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Thursday, April 30, 2009
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The beat goes on for ex-hippie Lee
STEVEN RUSSELL - East Anglian Daily Times - Last updated: 16/04/2009 08:47:00
Being a Suffolk pensioner doesn't stop you collaborating with an urban
hip-hop artist nearly a third your age, though it's certainly more
unusual than carpet-bowls and afternoon tea-dances. But, then, Lee
Harris's life has always run counter to the norm. He tells Steven
Russell about meeting Nelson Mandela and John Lennon and those
idealistic days of the 1960s.
More articles and reviews coming soon
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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 On the Road with John Sinclair - Lee Harris Lee Harris Croft -
Thursday, September 4, 2008 @ 7:00-8:00 pm [20-0842]
Suffolk, UK At Home with the Legendary Lee Harris I finally started venturing out into London on the last Saturday in August when I hooked up with my spiritual leader, Rev. Ferre van Beveren of the THC Ministry, and his lovely companion Ms. Moira to meet the London underground legend Lee Harris at his venerable head shop on Portobello Road called Alchemy. Standing on the sidewalk outside the shop having a smoke and waiting for Ferre to appear I heard somebody call my name and looked up to see the New York City filmmaker Steve ______ of Bonefilms striding toward me with an incredulous smile on his face. It finds out that Steve's in London to screen his film Celluoid 1 at the Portobello Film Festival around the corner on Monday night, and he pulls me down to the festival site to sit down together and have a very fine joint. Steve and I agree to meet again at the screening on Monday night before I split back to Alchemy to find Rev. Ferre and meet the illustrious Lee Harris. A native of South Africa, Lee's life was set on its future course when he attended the African National Congress in 1955 as a teenager and joined the struggle against apartheid being waged by Nelson Mandela and his comrades. By the late 1950s Lee had removed to London and got involved in the theatre, acting and writing plays and participating in the general artistic ferment of the period that would evolve into the cultural revolution. He was at the epochal underground poetry gathering headed by Allen Ginsberg at the Albert Hall in 1965 and followed the forward motion from there, reaching his apotheosis in 1968 at the Alchemical Wedding with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and hanging with Ken Kesey and the Hells Angels from San Francisco during their extended stay at Apple headquarters. Following the Alchemical Wedding Lee experienced what he calls an "alchemical transformation" and became a leading advocate of psychedelic experimentation and cosmic consciousness from his ephemeral booth at the Portobello Market where he hustled a modest living peddling incense, ginseng and other exotic products he copped from Chinatown merchants. Soon he was selling rolling papers, pipes and other hippie paraphernalia, rock posters, underground comix and hip records from a Portobello Road storefront called Alchemy—London's first head shop. From his command post at Alchemy Lee stayed intimately involved in successive waves of alternative activity in London, from Free Concerts with the White Panthers to publishing underground comix and magazines to punk rock and reggae music to his current incarnation as spoken word artist "The Spiritual Kid" performing and recording with electronic ensembles like River Styx and the Mystery School Players as heard on CDs he's produced like E.W. with Howard Marks and the collection Alchemy: 30 Years of Counter Culture. Ferre and Moira and I have some good laughs with Lee Harris and leave Portobello Road with an invitation to come out to Lee's 400-year-old cottage in Suffolk on Thursday to enjoy a meal and conduct an episode of my radio show (217) with Lee's testimony, some of his music and some of mine. We stop in a little park around the corner and smoke some hash before departing, Ferre and Moira back to their pad in Orpington and me to take the tube back to Wood Green, where I'm still charged up from the day's activities and start working on a pair of radio programs centered on a long conversation I'd had with the Japanese writer, musician and producer Gaku Torii at the Ooze Charm Coffeeshop when I was in Tokyo at the end of June. These came out as episodes 215 & 216:
At Home with the Legendary Lee Harris For this episode I took the National Rail Service train from London to suburban Orpington to meet my spiritual leader Rev. Ferre van Beveren, his companion Ms. Moira, and the estimable young Mr. O.J. to drive from Moira's place all the way to Suffolk in East Anglia to the venerable home of Lee Harris, "The Spiritual Kid" and legendary figure in the development of the London underground since the 1960s. Lee served us a fine home-cooked meal and sat still for my questioning, his responses to which I edited and interspersed with recordings by River Styx, the Rolling Stones, Afrissippi, Lee Harris & Howard Marks, the Mystery School Players and the Drum Druids, most of them taken from Lee's productions titled E.W. with the Mystery School Players and Alchemy: 30 Years of Counter Culture.
