Embedded Files
These are group shots and further pictures taken after the Witches days (or before), showing some of the named people (and others)
Some of the guests at the wedding reception for Paul & Jill Ernest in the dining room at Elstree Film Studios where Jill's father A. W. (Tony) Lumkin (aka The Golden Man of sound) worked, running the teachnical side of things.
L to R: Peter Sun (Wright), Marsha Miller, Marilyn Wheatcroft, Sue Ernest, Patrick Lane, Kate van Doornink (Clackson), Jerry Goody, Julius Holley, Geoff Conrad, Les Clackson, Philip Howe, Kristel Green, Alan Green. Some of our guests at the wedding reception for Paul & Jill Ernest at Elstree-EMI film studios, 29 July 1972.
(Missing from shot: Dave Fry, Peter & Diana Sayers, Richard Gates, Robert Powell - best man - and his partner Sally, and others whose names will come to us!)
Peter Sun (Wright) was a neighbour in Brighton, and a good friend of Alan Green. By vocation he was a painter and retired to Cornwall where he died recently.
Marsha Miller was a friend of Jill's & mine from Camden.
Marilyn Wheatcroft was a friend first met at Sussex Unversity in 1966, from the Hendon County set in North London. Had a career at the BBC. Died 2019.
Sue Ernest is my sister.
Patrick Lane, is a friend first met at Sussex Unversity in 1966, from the North London, who features elsewhere on this site
Kate van Doornink married Les Clackson, best mate of Dave Young. See the Les Clackson page. Jill knew her from her Elstree / Borhamwood Grammar school days.
Jerry Goody was from the Hendon County set in North London, alongside Marilyn W, Dave Fry, Johnny White, Maggie Gearson, Alex Scott-Samuel. More on Jerry below.
Julius Holley is a friend from the Witches, who features elsewhere on this site, on his own page.
Geoff Conrad was a friend first met at Sussex Unversity in 1966 who was studying the same degree as me and Dave Fry (originally called Philosophy and the Theory of Science - with Mathematics). Sadly he died about 20 years ago.
Les Clackson was Dave Young's best friend from the Boundary Road kids. See his page here.
Philip Howe is a friend from William Ellis and Witches.
Kristel Green was the wife of Alan Green in the 1970s and 1980s.
Alan Green was a friend from William Ellis and Witches. See his personal page on this site (PE)
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Viv Shutzman, Paul Ernest, Niall Dunlea, Maggie Gearson, Jerry Goody, Dave Fry, and Johnny White's little brother at the bottom, Around January 1969. The only picture I can find including Viv.
Viv Shutzman was a friend from William Ellis and Witches, although he did rip some friends off. Spent time in Meshad prison, Iran because he was caught with a pocketful of hash (and lacked the wit to flush it down the police station toilet when left alone before being searched). His sentence was 7 years but his parents were able to buy him out after one.
Paul Ernest is me, in my darkest hippie phase.
Niall Dunlea is a friend from Sussex Unversity
Maggie Gearson was beautiful and vivacious girl studying at Brighton College of Education in 1966. She was from the Hendon County set in North London, along with Marilyn Wheatcroft (her best friend), Jerry Goody, Dave Fry, and Johnny White. She was my girlfriend Autumn 1966 to Summer 1968, and was with Dave Fry and Alex Scott-Samuel before me. I truly loved her, but we were destroying each other so she dumped me Summer 1968. Probably the best thing, although I didn't think so at the time! Even looking at the pictures now, 52 years since it ended and 49 years after she died makes my heart beat faster!
She married Tony Barnett in 1969 and gave birth to their son Julius in 1970. We were all the best of friends, and anyway I found Jill in 1970, the greatest love of my life!
Tragically, she died from a pharmacist's mistake in 1971 (her prescription was made 10x too strong).
Alex Scott-Samuel, Maggi Gearson, Paul Ernest, Easter 1968
Maggi Gearson, c. 1965. A beautiful girl with enchanting eyes!
Paul Ernest, Maggie Gearson, Gabi Weissman and friend at my home, 15 Inglewood Road, NW6, in 1967 or 68. Jeez, I look skinny!
Maggie Gearson, Summer 1966. What a knockout! Like a French beauty in an Eric Rohmer or Francois Truffaut movie. Indeed her mother Marcelle was a French woman, herself a great beauty in her younger days. But she abandoned Maggi to her dad when she was one year old.
Maggi Gearson with her best friend Marilyn Wheatcroft, Autumn 1966 on Brighton Pier. What beautiful girls!
Maggi came to study at Brighton College of Education in Autumn 1966 and Marilyn came to start her American Studies degree at Sussex University. Their mutual friend Dave Fry was already there. I sat next to Marilyn in Maths lectures. She was there because of the Arts-Science bridge policy. If you majored in one you had to take a course from the other side too. Through Marilyn I met Maggi and we fell in love. I also met Dave through Marilyn.
Maggie Gearson, Summer 1966. Hand coloured by Maggi.
