phil2003: Arthur remains one of the most interesting and creative artists, biography just out by Polly Marshall. A short history of the Fire helmet: Arthur found a crown with candles (an opera prop) outside his hotel room in Paris in '67, saw the potential, and developed it into the CWOAB act. The famous TOTP video shows the later 'pronged' version. There have been many others; one was made by Jean Crane (Vincent, his keyboard player's wife, later widow) from an old kitchen colander! Probably the most spectacular one was at the Kingdom Come reunion gig at the Astoria in March 2005 ("Arthur Brown's Otherworld"), it burned all the way through Fire, and had to be very very carefully removed by a roadie, taken outside, and put out. Arthur uses the London-based psychedelic band Instant Flight to 'become' the Crazy World when he does the original Fire Suite/CWOAB act, they're very good. Their keyboard player is a girl from the Czech Republic...who said those cracking '60s birds' didn't exist any more? bob