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I built My first synthesiser back in 1973 because being a poor hippy at the time I could not afford to buy one.
The following year i joined up with drummer Kif Kif to form the
here and now band
"After untold earlier attempts, the line-up that was to define the shape of things to come finally gelled at the WATCHFIELD FREE FESTIVAL in 1975...
The line-up featured Steffe Sharpstrings (gtr) Twink (synthesizer), Keith tha Missile (bass) and Kif Kif le Batteur (drums)
Their first ever show was in the form of a free-floating, anarchical 6-hour jam in front of 15,000 people. Amongst the musical luminaries who joined them that night were ARTHUR BROWN (as in: "THE CRAZY WORLD OF...") and REEBOP KWAAKU BAH, the percussionist from TRAFFIC - whose bandleader, STEVIE WINWOOD, was watching avidly from backstage, along with VIV STANSHALL (of the infamous "BONZO DOG DOODAH BAND"), who would have joined in but was too paralytically drunk to climb the steps onto the stage - a star-crossed meeting indeed!
In 1976 the band undertook their first tour - "electrically busking" their merry way around France, and riding a crazy roller coaster that took them from extreme poverty to comparative affluence every couple of days - stopping at all points in between - and which lasted 3 months...
Their first show was in a circus tent near Versailles, after which they travelled south to pick grapes and play "anywhere that would take us". The tour finished up with a 5-night stint at the "CLUB GIBUS" in Paris and a live nationwide broadcast for "RADIO FRANCE" - which, to those who've heard it, offers some indication of the wild and unpredictable musical anarchy which was to become their hallmark"
I left the band autumn 1977 just after they had joined up with Daevid Allen
and became a roadie for the Alex Harvey Band for several months until Alex broke
up the band.
I then became the synthesizer roadie for the Steve Hillage band for the next couple
of years. In 1980 i was working as Tim blake's roadie on the Hawkwind tour and
when he left the band halfway through the tour I was asked to fill in for him. Around
this time I played with Thandoy and another incarnation of Thandoy called
Karma Kanix through the 1980's.
In 1990 I was asked to play with Gong for a TV series called Bedrock whick was
release as a CD and a DVD called "Gong live on TV".
Around 1991 i started making Acid house music which evolved into 39 Orbits with
Nick Annies and we released two EP's "Afterlife" and "Outer Limits"
on the Red Seal label in 1993.
Red Seal notched up a major club smash with the Afterlife EP which was championed by Sasha and reached the top 20 in the Mixmag, DJ Magazine and Cool Cuts charts.
"AfterLife" EP
Review
A choice example of hypnotic house. I'll buy two copies and mix
them together for ever because the four tracks are good enough to craft a whole
night around. I particularly like hypnotizing with its mysterious uplifting
quality, like a rave in the after- world. There is a heavily reverberated organ
line, skating vocal echoes, and drums that sound like they're being played in
another room. Very effective. More energetic than most progressive house too
Reviewed by Moby in DJ
Magazine
"AfterLife" EP Review
A four tracker of extraordinary innovation and variety that delivers the goods
hard style. All manner of unusual and some familiar sounds, blended together
for a tuff , but pretty funky beat and bass line butty. Our favorite has to
be the outlandish Afterlife muted plucked string intro. and a Chimes vibe with
loads of colour and riddim. More please.
Reviewed by girls on top
in Mixmag
Ici Maintenants
In the ad hoc and magical way the band's name suggests, other groupings of the Here and Now clan have also arisen, Noteably Ici
Maintenants in 2001. Ici features KK, Twink and Steffe of the 1970's H&N line-up, plus, variously, Tim Flatus and Mike Howlett on bass. And in 2007 there was a live reunion of the full 1976 'quad-umvirate' as a tribute to another core 70's band member who had sadly passed away, Suze da Blues.
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