Soundstage Presents Steve Winwood

From 1974 to 1985, we were avid viewers of PBS's Soundstage, the show having presented such artists as Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Al Green, and the Doobie Brothers. Thankfully, Soundstage was reborn in 2001 and now features performances in state-of-the-art HD video and Dolby 5.1 audio.

Not knowing this show background, and with the publicity surrounding the current Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood tour, we rented Soundstage: Steve Winwood from Netflix. As the concert opens, we had no idea as to the pedigree of the sidemen and, being lifelong fans of anything with which Winwood has been involved, were skeptical at first. We needn't have worried, however, for his choices soon made it clear that Winwood's support team had been around the block. Consider who's played with whom:

• Randall Bramblett (flute, saxes, organ, vocals): Sea Level, Chuck Leavell. Greg Allman, Levon Helm, Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic, Traffic, Bonnie Raitt, Elvin Bishop, Robbie Robertson, Grateful Dead.
  
• Walfredo Reyes, Jr. (drums, percussion): Carlos Santana, Traffic, Jackson Browne, Gloria Estefan, David Lindley, Ricki Lee Jones, Sergio Mendes, Smokey Robinson, Robbie Robertson, Joe Sample, Boz Scaggs.


• Jose Neto (check out his signature Paradis guitar): Flora Purim, Harry Belafonte (20 years).
  
• Edson "Cafe" da Silva (percussion): Larry Coryell, Gato Barbieri, Harry Belafonte, Eliane Elias, Sergio Mendes, James Taylor and Stevie Wonder. Also appeared on Randy Brecker’s Grammy winning album, Into the Sun.

Tracks on this DVD include Can't Find My Way Home, Empty Pages, Glad, Back In the High Life, Freedom Rider and several others. The band is so exceptional, as is the Soundstage audio recording, that they manage to make even a mediocre track like Bully thoroughly convincing in this context. And unlike a very old Blind Faith video we investigated earlier, Winwood's singing was on target. (We attribute this in part to the superior, miniaturized stage monitoring gear that is used by most major acts today, recalling that—as loud as both were playing—neither Eric Clapton nor Jack Bruce could hear one another when Cream got going on an extended jam.)

Listen to Winwood wind it out on Dear Mr. Fantasy

We do have a quibble with the DVD menu. Bonus tracks are usually clearly labeled as such at the top level menu, but not on this offering. The viewer has to select The Songs menu item, and even then is unaware that three bonus tracks exist unless Next is selected. So it was that we almost missed a soaring rendition of Rainmaker.

Although there was little to nothing in the way of stage theatrics, the periodic look of absolute delight on Winwood's face is infectuous. We look forward to seeing additional Soundstage offerings, being blown away by both the audio and video quality of this disk. And looking into this PBS series a little further, here is what we learned from their website:

The lights are one of the most important ingredients of the show. In order to cover the 90-foot wide stage, the lighting grid is over 500 feet. Over 96 house dimmers are utilized to create any desireable effect during the show. Soundstage utilizes 12 cameras for every production. 1080p HD cameras are used in various placements throughout the studio to maximize the best shots possible. [Digital] audio tracks are taken to post production for editing, mixing and 5.1 surround mixing. Soundstage's audio mixes are as entertaining as the artists themselves.

The majority of the concerts are filmed before intimate studio audiences at WTTW’s Grainger Studio in Chicago, but Soundstage occasionally hits the road. Since 2001, performers have included Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Lucinda Williams, Mark Knopler and Emmylou Harris, Chris Isaak, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Wilco, Sonic Youth, KT Tunstall, John Fogerty and countless more of today’s premiere artists.

Andy Summers Reveals Police Memorial

There was much more substance to the Police than Sting, the superstar artist. Without guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland to help arrange the music, Sting's Roxanne may possibly have been recorded by someone else as a bossa nova track and the fledgling group might never have become stadium rockers.

