(Virtual) Headbang - 8th May, 2020 - part 2

The final theme was the ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL 1970. It was originally a counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970. The 1970 event was by far the largest of these early festivals and the unexpectedly high attendance levels led, in 1971, to Parliament adding a section to the Isle of Wight County Council Act 1971 preventing overnight open-air gatherings of more than 5,000 people on the island without a special licence from the council. The event was revived in 2002 and has run since then, but obviously has had to be cancelled this year.

1968

The first festival was held at Ford farm, near Godshill, on 31 August and 1 September 1968, and was attended by about 10,000 people.Jefferson Airplane headlined, with Arthur Brown, The Move, Smile, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, Plastic Penny, Fairport Convention, and The Pretty Things also performing.

1969

This took place on 30 and 31 August 1969 at Wootton, with an estimated attendance of 150,000. The line-up included Bob Dylan, The Band, The Nice, The Pretty Things, Marsha Hunt, The Who, Third Ear Band, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Fat Mattress, Joe Cocker. Many celebrities of the day also attended the Festival, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, George Harrison with Pattie Boyd, Ringo Starr with Maureen Starkey, Keith Richards and Jane Fonda.

1970

This event was held between 26 and 30 August 1970 at Afton Down. Attendance has been estimated by the Guinness Book of Records to have been 600,000 or even 700,000, due to an announcement by British Rail at that time concerning the amount of sold ferry tickets, although promoter Ray Foulk has said he believes it to have been only half of that. It was widely reported on, due to its line-up and extremely high attendance. Acts included Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Chicago, The Doors, Lighthouse, The Who (whose set produced a live album), Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Moody Blues, Joan Baez, Free, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristofferson, Donovan, John Sebastian, Terry Reid, Taste, and Shawn Phillips.

We featured the latter event, not least because that was the one that Headbanger Malcolm attended, but also because there is more decent video material available and it's the 50th anniversary this year. The 6 tracks we played were:

Who	I'm free
Jethro Tull	Nothing is easy
Joni Mitchell	Both sides now
Leonard Cohen	Suzanne
Taste	What's going on
Doors	Break on through (to the other side)

A quick vote brought Taste out as the top performers, with the Who also getting a couple of mentions, plus one for Jethro Tull.

Now for the team photo - socially distanced of course: