For
information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk
The Archive
Updated Jan 2008
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For
information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk |
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Royal Windsor Racecourse. |
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1967 Festival's main musical claim to fame was the first ever appearance
of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , but there
were also appearances by 11th Aug.
13th August.
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Held at Balloon Meadow at the Royal Windsor Racecourse, the festival was apparently plagued by PA problems for the entire weekend. Outdoor PA's were in their infancy at the time and WEM ,who provided the PA ,were only using 1000 watts to provide sound for a crowd of 40,000 ( although that number of people would have been spread over three days ) . Even if there were an average of 10, 000 people per show , this level of amplification was woefully inadequate for rock bands .To add insult to injury , there were many technical problems , which often left bands standing around waiting for the PA to be fixed.
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There were two stages at Windsor, the main one an open-air ramshackle structure, the other inside a marquee. Fleetwood Mac had their initiation on the main stage but much was made of Chicken Shack's tented debut. 1966 festival ticket courtesy Austin Reeves, click to see a bigger version |
Arthur Brown made his first appearance at
the Festival and arrived via a crane which dropped him on-stage , whilst he
wore his flaming helmet , singing his anthem song Fire.
This brought major cheers from the crowd, but unfortunately, the fire
in his headpiece got a bit too hot for comfort and the flames had to be put
out before he suffered major burns.
Talking of fire, there was a minor incident ,
where a small section of the crowd set fire to rubbish tip . When a fire engine
came to put it out the firemen were pelted with bottles .Others clashed with
security and set upon a 24 Hours
TV crew who were "hassling
' them , no doubt in their pursuit of getting hot footage of drug consuming
hippies.
The new PA
caused local residents to make numerous complaints about the noise and thus
the system was turned down -which in turn resulted in complaints from both audience
and performers . Obviously the location of the site was not ideal, which may
have contributed to the move the next year to Sunbury
and the Kempton Park Raceway.
NJABF Windsor 1967 on the last day. I was 17
and could best be described as a mod. I remember seeing my first hippies at
the station in London - there simply weren't any in my home town , Bedford.
I remember seeing crowds of bizarrely dressed people walking through Windsor
with the castle in the background, and then at the Festival site I smelt my
first joss sticks (and no doubt grass, but I didn't recognise the smell at the
time. I bought a
psychedelic poster of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown which included an image
of Mickey Mouse injecting himself with a needle, I believe. When I got home
I pinned it to the outside of my bedroom door to anounce my return to my parents.
I was going to stay on the camp site, but I figured the sound of bells would
keep me awake all night so I got a lift back with someone I knew.
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went because The Cream were playing and had been a huge fan since seeing
one of their first gigs at Bedford Corn Exchange - they played to a couple
of hundred people and I was in the front row about 5 yards from Clapton.
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"Donovan was the ideal choice for the Sunday people. As Stevie Winwood, Eric Clapton and Andrew Oldham watched, he trilled songs for the flower generation, ditties about love, magpies, ravens, the beauty of September, the magic of Camelot. Without his usual beads, he confessed: "I'm not really flower power ? I live in Hatfield with my father." Nearby, Winwood explained that he'd employed workmen to build a stage at his country cottage but they'd disappeared."
Bill Brooks , who was at the festival , sent this to me about his experiences
I was there... Sunday night
As I understood it the 'problems' with the WEM sound system were caused not so much by technical deficiencies but by the council imposing a decibel limit on the system that caused it to cut out at 'high' volume. John Mayall (was) stopped playing at least twice and if the lead guitars could not be heard Mick Taylor would have been only grateful!
I seemed to hear all of the guitarists OK, especially the feedback at the end of Steppin Out - it was the loudest musical sound I had heard! Much louder than when Mayall was playing (which could point back to technical difficulties). As I think back I remember Pentangle having problems - no megawatts from them!
Of course these may have been paranoid rumours but I think I remember reading something of the sort before the festival was allowed to go ahead.
I heard there were complaints from Eton (across the river) about the noise and this contributed to the system cutting out. The local newspapers the following week did report on the complaints.Austin Reeve wrote
The sound system in '67 was crap but in those days you tended to get used to it. It was only really later that the megawatt systems like Pink Floyd and the Who really gave you quality at a distance
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1967 Festival menu. Programme info. |
Festivals 61-64
Lineups of each year, plus the program and photos from 1963-64
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Festivals 65-75
Most of these have fairly complete documentation .
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