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Chapter IV : The Old Studio

I have often wondered how much of the atmosphere inherent within Pagan Altars music and certainly throughout the Vol 1 album can be directly attributed to the studio itself.
It was attached to a large double fronted Victorian house built on Church ground and situated on what used to be crossroads. Rumour has it that witches were burnt in the location of the sign of the cross that the crossroads would naturally form.
The area of about 500 yards surrounding the house was suspected of being cursed, a local superstition that was gleaned from the long time residents of the area. It was evident however that no businesses ever flourished there; in fact they all went down the pan almost as soon as they started. A local Turkish business centred there had gone the way of all flesh and they had actually consulted their religious hierarchy to try to get the curse lifted, all to no avail! A large building concern called Brian Whitty Ltd bought up a row of old shops nearby and turned them into office space only to disappear almost over night! Barwells a big removal firm next door went under and the garage opposite had more owners than I’ve had hot dinners. Pagan Altar certainly had very little real luck either! The house was somewhat daunting in appearance and very dark and overgrown which in turn gave it a somewhat unfriendly feel. It also had the reputation locally of being haunted and the longhaired occupants that frequented the place were all a bit odd anyway!
Mothers with young children on their way to school would cross the road rather than walk past the house, an ideal and fitting home for a band called Pagan Altar one would think!
There are many occasions of strange unexplained happenings throughout the house itself but the majority seemed to be centred in and around the studio. The band didn’t give too much serious thought to the subject and assumed that any ghost that could stay in there with that volume would by now have been profoundly deaf anyway. They have always been somewhat loath to mention any of the odd occurrences in case it appeared a bit naff, for publicity reasons or to give the band an air of mystique but I don’t have these same restrictions, I now have the opportunity to bring it to light. I personally didn’t actually see anything particularly untoward in my time there but I certainly felt as if someone was constantly watching me and heard odd sounds that were certainly not from any instrument. Things would often go missing and then turn up again in totally different places but the band tended to put that down to either drink or the late nights and so didn't really think too much of it, but it did happen with alarming regularity.
There was a suggestion from the locals that the house was actually haunted by a woman, an Irish girl named Mary Brown who allegedly died there rather mysteriously about the turn of the century.
This fact was substantiated with the use of a ouija board late one night when the temperature in the studio dropped to such a low that rehearsing was uncomfortable to say the least. From then on any odd happenings etc were put down to Mary!

Upper Brockley Road as it would have been in Mary's Day.	The partially hidden front of the house as it is today