Reading from his critically-acclaimed memoir, One Train Later, here Summers tells how the Police collectively developed their Outlandos d'Amour megahit and, in so doing, also defined the group's distinctive sound:

Andy Summers reads from One Train Later

From One Train Later one learns that Summers is a few years older than those who became his eventual bandmates, and that he was no stranger to London's early rock scene. A fixture on the circuit, he jammed with recent arrival, Jimi Hendrix, and sold Eric Clapton his '59 Gibson Les Paul guitar after EC's matching model was stolen.

Eric records Fresh Cream with my Les Paul [and] the terms Les Paul and Clapton become synonymous...before it was regarded as a weird failure...But possibly because of our little interchange, it becomes a Stradivarius of rock guitars.

Together with keyboard player and vocalist Zoot Money, Summers founded Dantalian's Chariot, soon a local headliner. In '67 they found themselves on London concert bills with the likes of Pink Floyd, Soft Machine and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. (Also achieving notoriety in Paris, Dantalian's Chariot disbanded after a series of foibles in Northern Scotland that resulted in a hospital stay for Summers.)

Soon Money and Summers found it more lucrative to play sidemen to Eric Burdon in the New Animals. Life was good until Burdon decided to go in a different direction during a U.S. tour. After floundering awhile, Summers joined the Soft Machine but was dismissed just before they were to tour the states as a supporting act to Hendrix's Experience. A serendipitous, career-saving stint with Neil Sedaka (who was big in the U.K.) followed, and when the Rolling Stones went looking for a replacement for departing guitarist Mick Taylor, Summers was on their short list.

Other accounts like these take the reader half-way through the book. The remainder details the history of the Police, culminating in their historic Shea Stadium appearance. Many more fastinating anecdotes await you, including a wild chance encounter with John Belushi while vacationing in Bali!

Captured shortly after the release of his memoir, below is Summers being interviewed on the BBC's Later... With Jools Holland. This segment includes some brief footage of the Police as they approach the pinnacle of their career:

What's not well-known is how accomplished a guitarist Summers is and the numerous styles he can readily play, including jazz and classical music. Since the Police, he has recorded numerous albums as a leader or in collaboration with others, including (old friend) Robert Fripp, Ginger Baker, Brian Auger, Herbie Hancock and Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter, Elaine Elias. Listen to two tracks from Summers' World Gone Strange:

World Gone Strange

Oudu Kanjaira

Other post-Police recordings by Andy Summers may be heard in their entirety at his MySpace page. A more recent compilation, including a pairing with Deborah Harry, may be sampled here. And guitar players/collectors may be interested in learning more about Fender's Andy Summers Tribute Telecaster®, used by Summers to provide the Police with their unique guitar sound.

The Spirit of Randy California

In the Company of Jimi Hendrix

The date was late July, 1969. We've been flashing back to the Grande Ballroom, where Spirit topped a bill that included one-hit wonders Fever Tree (San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)). Led by guitar whiz Randy California, Spirit had debuted their first album that past January, with one track, Fresh Garbage, in regular rotation on Detroit's underground rock stations.

Free! Listen to Topanga Windows
in its entirety. Download it here (99¢).

Alas, it being the '60s we don't remember too much about this concert, other than being enthralled to hear such an iconic rock group at that magical venue. With Jay Ferguson, Mark Andes and John Locke joining California and his stepfather, Ed Cassidy, Spirit's music was an inventive mix of fusion of jazz, rock, folk and blues, liberally sprinkled with psychedelia.

The Doors were all right—but for many rock fans in the
late 60s, the band that really mattered was Spirit.

Critic Jim Washburn, Los Angeles Times

Just two years before this concert date, guitarist Randy Wolfe had moved to New York with his mother and jazz drummer Ed Cassidy, the elder having at one time played with Dexter Gordon, Cannonball Adderley, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Les McCann, Gerry Mulligan, Mason Williams, Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder. Already a prodigious guitar player at 16, it was at Manny's Music in Manhattan that Wolfe met Jimi Hendrix, subsequently joining the latter's Jimmy James & the Blue Flames in 1966. There being another Randy—a Texan—in the band, it was Jimi who rechristened Wolfe "Randy California," apparently to help the band leader distinguish between the two. And when Hendrix was called to London by Chas Chandler to ultimately form the Experience, California's parents made him forego that fork in the road so he could finish high school stateside.

