Rough Tor

Nigel Ayers "Spoon" (1970)

This is the first film I made. It's shot on Standard 8mm film stock in Tideswell, Derbyshire, 1970. I'd be 13 years old. The cast includes myself, John Allen, Danny Ayers, Mary Ayers and Nick Buttle. The original footage is silent. The soundtrack here is from Nocturnal Emissions "Duty Experiment" CD, recorded a decade later.

Sid Rawle R.I.P.

The social activist Sid Rawle, or as the gutter press used to call him, "King of the Hippies", died last week.

In the '60s, he was one of the Hyde Park Diggers commune who were given an island, by John Lennon, off the coast of Ireland to establish an alternative society. He was often on the mic at the Free Festivals, officiating at marriages and funerals, and published International Times for a while. In the '80s he was with the Peace Convoy at the Molesworth peace camp and he's well-known to many in traveler and Green circles.

Our paths crossed quite a few times in the years following the police attack on the Windsor Free Festival in 1974. He was inspiring company.

R.I.P.

Butterfly (1973)

As you can see from the shots of a black & white TV, this was made in pre-digital times. I made the movie around 1973, when I was 16 years old.
Shot on a clockwork Standard 8mm movie film camera. Standard 8 was a home movie format that preceded Super 8mm. It's like Super 8 but it has larger sprocket holes. The format used 16mm film stock, which needed to be turned over halfway through shooting to expose the other side of film. When processed the film was split down the middle then joined up again to form a continuous 8mm film. This meant it was easy to generate randomised mulitple expoures, by putting the film through the camera several times. So all the edits and superimpositions you see were done in the camera.
The soundtrack is a new addition, a remix of some prog rock from that era.

Self Portraits

Jeff Keen

A few months ago, I had some time on my hands and I was thinking about films. I was thinking isn't it good that something like Youtube exists and there's really easily accessible digital editing and there's ways of making and using film in a personal way that didn't exist before. And that it's really good that this has come about because for so long the idea of FILM has been dominated by Hollywood with big budgets, freakishly photogenic actors, commercial gloss.

I was thinking about the films I really liked (the names Jan Svankmajer, Terry Gilliam, Jodorowsky came up) and I remembered Jeff Keen. Back in the early 80s I'd videotaped a 3 minute film of his that was shown at about one in the morning in a Channel 4 or BBC series on experimental cinema. It was a genuinely hand made film, a mad collage of flashy splashy paint and gestural pop art images and text that went BLATZ!. A while later I went along to a screening of his film at the London Filmmaker's Co-Op. Jeff Keen was there in the flesh and introduced the film by setting fire to an Action Man. There was another film in which he and his actor friends were there in the flesh doing some sort of live performance which overlapped the 24 frames per second action.



I never heard anything about Jeff Keen or his films since. So about six months ago I looked him up online and found a web site -in - process with a few press cuttings on it from but nothing to be found on Youtube (though there is now, see below) but there was the promise of a DVD release. And then a couple of weeks ago I find out that Stewart Home is to be one of the presenters of major retrospective of Keen's films at the BFI at the end of February and what's more they're releasing over 9 hours of films and videos by Jeff Keen on Blu-ray and DVD and there'll be screening around the UK. I can't wait.

In the meantime I sent off for Prisoner of Art, a DVD in a handmade collage booklet from the man himself. It's wicked.


Born in 1923, Keen is still actively creating films, artworks and experimental soundtracks. Fiercely independent and working for the most part outside of the mainstream and avant-garde circuits, Keens prolific output has embraced collage, live action, diary film and animation - often played out as expanded cinema performances where chance and accident are vital components. In 2009 the British Film Institute will tour and release a Blu-Ray retrospective of Jeff Keens work. Available Jan 2009 is 'Prisoner of Art' a limited edition self released book of collages and artworks that includes a DVD-R of shorts and new soundtracks. www.kinoblatz.com.

Website update

http://www.nigelayers.com/
it's got sound too.

Albion Dreaming review

Albion Dreaming by Andy Roberts

Albion Dreaming is a serious attempt to re-evaluate and document the use of LSD in popular British culture since its discovery 70 years ago, around the same time as the atomic bomb. Although well written, it is a book aimed for a popular, rather than a medical or academic readership. Whatever your views on LSD, its impact on culture in the UK has been phenomenal. From secret MI5 and psychiatric experiments, to beatnik magic experiments, the psychedelic 60s through free festivals, new age travellers and the rave scene.

In our culture LSD, as well as being a folk devil, has also been associated with very positive life-changing experiences and self- initiation. For many people acid has led to an increased awareness of ecological concerns, spirituality, communality and a better understanding of how the mind works. Roberts points out that its legal position has often been out of proportion to its documented dangers, and that illicit LSD manufacturers tend to be ideologically rather than commercially motivated. Proper medical research on what is certainly an unusual and is possibly a very valuable drug has never really happened. This has been thanks to tabloid hysteria and political timidity and public fears. Tabloid hysteria and moral panic has also led to disproportionate judicial repression of LSD manufacturers, suppliers and users, some of which is documented here.

Being concerned with mythology, magic, urban legend and new religions, it is ideal material for a seasoned Fortean researcher like Andy Roberts. The book is very well-researched, much of the material here has never been published before, rumours and hearsay have been followed up, and facts have been checked. Roberts also emphasises how mindset and environmental setting are vital to how LSD is experienced and how the effects of LSD, especially within in a society such as our own, are not always positive.

A big fat book which provides a fascinating read about what remains a very controversial subject.

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Marshall Cavendish (30 Sep 2008)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1905736274
• ISBN-13: 978-1905736270

Albion Dreaming

Albion Dreaming

I'm currently reading an advance copy of Albion Dreaming that Andy Robrets sent me. It's all about the social impact of LSD and the moral panics surrounding its history in Britain, a fascinating read although is a spelling error concerning my name. I'll give it a review shortly.