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Welcome to the home of all things 1970's Here and Now.
This website is an ever-expanding organic field-trip to the life and musical times of the Here & Now band and Planet Gong from 1974 to 1979. We have free mp3 music samples as well as photographs and rambling stories of the day.
We also cover Ici Maintenants, the current day band which features Steffe Sharpstrings, Kif Kif Le Batter and Twink L. Toes-Malone - 3 quarters of the classic seventies line-up.
Just click on the links over there to the left to check out the beherenow action - you'll find more links and odd bits and bobs as you go along.
Now available: an expanding series of remastered 1970's live CD's. Click top link on the left to check 'em out!
Have fun...

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News 21st May 2010:

Oxford Poly 18th June 1977 Re-mastered.

Out Now!

For some reason this gig is widely referred to as having happened on the 6th Feb 1977. Update those time capsules! It was Saturday the 18th June. A week before Stonehenge free festival.
Visitor 2035 opened the show. Tim Blake's Crystal Machine tripped everybody right out, and then it was the turn of the Here and Now band to headline a proper indoor show, joined onstage by one Mr Daevid Allen.
For diehard H&N fans this gig needs no introduction. It was a landmark show and the boys were fair straining at the leash to show what they could do.
Click here to see full details, download a 9 minute sample, and/or order your copy!
Shipping from today. Only £7.00 UK post free, or £8.00 world post free.

***NB Original recording made by Peter Gilyard-Beer (and not "Hillyard-Beer" as erroneously stated on the first 180 copies). Blame kif-kif for that one! Geoff P. was also complicit I believe, and Peter, Geoff and Kate also assisted with the re-mastering. Thank you!

News December 2009 :

Rivington Pike 2 released

Click here to see full details, download an 8 minute 256 kbps mp3, and to order. Shipping from Friday 4th December.
Lovely laid-back jamming on the final afternoon of the 1977 Rivington Pike Free Festival, featuring a full-length guest appearance from violinist Chris Kelleher, a founding father of the original 1974 Here & Now band.
Includes the missing song from Riv One (2 days before) which makes it up to Approx 68 minutes, including about 8 minutes of the barking dog, excited children, and stage announcement babble from between the songs. Although there is the odd crackle and thud on a slightly tired PA, after a few listens it blends in and even adds to the character and realism of the event. It's great to hear a set from the band without a single number! All jamming, and mostly original jamming too. Steffe is on top form.

Riv 2 contains some of the best H&N jamming I've ever heard, and the violin playing is wonderful, as sweet as you'll hear anywhere.
Summer 1977 was by far Here and Now's best period, IMHO, and this was recorded at the peak of it.
By my reckoning, Here & Now played only 14 UK shows featuring the 'classic' line-up of Keith the Bass, Steffe, Kif Kif and Twink:
The first was the well documented Watchfield Free Festival 1975, ALL of the other thirteen happened in June, July and August 1977.
Ten of those were great gigs, and this is the third of them to be released in the "70'sNow" archive series. (watch out for more next year!)

Why not check out the mp3!

News November 2009:

Stay tuned for a new archive release at beginning of December...

And Finally!..click here for a 9 minute ruff mix excerpt from the recent Ici Maintenants recording session!!

Price reduction: Lets Play Domination by World Domination Enterprises - The Analogue Remaster
Now only £7.99 inc UK first class post/ £8.99 Worldwide.

News October 2009

Some groovy jamming was had at the latest musical gathering of Ici Maintenants.

The band were aided immeasurably by the engineering (and many other) talents of super-hero Shaun Halliwell.

It was recorded on some right proper old vintage analogue equipment, and hopefully an album will emerge from it in due course.
Also hoping to put up a ruff mix of a jam from it as an mp3 soonish.

Photo - Ici in the studio October 2009. Twink, Kif Kif, Tim, Steffe:

News 4th August 2009:

The new CD in the 70's NOW archive collection is now released!

Recorded at Rivington Pike Free Festival on 30th July 1977, it's 70sNOW CD002 - "Rivington Pike One", and it is ripping! Recorded on the Aquarius full moon and 79 minutes long, this is arguably the definitive Here and Now live recording of 1977. This tape was hidden away for many years as it had gotten mangled up, but now it has been painstakingly redeemed, and barring the occasional gentle 'warble', sounds utterly fantastic! CD's wil start shipping from Monday 10th August, or later this week if we get the covers soon enough. CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL DETAILS - DOWNLOAD THE FREE MP3 TRACK AND ORDER YOURS NOW - FIRST ORDERS IN WILL BE THE FIRST TO GO OUT!

Click here to hear more excerpts from the new CD at Myspace.

