Various Deviation Street - High Tides In Ladbroke Grove 1967-1975 (3-CD Box-Set)

(Cherry Red Records) 58 tracks, digisleeve in gatefold box, incl. 48 pp. Booklet

The most comprehensive overview to date of the freak scene in Ladbroke Grove in the late 60s/early 70s.

- Four hour anthology of local acts with much previously unreleased or rare material.

Ladbroke Grove in west London developed into the epicenter of the British counterculture movement of the late '60s and is now considered Albion's equivalent of the Haight Ashbury underground scene in San Francisco.

Cheap rents had already attracted beatniks, bohemians and the Windrush generation of West Indian immigrants, and over the course of the decade a motley crew of musicians, freaks and anarchists joined them as the local hippie subculture found a spiritual and physical base.

The area around Ladbroke Grove, Holland Park and Notting Hill Gate, which was also home to the burgeoning underground press and various management agencies for rock bands, spawned its own music scene that included Hawkwind, Quintessence, Edgar Broughton Band, Skin Alley, Third Ear Band and High Tide.

Featuring all of these acts, Deviation Street: High Times in Ladbroke Grove 1967-1975 is the most comprehensive overview to date of the freak scene in West London and includes such major local players as Mick Farren and The Deviants, Twink, Steve Peregrin Took, Lemmy, Sam Hutt, Hapshash, Davey Graham, Graham Bond and Carol Grimes.

In addition to Pink Fairies, Trees, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Quiver, Uncle Dog, Steamhammer, Mighty Baby, Family, Pretty Things, Junior's Eyes and Cochise, the collection also includes important contributions from the local immigrant community (Mataya, Noir, Ram John Holder).

With a lush 48-page booklet and four hours of music that includes much previously unreleased and rare material (including the first homemade demo recording by Roxy Music, who had their long genesis in the area), Deviation Street is an essential purchase for anyone interested in the British underground of the late '60s.