Thursday, December 19, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Vinny Appice (Kill Devil Hill) Interview
Legendary drummer Vinny Appice is enjoying some quiet time
in California after recently finishing up a US tour with his latest project Kill
Devil Hill. Touted as yet another metal supergroup (though vehemently denied by
the band themselves) , Kill Devil Hill pairs Vinny and Rex Brown (Pantera) on
bass with up and coming unknowns Mark Zavon (guitar) and Dewey Bragg (vocals)
to produce some banging old school groove metal in the bands second album
Revolution Rise (released 6 December).
Since the band’s 2012 self titled debut album was received so
well, was there any pressure on with Revolution Rise? Surprising, Vinny answers
in the negative: “No, not really; the first album came out and set us up for
what the band was about. It was a little bit more raw, and the second album, by
the time we went to write and record it, we were already on the road. We did
lots of gigs and that really tightened us up as a band and defined the sound a
lot more. So I think the second album is a little bit more focussed - there’s a
little bit more polish on the songs - we didn’t feel the pressure because the
first one didn’t sell five million!” He’s laughing as he adds “If we’d sold
five million records, there would be pressure! It’d be hard to follow that
one!”
Revolution Rise is incredibly well balanced - each member of
Kill Devil Hill gets to do their thing – having such a strong line-up, how does
that translate to the song writing process?
Vinny explains that everyone is involved in writing the tunes and that “Some
of the songs were from ideas that we jammed; we’d like a riff so we’d record it.
Some of the songs Mark brought in already done and we just put our mark on them;
rearranging them and so forth so the writing process had everybody involved,
and luckily we had a great producer with Jeff Pilson, so it was pretty cool.”
And were there any clashes or was it a democratic process? “It
was kind of democratic – there’s always some head-butting with different ideas;
not so much with the songs – well, sometimes – then there would be the majority
rules, that kind of thing. You’ve gotta have some kind of solution to everybody
having an opinion so ‘majority rules’ usually works.”
I’d read a recent interview with Rex Brown where he spoke
about his passion for Kill Devil Hill so I ask Vinny about his attitude towards
the band. His enthusiasm pours down the phone. “I started the band and it was
something I’d dreamed about. I’ve played with a lot of people and a lot of big
bands but I’d never really started something from the beginning, and it’s nice
to see it grow into something successful. So this is my baby and I think Rex
feels the same way; it’s something we’re both starting from scratch and it’s
something we, and everybody involved, created together so it’s definitely
exciting to hear reviews and see some success from it.”
I ask if he still gets a rush from creating music, despite
having been playing for over 35 years. The answer is a definitive “Yeah! It’s
fun to write,” and while he points out the he hasn’t always had the opportunity
to contribute to the song-writing process with some of the past bands his
drummed in, Vinny reckons “It’s nice to be able to say ‘Hey! I think we should
do this…’” He sees it “more of an open forum” with Kill Devil Hill – most importantly
“It’s exciting! It’s always exiting to write – and I still love playing live;
there’s still that thrill and it’s still fun for me - I love playing! I’m glad
I’ve been able to play my whole life.”
The band has just finished touring the US; how did that work
out? Again Vinny’s passion pours out.
“The US tour was really good; we did 20 something shows and
we just ended a couple of days ago and we did a lot of the new album. I think we
probably did half and half; half of the first album, half of the second. It was
great to hear the songs together to hear how they worked, and they worked
really well. The new songs are a little bit more to the point, more riffy
whereas the old songs are a little darker and a little bit more raw so they
work great together and really complement each other.” He tells me that Kill
Devil Hill are working on further tour plans so we may see the guys in
Australia next year – whoo-hoo!
Having played arenas with Dio and Black Sabbath, was it
difficult to transition to smaller, more intimate venues? “It was at first but
I’m a humble guy and you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do – and that’s
something you have to do, and if you’ve got a problem with it then it’s gonna
be hard because that’s how the business is right now. Until you get the band
known it’s going to be hard to just go out and play a big place and nobody’s
there. It’s much better to play a smaller place where you’re getting people in
than to want to play a giant place where nobody’s coming to see you.”
