Cathode Elysium Lights was another ‘member led’ initiative that widened the range of the Drama Club’s activities and took those involved, and their ‘special effects’, into the wider world of mainstream pop and rock music!
CEL was originally set up in 1969 by Dave Paulding, John Oatham, and Terry Hooker, all Markhouse Drama Club members, with Sid Worth joining the group a short while afterwards.
It all started as a very simple affair with the group using the small store (‘cupboard’) in the upper corridor of the school to experiment with oil and water based inks coated between glass slides – which they then heated up in a projector to make the inks boil and produce the desired ‘ psychedelic’ effects on a screen – and so was born their ‘light show’
John recalls that the princely sum of £30 was ‘negotiated’ as a start up grant from Les Martin at the Marsh Street Youth Centre and this, plus a weekly sub of ‘six bob’ from each of the group, enabled them to buy some projectors and start to do some gigs – mainly at discos and at live bands shows. The TempleWhether or not John, Dave, Sid & Terry had any idea of how their new enterprise would develop from this modest start is a moot point – but develop it certainly did and they clearly made their mark within the lightshow fraternity – even to the extent of still having their name featured in ‘Pooters’ – ‘Light Show Hall of Fame!
The Records of
CARTHODE ELYSIAN LIGHTS
& their ‘special effects lightshow’ in the world of mainstream Rock & Pop
The following selection of rock bands and musicians that they ‘backed’ testifies to all that they achieved between 1969 and 1980. The CEL listing shows a total of 245 gigs across the above 11 years at over 50 different venues and with 92 different bands; with the best known of these being:
Manfred Mann – Sam Apple Pie – Chicken Shack – Steamhammer – Mandrake – Genesis – Atomic Rooster – Hawkwind – Slade – Black Widow – Pretty Things – Thin Lizzy – Mungo Jerry – Uriah Heap – Strawbs – Rod Stewart Faces – Argent – Emerson Lake & Palmer – Edgar Broughton Band – Wishbone Ash – Fleetwood Mac – Electric Light Orchestra – T Rex – Pink Floyd
The full list includes the following additional groups:
Tangerine Peel – Kripple Vision – Little Free Rock – Writing on the Wall – Widower – Circus – Gilliard – Quintescence – Mighty Baby – Caravan – Vav Der Graf Generator – Daddy Long Legs – Rooms Liverpool Scene – Trader Horn – Yes – Clark Hutchinson – Juicy Lucy – Mighty Baby – Cohise Gracious Audience – East of England – Skin Alley – Raw Material – Mandragon – Toe Fat Matthews Southern Comfort – Bonfide on Blonde – Stray – Gentle Giant – Aardvark – Trapeze – Curved Air Castle Farm – Satisfaction – Wild Willy’s Rock & Roll Band – Alan Brown – Ground Hogs – Shanana – Sandy Denny – Vinegar Joe – Roy Woods Wizard – Snake Eye – Nick Picket – Oberon – MAN – Paladin Swaslica – Magic Muscle – Fairport – 9.30 Fly – Formerly Fat Harry – Warm Dust – Gnome – Mirrors – Principal Edwards – UFO – Hackensack – Ugly Rooms Ginger Johnson – Tear Gas – War Horse Gnome Sweet Gnome – House Shakers – Proud – Steve Millar Delivery – Rocking Chair – Oblivion
In addition, they performed in gigs hosted by the following well known DJ’s;
Noel Edmonds – John Vine – Simon Bates – David Hamilton – Keith Skues – Graham Dean – John Bell – Geoff Barker – Simon King – Paul Simon
Venues are also listed in the records and along with The Temple in Wardour Street (probably their most visited) there were other well known ones such as The Roundhouse, The Chez Club and even The Marque Club and Quaglinos! The also appeared at many ‘out of town’ venues such as the Head Corn Exchange in Cambridge, Reading University and Hatfield Poly; also in many Walthamstow and London based clubs, pubs, churches, colleges and Town Hall’s – and perhaps more humorously, even at the Royal Dental Hospital!
The full list includes the additional venues of:
Paddington College – St Pancras Town Hall – Ealing Country Club – Barking College – Co – Op Ponders End – Shell House, Waterloo – The Baronial Hall, Finsbury Park – Pickets Lock – Hampstead Town Hall – Sisters Club – Lion Club, Pitfield St – Kenton Synagogue – Cooks Ferry Inn NW London Poly – Picadilly Circus – Walthamstow Assembly Hall – Waltham Cross Youth Centre Malet Street – Monarch T Exchange – Priory Court – Middlesex Synagogue – Kinair, Emerald Street Acton Town Hall – 100 Club, Oxford Street – Greenshield Country Club, Stanmore – Pied Bull – East Hill Hotel, Wandsworth – Rash Piniah School, Edgeware – Farley Hall, Cheshunt – Red house – Buckingham Palace Road – Kings Head, Romford – Walthamstow Tec – Powder Keg, Britannia Hotel – All Saints College, Tottenham – Gailford Tec – Clapham Manor Baths – Regal Rooms, Edmonton – St Domanics Priory, Camden – Birdsnest, Leigh on Sea – Pyrene Sports House, Southall
CEL’s venue records also note one particular appearance at the above noted and often visited Baronial Hall in Finsbury Circus when on the 6th August 1976 – ‘the gear got smashed up’. This was no doubt a real disaster for the group and probably even more so if the £10 gig fee didn’t cover the resulting repair or replacement costs!
Noticeably their next appearance at this venue in the October was with DJ Graham Bell and this netted a fee of £55. This was the highest one noted in the records and was in great contrast to what they received at their very first gig at Waltham Cross Youth Centre – which was a whole £1!
So, a long and impressive listing which now just needing John, Terry or Dave to add a suitable story to the Website’s Memories Page.
Hopefully, when written, this might recount the early days of having to manhandle the large, old cumbersome projectors into the train to London and then back to Liverpool Street in the early hours of the next morning – and their overnight shelter requiring ‘dossing’ on the platform benches – or, apparently, in Sid’s case, in a telephone kiosk – whilst awaiting the early morning St James Street Express!!!
CEL – Thin Lizzy, Origin & Roy Young Band
May Blitz & Slade
CEL – Skin Alley & UFO – Principall Edwards, Bubastis & Thin Lizzy
Poster of CEL’s ‘Double Bill’ at The Temple with May Blitz and Slade – and the ‘small print’ of
‘MIND BLOWING LIGHTING’