychedelic music.
Of the many now overlooked but outstanding photographers represented, Fiona Adams is best-known for the leaping silhouettes of the Beatles, and her lack of credit for the cover of their EP, Twist and Shout. Light years away, Tony Frank took Tom Jones back to the WelshValleys and produced the most lyrical shot in the show.
If you’re bored with the glut of Sixties exhibitions, think again: this magnificent collection draws the line under the era — until a new generation discovers it.
Until 24 January, 2010 (www.npg.org.uk, 020 7312 2463).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
