| The Origins of the Stonehenge Free Festival (Part One) |
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The Stonehenge Free Festival started in 1974. At least according to some reports it did. Actually people had been meeting at Stonehenge for the solstice for decades before this. There are photographs of solstice-night celebrations inside the stones dating back many years: to the early 20th Century at least. Some of the photos make it clear that there was a lot of merriment going on. There’s drinking and partying and dancing, as well as formal ceremonies.
The link between Stonehenge and the solstice had first been suggested in the 19th Century and from the 1870s onwards people were turning up to see the sunrise. The first recorded Druid ceremony took place in 1905, conducted by the Ancient Order of Druids. Later they were joined by the Church of the Universal Bond, and the two groups continued to hold Mid-Summer sunrise ceremonies in the stones, on and off, right up until the festival was banned in the 1980s.
The festival simply extended these rites, absorbing some of the mythology of the Druid movement, while extemporising and elaborating on them with typically hippie extravagance, adding various elements to the mix, including turning it into a rock festival: a sort of organised camping spree and mass-gathering of like minded people frolicking and carousing in the sunshine while listening to rock music.
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| Stonehenge Solstice 1956: note the revellers |
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| Solstice 1960: The Ancient Order of Druids |
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| Mick Farren at a demonstration in support of the Oz defendants. |
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This wasn’t a new idea either.
There had been outdoor Summer festivals of various kinds going on since the 50s. In the United States there was the Newport Folk Festival, which famously featured Bob Dylan’s first electric performance in 1965. There were other festivals too, including Monterey in 1968 and Woodstock in 1969. The film of Woodstock came out in 1970 and became very popular amongst the hippie population at the time. Woodstock had started as a pay festival but had become so over-subscribed that eventually the gates were thrown open and it was declared a free festival. Joni Mitchell wrote a song about it, which was covered by Matthews Southern Comfort and reached number 1 in the UK charts in October 1970. There were also various free concerts held in Hyde Park during the latter part of the 60s and the early 70s, most notably the Rolling Stones concert held in July 1969.
After that there was Phun City, held on Ecclestone Common, near Worthing from July 24 to July 26, 1970. This was the first of the true Free Festivals, although it too, like Woodstock, had started as a pay festival. It was organised by Mick Farren, ex lead singer with the band The Deviants, a political activist and a journalist, as a fund raising event for the Oz defendants, then on trial for obscenity, but when funding was withdrawn the festival was declared free. The bands who had been booked were approached to see if they would play for nothing, the only one refusing, ironically, being Free.William Burroughs, the beat writer, appeared at the festival, as did the MC5, The Pretty Things, Kevin Ayres, the Edgar Broughton Band and the Pink Fairies.
The MC5 were a high energy political band from Detroit. Very radical. Very raw. They were the first band to be described as “punk rock” - this was in the late 60s and early 70s - playing fast and hard, aggressive revolutionary music. They sang a song called Kick Out The Jams: “Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!” Steve Andrews went to see them but he wasn’t impressed. “They were just another band making a lot of noise,” he says.
But what made this festival so spectacular was less the concert, than the lifestyle elements that went into it. People came prepared to live outdoors for a few days, so there were benders and the like popping up here and there. Some people made tree houses. Steve remembers walking through the woods at night, and there were people in the trees. They were like wild people living in the woods. Natural people. There were little fires sprinkled about with people sitting around them, with candles flickering in the trees, so that the whole picture seemed to be like a scene from Fairy Land.
Steve also remembers seeing Kevin Ayres with his hair dyed all purple on stage with Edgar Broughton. This was a good six or seven years before the hair-style innovations of punk made hair colouring normal practice: “My hero Edgar Broughton,” he said, getting all excited. “Edgar Broughton on the same stage as Kevin Ayres, and Kevin Ayres with shoulder length locks dyed purple. And you could see this. It stood out. There’s Kevin Ayres jamming with Edgar Broughton, wow!” No doubt this would have impressed Steve, who was always drawn to extravagant visual statements. In later years he began to dye his own beard green, a style he wears to this day.
