More Beastly Folklore (The Beast and the Lamb) and Book News

This is my 400th post since starting the blog!

I'd like to use it to announce the publication of a new substantially revised and updated version of Decadent London which should be out by the end of this month, published by Accumulator Press.

The book has been thoroughly revised, new material has been added and musician and writer Max Decharne kindly agreed to write a foreword.

Decadent London will be available on The Big Cartel and from the following bookshops in London:

Treadwells

Watkins

Atlantis

Two free talks have been arranged so far to promote this new edition, both can be booked through Eventbrite:

6 December Westminster Reference Library to coincide with the excellent Yellow Book Exhibition (which has been extended to 9 December). Talk begins at 6.30pm. Details here.

12 December Kensington Central Library - with Nina Antonia and Darcy Sullivan - see here

Today is the 45th(!) anniversary of the date of the original release in 1974 of my favourite lp The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. There's a good article about it here.

As a bonus we learn therein that Headley Grange, where it was recorded, was a 'former poorhouse [that] had been owned by Aleister Crowley, which had drawn devotee Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin to record there.' [Most of Led Zep IV and parts of Physical Graffiti] In Hugh Fielder's Book of Genesis Peter Gabriel says in an interview: 'We were working at Headley Grange which I felt was partly haunted by Jimmy Page's black magic experiments ...' Steve Hackett has often remarked: 'If anything was a haunted house that place was. You'd hear extraordinary noises at night - it was almost impossible to sleep.'

As far as I'm aware there is no connection between Crowley and Headley Grange - there could be confusion with Page's ownership of the Great Beast's former home Boleskine on Loch Ness during the 1970s.