A BLAST FROM MY PARTICULAR PAST: Travelling Daze

I would like to point out that this review, is purely my own opinion. It has nothing to do with anyone else at Gonzo Multimedia. The opinions expressed are my own, and my own alone.

I want to introduce you to the jolly nice people at Enabler Publications who are doing a sterling job issuing books (amongst other things) on the free festival and 'traveller' culture of Britain, which has largely disappeared in the past twenty years. Alan Dearling sent me a copy of their new book, Travelling Daze which tells the story of the Free Festival and Traveller movement from then until now.

First of all, lets get the review bit out of the way. This book is a magnificent achievement from a socio-cultural point of view; it documents a period of British social history that would otherwise have been forgotten, and it is essential reading for anyone who has ever turned their wild staring eyes towards the open road, or even put Hawkwind or Gong onto the CD player. That means approximately 98% of the people who read the Gonzo Daily. So go out and buy it.

But it also opened a whole slew of emotional cans of worms which I had thought were buried deep in my psyche, never to be opened again. Because, for many years, I was almost a traveller. I say 'almost', because I always had a house of bricks and mortar to come back to. And in a body blow to my anarchist credibility, I owned said house (or rather - at the time - Abbey National PLC owned it). But for great stretches of time for about twelve years from the late 1980s, I spent a lot of my time (and what is more important, my happiest times) on the road between various events at which I sold my wares and danced like an idiot.

There are people and places in this book that I had nearly forgotten. The descriptions of the Treworgey Tree Fayre, for example, were spot on, and brought back all the glorious insanity of those days with an immense rush of joy and pain.

Because of the very nature of the book, it celebrates what was good, creative and positive about the scene, which is exactly what it should do. It doesn't attempt to gloss over the negative aspects, but it doesn't dwell on them. I stopped being part of the culture because of people such as 'The Brew Crew', a bunch of filthy dirty brigands off their heads on Carlsberg Special Brew, the dole fraud, the widespread use of heroin, the sexual promiscuity and violence amongst some traveller children, and the low-life scum (including grave robbers, amateur pornographers, and car thieves) who ended up part of the scene once it was no longer able to police itself effectively.

The book has done something very important for me, and something for which I can never thank Alan Dearling enough. It has reminded me why I first got involved in the Traveller Culture, and what I had first found attractive, nay irresistible about it. It encapsulates a beautiful part of our shared history; a time when people of integrity preferred a shared communal existence in the open air, and turned their back on the increasingly unpleasant face of Thatcher's Britain.

The fact it all went wrong wasn't their fault. In fact, it could be argued that the scum who ended up forcing so many people, including me, to turn away, were actually just as much children of Thatcher's policies as the yuppies, the outsider dealers, and those annoying women with ponytails who used to say "OK, Ya" a lot. They were selfish, unbridled capitalists, with no thoughts or care for the society in which they had planted themselves. Pure Thatcherites, in other words.

This is a fantastic book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Go to the Enabler Publications website. Knock three times and say Jon Downes sent ya!

‘Endure, Adapt, Evolve’ (or, Emerge, Mutate, Flourish) A kind of Intro...Alan Dearling

Wally Hope

In the beginning, there was Phil Russell...
Alan Dearling

Keeping Hope alive: Then, now and into our futures. A personal account by Dean Phillips, custodian of the Wally Hope Appreciation Society

Wally in ‘others’ words’. A further excursion into Wally Worlds from Alan

Life with the Convoy: to Stoney Cross and Beyond...Amanda (Gemini)

David Stooke: Traveller artist. Includes Green Lane by Reg Desborough, Spider by DiceGeorge and Phil the Beer by Andy Hope.

Festival Welfare Services – the early years: a personal memoir by Margaret Greenfields and Yvonne Doyle

George Firsoff (1944-2004)...Alan Dearling

Life after Newbury...provided by Pete Sheppard

Twice Blessed: Born a Traveller...Ferdia Earle

People are the best part of nature. Painting by Elizabeth Anderton

Sid Rawle

Sid Rawle...compiled by Alan Dearling

Sid’s place in Traveller history...Andy Worthington

Some more observations about Sid...Alan Dearling (with Jeremy Sandford)

The Vision of Albion by Sid Rawle as told toJeremy Sandford

Some memories of travelling days...Nicki Turton

Memories of free festivals and travelling scene...Steve Bubble

A sense of community by Liz

Hawkwind: a few words about the ultimate Traveller band...Alan Dearling

You could live like that...Netty Miles

Taff the Photo – bits of my history

The Levellers: There's only one way of life, And that's your own...Alan Dearling

Travelling Bands: Music and Festivals within new Traveller Culture 1995-2011...Sam Wilkinson

Epilogue: Affinities...Alan Dearling

Plus:

Stonehenge Free Festival illustration...Gary (Teapot Circus)

Westbury White Horse 1985 illustration...Gary (Teapot Circus)

More artwork from David Stooke, Joe Public, Gubby and additional pics by many people, especially Taff the Photoand Traveller Dave Fawcett, and more including those from Chazz Pink; Nigel Ayers; Fiona Earle, Rob Large; Flash Harry; Frank; Carol Waller, Graeme Strike, Matt Smith and other travelling friends.

Dedicated to all of the UK’s Travellers.

Those who have sadly left us,

those who have found different homes,

and those who are still keeping the faiths.