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| The pyramid stage at Glastonbury 1971: 10th the size of the pyramid at Giza |
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| Andrew Kerr, co-founder of Glastonbury Fair, precursor of the Glastonbury Festival |
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The first Summer Solstice festival took place near Glastonbury in 1971. It was organised by Andrew Kerr, who had been the Personal Assistant to Randolph Churchill, son of Winston. Such was Kerr's commitment to the idea that he sold his house in order to fund it. Originally it had been planned to take place at Stonehenge, but this altered as he was lead by a series of “signs” to Michael Eavis's dairy farm in Pilton, Somerset. It became the model for all subsequent Glastonbury Festivals, but with this one marked difference: it was free. It was a visionary affair. Kerr was a dowser, and he dowsed the spot for the stage, which was a pyramid exactly 1/10th the size of the Great Pyramid at Giza. It was made of scaffold poles and see-through plastic which blazed with light once the sun had gone down. The idea was they were going to concentrate celestial energies through the pyramid and begin the process of healing the Earth. As Kerr said: "If the festival has a specific intention it is to create an increase in awareness in the power of the Universe, a heightening of consciousness and a recognition of our place in the function of this our tired and molested planet.”
All of these different elements were filtering into the cultural mood of the time. It was a period of revolutionary spiritual and political ferment. People wanted change. They wanted change on the outside, and change on the inside too. The Vietnam War was still in full swing, and there had been mass protests in London in 1968. Also the famous Situationist political stand-off in Paris in May 1968 was still fresh in people’s memory, as was the hippie conflagration in the United States. The notion of a gathering acting as a spur to consciousness and as a political protest had arisen out of the Acid Tests, the Be-Ins and Happenings of the hippie movement of late 60s California. Everything seemed on the verge of some vast, catastrophic change. The whole world was stirring.
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Several of the artists mentioned in Chris's essay have records out on Gonzo labels. For example:
EDGAR BROUGHTON
Gonzo UK
Gonzo USA
KEVIN AYERS
Gonzo UK
Gonzo US
Whilst on the subject of Kevin Ayers, as you probably know, he died last month. This is how we covered his death:
Rob Ayling remembers Kevin Ayers
Thom the World Poet remembers Kevin Ayers
Various Links
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Kevin Ayers
Mojo Obituary
His last interview
Rock's Back Pages - Kevin Ayers |
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As a kid, Alan Davey heard Lemmy`s bass work on a Hawkwind studio album called "Doremi" - one track, "Time We Left", has a section with Lemmy doing a near-solo including note bending and growling bass chords, and wanted to find out more about how it was done.
Buying a Rickenbacker bass seemed like a shrewd move for a lad who wanted to sound like Lemmy, and that's what Davey did.
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While a teenager, Davey formed a band called Gunslinger which became popular on the music circuit in Eastern England in the early 1980s, playing loud and dirty rock-metal. However, Davey was still a Hawkwind fan and was keeping an eye on what those guys were up to, and he felt they'd lost their way.
He sent a tape of his musical work to Dave Brock, discussed what he could bring to the band and, in 1984, was invited to join them. Hoping to nudge the Hawkwind ship back towards the old "Space Ritual" sound, he brought an element of that sound back to the band with his style of bass, modelled on Lemmy's.
He soon combined his bass duties with becoming Hawkwind's frontman, handling much of the lead vocal work and filling centre-stage in a way that brought much praise from fans. That stint with Hawkwind lasted 12 years, during which Davey was prominent in bringing midi synth technology into the band. He was able to tackle the programming needed for the elaborate soundscapes produced by linking his keyboards to those of other band members. He left in 1996 to form Bedouin - a three-piece band that fused traditional rock with subtle Arabic overtones. In 2000 he met Hawkwind again for a reunion gig and joined the band for his second stint as their bass player.
This time it was only for seven years, but this still made him the third-longest serving member of Hawkwind. Not bad for someone who was only six years old when Hawkwind commenced operations! He reformed Gunslinger as well as doing solo recordings, and established himself on MySpace and other websites. Like several other ex-members of Hawkwind, he also became involved with some of Nik Turner's activities that were aimed at running what, effectively, was an alternative Hawkwind, known as "The Hawklords". His current public work mostly consists of rather noisy Gunslinger gigs.
