Spell-Binder Days
Do you remember the Magic Lounge? It was the studio that I ran back in the nineteen eighties. To visit it you had to get yourself to Richmond Way in Shepherds Bush, London and knock on a door next to the greengrocer’s shop. Once inside you had to pass several crates of vegetables and rubbish bins to get yourself down a flight of stairs into the basement.
There was certainly nothing salubrious about the surroundings but once in the studio you found yourself in a comfortable and well-appointed room. Glass cabinets contained magical treats and the latest effects. We had what we claimed was the biggest close up mat in the world. It was mounted on a cabinet on wheels and when it was time for lectures or special events the close up mat and cabinet could be pushed into a corner.
Despite the dingy surroundings it became the Mecca for visiting magicians. The first person to sign our visitor’s book was Alex Elmsley and it became virtually a Who’s Who to who’s who in the magic world. Oh happy days! Stephen Tucker and David Britland, Barry Harvey, Ron Dowse and Paul Brignall worked with me and later they were joined by Gary Osborn who is now famous internationally under the name of Gazzo. We had some wonderful intimate lectures from many local and international magicians and the place was usually packed with magicians who were able to hear and see talented performers including Al Mann, John Mendoza, Wayne Dobson, Geoffrey Durham, Bill Nagler, Graham Jolly, John Lenahan and many others.
What has the Magic Lounge got to do with Spell-Binder Magazine? Stephen Tucker started the magazine and he used his friends and work associates as the main initial contributors and that is why you will see contributions in Spell-Binder from David Britland, Gazzo, Paul Brignall and Ron Dowse all of whom worked at some time or other with Stephen at the Magic Lounge. I wasn’t in the UK when the Unique Studio was in existence in the 1950’s but I suspect that the Magic Lounge had a little of the atmosphere of Harry Stanley’s famous studio.
I can’t remember why or how but towards the end of the run of Spell-Binder I took it over and purchased the copyright from Stephen. I personally printed (not too well either) several of the issues on our litho printing machine which was crowded into one of the passageways between the honey-comb of rooms that made up our studio.
Most of the copies of the magazine had professionally printed covers but the majority of the pages within were photocopied and sometimes from poor originals. The magazine is reproduced exactly as it was. Nothing has been lost in the reproduction and if you have to strain your eyes to read the gems within it is exactly what the original subscribers had to do on receipt of their monthly treat. Unless the contributors produced their own typed sheets it was up to Stephen to type out every word on his battered typewriter and most of the time he needed a new ribbon. That is how it was and that is how it is!
The Magic Lounge was a meeting place where ideas were exchanged and magical videos watched. Little work was ever done. Customers would have their brains picked for ideas by Stephen Tucker and these ended up in Spell-Binder. The magazine was never intended to be a house journal and carried no advertisements but it was certainly something which captured the happy and creative atmosphere of the Magic Lounge and the spirit of the magical 1980’s. I have read the magazine from cover to cover over the last few weeks and it is, in my opinion, one of the most stimulating magical magazines I have ever read. It is full of brilliant ideas some detailed and fully routined and others that were provided to spark off creative thinking in its readers. Stephen Tucker provided literally hundreds of articles and effects and produced virtually ever illustration. The effects themselves had creative and unusual titles. Stephen would page through magazines and newspapers. He would rip out interesting headlines and paste them down on his artwork to provide graphic titles to the contributions. In my opinion Spell-Binder ranked alongside the wonderful Pabular magazine in being a major contributor to the art of close up magic.
As you page through you will find effects and routines from Gordon Bruce, Bob Ostin, Reinhard Muller, Jerry Sadowitz, Peter Duffie, Phil Goldstein, Roger Curzon,
Harvey Rosenthal, Shiv Duggal, Ian Land, Bobby Bernard, Tim Gan (now famous as the creator of the music group, ‘Bomb the Base), the late Basil Horwitz, Earle Oakes, William Zavis (a United States Ambassador), Roger Crosthwaite (now Father Roger Crosthwaite), Al Smith, Eddie Taytelbaum, Paul Brignall, Gazzo, Ted Lesley and many, many others including, dare I say, Martin Breese.When this work is finally printed in book form there will be three volumes each consisting of twelve monthly issues and the total page count will certainly exceed 700 pages. I hope to have the entire magazine available as well on one CD Rom.
I pay tribute to the amazing Stephen Tucker. He has a fiendishly-creative mind, he is a great guy with a zany sense of humour. He was the true Spellbinder behind Spell-Binder Magazine.
Martin Breese, Brighton 2004