Seven Years of Alchemy
By Lee Harris
On April Fools Day in 1972, the Alchemy stall began trading in the indoor market at 253 Portobello Road. It came about and grew out of the needs of the alternative culture that spawned around Ladbroke Grove. It was a colourful time when nearly everyone you met had either just come back from India, or was about to embark on the overland journey. They had acquired a taste for Oriental and ethnic items such as incense, perfumed oils, balms and henna. Chillums from the East and sibsi’s from Morocco were the way you smoke dope, besides rolling a three skinned joint.
To me it has always been a sort of magical stall, reflecting the current of events and people that flow through the Portobello on a Saturday. At the tide of the great gurus you encountered beatific smiles and enlightened spirits, and everyone was into macrobiotics and the like. It was a period when the oriental root ginseng was eagerly sort after by a band of fervent devotees and out of alchemy came from the Emperor Ginseng Company, which sells ginseng and royal jelly to this day. At the end of our first year we put out the Alchemical Almanac and Handbook of Herbal Highs, which is now long out of print, and a year later the Guide to the East, an account of the overland journey to India and as the passing show unfolded we brought out the Brain Storm Commix series, which featured Bryan Talbot’s trilogy of the adventures of Chester P. Hakenbush, the psychedelic alchemist and out of this experience came the magazine you are now reading, Home Grown. In all we have now published over 130,000 copies over the years, which have been read by a great many more people, and have drifted to many a distant shore.
To think it all came out of a Saturday stall in the Portobello, out of the desires and wants, and the changing times of the god folk who passed through there over the years, stopping awhile to have a chat and buy a pipe or packet of skins. It is to all of you Alchemy says a big thank you for these seven years of Alchemy.
Here’s to the wisdom of the weed and the many strange and beautiful people I have met through it.
Stay high!
Echoes of the underground – A Footsoldier’s Tales – Ebook
JUST PUBLISHED ON BARNCOTT PRESS!
AVAILABLE TO BUY HERE
Paper back version will be coming soon
Echoes of the Underground: A Foot Soldiers Tale is a unique collection of ‘underground’ writings by Lee Harris, the majority of which were originally published in the ’alternative press’ of the 60′s and 70′s; International Times, Oz, Home Grown and ‘Other Scenes’ .
The collection includes writings on the ‘Beat Generation’, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, the 60′s theatre revolution, and the South African apartheid era (Lee was one of the few white members of the ‘African National Congress’and met Nelson Mandela).
There is some interesting material covering the ‘War on Drugs’ and the early days of the ‘Legalise Cannabis’ movement – as you might expect from the publisher of Home Grown, Europe’s first cannabis magazine.
Also included are rare interviews with beat poet Michael McClure, the director of the musical HAIR Tom O’Horgan, the man who ‘turned on’ Timothy Leary by giving him some L.S.D., Michael Hollingshead, and Harry Shapiro, author of ‘Waiting for the Man’ and the Jimi Hendrix biography‘Electric Gypsy’.
Some unpublished work is included in this insightful and personal collection of writing which covers some of the most exciting and revolutionary times in recent world history.
- UK Kindle Edition Download.
- US Kindle Edition Download + Rest of the World.
* Price (£4.00) varies according to location and rate of the dollar.
AMAZON KINDLE:
Ben River – So here we are (3-Track digital single)
This ‘name your price’ 3-track single includes the new songs:
So here we are, You’ll find your way & By the riverside
and comes with cover art & video of ‘You were there all along’
live @ Half Moon Putney. Download HERE
Shisha-lite charcoals
Each pack comes with 80 pieces of quick lighting charcoal, for use with you shisha hookah,
Simply light the charcoal with a lighter or matches and the charcoal will provide all the heat you will need to enjoy your smoking mixture using you hookah.
Flavoured Herbal Shisha Molasses
High-Life Herbal Molasses is a Herbal Smoking Mixture available in a wide variety of flavours. Best smoked through a High-Life Hookah!
Double Platinum Flavoured Blunt Wraps (pack of 25)
Double Platinum flavoured cigar blunt wraps come in packs of two available in a variety of flavours
Double Platinum Flavoured Blunt Wraps (pack of 2)
Double Platinum flavoured cigar blunt wraps come in packs of two available in a variety of flavours
Upsetter Magazine
Deluxe special edition of Upsetter Magazine Issue 1, a magazine on the great Lee Scratch Perry
Limited to 200 copies - Each copy is individually numbered -
Includes articles on Lee Scratch Perry in Studio One, The Ska Years, Upsetter News, Colour Photo Postcards
Discography 1963-68 & Original Perry art
Pure Hemp Small Shoulder Bag
Dimensions: 18cm x 19cm
Hemp is known as one of the most durable and high quality natural fibers that exists and holds an extremely high tensile strength. It softens with time and yet remains hardwearing and long lasting, they keep their colour over time as fabrics from hemp dye well.
Pure hemp red shoulder bag
Dimensions: 29cm x 38cm x 8cm
Hemp is known as one of the most durable and high quality natural fibers that exists and holds an extremely high tensile strength. It softens with time and yet remains hardwearing and long lasting, they keep their colour over time as fabrics from hemp dye well.
Pure hemp medium belt bag
Dimensions: 21cm x 14.5cm x 8cm
Hemp is known as one of the most durable and high quality natural fibers that exists and holds an extremely high tensile strength. It softens with time and yet remains hardwearing and long lasting, they keep their colour over time as fabrics from hemp dye well.
Listen to the Alchemy album!
Click HERE to Listen on Spotify
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