Cybertooth is a solo album in the literal sense - this one is all by Alan. Produced by Paul Cobbold (ex-Hawkwind producer). Its theme, in Alan's on words, is a computer virus that "eats PC flesh but can't eat Apples... yet." Basically, humanity has devised a new technology that wants to go on the rampage, but we're managing to bottle it up. So far. Sounds intriguing? Ya better believe it!
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IN THE COURT OF.....ERIK NORLANDER
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In a week or so I will have been doing the Gonzo Daily for a year. I have got to know quite a few of the Gonzo recording artists, and I have become quite fond of them as people. One such is Erik Norlander, a keyboard maestro who currently plays with Asia featuring John Payne, Rocket Scientists, and his own band The Galactic Collective. Erik and I share tastes in such things as curry and science fiction, and I always enjoy our chats.
Right from our first contact our relationship has been a jovial one. The first time I wrote to him (to apologise for having spelled his name wrong) I told him that I realised that I did such things at my peril. With a name like his and his mane of blonde hair he was obviously a Viking chieftain who would perform the Blood Eagle on me given half an excuse. He laughingly denied the charge, saying that he was a very peacable Viking, and I sent him a rhyming couplet that I remembered from the Young Ones spinoff 'Neil's Book of the Dead':
"We're not into rape and pillage,
we like wholefood and Steve Hillage"
He laughed, and we have been mates ever since.
Last week I found this video on YouTube. It is Erik and band performing In the Court of the Crimson King, which I would have thought was pretty damn uncoverable, but they did a bloody good job of it.
Erik wrote to me: |
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Thanks for the coverage, Jon. That version of "In the Court of the Crimson King" is actually from the 2004 Cal Prog Festival in Southern California -- not from St. Petersburg, Russia. It appears on my Live in St. Petersburg DVD as part of the documentary, "The Road to Russia." It was the first show of the tour that ended in St. Petersburg 5 months later.
And speaking of King Crimson, did you ever hear my version of "Starless"? It's on my Hommage Symphonique album from 2006. I think this link should work:
If not, you can also hear it on the album page on my own web site:
Cheers,
Erik
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He also reminded me that there is a wonderful Erik Norlander feature in the February 2013 issue of KEYBOARD magazine with a great interview by Geary Yelton and cool main photo by Erik Nielsen.
You can't say fairer than that! |
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| THE YES CIRCULAR - TRAWLING THE TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS |
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| The Court Circular tells interested readers about the comings and goings of members of The Royal Family. However, readers of this periodical seem interested in the comings and goings of Yes and of various alumni of this magnificent and long-standing band. Give the people what they want, I say |
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This weekend we post details of a new interview with Steve Howe and a vintage one with Trevor Rabin that I found online. And we are also posting an interesting video interview with Jon Anderson. There is also some exciting Rick Wakeman news in the offing, but I am not allowed to say anything as yet.
And finally, in America last week, Rob Ayling met Trevor Rabin and discussed a secret new project.
Watch this space! |
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Emeritus Pope-
No more Pope mobile wave byes
Scandals will erupt!
MELTING POLAR BEARS!
Coca-Cola Promotions!
Sell Ice Cap Sodas!
High Cost of Health Care
Government has banned illness!
NO POLITICIANS!
Year of Renminbi!
Used to be Year Of The Snake
Chinese cookies!
Hugo Chavez ill
Fidel Castro also ill
CIA?-or age?
Gold prices rise high
Quantitative easing?NO!
Dollars in the dumps!
OFFICE DEPOT/MAX
Merge like AA/US Air
Would you fly STAPLES?
Billionaires Giving
Pledge to give their own monies
"Read My Lips! No New..."
Asteroids fly in
TSA,Siberia-
No VISA/Passports!
North Korean bomb
Nuclear as her leader
Explodes on impact
PhD pirates
rented or bought by those
who want what you have!
Turkey for EU?
Ask your Kurds about freedom
and independence!
Remuneration?
Prisons as work factories
What about Unions?
