Two Twickenham screenwriters are writing a screenplay based on my memoir Eel Pie Island Dharma. As part of the creative process they are having email and long distance interviews with me about my background and experiences in the Eel Pie Island commune. The following emails are part of this exchange. The first was written by me, the second by Weed - I can't find Weed in the photo, so maybe he took the pic? That's me on the far left (where else) - I'd loaned my camera to another commune member to take this pic of the wedding of four of the Eel Pie islanders. Fall 1969!
Hi Tom & Sam,
Congrats on making major progress on your screenplay!
I was thinking of Cliff and Ame the other day, obviously because your project is stirring old memories. There were so many unresolvable contradictions in the late 1960s and the things we were involved with. Cliff was a consummate artist, and being an artist really didn't fit in with the hippie/commune lifestyle. Artists need time and space to create, whereas the hippie thing was about 'live for the moment', carpe diem.
I remember one of the commune women, Angie, who wanted to be a children's author. She commented how none of us were creating art - I wasn't writing much, the musicians were just getting stoned on hash all day, so I know Cliff must have had a hard time focusing on drawing his political cartoons and art. Weed has met with Cliff in fairly recent years, and he would have an interesting insight into Cliff's personality as well.
The concept of combining a hippie commune with an arts lab is laughable in hindsight. The psychedelic/hippie thing was created by artists and professors like Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, via the beats like Kerouac, and then popularized by pop stars like The Beatles and The Stones. But as the culture filtered throughout society, it became increasingly watered down to the lowest common denominator. I remember someone snarking that I was wasting my time and money reading a book on psychedelics, rather than doing them. Well, shit, I'd done enough of them to know what the experiences were all about, but it's also helpful to be evaluative and creative as well as stoned and tripping all the time ; )-
Cliff was one of the main founders of the EP commune, but none of us, esp. the artists, wanted to be "leaders". There was a definite vacuum of leadership because we all wanted to be equal AND stoned all the time, so no one was interested in assuming responsibility. Occasionally someone would move into the hotel and decide to be a "leader", but they soon found the responsibility of caring for all the runaway kids, heroin addicts, wannabe bikers etc. was not really very fulfilling ; ) (plus the pay was lousy)
Back to Cliff - I believe Cliff was more interested in the arts lab culture than creating a commune, but the sheer numbers of people moving in quickly overwhelmed the artsies among us. Also we were all poor, sometimes borderline starving, and I think Cliff mentioned in a book or an interview, that he had to do some petty hash dealing to survive. No money, no food, no privacy or place to create sure isn't conducive to artistic endeavours.
Hope this blather helps!
peace & continued creative energy!
Canadian Chris
p.s. I'm usu. available for long distance calls at short notice
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hi Tom, Sam
>> what was Clifford Harper like when you first met him? And
>> what do you think his goal was for the commune?
> Weed... would have an interesting insight into Cliff's personality...
i take it you've already read his Wikipedia entry? -
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Harper )
Clifford talks a lot about Eel Pie in his book "The Education Of Desire - The Anarchist Graphics of Cliff Harper" (Anarres Cooperative, 1984) -- it's in the form of a long interview with Adam Cornford -
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Cornford
if you can't get hold of it, let me know and i'll scan the relevant pages for you
[from the book] "Eel Pie I intended as an armed camp. I dropped that idea within two weeks because the people didn't want to know, so I just let it go the way it wanted to go."
He was also very influenced by The Living Theatre -
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Theatre
tho he wanted to create static bases rather than have a mobile one -- [from the book] "But my idea was that it be a centre from which we raided society. With experience, theatre and vibrant agitation."
in general he's scathing about the middle-class apolitical hippies of the late 60s :) "...I was nagging away about working class revolution... I was forced to become a foreign body within the commune... Eventually I was up against the mass ranks of hippiedom."
he also talks about his life as a dope dealer there, "making money hand over fist" (though this might have been relative, not so much Havana cigars, as being able to afford tobacco rather than having to roll up dogends lol)
Clifford was active as an artist at the time, and as well as developing his style, was contributing artwork to magazines (i think "Idiot International" may have been one of them), tho i don't know how often
however all that was over 30 years ago, and today he'd probably have other perspectives to add, though his political ideas and ideals are still very much intact
in a 2007 interview he was asked if he would ever consider rejoining a commune, and replied, "Now that is an interesting question. Anytime before now, if you had asked me that I would have answered with a hollow, cynical laugh, 'Ha, Ha' but considering it now, for the first time in some years, I’m surprised to say that, 'Yes, I would'. I must have a think about this."
my personal memories of Cliff from Eel Pie days are very positive -- he was for the most part unflustered by the surrounding chaos
the group that initially moved in with him (Ame, Simon, Jonathon, Brennan, Anna and possibly one or two others) provided a political sensibility and at least a semblance of stability for the first few months -- i'm pretty sure that Cliff would have been the one to notify BIT about the occupation of the Hotel, and about it being available as a crashpad for people who were homeless or were passing through London without a place to stay -
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIT_(alternative_information_centre)
coincidently i got an email from Clifford earlier today, more of a circular, saying that he was going into hospital this coming monday (23rd Oct) to have his bladder removed -- because of the weak condition of his heart the operation is riskier that usual -- however if all goes well he will be back home by the end of the month -- (if you've not already been in contact with him, then when he's sufficiently recovered i'm happy to check whether he's interested in talking to you about that period of his life)
Weed
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