CHRONICLE
Below: Nik Turner in all his space-rock glory.
all-nighters at UFO. they produced particularly good cloud effects.
“When UFO moved I also used the Strand ‘Tubular Ripple’ effect,
from the Blarney Club which I still, on occasion, use to this day.”
in Tottenham Court
Road to the much SOCIAL NETWORK
larger Roundhouse Living in Ladbroke Grove, Smeeton knew Nik
[in Chalk Farm] Turner, who would often convince him to turn
lightshows were up for their free shows with Andy Dunkley
recruited to fill the DJ’ing. Turner was at the centre of the social
extra screen space... network in W10 and W11 — London’s own little
and there we were.” Haight Ashbury.
He soon He spent his time sleeping on the floor of
supersized his rig. Barney Bubbles, who was artistic director of
Lighting artillery back Frendz magazine, or dossing at the Clearwater
in 1967 consisted offices with future Hawkwinder DikMik,
of “just lots of Aldis while by day delivering silk screens for the
projectors — usually, Family Dog shop, who sold hippie/psychedelic
three per screen. Little accoutrements in Blenheim Street. “I think I then
by little, I acquired moved in with [Robert] Calvert and we formed a
more and more bit of a commune.”
projectors to fill more Starting as Hawkwind’s roadie, once Turner
and more screen had picked up his sax he was immediately
W10 (Ladbroke Grove) and W11 (Portobello space. We all got paid by the projector so the drafted into the original line-up, and while Dave
Road) musical demi-monde. more, the merrier!” Brock was the front-man, he became the glue
This was the holy grail of free festivals, In this brave new world the method of that held the whole thing together.
featuring ‘People’s Bands’ (think Pink Fairies, projection used in the UK was to boil ink and Smeeton, meanwhile, was continuing to
Quintessence, Deviants) and influential transparent glass stain between multiple glass tour. But after losing his stage equipment in the
management like Doug Smith’s Clearwater 2” slides using conventional slide projectors. legendary Montreux Casino fire of December
Productions (Hawkwind’s management) and “It wasn’t long before we added footlights, 1971 whilst working with Zappa, he was
Blackhill Enterprises’ Peter Jenner and Andrew and started to use multiple slide projectors to formally invited by Hawkwind to form the new
King (Pink Floyd’s original managers). produce crude five cell animation loops.” lightshow prior to the Space Ritual tour.
I had experienced Dantalian’s Chariot’s The footlights, photo-floods — three (RGB) “I had heard about him and knew he was
spectacular psychedelic launch at the National per unit — were all controlled individually from working a lot for Blackhill Enterprises and doing
Jazz & Blues Festival in Windsor, but nothing a keyboard arrangement, The Colour Organ. quite a lot of Island acts,” remembers Turner.
had quite prepared me for the Hawkwind “There was no dim, it was just flashing and He was always busy. He developed a style of
experience several years later. flickering. Then came slide animation using five multiple projection and had about 20 with a
The emerging creative spirit at that time was GAF Anscomatic 500W slide projectors. Strobes different image in each — like cartoon butterflies
largely incubated in the incendiary womb of the were also a new effect.” and so on.
art schools (Farnham, Hornsey, Kingston-upon- It was during the summer of 1970 that Steve “Ultimately I approached him about doing
Thames, etc) — all hotbeds of social unrest. It Winwood had persuaded Smeeton to build a lighting for us because we had no regular
was while at art school that Smeeton built his show for Traffic, which incorporated for the first lighting person and we were getting big for our
first lightshow, which he would use at UFO and time that keyboard control system. boots. Up until then I think we used whatever
Electric Garden (later Middle Earth), featuring Between residencies at UFO/Middle Earth lighting happened to be at the gig.”
three 1000W projectors. and joining Hawkwind full time, Smeeton had As psych bands started to attract audiences
But these inventions had less to do with provided stage lighting for bands on the Notting way beyond the scope of London clubs it was
any ‘art school movement’ than a simple fiscal Hill-based Island Records label like Free, Mott Smeeton’s ability to provide ground-breaking
imperative. “It was sheer lack of money — it The Hoople and the aforementioned Traffic. “I stadium-sized shows, using mainly slides rather
was 1967 and I needed a summer job. I found was using mostly footlights — a hold-over from than kinetic wheels, which would attract the
Middle Earth, a hippy night club about to open the lightshow days — and two, three, even four attention.
in Covent Garden who needed someone to pipe and base towers, mostly for town hall gigs “Around the same time, supergroups arrived
run their lightshow... which meant fixing their around England.” and so did the 1000W PAR 64 light along with
projectors, learning how to boil ink and stay up Through ’68 and ’69, the LD spent time on the first trusses [usually crude antenna truss].
all weekend long. the road in Europe by which time the first wave Everybody wanted big, and they paid well
“Middle Earth is where it started for me. I of psychedelic lighting was all but over. He too. But I chose the Hawkwind route and the
just walked through the door, asked for a job turned his attention to stage lighting, adding experience has served me well.”
and, became the lightshow guy... just like that!” Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart to his roster. Although Hawkwind manager, Doug Smith’s
In keeping with the idiomatic nomenclature of “The first theatrical lighting I used was rented memory is sketchy, Smeeton’s own recollection
the day, he called his lightshow The Ultradelic from Strand Electric, before they became Rank of the metamorphosis [into Liquid Len] was that
Alchemists. Strand — Pattern 23s, 123s and, later, 232s. the manager had wanted a name to put on the
Apart from all-night weekend stints at the The Pattern 252 effects projector was also a bill: ‘Lights by......’.
landmark venue, Smeeton also worked Friday favourite. I used them well into the ‘80s because “It’s a play on words, ‘Liquid Lens’ — plus
I think I was reading a [space opera] book
called ‘The Lensmen’ at the time. Of course
“It’s a play on words — ‘Liquid Lens’. Little did I suspect
I was thinking it had to be ‘Someone & the
Somebodys’. A dig at Motown perhaps? Little
the name would haunt me for the rest of my days!...” did I suspect the name would haunt me for the
68 • TPi MARCH 09
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