h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Fight your way through fug of what we shall tactfully describe as *unusually fragrant* smoke, try not to trip over the stretched-out legs, and fall onto a bean bag or one of the outsized floor cushions. Gaze upon the eastern-looking tapestries hanging on the wall, the posters of Jimi Hendrix and Che Guevara, the Tibetan bowls, the multiple ornate candle holders, the incense burners and joss-sticks filling the air with the scent of patchouli and jasmine, and the people sitting and laying about the place wearing (including but not limited to) beards, woollen hats, cheesecloth shirts, loon pants, baseball boots that have seen better days, embroidered jeans, t-shirts with droopy sleeves, Indian sandals, corduroy flares and long cotton skirts. Some haven't taken off their army-surplus greatcoat (they won't feel the benefit). Several of them are reading Lord of the Rings; most have a small stack of LPs at their side. The occasional shout of 'Wally' is returned with a chorus of 'WALLY!!!'.

Hippies these are not. These are what were once known as denim freaks, or freaks for short, a youth subculture that flourished in the first half of the 1970s before punk rock all but wiped it out.

Welcome to the old heads room. This is where those of us who never gave up on freakdom, to a greater or lesser degree, hang out to read Tolkien, Frank Herbert and AA Milne; debate the merits of the NME versus the Melody Maker; discuss important matters such as whether Wishbone Ash or the Sensational Alex Harvey Band are really prog rock or not; fight over who's the sexiest woman in prog (always a dust-up between fans of Sonja Kristina and Annie Haslam) and the sexiest man (held in perpetuity by Kevin Ayers); boast about having seen Yes when they were still playing venues such as the Dagenham Roundhouse, having been at the Stackridge/Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra Christmas gig, who's seen Greenslade the most times or that they own a copy of Tubular Bells with the black and white label; and lament how Genesis went into a decline and eventually sold out after the departure of Peter Gabriel.

Mostly though, they come here to listen to prog rock and folk rock. Heavier bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, are welcome too.

The amazing thing is that any of these people can remember the early 70s since most of them were actively and regularly engaged in expanding their consciousness at the time, and let's just say that the last thing on their mind, literally, was Watney's Red Barrel.

Ah, I see someone's put a Caravan LP on the turntable http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmFzGTxod4

can... those of us, say, who weren't born until the second-half of the 70s, but who's lives have been forever filled with the sounds and ideals of the 70s, be permitted to enter? ; I present for my credentials all the origional sabbath albums on vinyl plus my Zappa collection, several Jethro Tull Lps, led zep, plus of course my santana vinyl and purple, and ten years after, and yes. and... Plus... come on... you really* wanna see a blind bloke with the cordination of an asthmatic eel on LSD roll a large spliff...

Very impressive collection of music Brother 2legs. Everyone with the right frame of mind (or no frame of mind at all - see above) are welcome even if they're too young to have been there first time around

(seriously, thought my teenage years were many years later; I spent them all flicking through vinyl in second hand record shops, and I've still got all the old 60 and 70s stuff... and some earlier actually i never really fitted any of the 'generations' I actually lived through/in as it were... e especially not musically <musicalnote).

*puts Paranoid on, and carefully and precisely and getnley lowers the needle down onto the start of 'magic caravan' * realy lzen maan....

You'll probably dig this in that case. It's a Sabbath gig from 1970 that went out on late night Yorkshire television at the time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clySTJtd81c

Ozzy was still relatively compos mentis at the time

(he was supprisingly compens mentis, when I saw him, at Donnington, a err, year or two back? though... just listenign to that older conert now, boy his voice has* changed over the years in some ways?!)

*is standing in the mud at donnington again

*lights another towel and folds a joss stick

Blimey *koff*, what did you was that towel in? *koff splutter*

That's pretty good stuff

I've no idea... but... gosh... yeh... that's quite hardcore...
*inhails towel* blissy blissy bliss bliss

Douglas Adams wasn't wrong about towels

too right... maan... one hoopy frude...

*flips through teh vinyl.... oo... always loved the cover on this one.....

*puts Atom heart Mother onto the turntable

*folds towels and listens

Notices the record has run out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T2ELelpamw

Some Soft Machine featuring the aforementioned Kevin Ayers

You just can't have enough Soft Machine

*Wanders over and puts on some Van de Graaf Generator* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWcJ7WeAK78

*Watches a couple of people almost coming to blows over whether or not Krautrock has a place in the old heads room*

Of course it does

*Puts on some Faust* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppW-k7lQXQ

A little bit of ELP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbSKllXD7J0

Quite a lot of ELP actually

Trilogy was one of the first half-dozen LPs I ever bought. It's also one of the first half-dozen LPs I bought which I don't have any more, along with the very first one - Deep Purple in Rock No idea what happened to either of them.

And it's the only ELP LP I ever owned.

I was never into singles, music or drinks

Have some heep...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9v9NgsGhhY

A much underrated band, Uriah Heep. Often overlooked when prog is talked about, I feel. As are Hatfield and the North http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6EBcncs0AA

By the way, if you remove the s from https in the YouTube url it'll make a link in h2g2.

Ahh
The https: version also shows up as link here (pliny on my test system)

Bands named after road signs...

What ever happened to the "Car Park Toilets"