Davie Jones: “It’s time we united and stood up for our curls”

On 2 November 1964 the Evening News and Star newspaper published an interview with the singer Davie Jones headlined ‘For Those Beyond The Fringe’.

Written by Leslie Thomas, the report covered Bowie’s long-haired pressure group the International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament – later renamed the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men.

FOR THOSE BEYOND THE FRINGE

By Leslie Thomas

Are you hairy? If so, are you proud of being hairy and want to remain hairy? And are you tired of people making fun of you? If so, join a new society formed just for you and other hirsute folk – the International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament.

“It’s really for the protection of pop musicians, and those who wear their hair long,” explained the founder and president, David Jones, of Plaistow Grove, Bromley. “Anyone who has the courage to wear hair down to his shoulders has to go through hell. It’s time we united and stood up for our curls.”

David, who leads a professional pop group called The Manish Boys, is in process of enrolling members.

“Screaming Lord Sutch, P.J. Proby, The Pretty Things and, of course, The Stones and The Beatles – we want them all as members. You’ve no idea the indignities you have to suffer just because you’ve got long hair,” said David, who gave up commercial art to go into the pop business. “Dozens of times I’ve been politely told to clear out of the lounge bar at public houses. Everybody makes jokes about you on a bus, and if you go past navvies digging in the road, it’s murder!”

The International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament will give long-haired lads a sense of belonging, he thinks. It will fight their causes and encourage them when too many people are poking fun.

The publicity stunt received wider attention in the media, and later in November 1964 Bowie was interviewed for the first time on national television.