Drug dispensaries
Ganga Gourmet CVS
Amsterdam Walgreens
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In Victorian times every well-bred Gentleman had a 'Cabinet of Curiosities'; a collection of peculiar odds and sods, usually housed in a finely made cabinet with a glass door. These could include anything from Natural History specimens to historical artefacts. There has always been something of the Victorian amateur naturalist about me, and I have a houseful of arcane objects; some completely worthless, others decidedly not, but all precious to me for the memories they hold..
I used to be a collector of rock and roll memorabilia, but most of my collection went into my solicitor's pocket during my divorce from my first wife, and I never had the stomach to build the collection up again. However, people send me pictures of interesting things such as this massively rare Japanese Tour poster featuring the late Kevin Ayers and the equally late Ollie Halsall... |
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British Rock band Galahad was formed in Dorset England during the mid eighties. As it is a progressive rock band you might be forgiven for thinking they were named after the knight made famous in Arthurian legend. The truth is far more simple than that and a million miles away from legend, Arthurian or otherwise. The fact is that guitarist Roy Keyworth named the band after seeing of all things an invoice for fruit and vegetables with the name “Galahad Produce” at the top of the page.
Having finalised a name, the band played their first concert in late August 1985. Over the years they have released a number of well received albums and gigged extensively. Galahad’s most recent album entitled ‘Empires Never Last’, released in 2007, was named Album Of The Year by the members of the “Classic Rock Society”, and features guest performances from Karl Groom (Threshold), and Clive Nolan (Arena and Pendragon).
Galahad would like to welcome everyone to 2013 by offering a FREE DOWNLOAD of their 1999 re-mix album ‘De-Constructing Ghosts’! Of course you can contribute something if you wish ;-)…
“Probably the most radical release in the Galahad canon. Consisting of remixes from original vocal, guitar, keyboard and woodwind tracks taken from the Following Ghosts master tapes and used to 'build' completely new pieces of music. Although not a dance re-mix album as such, there are a lot of breakbeat/house style beats along with more ethnic/eastern influences which Galahad has dabbled with over the years. On reflection, although it was an unusual experiment, especially for the time, which didn't always work as a whole, there are still some very interesting and creative moments on the album, which still sound fresh and contemporary after all these years later, proving conclusively that Galahad have never been just another, so called, ‘Neo-Prog band’!”
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| Following on from last week's interview with Merrell Fankhauser here is a taster from his forthcoming Rainbow Bridge Revisited movie. Also an exclusive picture of Merrell last week in California with Gonzo cheesemeister Rob Ayling... |
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All About Eve arose out of Britain's '80s Goth rock scene with a unique, folk-rock-influenced take on the style. Former journalist and Gene Loves Jezebel bassist Julianne Regan was encouraged by members of The Mission to form her own band after singing background vocals on some of their material. She hooked up with Tim Bricheno (guitar) Andy Cousins (bass) and drummer Mark Price. All About Eve was born, and in 1985 the band released their first single 'D For Desire', following that with another single 'In The Clouds' some nine months later. Both these singles appeared on the independent Eden label, as did the third and fourth singles 'Our Summer' and 'Flowers In Our Hair' (the latter of which topped the independent charts in 1987). The material recorded during this period can be heard on the album 'Return To Eden Volume 1'.
It was in 1987 that the band signed their first major deal with Phonogram, and former Yardbird Paul Samwell Smith produced their debut album. The self-titled debut album 'All About Eve' sold well, and included a number of hit singles including the top ten hit 'Martha's Harbour'. The album sold well in the UK, and the subsequent tour was a great success.
Following this the band recorded their second album 'Scarlet And Other Stories' which - despite being a good follow-up album - was not as popular commercially or critically. Following the tour to promote the album, founder member Tim Bricheno left the band, subsequently joining fellow Goth band The Sisters Of Mercy. Opting to continue as a band, All About Eve recruited Marty Wilson Piper who had been the mainstay of The Church. Initially this was deemed a temporary measure, but it soon evolved into a full time proposition and the band recorded their third album entitled 'Touched By Jesus'. The band would record another album, 'Ultraviolet', before splitting in 1994.
The band subsequently reconvened in the late nineties and recorded a number of live albums, some of which were acoustic and others electric, before once again taking a break in late 2004. |
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