It
was a flyer for the first festival that got us interested, that and
an article in IT (International Times -the underground paper). So we
wrote to Bill Ubi Dwyer offering our services & received a pile
of publicity to distribute. Come August, lying to my parents about where
I was going & at the tender age of 17 we headed for Windsor Great
Park.
It was more like a big picnic than anything
with everybody camped under the shelter of a large copse of trees. On
arriving & after putting up an ancient tent we consumed a bottle
of Glen Dew, a revolting mixture of cheap whiskey and wine. My friend
Graham then proceeded to fall over into a bramble bush and badly scratch
his face which , in the light of what we did next, was to prove disturbing.
Because the next thing we did was to score some acid.
This was going to be my first trip. I
had read the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test & wanted" on the bus".
My friend had done some before & was, l hoped, going to be my guide.
Well events get a little fogged with time, we went into town,
liberated some milk from a doorstep, Graham told me running my hand
through my hair would let me know when I was tripping! ! Got back to
the trees all right to find the tent collapsed. A hopeless attempt to
put it up draw the attention of folk around us, a girl asked my name
which proved impossible to furnish & caused me much embarrassment.
The police wandered around & someone
suggested we stay in the trees as they were our friends. The ground
breathed & I threw up. With nightfall the stars slid around the
sky & a delightfully perfumed wood smoke rose from the fires but
so far no music. ln fact as far as I know nobody got it together until
late the next day when Hawkwind did their sonic attack. Perhaps this
was the best thing as the next year I was severely over stimulated by
a much bigger event.
For the third festival I had got a large
group of friends to come & again helped with publicity even going
so far as to silk screen a poster of my own. This time although we camped
in roughly the same place there were ten times as many people &
several stages offering loads of bands. Once again I dropped a tab only
to be told that it was firstly extremely strong & then that it was
cut with something nasty. So I freaked out, took all my clothes off
& ended up in the Release tent. But before doing that we had a great
time loving the music & looking at people. There was a free press
run by Albion Free State whose anthem went like this,
Giants built Stonehenge , giants built this land
Lets spurt up like mushrooms and seize the upper hand
ALBION FREE STATE
We'll build free cities of life and love,
Get a soul job every second from below & from above.
ALBION FREE STATE
Peace is ahead of the grazing of the cattle,
Death Kulture, death kulture, rattle, rattle, rattle
ALBION FREE STATE
We'll open up the prisons, open up the zoos.
Five dee telepathy instead of bad news
ALBION FREE STATE
This country's run on bat scum
Instead of grail juice
ALBION FREE STATE
Sky sisters & sky brothers arise! Black druids arise! workers
arise!
Zombies arise Singers arise ! Harpies arise ! Architects arise
!
Scholars arise! Arseholes arise! Geniuses arise!
Thieves arise! Gangsters of love
Arise!
Based in Notting Hill which was , I felt,
the only place in London to be, Albion Free State ran a place called
the Roxy, had a lot to do with Bit information service & had the
talents of one Heathcote Williams ,who won fame & fortune with long
poems like 'Whale Nation' & as an actor & playwright. They had
lovely, mad ideas like replacing the Queen's head on bank notes by William
Blake.
The bands were all unknown to me but
there were great bluesmen , folk singers & cosmic jammers. Topless
girls with painted breasts & Hells Angels who, 1 was told, were
looking for me because I'd kicked their tent over as I ran wild &
spaced over the site.
Everybody is Wally
Every day' is sun day.
Reality is the basement of utopia.
Reality, in the form of the boys in blue,
came when they busted the whole festival in a military scale operation
which filled the national press for days after . But by then I had long
gone.
Windsor
menu
Archive
menu
