Wow, that's fantastic! I've never seen that film either and damn I envy you being there - what a fantastic show! Just going a bit later, you weren't at Blackbush were you? (If so, any impressions?)
1956 was a fine vintage indeed. I was born!
I was at blackbushe.
It was an exciting time: 'Street Legal' just released, 'Baby Please Stop Crying' in the charts.
I'd been down to London earlier in the summer for an Earl's court show.
With four friends, in a small rental car (cheap!), we drove down to a camp site two miles from the Aerodrome the day before.
That night, whilst promising ourselves to be sensible, we stayed up late and got pretty loose.
However, next morning, we walked to the Aerodrome, loaded with booze , hash, and food. Or so we thought.
It was a long day. Started about 12 with 'Merger'. A reggae band. Graham Parker,
Joan Armatrading and more. They put some matting on the runways but wasn't very comfy.
At first the concession stands and the toilets were great. At first.
As the day wore on..
Anyway, by the time Bobby came on: we'd eaten all the food, smoked all the hash and drunk all the booze.
He played a long set (3 hours), it got colder and colder. Started with an instrumental 'My Back Pages.' Led by Steve Douglas on sax.People started lighting fires, using whatever they could find.
We were also just in front of the delay towers. That meant the sound was pretty bad. Twice.
By the time El Clappo came on, we were freezing our bolloxs off.
Kinda quite happy when it ended. We trudged back to the tent and crashed.
Next day, drove back up North.
The naivety of youth.
Another crate of vodka, 10 grammes of hash and kilos of food would have been nice.
Did I go to Blackbushe? Yes.
That's fantastic Ian! Thank you for sharing those indelible memories! I've been to a few festivals like that...
And it makes me feel a bit better about missing Blackbushe, which I really regretted, also being a big fan of Steel Pulse and Graham Parker (and Joan Armatrading until she came out for Thatcher).
I had a plane ticket I couldn't change and could actually see the festival site from the plane as I flew over it leaving the country. At least, like you, I got to see Bob at Earl's Court. First Bob show and it was a bunch of fun.
Hey,
'Steel Pulse' I saw a few times. They were pretty heavy duty.
I think a couple of the band relocated to Africa later, bought a farm in Ethiopia. Rasta Fari.
Amongst all the Marley 'One Love' kinda stuff, they were some really serous dudes from Brixton.
And Birmingham. Scared me to death! But having been to Ethiopia on holiday. Believe me, those guys just laugh at the Brixton boys and Marley. There'a great collection of Ethiopian stuff, 26 cd's, spanning about 30 years. Collated in France. Going back to when Selassie was exiled to Jerusalem in the Second World War and brought back an Armenian choir with him. (Ed: are you making this up?)(Ian: No!)
Looking back at my posting about Blackbushe.....sounds far too negative.
Apologies.
My buddy, (a bobcat, neil and csny fan) went to Wembley 1974.
A died-in-the-wool-CSN man since. Despite the fact that Crosby can start a fight in an
empty room.
I noticed that recently (i.e. this millenium) there's been a release of the CSNY 1974 tour.
In triplicate with brochure and a price tag.
Two tracks from Wembley on it. Apparently, the first 'stadium ' tour of a super-group.
They grossed 11 million. Bill Graham promoted this after his success with Bobby's tour with the Band earlier that year. So I'm told.
Would love a link!
It was only 45 years ago!
Enough ramblings for tonight.
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