Kurt Palomaki

We arrived without incident at Heathrow on July 18, 1969 at 10:00 a.m. GMT and were met by Paula and David Shapiro. They hustled us into London, where we were feted by their friends. Immediately we had a new stash, girls, and a place to stay. But early on July 19th we had uninvited visitors: a squad of London policemen looking for dope. Fortunately, being Americans, we were still plenty paranoid and had hidden the contraband in a cereal box beneath the bag. When one of the police dipped his hand through the cereal, we thought this was the end, but he never thought to pull the bag out.

We were quickly split up: Clif Carrison and I took up temporary residence on Bunswick Gardens while Steve Hayton enjoyed Paula’s company at her apartment on Kent Terrace. Both Steve and I had been given 30 day visitor visas, while Clif had received 90 days. It was obvious that we had to produce something very quickly in order to extend our visas long enough to obtain work permits, and we had sessions at two studios (including Apple) within days of our arrival. In fact, we played our first gig ever as a trio at a private club owned by Sybil Burton before the end of July.

Of course, things are somewhat hazy during that period. We were moved around several times, had meetings with various producers, agents and managers, and finally ended up with an agency agreement with David Apps and a management agreement with Tim Sharman (see bio). One thing that can be said for the Shapiros, particularly Paula—they had loaded up for bear prior to our arrival, and the first few weeks were extremely productive when they could have easily been ghastly. Steve and I had our visas extended, but no work permits yet.

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