Something happened before I left school - can't remember the exact year. I went to see the Who in my holidays at the Marquee, before they'd even made a record, you know, & it just completely freaked me out. Pete Townsend was so violent and they were so fucking good - I'd never seen anything like it in my whole life! The only bands I'd seen before that had been some strange sort of band at Southend, & I'd been to some club in Gerrard Street, the ABC or something, to see some R&B ban. And when I went to see the Who it just freaked me out, with the medals and the Union Jacks & them smashing everything up. went out and broke a window afterwards.

The two big turning points in my life are when I saw Pete Townsend & when I took acid. I changed at both points into two quite different people - but a progression of my person you know. Pete Townsend & Acid...& Food. I suppose.

When I was at school, in the holidays I used to work in the local supermarket in Ilford, and when I left school I didn't know what to do and I went and got a job at the Barley Lane Mental Hospital in Goodmayes in Ilford as a kitchen porter...& I lasted half a day. I couldn't take it! There was this big idiot who kept going "RIGHT...NOW...DAVE! WE'RE...GOING...TO...MOP THE...FLOOR!" & I thought "SHIT!! this"! & I kicked the bucket over and threw the mop at someone & said "I'm fucking off" & then I left. It was driving me mad. Very strange people there!

I spent a week living on my mother's meagre earnings, & then I went back to the supermarket. I stayed on at Anthony Jackson's Supermarket (which is actually owned by Victor Value, which has now been taken over by Tesco's - history of the supermarket) & I progressed from being a dirty little floorboy to the warehouse manager.

We had all these little fiddles going, like with the Lyle's sugar man & the egg man, & the Nescafe man. They used to bring all their goods along on their lorries & the warehouse manager had the job of signing everything in - checking everything off and bringing it in - & all these cats were into fiddling. They had all these warehouses where they could sell their goods, see, & like the Tate & Lyle man, you'd order say 200 packs of sugar - the big packs of sugar - & you'd only take 150 & you'd leave 50 on the lorry and he'd give you the bread, which would be a quarter of the retail price - and that's a lot of money! Take Nescafe, a case of 8 oz jars of coffee, with about 24 jars a pack - that's a lot of money at 4/- each.

I went to Safeways in East Ham when I went back to working on the floor. I progressed there to night-crew foreman, which is like the under-manager of the whole shop, and that took about a year. I had to get this crew of people, and had to get that shop really full up, and we used to work in the night - all night - and the only day when we used to work was Thursday afternoon when the shop was shut & (this gets a bit incriminating)...we used to - like, half way thru the day the under-manager would go home. I'd lock the shop up & take the keys round to his home & me & this crew, we'd fill up about 2 carrier-bags of food each, & they used to be worth about £10-12 each, which we used to feed all the hippies in Ilford with.

One day I was off sick & I told all these cats not to nick anything while I was away because I was in the middle of making all this bread up on the sheets, damage sheets where you put down a certain amount for damaged goods, things like that. And they went ahead and nicked stuff while I was away & they got caught. When I came back from being ill I walked into the shop & went straight up to the manager & he went 'Good morning' & he said 'Haven't you heard about your friends?' & I said 'No. What friends?' & he went 'They're all in prison'!

I looked at him & said 'What do you mean?' & he went on 'your night-crew...they're in court this morning and you're going there too. Go down to the police station'. I went 'What's all this about?' & he said 'Don't you know?...well your crew have been stealing the goods from the shop when you were away & they said you were the ringleader'. I looked him straight in the eye & said 'I don't know anything about it at all & I'm quite happy to go down to the police station'. I went down there & this kind of constable detective bloke got me in his office & he was going on about 'You're guilty' & I'm going 'No! I don't know anything about it at all'. And then this big sergeant detective bloke comes in & says 'Are you telling the truth?' & the cat with me says 'No' & he said 'Listen, I'm going to get heavy now' or something & brings out these bits of paper & hands them to me, saying 'I think you'd better read these before you say anything else'.

I read all these cats' statements that they'd made saying that David Goodman would let Larkin & somebody else out the front door; then he & somebody else would go out the back door & lock up & Larkin would wait by the bus-stop with the carrier-bags full of food while Goodman went off to the under-manager's house with the keys; & then they'd all go home feeling happy with all this food. So I looked at the detective & said 'Well, there you go...I'm guilty'. And he said: Right! It was a really rush job. I went to court an hour later. I got a £20 fine for that one 2 charges of larceny. I was a branded outlaw.

I took up dealing with an old school-friend if mine from Ilford. We had this really heavy scene going he would deal the Acid & I'd deal the hash. I used to get rid of about a couple of weights a week & be involved in these really big deals & I used to be really rich. I used to have about 50 quid a week to spend on nothing. I'd go out & blow it, have a really good time, go down the pub, & the pie & mash shop. Then I got busted.

