Kingdoms of the Radio:
A Novel
From the outside, Lucious Cole looked like he had it made. After a wildly successful run as the leader of ’60s British rock band, National Loaf, Cole was well known on two continents to take advantage of the adulation and excess that came with it all. When he disappears off of San Francisco’s notorious Ocean Beach, he was added to the list of talented musicians who died too young. Is that what really happened?
The young filmmaker known only as, The Kid, is a survivor of the crash landing of the utopian dream of the early ’70s. When he starts investigating his own origins at an infamous Mendocino commune, he begins to uncover a conspiracy that may or may not include the Mob, the CIA, and a supposedly dead rock star turned messianic cult leader.
Kingdoms of the Radio revisits a time of monumental societal change when often the only thing offering true connection was the music coming through the night air—as if by magic. Even that small comfort, however, was always subject to manipulation.
Don’t touch that dial!
A-Side: Forty-Five RPM
Kingdoms of the Radio: Spiral Architect (1953)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Serafina’s Gift
Kingdoms of the Radio: Charlie Perigo 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Ronda Schermerhorn 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Kumalo 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Karoline Rosenda 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Meets The Stick (Pt. 1)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Meets The Stick (Pt. 2)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Ride a Painted Pony
Kingdoms of the Radio: Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On (1957)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Tibetan Bells & a Bird from Hell
Kingdoms of the Radio: Enrique Bravocado 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Khumalo 2
Kingdoms of the Radio: Karoline Rosenda 2
Kingdoms of the Radio: Enrique Bravocado 2
Kingdoms of the Radio: Ronda Schermerhorn 2
Kingdoms of the Radio: Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts (Pt. 1)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts (Pt. 2)
Kingdoms of the Radio: On the Lash (1964)
Kingdoms of the Radio: The Stick Meets The Kid
Kingdoms of the Radio: Charlie Perigo 2
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Khumalo 3
Kingdoms of the Radio: Charlie Perigo 3
Kingdoms of the Radio: Chae Burton 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Enrique Bravocado 3
Kingdoms of the Radio: Ronda Schermerhorn 3
Kingdoms of the Radio: Don’t Poke the Bear (Pt. 1)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Don’t Poke the Bear (Pt. 2)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Great Big Face (1967)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Knight in Shining Brass
Kingdoms of the Radio: Police Chief Warren Burton 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Enrique Bravocado 4
Kingdoms of the Radio: Charlie Perigo 4
Kingdoms of the Radio: Ronda Schermerhorn 4
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Khumalo 4
Kingdoms of the Radio: Chae Burton 2
Kingdoms of the Radio: A Prisoner at the Palace (Pt. 1)
Kingdoms of the Radio: A Prisoner at the Palace (Pt. 2)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Oh, We’re Waiting
Kingdoms of the Radio: Black Eyes & Cowboy Bollocks (Rock Hound, 1969)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Teacake & Lady Marmalade
Kingdoms of the Radio: Zongo Khumalo 5
Kingdoms of the Radio: Enrique Bravocado 5
Kingdoms of the Radio: Charlie Perigo 5
Kingdoms of the Radio: Ikaia Keala 1
Kingdoms of the Radio: Down on the Mission
B-Side: Too Much Revolution
Kingdoms of the Radio: Death & the Back Catalog
Kingdoms of the Radio: Fadeout (Rock Hound, 1970)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Blank Check Face (Pt. 1)
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 You know, when I talked Charlie into helping me demo the hot springs resort, I wasn’t planning on hanging around his scene at all. I had plenty of… let’s say, other opportunities, spread throughout the county. It was on the last day of the big push to…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 I’m not one to toot my own horn, but it was a good, damned thing that the boys had a legitimate nurse involved, or half of them would have died of tetanus just moving all the recycled crap they got from Ikaia. The first thing I did…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 I imagine that you’ve talked to the boys already and heard all their cute, mystical, bullshit. I’ll admit that sort of thinking was in the air back then—the feeling of everything clicking into place. One thing about living in a completely chaotic society is that when something…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 I’m sure that everyone has their “I met Zongo when” story. I don’t think that people should become celebrities for being stupid enough to get duped by the CIA, but that’s just me. It’s not his fault, I mean Zongo’s never been the brightest star in the…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 It’s ScherMERhorn, just like it sounds. Dutch, actually. My father always claimed that we could trace our family roots back to the people that settled New Amsterdam. I don’t know about that, though. All I can tell you is that sweet, sweet tulip money was all spent…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 Music was always a big part of life at Girassol. I was… still am, a huge fan of Ray Barreto, Mongo Santamaria, all those congueros who were bringing a Puerto Rican flavor to all kinds of music in those days. Just about the only thing I went…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 Whatever Zongo had picked up at the airport, once he made his connection back down in the City, he was flush for a bit. I had a more-or-less steady paycheck from the Forestry Department, as long as I kept the state from burning down, but the rest…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 Not having power out at Girassol wasn’t a problem for me. I was used to working the back forty with all the low-profile grows up-county. I preferred it, actually. The one concession I made to modernity, was my radio. As long as I didn’t run out of…
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UKIAH, CALIFORNIA | 1995 After a restless night back home, The Kid cursed the alarm clock radio that had unkindly begun blasting out one of the National Loaf’s lesser known hits. To Lucious Cole’s perpetual entreating that the target of his affection, “Come and lay it all down,” The Kid resolved to do the opposite. Much…
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ARTICLE, ROCK HOUND MAGAZINE, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12 | 1969 After a contentious autumn spent recording their new record, Cut the Loaf, it looks like the groundbreaking English band, National Loaf, may have gone and done just that. Guitarist and frontman Lucious Cole declined to comment on what lead up to an on-stage fistfight between…
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EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK | 1969 Woodrow hurried down a rainy East 6th Street, turned up Second Avenue, and dove into the stage door in the back of the former Yiddish Theater. The drummer held a special love for New York City as, out of all American places, it reminded him…
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POINT ARENA, CALIFORNIA | 1995 It was after midnight when Palacios left The Slab, the bar that she and her partner had started in the old temporary Vets Hall, and turned right toward the ocean. Her 1984 Ford Ranger balked when she tried to put it in gear, but she was persistent, and—powerless against an…
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ST. JOHN’S WOOD, WESTMINSTER, LONDON, ENGLAND | 1967 Three-quarters of the National Loaf sat in the cavernous expanse of EMI’s Studio B laconically smoking cigarettes and waiting, as usual, for their leader and—according to London’s music trades—resident musical genius. The combined fumes of the proletariat Woodbines favored by the pianist and the Player’s Navy Cuts…
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA | 1971 Felix Rune spun up the reel of half-inch Ampex tape and winked at Rosenda who had made herself comfortable in front of the massive Neve mixing desk. She and Rune were old friends and he knew her well enough to have a cold pitcher of Armillita Chicos ready on an…
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SOHO, LONDON, ENGLAND | 1964 Simon Wilkie leaned his lanky frame against the brick archway of the Marquee Club’s new Wardour Street location and smoked. He was splitting his time watching girls running in and out of the boutiques and scanning the crowd for the rest of his band. The National Loaf had finally secured…
Román Leão 