Most comprehensive overview yet of the Ladbroke Grove-based late 60s/early 70s freak scene.
Four-hour anthology of locally based acts featuring much previously unreleased or rare material.
Now widely acknowledged as Albion's equivalent of the Haight-Ashbury underground scene in San Francisco, Ladbroke Grove in West London developed into the epicentre of the late 60s British counterculture movement.
Cheap rents had already attracted beatniks, bohemians and the Windrush generation of West Indian immigrants, and they were joined as the decade wore on by a motley crew of musicians, freaks and anarchists as the home-grown hippie sub-culture found a spiritual and physical base.
Also housing the burgeoning underground press and various rock band management agencies, the area around Ladbroke Grove, Holland Park and Notting Hill Gate spawned its own music scene that included Hawkwind, Quintessence, Edgar Broughton Band, Skin Alley, Third Ear Band and High Tide.
Featuring all of the above acts, ‘Deviation Street: High Times in Ladbroke Grove 1967–1975’ is the most comprehensive overview yet of the West London freak scene, incorporating such integral local movers ‘n’ shakers as Mick Farren and The Deviants, Twink, Steve Peregrin Took, Lemmy, Sam Hutt, Hapshash, Davey Graham, Graham Bond and Carol Grimes.
Alongside Pink Fairies, Trees, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Quiver, Uncle Dog, Steamhammer, Mighty Baby, Family, Pretty Things, Junior's Eyes and Cochise, the collection incorporates key cuts from the local immigrant community (Mataya, Noir, Ram John Holder).
With a lavish 48-page booklet and four hours of music that features much previously unreleased and rare material (including the first home-made demo recording by Roxy Music, who had their protracted genesis in the area), ‘Deviation Street’ is an essential purchase for anyone interested in the late 60s British underground.