The rainbow reaches right across the sky, for miles and miles, and has landed right in the middle of our field, in front of the forest. My mother, Alison, is standing at the beginning of a rainbow. 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.
So begins Strange Things Are Happening, the memoir of musician, DJ and producer Richard Norris. The sense of wonder of standing in that rainbow, at the beginning of something strange and new, continues through many escapades down the rabbit hole. From punk and DIY years, to many sonic psychedelic explorations , to meeting Genesis P Orridge and releasing the UK's earliest acid house album, 'Jack The Tab' - despite not knowing, at the time, what the hell acid house even was - Richard Norris has been involved in countless sonic and counter cultural revolutions. From the legendary dancefloors from Shoom to Ibiza and beyond, by way of misadventures in Amsterdam with Timothy Leary, with Sun Ra at customs, with Shaun Ryder in Joe Strummer's beaten up Cadillac in Tijuana, by way of his extraordinarily influential output in The Grid and Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve, Richard Norris's story is one of inspiration, collaboration, and community, continually fuelled by relentless psychedelic curiosity.
The shape and sound of post acid house British culture would be a very different and infinitely poorer place without the DIY spirit of Richard Norris. Strange Things Are Happening is the 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.