AND! Last month's competion winners are: S.Barnett and Mr N C Farey. Well done!! Your reviews can be read by everyone, by following the amazon link below. Please truck on over to FreeLoveRecords to choose your prize. Then click on "FastContactUs", just there on the left, to email us your postal address and choice.

See the news item below for how to enter this month. It's easy! and you're nailed on for a prize!

NEWS 18TH JULY 2009

Hoping to announce a new 70s NOW release this month - we're working on some interesting festival tapes from 1977.

Sad to hear about the parting of the ways of Steffe and Keith the Bass, but glad to see both parties getting on with what they do best. And fingies crossed Steffe will get together with the rest of us Ici Maintenants dudes this autumn for some recording.

By the way, huge thanks to those of you who've got round to putting a review on Amazon for one or more of the CDs.

Hey, Kats and Kits, We'll be getting round to a new 70's Now release during the summer. In the meantime I've been busy getting an amazing sounding analogue remaster done of the album "Lets Play Domination" by the crazy noisy band I led in the 1980's: World Domination Enterprises. Just click on the text below to go to the info and order page. Free mp3 track there too. Yes sir! much love from Kif Kif x.

Lets Play Domination by World Domination Enterprises
- The Analogue Remaster

Includes bonus tracks

& 12-page booklet with lyrics

High Street Release Date: 1st September 2009

AVAILABLE NOW ONLINE:

Special online direct price:
Only £7.99 inc UK post
/£8.99 inc worldwide post

Or click here to git it sent anywhere on the planet fer £6.99 plus usual amazon postage cost from Amazon.co.uk

just to let you know that Green Jean, of the '76 Here and Now crew, who did the black and white drawing on the Gospel of Free back cover, has now got a fabtastic website of her art together - click here to go there

news 15th december 2008

It's out there! Wild & Free - shipping as of last Friday. Essential listening, and only £7.00 including UK post! Scroll down for more info ...

Git your copy (and a free download) right here:

http://www.freeloverecords.co.uk/

News 4th December 2008

What's so different about this new version of Wild and Free? I hear you ask. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!!

News 29th November 2008

hooray. its just going to be ready in time for xmas!

Wild & Free: the proper CD release

This tribute to 70's Here & Now heroine Suze the Blues was the first musical reunion of the 1976/77 line up of Here and Now.

It was recorded live on 1st September 2007 at Suze's "fare thee well" wake at Hatfield Court, Herefordshire.
a very limited number of double CD-Rs of this performance were made available shortly after the event. However this new, proper, jewel cased, cellophane wrapped, CD release has been painstakingly remastered from the original stereo cassette recordings, and the sound quality is excellent.
It's over 72 minutes long and includes virtually all the stereo recording that was made. Unfortunately the rest of the material from the double CDR was only recorded in echoey mono. However, this will be available as a separate CDR "wild & free part 2 "

CD OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE IS MONDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2008.
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW!
SEE FULL DETAILS & DOWNLOAD A FREE TRACK
SPECIAL PROMO OFFER: FREE "WILD AND FREE PART 2" CD WITH ALL PRE-ORDERS FOR "WILD AND FREE"
We hope to be able to begin shipping orders by Friday 12th December. First orders in will be the first to go out!

Click here to hear more tracks on Myspace

4 page folded insert

as with all Free Love Records releases, 66.7% goes to the artists. On this release, Suze is included as an inspirational artist, and Suze's royalties will be used to help support 'project Suze' which will include a dedicated website to display Suze's art and tell some of her inspirational story, and possibly a mini festival around the anniversary of Suze's "fare thee well" on the 1st September.

Older News:

News 3rd September 2008:

And Now..
Why not get real sexy and click below to order a copy of ...

Here and Now's 1977 live gig: Bristol Gardens - the official version!

Also there: album details, and free 11 minute mp3
Click here to hear more and leave comments etc. at the myspace site
Released on Monday 8th September 2008.
Infinitely better sound quality,
15 mins longer,
And £1 cheaper
than the bootleg version!
Free UK postage too.
That's FAIR TRADE MUSIC for you!
Treat yourself to a copy of this fantastic gig - One of Here & Now's best of the 1970's.
Also includes several great minutes of audience ambience from this 1977 London squatted-street party - a piece of alternative history ...surely!

Over the last few years work has begun on making digital back-ups of Annie Mandrake's collection of 1970s Here and Now live cassette tape recordings.
There are more than 100 of them!
We've also been collecting other recordings of gigs Annie didn't get, and backing them up too.
Now we're picking out the best of them, and remastering them for release on CDR as a collection of archive recordings.
The first release is of Bristol Gardens Street Party in June 1977. It was Annie's first recording of the band, And it's Annie's personal favourite too. I used to think that was partly for sentimental reasons, but having listened to it many times whilst remastering it, i have to say that i can't think of a better H&N live tape. It's full of music.. and very fresh. The first time the band had even played together after laying off for five months, and the energy is sparking!

