Here and Now 1977
page 1
Here & Now 1977
The culmination (in Jan. '77) of the French tour was a series of shows
at the famous (but dodgy) Gibbus club in paris. And studio/live sessions
at the national French radio station, parts of which were also broadcast
live. We didn't get paid for the radio sessions but we were allowed to
keep the tapes. "Fredest Air Travels" is taken from (what remains
of) those tapes.
We spent the money from the Gibbus shows on a ticket back to England. The French experience was an epic marathon for all concerned. And some of that "deeply chastened" kind of feeling is in evidence on "Fredest Air".
| FREDEST AIR TRAVELS | 7m 40s | |||||
| HERE & NOW | ||||||
 |
FREE 1 MIN SAMPLE | |||||
 |
||||||
| GOSPEL OF FREE | ||||||
| ©here & now 1976 | ||||||
Exhausted from the experience, Kif Kif borrowed Solar Ben's empty and wonderfully remote farmhouse in the middle of Wales. Wonderfully remote that is, but for the large extended family of the previous owners, now living in caravans 20 yards away. Head-buried in sand until June, when still absolutely no evidence of the arrival of Spring prompted a return to the sunny climes of the London squatter-lands.
That, and the news brought by Steffy, (For it was he.) who accepted
this epic search across the Welsh mountains, that the one and only
Daevid Allen was interested in working with the band. Twink had bumped
into Daevid in the queue at Ceres wholefood store in Portobello Market.
Twink recognised Daevid and said hello. Daevid asked him if he knew the
local music scene and said he was looking for a band he'd heard of called
Here & Now!
A spate of appearances at Queen's Silver Jubilee parties rekindled the
old fires, and a very similar merry throng to that which returned from
France, was now ready and rarin' for an unbroken tour of the English Free
Festivals
Keith the Missile Bass, Twink, Kif Kif, Suze the Blues and Steffe.
A slightly star-struck / slightly smug looking Here & Now backstage at the Paris May 1977 Gong re-union gig.
5 months earlier they had been virtually starving on the streets of the same city, 6 months later they would become Planet Gong with Daevid and Gilli, play a double header with Captain Beefheart at the same venue (the Paris Hippodrome), and record the album 'Live Floating Anarchy 1977'.
David did one (totally improvised) vocal performance with the band at Oxford Poly, then disappeared into the ethers saying we'd be hearing from him.
fh [reprinted from the 'Gospel of Free' booklet].
