1974 A Forkbeard Fantasy, Edinburgh Fringe Club

This was the very first ‘officially booked’ live performance, with just Chris and Tim performing. We didn’t have a company name at this point, it was later we adopted the Forkbeard Fantasy. The show, “A Forkbeard Fantasy”, was originally written as a story about a time-travelling Viking Invader, but whilst living it up at the festival by night, seeing shows (like The People Show and Phantom Captain) and selling pictures and prints at a stall on The Mound to make money for food and beer, we never learnt our lines let alone rehearsed. It ended up as a kind of dada happening with a large box, a transistor radio and a tool-kit. It was performed as a lunchtime show at the Edinburgh Fringe Club to a bemused and probably quite unimpressed smattering of lunchtime feeders. Later in 1974 we took ourselves to Warwick University Festival at the invitation of Jeremy Shine. Here we constructed a ramshackle painted cardboard structure in which, along with brother Simon, we based ourselves, making forays into the crowds, doing ‘infiltrations’, moving about among the punters in the bars and audiences for bands. At this event we met performance artist Roland Miller. Liking what he saw, Roland encouraged us to apply for our very first grant of £200 from The Arts Council’s Performance Art Panel.