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!
The story so far:
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: 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: 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: 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: 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 Magazine, 1969)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Teacake & Lady Marmalade
Kingdoms of the Radio: Down on the Mission
Kingdoms of the Radio: Death & the Back Catalog
Kingdoms of the Radio: Fadeout (Rock Hound Magazine, 1970)
Kingdoms of the Radio: Blank Check Face (Pt. 1)
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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…
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POINT ARENA, CALIFORNIA | 1995 After the hour-long winding drive on Mountain View Road from Boonville, the sight of the blue Pacific Ocean was a revelation after the untamed stretch of green trees. The Kid was itching to stretch his legs and get centered before he started recording the locals talk about what they remembered…
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POINT ARENA, CALIFORNIA | 1971 After slowly, but steadily, wearing out the good graces of Palacios, and throwing a couple of bucks into the band’s tip jar, the two men found themselves out in the gravel parking lot next to the 442. “Hop in, old man, I’ll give you two a lift to the lighthouse,”…
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POINT ARENA, CALIFORNIA | 1971 Floyd Anderson opened the door to the Quonset hut serving as the temporary home of the Point Arena Veteran’s Hall since the historical location on Shoreline had suffered a small fire. If he was pressed, Anderson preferred the corrugated metal building to the mustard-colored stucco affair that looked like a…
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SOHO, LONDON, ENGLAND | 1958 “What time is it, Mr. Wolf?” A lanky, teenaged Lucious Cole sidled up to the edge of the Berwick Street Market in Soho, his pegged jeans and blonde hair carefully tortured into a quiff like his latest American hero, Jerry Lee Lewis. “Time for you to nick a watch, Louie,”…
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CRIPPLEGATE, LONDON, ENGLAND | 1953 The Sun uncharacteristically beat down on the still-broken streets of London’s Cripplegate as a call went up among the children gathered in a bombed-out corner lot slowly on its way to being reclaimed as a proper English garden. “What time is it, Mr. Wolf?” The small gang inquired. The wolf…
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA | 1971 It was still dark when Karoline Rosenda unlocked the front door to the offices of Celestial Records. The thick fog smothering the Outer Sunset had long begun to seep into her bones as well as her spirit. Without bothering to turn on the overhead lights, she made a beeline for…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 I guess Lucious Cole was just on our minds that night. He was all over the radio as he had just been reported missing. The pirate radio station out of Boonville had been playing nothing but National Loaf records all weekend. It was a weird soundtrack to…
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UNFINISHED DOCUMENTARY, KINGDOMS OF THE RADIO | 1995 Once we decided to renovate Girassol, I figured I ought to let Mrs. Chaves know what was going on; that way if we ran into a hassle, we would be coming from a place of righteousness. I had to go into town and call her from the…
Román Leão 