More Info
• Most comprehensive overview yet of the Ladbroke Grove-based late 60s/early 70s freak scene.
• Four-hour anthology of locally based acts featuring much previously unreleased or rare material.
Now widely acknowledged as Albion’s equivalent of the Haight-Ashbury underground scene in San Francisco, Ladbroke Grove in West London developed into the epicentre of the late 60s British counterculture movement.
Cheap rents had already attracted beatniks, bohemians and the Windrush generation of West Indian immigrants, and they were joined as the decade wore on by a motley crew of musicians, freaks and anarchists as the home-grown hippie sub-culture found a spiritual and physical base.
Also housing the burgeoning underground press and various rock band management agencies, the area around Ladbroke Grove, Holland Park and Notting Hill Gate spawned its own music scene that included Hawkwind, Quintessence, Edgar Broughton Band, Skin Alley, Third Ear Band and High Tide.
Featuring all of the above acts, ‘Deviation Street: High Times in Ladbroke Grove 1967-1975’ is the most comprehensive overview yet of the West London freak scene, incorporating such integral local movers ‘n’ shakers as Mick Farren and The Deviants, Twink, Steve Peregrin Took, Lemmy, Sam Hutt, Hapshash, Davey Graham, Graham Bond and Carol Grimes.
Alongside Pink Fairies, Trees, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Quiver, Uncle Dog, Steamhammer, Mighty Baby, Family, Pretty Things, Junior’s Eyes and Cochise, the collection incorporates key cuts from the local immigrant community (Mataya, Noir, Ram John Holder).
With a lavish 48-page booklet and four hours of music that features much previously unreleased and rare material (including the first home-made demo recording by Roxy Music, who had their protracted genesis in the area), ‘Deviation Street’ is an essential purchase for anyone interested in the late 60s British underground.
Tracklist
DISC ONE
Getting It Straight In Notting Hill Gate
1 NOTTING HILL GATE (single version) – Quintessence
2 HURRY ON SUNDOWN – Hawkwind Zoo
3 BLIND TO YOUR LIGHT – Carol Grimes & Delivery
4 HALLUCINATIONS – Tomorrow
5 BLACK LEATHER GLOVES – Bodast
6 SUBWAY (SMOKEY POKEY WORLD) – The Tickle
7 LONG TIME COMING – Village
8 PAINTED LADY – Cochise
9 COLD EMBRACE – Sam Gopal
10 I’M A STRANGER – The Action
11 LIVING IN SIN – Skin Alley
12 CHANGES* – Mataya
13 SICKLE CLOWNS – The Pretty Things
14 SONG FOR LOTS – Family
15 GALACTIC ZOO – Kingdom Come
16 POWIS SQUARE CHILD – Roger Bunn
17 THE ANSWER – Peter Bardens
18 LOOKING FOR TIME – Bond and Brown
19 WHICH DREAMED IT – Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup
20 OUT DEMONS OUT – Edgar Broughton Band
DISC TWO
Breezing Down Portobello Road
1 ALL IN YOUR MIND (single version) – Stray
2 BLANKMAN CRIES AGAIN – High Tide
3 TURN AROUND – Steamhammer
4 AFTA – Davey Graham & Holly
5 SLIPSTREAMS – Mighty Baby
6 SUN MUSIC – Skin Alley
7 GLAD I CAME AROUND – Quiver
8 A MIND BLOWN IS A MIND SHOWN – Hapshash and the Coloured Coat
9 WE TOOK THE WRONG STEP YEARS AGO – Hawkwind
10 SLUM LORD – The Deviants
11 NOTTING HILL EVICTION BLUES – Ram John Holder
12 CONCRETE LINE UP – Ron Geesin
13 SAD SONG FOR WINTER – Chimera
14 VELVET TO ATONE – Trader Horne
15 APRIL AFFAIR – G. F. Fitzgerald
16 RINGS OF FORTUNE – Tyrannosaurus Rex
17 MY MIND – The Misunderstood
18 IF* – Rosemary
19 UNCLE HARRY’S LAST FREAK-OUT – Pink Fairies
DISC THREE
Way Down In The Grove
1 CIRCUS DAYS (single version) – Junior’s Eyes
2 NOTHING SPECIAL – Trees
3 10,000 WORDS IN A CARDBOARD BOX – The Aquarian Age
4 COSMIC SURFER – Quintessence
5 THE SYSTEM – Noir
6 VERY FINE…FAR AWAY – Third Ear Band
7 STILL YAWNING, STILL-BORN – Shagrat
8 2HB (demo version) – Roxy Music
9 ONE HAND CLAPPING* – Rosemary
10 OLD HAT – Uncle Dog
11 SUMMERTIME BLUES – Mick Farren
12 THE RIGHT STUFF – Robert Calvert
13 KINGS OF SPEED – Michael Moorcock & Deep Fix
14 LOST JOHNNY – Motörhead
15 SILENT TELEPHONE – The 101’ers
16 I’M A FREE MAN – Mataya
17 LADBROKE GROVE BLUES – Ram John Holder
18 WITCHDOCTOR – Ginger Johnson & His African Messengers
19 DEVIATION STREET – The Deviants