From the Sixties to the End of the Noughties..did it match up to expectations?

Hello Good People who read this blog I am listening to music over the headphones while I write this, to keep me focussed and calm,so I might as well start by sharing what I am listening to. Some English sixties folk, Sandy Denny with an acoustic home recorded demo version of Who Knows Where the [...]

…to Solfest, not a review, but some thoughts…

At Solfest,you can pretty much have the experience you want, whether you have small children,don’t have children, love acoustic music, want to go to various excesses of toxicity, want to be healthy and coherent and attend yoga workshops, want to rock, listen to live world music, chill out all night in a psychedelic way or want to dance.

Behind the Mask or Perfectionism leads to Carnage (+Satan Cowell)

Hello Good People who read this blog This is another personal rant written during a phase of insomnia due to my own troubled waters and smog over London city both keeping me awake. This is not about hippie counterculture but being one of the last surviving hippies living close to the roots of London’s alternative [...]

Our shallow superficial culture and talented people

Hello Good people who read this blog… Some anti-tv vitriol…. I am changing the tone today just for a brief comment on our culture. I have been watching a bit of TV this week and heard about some exceptionally talented singer on some reality TV programme. I thought I would check out what all the [...]

Solfest (Cumbria) 2008…a personal journey

Hello Good people who read this blog (there may be some editorial mistakes I missed still swimming about) ( this post is very long to save your eyes from going funny copy it & print it!) I am still coming down from the high of going to Solfest where although there were some initial stresses [...]

The Dave Russell Interviews reborn ( Notting Hill Arts- 1967-72)

Hello Good People who read this blog If you go back in time to my earlier entries you will find some interesting stories about Notting Hill in the 60s and 70s and also Anti-Media activities in the 80s , bits about the gigs before Club Dog etc…. However I have been having problems with technology [...]

Steve Hillage Part 3 :Gone to Heaven and Found System 7

Steve Hillage Part 3 :Gone to Heaven and Found System 7 (something old , something new, something borrowed,something Green) Hello Good People who read this blog! (sorry about typos I am still editing this!) Apologies for the delay since my last entry. Yesterday… I went to Heaven last night and saw System 7. Preamble…. I [...]

(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 [...]

(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

Interview with Dave Russell on the Arts and Community Centre Notting Hill in the 60s and 70s( Part Two) Following on from my previous post here is episode 2 of my interview with Dave Russell from a couple of weeks ago. Here he continues to tell us of the gigs and wild arts happenings in [...]

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

Interview with Dave Russell on the Arts and Community Centre Notting Hill in the 60s and 70s( Part One) I first met my good friend Dave Russell in 1993 at “Bunjies” in Litchfield Street, off Charing Cross Road. We both used to perform there regularly in their legendary folk cellar. When I ran my own [...]