Graham Bond Organisation: Holy Magik
This story begins on a drunken night at the Colpitts Hotel in Durham. I was sitting by the fire in the back bar with a friend when we were approached by an even drunker character named Lig. Among his many slurred stories was a conspiratorial claim: Graham Bond didn’t kill himself—he was murdered because he knew too much about elite satanic conspiracies.
He was lucky to bump into me because I was one of the few people who knew—or cared—who Graham Bond was and how he died.
The Rise of the Graham Bond Organisation
The Graham Bond Organisation emerged from the vibrant jazz and R&B scene, making waves in mod clubs during the 1960s. Bond primarily played the Hammond organ but doubled on alto sax. He was the first UK artist to use the now-iconic Hammond Organ/Leslie Speaker combo and the first to split the Hammond for touring. This setup became the standard for legendary musicians like Rick Wakeman, Deep Purple’s Jon Lord, and Keith Emerson of The Nice and ELP. In 1961, Bond was voted Best New Jazz Artist.
More than that, he was one of the first keyboard players to lead a band, making keyboards the dominant instrument in a pop group. Even Elton John cited him as one of his greatest influences.
The band’s lineup was nothing short of extraordinary: Ginger Baker on drums, Jack Bruce on bass, and Johnny McLaughlin on guitar. Tenor sax duties fell to Dick Heckstall-Smith, a man known for his goatee beard, oversized sunglasses (worn even at night), and a Kangol cap—often back to front or pulled tightly over his shades. With such a lineup, they should have been unstoppable in the music industry.
A Cult Band in a Competitive Scene
Despite their talent, The Graham Bond Organisation never broke beyond cult status. Their reliance on jazz and R&B covers limited their appeal at a time when the charts were filled with some of the greatest songwriters of all time. Even within the mod scene, they lacked the commercial appeal of Georgie Fame or the effortless cool of Brian Auger.
He was still one of the great keyboards innovators. This is the first ever use of a mellotron on a pop record a year, before the Beatles Strawberry Fields:
When the band split, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce formed Cream with Eric Clapton. I Feel Free was co-written by Pete Brown, another Graham Bond collaborator:
Dick Heckstall-Smith joined Colosseum alongside drummer Jon Hiseman, who had briefly played with The Organisation. Johnny McLaughlin moved to the US and joined Miles Davis’ electric jazz group, contributing to tracks like Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, before reinventing himself as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, a jazz-rock fusion legend.
This is him playing on Miles Runs The Voodoo Down:
Bond’s Downward Spiral
While his former bandmates thrived, Bond’s life spiraled into chaos. Struggling with drug addiction and mental health issues, he was hospitalized with a nervous breakdown and briefly jailed in Pentonville.
He did still record, but as his reputation for drink and drugs grew, he often appeared under assumed names. This is him on the B-side of Substitute pretending to be The Who:
And this by Welsh Psych-Rock band The Eyes of Blue is recognisably Bond:
He found work as a session musician in the US, playing with Harvey Mandel and Dr. John, and even joined Ginger Baker’s Air Force—only to be sacked for excessive drug use.
Despite this he could still bash out a good tune:
And this is him signing and leading Airforce when he wasn't too deep in drugged chaos:
A Descent into the Occult
Bond also developed a deep obsession with the occult, a fascination that was not uncommon in late ‘60s London. The Beatles featured Aleister Crowley on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, while Jimmy Page bought Crowley’s former home and collected his writings. The Rolling Stones flirted with dark symbolism in their music.
Bond was abandoned by his parents as a toddler and was raised in a Barnado's Home before being adopted by the Bond family. He became convinced he was the son of Aleister Crowley and that he was cursed, and that his conception had been part of some satanic ritual. He was cursed from birth.
Bond drifted through various occult groups such as the Process Church, one of the many countercultural cults with links to the rich and powerful, counted figures like Marianne Faithfull and even Charles Manson among its circles. The group’s teachings would later inspire Funkadelic’s 1971 album Maggot Brain.
Bond’s descent mirrored that of earlier London mystic Austin Osman Spare. He recorded two solo albums steeped in acid mysticism and Thelemic magik, along with a collaboration with Pete Brown, Cream’s former lyricist. Legend has it his final gig took place in a mental hospital where he was being treated as an inpatient. Over-weight and dressed in mystic robes he crossed between the worlds of rock, jazz, the occult and high society.
A Tragic End
On May 8, 1974, at Finsbury Park Underground station, Graham Bond threw himself headlong into the path of an oncoming train, arms outstretched. It took police two days to identify his body—only his fingerprints provided confirmation.
He was 36. It was a strange, messy end to a strange, unpredictable life.
The official verdict was suicide. No note was found. Some believe he was fleeing drug dealers to whom he owed money.
And then there are those, like the wild-eyed Lig in the Colpitts Hotel, who claim Bond got too close to the wrong people—members of the British establishment dabbling in the occult, drugs, and sex. Perhaps he really did know too much.
I went back to the pub a couple of nights later to ask Lig some more about the story, but he wasn't in. I asked the bar man who explained that sadly Lig had died. It turned out that he died straight after leaving the pub, the night he told me the story about Graham Bond. Walked home and dropped dead.
Maybe it's best we kept this story to ourselves.