And having been in the industry for over 35 years, how would
you say it’s changed?
“It’s changed a whole lot; before there almost used to be a
formula: a good band got a buzz going and the record company signed you and
there’d be a lot more record money there; you’d get merchandising; there’d be
more money available to work with and
the album would get promoted and radio was there. But now with the record
companies, there’s not a lot of ‘em and they don’t have the money they had, and
everything money-wise is smaller so it’s harder to get off the ground. And with
the internet a lot of people download the stuff for free, and in a way the
internet helps because you can get the
word out there but in other ways it kind of kills your sales a little bit, so
it’s definitely changed a whole lot. I don’t know what the formula is now…it’s
crazy out there.” He laments the current lack of resources but has the tenacity
to push on. As he says “My attitude is always to kick it as hard as you can and
play on ‘eleven’ and the band feels that way too,” and he laughs as he adds “Nobody’s
resting, y’know?! Everybody’s full force here and the music has fire and energy,
and it’s exciting when you listen to it and hear it. You wanna see people go
for it…”
Like myself, Vinny is slightly bemused by the miillions of
sub-genres; his view? “I don’t even know! You look at some of these things and
you go ‘What the …? What is that?!’ - all these different categories of music:
soft metal, hard metal, popular rock and so many different stupid names!”
And do you ever get disillusioned with the industry? His
response is remarkably honest. “Yeah – you’re doing this and you go ‘Shit! I’ve
been doing this for so long already I should be living on a mountain top in a
big, giant mansion! And I’m not!’ so
it’s just like ‘Man! I’ve really broke my ass all these years…’ but I did get
the opportunity to know what it’s like to be on the top of it too. A lot of people don’t even get that far. It’s
frustrating sometimes and you go ‘OK, this album kicks ass, how come it didn’t
sell 25,000 copies?’ It’s frustrating because 25,000 is not even a lot of
copies…”
And then you look at the shit that’s in the charts and you
wonder what the fuck is wrong with people? “Exactly! It’s almost like it’s all
marketing now – everything is marketing, it’s all clean and corporate and
you’ve got to market this stuff right. It’s not just the music that sells –
you’ve got to market it. And you can market crap! I see stuff that’s just crap
but people know about it because it’s marketed well.” And thus we rue the
falsity and evils (and sadly, the necessity) of marketing.
You played with John Lennon many years ago? “Yeah, I was in
the same studio that he worked at, and my band rehearsed there and we were
managed by the owner of the record plant and studios in New York. Jimmy Iovine
was producing us and he worked with John and we did hand-claps on that song
Whatever Gets You Through The Night and that’s how we met John. He became
friendly with us - we used to rehearse in the place too - and he’d come and
hang out with us. Then he asked us to do a live gig with him so I got to play
Imagine and Slippin’ and Slidin’ with him at the New York Hilton at this big
televised gig, and then we did a couple of videos with him, then he produced a
singer and we were the band. It was amazing – and I was like, 16 – I had to go
to high school the next day!”
That’s pretty mental, was that one of your highlights? “Oh
yeah! Absolutely. At the time it wasn’t – it was like ‘OK, this is pretty big’
but I was young and I’d already met people that my brother Carmine played with;
Jeff Beck came over to the house for dinner at my parents house in Brooklyn and
I was around it somewhat, and John was, of course, bigger and amazing, but I
took in my stride: ‘OK, this is cool. I’m playing with him but I wanna make
sure I’m professional’ but now I look back, now that he’s passed on, and I go
‘Damn! How many people can say that?!’”
