In September 1965 John Dunbar and Barry Miles decided to combine forces since they had similar interests in art and literature. John approached Peter Asher for the start-up capital. The three of them formed a company called MAD (Miles, Asher and Dunbar) Limited to run the venture. Peter lent John and Miles £600 each and put in £600 himself. With this meagre amount, Indica was started: the new avant-garde art gallery and bookshop.
The poet Pete Brown also joined in the labourof the shop's launch, hammering and painting, uttering his inventive curses - ‘By St Enid’s toenail!’, 'God's teeth!’ and the like - as he hit his thumb or jabbed himself. He originally became involved because he was keen on the idea of a bookshop that held poetry readings. However, it was soon obvious that this one was not just another version of Better Books. Pete: ‘I would be painting away and look over my shoulder and there would be Paul McCartney sawing wood.’
Pete was secretly lusting after Jane Asher, who also dropped in from time to time, and he even wrote a screenplay for her perusal. Over the weeks Pete arrived later and later, to appear eventually only half an hour before lunchtime, murmuring hopefully, ‘Any chance of a spot of nosh then?' before everyone retired to Gus's cafe, a worker's cafe on the opposite corner of the yard which sold some of the worst food in London and was patrolled by the largest and greasiest black cat anyone had ever seen.