Page Title


	The Human Family ===================== We arrived in Amsterdam - I ended up in a houseboat, spent the night listening to water slapping against the side of the boat. I meet a beautiful Dutch girl on the houseboat, (After my stint in Positano as DJ at the Quicksilver Club, I returned to London whereupon Spiros Phrenomenous informed me that she was expecting a baby to me). I cannot remember her name, unfortunately we separated in Cannes. She began selling mass produced, tourist driven paintings, for a percentage, which I did not find ethically sound. I did visit the artist's workshop/studio. He had ten or so canvas boards in a row, he would walk past the canvasses. On the first lap he would pallette knife a mast to each canvas, on the next lap would add the boat body, the next lap, the sails and so on. Similar to photocopying a picture, one was a near replica of any other. I never did see her again.... An hysterical woman leaves the group the following morning. Was it Sue Hertzmark? Something about sleeping in a room full of rats! We were rehearsing at Paradiso when someone ran in demanding that we stop everything - It was remembrance day (an eerie 2 minutes silence descended over the entire city). A blonde woman driving a huge pink American car breaks the silence as she drives past. She was probably from the U.S. and did not know about remembrance day. I remember visiting a hotel in the Dom to find Tim Buckley and remind him of the time as he was to perform with us in The Paradiso. His conga player, Carter, and I, had a game of snooker while we waited). Do you remember the photographer? He arrived at the Paradiso to photograph the nudity of the performance. The "general", atop the stepladder, had just ordered the execution of the people. The people, once disposed of and lying on the floor, began to crawl towards the "general"; he was pulled down off his perch, disrobed, and then redressed in the people's clothing (each person took one item of clothing off themselves and put it on the general. He had become a person with no identity). On this particular night the people turned toward the photographer, disrobed him, and redressed him in the same manner. He would remain with the group and travel with it for a few days. I did enjoy walking everywhere with the stereo tape deck! We had two important discs:- The Steve Miller Band - Children of the Future & The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet. A trip to Copenhagen - had a great breakfast - I remember visiting a place in a lane, opposite the police station - A guy with a white sheet wrapped around himself greeted me at the door and on entering the room I discovered a group of similarly clad individuals sitting in circles and smoking chillums. Brick walls are about all that I remember about Belgium. Paris was unforgettable! On the first visit - I was on an underground train - I offered my seat to an old man - he took one look at me and walked to the end of the carriage and stood there. He was still there when I reached my destination. My second visit was amazing. I think it was when we were in the south of France somewhere - somebody gave me a plane ticket to Paris. I had to deliver a movie canister to a certain address in Paris. I landed in Paris and headed towards the address. The city was deserted and the silence was deafening! Across the end of one of the roads, close to the address, I could see a stationary bus. As I approached the bus I noticed a line of masks, with hoses as noses, staring at me! What with the silence, the deserted streets and a bus full of (what I later found out to be) riot police. I thought the end of the world was upon us. I continued walking and soon found the address. The flat was upstairs - a few people were huddled around a colour TV . The guy thanked me for delivering the film and advised me to stay put for a while. I wandered over to the TV and saw cars burning - the Paris riots were in full swing and it was in colour! I later learned that the film that I had delivered was a collection of footage from the Vietnam moritorium in Trafalgar Square (. Other European gatherings could have been a part of it as well, anyway, the canister was on it's way to the US or somewhere. In Avignon I met a collective of people with a mission - they were rebuilding the war damaged parts of the old city area. The Living Theatre were around. We would meet them again on our travels. It would have been two years later when I moved into Bill & Carol Berger's house, at Priano, near Positano, Petra Vogt was living there as well. Lyons - Nice - Basle - draw a blank at the moment. Went to the Monte Carlo rally. A lot of noise with the occasional half second glimpse of a car turning a corner. Someone we met in Cannes invited us to the rally. I remember visiting a commune near Lausanne - we were invited to dine with them - everybody ate together around a huge table in the community house. Geneva was fun. It was the second home of my friend from Boston, USA, Dvora (I met her at the Arts Lab) - her father worked for a Boston newspaper. My other friend and her photographer husband lived in a flat high above a cinema in the city. You could climb the stairs and look down the centre space and see other people walking up and down the stairs at different levels, reminding me of old Hitchcock movies, otherwise one could use the lift. That night some guy arrived with some mescaline. My friend (was her name Jill?) started writing and drawing all over the walls of her flat - in texta pen. We wanted to go have a look at the city. We took the lift down to this massive foyer with huge glass front doors to the street. We walked through the doors and discovered a line of people waiting to go to the cinema, next doors. They were all wrapped up in their fur coats, steam was coming from their mouths and it was snowing! We of course, having just left a warm flat, arrived in t-shirts and the like, totally unaware of the weather. We went back to the flat, dressed appropriately, and returned to the streets. We later had fun in the snow at a park somewhere and then ended up at a wedding. On arrival at Montreux I noticed a building