And speaking of Carmine,is there a rivalry between you ,
what with both of you being drummers and brothers? “Yeah, yeah – we’re always
in competition but I’ve always kicked his ass and he knows it!” Then he laughs
before continuing “It’s all friendly competition; we actually do a show called
Drum Wars and we get a band, we rehearse and we work through all the songs in
our history; I play some Dio and Sabbath, Carmine plays some Ozzy, Rod Stewart
and Vanilla Fudge and in between that are some drum duets, a battle and a
couple of solos – it’s an exciting show; a lot of drums and rhythm. We’ve doing
that for the last year and a half and it’s been working out great; we hope to
do some more next year. But it’s definitely a friendly competition.”
I ask about the set-to with Dio Disciples that occurred
earlier in the year; you’ve now made your peace but could you tell me about
what happened? “Well, it was just on the spur of the moment; it was right after
Ronnie passed and I was doing an interview and I was asked what I thought and I
said ‘Well, I think it’s disgusting…’” He breaks up laughing again. “I just
thought it was a little too soon for the timing of going out and playing the
music; it was very soon after Ronnie passed, but I know all those guys and I
apologised to Simon (Wright) and since last summer, Simon couldn’t do it and
they had a couple of gigs so I said ‘Alright, I’ll do it’ so I went and played
with them and I had a good time. It was fun. We all enjoyed it.” And regarding
the disagreement, he says “Now it’s all water under the bridge. Everybody’s
happy.” Phew! I’m glad that one’s sorted.
And finally I’ve got a few drummer friends who wanted me to
ask; what kinds of injuries can we expect as we get older? “Luckily, knock on
wood, I don’t have any. The only injury I sustained was when I had to get a
shoulder operation, and that was more my fault because on the last couple of
Heaven & Hell tours; I had these drums that were up in the air above my
shoulders and I would stretch and really hit ‘em, and it just wore my shoulder
out so I had to come off that tour and I had to get surgery. So that’s the only
injury that I’ve had; my hands are good, everything else is good. I’m very
strong, probably because of the fact that I never really stopped touring since
1976 – I might have stopped for a year or something but I’ve always been on the
road and played live – I’ve never sat at home for five years and done nothing, so that’s kept me strong.
Same with my brother, he’s older than I am and he’s kicking ass! He’s playing
great and it’s the same thing; staying on the road.”
And there’s the secret to longevity as a drummer: don’t ever
stop.
It’s been great to catch up with you, Vinny.
“Take care - hopefully we’ll see you down there next year.”
Vinny Appice, an all round legend and charming fellow.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Barracho - Oculus (No Balls Records/Strange Magic Records)
http://metalasfuck.net/zine/reviews/2013/barracho-oculus-no-balls-recordsstrange-magic-records
Monday, July 29, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
Interview with Barry William Hale
The artist William Barry Hale is producing some of the most
compelling work in the magickal/occult field. Plenty has been written on his colourful
upbringing, and it is not the intent of this piece to re-tell the stories of the
experiences that have led him to his current position. Moreover this article
focuses on his views on art and ritual, two areas that are deeply connected in
his work.
Having been a Thelemite for over twenty years, I ask what
led him to this particular path; “I think it pretty much found me, really. I
was interested in occultism – I’ve always had a fascination with that kind of
thing since I was quite young – and then I stumbled across Crowley, and I
pretty much crashed into the O.T.O in a pub.” He laughs as he recollects the
memory, adding “And then the next thing I knew I went to a Gnostic Mass then
went away for a year or so and read and thought about things. It was kind of
interesting because I was really at a stage in my life when, I was involved in
a few different things when I was younger.” I interject to ask if this involved
‘witchy-poo’ stuff (a technical term for those unfamiliar with the subject). “Not
really witchy stuff. I grew up in the suburbs and was hanging out with old
women from the spiritualist churches and the Theosophical Society and people
who had their own thing going on; divining for Bach Flower remedies; astral
travelling and things like that, and lots of different influences, hanging out
with those…mainly those people were very old; I didn’t really know anyone who
was young!” He cracks up again – “I was only 14, you know?!”
