The Archive.

CRYSTAL PALACE GARDEN PARTY 9-15-73.  Blue   Golden Earring Backdoor Tony Joe White ( solo set) Lou Reed Beck Bogart and Appice. The Section James Taylor

   A warm Autumn day, perfect weather ( for most of the show at least ), apart from some humidity. This was the only Garden Party I attended. This show was notable for me ,as it was the first one that I went to with my wife to be , we were very much in love and spent most of the day snogging and generally being amorous , much to the amusement of those who were with us.

   One of the big problems with the Crystal Palace Garden Parties was the presence of the small lake in front of the stage. This distanced the audience from the bands and made it harder for a rapport to be established between performers and artists. Basically the only people who could get close were the berserkers who were prepared to wade fully clothed through the water and get near the stage . This was ok on a warm day, but was not to be recommended in a British September as normally it gets pretty cold in the evenings once the sun goes down. However, this day was something of an exception.

   The musical draws were Lou Reed , The Section and Jeff Beck . I'd seen both Lou and Beck ,Bogart and Appice earlier and was keen to see them both again to see if they were still as good.  The Section  I knew only from their album Fork It Over apart the fact that they were well respected and known musos.

   Lou Reed was a great disappointment. I'd seen him give one of the great concerts of my lifetime at Leicester University in late 72 but this time round I did not like the changes in his image or his music. Decked out in his usual cool leather outfit, with his hair punked up. Lou seemed arrogant and contemptuous of his audience and the new band just did not cut it compared to the bunch of hicks he had playing with him in Leicester. The previous band were short on cool  - they basically looked like they were rejects from a low life trailer park, with their cowboy hats and down at heel boots, but that was half the charm- whereas the new lot looked more like they belonged to the Lou Reed scenario. But ultimately how a band looks is immaterial , its their sound and the treatment of the material that matters.

      Unfortunately , from my perspective this had all gone downhill , most of the subtlety that had been displayed a year ago been chucked out the window and instead Lou had gone for a harder , denser,  heavy sound , which just did not allow the material room to breathe. Whereas Lou had been a theatrical powerhouse last time round, with some great moves with his guitar and a display of exemplary showmanship, this time he had gone over the top . Instead of exploiting that controlled menace that I had found so enthralling in 72, he was hamming it up, and had lost all the tension and restraint that had made the last show so great. Basically, I just did not get off on this music, although quite a few in the crowd did , as the above picture shows .

      It was starting to get dark when The Section hit the stage and they proved to be the best band of the day in terms of the degree of musical skill they displayed. I also liked their music , all instrumental and somewhat fusion based , it lacked the pretension of Lou's set and was a cleaner sound then BBA. The audience was not so sure, I think they were pretty cool in their reception of this band, who really did not fit into the rock orientated sound of the day. Most people had never heard the Section ( I think they were billed as James Taylors backing band )

   James Taylor eventually joined The Section on-stage , but during his set the weather took a distinct turn for the worst. The humid conditions had gotten worse during the evening and had eventually built up to a tremendous thunderstorm . The thunder had been approaching during The Sections set and after a few numbers of Sweet Baby James's laid back output , as James began Fire and Rain ,the heavens split open and a huge bolt of lightening illuminated the entire area, quite spectacular !. We decided to leave. it was good move as a while later just as we go near the car, the sky opened ,and the entire audience was almost instantly drenched by one of the heaviest downpours I've ever seen .  The sky split open with savage lightning bolts descending in wild abandon , whilst deafening thunderheads accompanied the minstrels on-stage . I've no idea how long it went on as we beat a hasty retreat across the car park and bundled ourselves into Mick's charabang before we became casualties of the mass exodus , or the lightning- or both.

   An audience tape exists of this show and its very interesting to listen to it. Up until Fire and Rain , it was a pretty subdued set, then as the lightning lit up the sky you can hear the entire audience gasp and react as one . "Shit" being the most common expression . James Taylor played a mostly acoustic set, with the section joining in on a few numbers at the end.

