Strange Things Are Happening

Richard Norris

Mar 2024 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

'The rainbow reaches right across the sky, for miles and miles, and has landed right in the middle of our field. My mother, Alison, is standing at the beginning. I'm sure it's a beginning, rather than the end, as there's no pot of gold in sight. The point where everything forms or, perhaps, is not quite formed as yet. That's my favourite place. A place alive with possibility.'

Strange Things Are Happening begins with the wonder of that rainbow, and continues with many escapades down the rabbit hole. From punk and the beginnings of the DIY scene, through Acid House, psychedelia, the rise of electronic dance music and much more, Richard Norris has been involved in countless countercultural revolutions. From misadventures in Amsterdam with Timothy Leary, with Sun Ra at customs, and Shaun Ryder in Joe Strummer's beaten up Cadillac in Tijuana, to his extraordinarily influential output in The Grid and Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, Richard Norris' story is one of collaboration and community, fuelled by relentless psychedelic curiosity.

Strange Things Are Happening is a record of a life lived in the moment, forever in thrall to discovery, exploration and innovation - the search for what lies at the other end of that rainbow.

About the author

Richard Norris is a musician, producer and DJ, who made his first record in the post-punk, DIY era, aged 14. At the dawn of acid house, he co-produced the legendary album Jack The Tab, before forming The Grid with Soft Cell's Dave Ball, whose tracks include the Balearic classic 'Floatation' and the million-selling 'Swamp Thing'. His innovative Beyond The Wizards Sleeve project with Erol Alkan, alongside his hundreds of psychedelic, dub, ambient and electronic mixes and collaborations, are testimony to a lifetime at the forefront of music and the counterculture.