I was working but also had been on a Mandrax binge leaving me little time or confidence for socialising. A friend had told me that art therapy was useful for getting over a drug problem, and since I wanted to go to art college it made sense to draw and paint when I was not at work. I was surprised when Ray visited me at my parents with Elaine. She had brown hair, not quite shoulder length. Ray told me that Elaine knew David Bowie, though how well I do not know. My parent’s house was two roads away from the house in Irvine Way where David Bowie took saxophone lessons with Ronnie Ross. I remember a local piano teacher telling me that she charged ten shillings, now fifty pence, for a lesson but if a wanted to pay more I could go to Ronnie Ross down the road and learn Jazz, the elderly woman said this laughing, with some contempt. 
Elaine asked me what I did. I told her that I had painted and wrote and that I wanted to go to college to study art. Elaine asked to see my work which I hid under the bed in my parent’s house. I reached under the bed and pulled out some scraps of writing and painting that I hoped would be the start of a portfolio that would get me into art college. Some of my work was experimental. I had been trying to make sense of the cut-ups technique. Cut-ups is a writing technique used by William Burroughs who was given the idea by Brion Gysin. According to Burroughs the idea is to take some writing, any writing and cut the page into four and then rearranges the writing to make new sense. There are variations on this theme, and variations on the use to which this exercise in experimental writing is put. It can be tailored to produce poetry, descriptive or even narrative prose, painting a picture in words, evoking a picture with every phrase to the susceptible. It has been claimed that the results can be prophetic in the same way that a crystal ball or Tarot cards are, scrying with words for a glimpse into the future. 

William Burroughs was well aware that teenage boys were reading his books and deciding that was the life for them. That was the theme of his book ‘The Wild Boys’. Adolescent boys would leave home to join the ‘wild boy packs’ leaving a note for their patents to explain their disappearance. ’Mom and Dad, I have gone to join the wild boys’. The Wild boys may have taken its title from the film ’The Wild Boys of the Railroad, a film about teenagers in the depression who left home to find fortune on the railroads of America, but Burroughs’ Wild Boys were motivated by the rallying call to reject the family unit. From the Wild Boys; ’ We don’t want to hear any more family talk, father talk, cop talk, priest talk, country talk, or party talk. To put it country simple we have heard enough bullshit’. Describing The Wild Boys in the 1972 Rolling Stone interview; ’It’s all just a personal projection. A prediction? I hope so. Would I consider events similar to The Wild Boys scenario desirable? Yes, desirable to me.

There is no doubt that William Burroughs was an exceptional and prolific writer. If you had to name a writer who was a master of his craft, who could make words dance on a page then Burroughs was your man. But I wonder if those who praise Burroughs’ work on a literary level realise how manipulative he could be. His genius was accompanied by a seemingly incorrigible and consciously amoral personality. His heroes are the Inspector Lee type and a teenage boy to help him defeat a nameless enemy. To his credit he stood up for the rights of addicts and gay men, when he could have written less controversial, more commercial books. Perhaps too much may be made of his time in Morroco, we will never know what exactly went on when the celebrity artists visited in the fifties and sixties. In 1973 William Burroughs was still living in Duke Street, a couple of hundred yards from Picadilly Circus where predatory gay men would pay to have sex with ‘rent boys’ who were usually addicts who wanted money for drugs. As a teenager in the early seventies it was heartbreaking to hear a friend tell you that they were going or had been ‘Up the Dilly’.

