Free The Weed 40 by John Sinclair

Highest greetings from the Mediterranean coast of Italy, where I’m visiting my friends Jerry Poynton and Helen Oliver Adelson, the great American painter, at their rustic place in the countryside outside of Tarquiia, Italy, just an hour north and west of Rome. I flew in from Amsterdam through an incredible storm that cleared up just before we landed at Leonardo da Vinci airport, but now I’m relaxing in the bucolic serenity of the Etruscan countryside and enjoying the radio program (#553) I made at the 420 Café before leaving Amsterdam that’s posted on my internet radio station at www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com. Radio Free Amsterdam has been my leading passion in life for the…

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The Sun Ra Arkestra and John Sinclair – Barbican, London by Michael Horovitz, 4 June 2014

Detroit jazz poet John Sinclair, counterpointed by inventive British post-bop quartet The Founder Effect, whom he’d only just met, filled the first half hour of this marathon gig with echoes and premonitions of the Arkestra and of its visionary originator-captain Sun Ra, who died in 1993. Sinclair’s finale ‘Another Order of Being’ drew extensively on Ra’s pronouncements, notably that ‘A band can demonstrate unity among men more than anything else in the world’, and that ‘In some far place, many light years in space, where human feet have never trod! where human eyes have never seen! I’ll build a better kind of world’. Then on ambled a dozen amiable all-black Arkestrans,…

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Free The Weed 39 – by John Sinclair

Highest greetings from London, where it’s still a crime to smoke and possess cannabis products and the medical use of marijuana is not yet recognized by the forces of the Crown. Like the guy at Customs told me a couple of years ago when he seized my medically prescribed cannabis in its official Dutch medical container and refused my offer to present my Dutch prescription and my Michigan medical marijuana card: “This is just smuggling drugs to us.” I’m in London to mark the release of my new album MOHAWK from Ironman Records and play a couple of little gigs with my drummer and comrade Steve The Fly, who produced the…

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John Sinclair – Mohawk CD 24th March 2014 on Iron Man Records

John Sinclair - “Mohawk” CD Released Monday 24th March 2014 by Iron Man Records, Birmingham. John Sinclair, the renegade poet, scholar and cultural revolutionary releases his new album on Monday 24th March 2014. John, has been described as an Archetype of the 1960's art, music and literary synthesis, and who today, is still kicking with both feet on his trajectory for cultural transformation. His new record features ten tracks from his book of verse: always know: a book of monk. Twenty poems planted firmly in a single-shot session, and carefully trimmed down to ten exhibits for this album. Beatnik poems, great odes and personal reflections of the Be-Bop jazz persuasion, all…

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Video by CHU on the making of 360 degree artwork for "Mohawk" by John Sinclair

"I sketched the entire world and digitised it inside Google's Sketchup, where this three dimensional, three hundred and sixty degree artwork could spring to life. This sketch can be viewed from almost anywhere and the result is a multi-dimensional drawing - a million sketches worth. When making a normal two dimensional drawing, changing the viewpoint requires a completely new sketch - this way, the sketch allows plenty of freedom for the viewer and there are a sickening amount of permutations. This economy in the production stemmed from the need to pay tribute to, as close as possible, the location and setting for the photoshoot on the cover of Thelonius Monk's Undeground…

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Video by CHU on the making of 360 degree artwork for "Mohawk" by John Sinclair

"I sketched the entire world and digitised it inside Google's Sketchup, where this three dimensional, three hundred and sixty degree artwork could spring to life. This sketch can be viewed from almost anywhere and the result is a multi-dimensional drawing - a million sketches worth. When making a normal two dimensional drawing, changing the viewpoint requires a completely new sketch - this way, the sketch allows plenty of freedom for the viewer and there are a sickening amount of permutations. This economy in the production stemmed from the need to pay tribute to, as close as possible, the location and setting for the photoshoot on the cover of Thelonius Monk's Undeground…

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The Culture Industry: Enlightenment or Mass Deception?

