he didn’t notice that the lights had changed."
"Lennon and McCartney lyrics from The Beatles 'A Day in the Life' (Sgt Pepper LP), which immortalised the death of sixties socialite Tara Browne.
On the night of December 18th 1966, Browne, together with his girlfriend, Suki Potier, drove through the streets of South Kensington in his Lotus Elan.
At 1am in the morning Browne sped through a red light at the corner of Redcliffe Square and Redcliffe Gardens. As he swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle, Browne crashed his car into a parked van. His last minute actions saved Potier from certain death, but left Browne fatally injured, and he died in hospital the following day."
Browne was 21-years-of-age, a member of the Irish aristocratic family Oranmore and Browne, and heir to the Guinness fortune. He was said to be barely literate - having walked out of a dozen schools, lived with his mother Oonagh Guinness and her boyfriend “show designer” Miguel Ferreras, drank Bloody Marys for breakfast, smoked Menthol cigarettes, and according to his friend Hugo Williams lived the life of a “Little Lord Fauntleroy, Beau Brummell, Peter Pan, Terence Stamp in the film 'Billy Budd' or David Hemmings in 'Blow-Up'.”
via Dangerous Minds.
Here's rare 1966 film footage of this near mythical character seen driving around the city and generally hanging out. With shots of Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, the Marquee Club with pop hopeful Gary Farr & the T-bones on stage (they folded in 1967), gallery owner Robert Fraser, and the Carnaby Street in-crowd. Browne drones on in Francais (obviously filmed for french TV) and although there's no English subtitles you'll get the idea.
It captures London at it's swinging 60's peak and how it not just set the trends of the time but attracted the wealthy and privileged with plenty of doe and time to spare. The London fashion/music scene was never so gregarious or as fashionable to the likes again. Within a few months of the film the young Browne was gone.
File under pop culture archaeology.
