Live: Feathers, University of Sussex

Feathers’ third live show took place at Falmer House at the University of Sussex on Saturday 7 December 1968.

David Bowie had previously performed at the venue with the Buzz on 22 October 1966.

Feathers featured such material as ‘Lady Midnight’, ‘One hundred years from today’, ‘When I’m Five’, Jacques Brel’s songs ‘Port of Amsterdam’ and ‘Next’, and ‘The Ching-a-ling Song’. ‘Life Is A Circus’, which David had sung in his cabaret act, was a song that Tony Visconti had heard performed by an American group called Djinn, and which he introduced to David. Hutch re-worked it for use by Feathers. David mimed to a piece called The Mask and he and Hermione mimed to another piece while Hutch operated the cassette player and supplied guitar accompaniment. All three read short poems. It was an innocuous divertissement that nobody wished to pay for. By Christmas Feathers had done three gigs and earned £56. They appeared at the Country Club, Haverstock Hill on November 17 for £6, the Arts Lab, Drury Lane on December 6 for nothing, and Sussex University on the 7th for £50.