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.
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