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The International Times (it or IT) was an underground paper started in 1966 in the UK, based in central London. Editors and writers included founders John Hopkins (Hoppy), Barry Miles and Jim Haynes. ITs first editor was the acclaimed playwright Tom McGrath. Singer of the Deviants Mick Farren, Jack Moore and avant-garde writer Bill Levy were closely involved. The name International Times was changed to just "it" for a time after objections from The Times newspaper. However, it was anyway generally referred to by the letters "I-T". Paul McCartney helped found the paper.^[1]

The iconic logo for IT was a black and white photo of Theda Bara, vampish star of silent films. The original idea had been to use an image of actress Clara Bow because she was iconically known as The IT girl - but an image of Theda Bara was used accidentally and once deployed, it was never changed.

International Times was launched on 14 October, 1966 at The Roundhouse by a gig featuring Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. The event promised a 'Pop/Op/Costume/Masque/Fantasy-Loon/Blowout/Drag Ball and featured Soft Machine, steel bands, strips, trips, happenings, movies. The launch was described as "one of the two most revolutionary events in the history of English alternative music and thinking. The IT event was important because it marked the first recognition of a rapidly spreading socio-cultural revolution that had its parallel in the States" by Daevid Allen of Soft Machine.^[2]

A Benefit gig "The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream" was also organised by IT and held on April 28 1967 at the Alexandra Palace ("Ally Pally") in London which demonstrated the importance of the quickly developing UK Underground scene. Although "underground" venues such as the UFO Club and the Middle Earth Club were hosting counterculture bands this was certainly the biggest indoor event by that time and probably after. Bands who appeared included Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, Savoy Brown, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, The Move and Sam Gopal Dream (featuring a young Lemmy of Hawkwind/Motörhead fame/notoriety).

Many people who are now prominent UK figures wrote for IT, including such luminaries as the feminist critic Germaine Greer, poet and social commentator Jeff Nuttall, and the DJ John Peel. There were many original contributions from underground writers such as Alexander Trocchi; William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Leading editorial contributors to the late 1970s IT were Heathcote Williams, Max Handley, Mike Lesser, and Chris Sanders.

In 1986 IT was passed on to performer Tony Allen and writer Chris Brook.

From those first issues published in the 1960s it was printed throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. It was relaunched in 1986. There have been a total of 205 issues. It was contemporary to the other radical underground London magazine, Oz, and later Friends (renamed "Frendz") and Ink; many people who wrote for one also wrote for the others.

• Turner, C. (April 27, 1997) Personal memories of The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream

1. ^ * Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House, p232. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4. 
2. ^ Lost In the Woods by Julian Palacios (May 1998) Retrieved Aug. 8, 2004

• Hapshash and the Coloured Coat

• International Times site
• Obituary of Ed Barker