In '68 Spirit was backed on tour by Led Zeppelin. Many accounts cite that, in creating Stairway To Heaven, the Zep's Jimmy Page borrowed the key riff from Spirit's Taurus—charges that Page denies. California ultimately penned all of Spirit's hits, including I Got A Line On You, 1984 and Nature's Way.

A month after Spirit's '69 appearance at the Grande, Hendrix was scheduled to play Woodstock. Not forgetting his old friend, California was asked if his group would like to appear before him. The idea was nixed by the Spirit's manager, Lou Adler (co-producer of the Monterey Pop Festival two years earlier), with this short-sightedness ultimately preventing the band from achieving the level of success it should have easily attained.

Spirit's The Family That Plays Together was an impressive follow-up to the group's debut recording, but it was their fourth album, The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, that ranks highly on many "Best of the Era" lists. With good reason, too: it's one of those rare recordings that is consistently great from start to finish. The band continued to languish, however, causing Ferguson and Andes to soon cast their fate with Jo-Jo Gunne (the band's name lifted from a Chuck Berry song).

Various Spirit incarnations came and went over the next several years, Cass being the only original member to remain. After several solo projects, ultimately his step-son rejoined. Recorded at Milwaukee's Summerfest festival, the Spirit In Concert DVD has Scott Monahan (keyboards and vocals) and Walter Egan (bass and vocals) joining co-founders Cass and California. The audio recording quality is sub-par, but this DVD clearly displays the exuberant showmanship of California and the Thor-like power of Cass on the drums. Floydian Slips recommends renting this video for its "feel good" entertainment value alone.

Like the Beatles and Pink Floyd, don't hold out for a Spirit reunion featuring the original lineup. John Locke passed away in 2006 and California drowned in Hawaii while rescuing his son from a riptide in 1997. Thankfully this one video exists of California in his prime, and the Spirit back catalog continues to be available.

Hot Tuna: Acoustic & Electric Celestial Blues

Hot Tuna's story is
an interesting one. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, having secured a position
with a new group, Jefferson Airplane, called back east to his high school friend, Jack Casady, in the hope of finding a bass player. Casady assured him he was the man for the job, and, after hanging up the phone, Kaukonen hoped Casady wouldn't embarass him once rehearsals began.

Not only did Cassidy provide the bottom to the Airplane's sound, he went on to play with other noted musicians of the era. That's Casady's thundering bass opening up Voodoo Chile from Hendrix's Electric Ladyland (with Steve Winwood on keyboards), the two having first met at 67's Monterey Pop Festival where they jammed backstage for hours.

Free! Listen to Water Song
in its entirety. Download it here (99¢).

The first Hot Tuna date was simply a diversion for Kaukonen and Casady, neither having any idea that it would lead to a collaboration that has far surpassed anything the two could have achieved with the Jefferson Airplane. Thankfully that original acoustic set was recorded and is still one of our favorites, much of the Hot Tuna songbook being timeless. And if you were put off by the addition of violinist Papa John (S)Creach, fear not—he appears on only two Hot Tuna releases.

We wanted to play a style of music that
wasn't being played by the Airplane.

Jack Casady interview

Floydian Slips finally caught up with Hot Tuna at the “Salty” Gebhardt Amphitheatre in Truckee, CA, an idyllic outdoor venue. (Have you ever wondered where all of the tie-dyed flower children went?) With Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin, the group played a terrific acoustic set before sundown. After dark, everyone plugged in (crowd inclusive) as drummer Erik Diaz joined in. The rest of the evening we were treated to some rockin', Casady's bass notes
r-r-r-rumbling up through our feet as we danced (we kid you not).

Then there's the DVD, Electric Hot Tuna—Live At the Fillmore, recorded in 1996. This is also a great set, with Pete Sears joining the tunas on keyboards. Worth your while, this listener was left wanting for much more bass response, Casady seemingly turned down in the mix.