It was just after the first Deviants' gig I ever went to - down in Brighton - & I went back to this pad in Holland Park & I couldn't sleep. So I went home to sleep in my own bed. We were expecting a bust & I lay there wondering if Mick had hidden the shit & thought well he probably has, so I went to bed. I woke up a little while later & the fucking door was being beaten down! I shouted 'Who's there?' & they said 'It's Jim' & I went 'Well fuck off man, I'm trying to get some sleep. I've only just gone to bed. It's only 9 o'clock' & suddenly they went 'Well it isn't Jim...it's the police. Open the door or we'll smash it down'.

So Mick jumped out of bed & opened the door & a man stuck this warrant in his hand . He cam back to bed & sat there looking at me & smiled, so I thought 'Well he's hidden it, they'll never find it, they won't look in the place we usually stash it'...So I'm sitting up in bed & this horrible policeman comes in with this jamjar in his hand full of quid deals - about 30 quid deals - & says 'Is this the gear?' I said 'Yes, it must be' & I just freaked. I was shaking all over...really frightened. I thought about the Safeway's bust, & now a cannabis bust happening within about 3 months.

They said 'Where's the rest of it' & we said 'There isn't any more' & they said 'Right. We'll have to tear the place to bits'. And they really started to go mad! They soon found what they were looking for - there was this great big biscuit tin with about 8 or 9 ounces in it - well there was about 12 ounces all rapped up in silver paper & the jamjar with 30 quid deals in it. & they also found all these boxes full of eye-dropper bottles, about 100 eye dropper bottles which we were using for the acid - they didn't find any acid actually.

They piled us into Ilford nick and put us in a cell. The Great Torso Murderer was in the next cell to me being grilled by the crime-squad.

My cell had this one wooden bench in it & one blanket & at the end of this bench was this hole - the hole you shat in, you see. And I really wanted a shit, so I had a shit,& I couldn't pull the chain because the chain was outside. So I got hold of one of the Crime-Squad chaps & said 'Excuse me sir could you pull the chain please because my cell smells'.

And he looked at me ...& then he kind of saluted & walked over & pulled it!

I spent a week at Ashford to start with remanded in custody - a horrible scene! I was refused bail , so they carted me off. To start with, you're on this complete horror trip , being locked up in prison. It freaks you. You've heard from all these cats on GBH charges - attempted murders and robberies. Anyway you go there and have to take all you fucking clothes off & there was this doctor who'd have to feel you & you take a shower. There were all these horrible clothes but they didn't have any clothes to fit me, so I wore my own clothes & they didn't cut my hair which was good.

When I finally came to court there was a most amazing scene. There were all these chicks from Ilford. I was the first big Ilford bust. All the fucking freaks from Ilford were outside the court & the inside was packed with all the people I used to live with, & my mother & all that scene, and my mother was like crying her eyes out. The detective said his thing - said that we had like 4339 grammes of cannabis & the magistrate looked at him & said would you mind repeating that please, & he went 4339 grammes of cannabis & the magistrate said 'Ah 'Ah...I thought I heard right'.

And suddenly the court got all kind of nice. The vibrations sort of changed. And there was this probationer guy saying all kind of ridiculous things about my virgin white character & background, like boarding schools & decent jobs up until 3 months before. All this kind of scene. And the magistrate was very impressed with my boarding school - it gave him a kind of physical start, you know; they think 'a public school boy' & they think you're intelligent & just trying to find your direction in life, or something. But if you're some kind of horrible builder up on a pill charge, then that's it!

Anyway, then this guy Lemon who lived in the same house as me got up and said 'My wife (who wasn't really his wife) & I have got six children (they had 3, & they weren't his - they were his chick's) & they adore David. 'He babysits for us and everything & takes the dog for a walk'. He came out with this amazing bullshit (- he's in Brixton now -) & I couldn't believe it. My mum got up and she started howling her eyes out & the magistrate was going 'Well this is ridiculous. You must speak clearer. I can't hear a word you're saying'.

Anyway, I got a year's probation. I took a trip as soon as I go out of Ashford. A really big trip! I got absolutely stoned! I did the year's probation...I was a good boy...& started becoming the Deviants' road manager which took me into another scene.

With the Deviants I finally made it to America. What did I think of the place? Well, the food struck me as fucking terrible. There were a few things that were really nice - Rocky Mountain ice-cream sandwiches which are this really nice tasting ice-cream with 3 big chocolate wafers on top, which you get for 35 cents. And chocolate milk...& the orange juice.

Apart from the food, the people, well I thought the young people in some places were very strange. In Vancouver, the freaks were kind of heavily into a gun thing. They held parties for us every night while we were there& the last party I went to there was this cat with a fucking great rifle & there were these other cats with guns & I'd never seen a gun before in my life, you know. I'd been that sheltered!

