Life of my Time

carolan.info

"The first time I went to a venue and saw a band it was at a place called The Arts Factory, run by Johnny Allen. He went on to run the Aquarius Festival. The Arts Factory was a hippy gig, a warehouse in Sydney's Goulburn street - a few blocks up from Chequers Nightclub.
Most seminal bands from the era played at 'the Factory' - Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Bakery, Madder Lake, Company Cain (get it?), Tully, Taman Shud, the 69'ers (really!), the La De Da's, Spectrum, SCRA, Harvest, the Battersea Heroes, Captain Matchbox Whoopie Band, Chain ... the list goes on.
Lucky me, I ingratiated myself with Eddie VanDerMadden - the leader in the lighting collective. Actually, Eddie wasn't the leader by name. No one was. Everything at the Arts Factory was run on contemporary hippy principles. Things were airily debated with lot's of 'maaan', 'cool', and 'kosmic' punctuation. Hippies were called 'heads' back then."

i remember as you entered the arts factory

you were greeted by a market kind of setup..

with a row of stalls...head stuff..beads..incense..

i used to wander the stalls between sets playing the dulcimer

in my tiedye rainbow shirt...

parallel to this space on the left was the stage and auditorium..

which i recall had quite a few carpets with cushions and beanbags..

i dont remember much about the shows..

i recall mostly Nutwood Rug, Taman Shud and Tully...

and the light shows..i guess that was Eddie and the mob..

but i seem to remember Ellis D Fogg being involved too...

crazy things like movies running backwards..sans soundtrack..

projected on the bands...and the globular show on the ceiling

so the whole "audience" was involved...

if you were tripping or stoned i was quite magical...(or freaky..!)

thats about it for my memories..

as they say ..if you can remember it you werent there..!

i had forgotten we called ourselves "heads"..

had a good chuckle about it...