Pale Green Limousine

Personnel:

Mick Goggin
Roland Frith
Claire Sargent
Denise Brownlow
Kate Coombes

I met Mick Goggin and Roland Frith who were the founder members of Pale Green Limousine in 1967 and I joined the Light Show (Mick was my first boyfriend, back in '67).

We operated at Klooks Kleek, West Hampstead and had a weekly spot on a Sunday at the Bottleneck Blues Club which was the Railway Tavern on Angel Lane in Stratford.

We also did gigs at the Roundhouse pub in Dagenham, The Temple Club in Wardour Street and also one at the South East Essex Technical College on Longbridge Road, Dagenham and school of Art for an Arts Ball (possibly in 1968?)

We were influenced by other lightshows we had seen at UFO, Electric Gardens and Middle Earth so people like Exploding Spectrum, Ultradelic Alchemists etc.

We worked with Sam Apple Pie (house band at the Blues Club) and whoever was on the bill when we did gigs (Heavy Jelly, Genesis, Pete Brown, Zoot Money, Horse, Ashton Gardner & Dyke, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Edgar Broughton etc.) and also Mandrake Paddle Steamer.

Collaboration wise I worked alongside the Light Show for Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (Chris Runciman) at the Temple Club.

I am not sure of the origins of the name Pale Green Limousine as it was the name Mick Goggin and Roland Frith had for the Light Show when I joined.

Pale Green Limousine ran until at least 1970 but after that I have no idea how long they stayed running.

Personnel involved were Mick Goggin, Roland Frith and I (as Claire Sargent), then Denise Brownlow joined in late 1967.

The Light Show kind of split into two groups. Kate Coombes was also a member of Pale Green Limousine for a short time. She and I did the gigs at the Dagenham Roundhouse Pub on Reggae Nights once a week (late 60s?). Psychedelic lighting on Skinhead dancers bombed out on speed etc!

We witnessed a couple of fights too, where we saved the projectors.

Kate and I loved reggae though, so no problems there. Denise Brownlow went out with Mick Smith, lead guitarist of Sam Apple Pie. They made a beautiful couple, both with long blonde hair.

We females also did lightshows for Red Bus who had a club somewhere in central London, possibly Wardour Street?

I think Mungo Jerry were the most famous band we projected on there. As both Denise and I attended the South East Technical College and School of Art we did a Light Show there for an Arts Ball when the Social Deviants were playing (67 or 68).

At one point we used a colour wheel across our two projectors which had black ink exploding in them, plus our strobe on occasion. It was fantastic, even if I do say so myself.

I also remember doing a Light Show with Denise at the Temple Club where a band (dunno who) ended a song suddenly with "I know what you're looking at" and Denise and I simultaneously shouted "My prick!" into the silence :-)

We had two projectors, can't remember the make but we took out the heat filters so that the ink and oil slides would bubble up. I seem to recollect we had a hair dryer plugged in to cool them down if they became too hot.

We also had the strobe machine and made a huge colour wheel which we could rotate (by hand) across the two projectors.

Plus, we used polarised acetate and I had produced black and white positive/negative of weird designs on acetate which we used with the rotating colour wheel. I was at the aforementioned Art College at the time doing a graphics course, so could make this stuff there.

We stayed using just the above and the two projectors.

I have many happy memories of UFO and Middle Earth and remember standing at the bar of the former next to Arthur Brown who I loved but did not have the courage to talk to.

I also gently touched the shoulder of Jimi Hendrix, standing behind him when he was part of the audience at UFO.

Lots of people, men included, would congregate in the ladies loo and I used to get in for free by blagging my way in as I had no money. After that I used to take an assortment of felt tip pens with me so I could copy the hand stamp!

I did not stay in the Lighting Industry, I had a minor graphics job at Allen and Hanburys pharmaceutical firm but then I moved to Paris, France in 1971 or 2 and was a fashion catwalk model on occasion and worked as the model of a Yugoslavian designer. I was a mannequin at the Folies Bergères, plus I designed 'cartoon strips' for a publication that was to help children learn English.

When I returned to London in 1975 I was a 'Beautician' for a while in Selfridges, then I was a DJ at the Saddle Room Club, under the Inn on the Park and after that at Raffles on the Kings Road spending 8 years as a DJ.

I had worked for a Market Research Company for a while (pre the DJing) had babies, went to University (BAHons) and ended up an office jockey as PA to the CEO of ALCS (Authors' rights) and then as the Membership Officer at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall.

Jack of all trades, master of none! I can't say I had a career as such.

Kind regards,
Claire Richards
(Claire Sargent at the time) - February 2021

Hi,
I’m Denise Brownlow from the Pale Green Limousine Light Show. Claire has a remarkable memory as she remembers stuff that I have completely forgotten!

I was one of the almost, original lightshow members, joining a year after they had started up, then Claire and I mostly ran it by ourselves, with some input from Kate Coombes and Roland, I believe.

My boyfriend at the time was Mick Smith, lead guitarist of Sam Apple Pie, a local band who started off with great promise and talent, but fizzled out later on. As they played regularly at the Bottleneck Blues Club, we managed to get a regular gig there every Sunday night.

Unfortunately and sadly, Mick died of lung cancer when he was just 50 years old when he was living in the USA. I got in touch with one of his friends in the USA , some years after he died.

Claire says she doesn’t remember about the name of the Pale Green Limousine Light Show, but she did the posters for us. I’m sure I have kept one somewhere but I need to hunt it out . I’m pretty sure she had something to do with the name.

I have very little to add as Claire has covered everything so well.

I used to love doing the Light Shows and remember experimenting with acetate then with sellotape to get the effect of the rainbow colours of a kind of sun scape using Polaroid, which I had seen on the Beatles film Yellow Submarine.

I went to the technical photography guys in our college and got advice from them and copied the effect that they had on the film.

We were very successful in our new effects as well as the traditional ink and bicarbonate effects this is one of the reasons that we were popular, I believe.

I went on to be a designer until my boss went bust. I then joined the Playboy club as a temporary fill in until I found another design job. I ended up enjoying my life then so much I stayed for nearly 3 years, going on to become a model and actress for Freddie’s, then Top Models agencies.

After my modelling had finished I started teaching fitness and dance, as I had been doing it for awhile and got trained at the YMCA.

Later on i taught Zumba then became the first teacher in the UK to teach Zumba Gold. I taught Yoga, Line Dance, Ballroom and Salsa for over 15-20 years .

I loved the freedom of Salsa and was devastated when a few years ago I had problems with my coordination which turned out to be Parkinson’s disease which means now I cannot dance at all.

Denise Brownlow - January 27th 2022

If you can help with more information about this Light Show we would love to hear from you.

Left to right:
Mick Goggin, Stan (known as Stan Rat, a kind of Roadie), Kate Coombes, Denise Brownlow, Roland Frith and Claire Sargent.

Photo by Jack Gertson - Valentines Park Cafe, Ilford c.1968.

Denise Brownlow
Photo by Jack Gertson - Valentines Park, Ilford c.1968.

Mandrake Paddle Steamer - Waltham Forest Art School
(Photo Credit Morris Freeman via Brian Engel (Mandrake Paddle Steamer)

Mandrake Paddle Steamer - Waltham Forest Art School
(Photo Credit Morris Freeman via Brian Engel (Mandrake Paddle Steamer)

April 1968

March 1969

March 1969

April 1970