Various Hot Tuna lineups continue to tour almost 40 years and 27 albums after the group's inception. Both musicians also have numerous other projects: Kaukonen has yet another new solo album out and Casady occasionally appears with the group, Moonalice (get free MP3s at the group's website). Yet somehow both find time to provide lessons at Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch (Pomeroy, OH) which doubles as a concert venue for many artists. Tune in here at 7:00 pm Eastern time to listen to Friday night's performance.

Dedicated fans may also purchase complete shows in MP3 format from this Hot Tuna download site.

Rock Stars, Cars and Guitars

Ever since baby boomers go their wheels, music and cars have been inextricably mixed. One needs to look no further than the popular film, American Graffiti, to get a feel for how it was back in the early ’60s.

The music acts like a Greek chorus to
comment on the events taking place.

Walter Murch, sound artist

Top 40 music buffs recall some of that era’s songs which centered on cars: Little GTO by Ronny and the Daytonas, Mustang Sally from Wilson Pickett, Hey Little Cobra by the Rip Cords, and Little Deuce Coupe, offered up by the Beach Boys. Who doesn’t know what the Little Old Lady From Pasadena drove, that “she’s real fine, my 409,” what happened at Dead Man’s Curve, or that Chuck Berry got his kicks on Route 66 (when he wasn’t holding a seat belt vendetta)? You’ll recall that the Beatles told us that their baby could drive their car and even Geronimo had a Cadillac.

On Woodward Avenue, the world’s longest eight-lane urban highway, John DeLorean and Bunky Knudsen were surreptitiously sending out Detroit’s factory muscle cars to go head-to-head. Hurst shifters aside, one also had to be quick on the radio punch buttons when an ad interrupted the soundtrack of our lives (unless it was Ray Charles’ What’d I Say promoting Connie "The Bounty Hunter" Kalitta going wheel-to-wheel with Don “Swamp Rat” Garlits at Detroit Dragway).

Since 1995, August’s Woodward Dream Cruise is the world's largest one-day celebration of classic car culture that attracts over 1 million visitors, and more than 40,000 muscle cars, street rods, custom, collector and special interest vehicles.

Over at Motown, hits were mixed to sound best when played back through the single cheap speaker mounted face up on the dashboard.

Leading us into the psychedelic era, Steppenwolf went looking for adventure by heading out on the highway, the Doobies were rockin’ down it, Deep Purple had a Highway Star, and Canned Heat was On the Road Again. George Thoroughgood spent Six Days On the Road, but Jeff Beck was stuck in a Freeway Jam and poor ol’ Jimi was frustrated with Crosstown Traffic (at least he wasn’t Running On Empty like Jackson Browne).

Now through Sept. 7 at Dearborn’s Henry Ford Museum—Get ready for a second dose of rock—more than 20 eye-popping cars and 50 iconic guitars from rock's greatest legends, and a dizzying array of rock memorabilia. Click here to download a compilation of musical hits by artists featured in the exhibit.

We all know the color of Prince’s Corvette and that Golden Earring had a strange radar fetish. Steve Miller had the Mercury Blues, the Eagles an Ol’ 55 and lived Life In the Fast Lane, while Sammy Hagar couldn’t drive 55. War cruised around in a decked-out Low Rider, Janis wanted a Benz, Broooose a Pink Cadillac, and all the while Commander Cody warned that he was going to be driven to drinkin’ if we didn’t stop driving that hot…..rod…..Lincoln!

Syd Barrett's Psychedelic London, Part II

Of Two Johns: Lennon & Sinclair, posted here a short while ago, tells of John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Yoko Ono all as active participants at The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream, an early London Be-In. Providing more detail of that story, Julian Palacios, author of the forthcoming book, Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd—Lost in the Woods, has graciously permitted an abridged chapter to be published herein. Click here for part one. Below is part two, reprinted here by permission:

The 14-Hour
Technicolor Dream

The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream marked the height of underground fashion. The full range of uniforms prevalent in sixties culture was in evidence. Here a phalanx of pea-coated beatniks, there a Kings Road fashion maven in a 1940’s satin dress with a chinchilla wrap. As proof of the Beatles sartorial dominance, everywhere were men with Edwardian beards and moustaches, rather than bog-brush beards of the later sixties. John Lennon grokked the scene clad in a sheepskin Afghan coat and granny specs.

