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72.
MAYA FREE NATION NEWS #1 & #3-7 (of seven issues published) + “The Movement of Movements”, a 6pp. foolscap mimeograph of Heathcote Williams’s uncredited lead article for the first issue, titled and annotated by him.
London: People’s Free Festival General & Welfare Committee, September 1974-August 1975. Tabloid newspaper format (issues #5-7 published under the banner of The International Times). Each 8pp.-16pp. Illustrated.
i) MAYA #1 - Windsor Free Nation News. 8pp. The front page article for this first issue, not credited to Heathcote Williams though clearly his work, is prefaced by quotes from Octavio Paz (see also item #70) and William Blake, and provides his lengthy report on the Third Windsor Festival, or “Winds Zohar Free Feast” (the Zohar, meaning “splendour”, is a foundational work in the Kabbalah): “Each festival is a blueprint for the New Jerusalem, and after the energy has peaked a nucleus of people stay on to turn the site into a Free City.” Contents also include coverage of the police invasion and its aftermath; news of the establishment of a fighting fund (donations were collected at Grateful Dead and CSNY concerts); personal testimony from festival-goers and their experiences of police brutality; photographs and cartoons; and “Everyone’s Wally”, an article explaining how a group of hippies “have been living on and around Stonehenge, all answering to the name of Wally” (a show of solidarity named after Wally Hope, aka Phil Hope, aka Phil Russell, founder of the first Stonehenge Free Festival in June 1974). Age-toning to newsprint paper; slight edge-wear, esp. to upper edge of back page; central fold; o/w Very Good.
Together with: The Movement of Movements. 6pp. foolscap mimeographed typescript of Heathcote Williams’s uncredited front page article for MAYA #1, titled by him in green ink, with two further annotations, three additional lines in type, an ink phone number, and a partially legible holograph comment beginning “Let’s all fuck on the kitchen table”. Old coffee splatter and creasing, o/w Very Good + another copy, titled in red ink by Williams. Very Good plus;
ii) MAYA #3 - Windsor Free Nation News (December 1974). Contents include front page article on “Home Secretary Roy Jenkins and his Windsor Free Festival cover-up”; an uncredited article by Heathcote Williams, “The Love Beast - A Christmas Message”, with a five-word annotation by him in blue ink to lower margin; George Andrews on Timothy Leary’s discredited reputation following his recent co-operation with the FBI (“Turned In, Tuned Out, Dropped On”, 2pp.), also printing Allen Ginsberg’s “44 Temporary Questions on Dr. Leary”; ads. for Gandalf Travels, Heathcote Williams’s play, “Remember the Truth Dentist”, and “Alternative London 74”; and a back page call for donations and subscriptions to MAYA, “the only alternative newspaper in the country.” Age-toning to newsprint paper; central fold; o/w Very Good;
iii) MAYA #4 - Windsor Free Nation News (February/March 1975). Contents include front page announcement of plans for the fourth Windsor Free Festival; a detailed report from the recent trial held at Slough County Court to hear the claims brought by Nicholas Albery, Heathcote Williams and Diana Senior for damages incurred as a result of police violence at the third Windsor Festival; a note smuggled out of Wandsworth prison (reproduced in holograph facsimile) by Windsor Festival co-organiser Paul Pawlowski, who had been accused of drug offences (as were fellow organisers Wally Hope and Ubi Dwyer) and obstructive behaviour that disturbed the peace; a poem by Mike Lesser (“written in the spiritual shadow of a Kentish Town squat”); a CLAP (Community Levy for Alternative Projects) Report; advice for growing your own vegetables; squatting and homelessness news; plus an 8pp. “Squatting Supplement”, including an article by Gus Geddes, John Hopkins and Sue Hall, a centrespread cartoon, advice reprinted from “Alternative London”, and illustrated instructions intended for squatters. Age-toning to newsprint paper; central folds; o/w Very Good;