So what does it actually mean for you, to be a Thelemite? “I
think the tenets are fairly clear; the way the O.T.O or Crowley puts it down
pretty clearly that his modus operandi is for everyone to discover their true
Will and to do it. I kind of resonated with Crowley’s writing and spent a long
time in that initiatic tradition and found it very rewarding and I got my
stripes, I suppose…”
Like any creative spirit, he tells me that he’s “always been
an artist. Since I was young, I’ve always had a pen in my hand, ever since I
can remember, I’ve always been an artist…”
I mention that I’ve interviewed a number of Thelemites over
the years, and they’re not always cool with the question, but I ask it anyway;
what grade are you in? He responds in a diplomatic fashion “It’s not really
something that people talk about but I’ve been a Lodge Master, and I’m a Bishop
in the O.T.O so can pretty much tell you where I’m at…” - he’s laughing again;
bloody magicians! “You can usually work it out by what you’ve done; if you know
enough about the system you can pretty much work out where I might be…”
Can you tell me about the sorts of ritual work you do? “I’ve
really experimented widely, beginning with the Thelemic corpus of rituals, like
a lot of people do when they first get into this sort of stuff, so my early
magickal career was pretty much exploring the Thelemic ceremonial magickal tradition
and that sort of thing.” He neatly draws the relationship between the rituals
of Thelema with the Golden Dawn and Enochian magic, patiently explaining the
connections with eastern and western practices; as he puts it “It really gives
you an exposure to, or you can get a base, that opens you up into an
exploration where you can really go where you want to…I’ve always been
fascinated with the mechanics of magick; what makes things work, and I’m quite
interested in early grimoires and divers books of spells and various different
traditions; I was quite interested in that sort of stuff aside from the more
mystically orientated stuff, and so as I tended to go on I tended to move
towards more specialised areas that become research and magickal practices that
are very unique to yourself – or myself, anyway – and I’ve always had a fairly
idiosyncratic approach as well…”
As with other interviews with occultists and magicians,
there are pauses as he tries to explain his methods – I have coined this
difficulty as an attempt at ‘effing the ineffable’ – it’s pretty hard trying
to bring it all down to an intellectual or rational level. “Yeah, I guess I’m
not really sure what type of ritual I perform; I suppose I perform rituals that
are from the Western esoteric tradition but then a lot of the rituals that I do
are kind of informed by the process, so I’ll get information or I’ll get
direction on how best something should be done and then I integrate that, so
it’s like an ongoing process depending on what I’m doing. A lot of my ritual [work]
might be an operation which is based on research to a particular magical system
or aspect of a magical system. One example might be an investigation of the
Enochian magical alphabet, something like that.”
Do you incorporate visual art in to your rituals easily - is
it something that you feel is the thing to do, for you? “Yeah, definitely. I
think the ritual magick tradition – the first thing you think about is the
magickal circle – or a ‘triangle of the art’ where a spirit is supposed to
manifest and various other sorts of altars; magickal sigils; you’re building up
an aesthetic…”
Would you agree that there’s a degree of theatrics involved?
“I’m sure there is; when you look at the core of it, each of the senses are
basically stimulated to get you in to a higher state of consciousness so you’re
always using visual aids, and also I think it’s very important one. Obviously
you can do it with your eyes shut, and to perform a ritual astrally, and a lot
of times that’s the aim; to perform it in your astral body, then the actual
ritual space that you’ve constructed, and you’ve constructed each time and made
and built and seen so many times, becomes very cemented when you have to
imagine it or build it in your astral vision. So in another way, that’s another
way of looking at it. But I think there’s a strong aesthetic component to my stuff
because I love any kind of artistic expression; the thing about religions and
very different spiritual forms is that they all have a visual element or an
inspired kind of an aesthetic that seems to be a signature from of the
inspiration they get from their own traditions. I think it’s an important
component. You know the drawings of magickal talismans? There’s a magickal
functionality to them, they’re designed to attract a particular force to a
particular object…”
Was this the purpose of jewellery that accompanied your
Legion 49 work? “There was a talismanic object that came from a piece of
artwork that I was working; a Japanese jewellers contacted me; they do jewellery and they also
do stuff where they work with reconstructing Shinto statues and stuff like that
so their metal-work is really connected with scared objects that are used in
the Shinto tradition, and they also have a great interest in western magic so
that was just a beautiful collaboration that came out of that…” Sadly I was too
poor to afford one of them – perhaps next time…
When incorporating art into your ritual-work, is there a particular
format or process that you go through when selecting work? “When I build up a
ritual space, I usually do that from scratch every time; I’ll build up a
magickal circle or a space that represents the manifestation of a particular
spirit – I think the thing to remember is that the function of art, the
function that it takes within the ritual – it’s more than just creating a sense
of drama or an aesthetic drama, it has a functional and that’s usually to
create a magickal demarcation of a space that you’re working in, which becomes
a sacred space - or another space where it’s to constrain a conjuration of a
spirit, and if it’s not constrained then you’re not working effectively.” He
also adds that all manner of mischief can occur as a result of unconstrained
spirits. I suspect anyone who practices can identify with that.
