New Age Traveling with Steve Mills

The AP Strange Show

Steve Mills, aka the Reverend StarDoG, returns to the show this week to discuss the festival scene throughout the U.K. in the 1970s into the 1980s. Steve had previously been on for a Third Time's the Charm episode to discuss Halloween III, but this time he and AP get into the music, culture, and adjacent wyrdshit of the free festival movement he was part of.

Starting with a bit of history in the early 70s, they discuss a festival in the Queen's backyard, the infamous Wallys of Wessex court trial, the concerts at Stonehenge, the Battle of the Bean field, and more- including the social and political implications of the hippie caravan lifestyle and its portrayal in popular media of the time. Groups such as the Dwarves, Hawkwind, and the Pink Fairies provided anthemic soundtracks to the scene, and Steve makes a case for these festivals as being a template for later events such as Burning Man.

He also talks about his band Tubilah DoG, opening for Hawkwind, playing onstage whilst "off his tits", and various ways the music industry is a thing apart from the creative forces it depends on. Of course, it wouldn't be a whibble with StarDog if the conversation didn't involve the influence of Discordianism and the wyrdshit that attends it- including possible time slips, mystery fogs, and UFOs.

It was a wild conversation. If you'd like to hear the DoGs' 1996 album, In Search of Plaice, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPXLWky7d9s