The Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, had his famous theory of cognitive development. In a nutshell, his theory, which is his, says that your basic lifelong personality is formed by the time you are 7. My first seven years were spent in my hometown of Leicester, slap bang in the middle of England.

Ey up me duck! The Piaget Years

This is a 3-parter about Richard Branson, called "Richard Branson Owes Me 4 Million Quid." This first part is called Like a Virgin. Enjoy.

Like A Virgin

This is part two of a little podcast series about a man who is possibly the biggest name I have to drop. The title of this episode is  “So much hot air.”

Part 2: So Much Hot Air

Welcome to part three of “Richard Branson owes me 4 million quid.” This last part is called the Treasure of Necker Island.

Part 3: The Treasure Of Necker Island

I’ve always got on well with machines, but cameras are my special friends. I’ve called this story Persistence of Vision, but that is a theory of motion perception that was disproved even before movies were invented. Persistence of Vision only explains why you don’t see the black spaces that are projected, as one frame is replaced is by the next. What you really need to know about are the phi phenomenon and beta movement.

Persistence of Vision

I met Pete Townshend soon after the Who released their first single, “I Can’t Explain.” How we met and how our friendship developed is for another podcast, but after I moved to London, photographer Chris Morphet (one of my closest friends from Leicester College of Art) and I would quite often go on gigs in England with Pete. Pete always drove himself and we went along for company. We became part of the Who entourage. Chris was also shooting stills backstage and on stage, unpaid to begun with. Chris’s iconic photos still appear in every Who-related book.

I’ll tell you about a typical English gig first, then a longer story about a dramatic Who tour of Germany in 1967.

On tour with the Who

The Isle of Wight Festival in the summer of 1970 was, supposedly, the largest human gathering in the world, with an audience of 600,000. A year later Parliament passed an act to prevent gatherings more than 5000 people on the island without a special licence.

Two years later, at the Bickershaw Festival, the magic had floated away like a Will O’ The Wisp.  Three years since the end of Swinging London and those wonderful summers of love, peace, bells and incense. The revolution had sold out. Several brilliant music makers were dead, and the audiences were deep in the mud.

Outdoor festival movies

Back in late 1968 I got a phone call from a documentary film producer in Soho that lead to the most culturally formative experience I’ve ever been through. Everything middle-class about me, and in me, was finally exterminated. That exorcism, deep in the Brazilian jungle near the Xingu river, took about three months. My exorcists were a bunch of young Tzukahamei warriors. They knew how to survive in the jungle. I didn’t. But obviously I did survive. So here’s the story of those 12 weeks. In 3 parts. The first part is called Earl’s Court to Posto Leonardo. Enjoy…

The Tribe That Hides From Man. Pt I

Part two is called Meet the Kreen-akrore. One of the last few uncontacted tribes on the planet, in 1968.

The Tribe That Hides From Man Part II

And so the routine of Claudio’s waiting game began. Once every few days, we would head off several kilometres into the jungle to find a Kreen-Akore plantation to leave gifts, and to allow Claudio and the scouts to predict their movements better. The rest of the time we were in camp. Keeping the gear in good shape took time each day, but before the rains came each afternoon, I had plenty of time to explore and interact with the Indians who, surprisingly to me, had as many different personalities as you’d find anywhere. I also had plenty of time to draw in my sketchbook, and I would always have an enthusiastic crowd around me.

The documentary of this expedition is available on DVD: “The tribe that hides from man.” networkdvd.co.uk #7952307.

The Tribe That Hides From Man Part III

My story in media over nearly 60 years, as analogue turned digital. I'm telling the story through podcasts, but I hope to turn into a printed book because I also have lots of unique pictures and videos.

Mr X - the Unofficial Autobiography

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