iv) IT Vol. 3, No. 1 (MAYA 5), including Supplement: Drugs - An Anthology (June 1975). MAYA’s resurrection of IT, its editorial stating that “In future issues the Maya content of the paper will decrease. It is our intention that IT shall be a sheet paper. We are not interested in an intellectual wank for Hampstead.” Contents include squatting news; articles on the commune movement; poems by R. Buckminster Fuller and Mike Lesser; the People’s Free Festival in Brighton, organised by the Sussex Whole Earth Group; news of Ubi Dwyer’s imprisonment for contempt of court (he ignored an injunction banning him from organising the 1975 Windsor Festival); a full-page interview with Nik Turner of Hawkwind; an extract from Chris Gray’s Situ anthology, “Leaving the 20th Century”; plus Drugs: An Anthology, an 8pp. supplement edited by Don Aitken of Release. Front cover photo by Ron Reid. Includes George Andrews and David Solomon on Coca-Cola and its historic use of the coca leaf; extracts from Andrews’ book, “Drugs and Magic”; Lee Harris on ginseng; and a prose-poem on “Magik Mushrooms” by Heathcote Williams. Age-toning to newsprint paper; central folds; o/w Very Good;
v) IT Vol. 3, No. 2 (MAYA 6/IT 169), including Free Festivals supplement (July 1975). Front page news of Sid Rawle being jailed for the article on Ubi Dwyer published in the previous issue; an obituary of Michael X by John Michell and Heathcote Williams’s jeremiad, “The Queen of Swing”; the Ruff, Tuff, Creem Puff Estate Agency; poems by Sinclair Beiles; news from the Cannes Film Festival by Jim Haynes; plus 8pp. Free Festivals supplement, including a text by Roger Lewis (“Festivals as the Revolution of the Oppressed”); reports from Stonehenge and the Brighton People’s Free Fair; a text by Ubi Dwyer; advice on “What to Take to a Free Festival”; and photographs by Ron Reid (“Some of them were done specially for us, and some are from a book called Tomorrow’s People by Jeremy Sandford and Ron Reid” [item #73]). Age-toning to newsprint paper; central folds; o/w Very Good;
vi) IT Vol. 3, No. 3 (MAYA 7), including supplement, “Land For The People - A Manifesto” (August 1975). The last issue. Front cover, lead article and centrespread announce and publicise the 4th People’s Free Festival at Watchfield (originally planned for Windsor), including a half-page list of the bands lined up for the seven days. Also includes a short review of “Winstanley”, Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo’s film about the original Digger, Gerrard Winstanley (Sid Rawle had a bit part in it). The 8pp. supplement is devoted to the Back to the Land Movement, and its back cover prints “The First Digger Manifesto” from 1649, illustrated with a still from “Winstanley”. Age-toning to newsprint paper; slight wear to old central folds; o/w Very Good. A near-complete run of what was, for a brief period, the only national paper of the alternative society. Initially, it arose out of the anger felt by participants at the Windsor Free Festival in 1974, and over the repressive activities of the police, before merging itself into an IT reawakened from its temporary underground sleep.
Together with:
i) Watchfield FREEK PRESS Number 6 Windsor Anniversary Issue (August 27th, 1975). Single foolscap sheet, gestetnered on both sides. Prints “A Squatters’ Song”, news of a joint-rolling competition, the appearance of Arthur Brown on Stage C, “Ruff Accounts”, and acid reports, eg. “Blue blotter: excellent, but watch out for people selling it in quarters… don’t buy from touring vans.” Very Good (2 copies);
ii) NEW SEED - The Voice of Natural Living Vol. 5, #8 (London: 1976). Ed. Craig Sams. Special ‘Festivals’ issue, featuring contributions from Heathcote Williams (with two minor ink annotations by him), Nicholas Saunders, Cosmo Landesman, Ubi Dwyer and Dr. Arabella Melville (editor of Libertine). Also: John Michell on geomancy. Very Good.
