The Light Show

Hello Mike,


The trouble with reminiscing is that once you start you never seem able to stop! Delving into the past again, I've come up with a few more memories, this time about the Light Show. Please add this to the website at a suitable place (preferably somewhere near the Black Lion!).


- Robin


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The Light Show was an "underground revue" of "alternative" poetry readings, sketches and music, set against a background of changing light sequences. It was produced as an offshoot of the infamous Black Lion Enterprises and took place on February 12, 1970 in the school hall.


In keeping with the spirit of the Black Lion, all the names of the collaborators were written in small letters on the back of the programme. They were (quoting): chris spencer-giles, chris bard, andy neal, robin ward, martin courtney, martin wood, dave cummins, lindsey bird, kathy russell, alan hill and brian cariss, plus a rock group called "blend", consisting of rob, john & roy, "and others.... and others".

By no means all of this mob were Priceans. Chris Spencer-Giles (whose surname was really Giles; Spencer was his middle name) and Martin Wood were as far as I remember friends of Chris Bard and may have been from Bishopsfield. Rob, John and Roy were also acquaintances of one of us from another school (or may even have already left), but I haven't a clue where they came from. In any case Chris Giles wrote a fair amount of the material. Martin Courtney was a wigged-out character with long woolly hair drafted into the sixth form from somewhere from 1968 to 1970 and hung out a lot with Dave and Bob Askew (another friend of mine) - he always gave the impression of being high on drugs.


At least in my time, females of the opposite sex were a subject hardly anyone ever seemed to talk about at Price's, apart from when the sixth form dance or other external functions were under discussion. So at first it was a bit of a surprise when Lindsey and Kathy appeared. They turned out to be the girl friends of two of us conspirators (I think they were from St. Anne's). They had been roped in to perform a few folk songs; I can distinctly remember them in their long flowing multicoloured dresses at the rehearsals trying to project their voices towards the back of the hall. 


These rehearsals, which took place after school, were conducted by Chris Bard and were, like our Black Lion Editorial Board meetings, rather undisciplined. Whether or not the first six weeks of 1970 were particularly cold I cannot recall, but it certainly always seemed to be freezing in the hall: often we were huddled up in coats and scarves despite the heat emanating from the stage lighting. A number of us, myself included, sat around half the time listening to our record player - which someone had been thoughtful enough to bring along - blaring out in the background, and seemed to be more interested in discussing the latest progressive record releases, the album jackets propped up against the side of the stage. Sometimes other assorted boys (even Mr. Johnson too on one occasion) dropped in as well out of curiosity to see how we were progressing (or not).


Lindsey and Kathy weren't the only ones with voice problems; as I was supposed to read out a number of Brian's poems and my voice didn't project too well either, I remember the exasperated Chris standing at the back of the hall in his trailing moth-eaten scarf continually berating me to "shout a bit louder". Blend were also always having problems with their amplifiers and other equipment - either they were deafeningly loud or one could hardly hear them at all. My worst memory of the whole affair was falling off the stage during one session when somebody had - unbeknown to me - removed the steps (in the incessant dazzle of the light it was sometimes impossible to recognise one's immediate surroundings), and landing on my right arm, resulting in my having to be carted off to hospital with a badly swollen finger.


Nevertheless, this rabble - or most of it - somehow managed to get its act together well enough to take the stage on February 12th.


The first half of the programme consisted of items entitled "Experiment One", "Groperama" (news, views and clues), "Experience III" (meter readings), "Expression Four" (versetility (sic)) and "Brief Sanity" interspersed with a folk song and some songs by Blend. After this came "A Return to the Islands", with the following remarks: "The entertainment you are about to witness is a total reflection of the subconscious. Its non-relevance is absolute. ú-chebin estel anim. Ins Unbetretene!" (a quotation I supplied from Goethe's "Faust", translated as "Into the Unknown!").


Exactly what all these experiments and experiences and the Return to the Islands were - apart from our poetry readings - I've completely forgotten now, but I remember being pretty nervous as I read out Brian's poems in the glaring yellow and blue light. To make things worse the hall was nearly full, but somehow I got through the ordeal and hoped that Chris's moaning had done the trick.


Then came an interval, during which "refreshments may be purchased from the prole-bar at the left of your mind", as Dave put it in the programme. (Where Price's boys were frequently dismissed as "morons" or "cretins" in Black Lion circles, Farehamites were often called "proles", i.e. "proletarians".) This was followed by "The Light Show", during which Prof. Lotsoff Vacks (either Chris Bard or Chris Giles) gave a long lecture on the properties of light; chemical, physical and metaphysical. The programme concluded with a couple more "experiments" and folk songs; the last item (13A) was cryptically entitled "Never Mind ....".


The show was not only for the benefit of the boys; we had also invited the "proles" to come along, and they did too, in quite large numbers. To our surprise and delight, everything seemed to go off smoothly despite our sometimes sloppy rehearsals, and we were very well received, even though some of the proles seemed slightly bewildered as to what was actually happening ....


The whole thing turned out to be a one-off affair as nobody talked about organising a follow-up, although, as I had already left Price's and had no further contact with any of the boys or staff, some event may well have taken place. But - along with the Black Lion, another success had been chalked up by the "alternative" crowd ....


consigned to webspace by robin ward on behalf of black lion enterprises, 15.11.2001