Glad Day... and Guildford Arts Lab

[This recollection was first published on my Geocities website in 2006 - but as the future of Geocities is uncertain, I thought I'd re-publish it here with a few tiny amendments.]

Cover of Glad Day 1 hand drawn by Yours Truly

Glad Day was a spin-off from Guildford Arts Lab (1965-1971). It was an A5-size poetry and image mag that ran to just two issues. First issue was published in 1973 and was described as being 'holographic', ie all drawn and lettered by hand (or from the authors' typewriters). The 'Valuable first issue' cost 25p and was printed offset by Bob at Guildford Print. It was 44 pages long and included contributions from Fred Pipes, Gus Garside, Graham Clarke, Clive Young, Keith Bradley, Martin Jones and Philip Crick. Cover illo by Fred Pipes depicted 'Janina (Candy Darling) Lech looking out over the old Guildford on Glad Day eve'. The name Glad Day is taken from the title of a William Blake poem.

Contents page of Glad Day 1 hand drawn by me

Glad Day 2, with cover drawn by Wal

Glad Day 2 was 40 pages long and came out in 1975, funded by South East Arts Association. This time, much of it was typeset. The cover was by Fletcher (Wal) Wallis and it included contributions from Michael Horovitz (with his poem Glad Day), Graham Clarke, Fred Pipes ('French nudes'), photos by Wal, Guido Casale, Saul Martin, Neil Richardson, Martin Jones and Janina Lech, who illustrated 'Back to the Front' a series of poems by Gus Garside. It was printed Up North at Salford University Union by Neil Richardson (my old school friend who sadly died recently). There is much more about Guildford Arts Lab on my Shyneford website, including a list of gigs and events, many photos and much ephemera. Its main publication was Whole News, a Roneoscan production usually running for just 2 or 4 pages printed by Robin Bradbeer at the University of Surrey Union. Very few of these survive! On the fifth anniversary of the Arts Lab in 1970, we produced a book called Five Whole Years.

Contents page from Glad Day 2, top and bottom drawn by me with my best Rapidograph

Other reminiscences:
Prologue
British Blues: part 1 Bury
British Blues: part 2 Manchester
British Blues: part 3 London
Helix