The Pink Floyd made their way back from Heathrow. Stopping in at Edbrooke Road, [Peter] Jenner and Syd [Barrett] each dropped a tab of LSD before driving up to Muswell Hill in a convoy of Bentley and Transit van. Jenner said, "The most psychedelic experience that I’ve ever been to. At least half the audience was doing acid. I was doing acid. We’d had to take a long drive to get there from a gig in The Netherlands."

The group alighted at the Alexandra Palace at 3 am. They, like all the other bands, were playing free for the benefit. Syd wandered the crowd, tripping on LSD, having already smoked strong weed in Amsterdam earlier in the day. [He] ran into Mick Rock. The pair climbed scaffolding to peer into pipe organ bellows and entertained themselves pelting Yoko Ono with bits of wadded up paper as she organised a Fluxus-style happening. With a working title of "A Pretty Girl is a Manifesto," Ono had model Carol Mann [seated] on a stepladder dressed as a nun under a blazing spotlight. Audience members were handed scissors, outfitted with a contact microphone plugged into the sound system. Instructed to snip off her clothes, bit by bit her clothes fell away, as a crowd of bemused male punters swarmed. Amplified scissors echoed across the Palace until Mann sat, in all her glory, nude.

When Soft Machine took the stage, Daevid Allen wore a miner’s helmet with lamplight atop, Kevin Ayers sported oracular makeup. Robert Wyatt cut his hair short, wore a suit and tie, and set drums sideways. The group played [the] joke number We Did It Again, which repeated the title over one monotonous groove for 40 minutes at a stretch. Barrett soon adopted this avant-garde prank onstage to his band mates despair. ("Soft Machine were good fun," in Barrett’s view.)

Continued...

Daevid Allen said, "After we had finished I wandered about among the huge crowd." Allen also noted that, paradoxically, he never felt more alone in his life. "As this realization took hold of my entire being, I became aware of a celestial orchestra playing over a slow beat. I was drawn to the far stage where, unopposed by a simultaneous band, a group of slightly embarrassed musicians played symphonic slide guitar under the camouflage of vividly hypnotic light projections. The music thus created was almost Wagnerian in its emotional power. It welled up, expanding through the swirl of liquid light." A life changing moment for Allen, who adapted Barrett’s glissando technique, refined over a 40-year stretch with various incarnations of Gong.

Robert Wyatt was also impressed, "The Floyd played at 4 in the morning. It must have been one of the greatest gigs they ever did. Syd played with a slide and it blew my mind. I was hearing echoes of all the music I’d ever heard, with bits of Béla Bartók and God-knows-what."

The Pink Floyd at the Dream was the high point of the psychedelic era to Peter Jenner. "A perfect setting, everyone had been waiting for them and everybody was on acid." To a fanfare of the Finale by Bream, the group took the stage. Colin Turner was on hand, "The dawn arrived in a triumphant pink hue, the light came cascading in from the huge windows. Amid this awesome display of nature, Pink Floyd took the stage. They were wearing outfits with flared trousers and satin shirts. People began to awake and hold hands as the first notes of Astronomy Dominé echoed through the Palace."

Colin: "There was an extraordinary connection between the group and the audience. Then the magic happened. Syd’s mirror-disc Telecaster caught the dawn’s pink light. Syd noticed this and with drug-filled eyes blazing, he made his guitar talk louder and louder, higher and higher as he reflected the light into the eyes of his audience and christened those of us lucky enough to be there followers of Pink Floyd for life."

Chris Beard, "Something was not right and Syd was not up to it, just standing there out of his tree I suspected. Roger Waters seemed to take over. I admired Waters for this and was not happy that Syd had now drifted off." In a photograph, Barrett looks as though viewing things from a slight remove, as though already absent. Acid accentuated his offbeat charisma, such that he seemed in retreat even as the group approached fame.

As morning broke, sun streamed through the tall windows, lighting up the Palace in ghostly white angles. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, arriving a bit late, pulled up in Bentley and emerged looking rather shattered, clad in a full pearly king outfit. Beck’s Bolero by Jeff Beck blasted through the Palace, with Indian modal scales colliding head-on with Elmore James and Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. Hoppy and Suzy Creamcheese stood at the door. In inimitable style, they shook hands and said good morning to everyone as they filed out into the light. Hoppy’s court trial was four weeks away.

