It's funny how things suddenly come to mind. There I was just trolling the depths of the
interweb when I came across this word;
quintessence.
Quintessence: the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies; the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form ...But to me that will never be quintessence. For me
Quintessence will always be a bunch of London based Aussies who took on
Indian names and
kaftans and played a curious blend of
Indian classical music and
prog rock. Actually, they were rather good, as I recall.
Quintessence were one of the first groups I saw at
Plymouth's legendary Van Dike Club in the late '60s. And I do mean
legendary ... if not in a literal way ...
The Van Dike was run by the musically based
Van Dike family from the old
Exmouth Road Chuch Hall in
Devonport, originally a separate town from
Plymouth.
I used to go frequently with mates from work or Martin, the only other
Trot in the village, and thinking back, not only was the roster of emergent groups remarkable, so was the price of entry;
three and fourpence to see
Mott the Hoople,
Deep Purple,
Medicine Head (?) ... and
six and eightpence to see a posh gig at the Guildhall ...
Yes!,
The Nice,
Jethro Tull ... unbelievable.
And then Martin and I used to walk home from
Devonport to
Plymstock ... 6-7miles @ 2.00 in the morning ... those were the days ...
Amazingly, I found this repository of old Van Dike programmes
here. It's a bit of a trip ...
down Memory Lane nowadays, of course ...
Sadly, I had heard that
Greg Van Dike had passed away a year or so ago, although I understand he was still involved in music to the end. His children seem to have picked up the banner - in a
Lily Allen sort of way ... maybe.
Here I am, currently in rather grey, but unseasonably mild Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
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