Double Dusk

Horse Guards Parade

Back in July I dropped into see Lee Harris at his shop Alchemy in the Portobello Road. Lee has been at his shop Alchemy, in various locations along the Portobello Road, since 1972. Though Lee remembers there was another guy doing something similar down the road before him, his was the first, and is the oldest, real ‘Head Shop’ in the U.K.. If you have a ‘Head Shop’ in your home town, this is the man to thank, because without him none of the others would be here.

In 1977 Lee became editor and publisher of Europe’s first ever cannabis magazine, Homegrown, and the Brian Storm comics until 1981. He also scattered the ashes of Timothy Leary on Glastonbury Tor and continues to involve himself at the cutting edge of alternative culture recently forming the Angel Headed Hip Hop band. A sound I can best describe as Jazz meets Trance and Hip Hop on acid.

While we chatted Lee invited me to come to his Circus Psychedelica Autumn Equinox Party Sat 22nd September.

“I’ll put you on the guest list.”

A couple of days later I was having lunch with John Sinclair in a pub on the edge of Soho and I mentioned the party to him. He had no idea who Lee was but once I filled him in he became very interested. I wondered if he might like to meet Lee and maybe record something with him as they have very similar free flow styles.

“Oh yeah man, that’d be cool.”

John Sinclair & Viper, Westminster, July 2007

So I said next time I had the chance to speak to Lee I’d see if I could sort something out. With that in mind I boarded the 11:09am Liverpool to Euston for a party the like of which I could only imagine. I’d intended to have an early night but my lodger and a mutual friend came back from the pub pissed up and full of fun. It had been 2:30am before I’d got to bed. I’d had to be up at 8:00am to be ready and get over to Lime Street to get the train. Thankfully I was able to just get comfy and fall asleep for pretty much the entire journey. In fact I was so deep asleep that I didn’t realize we had arrived in Euston until the surrounding noise of everyone getting off woke me.

Somewhat refreshed but disorientated I got my bearings as I walked up the little ramp from the platform. I had a quick flash of my child self running with my little suitcase with my Mam and Auntie Lil, or maybe Sylvia, to catch the train to Liverpool after a tourist visit to the capital. Same old ramp.

I sorted out some travelling tickets, stepped outside to smoke a shady joint, and made my way over to Covent Garden. I’d arranged to meet a guy called Gonzo from EDIT Forums. I had no idea what he looked like, but he was supposed to be coming with some friends. My guess was it wouldn’t be hard to spot him where I’d arranged to meet, the Cigar Shop with the statue stood outside it.

I got there half an hour early and leisurely made some purchases of Havana and Cuban cigars. I only get the chance to get them when I’m in London. I strolled about the square a bit before finding a spot to sit a while. There was a middle age guy knocking out standard busking numbers for entertainment as I smoked one of the cigars. I sat people watching a while until 4:00pm. Finishing my cigar I ambled over to the Cigar Shop to meet Gonzo fully believing he wouldn’t be there or turn up for another quarter hour to twenty minutes.

On the lower level over the balcony an orchestral group were belting out classical music numbers with performance attitude. It was not my choice of music at all, but they were very entertaining to watch as I waited. They involved their audience in their performance and embarrassed the hell out of a pretty blonde by close serenading her with violins. You could see she was enjoying it though. To my left something odd was occurring. I looked down to see a crouching security man peering through the balcony railings and talking on the walkie talkie. I looked down and across and saw a plain clothes operative in blue jeans and reddish brown hoody top positioning himself and adjusting his attire before entering the shop opposite. The security man at my side stood up and went away. Some poor fucker was about to find out they were in deep shit by the look of it.

I checked my watch. It was past 4:21pm. On the other side of the balcony I saw a young guy with stoner long blonde hair beneath a brimmed cloth hat carrying a shoulder bag. I bet myself that was Gonzo. I monitored his progress towards the Cigar Shop. Sure enough as he got to its door he stopped dead, took a look inside, took a look at the front of the shop, clocked the Red Indian statue, gazed a ten foot radius of the shop, looked confused and deflated, checked his watch, took out his phone, realised he didn’t have my number, looked confused, shrugged to himself and began to walk away again down cast. That had to be him.

“Hey Gonzo.”

The young dude’s face lit up. Bingo, right first time.

Viper 5/10/2007

Edited 29/10/2007

The rest of this article can be read in the Members Library

First Published 29/10/2007 by Viperslair.co.uk

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