Item #40274 A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society. Heathcote WILLIAMS.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.
A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.

68.

A group of documents relating to Albion Free State, Nicholas Albery and Heathcote Williams’s visionary concept of an alternative society.

i) Albion Free State Manifesto, nd. (October 1974). Single foolscap mimeographed sheet, printed on both sides. Text written by Nicholas Albery, borrowing ideas and words from William Blake, the original Diggers, Heathcote Williams, Ubi Dwyer, Maya Free Nation News and the counterculture and free festival movements. Issued from the squatted flat occupied by Heathcote Williams and Diana Senior at 217a Westbourne Park Road. Old vertical and horizontal folds, o/w Very Good plus;

ii) mimeographed foolscap sheet printed recto only headed ‘Albion Free State’, with anonymous text by Heathcote Williams beginning: “How much longer must our lives be dominated by Prussian horse cripplers (Princess Anne’s wedding cost £4,000,000), a puerile debating society (the only government is your body, the only state the state of your mind), Police (Can’t we Police ourselves, and Please ourselves?), Money (which is the most hopeless form of human energy there is), cars (What about moving roads, or hovershoes or bicycle rickshaws, or bare feet? Why ride horses when you can ride each other?), and muck?”. It continues with Williams’s rousing Albion Free State national anthem, and concludes that “The Bravest Word in Any Language is Revolution. If not now, when?”. Old horizontal folds, o/w Very Good;

iii) mimeographed foolscap sheet printed recto only featuring the words and music to the Albion Free State anthem, ending with the rallying call: “Sky Sisters and Sky Brothers Arise! Black Druids Arise! Workers Arise!... Gangsters of Love Arise!”. Old vertical and horizontal folds, with light creasing and one short, closed edge-tear, o/w Very Good;

iv) mimeographed foolscap sheet announcing “A Psychic Benefit For The First Free City Of Love & Life In Albion Free State (where everyone’s your mate)” on one side, and on the other a free festival at the Meat Roxy on August 3rd (1974) featuring appearances by The Rowdies (“ex-Pink Fairies”), Here & Now, George Melly, The Reverend Mother & Their Visionary Lightshow, and others. Old central horizontal fold, o/w Very Good plus;

v) mimeographed foolscap sheet printing the lyrics to “Play The Ley Line Key Board With Your Toes”, a ditty by Heathcote Williams dedicated “To the Sacred Memory of George Formby Albion’s Zimmerman”. Old vertical and horizontal folds, o/w Very Good;

vi) foolscap sheet of pale yellow paper stock printed offset in black announcing a “Body Lightning Rodeo… Midsummer Festival of Life [at] Albion Free State Meat Roxy… Turn The Urge Into A Surge”, dated “Orgasm Day, the Eighty Eighth of Ginsberg, 1974”. The location, 101 Lancaster Road rather than the usual 105 Lancaster Road, was probably another squatted building nearby. Heathcote Williams has typed a letter to the verso (257 words). The recipient, whose name isn’t stated, was Bill Levy, and Williams requests an image from Suck #6 to use as a poster, mentions his use of graffitti (“Starting to form an Anarchist Spray Ballet”), and describes how Mike Lesser “has really thrown himself into the Meat Roxy, wandering about in a white boiler suit followed by a gang of Little Hordes, risking death from the electric system continuously, and climbing about spraying it with paint in perilous positions.” Old vertical and horizontal folds, o/w Very Good;

vii) double-sided flyer announcing a Free Festival at the Albion Free State Meat Roxy on July 27th (see also item #67 iv). Old vertical and horizontal folds, o/w Very Good plus (2 copies);

viii) two separate sheets of Albion Free State postage stamps (25 + 20) with gummed versos, each bearing the slogan “God Will Provide”. 18.4x13.2cm. + 15x13.8cm. Designed by Heathcote Williams, c. June 1974. A precursor to the Republic of Frestonia’s stamps and the banknotes and passports it issued three years later. Very Good plus.

(10 items).

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