First Sex Newspaper: Suck
Related: underground press - sexual revolution in the cinema - sixties counterculture - fellatio - pornography - magazine
When we returned in the spring, Peter and Graham had solidified their position and Bill had finally been asked to leave. He had grown increasingly reclusive and had finally just holed up with all the work for one issue in Nigel's flat, refusing to talk to anyone until he had personally passed on every detail of the writing and layout. This was too much for everyone, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when he left. I still found him an engaging person, however, and a year later, after my return from New York, I was to agree to write an article for Europe's first sex newspaper called SUCK, to be published from Amsterdam, as it was too hot for an English printer to handle. Bill got himself permanently tossed out of England for this paper, as he had personally brought several hundred copies over on the Channel Ferry. -- Alexander Gross [1]
Suck was primarily a sexual liberation newspaper which represented the entire pendulum of sexuality. We had as many women editors as men editors, homosexuality, any so-called perversion — although I don’t think there are any perversions myself. I think it’s a fantasy that there are perversions. Any way of expressing one’s sexuality was represented in Suck. And Suck was funny. We used humour, but we also tried to be a serious paper as well. And that was the primary difference between the two: one was Amsterdam European, very wide, and one was New York... what else can one say? --Al Goldstein
September 2004
Found Suck issues in Paris for 150 Euros a piece at Seb's bookstore, Erotism 60s, 70s 43, Quai de la Tournelle, 75005 Paris. Seb also recommended the bookstore "Un Regard Moderne" (10 rue Gît-le-Coeur - 75006 Paris, [same street as the famous Beat Hotel). [Sept 2004]Countercultural magazine
first european sexpaper
is published by Joy Publications
Address all correspondence + payments to
Postbus 2080 – Amsterdam – Holland
All Rights reserved ……….
Editor: William Cooney Lapides
Art Director: Willem de Ridder
Associate Editors: Jesper James (Paris), Billy Sugar (London), Dr. Gee (Italy).
Editorial Pivot: Purple Susan!
Contributing Editors: Didi Wadidi (Frankfurt), Moy0Kam (Peking), Mother Boats (San-Francisco), Herbie (Hamburg), Earth Rose wherever you ball).
Distribution: Daley News (POB 634 – Amsterdam)
In the middle of our meeting, Heathcote and Jean excused themselves to go into another room to make love
I was having tea one Sunday afternoon with Bill Levy. Bill is from Baltimore and he’d come over to London in the mid-sixties to do some research on Ezra Pound or something, but he’d got caught up in the whole underground culture. He became assistant editor to Jack Moore on IT and then, when Jack had had enough, he took over as editor. He did a superb job; I think the issues that Bill edited were outstanding.
He and I became great friends and saw each other a lot. We were having tea one Sunday afternoon in 1969 and talking about how much fun it is to produce a newspaper. He had just severed his relationship with IT and I hadn’t been actively involved with IT for six months at least, and so we said, ‘Let’s start a newspaper again.’
Now, during the sixties I was becoming more and more aware of the pain and problems caused by sexual repression and frustration and ignorance. So we decided what was really needed was a newspaper about sexuality and sexual freedom. And we called it Suck. Then we approached two other people to see if they wanted to be involved, Heathcote Williams and Germaine Greer. I knew Germaine a little and admired her —she was writing things for OZ at the time and doing research into sexual repression, and sexuality and feminism. I thought she’d be perfect.
I called her up and she said deal her in, she wanted to be a part of it. And I called Heathcote and he said of course he wanted to be involved in it. Heathcote was an associate editor on a magazine called the Transatlantic Review and he suggested we use their offices for a rendezvous. Two days later the four of us, plus the beautiful Jean Shrimpton, who was Heathcote’s girlfriend at the time, got together to talk about the paper and plan the first issue.
In the middle of our meeting, Heathcote and Jean excused themselves to go into another room to make love. Bill, Germaine and I continued to talk. Later, when the paper folded, I looked back on this meeting as our first mistake. We should all five have made love together. I always wanted to sleep with Jean and Heathcote — I thought it would be a wonderful way to spend an evening. But unfortunately it never happened and today it’s probably never going to happen because Jean is married to Michael Cox and living in Wales and running a hotel. --Jim Hayneshttp://www.jim-haynes.com/BooksbyJim/TFC-chapters/Ch_5.htm [Sept 2004]
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