“So in a sense , when people see that stuff; they might see
it in a movie or they might see a picture and they might think ‘this is a
dramatic kind of thing’ – and there is a tradition of dramatic ritual in the
western tradition – but it’s important to remember, well, when I’m doing it,
they’re [the artworks] ephemeral; they’re usually destroyed or remade each
time, and they’ll be constructed from scratch each time I do a particular
ritual, or they might change over a period of time. So the construction of the
ritual space or the aesthetic space, which is a magickal space, is an integral
part of the magickal work itself, and so as you learn more mysteries about what
you might be working with are revealed, you refine it, it becomes more refined
so everything becomes a more finely attuned vehicle to have the effect or to
maintain a communication or whatever your particular magickal operation is
about, so it’s refined and it transforms. And in the actual making of it, you
often find that you’ll make different aesthetic decisions and you’ll be getting
information regarding ‘it should be this way’ and I think that goes equally,
there are other magical augmentations; people might build an altar that is a
space of worship or something like that, to a particular aspect of divinity or
whatever, or they might construct a container for an elemental to be housed.
For me, the art is sometimes produced during the ritual itself so I might not
have a signature of a particular spirit that I might want to work with, and
during the ritual I might want to get the actual sigil or signature of the
spirit so I can then better call that spirit again, so it’s a magickal glyph that
serves as a connection to be able to call forth that [spirit]. And in another
way, you can look at Voudon veves, they basically become a mouth of the loa so
they’re fed, they’re a point of ingress – or egress – they’re a gateway. And I
think there’s also been times when the inspiration from the ritual itself has
sort of fuelled my artistic expression and I’ve started making art or drawing
on the ground and stuff like that, and that activity, so sometimes it will be
about getting a spiritual sigil but other times, in those particular instances
– it’s happened on a number of occasions – the act of drawing, that becomes the
actual battery that keeps me in that particular space or in communication with
that particular spirit.” We have limited time for the interview and he notes “There
are so many aspects of how art functions or how I would use art in a ritual
space so it’s hard to cover it all…”
Is there a distinction for you between the work you produce
in a ritual setting and (for want of a better term) ‘every day’ art? “For me,
all of my art is either a direct result of my ritual and magickal practice or
research and investigation, so that all of the art that I do produce emerges
from those concerns or the practice itself. Something that I might draw on the
ground or something that I might articulate, kind of like a sigilic spell or
sigilic composition or something; a talisman or I might use a ritual space
where I kind of gird myself or wind myself around, magickal symbols and stuff,
but then I might do that again on a canvas or a piece of glass or whatever that
might be. I suppose it’s like using different tools to produce it, so I might
paint it…is there a distinction? Well, yeah, there is; I suppose that some of
the art I would make in ritual space is ephemeral; it might be captured with a
photograph or film – or it might not at all. But where it doesn’t become
ephemeral, is that I will incorporate those considerations into other art. I
might paint that – it might be a slightly different version – or I might make a
sculpture with a basis of something from that, so it informs my aesthetic
art-making process directly – it might be presented in a different forum, like
I might have an art exhibition that’s basically been inspired by, or come out
of, a particular magickal working or something that I’ve researched or done
stuff with over a period of time.”
