Psychedelic artist Joel Brown certainly has a story or two to tell. Settling down to take me on a trip back to 1960s London at St Albans’ Nude Tin Can Gallery, the 79-year-old begins to relate, in his native New York drawl, the story of his celebrated work using ink and slides.

Famed for his light show at an iconic 1966 concert at London’s Roundhouse, which saw Pink Floyd and Soft Machine as the headline acts, Joel is unveiling his kaleidoscopic works once again at Nude Tin Can this week.

The St Albans resident created psychedelic moving shapes through heating ink – and sometimes food and pieces of material – and then using a projector, which would in turn throw the colourful images across the wall.

Occasionally gesturing with his turquoise ring-bedecked hands, Joel explains: “It [ink] does some strange things. It changes shape – it is like it’s got a mind of its own.

“Because they were composed of different elements, each layer of ink would react differently. I learned their beautiful properties and how they react to heat.

“They would grow and change shape but their colours would never mix – it surprised the hell out of me because I saw the changes and they were just beautiful, utterly, utterly beautiful.”

A former singer, army serviceman and employee of the American bus service Greyhound, Joel became interested in art through friends living in New York.

When he moved to the UK in 1966, the dad-of-two was introduced to Pink Floyd by photographer John Hopkins.

After projecting his colourful moving images onto the band during a concert at the Light and Sound Studio in London, Joel was invited to create the light show for the their iconic Roundhouse concert.

“They were in an experimental stage with their music and I was in an experimental stage with my art,” remembers the artist, who was born in Pennsylvania.

“I asked the guys if they would all wear white t-shirts. I wanted them to put their egos aside so I could exercise my ego – that was quite a feat.

"We did the show and at first everyone was dancing. There was 1,500 people there. They did wear the t-shirts and I was on the back of a flatbed truck standing there holding the projector in my hands.

"All the people sat on the floor and started watching what was going on and that was amazing to me.

“The music and the slides went together like coffee and sugar – they just worked together. We didn’t work anything out, we just let it happen.”

Towards the end of 1966, Joel returned to America in order to “make a living” and began producing his slides for discotheques in New York.

But he says his passion for making the transparencies faded once it became his job, and he hasn’t made any for many years.

However, upon returning to England to settle with his wife in St Albans in 1970, he continued drawing and once showed his slides at a nudist colony in Bricket Wood.

Alongside his artistic life, Joel – who published his book Psychedelika: The Art of Joel Brown in April this year – worked a day-job as a window cleaner in St Albans for many years.

“Every experience causes you to grow,” muses the artist, who decided to show his work again after meeting gallery owner Samantha de Barnard at an event in the city.

Nude Tin Can Gallery, Hatfield Road, St Albans, Thursday, July 9, 7pm. Details: 07870 941158, nudetincan.gallery