The only policeman I got to know was this cat in Seattle who was like the permanent policeman on the door of the Trolley Club. Halloween Night, when everybody dressed up in all these outrageous kind of costumes. Russ dressed up in drag& I dressed up as some horrible evil cat from Dickens, with my teeth all blacked. And, anyway, Fred the policeman decided he was going to come on in his full fucking battle uniform. And he came with this horrible fucking crash helmet on, with a load of tear-gas canisters all over his front & hanging off his sides & guns & knives & god knows what!...It was just a complete horror trip. I couldn't speak to him after that. It was terrible.

We went thru about 1200 dollars in Seattle. We blew it all in a week, thinking that if we went to San francisco we could make a fucking fortune there, because Seattle was really dead, a real kind of hick town. So we arrived in San Francisco without a penny. We had about 10 dollars worth of sandwiches that Blackie'd got in as we went on this 24-hour trans-continental railway thing - a sort of Greyhound bus trip - from Seattle to San Fran. & we got there about 9 o'clock in the morning. We just went straight to the Family Dogg Ballroom & were hanging around there waiting for Chet Helms all day We'd [honed him from Seattle and said we were coming & would he look after us & he'd said yes. It was the day of the Family Dogg Commune thing when all the communes in San Francisco went along & met. And we kind of got up there and introduced ourselves.

We lived in this house full of freaks called the Family Circus & they used to get us stoned every night - cocaine, organic mescaline & really good acid - anything you care to mention, it was available. There was this amazing cat called Forester who ran an organic bakery in the house & he used to wake me up at about 9 o'clock every morning & say 'Dave, if you want to get stoned just you follow me about all day' & I used to jump out of bed and follow him around all day & just get completely fucking blotted. And every time I'd split from him I just wouldn't get stoned at all. He was really a magical cat, really far out. San Francisco was beautiful!

Blackie & I went down to Altamont the night before to give Sam Cutler a hand & Cutler was a real drag. He was kind of like an old buddie in England, but over there he was the big-time Stones tour manager & didn't want to know you at all. The Hells Angels were there & all night they were tripping out on bum acid & had all this beer & dropping reds, & they were really bombed out out of their heads. By the time the morning came, a lot of them had disappeared.

In the early morning I was looking out from behind the stage at about 6 o'clock & there were all these people winding across from over the hill just like a pilgrimage, these millions of people, & it looked so beautiful. The sun was just coming up & people were throwing things into the air, skidoos & balloons. By about 2 o'clock I was going to help Cutler out on the stage for a while but the Angels suddenly returned & there were all these people coming on every 2 minutes, saying 'Who are you?' 'I'm working here'& they go 'Yeah, why, who are you with?' 'Sam' & he'd go 'Oh Boss, don't bother me any more'. And it got so that I stuck around to the end of Santana's act & then it got so fucking heavy I split. Like you were hassled every 50 seconds. They were hitting people at the front & everything. It was just horrible.

I went and sat in the Family Dogg bus. I heard Crosby Stills Nash & Young & the Flying Burritos & the Airplane. Before Santana started there was this real fucking big cat, Hell's Angel cat, came over to the front of Santana & said 'If you don't play Jingo first then that's your lot.' So they played Jingo first. Quite enthusiastically. They hated it in the end. Their roadie was far out. He was a big Latin-American looking cat - really big, with sideboards & things & he came out of this truck with a dirty big bottle of Ballyhai, some horrible wine, & an ampoule of Acid & he goes 'Hi Man!' & stuffs the Ballyhai in one of my hands & slaps the amp of acid in my other hand & goes 'Get off!'. I couldn't get it together to take the acid. I just drank the wine.

By the time the evening came, it was so fucking mediaeval. I saw so many people getting walloped and bashed around - at least 20 really bad beatings , with billiard cues & things. It just made me feel sick. Blackie & I were just sitting in the Family Dogg bus all afternoon watching it all.

When the Stones came on I crawled to the front of the stage, & the whole thing was just fucking beautiful! really heavy, fucking heaviest thing I've ever seen. They played beautifully - Keith Richards...& Jagger - really fucking beautiful.

The whole stage was just full of Angels, so many Angels you couldn't see anyone else. It was their stage. No stage crew could possibly remove them. It was their stage...& they knew it...& you knew it. These fucking really ugly cunts. Jagger came on & he really loved every minute of it. He was really into the whole thing. Like the cat getting killed & things. He could have stopped it if he'd wanted to.

Cutler used to do the Hyde Park things over here & the English Hells Angels are completely different. You can go & speak with Buttons & say to him 'Get your men to stop people coming in here, check their passes' & they'd do it, really well. But the American Hell's Angels are completely different. They're really evil & heavy.