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100.
A printed invite signed by Dudley Edwards, one third of design collective BEV (Binder, Edwards and Vaughan), organisers of the event held at the Roundhouse on January 28, 1967.
Single quarto sheet. Illustrated with a b/w reproduction of Bob Gill’s original design for the poster and handbill (a second design was made by Dudley Edwards). The invite reads (in part): “Binder Edwards Vaughan invite you to share a new experience. London’s first Light and Sound Show, at the Round House… Please come in something white or wear a sheet.”
Sometimes referred to as the Carnival of Light Rave, BEV intended the event as a showcase for electronic music and light shows (it featured Ray Andersen of San Francisco’s Holy See Light Show), and advertised “Music composed by Paul McCartney and Unit Delta Plus”, the latter an electronic music collective established in late 1965 by Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson and Peter Zinovieff. The festival, which included a second night on February 4 (the artwork states February 8), also featured German band The Tonics, Soft Machine, New Vaudeville Band, and The Electric Poets (Daevid Allen, Robert Wyatt, Gilli Smyth, with Earl Fuggle, aka Paul Barrett, “on welding kit”).
The event is best known for an avant-garde recording by the Beatles commissioned by the organisers. In December 1966, David Vaughan asked Paul McCartney (for whom BEV had recently painted a psychedelic design on a piano) if he would contribute music for the event, and after his unexpected agreement, Dudley Edwards took him to meet Peter Zinovieff, who played them an electronic composition “at such intense decibel frequencies”, according to Edwards, “that many parts of my anatomy (including internal organs) began to perform an involuntary dance. I can only describe it as ‘ecstatic twitching’.”
The outcome was a 13 mins 48 secs experimental tape collage, conceived by McCartney, recorded by the Beatles during the “Penny Lane” sessions at Abbey Road on January 5, 1967, and given the title “Carnival of Light”. The piece was played back at the Roundhouse on January 28 (none of the Beatles attended), and again on February 4, and has remained unreleased ever since. McCartney was reportedly annoyed when he learned that the tape had been allowed to play on past the agreed point, thereby giving the audiences a preview of “Fixing a Hole”, though Edwards has said this was unintentional.
Three old horizontal folds; light creasing and handling wear; o/w Very Good plus.
