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Last update Dec 2007- new crowd photos and backstage information.

The Knebworth Park Festivals.

Knebworth Park Concerts 1979.

We now have so many photos of this festival that they are spread across all site pages , if you want to see them all you need to visit ALL the pages- even the festival documents sections .

8-04-79. Led Zeppelin, Todd Rundgren's Utopia, Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes,The New Commander Cody Band, Fairport Convention ,Chas and Dave. 8-11-79. Led Zeppelin, New Barbarians, Todd Rundgren's Utopia , Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes,The New Commander Cody Band,Chas and Dave. Master of ceremonies: Nicky Horne

    In addition, Zeppelin's management believed that they had been misled as to the number of tickets that were sold at the first show, ( the press were reporting an audience of around 200, 000, whereas the police and Bannister's estimates were around 100,000) , so a gentlemen's' agreement to re-negotiate their fees for the second show if attendances were not looking good was dropped and they insisted in taking over the gate on the second concert to check ticket sales. This led to a great deal of unpleasantness between promoter and management .

   The costs incurred with actually constructing the gigantic stage and lighting rig that Zeppelin specified, as well as keeping it intact for two weekends, plus the cleanup of the site twice and the additional costs that were needed to provide policing and security were to prove the straw that broke the camels back. The financial loss suffered by Bannister led to the liquidation of the Bannister's company, as they had had to shell out substantial fees to both Zeppelin and the company who were providing the sound and lighting . They had needed the second weekend to be a success if they were to make any profit and as this did not occur they had to bow out of festival promotion, a great shame as Freddy Bannister had been one of the better UK promoters , tending to provide facilities for the crowd that were absent at a number of other similar ventures of the era.

Sept 2005 , Although there is some information about these shows on the net regarding Led Zeppelin, there is no site where the total picture of what these concerts were like is presented.With this in mind , we have added these pages, which to date present Festival welfare reports that have not been documented before, as well as bringing together all known information about recordings of the acts . We now have many good crowd photos of the site on both weekends , which helps give an idea of the atmosphere of the festival.These are sprinkled throughout the festival site . Over the months we hope to present more press and personal accounts , but this can only happen if we get this information from you .So far only a handful of personal accounts have trickled in , are the attendees all brain dead or have they simply forgotten how to write ? Please use the links to add your experiences to the site. We look forward to hearing from you.

There Must Be A Better Way

The abridged Knebworth commemorative set There Must Be A Better Way is now available at £75, plus postage - it contains the following:
 

The flyers, programmes and tickets from 3 of the following festivals: 1974 Allman Brothers, Tim Buckley, Alex Harvey 1975 Pink Floyd Steve Miller Captain Beefheart 1978 Genesis - Jefferson Airplane 1978 Frank Zappa, The Tubes, Peter Gabriel 1979 Led Zeppelin, New Barbarians A boxed set of 30 photographs from the festivals. A video containing Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rolling Stones, Genesis and Led Zeppelin in either PAL or NTSC A hard backed book with all the behind the scene stories.

and as a SPECIAL FREE GIFT to anyone purchasing the set  gets 5 live CDs from Knebworth plus a Rolling Stones DVD
 
You may read an impartial review here go to 'reviews'

You may pay in instalments if you wish. After the initial payment of £25, plus postage the set is sent to you and you are then charged three monthly instalments of £25.
email for further details

( NB : The Archive has no commercial ties with Fredie Bannister or his products , we include this information to inform our viewers about the availablity of these items .Please note that most of the audio on the bonus discs supplied with the boxed sets are audience tapes and vary considerably in quality )

Contents.

              If you can add in any way to this material ,please Contact us

Offsite Links.

    The events in this tangled chain can be read in Freddy Bannister's book, " There Must Be A Better Way " , which chronicles his adventures in promoting the giant concerts at Knebworth from 1974-79. More info about these concerts can also be found at the Knebworth House site and at Rip Gooch's site, which contains substantial portions of text from the now defunct book Knebworth Rock Festivals, by Chryssie Lytton Cobbold , and finally , at Kevin Shewan's Knebworth 79 pages .

PHOTOARCHIVES

• Led Zeppelin at Knebworth
• Beads Of Time

    We have been endeavouring to collect as many recordings of the artists that featured at these concerts as possible, so we can effectively review the performances, provide set lists and band line-ups. The intention is to also display as many personal histories of the festival as possible.

If you can contribute in any way, with tapes, reviews from the Music press, photos or personal histories, please Contact email

Knebworth Concerts 1974-80

Knebworth 74

Knebworth 75

Knebworth 76

Knebworth 78

Knebworth 79

Knebworth 80

Knebworth links

• Limited edition reprints of the Knebworth festivals are available here
• Memorabilia from various early British rock Festivals can be seen here
• Original '76 posters and '79 tickets
• The Knebworth House festival pages

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