with the words - "The Invasion Of The British Hippies" - written on the windows. In we went. We were then escorted to a tunnel that took us underneath the road to a huge five star hotel on the other side. This was the Palace Hotel. It had monster tiled bathrooms with chrome piping everywhere. This was our home for a few days. Amazing! Zurich - I remember Dani and the giant meusli bowl inside the dome - breakfast for everyone and any one. We would suss out the supermarkets and aquire most of the ingredients required, from the 'going to the waste bins' department. Nowadays we have the "use by" date. I had a game of chess with some guy, I won the game and he took me to this huge house in the mountains. A meeting was in progress - at least fifty were present - someone had just travelled through Russia and was telling everybody about the fields with a guard on every corner. We had a few problems at the Italian border if I remember correctly. I have little recollection of Turin, In Florence we had the morning glory experience. I remember ending up in an orchard with the tape recorder and Vivaldi. We were invited there by the owner - a very poor princess. One of my favourite places. Spoleto - mirrors & glass - street terrorism performance - a victim was placed on the roof of a Rolls Royce and taken back to camp. At this point I wandered down south to visit Shawn Phillps at a place called Positano. I met Pauline Fordham of the Palisades boutique, Carnaby Street, London. She would later design a T shirt with Malcolm McClaren, but where she is nowadays is a mystery. A discotheque known as The Quicksilver Club required a disc-jockey & light show operator (rows of switches would control the dance floor lights). I thought I would help out. I ended up with a job for the summer. After the summer I returned to London, to The Lab and to The Family. The following spring the manager of The Quicksilver (Sal Cinque) sent me a plane ticket and some money to purchase some new music. I returned to Positano with Sue, another friend from the Galaxy and the Human Family. I rented a house that had two front doors. The public path/stairway cut the house in two. An underground wine cellar (under the path/stairway) joined them, this would become the sound tunnel. I lived in the half that faced the mountains as I needed access to the stone steps, to run downtown, to my job. I would let people stay in the other half of the house. It had a balcony with a view of the bay and coastline. Some of my houseguests: Steve Sanders - filmaker - Buffalo Springfield (It's Not A Ship, It's A Sail) - He would play The Byrds on his Uher tape recorder at my place in Positano, He introduced me to Steve Stills one day at the Arts Lab. Michael Ramsden - Artist & Jennie Kee - clothes designer (Australians). Michael Dunkley (British music shop friend) & Jennie Hanlon (Another Australian) Marilyn Woolhead & friend David Naylor. She later became the wife of Led Zeppelin roadie Richard Cole. Fabienne and her Great Danes. She would leave the dogs with me, to look after, when she went overseas). Neam Raveggia (her father worked for Sandoz Laboratories) Caroline Thompson (New Zealand friend of Vali Myers - her artist father, Peter, would exhibit in town galleries) Bill & Carol Berger's daughter, Debbie, would visit and stay over sometimes. Heathcliff, the town dog would drop in occasionally. One day he had a gaping hole in his body. I had to get a numbing agent from the dentist, Cesare, so that I could stitch him up! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The travelling rodeo at the Palazzetto dello Sport would have been the next adventure. I enjoyed the dance with the Sioux indians. I remember the clown with the missing ear and the screaming cowboy - in the shower - he didn't know that caldo was italian for hot. Keeping those arc spotlights together was great fun - the stagecoach being chased by the indians and the chimpanzee on the remote controlled tractor. Was the show really closed down due to complaints of cruelty to animals? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of the people I met along the way (I find that remembering names is not one of my strong points). Shirley McLaine (Working on movie - The Bliss of Mrs Blossom - Alexandria Palace) Grahame Stevens (Inflatables) Victor Spinetti Steve Stills Arthur Brown Mick Farren Mark Boyle Joe Boyd Alan Ginsburg Jan Quackenbush Geoff Blundell Nicholas Logsdale (Lisson Gallery) Val & Nicky Ryman The Duchess (Kensington Market) Shawn Phillips Yoko Ono (Lisson Gallery) Hawkwind Family Pink Fairies Daevid Allen (ex. Soft Machine) Daevid lives near me these days. He comes to town for poetry readings every so often. I heard that Philippa Jeffrey was in Australia somewhere? In Australia I had numerous market stalls, selling farm equipment & oils, solar powered accessories, music cd's and other bric a brac. I also spent a few years travelling to markets with the Chai Tent (see Aquarius Chai Tent on the internet). In 1986 I was part of a large group, made up of vehicles (buses, vans, cars, pushbikes etc.) and people, known as the Peace Train. We travelled around Australia, setting up camp at all the major festivals in the country. I would travel ahead and find the camp sites and organise venues for the performers and stalls. A sort of scout for the group relying on impulse and improvisation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you find this of some assistance to you all, I am looking forward to seeing Videoheads site completed! Please could you send a copy of the Alchemical Wedding movie. love & peace Steve (1) Thornton (Technical Crew - The Arts Laboratory & The Human Family) (Volunteer - Nimbin Museum & Nimbin Hemp Bar, Nimbin, NSW, Australia) Started and aquired permission for legal Community Radio Station (1994-95) (Local power groups joined our group, embezzled us, resigned, and created a second radio organisation - problems ensued - that is Nimbin all over) PS International Times; Issue 16 (see IT archives site) I did go to Berlin railway station. I remember buying an ice-cream. What was the surname of the Arts Lab carpenter (Craig?), he was an Aussie.