[International Times] summed up, "The beautiful scene at the benefit at the Alexandra Palace on the 29th seems long ago when considered in the light of all that has happened since then." Nick Jones wrote in Melody Maker, ‘The audience were happy looning about, looking at other’s clothes, eating, sleeping, dancing and just freaking out, doing whatever they damn well wanted. I found the Dream a most absorbing experience.’

Hoppy says, "The Dream was a crest of a wave. It was a landmark event. Everyone involved has a different story. All are true. It’s one of those paradoxes. The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream is a prime example of how memory gives the opportunity for many people to claim it was their event. Everyone can claim a piece, if they feel it important. Everybody thinks they know what the Dream was about, but when you look, there is something that you cannot find out about it. The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream is a cultural memory. It’s hidden and occluded." An accurate summary of the acid experience.

From Amazon.com: Syd Barrett was an art school student when he founded Pink Floyd. Famous before his 20th birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London’s famed UFO club, and his acid-inspired lyrics became a hallmark of London’s 1967 Summer of Love.

The second edition of Palacios' Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd—Lost in the Woods, from Plexus Publishing Ltd.—completely revised, expanded and amended—will be available in time for Christmas, 2009.

Clapton, Winwood Play Madison Square Garden

Having seen Cream play at Detroit's Grande Ballroom in the autumn of '67, like many fans I was disheartened when they disbanded. Also being a fan of Steve Winwood's Traffic, my excitement was quickly renewed when I learned that Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker were teaming up with Winwood to form Blind Faith. Their one and only album shortly hit the streets in August of '69.

That fall I saw them at Olympia Stadium (then home of the Red Wings)—the worst venue ever at which to stage a concert of any sort. The warm-up acts that night included one-hit wonders Friend & Lover (Reach Out of the Darkness), followed shortly by Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Yes, I had reserved seats, but because the stage was set "center-ice," mine faced the rear of the band's speaker columns! Only on occasion would my heroes duck around between their Marshalls to play a few bars for us poor sods relegated to the "low-rent district." (As the promoter of this fiasco, you owe me one, Russ!)

With the exception of paying the big bucks to see Paul McCartney at "Echo" Arena a few years back in Sacramento, I've managed to steer clear of the large indoor "concert venues"—instead enjoying arena rock on my 52" video/surround sound system. So preferring my couch-potato venue for the really big acts, to my delight Steve Winwood was the featured end-of-show performer at Clapton's 2007 Crossroads benefit concert held outside of Chicago. First performing many of Traffic's chestnuts as a frontman, he then teamed up with the concert host to perform several Blind Faith numbers.

I had seen advertisements for the current Clapton~Winwood concert tour online, but had no idea—until today—that a DVD release of their February Madison Square Gardens tour stop was in the works. Among many others, tracks include Had To Cry Today, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Pearly Queen, Tell the Truth, After Midnight, and Voodoo Chile (for which Winwood played keyboards on Hendrix's original Electric Ladyland release).

PBS will be broadcasting this terrific performance in June, so check your local TV listings. Below is an amateur video from that event featuring the rocks legends' version of Hendrix's Little Wing. While it gives you an idea of what to expect from both the video and any forthcoming live concert of theirs, please remember that this sample is not at all representative of the quality provided by the authorized DVD. Enjoy!

Syd Barrett 's Psychedelic London

Of Two Johns: Lennon & Sinclair, posted here a short while ago, tells of John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Yoko Ono all as active participants at The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream, an early London Be-In. Providing more detail of that story, Julian Palacios, author of the forthcoming book, Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd—Lost in the Woods, has graciously permitted an abridged chapter to be published herein. Here is part one, reprinted here by permission:

The 14-Hour
Technicolor Dream

That night the Pink Floyd topped the bill at multi-band extravaganza, The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream. Hoppy organized a group of his girlfriends to stand in Regent Street and pass out fliers, dressed in miniskirts ten inches above the knee. Later, the same flower and fancy dress contingent dropped off an invitation to the Dream for the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Envisaged as a "giant benefit against fuzz action" of the sort that arrested Hoppy and tried to shut down [the International Times], The Technicolor Dream was to raise funds for the [IT] legal defence fund. Word of the event spread throughout London for weeks. An estimated 7,000 punters crowded into the vast Alexandra Palace in London, hired out for the night by Hoppy and Dave Howson of Middle Earth.