Playlist 217 [00] RFA Tag > Baba Israel Intro[01] Opening Music: Lee Harris & River Styx: The Spiritual Kid[02] John Sinclair Intro & Opening Tokes with Rev. Ferre & O.J.[03] Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil[04] John Sinclair Conversation with Lee Harris (Part 1)[05] Afrissippi & John Sinclair: Fulani Journey[06] John Sinclair Conversation with Lee Harris (Part 2)[07] Lee Harris & Howard Marks: 3 Men in a Boat[08] John Sinclair Conversation with Lee Harris (Part 3)[09] Lee Harris & the Mystery School Players: Alchemical Changes [10] John Sinclair Conversation with Lee Harris (Part 4) & Outro[11] Closing Music: Drum Druids: Underground Influences[12] Baba Israel ID
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Check out On The Road with John Sinclair here
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Tuesday, November 04, 2008
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River Styx Live with the Madcapz @ EMBRiver Styx played two packed out shows with the Madcapz at EMB in Paris;
 
The Dont Hate, Create Tour: Prelude
Lee Harris & River Styx
- joined by: Luke Ray - Percussion, Pop - Guitar, Chris Davis - Saxophone
Koze - Vocals - Chris Mekon - effects
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Coed Hills (....Cardiff....) - Joined by Koze who guest stars on the album
Live @ Monday Love - A night with the Monday love Pirates Live @ Sick of the Sheep - Sick of the Sheep at Ginglik in West London Alchemy in ....London.... - Psychedelic Circus"The Angel Headed Hip Hop set was an interesting mix of free flow spoken word lyrics over the top of scratch and hip hop beats, a sort of early Pink Floyd guitar drone with freaky bits and a wandering bassline. Its an intriguing aural trip that I can best describe as Jazz meets Trance and Hip Hop on acid." Viperslair.co.uk  
Live @ Blue Monday - Live with Rosamund @ Inn on the Green Lee with Youth @ Synergy Centre - New Years Eve with Youth Dj Set Live @ Blue Monday - Live with Rosamund @ Inn on the Green Live @ Synergy Indymedia – Legacy of 68 - With Indymedia and the Monday Love pirates
 
Climate Capers @ Synergy Centre - Raising awareness of Climate change Live @Purple Turtle - Fall of 55 live at Purple turtle is available to download free here
Don't Hate Create @ Inn on the Green - with Full Live band, a dedicated slide show for this event can be seen here  
Out of the Ordinary Festival (..Brighton..) - With full live band, they travelled on the Angel Headed Tour bus to the Out of the Ordinary festival just outside Brighton, video and pics coming soon
Portobello Film Festival - The Film "Lee Harris: Psychedelic Soulja was premiered at the Portobello Film Festival, the film will be released as a ltd edition DVD along with bonus film " Lee Harris meets River Styx including behind the scenes footage, live shows and more. All the Above @ Inn on the Green - Opening for Tony Lowe and Alison Flemming collectively known as All the Above,
Review: Wow, what a gig! Hats off to the amazing group of people who performed this last Saturday night to a packed house at the ..Inn.. on the Green. The show opened with a masterful performance by Lee Harris and River Styx – chilling the crowd out with their lovely combo of trance hip-hop and beat poetry. When Tony Lowe and Alison Fleming came on, people were in the perfect mood for an inspiring and uplifting show. And was it ever, driven by the power machine of Buj Stapley and Steve Gee on drums and bass and accompanied by the upbeat keyboards, percussion, and backing vocals of Poppy Gonzalez, the band had the audience enthralled from the moment they started. Tony Lowe's blistering and heartfelt guitar electrified the room and when accompanied by Alison's ethereal vocals the result – a mesmerized and thoroughly fired up crowd!" Stringall.com
Megatripolis Forever @ Megatripolis -
Live set celebrating The legendary club Megatripolis Metamorphosis @ Inspiral Lounge -
Live set at Inspiral lounge in camden
Watch out for the DONT HATE CREATE TOUR IN 2009. Lee Harris and River Styx will be touring extensively
Spring/Summer Dates: (more to come)
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Monday, October 13, 2008
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Lee Harris, 'The Footsoulja of the Underground'
Lee's gift to me is his life, his story and his benevolent nature, gregarious personality and non-conformist attitude; he is a true creative alchemist. After attending the Alchemical Wedding with John and Yoko, he wrote: "The Alchemical Wedding had a profound effect on many of us who were there that night. It touched our lives and helped bring about changes. There is a difference between what a person does and what happens by itself. You will set yourself a task with determination and tenacity and then, suddenly, a gust of wind will come from another world and everything changes. You seem to be used by the gods; and, in spite of yourself, you are part of the Myth." From the Alchemical Wedding to Angel Headed Hip-Hop - Lee is the Myth now – enjoy!