Maggie was a wonderful and beautiful young woman who set many hearts fluttering including my own. Sadly she was also rather neurotic and attention seeking and once she found hard drugs Autumn 1967 she was never able to kick the habit. We were together and although it was after the summer of love, and we had many marvellous acid trips together as winter approached we both started using more and more regularly. At first it wasn't too bad, and we did manage a railway trip to Istanbul and Gazientep together Eastertime 1968 to score 2.1kg of hash. The picture above of Alex Scott-Samuel, Maggi Gearson, Paul Ernest, Easter 1968 must have been us on return to Paris on the Orient Express (nasty dirty uncomfortable trip that was, we could not afford sleepers!). I left Maggi in Paris and returned home with half the stuff. I had to resume my university studies at Sussex. But that Summer term we both got more and more into junk and degraded, and finally she dumped me Jully 1968. I was utterly devastated, heart-broken, but our junkie life had become a folie-a-deux and we just could not stay together. It took me another 15 months to get clean - off - then on - then off - then on - etc, until finally off forever Sept 1969. Maggie never managed to kick it until the day she died in 1971. Although we had two more flings xmas 1968 and early 1969 when she married Tony we became just good friends, and good friends we were. We still had a love and a care for each other.
I heard from Crispin Kitto that she and another old flame of mine Lynn Ellis moved in with him into Paul deMille's flat in Chalcot Square when Paul took a year off in India. She was staying back at her Hendon family home around Christmas 1969 when I visited her there (hiding behind the door to her room - her father banned me - standing there with a syringe in my hand!)
Maggi had one terrible flaw. If her boyfried wasn't there, and she did love me - like I loved her - she would sleep with anyone half way nice. She wasn't a nymphomaniac - such may not even exist - but she was so desperate for male attention and love she would use her most powerful asset to gain it. I didn't really know about it when we were together although I gather she slept with many of my friends. Tony was decent and loyal enough to turn her down, but most didn't. I recall feeling uncomfortable on meeting her in Winchester Road one morning with Graham Holman and everything pointed to them having spent the night together, especailly the fact that he was wearing my pink Oxford cotton button down shirt that she was carrying for me! Not long after that she dumped me. This was a memory I suppressed until recently when I read in an old diary I was studying to help me write this site that told me that "I was no longer the focus of her interest". At the time I was devastated and really it took me 18 months to recover from that (and the drugs!). I had rewritten my history to us splitting by mutual consent!
Here's something I posted November 2020 on Facebook
Been talking to Dave and Tony about a girl we all loved and lost. Maggi never made it to 25. And this song is a lovely and fitting tribute. The Waterboys - Too Close To Heaven
All your trouble will be over, so will your pain
you are gonna see those blue skies bursting right through the rain
The higher you climb, the lower you fall
You got too close to heaven, that's all
Now in the morning you can cry all you want to
We'll spend the whole day weeping
Right now I want you to lay down your weary head
and let me see you sleeping
You've been walking around baby, inflamed and ashamed
feeling like you're one inch tall
You got too close to heaven, that's all
You're way too hard on yourself baby
You got some pretty basic things wrong
You wouldn't believe me if I told you why I wrote you into this song
You're looking at your heart baby, and you're calling it black
But like Icarus and like Saul
You got too close to heaven, that's all
Now I know this hurt you're feeling
I've felt these same things too
I've got spaces way down deep inside of me that are just the same as you
You want to wrap your arms around your head, turn out the lights
And roll yourself into a ball
You got too close to heaven, that's all
Are you blinded by the brilliance?
Are you dazzled by the Light?
Why is it I see nothing but emptiness in your tired beaten eyes
That once were bright
I know you just can't help but run when you hear that sweet voice call
You got too close to heaven, that's all
I walked a mile for you baby
So won't you smile for me baby?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHDSGmfO_dE
Maggi Gearson 1947-71
Junk does you more emotional damage than people sometimes acknowledge, you become numb. Although I was straight, when Richard Gates told me at the end of a chess playing evening in 1971 that Maggi had been found dead that morning, I felt nothing. I have often wondered about that - how when the woman I had loved died I felt nothing. I was still so numbed, emotions wrapped in cotton wool and kept out of reach so that I could feel no pain. It took me years and the love of a wonderful woman (Jill) to bring me out of my shell again! Of course being a man does not help - our upbringing and social conditioning is often about suppressing feelings and attachments - just expecting to be looked after by some other.
Going back to the other people in the 1969 photo.
Jerry Goody was from the Hendon County set in North London. He became a convert to Buddhism and leads a Buddhist community and charitable foundation in Pune, India, where he lives with his wife and children.
Jerry Goody aka Lokamitra (friend of the whole world) in the 1970s
Jerry Goody aka Lokamitra in the 1970s
Jerry Goody aka Lokamitra in the 1970s
Jerry Goody aka Lokamitra (friend of the whole world) in the 1970s
Dave Fry is a friend first met at Sussex Unversity in 1966 who was studying the same degree as me (originally called Philosophy and the Theory of Science - with Mathematics), but Dave started a year earlier. We shared an infamous flat in Ventnor Villas, Hove 1967-68 with all the squalor and joy typical of student accommodation. Dave took a break from study for 1968-69, but completed his degree in 1971. He has worked in computing (systems analyst) and mathematics teaching, and met and married Jan Fry (nee Laughton) in the 1970s. Jan Fry took a English degree from Sussex Unversity and worked in PR and NGO leadership. They have two sons.
