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BBC Four HD

Psychedelic Britannia

BBC Four

Nigel Planer

Sam Bridger

Mark Cooper

Documentaries

Music: Classic Pop & Rock

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

23/10/2015

BBC Four - Psychedelic Britannia

A look at a period in British music history when a handful of dreamers reimagined pop.

A trip through the most visionary period in British music history - five kaleidoscopic years between 1965 and 1970, when a handful of dreamers reimagined pop music.

Documentary exploring the rise and fall of the most visionary period in British music history: five kaleidoscopic years between 1965 and 1970 when a handful of dreamers reimagined pop music.

When a generation of British R&B bands discovered LSD, conventions were questioned. From out of the bohemian underground and into the pop mainstream, the psychedelic era produced some of the most groundbreaking music ever made, pioneered by young improvising bands like Soft Machine and Pink Floyd, then quickly taken to the charts by the likes of The Beatles, Procol Harum, The Small Faces and The Moody Blues, even while being reimagined in the country by bucolic, folk-based artists like The Incredible String Band and Vashti Bunyan.

The film is narrated by Nigel Planer, with contributions and performances from artists who lived and breathed the psych revolution - Paul McCartney, Ginger Baker, Robert Wyatt, Roy Wood, The Zombies, Mike Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Joe Boyd, Gary Brooker, Arthur Brown, Kenney Jones, Barry Miles, The Pretty Things and The Moody Blues.

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