Heavy Eric Lights,
Eric's Cranium Lights,
Soma Lights

I formed 'Heavy Eric' sometimes also known as Eric's Cranium Lights and Soma Lights doing all or most major gigs in and around Windsor, Slough, Maidenhead area, which of course had a big 'head' scene and was home of 'Digger Action Movement' led by Sid Rawle - self confessed king of the hippies - Wasn't publicity seeking, but effectively dominated the LS scene - worked with many name and fringe bands + had club residencies - worked with David Bowie, Gnidrolog, Hawkwind , Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Mott Hoople, Genesis, Flo & Eddie - many many more Eventually did tour with Tangerine Dream 1975 ish then moved into other areas of the visual arts.

Did several arts based experimental events for local arts festival - was considered by many bands/concert organisers as one of the most artistically interesting - invented some v. orginal effects - often had media write ups --- e.g. 'Guitar among the tadpoles' - headline for feature about concert - Gordon Giltrap Band, Osibisa and Al Stewart Band all on same bill !!!!. For the Osibisa set, whole place was filled with still images of lush African jungle greenery - whilst several OHP's had bowls full of tadpoles on top - whole place was immersed with the living images - all through purple filter.

Crazy days - moved on, concentrated on travelling the world and pussy fun - all despite offers/opportunities to settle (?) work with some big names --- still have some great effects and kit left in the garden studio/shed - would be glad to collaborate on a project or two, if worthwile.

Geoff L - October 2003

Way, way back in the (very)dim and distant past, I worked at Slough College and had the ‘privilege’ of contributing to some very interesting effects with “Heavy Eric”. My contributions included running 16mm scratched raw film stock behind colour wheels to produce some very fast animations and carting a 2k follow spot around!

I remember doing Hawkwind at Slough college and the Strawbs at the Odeon Uxbridge.

For the Strawbs, we had to crank the cinema screen up the stage with rusty old winches, which had last seen use when Max Bygraves performed there in the 1950’s! Having set up the Tutor 2s in the projection box, along with the trusty follow spot and my hand-made crucifix gobo, all Dave Cousins wanted was a wash of white light on the stage.

I doubt that screen ever got moved back after the concert!

Happy days!

Richard Hartley - August 15th 2004