"...for the occultist-there is truly "no such thing as coincidence," or more accurately, that coincidence is a clue that deeper connections exist between observable phenomena, that another force of nature is at work that we don't understand, but which has something to do with what quantum physics means when they refer to "non-locality."
Sinister Forces-Book III, Peter Levenda.
"How can I get out? There's no way I can get out"
The Christians-Forgotten Town-(Island records, 1987)
Growing up in Liverpool in the 70's was akin to living in a forgotten town.
The golden gate to the new frontier that had been the shipyards lay dormant, whilst vessels banked in the mud of a receding Mersey. The modern tenements that had been constructed on the promises of post war zeal two decades earlier, now lay in ruin.
And the Beatles had disbanded in 1970.
And yet they were still ubiquitous-the original Cavern may have been relegated to a car park in '73, but the chorus of moptop's echo on every wireless was Liverpool's swansong-albeit one barely audible over the Kops 'You'll never walk alone.'
It was the only cache Liverpool had left, any aspirations beyond it, might as well have been on the Moon, or at least in Hollywood.
Meanwhile thousands of miles away in California, time had been called on the Sixties, and a dreadful pall hung over the subsequent era like a incomprehensible epitaph:Helter Skelter and the Manson Murders.
Back in my Liverpool bedroom overlooking Anfield cemetery, a few yards from the railway line were four year old Jamie Bulger, would be murdered by two boys in the mid 1980's, I was immersed in the subculture of fantagoria... Hammer Horror, Dennis Wheatley, Man,Myth and Magic, little realizing that terrible events in an affluent suburb of LA, and a song by Liverpool's favorite sons were intertwined with Friday night Horror staples such as Rosemary's Baby and the fearless Vampire killers.
Thirty years on,living in California, Hollywood no longer feels like a moonage daydream. The shadows of childhood are faded photo links to the past, and the seeds of those early influences have informed my artistic journey throughout most of my life.
In my journey, there have been threads that go beyond mere happenstance, symbols and ciphers that are window dressing for something profound and dark beneath. In commencing then with the new series, utilizing the tragic muse and slain Madonna figure of Sharon Tate as a symbol for an endpoint, there was a need to relate and process that which is beyond understanding.
Drawing on key events and some of the players, links between Liverpool, LA and the occult, my own notes and dark history as well as accompanying Art, this blog is a companion to that process.
