Radio Gonzo

I still remember the first time that I heard of The Pink Fairies. It was from an extremely unlikely source; my late Father. Some time in early 1974 I had been given a copy of Dark Side of the Moon by a relative, and as was often his custom, my Father found fault with it. It wasn't the swearing, the creepy between-song chatter or even the mental health references, but he found the line “hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” offensive, for some reason, but most of all he found the name Pink Floyd to be disturbing. “Calling themselves 'pink' they must be poofters” he said. And I who neither knew, or cared, about the sexuality of the band had nothing with which to reply. Then, whichever of the Sunday colour supplements we got for my Grandmother, ran a shock expose thingy on the alternative culture. We were sitting in what my Mother called 'the drawing room' and my elder relatives were reading the Sunday newspaper, whilst my little brother was playing on the floor and I was doing my best to pretend