Also, film of Beck . Bogart and Appice exists - Rare Super 8mm Footage 12 mins.

Other accounts

ciao,

    I was at Crystal palace, Sept. 15th, 1973 !!!! I was only 15 years old, first time in UK by myself with my friend Luca Lupoli, for studying english. We just had a band in our hometown and the day was terrific. The band who played were: Golden Earring ,Backdoor ,Tony Joe White ( solo set) Beck Bogert & Appice ,Lou Reed ,The Section, James Taylor with a lady as guest ( Carly Simon, Carole King I don't recall, we were leaving soon it was getting wet) I have some photos of the event, from the other side of the lake! The night before we saw Frank Zappa at Wembley. What a great day!!! I recall somebody just naked staring at the bands ( maybe called jesus ? who knows...) somebody OD not far from us....we brought an umbrella, very englishmen.... I am and have been since I was 20 years old a professional music journalist and independent producer.

Love love love to all of those were there. If you wanna know more about me read my bio at my web site http://www.cometanet.it/ilpopolodelblues

ciao take care

ernesto de pascale

Hi there,

    Yes, this was truly a great day. I remember a great performance from the Dutch band "Golden Earring". And I'll never forget James Taylor singing "Fire and Rain" while the audience were experiencing just that !!! Not forgotten - after 28 years !

Best Wishes

Paul

Hi
Great reading your memories of these events. I was at the James taylor gig, yes I got very wet at the end, but what a great light show, Lightening right on cue. I have still got the official programme for this gig. Autographed by Tim Bogert and Tony Jo White. I remember BBA coming on stage around midday Jeff Beck said something along the lines of "Hi how are you all, It seems funny playing a gig at breakfast time" He then plugged in his guitar to the Wah-Wah pedal lots of crackling noise so he unplugged it and chucked it in the pond.

Great site by the way
David Minnette

I was at the Crystal Palace garden party in 1973 ... it was my first date with my wife, now of 25 years! After all this time I thought my memory of the "Fire and Rain" lightening lightshow must have been something I had dreamed, thanks for helping me relive and confirm it. Best special effects I have ever seen. My other vivid memory is of Jeff Beck doing strange things with voice tube effects in an attempt to get the swimmers out of the lake.

Dave

I was peeking round at the crystal palace stuff and bizarrely enough I went with my then girlfrend now my wife to the Lou Reed show . I remember that was the first time I'd seen Lou Reed in the daylight not a pretty sight ! I did'nt tape him; which is strange but did tape James Taylor . The quality is not too bad; he did 45 minutes and I think I have the whole set .There is a slight problem as we had some really nasty talkative types in front of us who would'nt shut up and I got into a shouting/ swearing match with them for the first 3 songs but apart from that its not a bad a- or b++ tape open air aud quality wise .

all the best

bob

Personnel.

Lou Reed.
Lou Reed, vocals
Steve Hunter, guitar
Dick Wagner, guitar
Ray Colcord, keyboards
Pentti Glan, drums
Peter Walsh, bass

Beck Bogart and Appice.
Jeff Beck- guitar.
Carmine Appice- Drums, vocals.
Tim Bogart-Bass , vocals.

The Section .

Craig Doerge
Danny Kortchmar
Russ Kunkel
Lee Sklar

A review of this concert can be found in the New Musical Express Sept 29th -1973- does anyone have a copy ?

1973 Program - includes site map and timeline details                

• Garden party 71.
• Garden party 72.
• Garden party 73.
• Garden party 74.
• Garden party 75.
• Garden party 76.
• Garden party 77.
  

   We have been endeavouring to collect audience or sbd tapes of the performances at this festival , 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 have any info you can contribute to the site, especially regarding the 1968 and 1969 festivals, such as details of recordings. recollections, programmes, tickets, pix or articles don't just sit there , Contact email

Back to the main Archive.