So you get to witness the evolution of an artwork or sigil
from conception through inspiration to completion? “Yeah, sure – if it’s a
spirit signature then usually it’s exactly the same, if it’s sigilic writing or
creating something or if I’m doing stuff with the Enochian alphabet or creating
I’ll do it different every time. Sometimes I’ll essentially be doing the same
thing over and over again but the way it comes out is totally different, every
time…”
Some of Barry’s work is currently in the Fulgur Esoterica I:MAGE
show in London; sadly neither of us is able to make it across the water to see
it. We get into a bit of a discussion about the Crowley/Palermo exhibition and
the Traces of Sacred exhibition at the Pompidou in Paris, which as Barry points
out “was shown at Buratti Fine Arts in Perth.” I should pimp the fact that Barry
is also represented by Buratti and Fulgur, and in order to accomplish that I
leave you with Barry’s final words: “And that show’s coming to Sydney in
November and NOKO [another project which Barry is involved with]is going to do
some performance and I’m going to have a few works in the Recreating The Abbey,
and then there’s the S H Ervin Gallery, which is going to be the big show; Windows
to the Sacred – it’s gonna be a major show…” My advice? Be there or be slightly
rectangular.
It was a pleasure talking to you, Mr Hale.
All images supplied by the artist.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
The Portrayal of Aleister Crowley by the Press During His Life-time and Beyond; A Real or Imagined Fear?
How was Aleister Crowley portrayed
by the press during his lifetime and after his death? Were the press reporting
fairly and accurately on Crowley? Did they express the genuine concerns of a nation,
or were they merely indulging in sensationalism to sell more papers? By examining
the archives of various publications and comparing the coverage of Crowley
against the coverage of other similar events (including theatre reviews and general
news), we may throw some light on the matter.
By
establishing that the media (both now and in the 18th century) was not
purely reflective of society as Michael Wolff suggests in his unfortunately named
essay ‘Charting the Golden Stream’ but
instead, as Kate Jackson puts it “...an active and integral part of it.”, we
can take this to mean that whilst newspapers reflected society back at its
self, the same newspapers also exerted an influence by shaping how, and what,
society thought.
Aleister Crowley
featured regularly in the press of his day, and it would seem that for the most
part, the attitude of the press towards him was one of benign bemusement but as
Robertson points out in the introduction to Richard T Cole’s book The Un-Magickal Record Of The Great Beast 666;
“Crowley played
a dangerous game: he cultivated a devilish image that was useful for putting
off fainthearts and attracting the adventurous and curious, but it backfired when
the gutter press repeatedly shat on him.”
A review of
Crowley’s The Rites of Eleusis, “...a series of
seven public invocations or rites, each centered on one of the seven classical
planets of antiquity.” demonstrates how,
as a playwright and director, he was perceived by the press; “...the only
relief in a dreary performance was afforded by a neophyte falling off his
stool, which caused mild hilarity among a bored and uncomfortable audience...” (Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LX, 1910) and “Mr Crowley
says the end and aim of his rites is ecstasy. Somebody ought to tell him that
ecstasy of any kind is impossible when your foot has gone to sleep.” (Ibid).
A bad review
does not prove that the press dealt unfairly with Crowley. A review of Mr
Charles Frohman’s Repertory, from a similar time as Crowley’s Rites, asks what
good drama is: “Apparently, with Mr Frohman, it is to be an art of audacious,
not to say iconoclastic experiment” (The
Times, 1910,) and “There is much, however, that we venture to consider
suspect and possibly harmful, harmful to the young dramatist and harmful to the
drama as an art.” (ibid).
