| Main Performers | Pete Brown,
Josee De Lampeyrere,
Jonathan Boulting,
Patrick Kavanagh,
Stevie Smith,
Spike Milligan,
Robert Graves,
John Renbourne,
Thomas Clark,
Piero Heliczer,
Calvin Hemton,
Alasdair Clayre,
Brian Patten,
Michael Horovitz,
Maureen Kennedy Martin,
Adrian Mitchell,
Christopher Logue,
Gado Iommi,
Zanartu, Mello and Pancho Mendez,
Michel De Guy and Tronquoy,
Perez Roman,
Ernesto Grassi,
Karl Schlamminger,
Malcolm Troop,
Edison Simons,
Art and Marjorie Bremmaer,
Sheila Hicks,
Gordon Bishop,
John Blackwood,
Jill Smyth,
Michael Ffinch,
Vanessa Redgrave - speaker |
| Orchestra or Band | New Departures Jazz Quartet (Cornelius Cardew, Berjouhi Bowler - cellos, John Tilbury - harmonium, David Bedford, Eddie Prevost- accordions, Laurence Sheaff - bass, Lou Gare - violin, Keith Rowe - guitar) |
| Set List | 'Composition (July) 1960', La Monte Young (New Departures Jazz Quartet),
'Sound-Mass for Everyone Present', Bob Cobbing |
| Performance Notes | The New Moon Carnival of Poetry in The Round brought together over 30 of the most active, alternative poets of the age, and is now considered the birth of English underground scene. An audience of some 2,500 flocked to the event to hear performers including Michael Horovitz, Spike Milligan, Brian Patten and Vanessa Redgrave.
The event ran for over 3 hours, and at one point Spike Milligan invited the audience down into the arena to group around the poets feet, which caused complete chaos. The auditorium quickly disappeared in clouds of smoke, and arena was covered in laid-out audiences, flowers, glasses and cigarette butts.
Without a running order to follow or a compere to control events, the poets and performers, as well as audience members, harassed, heckled and barracked each other with loud hailers.During the performance a 10 gallon drum of paraffin oil and thirty homemade torches soaked in paraffin were found in the basement of the Hall, and no substantial answer would be given as to their purpose. The police were called to the Royal Albert Hall.
Towards the end of the Happenning Vanessa Redgrave appeared dressed in a Castro-type outfit, delivering a poem in support of Castro, after which the Cuban freedom song was sung. The event eventually overran by three hours, leaving the Hall owed over £225 (equalling over £4,500 today) for their rental of the auditorium. On 30 June 1966 a further discussion by the Council of the Hall decreed that no further bookings of this kind should be accepted in the future, a ban which was upheld for 18 years.
"a ceremony then took place involving the release of a number of moths into the building and the evening then broke up in complete disorder, but not before bottles, glasses, glass ashtrays, potted plants, flowers and greenery had been hurled across the arena."
(Manager of the Hall, Mr C R Hopper)
""CHAOS" COMPLAINT.
ALBERT HALL ROWDYISM.
Rowdyism, bad language and the breaking of glasses and bottles marked an ad lib 'poetry event' at the Albert Hall on Saturday night. The Albert Hall management made strong complaints to the organisers of the three hour 'New Moon Carnival of Poetry'.
Robert Graves, Spike Milligan and Vanessa Redgrave, the actress, were among the entertainers.
According to an Albert Hall spokesman, the event later deteriorated into 'chaos and obscenity."
(The Daily Telegraph, 20 June 1966)
After a discussion by the Council of the Hall on 30 June 1966, it was agreed that "no further bookings of this kind should be accepted in the future."
The event was filmed by the BBC and a recording broadcast on Radio Third Network from 19:30-20:00 on Sunday 20 July 1966. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1966/73),
Press cuttings,
Managers Report (C R Hopper) |