If you have a tape of a show we don't, or a what you think may be a better/more interesting recording than what we already have, PLEASE let us know so we can back it up digitally before the tape disintegrates! We'll happily return it, and if it's one we back up, we'll send you promo copies of it and other shows, and credit you as the source if/when it's remastered and released.

News 7th july 2008:

NEW 'Your Tales' at the Vaults! - click this text to read more 1970's recollections from Colin (Russ), Jade and Fife's finest Pot Head Pixie: Keltyk Kif at 'Your Tales 3'

News 4th June 2008:

SPACE AND TIME RE-ISSUE

OK! Finally it's here! The CD "Space and Time" by Ici Maintenants is re-released in a second limited edition of 500 copies TODAY Monday June 9th 2008. Also available is a CD-R of the extra track from the same show "So Beautiful". AND - UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2008 - the "So Beautiful" CDR will be included FREE with all orders for "Space and Time".
These CDs are only available from our cool, new, ethi-cological, online Record Label: FreeLoveRecords.co.uk. Please click here to visit FLR and your copy!

Space & Time costs just £7 incuding UK 1st class post - in keeping with FLR's pledge to 'Fair Trade Music' :- Fair to fans/fair to bands - and 2/3rds of net income goes direct to the artistes. FLR CDs come in light, slender "eco-pack" form meaning a smaller footprint & greater overall economy. Also at FLR is a free mp3 download of a full length Ici M track.
As a thank you to loyal fans who bought "Space and Time" the first time around, the extra-track CDR is available separately at a non-profit price of just £3 including UK 1st class post.
International air-mail post is only £1 per 3 CDs by weight.

NEW 70's HERE AND NOW / ICI M Myspace Site

It never rains but it pours! Several more mp3 tracks to listen to. Friends and fans are warmly invited to leave their comments too, at:
http://www.myspace.com/hereandnow1970s Click here to go there.
If you have a myspace account (easy to start one), please submit a freind request, all friends and fans are welcome.

And don't forget to check out Twink's groovy, synthy, 39 Orbits site at:
www.myspace.com/39orbits

News 2nd Jan 2008 :
Bout time we got round to announcing the excellent myspace website run by the current day Here & Now band. It includes info about upcoming shows, releases etc. and it's at:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=169190104

News Update 10th December 2007:

It's been a strange ol' time the last few months, getting used to a world without Suze the Blues.
Please click here to go to Jeza's photo gallery of 01/09/07 http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/jezaland2/Sooz/

What the boys are doing now...

In June 2001 Kif Kif, Twink and Steffe got together again to revisit some of that mid-seventies free-festival jamming vibe, inviting Invisible bassist Tim Flatus along for the ride, and Ici Maintenants was born.

Ici Maintenants have performed only 2 shows, both in the UK:
Glastonbury Assemblies in June 2001 and then in August 2003 at the Big Green gathering, with Suze on vocals and dancing, and the 'Owlett on bass.
Ici have one CD available: "Space and Time" Please click the top link on the left to check it out. A second Album has been recorded and should surface in the new year.

Twink, Steffe and Kif are also involved with their own individual musical projects. There are links to each of them in the left hand links column..

Keith the Bass has fronted various line-ups of 'Here and Now band' over the years. There's a link to KtB's Myspace page over there on the left, too.

you can also click here to go to Suze's page

What's the connection between Ici Maintenants, Here & Now and Planet Gong?

Check out: Here & Now 1974-1978 in the "Vaults" department for an accurate summary of the origins of Here & Now and Planet Gong.

70's Here & Now
Twink and Kif-Kif were respectively the original synthi player and drummer with Here & Now in 1974 and Steffe joined them, along with Keith the bass, at the Watchfield free festival of August 1975.
Keith the bass left the band for 6 months in the summer of 1976 and the other 3 travelled the summer free festivals playing with various other bassists including Max Cann (or just without one).

Planet Gong
By the summer of 1977 news of the groovy jammers had even reached the great Dae-video Alien, who about that time was looking for a band to be part of his new Planet Gong, similar to the old Gong, but not much like the Pierre Moerlin (RIP)'s Gong. Which was recording and touring at the time, and was sounding less and less like the band Daevid started and which he had left about 3 years before.
And if you find that confusing you should have been there at the time! By 1978/79 we also had New York Gong and Mother Gong to get our heads round. Perhaps it's not surprising that Pierre Moerlin just gave up the whole idea a while afterwards.
Anyway, just before the brave new Planet Gong came to be, Twink left the band.

By 1980, Kif-Kif and Steffe had also left. Steffe later returning to Here & Now, as well as pursuing several other musical paths.