History, mystery, pi . . . . Oh, never mind. But we do mind. We mind the way history has been bleached clean, sanitised and rendered wholesomeish. Not all of it. Just the bits we're interested in. But in Back To The Future we should rectify that. In a regular series of fun, fun, fun features stamped with Coffeehouse Culture's stupid but inimitable sense of humour, we'll be looking at the bits of history school missed out. If you are wondering where the counterculture came from, Back To The Future will tell you. With a cast of thousands to assist us, we will be tracing our way back towards the truth. Meeting Conquerors, Shamen, Despots, Clowns, Saints, Freaks, Seers, Geniuses, Fiends (dope and diabolic) and some jolly nice chaps, we will travel the world sharing joints, jokes and jeers with those who helped create the culture of consciousness.

With the world at our fingertips and magic boots on our feet we will be ....
Speeding down the road with Jack Kerouac and the real Dean Moriarty, we will try to pass the Acid Test as we explore the highways, byways and Oh, My! ways of the counterculture that grew up like a grass plant around this influential coterie of friends. Criss-crossing the USA in search of those who helped to mould the future we are all now starting to live we will encounter movers, shakers and one or two fakers.
In California we will meet arch-smugglers (although they did smuggle things other than arches), the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. Dressed in our 'Colours' we will be there as the rampaging Hell's Angels are reinvented as cuddly acid-saints. Dancing in the dawn in Golden Gate Park and in the lab with acidking Owsley, we will be waking up to California Sunshine in all its forms.

And crossing to the other side of the Lost Continent, we will join the court of Owsley's Jester. With timid, self-effacing Timothy Leary we will watch ego overwhelm evolution. There will be many new friends to make: Michael Hollingshead, the man who turned on Aldous Huxley; Alexander Shulgin, the man who invented Ecstasy; Andy Warhol, the man who conned the art world and many more. But there will also be old friends to meet again: many from the Kerouac-crowd, including Allen Ginsberg, for over 30 years one of the most active and influential propagandists for dope use and, coincidentally, a poet of note, who will tell us why he wore his underpants on his head.

If we seem lost in the USSA, it is only because there is so much to see and do. But we haven't forgotten that we are world travellers. The world, however, is a big place so you will forgive us if we only make flying visits from here.

We will have our tongues down the throat of French hypocrisy as we join Napoleon in North Africa. As he 'liberates' the historic and artistic treasures of the Middle East by the sack load we will marvel at the audacity of this small man with a nipple fixation. And, back in Paris, it's party-time with the Club des Hashashins where such notables as Dumas, Baudelaire and Moreau will be found somewhere over the Rimbaud where the jam is green and says: "High!" But what a party.

For Hassan Al Sabbah and his legendary band of bloodthirsty Hashishins (from whom we get the word 'assassin'), gardening was more than a hobby. High in the Atlas Mountains was his famed Garden of Earthly Delights in which men lost their souls to excess and pleasure. And, lucky us, we have a visitors' day pass. Can't wait.

With pith helmets on their heads and exploding bibles in their hands, the British thought they could bring civilisation to the 'savages' of India. As the civilising influence of the East India Company cut swathes through the Indian subcontinent, the priests and pundits could only try to preserve their 5000 year culture. Not much good came of the Brit's occupation of India except .... The impressively named Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report of 1894 contains everything you ever wanted to know about dope and its history in India. And what a breathtaking story it is.

We thought it was Howard's end when Mr Marks got 40,000 years in prison for his smuggling activities. It was, however, just a beginning. Back on the outside, he has risen again to tell his story. Raconteur and rebel, smuggler and super-spy, criminal and comedian, nice but very, very naughty, what a versatile fellow he is. A Cambridge graduate who had made a name for himself as a legitimate businessman before leaving college, Howard was chosen for a less conventional path. More than anyone else this century, Howard has demonstrated his commitment to cannabis. A present-day legend of the cannabis culture, Howard is a guy to whom we'd give full marks.

Up from the underground: Unidentified Flying Objects landing in Tottenham Court Road, Hoppy and the odd socks, John and Yoko (we were there), International Times, Middle Earth, the Ormsby-Gores, and other beautiful people. Down and out in sunny South Kensington with Brian Jones, at the Free School being . . . well . . . free, freshly napalmed peace and sub-machine guns at the Roundhouse, 24 hour Technicolor Nightmares, taking a trip with Granny, "Oh yea, we're the London Boys" and so much more.

As we criss-cross the globe visiting the places where it happened and finding the movers and shakers who 'just did it', we'll be paying respectful attention to the city that has given freedom and us sanctuary -- Amsterdam. Exploring the traditions that have made Holland the closest thing to Heaven on Earth available today, we will take in the Provos, the squatter movement and every aspect of this City of Light. In every way we'll be celebrating its sacred role as the Protector of Freedom to Explore Your Own Consciousness.