I was however naïve when it came to reading William Burroughs when, looking back it is obvious where what his interests were. For a while I went out with a doctor’s daughter whose uncle lived with William Burroughs in the Hotel Muniria in Morocco. But her mother said the less said about him the better, surely he could not be that bad. Like others I was intrigued by the cut up novels, and found the word experiments evocative. I had read about the cut-ups in Rolling Stone magazine but the method was not made clear in the article. Facts were apparently gleaned from the rearrangement of random phrases by tapping into the subconscious. William Burroughs claimed that he used this technique to rework material he was not happy with. By using the cut-up technique a writer could rearrange writing at random joining fragments from different sentences to form a new narrative. In this way Burroughs would sometimes weave the words of other writers into his own, like a more sophisticated version of the parlour game consequences. Elaine wanted to know more and I produced the result of my own experiments; some scraps of paper on a food tray that I have hidden under my bed, a few drawings and some poems, some of which had been dissected line by line. All I had to go on was the examples in the book ‘The Ticket that Exploded’ and an article about tape recorder experiments at the end of the book. I knew a bit about editing tape because the school I had attended had been given money for a language laboratory which was a room full of booths each with an expensive reel to reel Grundig tape recorder. We had to splice some tape as an exercise so I thought that the cut ups were assembled by cutting up writing phrase by phrase. I had some poetry I had written that I was not happy with so I tried my version of the cut-ups on the poetry by cutting up line by line and then mixing the phrases up like raffle tickets. Elaine asked me to explain further. ‘It’s supposed to give a new meaning to what I’ve written,’ and mention Burroughs’ name so as not to take all the credit should the experiment work. But it was not an entirely successful demonstration, I read a few lines, a couple of sentences seem to interact but I felt embarrassed and as I was putting the tray back under the bed said that they might be alright as lyrics. Having shared my literary efforts, I half expected my guests to make their excuses and leave, but Elaine had more questions and I started to feel put on the spot. She asked what I intended to do next. I was surprised she was interested. I answered, ’I want to take some more drugs’. ‘I want to see another band,’ I told her that I had seen the Grateful Dead at Wembley. ‘Anything else?’ she enquired and so I said ‘commit suicide’, quickly adding that I was joking and did not even know anyone who had committed suicide, which at that time was true. I added that Ray did, but the look in his eyes indicated that Elaine was not going to be impressed by the story he had told me of the fellow from St Mary Cray who dressed in black, was into witchcraft, and had jumped to his death after listening to the first Velvet Undergound LP under the influence of LSD. Still dazed from work and downers I must have appeared to be a bit of a brainwashed zombie. I did not realise there was a sinister psychology at work here. William Burroughs had started to work with scientology, studying their recruitment methods and behaviour changing counselling techniques. If the scientologists could get its members to contribute their time and money to the cause, perhaps William Burroughs was deliberately trying to influence his drugged teenage readers and attract them into his world. Pete had suggested that I make the journey to London, but Bob discouraged me, others did actually make their way to his doorstep. Though he liked to be thought of as amoral, in fact he was aware of good and bad. Some of his motives for writing may have been questionable but one of the young readers who did feel compelled to contact and visit him, James Grauerholz, became his companion and manager, and was devotedly supportive, a stabilising and supportive influence who seems to have rescued William Burroughs from his ’bad spirit’ enabling him to continue his career of as a writer for the rest of his life.
Complaining that his fans were continually pestering him by calling at Haddon Hall in November 1973 David Bowie move out rented a flat in Maida Vale, then moved to a rented house in Chelsea. There were other reasons to leave the area; he had seen his best friend and his step brother sent to Cane Hill. In the same month a meeting was arranged for David Bowie and William Burroughs by Craig Copetas, who worked for Rolling Stone magazine. They met in London. Bowie had apparently read next to nothing of Burroughs’ work but referred to a chapter of ’Nova Express’, called ‘Pay Color‘, a description of the future that describes ’People City’ and ’The Subliminal Kid’. After meeting William Burroughs, having been discouraged by Sonia Orwell  from following his Aladdin Sane LP with a musical adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 David Bowie looked to William Burroughs’ novel The Wild Boys for inspiration. David Bowie started to read the Wild Boys, sometimes out loud to his inner circle of friends at his flat. He assimilated William Burroughs vision of the near future merging it that of Orwell’s 1984. Bowie’s was about to record his ’Diamond Dogs’ L.P. which starts with a description of ’Hunger City’ set in the near future. Though they did not discuss the cut-up technique in a transcript of their meeting published in Rolling Stone magazine, by spring David Bowie could be seen in the recording studio with his lyrics and a pair of scissors. He even posed with scissors for a publicity photograph. By the early seventies Burroughs use of the cut-up style that had appeared dramatically over his sixties novels, The Soft Machine, The Ticket that Exploded, Nova Express, was beginning to run its course. Syd Barrett had recorded his ‘Word Song’ of apparently random free associated words. In the early seventies Captain Beefheart aka Don Van Vliet claimed to use a bag of words for his song writing. If he was stuck for a word he would pull one out of the bag. In 1922 Tristan Tzara caused a riot at a Surrealist rally by creating a poem by pulling random words from a hat. David Bowie was able to introduce literary influences to popular music raising the intellect of his work for his mainly young audience. In 1974 Alan Yentob filmed David Bowie for a BBC documentary ’Cracked Actor’ during which he describes how he does his cut ups. 'I don't know how William Burroughs does his cut-ups, but this is how I do mine' Says David Bowie quite clearly. This is not as Burroughs described in his books The Job, The Soft Machine, Minutes to go, or The Third Mind. David Bowie is shown to apply the cut up technique to his lyrics for 'Sweet Thing'. David Bowie then goes on to demonstrate the procedure of cutting a poem or lyrics into strips, horizontally, line by line, the very same procedure that I had demonstrated to his friend in 1973. I started to wonder if Elaine had passed on my version cut ups to David Bowie or whether he arrived at a similar conclusion. Though David Bowie has been accused of stealing ideas and has admitted this himself, how he arrived at the method is not important. Brion Gysin recognised the similarity between the results of cut ups and ‘automatic’ writing, directly from the subconscious bypassing conscious criticism and editing. As a young man Gysin had been invited to exhibit with the surrealist but was expelled by Andre Breton at the last minute. Gysin thought that writing could evolve in the same way as the modern painting. Just as he had been inspired by the art of the mentally ill, Andre Breton was inspired by the automatic writing of Helene Smith, a French woman who claimed to be in touch with Martians who communicated through her. 19th century psychologist Pierre Janet encouraged psychiatric patients to write automatically. Schizophrenics when writing may start anywhere on the page, write for a while then continue somewhere else on the page. Schizophrenics may write down what their voices dictate. William Burroughs spent a month in psychiatric hospital, was diagnosed schizophrenic, and whether this diagnoses was accurate or not he maintained an interest in Schizophrenic art that is reflected in his own paintings. The work of mentally ill artists seldom follows trends but to this day contemporary artists are inspired by the art movements of the 20th century, not least the Surrealists the DaDa artists and the Expressionists, who in turn were inspired, in part, by the art of the mentally ill. It could be argued that the art of the mentally ill helped free the canvas for the contemporary artist. Sadly the mentally ill remain stigmatised by a society that conveniently prefers to believe the myths of mental illness rather than the reality. If the public were aware of the contribution that the mentally ill have made to the art world they might start to overcome their prejudices. Worn copies of the Burrough’s books in the squats and the drug dens were both the Gideon’s bible, and the source of amusement. The hippies I knew who read him were working class from south London, they did not have the benefit of further education. For some reading Burroughs was there further education. Michael Moorcock had publicised him, Hawkwind quoted him, Barney Bubbles was inspired by him and the White Panthers booked him to appear at Phun city where he overdosed. He was part of the hippie culture, then he was adopted by the punk rockers. There are people who will hear no word against him when clearly he had his faults but I think they find his doctors bed side manner reassuring. He seemed to get on with people, some people are like that. He seemed to have the social skills of a professional con merchant. He was incorrigible, but won people over with his charm and talent. He was also for a while, predatory. Young people read him and went along with his fantasies. Some of those hippies went up the Dilly. There was no age limit on who could buy this literature. Naked Lunch, underground magazine Oz, and and Mick Farren’s International Times spinoff  underground comic Nasty Tales had been taken to court and exonerated. The underground press and William Burroughs books were available in corner and newsagents shops in those early days of the drug epidemic. If the underground press and William Burroughs books could encourage young readers to take drugs then should they be sold to adults only? Then again it could be argued that at that time there was no other information about drugs, unless you knew where to find the Martindale in the local reference library. Copies of the MIMS were like gold dust usually stolen along with prescription pads which could be handwritten in those days. No wonder there were casualties besides those inflicted by upholders of the law.

