(Episode Four) Dave Russell – Notting Hill 1967-1972 The Free School, Destruction in Art Symposium, Friends/Frendz magazine and the Rural Retreat

(Episode Four) Notting Hill 1967-1972: an interview with Dave Russell – More about the Crypt ( arts and community centre), The Free School, Destruction in Art Symposium, Friends/Frendz magazine and the Rural Retreat

*I mention “Friends magazine” but it seems that they also spelt it “Frendz magazine”. For more info on the magazine including examples of articles go to this link: http://www.ibiblio.org/mal/MO/philm/friends/

Hello good people who read this blog. After an interlude of some time finally here we are …

Here is the final part of the Dave Russell interview about the Arts and Community Centre ( the Crypt) and beyond:

The Free School
In his interview I asked Dave about the Free School which is often associated with Pink Floyd ( who played at the Crypt too) . He said it had moved about a bit and referred me to another site. So I “borrowed” this map on Tom Vague’s site ( see links to “History Talk”). Dave said that he had done lots of archiving of materials and had helped Tom with the map so I am hoping it is ok to borrow it for my site. You will see on this map the location of the Free School changes as well as some of the other important sites ( and there were more not included on this map) double-click on the image to enlarge.

from www.portobellofilmfestival.com/talkpics/talk-vague02.html

Destruction in Art
Dave mentions the destruction in Art Symposium who encouraged the smashing up of things. Here is another reference to it from Wikipedia complete with 1966 poster.

“The Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS) was a gathering of a diverse group of international artists, poets, and scientists to London, from 9th-11th September, 1966. Included in this number were representatives of the counter-cultural underground who were there to speak on the theme of destruction in art.”

The Honorary Committee, led by Gustav Metzger, attracted the attention of both the international media and international art community to the symposium.

Michael Moorcock, Friends magazine, and Hawkwind

I asked Dave about these in the interview .Here is a second clip of the fantastic BBC4 Hawkwind documentary which was one of my main inspirations for writing this entire blog.It reminded me of a time long gone of artistic and creative revolution in London. The clip starts with sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock talking about happenings in Notting Hill ( or Ladbroke Grove) and documents further alternative strands in the area , plus Hawkwind and drugs.

Hawkwind Documentary

Flyers and Iain Jacobs

Iain Jacobs now an established photgrapher in Spain has contributed greatly to my research. He was one of the organisers of the Arts and Community Centre. He was 19 when he first joined their ranks. He also performed in The People Band and designed some of the flyers for the centre which migrated to various venues but was mostly at The Crypt , Lancaster Road.

He has very kindly sent me a quantity of flyers to help document this in my blog. I would very much have liked to have interviewed Carlyle Reedy , orginally from the U.S. ,who was the founder and main organiser of the Arts and Community Centre Notting Hill .At present she is not available but I am sure in time I will meet her and hopefully she can help me to document more.

Thanks again to Iain Jacobs for supplying me with the following documents:(click on them to enlarge)

This is the brochure cover to the A.C.C.N.H.

Inside of Brochure

The Continuous Music Ensemble poster

Cornelius Cardew Poster

The Third Ear Band

Some General Posters for the Arts and Community Centre Notting Hill:

Poster for the Exploding Galaxy

more info on The Exploding Galaxy
I found this on the “disinformation” website in relation to Genesis P-Orridge:
This would be around 1969

“After a near-death experience left him determined to follow his notion of becoming a beatnik writer, the young P-Orridge’s instinct for finding other “genetic terrorists” like himself led him to the psycho-therapeutic bootcamp of the Exploding Galaxy/Transmedia commune (which also included filmmaker Derek Jarman). Members were required to sleep in a different location every night, to take meals at different times during the day, and to act out assigned roles and attitudes, often in costume and with unerring earnestness, going so far as to have atypical sexual encounters (in character!) or risk getting badly beaten up if a situation warranted it.

The commune’s anarchistic spirit and insistence on life as art and art as life inspired the performance art events of COUM (pronounced “coom”) Transmissions. Staged primarily by P-Orridge and part time pin-up model Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Carol Newby, 1951), COUM’s outrageous “happenings” were parallel to the work of Viennese Actionist Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch’s Orgies Mysteries Theater. COUM’s shamanic improvisations involving enemas, blood, roses, wire, feathers, sexual intercourse, milk, urine, licking up vomit, crucifixion, maggots and self-mutilation were often not conceptualized until the very moment of the performances, if at all. “Quoted from http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1246/pg1/index.html

It all sounds like an average Saturday night out to me! ( my attempt at humour) I don’t think anything quite that extreme went on at the Crypt in Notting Hill!

The Poetry Workshop

Jazz gigs at The Ladbroke Hotel

The People Band ( was in previous entry but I like this poster a lot!)

Well that’s all for now….I hope to bring you more of something soon!

Have a good weekend and be creative without dollar/euro/pound signs in your cartoon eyes .

DAVE RUSSELL ( the man I interviewed and Notting Hill resident since the sixties)

Before I go one last vid. This is Dave Russell with ” Hades W10″ also known as “Nobody gets off at this bus stop” (The people in the background are quite interesting and entertaining …he usually gets a much better response than this!) after that he plays another one of his own songs “Crackdown Tribunal”. Dave is an intellectual creative rebel well-versed in folk, blues, jazz, punk and poetry. He has recorded countless albums of his songs as well as covering the rawest blues songs and setting music to William Blake and other  poetry. He has covered some Madonna songs which are so riotous that you’d think they were written by Dylan, Robert Johnson or John Lydon.

He revels in  words as well as music and has written two novels and a book of poetry. He plays all the acoustic clubs in London that are any good and avoids the soul-less ones looking for pretty pop stars.

At present he has no website or myspace although I hope one day this will happen.

(p.s. he is also a really nice bloke and my friend who has been very tolerant of me over the years)

see also

Notting Hill and the Arts 1967-1972: an interview with Dave Russell – Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Gong and more…(Episode One)

(Episode two) Notting Hill and the Arts 1967-1972: an interview with Dave Russell -Psychedelic rock bands, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Ralph McTell, Davy Graham, lightshows, poets, and drug-taking in a crypt

(Episode Three) Notting Hill and the Arts 1967-1972: an interview with Dave Russell – Jazz, Psychedelic Rock Bands, Poetry, Frestonia, Release and Pete Brown’s Battered Ornaments

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