Oz Magazine Co-Founder Richard Neville Dies Aged 74

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-37241890

I remember this chap very well....he caused quite a stir back in the 60's.

rip Richard.

[Gromit]

RIP someone who had their 15 minutes of fame nearly 40 years ago.

[mikey4444]

A bit more than 15 mins Gromit !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_(magazine)

[Gromit]

Perhaps you had to be there. I wasn't.

[agchristie]

Bit before my time!

What sort of readership in terms of numbers did it have in the UK does anyone know?

[jno]

Playpower was an excellent read. He'd been back in Australia for a while.

His sister was a noted writer too
http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-jill-neville-5563498.html

[mikey4444]

Thanks jno.....very interesting !

[Gromit]

Agc,
It had about 40,000 readers. With all the free publicity during the trial (its Was charged with obsenity) it peaked at 80,000. Two years later...
// However its popularity faded over the next two years and by the time the last issue (OZ No.48) was published in November 1973 Oz Publications was £20,000 in debt and the magazine had "no readership worth the name". //

[mikey4444]

Agchristie....I have no idea of the numbers involved, although the very first Aussie edition, published in 1963 caused a sensation, selling 6,000 copies by lunchtime of publication day.

But you can read the entire series, both Aussie and British on-line these days here ::::

http://ro.uow.edu.au/ozlondon/

Oz was revolutionary for its time. It challenged bigotry in a way that hadn't been done before. To quote from the Wiki entry ::

"In succeeding issues (and in its later London version) OZ gave pioneering coverage to contentious issues such as censorship, homosexuality, police brutality, the Australian government's White Australia Policy and Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as regularly satirising public figures, up to and including Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies"

Its important to realise that nobody has really questioned those issues before Oz came along. Its also important to remember that Australia played a military part in the Vietnam War, something that was urged of Britain by he US President, but which Macmillan declined.

[agchristie]

Thanks Gromit & Mikey.

[jno]

I think it was Wilson who kept the UK out of Vietnam. The US offered to cancel British WW2 debts if he went along with them but he refused.

However, there does seem to have been some covert involvement

https://markcurtis.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/britains-secret-support-for-us-aggression-the-vietnam-war/

[Gromit]

// I think it was Wilson who kept the UK out of Vietnam. //

Bloody commie, what was he thinking?