Dave Fry, early 70s with Charles Murphy in the background. What a handsome lad!
Jan and Dave Fry on Hampstead Heath circa 1979 (Photo by Tony Barnett)
Dave and Jan Fry more recently. What a lovely couple
I took a break from study for 1968-71, but completed my degree in 1973. I was married to Jill by then, and she commuted daily to work in the film business in London on the Brighton Belle train, 1971-1973, while we rented Alice Fairfax-Jones' house in Islingword Street, which Dave Fry and Marilyn had rented before us.
Johnny White was from the Hampstead Garden Suburb set in North London. He was a singer, songwriter, musician, health practitioner and carpenter.
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Johnny White (centre) and the New Rugs. His full name is James Jonathan Gordon White 1948 - 2018. Old Johnny was quite a performer! As well as a dear friend he was a handsome and charismatic man, who grew to resemble the actor Bill Nighy as he aged. Johnny met Bill Nighy while walking on Hampstead Heath once, and Bill Nighy said "Ah, you must be the Johnny White I keep hearing about!"
See http://camdennewjournal.com/article/johnny-white-hell-raising-disco-dance-dad
Jill Lumkin (later Ernest), John Wall, Denise, relaxing after working on a film at Pinewood Studios, c. 1969. What a gorgeous girl! Reader - I married her!
Dave Young, Maggie Maizels, Steve Moss, Peter Sayers, Tony Barnett, Henry Jacobsen, Paul Ernest, (wild man) Alan Green, John Maizels at a party in Dave Stevens and Eve Jackson's garden around 2004/5, celebrating Paul & Tony's 60th. As we were both admirers of the female form he gave us a lovely cake
Tony Barnett and Paul Ernest joint 60th Birthday cake from Dave Stevens Summer 2005. The icing has run making the flesh look a bit wrinkled and gnarly - rather appropriate in the circumstances. Look at that glistening tongue! On second thoughts, better not look!
Dave Young, Niall Dunlea, Patrick Lane's back after the Rolling Stones free concert in Hyde Park Summer 1969.
Patrick Lane, Paul Ernest, Dave Fry, after the Rolling Stones free concert in Hyde Park Summer 1969. Obviously, I'm sharing some wisdom with the guys!
Dave Stevens, Tony Barnett, Gabi Weissman and his son Raffy (Raphael), 1977
Dave Young and Billy Morgan late 1990s. Billy broke a lot of young girls hearts, including several in my family!
L to R: Dave Stevens, Paul Ernest, Peter Sayers, Tony Barnett, Alan Green. This picture was taken at Paul's Birthday Party September 2008 at 15 Inglewood Road, West Hampstead. Although he did not look quite right, we had no idea that Dave Stevens was so unwell, and sadly he died 5 days after this picture was taken from cardio-vascular problems.
Tim Shearer paying homage to the late great Eddie Cochran in Bath
Timmy, Dubs, Pat top right. This is Pat and Bin’s wedding in 1969 - you can tell by all the suits and ties!
This photo of Peter Sayers, walking across the bridge, taken by John Maizels, Summer 1964. The bridge was the border link between Greece and Turkey (Iskendarun) and it was a tense time between them. I remember crouching or lying down in the middle of the no man’s land while they exchanged some desultory gunfire. We continued Ok into a new world, the exotic East!
Peter
Tony Jackson, Richard Gates, Tony Barnett, on the beach in Brighton, 1968
Bill Allen and Paul Ernest in Edinburgh, August 2017
Model showcasing clothes designed by Alice Fairfax-Jones in the 00s
Pete McVeigh in a recent photo
Maggie Maizels, Henry Jacobsen, Tony Barnett, Paul & Jill Ernest, John Maizels, at Nuala's New Year's Eve party, 2018
Jane Whitman
Clare Swingler 1974
Anne and Clare Swingler carrying Julius Barnett, mid 1970s
Clare Swingler Gabriel in Somerset recently
And the photo you have all been waiting for - the nude picture of Clare Swingler, Jane and Sue Whitman skinny dipping in Hampstead 1951, and being warned off by a policeman!
This looks like a professional photo that was featured in the local paper!
Picture of Masha and Clappers wedding 1965 with Louie on the right. Left to right- Alison (Clappers' sister), Stella, Misha, Viv Soper, Clappers, Masha, Alphonse, Leda (Masha's sister), Buddy, Sue Clark, Evelyn and Louie - Thanks Jane Shearer
Mike (Crookie) in India for Holi, taken by Bin in the 90s. What a marvellous wild and - you might once have said - unholy crew. But Holi it is and Holy they are!
Asa Benveniste at Sylvia Plath's headstone in Heptonstall Churchyard, Yorkshire, close to where he himslf was buried with the caption ‘Asa Benveniste ~ Foolish enough to have been a poet’. See story on Vaughns and Benvenistes
Asa is mimicking the popular meme that spread through our childhood as the most common graffito. It originates with US Servicemen leaving their mark as they conquered axis territories, but persisted long after WW2.
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