In the seventies some of the hippies and punks in the Bromley area were very naïve and I was no different. Some of the later political punk rockers were a lot more aware, politically musically and artistically. William Burroughs was recognised as the writer to read if you wanted to know about addiction, although his son, William Burroughs Jnr, Alexander Trocchi and Jim Carroll also wrote about their drug experiences. Most junkies do not have Burroughs’ aptitude for communicating their vision to fall back on. They did not have the education. Drug users tended to be musicians if they were creative at all. William Burroughs was generally regarded favourably by the counterculture who turned a blind eye or were ignorant of the less acceptable side of his personality. He was a thorn in the side of an establishment hell bent on controlling, and imposing their version of reality on, the population. In a world where those who take drugs are subject to arrest, and those who hallucinate or even dream are condemned to psychiatric treatment, he was able to turn his hallucinations and dreams into literature. Fortunately for him, William Burroughs had a supportive family, friends, enablers, and loyal fans. In the seventies Rock musicians were almost queuing up to receive his blessing. His career as an addict started relatively late. Unlike addicts before the internet who learnt off each other without recourse to chat rooms and research, Burroughs had studied medicine and knew what he was doing, which was crucial to his survival. Over the years his name became a justification for drug use; ’William Burroughs still uses drugs and he is 50,60,70 ….’, junkies would say, but often drug use brings tragedy. Young people read him and went along with his fantasies. While William Burroughs operated from his Duke Street flat with his rent boy partner and creative associates, Ian Somerville, Anthony Balch and Brion Gysin, on the other side of Piccadilly, in Berwick street in the heart of Soho, Mick Farren and Edward Barker worked a three day shift every two weeks to assemble the International Times. Using amphetamine to keep awake and beer to fend off paranoia, these two speed freaks were able to channel the aggression and anti social behaviour that amphetamine often brings into a creative artistic process. The colourful layout and informative articles made the counter culture bi-weekly newspaper appealed to hippies and students in the suburbs as well as those in central London. The International Times was pro-drug and reprinted American underground cartoon, such as Fritz the Cat and stories by Robert Crumb. When hippies gathered to smoke pot take speed or LSD, and listen to rock music copies of the underground newspapers could be found. Edward Barker contributed his own cartoons to Internal Times which led to his Largactalite strip being published in the Guardian. The strip had to be renamed the Galactalites, as Largactil is the trade name for Chlorpromazine, the drug that psychiatrists prescribed to acid casualties. Edward Barker had noticed that the drug tends to mske its users dopey and do things wrong, and that was the ongoing joke. He got the sack when he turned in three frames each with a single horizon linbe drawn through them, which is comical, but the Guardian did not see the joke and he was fired. But he had set a precedent for the underground press to cross over to the mainstream, but it would be the weelkly music papers who would adopt the underground music critics and so change the image and raise the circulation of the papers that teenagers bought in thousands. As the Rock musicians used more drugs the journalists now followed, Nick Kent from Friends magazine and Charles Shaar Murray from  Oz, I.T. and Cream magazines started a more alternative trend in journalism. The music writers would interact with the musicians sharing drugs, nothing new in that but they would now write about their experiences. The increase in sales paralleled the increase in drug use. The change in attitude towards drug use was reinforced when in 1976 the NME hired two young writers who used amphetamine, Julie Birchill, and Tony Parsons, at a time when Punk Rockers were also unrepentant about their use of the drug. You can imagine the effect that this had on the readers of the New Musical Express that ten years previously had been about as subversive as the Beano. With a circulation of 100,000, sold throughout Britain, teenagers, mostly male, now had a written endorsement of the speed freak life style. To consolidate this stance Mick Farren himself was hired by the NME.