The Alexandra Palace was a series of Victorian glass and steel halls built in 1875 crowning the top of Muswell Hill, overlooking London like an aerie. The Great Hall’s awe-inspiring vaulted roof and 30-foot tall glass windows surrounded space for 12,000 with 2,000 more in orchestra stalls. The colossal Willis Organ, driven by steam engines and vast bellows, was under scaffolding for repairs.

The Dream began at 8pm and went through the night until 10 in the morning. Many groovers had been up since the night before at UFO, when Jimi Hendrix jumped up to play bass with Tomorrow. [They] arrived in black ties, blazers, and evening dress befitting attending a cultural event. A generous assortment of caftan and bell wearing ravers flowed through them, bursting into the Palace in high spirits.

Continued...

For many, the Dream was an epochal experience, as a ripple of recognition spread through the crowd, amazed at how many full-fledged freaks were in London, and how many they knew. The small London coterie sent out a wave that affected youth culture the world over. The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream brought the movement out into the open, propagated core ideas, and imploded, in the manner of mass cultural movements.

Dudley Edwards of art ensemble Binder, Edwards and Vaughn says, "For anyone who was privileged to be there, that was the event of the sixties. The huge interior space was lit with big film arc lights turning night into day. There was a feel of a medieval market place with stalls and people in harlequin costumes, acrobats here and jugglers there, a helter skelter."

Paying one-pound admission at the door, crowds streamed into the Hall. The scaffolding around the pipe organ like a baroque reliquary, a battery of spotlights accentuated looming shadows. Three film crews filmed proceedings. Indica gallery owner John Dunbar was at John Lennon’s home that evening. "We were watching TV and suddenly saw this thing was going on. So we thought, [sod] it, let’s go! We ended up at this place where everybody I’d ever known in my life swam before my eyes at one time or another. All eyes were vaguely on us because we were with John and I literally saw people I’d last seen at kindergarten and hadn’t seen since."

Selmer were volunteered by Blackhill to provide a PA system. Two chaps came down from their factory and set up a pitiful 100-watt PA, with two 2 x 12 combos and Selmer Goliath bass cabinet on either stage.

For the better of the night and morning, two bands played simultaneously on the two stages, often causing an unexpected merger of styles though also a headache as sound resounded off the vaulted roof. Mick Farren, "I swear I saw Lennon standing in [the] zone of dissonance moving forward and back looking quite fascinated."

[David] Medalla and half a dozen nubile dancers in flowing scarves and gauze danced freeform pirouettes under powerful lights that cast stark shadows of the dancers across the assembled throng. To the tune of the Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows, they performed a ballet of sorts dubbed the "fuzz death ballet." Nightstick wielding bobbies chased nymphs and Medalla, with silver reflective discs like the ones on Syd’s guitar affixed to legs and bum.

Jack Henry Moore and a small army of technicians dashed from one spot to another, fixing speakers threatening to fuse and rewiring light fixtures on the verge of collapse. 500,000 watts of lightshows galore lit up every inch of available wall space from a light gantry in the centre of the Palace. Underground films were screened overhead. Projectors beamed onto billowing white sheets taped with electrician’s tape to the scaffolding housing the Victorian organ. The centrepiece was a 70-foot tall helter-skelter slide rented for the night, which people clambered to the top of and spiralled down.

The mood was optimistic, as smiling, colourful dressed people milled with endless chemical quicksteps from corner to corner. A ritual lighting of joss sticks filled the Palace with sickly sweet smoke. A wire igloo with mosquito netting was set up in one corner, where banana skin joints, touted for hallucinogenic effects, were handed out. A bitter after-taste was all it left one with, though the idea was more of an intentional put-on anyhow. Couples grappled in the igloo all night.