“Pop culture in general is the main thing they use to keep young people from developing any ideas.” - John Sinclair. John Sinclair, the renegade poet, scholar and cultural revolutionary releases his new album called "Mohawk," on Iron Man Records, on Monday 24th March 2014 with distribution by Cargo. The music was written and arranged by Steve Fly who mirrored John’s poems in the music by initially combing the tempo of the original songs recorded by John ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie, Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker and Thelonious Monk. Steve The Fly is a native of Stourbridge UK, now an Amsterdam resident who plays drums, spins vinyl, writes novels and literary and cultural commentary. He…

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Free The Weed 35 – by John Sinclair

Highest greetings from Amsterdam, where people in the cannabis community are looking on in wonder as the United States takes its first tentative steps toward legalizing marijuana for use by all thinking persons over 18 years of age. Like they say in New Orleans, a lotta people don’t know that marijuana is not actually legal in the Netherlands, although over-the-counter sales of cannabis has been allowed under what they call a “grey area” in the law which amounts to a sort of super-decriminalization policy that not only eliminates arrest but lets smokers buy and ingest the sacrament in designated coffee shops without police interference. But growing, distribution, wholesale transfer and delivery…

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Interview: John Sinclair – Mohawk

John Sinclair, the renegade poet, scholar and cultural revolutionary interviewed on his new album Mohawk, music and poetry, sharing ideas, the war on drugs, doing what you want, and more. John Sinclair - “Mohawk” CD. Released Monday 24th March 2014 by Iron Man Records John, has been described as an Archetype of the 1960's art, music and literary synthesis, and who today, is still kicking with both feet on his trajectory for cultural transformation. His new record features ten tracks from his book of verse: always know: a book of monk. Twenty poems planted firmly in a single-shot session, and carefully trimmed down to ten exhibits for this album. Beatnik poems,…

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Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) Poet, Playwright, Activist

"Take the words and make them into bullets, take the words and make them do something." The life and legacy of Amiri Baraka, the poet, playwright and political organizer who died Thursday at the age of 79. Baraka was a leading force in the black arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1963 he published "Blues People: Negro Music in White America," known as the first major history of black music to be written by an African American. A year later he published a collection of poetry titled "The Dead Lecturer" and won an Obie Award for his play, "Dutchman." After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 he moved…

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Tour Management and Vehicle Hire

I work as a Tour Manager Email or Call Mark: (+44) 07974 746810 I can be found in or around Birmingham, Cardiff and London. My work is based around Tour Management in the Music Industry but I also work with the Theatre and Film Industry. I can help with: Merchandise, Production, Backline, Crew, Rehearsal, Recording, Press, Promotion, Online strategy and equipment storage. Driving / TM Services I have played in all sorts of bands myself over the years, I've organised 1000's of gigs as I used to put on regular shows in Birmingham, I've set up tours, managed bands, put together press kits, PR and promotion strategies, worked out online strategies…

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Nightingales – Out Of True in 2014

Born out of Birmingham's original punk group The Prefects, the Nightingales have stubbornly ploughed their own furrow in the field of alternative rock n roll for three decades. 2006 saw the release of "Out Of True" on Iron Man Records and the return of a reformed Nightingales after some years away. The band have not wasted much time since then and yet another new album is on the way for 2014. The new album, which remains secret for now, was recorded at Faust studio in September 2013 for release in spring 2014. There will be a vinyl lp and the record label & title will be confirmed soon. The band hope…

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John Sinclair – Mohawk CD released 24th March 2014

John Sinclair, the renegade poet, scholar and cultural revolutionary releases his new album on 24th March 2014. John Sinclair - “Mohawk” cd Released Monday 24th March 2014 by Iron Man Records John, has been described as an Archetype of the 1960's art, music and literary synthesis, and who today, is still kicking with both feet on his trajectory for cultural transformation. His new record features ten tracks from his book of verse: always know: a book of monk. Twenty poems planted firmly in a single-shot session, and carefully trimmed down to ten exhibits for this album. Beatnik poems, great odes and personal reflections of the Be-Bop jazz persuasion, all flowering together.…

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John Sinclair – Mohawk CD released 24th March 2014

John Sinclair, the renegade poet, scholar and cultural revolutionary releases his new album on 24th March 2014. John Sinclair - “Mohawk” cd Released Monday 24th March 2014 by Iron Man Records John, has been described as an Archetype of the 1960's art, music and literary synthesis, and who today, is still kicking with both feet on his trajectory for cultural transformation. His new record features ten tracks from his book of verse: always know: a book of monk. Twenty poems planted firmly in a single-shot session, and carefully trimmed down to ten exhibits for this album. Beatnik poems, great odes and personal reflections of the Be-Bop jazz persuasion, all flowering together.…

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