Tuesday 13 March 2012

Family party at Sybilla's

In 1966 George Harrison decided to invest some of his Beatles hundreds in a happening new London nightspot named Sybilla's (after the 22 year-old Chicago heiress Sybilla Edmonstone), with fellow shareholders including the debauched toff Sir William Pigott-Brown and the DJ Alan Freeman. Billing itself as 'London's most civilised discotheque, where they take great pains to keep the customers in a state of elegant satisfaction', Sybilla's opened its basement door (at 9 Swallow Street, W1) on June 22nd of that year. A little over a year later, on November 1st 1967, the manager of happening new Leicester pop combo Family hosted a launch there for their debut single, Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens / Gypsy Woman, attended by George, John, and several other noted swingers. The spread below is from the short-lived Look Of London magazine. If anyone has a better scan of it, please let me know.



The captions read as follows: 1) The Family at Sybilla's 2) Champagne was served by six dolly girls, including Ingrid Boulting (left), here with Tony Hicks of The Hollies 3) DJ Kenny Everett with Tony King, John Peel and Johnny Bonding 4) Rob Townsend, The Family's drummer, with Jimmy Miller 5) Response to The Family was fantastic, as Kenny Everett's expression testifies 6) Party host John Gilbert  with Bob Reisdorff, head of Liberty Records 7) Mim Scala and Sir William Pigott-Brown with actors Iain Quarrier and Harry Baird. Previous page: rare smiles from Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison.

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