It is plain to see
that the Victorians exercised (subjective) discernment with regard to the
theatre, and if we look as far back as 1839, critics and artists alike were
imposing their (subjective) opinions on the public, albeit about paintings in
the following example. William Thackeray said of the French School of Painting
“...the bloated, unnatural, stilted, spouting, sham sublime, that our teachers
have believed and tried to pass off as real, and which your humble servant and
other anti-humbuggists should heartily...endeavour to pull down”.
On July the 3rd,
1915 Crowley and a group of people renounced their allegiance to England in a
dawn ceremony at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. This event was covered in The New York Times approximately ten
days after the event, and the report is amazingly detailed and even handed (New York Times, 1915) when one considers
the political climate in which Crowley and the group were acting.
It appears that The Times (London) was far too busy
reporting on the first World War because there was no mention of Crowley’s
stunt from the 3rd of July 1915 or the following ten days
afterwards. However, there were plenty of headlines concerned with the war,
including “The Battles of North Arras” (The
Times, 1915) “Russians Captured by Italians” (Ibid) and “The Second Battle
of Ypres” (Ibid).
In the
introduction to Sand Robertson’s The Illustrated Beast - The Aleister
Crowley Scrapbook, Colin Wilson suggests that throughout his life Crowley
was “...in the grip of a ravenous, unsatisfied appetite for recognition...” and
despite Crowley’s efforts, he remained relatively unknown by the British
public, however “...quite suddenly, he
became a household name when the magazine John
Bull [Wilson’s italics] dubbed him ‘the wickedest man in the world’, and
ran headlines like THE KING OF DEPRAVITY, A HUMAN BEAST and A MAN WE’D LIKE TO
HANG [Wilson’s capitals].” (Ibid).
The tactic of
using shocking, attention grabbing headlines to lure potential newspaper buyers
into purchasing is not a new one, and is a hallmark of journalistic practices employed
several decades before Crowley’s birth. According to Joel Weiner’s Papers for the Millions, publications such as Lloyd’s Weekly (1842), the News of the
World (1843) and Reynolds’s Newspaper (1850) had made “...breakthroughs in
layout, particularly in the coverage of crime stories, which often feature
crossheadings like “Execution” or “Confession.””.
In addition to
the shocking headlines, there was also the belief that newspaper editors should
have “...no objection to facts if they are also novel. But he (should) prefer a
novelty that is not a fact to a fact that is not a novelty.” (Hearst, in
Weiner). In the July edition of Action magazine
(1953), there is a lurid feature on Crowley entitled ‘The Strange Case of the
Man Who Founded a Sex Cult’ which includes such ‘novelties’ (for they were
certainly not facts) about Crowley such as Hitler believing him to be a living
god and Crowley exerting influence in America to the extent that the dollar
bill was redesigned to include the eye of Horus in honour of him.
When it came to
reporting on Crowley, there was no shortage of novel facts and certainly no
shortage of novelties that were not facts but it was only after the death of Raoul
Loveday at Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily (and Crowley’s
subsequent expulsion from the island by Mussolini) that the press truly turned
on him. The Sunday Express used
numerous eye-catching headlines to denounce Crowley (and presumably sell more
papers into the bargain); these included “Aleister Crowley’s Orgies in Sicily”
(Sunday Express, 1922) and “New
Sinister Revelations of Aleister Crowley” (Sunday
Express, 1923). The purpose of this piece is not to explore the truths or
untruths behind the headlines but it cannot be doubted that headlines such as
these would have had an impact on the public’s impression of Crowley. This is confirmed by Robertson when he speculates
that an average person’s earliest memories of Crowley were of “...the leering
devil-worshipper, according to the lurid descriptions of his parents drawn from
dimly remembered articles in the Sunday
Express [Robertson’s italics] of long ago.”.
