A photo from the Association for Consciousness Exploration in Cleveland, Ohio. From left, Timothy Leary, Robert Shea, Patricia Monaghan, Jeff Rosenbaum, Gillie Smythe. (UPDATE: Apparently the correct spelling is "Gilli Smyth," please see the comments.]
If you want to listen to Robert Shea talk, two audio recordings are available for purchase from the website of the Association for Consciousness Exploration, the organization I referenced in yesterday's blog post when I mentioned how Shea and Patricia Monaghan met. They both cost $4.99 and there are two recordings available: "A Meeting with Robert Shea," an interview with Shea, also featuring Robert Anton Wilson, and "Magic in the Central Empire," a look at "the universe of Chinese Paganism."
3 comments:
Is that the same Gillie Smythe who was in the legendary psychedelic band Gong?
@Tony, apparently yes. I just looked at the Wikipedia bio for "Gilli Smyth," and it says, "Smyth appeared as a solo performer and lecturer at the Starwood Festival from 1992-93." That's the festival put on by the folks at ACE. Apparently I got the name slightly wrong when I copied the caption from where I got the photo, but I didn't know who she was!
In the UK Smythe would be pronounced 'Sm-eye-th', whereas Smyth (my name, which is Irish) is pronounced 'Smith'. I saw Gilli Smyth with Gong in the 70s a couple of times- she couldnt sing but had a unique way of vocalising using a mike with lots of reverb on it. I think she went to the Sorbonne in Paris, though what she studied I don't know.
Gong were a very talented English/French band and had a brilliant sax/flute player Didier Malherbe. His work with The Hadouk trio is excellent.
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