Paul and Essex Road Squatters at Stonehenge
An example of how music and free thinkers evolve through time. Starting off with the attitude of punk, free festival’s and squatting, Paul Wilson came into the late 1980’s rave culture nice and easily. The younger brother to Mark Wilson of The Mob, Paul was there at the beginning of this iconic band’s formation all the way through to the glorious sunshine of the bands last Meanwhile Gardens performances and positive press from music weeklies and fanzines.
Paul, his older brother Mark from The Mob, and Val Puppy
The Mob’s, and some other band’s, most notably Zounds, early interest in free festivals, squatting and the traveller’s lifestyle really affected them and the individuals they met along the road (sometimes literally) in a way, that continued further into the decade and beyond.
Starting up with this the Free Festival scene, specifically at the time of Here And Now and Alternative TV gigs, we can trace a linage to Meanwhile Gardens and Frestonia Free State in West London, to the setting up of various Anarchy Centres, onto the Peace Convoy, then onto the Mutoid Waste parties in Kings Cross and Club Dog nights elsewhere in North London, eventually onto Sound Systems like Bedlam and Spiral Tribe, and bands like J.A.M.M.s, The Orb and K.L.F.
I was lucky enough to DJ alongside the Spiral Tribe and Bedlam Sound Systems, with Kevin Webb RIP ex of the anarchist punk band Conflict. Working at Southern Studios / Southern Record Distributors since the dawn of 1989, I could get my hands on all the upfront white labels from all the independent record labels pushing the new music which was obviously a plus when it came to dropping tunes! We both performed our sets on a load of occasions in North London squats and various ‘stolen for the night’ woodland areas. The biggest event we were involved in was some stolen land near an Industrial Estate in Tunbridge Wells.
Paul sent me some old tapes to transfer onto CD for him, which I was happy to do. I felt, with Paul’s permission that some kind of late 1980’s / early 1990’s Rave Culture should be included onto the KYPP site. These tapes seemed perfect, mixed by a guy who has grown up with similar attitudes to 90% of the people browsing on this site. He had been in all the same clubs and fields, and witnessed Plod’s oppression, regarding squats and free festivals. I certainly would not like to have uploaded K-Tels latest ‘That’s What I Call Rave volume 23’ kind of compilations for an introduction to this period. These tapes are the real thing, mixed by someone that really dug the vibes of the squatted parties and festivals through this new music and also the drugs that existed at this time.
Paul early 1990’s
Paul recorded these mix tapes in his bedroom in the early 1990’s, and the results are uploaded here. They are not meant to be totally professional, so please do not comment that some beats were ‘dropped’ incorrectly or there was a mistake here or there. As they were only meant for personal use. Paul did perform at some of the local Yeovil parties and venues, also stretching over to perform in France on a few occasions.
He went onto to travel around India, Goa, and other areas observing the culture from other societies. He now resides in glorious Glastonbury.
Spiral Tribe, Camelford, North Cornwall
West Country Free Festival
Avon Free Festival
john
March 24, 2008 at 11:02 pmmaybe we could send a load of those pills to iraq it might help?
danmac
March 26, 2008 at 4:46 pmis that photo at lawford road paul ? 🙂
Pavlik
March 27, 2008 at 12:27 pmFunnily enough Dan, I never mixed anything at Lawford Rd.
I spent all that time looking at the technics but the concept of mixing went right over my head at the time.
It was when I got back to Yeovil in ’92, hanging about with a bunch of DJ’s that I got into it.
Here’s a little film I’ve just put together with my favourite mix off those tapes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF60i7yzmD0
Paul Hoddy
September 15, 2010 at 2:58 pmHi Paul,
You mentioed Kevin Webb here & I was wondering if you knew what date he died or even where he is buried.
His daughter has contacted me on Facebook & she doesn’t know anything about when he died etc. so I was wondering if you knew.
Thanks
Paul Hoddy (Conflict)
Penguin • Post Author •
September 25, 2010 at 10:30 amHi Paul. I saw Kevin for the last time a week or so* before he died in the late 1990’s. He came to see me at Southern to pick up some records to perform at his new found home in Lille France. He helped run a small bar with some french friends, he was mainly on DJ duties there. I had lost touch a little with Kevin by this time and only saw him a dozen times a year, as oppossed to more than once a week that we had been used to in the late 1980’s early 1990’s when we were DJing together as mentioned in the text above.
Kevin had gone through spells of depression throughout the years and this, according to him at the time when I was seeing him a lot, was mainly down to not being able to see his daughter as often as he would like, there were of course other random issues like girlfriends leaving him, unemployment, bands and DJing he was involved in hassle etc etc. General life hassles, anyway, I think if memory serves me correctly he actually did go to court for better custody for his daughter against Ginny (?). Some Social Service inspectors did come around his place on a couple of occasions that I was there at I seem to remember.
Anyhow as I was not in touch with him quite a much as I was I am not sure what happened in Lille or indeed when it happened early 1999 I think as it was the same year as Bim Sherman and Vinny from Botchit And Scarper died. I remember feeling that lots of good people had passed at around the same time. Kevin was the first though. I certainly do not know where he is buried unfortunatly. There was the normal speculation at the time about how he died, and whether it was deliberate or accidental but not being informed of any actual facts it is not worth gossiping about it.
The reason for not knowing a lot on this issue, is that my friend Andy P got a phone call from Kevin’s mother one night to inform him of Kevin’s sad demise. She also told Andy that his body had been taken from Lille and was already buried in north London (I assume Barnet area). The point is that Kevs mother had obviously got Kevins phone book and started to ring up folk starting with A. I would have been under M Mickey or P Penguin so I never got the call, Kev’s mother obviously could not go through all the address book as it must have been hard for her to speak to anyone about the situation. Andy was in such shock about hearing from Kevins mother about her sons death, he completly got thrown out of whack and forgot (or decided against) asking her for details of his passing or where Kevin was laid to rest. As we both knew nothing of Kev’s family life or knew no details of how to reach them we could not get back to Kevin’s mother to ask relevent questions (and probably would not want to anyway come to think of it).
If I was called I may have asked when and how, but I wasn’t, and we also did not know Kevin’s new bunch of new found friends in Lille either so we could not discuss any details with that crowd.
So all in all I can not be of too much help I am afraid. Surely Ginny (?), the daughters mother would know the details or certainly know the details of how to get the information from Kevin’s mother, assuming the mother has not moved house or passed on?
* I definately remember seeing Kevin and then getting a call from Andy a month later about the situation, telling me the mother said to him that Kevin had died “a few weeks previously and had been laid to rest”.