CHRONICLE
Jonathan Smeeton
LORD OF LIGHT
JERRY GILBERT’S CELEBRATED CHRONICLE SERIES CONTINUES WITH A TWO-PART EXPLORATION
OF THE LIFE AND CAREER OF LIGHTING DESIGN VISIONARY JONATHAN SMEETON
PART ONE: the decade. spheres.” In other words, a lunar safari.
THE LEGEND OF LIQUID LEN Equally appropriate was the fact that the The ringmaster in this travelling circus (or
extravaganza was being promoted by John Curd, ‘Hawkestra’), which included sci-fi writer Michael
On March 8 2009, Hawkwind surrogate, The whose Head Records label had enshrined the Moorcock and the body-painted, curvaceous and
Hawklords were set to turn back the clock 35 whole spirit of what was taking place around entirely naked ‘exotic dancer’ Stacia [Blake], was
years and play a one-off reunion in honour Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove nearly 40 years one of the fi rst real celebrity lightshows, Liquid
of the late English graphic artist, Barney ago; which is where this story begins. Len & The Lensmen.
Bubbles. According to Wikipedia, “The Space Ritual As a music journalist, I attended many Sunday
Fittingly, this would be a Space Ritual show [of December 1972] attempted to create a afternoon Roundhouse Implosions (the name
2009 show, inspired by Bubbles’ artwork for full audio-visual-cerebral experience, representing coined by promoter John Curd, Caroline Coon
the original 1973 album and Robert Calvert’s themes developed by Barney Bubbles and Robert and DJ Jeff Dexter) back in the day, diving into
space-rock opera show, with a nod to the Calvert entwining the fantasy of Starfarers in the brutal immersion tank created by Len’s
artist’s bleak monochromatic concept for the suspended animation travelling through time battery of unregulated strobes and 1000W
Hawklords’ 25 Years On production later in and space with the concept of the music of the projectors.
66 • TPi MARCH 09
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