I still remember the Fairports from the sixties with Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny. They were formidable.
They’ve become a bit of an institution. I’ve caught them a number of times down the years with the great late Dave Swarbrick. They are always good.
Today I will be playing my Fairport Convention. They take me back to those wonderful times.
The main idea that I was playing with in this book was the youth rebellion of the nineteen sixties.
Having lived through it and, as a student living in London, being heavily immersed in it, I felt that I knew a lot about the sixties phenomena. I found the idea of taking the underlying principles and applying them to the future quite inspiring and intriguing.
I set the book in the future in the sixties of the year 3167 AC. We had an intergalactic civilisation. Rock Music performed, not in stadia, but huge arenas in space on a gigantic scale.
There were a lot of elements to bring together.
The glue that held the sixties movement together was Rock Music. I had to create a band featuring a larger than life Rock Star – based on Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Arthur Brown, David Bowie and John Lennon.
The Civil Rights movement was an important element. I had to create an alien species who were subjected to abuse and yet were highly intelligent.
The antiwar movement was another. I had to create two competing powers and a proxy war being waged on a remote planet.
I then incorporated many of the events and people from the sixties in many guises. There was the Black Panthers, the Yippies, the Fugs, the Chicago riots, Peace Park, free festivals, Woodstock, Altamont, Games in May, Martin Luther King, the antiwar marches, the raising of the pentagon, the civil rights marches, Bob Dylan’s motorbike accident and many more.
My main story was the way the lucrative Rock Music business was being controlled by big business and the mafia. Behind the scenes, my Rock Star was subject to all manner of forces. His manager, based loosely on Albert Grossman, Peter Grant and Bill Graham, was caught up in the politics. My star was trying to remain true to his principles but the pressures were building.
Would the revolution change society? Or would it be incorporated into the money-making establishment?
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I started writing Star in 1981.
I had an idea for writing a novel based on the underground Rock Music of the sixties but putting it a thousand years into the future on an intergalactic scale.
My main character had to be a larger than life Rock Star.
The motivation for the story was based on two separate incidents: the motorbike accident of Bob Dylan in 1966 and the death of Jimi Hendrix in 1970. Both spawned conspiracy theories of Mafia involvement, Black Panther involvement, pressure from management, contracts, work pressure, pressure to maintain creativity, drug use, government concern and many more.
That seemed a rich vein to mine.
So I put my character in an infamous underground band, thrust into a leading role in the social unrest that was taking the form of an increasing political, antiestablishment youth movement sweeping the galaxy.
All I had to do was recreate the social and political changes of the sixties in a futuristic setting and move my character through them.
It was interesting and fun. The result was ‘Star’.
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It’s 3167 ACV and the galaxy is rockin’ and revoltin’.
Zargos Ecstasy is king of the underground.
It’s Dylan, Hendrix, John Lennon, Jim Morrison and revolution.
There’s civil rights, war and protest.
There’s Peoples’ Park, the Yippies, a cold war, a belligerent President, riots, Black Panthers and peace-power.
There’s also Big Business, Record labels and the underworld Mafia who want in on the action.
If you lived through the sixties you’ll recognise it all.
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Latest Ron Forsythe Sci-fi novel out now!!
IT’S THE SIXTIES – The Three Thousand One Hundred and Sixties!!!!
The rollicking story of an intergalactic Rockstar!!
It’s the sixties – the three thousand one hundred and sixties.
The Federation is in conflict with the Confederation.
The Troman war rages.
There is a civil rights issue with the Androvians.Youth all across the galaxy are in revolt.
Rock Music, on an intergalactic scale, is the medium of the rebellion.
Zargos Ecstasy and the Terminal Brain Grope are providing the impetus for the rebellion.
Zargos, a larger than life character based on Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Jagger, Jim Morrison and Bowie, struts the stage, putting his poems to music and rousing the spacefreaks to seek social justice.
If you lived through the sixties you’ll recognise it all.
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I completed my editing of Star last night! It’s a bit of an epic!
I have put the sixties into the future in an intergalactic setting. My main character, Zargos Ecstasy, is a composite of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Arthur Brown, Mick Jagger and David Bowie.
The Federation is in turmoil. The Troman war rages. There are civil rights issues with the Androvians.
Youth is in rebellion and Zargos Ecstasy and the Terminal Brain Grope are the biggest Underground band on the scene leading the way. Zargos’s lyrics, poetic and full of social bite, reflect the mood.
But dark forces are at work. Big business, politicians and the underworld are interested.
Zargos is caught in the middle.
If you lived through the sixties you’ll recognise the scenes – all-be-it against an intergalactic backdrop.
This is the Sixties all over again!
The death of Phil May has had quite an impact on me. I guess it’s because he loomed so large in my youth. So today I will be playing my old Pretty Things albums.
I shall have a look at the albums that Phil and Dick Taylor kindly signed for me and be a bit sentimental and nostalgic.
This isolation does funny things to you.
But the music will give me a lift! They were wild and raw!!