Podcasts produced by TLP - Podcast copyright String 2008 string.podbean.com - Opening audio track, TLP - All other tracks copyright Lee Harris and River Styx from the CD 'Angel Headed Hip-Hop - Tales from the Grove' For more information on Lee Harris please visit his website.
The Summer Solstice 2008I met Lee Harris when I first moved to London, some people are like magnets and Lee has a strong pulse. I first met him at his store in Portobello Market -
at that time I wrote a small article about the Market, an excerpt:'Because it is Saturday and crowded I analyze the manner in which people move through the street. Some seem to be consistently blocking my progress as my more nimble friend sprints up ahead I find myself behind a chador covered woman with a hand cart, and then behind two enormous treasure hunters, hand in hand blocking the entire sidewalk. My companion disappears into Alchemy, a shop owned by a very interesting character with which I had an engaging conversation about the Bay Area and the Haight, Timothy Leary and Underground Comic Art some months ago. We just hit it off, me the child of the sixties movement, and he, a perpetrator of the same.'I've become friends with Lee over the years as I always stop by his shop to buy incense and I bring my family and friends to meet him when they are in town.
There are few people like Lee, now they are mostly gone to the great hippie-beatnik rainbow in the sky. In his 70's and so full of life he recently began putting out CD's and performing live. He's affectionately called the 'Underground Soulja - footsoldier of the underground', and his music, collaborative in form, also has his poetry/rap weaving through the hip-hop beats and rhythms of River Styx. Lee's a writer, performer, playwright, editor, publisher and owner of Alchemy…he's a busy man! But I like Lee because he is one of the more fascinating people I know in London. A dharma bum, and a friend of the Beat Poets - Ginsberg in particular, he is also a poet and author in his own right. Creative always, his endeavors cross many genres. A strong supporter of Underground Comics of all types and publisher of Brainstorm Comix, we initially hit it off as I am a fan of R. Crumb who was a part of a similar scene in my California hometown in the 80's. Growing up in a counter-culture household made making friends with Lee a natural outgrowth of having followed the 'yellow brick road' to Alchemy.Lee's gift to me is his life, his story and his benevolent nature, gregarious personality and non-conformist attitude, a true artist; he attended the Alchemical Wedding with John and Yoko. In Lee's words, "The Alchemical Wedding had a profound effect on many of us who were there that night. It touched our lives and helped bring about changes. There is a difference between what a person does and what happens by itself. You will set yourself a task with determination and tenacity and then, suddenly, a gust of wind will come from another world and everything changes. You seem to be used by the gods; and, in spite of yourself, you are part of the Myth."Lee is the Myth now and I am looking eagerly forward to reading his memoirs.For more episodes from Strings Creative Alchemy Podcasts click here
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Monday, October 06, 2008
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Category: Music
 Lee Harris is a truly inspirational man whose open heart and sense of humanity has touch many people for many years. His lust for life and his "forever young" character is something that has inspired his young friend and collaborator River Styx and many others.This is a precious thing in an age when sinister forces conspire to influence the minds of young people and cause them to commit desperate acts in our cities and all over the world. River Styx has sent us a seven page article - "The Life and Times of Lee Harris" that shows a fresh and enlightening perspective of Lee from a new angle. This is to tie in with the six page article to be published in Stoner Magazine - Issue 3 out soon. stonermagazine It is available here as a PDF document for download.If you do not wish to download the entire publication is also available one page at a time
Download the complete file... Click Here!Part one - profile
Part two - a tale from arkadia
Part three - actor to medicine head
Part four - homegrown brainstorms
Part five - alchemical changes
Part six - angel headed hip hop
Part seven - release info
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