The press blamed
Loveday’s death on drinking the blood of a sacrificed cat under the direction
of Crowley – something he vehemently denied - and that Crowley was a very, very
bad man. Crowley refuted the manner in which he has been portrayed by the press
and blamed the entire situation on the newspapers and Betty May (Raoul’s wife);
speaking of her in his autobiography ‘An Autohagiography: The Confessions Of
Aleister Crowley’ he says “...an accident had damaged her brain permanently so
that its functions were discontinuous, and she had not mended matters by taking
to cocaine at the age of about twenty. After some years of addiction, she found
herself using a quarter of an ounce or more daily. She suddenly took fright and
cured herself by switching over, first to injections of morphia, and then to
plain alcohol.”. He also claims that unscrupulous journalists had gotten Betty
May drunk and convinced her to make up lies about the manner of Loveday’s death
and activity at the Abbey. Crowley also claimed that the media had deliberately
misrepresented the facts, knowing that he was too poor to sue for libel.
When it came to
confusing the press (and people in general) Crowley didn’t help matters; on the
nature of blood and human sacrifices he wrote in Magick In Theory And
Practice that “A male child of perfect innocence and high
intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”. A foot-note to
this statement reads “It appears from the Magical Records of FRATER PERDURABO
that He made this particular sacrifice on an average about 150 times every year
between 1912 E.V and 1928 E.V”. This would suggest that Crowley sacrificed
approximately 2400 boys during this period. In actual fact ‘child sacrifice’
was a euphemism for a particular strain of sex magick but Crowley did little to
clarify this. The fact that that he also claimed to be in contact with
praeter-human intelligences and his work was therefore outside the sphere of
‘normal’ understanding and ethical practices should also be noted. It is hardly
surprising that he was misunderstood by the press, who then in turn misinformed
the general public.
To recap, this piece
has demonstrated that in regard to Crowley’s artistic/theatrical pieces, the
press were not particularly impressed, but the press were equally unfavourable
with their reviews of other theatre produced at the same time. It has also been
demonstrated that there was unfavourable press in existence even before Crowley
was born. Therefore we can discount the idea that Crowley’s art was persecuted
by the press – reviewers have, and will continue, to exercise their subjective
opinion on art, the theatre and everything else in existence.
Regarding the
reporting, or lack of, about Crowley’s renouncement of his allegiance to
England; the New York Times article
is very well-balanced and does not report Crowley in any kind of negative
light. It merely records events but does not comment on them. Anyone reading
the article could form their own opinions about the event (although it is
possible that their perception may have already been coloured by previous news
articles about Crowley and his behaviour). The
Times in London was too preoccupied with reporting on the war to even
bother with writing an article on the subject.
It has also been
shown that the use of shock headlines to grab the reader’s attention (and thereby
sell more newspapers) was already an established practice. But as suggested at
the start of this piece, the press did not (and still does not) merely reflect
society; it also influences, therefore the idea that the public’s view of
Crowley was negatively influenced by the headlines of such publications as John Bull or the Sunday Express cannot be discounted.
If we also take
into account that ‘novelty’ was also seen as being preferable to ‘fact’, it is
neither a huge nor difficult step to conclude that the press made use of
untruths about Crowley to sell newspapers.
Finally, we see
that Crowley often made use of, what would have been at the time, offensive and
outrageous metaphors. He did not make much effort to clarify the true meaning
behind his ‘sleight of word’ and allowed people to arrive at incorrect
conclusions about his work and his behaviour. He certainly did not do himself
any favours in regard to how he was portrayed in the press.
Therefore it is
only logical and sensible to conclude that admittedly the press could be
unfavaourable to Crowley’s artistic endeavours but this was clearly not a
personal attack; they just didn’t like his work. The press in his lifetime (and
beyond) were guilty of using sensational headlines to smear Crowley and they
also invented novel facts about him. However, in some instances, they reported
in a clear and unbiased fashion.
Crowley, for his part, often wrote in an ambiguous manner which would
have confused the average person, let alone a ‘news-hungry’ journalist.
Would it be too
much to suggest that Crowley and the press were in a parasitic relationship
whereby Crowley attempted to gain publicity and the press attempted to gain
increased readership through the use of outrageous headlines and suspect ‘facts’?
Big thanks to
Mogg Morgan for his suggestions for research on this piece.
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