Roger Williamson - East Light - bio

After posting some info on Coventry singer songwriter / author and Magus bookseller Roger Williamson and his folk outfit East Light c 1970 I got an e mail from him - now living in minisota where he runs the Magus bookshop.

Roger has sent me a bio and will be sending us some audio soon -

Roger williamson2

ROGER WILLIAMSON - BIO

My first adventures into playing music were inspired by listing to rock and roll transmitted on Radio Luxemburg late at night.  I would pick up this station on a home made crystal set when I was supposed to be asleep.   A couple of years later, probably around 1963, I would go and listen to bands on Wednesday nights at the Orchid Ballroom on Primrose Hill Street.  This was about the time of the Beatles release “With the Beatles” album.  I remember there was a large copy of the cover projected on the back of the stage. 

There was also the Sombrero coffee bar next to Pool Meadow bus station which had the most amazing juke box.  This juke box was fabulous and I’ll never forget hearing Bo Diddly singing Pretty Thing.  This would have been around 1962.   I discovered a whole other world different from my upbringing.

In 1964 I played bass in a band called the Elements which included Paul Saunders on lead guitar and John Underwood on guitar.  After the Elements I played Bass for the Red White and Blues and then in 1966/67 left them to play bass for the Darkness.  The Darkness was originally going to be Alex Sun and the Darkness but Alex the singer dropped out. 

There were great venues we played at, Chesford Grange on Saturdays, Plough on the London Road the Avonside Country Club and The Navigation Inn.  Chesford Grange was great on Saturday nights.  It had two stages, as one band took a break the second band came on.  This was all going on while ballroom dancing took place upstairs, all very bazaar.  After finishing at Chesford Grange around 11pm we would often move to the Avonside Country Club and play there until the early hours.

Began singing on the Coventry folk scene in 1967.  In 1969 I formed East Light with Paul Saunders  and we moved to London.  We played as East Light for a few months before Paul emigrated to Canada.  I continued to play in and around London folk clubs for the next few years until I joined a reformed Dando Shaft in the early 70’s with Martin Jenkins, Ted Kay and Bill Bones.  Martin Jenkins and I busked in the London underground to rehearse each others songs and earn a few bob.  This lasted for about six months until Martin Jenkins and Ted Kay moved back to Coventry.  I went back to the folk scene performing on my own until forming the Roger Williamson Band in 1974.

I moved to the USA in 1985.  I wrote The Sun at Night which was released in 1989 it was reprinted in 1997 followed by Labyrinth: Tales of a Rite of Passage about a year later, Lucifer’s a Basic Handbook of Lucierian Sorcery in 1994 reprinted in 2002, Black Book of the Jackal in 2000 as a limited signed and handbound edition, this was released in soft cover in 2006, Calling up the Spirits was released a couple of years later, Howling at the Sky in 2002 and Lucifer Diaries in 2004.  Lucifer Diaries was released as a limited edition signed and numbered hardcover and as a softcover.  I released a limited edition compact disc “On the Arrival of the Machine and its Mode of Operation” in 2003 for which my son Luke provided the music.   Tarot of the Morning Star deck of 22 cards due to be released October 2007

Opened Magus Books in September of 1992.