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	September, 2010 Three or four members of the group were sitting on the steps of the post office in King's Rd, Chelsea. They were waiting for others in the group to complete their business, inside the post office. Someone started playing a flute (if I remember correctly), and from this an impromptu street theatre event began to unfold. A few pedestrians stopped to see what was happening. A few more stopped, and then a few more and in a short space of time a crowd of people had filled the pathway. The only place left for the increasing assemblage, to be, had become the road.......! The constabulary arrived and began to send the onlookers away. We were consequently charged with obstructing the Queen's highway. I remember David Medalla bringing tears to the magistrates eyes, as he pleaded his case. We were each fined the princely amount of 2 pounds. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have we arrived at the Electric Garden, or is it now called the Middle Earth? Whatever the case, I cannot forget Lianne....... This was my time!....... I was doing some on the spot choreography and we created a piece called: "The Birth Of The Flower Child" Lianne had become a child, lying on the floor, in a foetus state. I weaved my way through the group telling them to form a circle around her, facing inwards, whilst raising their arms and joining hands in the one flowing movement. The circle remained holding hands and slowly bent forward as would the petals of a flower, until they touched Leanne. After a moment or two, the petals of the flower slowly opened, until all were at full backward stretch. Lianne eventually emerged from between the petals and then crawled across the floor into and through the 'audience'. This was to become one of the very special moments in my life!! I remember seeing a photograph of this performance in a German magazine at the time. Someone in the group had a copy. Have been trying to find some reference to this on the internet, to no avail. What were the names of the magazines of that time?. A documentary on TV at that time, 'Impresarios of the Underground', has also proved to be impossible to unearth. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whatever happened to that really odd fellow Brian? He would mope around and really freak the house out sometimes. There was a story; something about him walking naked through the streets of his home town. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After speaking to Arthur Brown in the dressing room at The Middle Earth, I had to organise the group....... There is total darkness....... The faint sound of an organ can be heard. From the 'four corners' of the club, can be seen the four torchbearers, they slowly approach the stage. The organ is gradually increasing in volume. The flaming torches reach the centre of the stage and in unison they light up Arthur's Helmet. The god of hellfire, rises from his crouched position, and 'explodes' into the song Fire. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Improvisation was the key at UFO With the Soft Machine. The Social Deviants The poets. The Pink Floyd (I remember improvising with liquid lights onto the stage, one time, while they were playing. Someone had to leave for some reason and asked me if I could take over for a while). Whoever, whatever, whenever or wherever, there were never any complaints! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Except of course for the sand on the floor at Tottenham Court Rd. (Sue Hertzmark and I had created a movement piece in a sand box). We called it the "Sand Ballet" . Jack Henry told me later that the owners of the Blarney Club, as it was known, had complained about some sand, that had caused some serious damage to the dance floor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also recall the visits to the London zoo, after rolling down Primrose Hill. I was studying the many traits of the flamingo. I was cast as the Pink Flamingo in "The Bird Ballet" at the Roundhouse. The improvised music for the ballet came in part, from an old broken piano frame that I found in a lane in Islington somewhere and took back to my space, at Balls Pond Rd. It still had the strings attatched and many hours of experiment with sound were gleaned from it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A great deal of our costumery and props came from the garbage bins of Soho and the like. Searching the 'bins' was one of my favourite pastimes, especially those of the dressmakers and tailors. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I never did find out who stole my portable, three in one stereo, from Balls Pond Rd. I had a few albums stolen along with it! Freak Out -The Mothers of Invention Rubber Soul-The Beatles Miriam Makeba-Pata Pata Olatunji-Drums of Passion and other such gems. I did have a large collection of Jazz (Jazz at the Philharmonic, Blue Note, etc.), along with Folk, Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Rock 'n Roll (most genres), Musicals, World, and some Classical - After all of those hours browsing the shelves of the music shops, I had aquired a trunk full of vinyls - I brought them all with me on the ship (the Fairsky) to England - I did start a discotheque on the ship (a first for them) - I left the trunk at my grandfather's place in Peterborough. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I remember Joe Boyd calling a taxi for me one night, or should I say morning, after a hard night at UFO and the Roundhouse. Arriving at 99 Balls Pond Rd. in a taxi was something else! You see, I hardly ever caught a bus or train to get anywhere. I preferred to walk barefoot and through the parks of London wherever possible. I do remember one time that I did catch the bus. I was with some of the group and David Medalla was attacked by a knife wielding yobbo. He was very lucky he was travelling with us, that's all I can say. We would also be attacked by neighbours while we were rehearsing in the back yard of 99 Balls Pond Rd. They would throw bricks at the sun roof, and directly at us, if we were in the back garden. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lastly, I shall mention Gwendolyn Earl, another of those hard to find again people. Gwendolyn, a Newcastle girl, had recently arrived in London. It would not be too long before we became inseperable........ After the galaxy days, I called on Gwen a couple of times. Once to become a part of a performance at the Arts Lab, it was called Dream Studies, with Graziella Martinez and Mark Boyle's Sensual Laboratory. Gwen and I were to share the stand-in role for Tony-Lee Marshall. (Tony-Lee had been unable to leave Paris for some reason).There were seventy performances in total. I still have a program for the show, somewhere....... The second time was to introduce her to the Human Family. She was the first person to become a part of the Human Family besides Jack Henry Moore and I. The Human Family were to leave London, catch a ferry to Amsterdam and tour Europe in a bus. Our first performance being at Paradiso, supporting Tim Buckley. We would create events at the many festivals we came across. My last memory of Gwen was back in 1972. We were in a boat on the Thames and I was rowing. We were visiting Geoff Blundell on his island retreat. I worked for Geoff at his radio-microphone factory in Shepherds Bush at that time. I would later travel to India and help establish a base for the company (Audio Ltd.), in New Delhi. It would be great to find her again. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have attached the IT front page article about the Galaxy. You will find me in the bottom picture with the same striped t-shirt on that I wore in the Kings Rd photo. I took this photo of Daevid Allen-Nimbin Poetry Night-August-2005 (Edward would remember the Soft Machine) Check out the latest Gong clip on youtube Found this old Exploding Galaxy poster on the internet, it was after my time but.. A couple more IT pages have been included. You may have already seen them? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- hoping all is well, love & peace, to all, Steve --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Am watching a clip of Stone Monkey (Malcolm Le Maistre) Have you seen The Incredible String Band movie The Pirate & the Crystal Ball (on youtube) with Malcolm & Rakis. I have included the Dantalian's Chariot clip of the song World War Three; it has a poster of UFO night with the Galaxy and the Social Deviants - 22-9-1967. T'would be good to hear from Edward. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part two of two and a bit?