Nineties Retro: Interviewing Arthur C. Clarke at Megatripolis (1996)
Recently uploaded on Youtube, a reminder of quite how absurd the nineties really were. Megatripolis was a deranged London club which tried to combine psychedelic trance music, innovative pharmacology, lots of day-glo and consciousness-raising discussions with the likes of Alan Ginsberg and Terence McKenna. Which was how, as a young journalist working for Wired magazine, I ended up some time in the small hours of the night in a sweaty office at Heaven, interviewing Arthur C. Clarke over an ISDN videolink to Sri Lanka. This was being relayed onto the dancefloor, where several hundred pie-eyed psychonauts were disturbed to find themselves coming up on their pills listening to an entirely beat-free conversation with an elderly chap who wanted to know what the guy behind me was smoking. Four minutes of confusion below.
Tarun.J.Tejpal The Story of my assassin.
Where can I purchase this book in the UK.
and he was smoking ..... a roll up!
Looking back on this, that question about Martin was the amusing highlight of the interview. But as Martin said "adrian knows" and I had to explain to Arthur after the interview that due to the high profile of the club and the owner (Branson) there was no way even slightly suspicious substances could be smoked in there. I dont think Arthur believed me.
Adrian
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