Announced by MC Jeff Dexter dressed as a cardinal, complete with robes and vestment, rock bands filed on and off one after the other. The acts included American black comedian/activist Dick Gregory, Yoko Ono, Notting Hill sound artist (and later Pink Floyd collaborator) Ron Geesin and Syd’s Camberwell classmate, Barry Fantoni.

Peter Russell and his lightshow team, attached to Cambridge band 117, occupied the top tier while [art ensemble Binder, Edwards and Vaughn] cast overhead watch glass projections on sheets ringing the Palace. 117’s shows used thin liquid films sandwiched between slides, using heat or pressure (and sometimes injection) to move them. Some early Polaroid work as well.’

Edwards descended from the scaffolding to take in the scene. "It was all so relaxed. Denny Laine was just sitting on the floor strumming his acoustic guitar with no one paying any heed. John Lennon and John Dunbar just strolled through the crowds without interference."

Though obstruction from the Musician’s Union blocked a performance by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, bands pile drove through to the dawn.

The freak contingent was well represented by hardcore underground band The Flies, whom Miles cited as the world’s first punk band. With vocalist Robin Hunt draped in a sheet stolen from the lightshow, the Flies launched into their ferocious freak beat version of (I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone. Like the Brothers Grimm, the Flies formed part of the UFO cadre that shouted the Pink Floyd had sold out.

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown made an electrifying performance with a sprightly Arthur Brown in full makeup prancing like a shaman on ayahuasca with headdress in flames, shouting "I am the god of hellfire!"

From Amazon.com: Syd Barrett was an art school student when he founded Pink Floyd. Famous before his 20th birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London’s famed UFO club, and his acid-inspired lyrics became a hallmark of London’s 1967 Summer of Love.

The second edition of Palacios' Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd—Lost in the Woods, from Plexus Publishing Ltd.—completely revised, expanded and amended—will be available in time for Christmas, 2009. Visit Floydian Slips again for part two of this story chronicling the emergence of psychedelia.

Soft Machine Upstage Jimi Hendrix

Room Full of Mirrors (Slight Return)

This is an e-mail I sent to author Charles Cross in 2006 while reading his Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix:

"This is an interesting book. I picked it up to learn more about Jimi's relationship with Miles Davis, of which there are differing accounts of what actually transpired. In Miles' own autobiography, he never mentions the three-way deal with Jimi and Tony Williams, but only tells how they were due to get together on a project immediately after the Isle of Wight. Of course, I believe Miles may have conveniently omitted the business of wanting $50K from Mike Jeffrey before moving ahead with the Miles-Jimi-Tony project mentioned in your book.

"The Jimi at Cobo Arena (Detroit) concert, sponsored by radio station 'Paul Is Dead' WKNR, apparently took place in November of '68. I had seen the Experience at Detroit's Masonic Auditorium, with Soft Machine (also managed by Jeffrey), nine months prior. Jimi was having one of his off nights, was in a foul mood, and there was no encore, as I recall. I was extremely disappointed in his performance that evening.

"On the other hand, Soft Machine absolutely blew me away, between their music and fabulous light show. In letting "Uncle Russ" Gibb know how much I enjoyed that group during one of my regular calls to him while he was on the air, he invited me down to Keener in Dearborn [MI] to pick up an advance copy of their debut album on a 7" tape reel. This I did, with that story being chronicled at the above-referenced URL [and as an earlier blog entry].

"I haven't yet read the final chapters and the story of Monika Danneman. If you subscribe to Eric Burdon's theory laid out in his memoir, she was a psycho who dosed Jimi with extremely powerful German painkillers in an effort to keep him in her nest. Burdon also had issues with Mike Jeffrey regarding his mob ties, both in the U.S. and U.K."

[Interestingly, I recently learned that Andy Summers, guitarist with the Police, had been both a one-time member of Eric Burdon's New Animals and Soft Machine. Alas, he had been sent packing from Soft Machine before their Hendrix support tour got underway, so I've never had the opportunity to hear him play live.]