N° 7: First house to be opened

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Joviale
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

Post by Joviale »

Hi Danny, you raise a point there, i can't remember who lived downstairs just before the house was demolished.
Mac and i first lived in the left downstairs room, shamus on the other side, top right scratch middle little chris left bob (see above!). Then steve moved in the attic, later he got little chris's room when he moved to number 3. and then chris W. moved in, think in bob's room? Oh dear my memory is so hazy.
For some reason in 74 mac and i and a all bunch of groadies moved to hamptonwick, glamorgan rd (see other squats in the area) and then me moved back when i was pregnant, First back in our former room which had in between tons of furnitures in, which were chris W. i reckon, so we were more or less camping, and then we moved upstairs, built a mezzanine, it was a really nice room and then one morning, there was a hole in the wall were there was no windows before...
Oh yes i also lived in the attic fot a while, after splitting up momentarily. And yes the panthers... i spent a lot of time taking mine apart and putting it back together and then mac GAVE it to some friend of his :Mad: I just couldn't believe it!
Danny do you mind if i create a N°12 topic and move there the first part of your message (or you can do it yourself).
hugs
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Weed
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

Post by Weed »

i shared the larger ground floor room with Seamus from Sept/Oct 1972 to April 1974 when i went to the States (for what i was told was 2 months work -- it wasn't 'till i'd been there 2 months that i found out the contract was for a year!) -- didn't Little Chris have an abortive attempt at living underground in the front garden?

i returned to GR in May 1975 but didn't move back into No 7 until maybe June/July -- at the time of No 7's eviction i was living in the smaller ground floor room, which for some of the time i'd been sharing with Ed

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Chris S-S
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

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didn't Little Chris have an abortive attempt at living underground in the front garden?
Didnt Little Chris burrow and live under the front garden of No 3 via the basement?
Chris Selwyn-Smith

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Dominic
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

Post by Dominic »

I don't remember Little Chris burrowing underground but I can visualise him as a hobbit.

I remember Seamus and Chris W sharing that room in No.7, with the patio doors, quite early on. The link in my memory is of the collage, covering a whole wall. The many faces of David Bowie.

I regret that I wasn't one of the ninety or so people who, thanks to Chris W, who organised the tickets, went to the last show of the 'Ziggie' tour (edit) see him in concert. It seemed like the whole street was preparing all day, dressing-up and painting faces. The Cafe was like the back-stage of a theatre, then in the evening the whole street was deserted.

I wasn't very keen on going, but the next day, and over the years, in hind-sight, I regret not being a part of that event.
Last edited by Dominic on Mon Feb 02, 2009 2:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Chris S-S
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

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Thinking back it wasn't so much under the garden but under the stoop up to the front door which was accessed from the basement.

There were two outings to see Bowie one to Earls Court (did we not hire a Charabanc ) and then the last Ziggy gig at Hammersmith Apollo ne.Odeon.

I am honoured to say I attended both.

Chris Selwyn-Smith

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Joviale
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

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Didn't go to the concerts, (or at least i don't remember going!) but went to welcome him at victoria station when he came back from the state. God knows how we'd heard about it in these pre-internet and mobile phone days but there was something like 50 people alltogether at the station, with banderoles saying welcome back home or something similar, anyone remember that?
If i can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

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Joviale
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

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Chris S-S wrote:I am honoured to say I attended both.
Now i know were you got your inspiration as far as outfit is concerned ;)
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Weed
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

Post by Weed »

Chris S-S wrote:Didnt Little Chris burrow and live under the front garden of No 3 via the basement?
yes, that's right
Dominic wrote:...David Bowie...
it was Alison (Steve's sister) who insisted i listen to "Hunky Dory" having overheard me made a disparaging remark about a lyric on the inner sleeve of Space Oddity which i'd just (mis)read -- from the first 2 chords of "Changes" i was hooked -- i think i got to 3 of the Ziggy shows (including the first night at Hammersmith, tho it was at Lewisham that i got right to the front, just a few feet away from the stage) -- (i later saw "Young Americans" and maybe also "Diamond Dogs" while i was in NYC)

the concert i got all the GR tickets for was Aladdin Sane at Earls Court Olympia, which was different from the other shows i'd seen -- it was a much bigger place, and they didn't allow everyone to rush to the front, which is what usually happened at the smaller venues -- anyway, Bowie had just come back from Japan and had changed styles (again) and wore a succession of fabulous costumes

a bit of a story to getting the tickets -- i went up to Earls Court with Seamus without any doubts in my mind, even tho it was only a couple of days before the event -- we got to the ticket office and there was a big sign saying "no more than 4 tickets per person" and there was a queue stretching right round the block, and it looked like tickets were going to run out long before those at the back of the queue would get to the counter -- so i saw this guy walking past on the other side of the 6 foot wire fence who obviously had something to do with the show, and called him over and told him i needed 40 tickets (just like that) -- he looked at Seamus and myself and was obviously a bit doubtful... it must be admitted we weren't very impressive... i was barefoot, torn jeans and dirty t-shirt etc -- so i explained that we from a squat in Twickenham etc, and he said wait there, and 5 minutes later he was back with 40 tickets! later i saw some pictures of Mel Bush (who was promoting the show) and it looked to me very much like the same guy... which didn't surprise me at all...

i was flowing with the Bowie vibe at the time (like when i painted the zig-zag on the outside of the door to the room in No 7, and everybody thought i'd copied it from the cover of Aladdin Sane, tho i did it before i'd seen the album (before the album even came out i think) -- i still go out of my way to listen to DB whenever he's on radio, which happens from time to time) -- he's always interesting to listen to -- he was one of the first musicians to embrace the net and put his own web site together -- there's also an excellent Bowie store in Second Life (selling mainly glam clothes) which i visit occasionally

lots of fabulous live Bowie vids at youtube (maybe a couple of thousand?) -- some of my favourites are the outtakes from the 1973 recordings made at the Marquee (for showing on US TV), including -



"in his early shows he'd sing directly to individuals in the audience (he was often within touching distance of them), which explains some of his expressions while singing -- it was utterly disarming and quite magical, cos we all knew he was singing to us, personally, not to some anonymous crowd"
Last edited by Weed on Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:54 pm, edited 8 times in total.

Dantheman
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

Post by Dantheman »

HI Joelle and Weed,
YEp you can move the stuff to No 12 forum - I have no idea how I would do this !!
I think I moved into GR just before Chris left for America - I heard the leaving party but did not know a soul so stayed in my room with candle and half a packet of damp biscuits.
We are in middle of big storm at moment - leccy is flicking on and off and so I've got my generator on standby. So wet the fish have moved out onto the lawn.
: All this bad weather gets me thinking of travelling again :Joelle -thinking of coming to see you in April/May if Ok - would love to know which area/commune you are in so e-mail and let me know what you think. Other wise wondering if Carol's place on Dartmoor is up for gathering. Pity it didn't happen last year so testing out interest this year - may need to set up different forum.
Pip pip Love Dan

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Joviale
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Re: N° 7: First house to be opened

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Dantheman wrote:move the stuff to No 12 forum

ok, i do it
Dantheman wrote: thinking of coming to see you in April/May if Ok
Great, Just give me a bit of advance warning, to make sure i'm home , i d0n't move kmuch theses days do to familly things but you never know! I send you personnal mail with directions.
Dantheman wrote:wondering if Carol's place on Dartmoor is up for gathering ... may need to set up different forum.
Yes if anyone has a contact with her, do say, (or ideas for another venue) and dany, there is a topic about the next reunion:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9&start=20
If i can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

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