New 6-track CD album on G.A.S. records - two tracks recorded live at Deeply Vale Festival in 1978.
Those tracks are: Hairy Barber - track 1 on the CD and Strawberry
- track 5, recorded 23rd July, 1978 and 24th July, 1978 respectively.
The album, just available, has a 32-page booklet about the free festivals of the late
seventies and some pictures of Deeply Vale - page 2
of the book is a great shot of Deeply Vale and a map
of Deeply Vale directions and picture of Glastonbury
1977, as well as the whole story of British free festivals through the eyes of the Here
And Now band and family.
This CD can be ordered via Ozit Records - 15
British Pound Sterling + Postage if outside the U.K. (inquire here about further details).
A second Planet Gong tour was organised for March-April 1978. On the eve of the tour, Daevid and Gilli pulled out, and Here & Now did the tour in our
own right. During this tour, Planet Gong live album was released, but Planet Gong ceased to exist. Daevid kindly said we were free to continue
using his name Planet Gong, but we were unanimous about being Here & Now again.
1978 was an incredibly hard-working year for Here and Now. But we did get a new lease of life from asserting our free-only policy. The two jams,
"Summer's Coming" (featuring a visit from Gilli) and "Strawberry" and "Hairy Barber" (all recorded live in 1978) show that we had reconnected with much
of our early spirit, and there's evidence of the technical progress made in that year or two. Deeply Vale was a wonderful (and
unusually well-organised) free festival. We played late on the Friday night. And
then a laid back set on the Sunday afternoon.
Ironically, the Free Festivals, which had always been the raison d'etre of the band, now found themselves fitted around the burgeoning schedule of free
tours and recording commitments. And the sheer quantity of work would take its toll one way or another. Altogether from March to December '78, Here &
Now did four British free tours and visited several festivals. We were on the road for six months doing around 100 shows. In the meantime we recorded
a studio album, "Give & Take", a live album, "What You See Is What You Are"
(with punk icons, A.T.V.), an EP "Dog In Hell" lent our bus to Stephen and the Farm Band for their European tour and had another baby.
It's not surprising that the details of that year are rather blurred. Not surprising really that, on the mid-winter solstice, on the way home from the
last gig of the last tour of 1978, our new bus broke down. But completely.
The crankshaft had snapped from the strain. I knew how it felt.
It never recovered, and neither did I. Body and soul half-mashed from perpetual performing, maybe; the desire for fresh and crazy musical meadows too strong, perhaps; the Beautiful Dream had been dreamed; I went my own way... as did Suze and Ano soon after.
The Here & Now band went on, but thus endeth the Gospel According to Frank Honest (alias K.K.)
(Click here to see the full size map of the Festival's location)
Complete track listing:
1. Hairy Barber [Live At Deeply Vale]
2. Fredest Air Travels
3. Born Shiva Shanka
4. Soviet Commercial Radio
5. Strawberry [Live At Deeply Vale]
6. Summer's Coming
