Tales From the Stones: Loonies, Boobies and Bards of Albion

Tales From the Stones: Loonies, Boobies and Bards of Albion

 Traditions can easily be fabricated, and so we shall find Salisbury Plain at the Summer Solstice full of rival bands – Druids, Moonies, Loonies, Boobies, Straight Trackers, Bent Trackers, Geomantics, Pyramidiots, Atlanteans – the lot.’[1]

The initial inspiration of Tales From the Punkside (2014) Not Just Bits of Paper (2015) and ‘Some of Use Scream Some of Us Shout’: Myths, Folklore and Epic Tales of the Anarcho (2016) lay in the fascination with the oral and written transmission of numerous punk-related anecdotes heard and read over the years. These stories and experiences – fact and fiction – hold hidden subtleties and truths, uncovering the personal in punk; questions such as those surrounding identity, the geographical or the often-darker sides of subcultural life. As an accompaniment to Tales… Not Just… and Some of Us Scream…., the editors would like to ask for contributions for Tales From the Stones: Loonies, Boobies and Bards of Albion. If Tales… and Some of Us Scream… had been based upon the wider punk rock movement, Tales From the Stones will instead be a book focused on the so-called ‘new-age traveller’ movement from its origins to the present day. It will draw upon tales, flyers and art beginning at/around the time of the Windsor Free Festivals in the early 1970s, pulling upon events through the turmoil of the 1980s (such as the Battle of the Beanfield), and concluding with the contemporary scene. Although Stonehenge and the travellers’ movement will give the book its core identity, it will not prejudice submissions from punks, druids, bikers or any other ‘tribe’ that crossed over into the movement. It will, however, remain in the same vein as its predecessor, with both a ‘factual’ and biographical leaning, meaning that the author may write in whatever format they wish including prose, poetry, art and song-lyrics.

Whereas some papers and academic texts saw the traveller movement as lumped-together ‘moral panic,’ what many saw on a personal level were the workings of the everyday; not only of the negative (being continually persecuted by both the mainstream and by polices, politicians, etc.) but also the positive: of individuals having to navigate through personal issues in living on the road, or forging new political allegiances and lifestyles. In other words, finding a commonality of celebration and an overwhelming feeling of pride to be part of a wider movement. The editors hope that this volume is a worthy accompaniment to texts such as Alan Dearling’s poignant Travelling Daze (2012) and Ian Abraham’s and Bridget Wishart’s recent Festivalized: Music, Politics and Alternative Culture. It is also hoped that Tales From the Stones will supplement the excellent commentaries by C.J Stone and George McKay.

As such, Wally Dean, Mike Dines, Ana Mateus and Joe Public will be excited to hear of possible contributions from anyone involved, or interested, in the traveller/free festival scene. The book is proud to be a mix of the academic, the intelligent, the informative and (sometimes) the plain fun! Comic-strips, art-work, poetry, prose; anything is possible, and the editors would like the book to be a place where writers can experiment and test new forms of expression.

Content Information

The authors of the individual chapters are free to decide the most appropriate structure to tell these/their stories/escapades/experiences and their involvement with anarcho-punk, whether that be traditional textual formats, more free form text (e.g. transcripts of social media interactions; poetry; illustrative fictional prose), through whatever media seems appropriate to the author. Moreover, authors have a choice for submissions to be biographical, factual, fictional, or indeed, a culmination of all three.

Remember:

  • You are free to decide the most appropriate structure to tell your story/memoir, etc.
  • These may include traditional textual formats, more free form text (e.g. transcripts of social media interactions; poetry; illustrative fictional prose), through images, or whatever media seem appropriate to you.
  • Your piece may be may be biographical, factual, fictional, or indeed, a culmination of all three.

The editors will select contributors after the submitting of a proposal to the call for contributions. Final submissions will be subject to the lightest possible editing, in conjunction with the author, to insure the integrity of the original submission is maintained.

Please send a title and short description (around 200 words) of the chapter you propose to the editors at: talesfromthestones@zoho.com

Include the topics you would cover, the structure your chapter would take and any special format or structure your contribution would require, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Timescales:

Draft chapters deadline: 1st February 2017

Completed Chapters: 1st May 2017

Possible publishing date: 1st September 2017

Bypassing established publisher routes means that our book can be:

  • Creative Commons licensed, giving contributors recognition and making the material immediately free and sharable online
  • Free of the writing conventions imposed by traditional publishers – contributors can retain their own voice, choose the length of their contribution, use whatever format they prefer

Note on licensing: We will ask authors/contributors to sign a simple agreement to allow us rights to publish their contribution and to permit others to use the contents of the book under CC License. Contributors will retain copyright over their work.

Note on Inspiration: The concept/idea of the anarcho-narrative has been drawn from the creative team of Andrew Walsh and Emma Coonan, and can be accessed at http://innovativelibraries.org.uk/onlyconnect/

Special thanks go out to them for allowing me to share the concept!

Thanks,

Wally Dean, Mike Dines, Ana Mateus and Joe Public.

[1] Derogatory and ill-informed quote by Professor Glyn Daniel, editor of the archaeological journal Antiquity in the 1950s; and is used here to highlight the abuse and prejudice leveled at those who frequent Stonehenge. Quoted in Andy Worthington, Stonehenge: Celebration of Style (Wymeswold: Alternative Albion, 2004), 94.