John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins

John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins 1937-2015
Hoppy was an in iconic figure within the 60s counterculture. A photographer he was also a key collaborator in numerous artistic events and experiments including the 1965 Poetry Olympics at the Albert Hall with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Michael Horowitz. With [Barry] Miles and Jim Haynes he set up the International Times, the first newspaper of the growing ‘underground’ movement, launching it with a famous party at the Roundhouse where everyone in the 60s London scene seems to have been in attendance and Soft Machine and Pink Floyd played. They were also key bands at the UFO club in Tottenham Court Rd, which with Indica Bookshop and Jim Haynes’ Arts Lab were central to the infrastructure of alternative London.

Rob La Frenais on Facebook

 

Good friend of Action Space and countercultural hero, John Hoppy Hopkins passed away earlier this year. Some of us Gus Geddes, Ken Turner and others were remembering that as well as being a great supporter in our early days in Harmood Street, he also was responsible for encouraging us to build up the video studio, lending us a vision mixer (which we used very creatively in the Video Show at the Serpentine) and helping us lay our hands on a at least one portapak.
I was lucky enough to spend some time with him a couple of months before his death, such a great bloke and inspiration to me and many others. Here for the group, is an undedited version of his Guardian obituary by Joe Boyd