The Archive.

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The Stones strut their stuff at Hyde Park 1969 © John Leszczynski

 

    Ah ,yes indeed, those were the days , to go to lovely Hyde Park , find a spot in the shade with a few friends - where the view and sound were likely to be good - then lie on the grass and contemplate the universe until the bands were ready to play . Once in a suitably relaxed frame of mind , one could then listen to FREE MUSIC for up to six hours from some of the best bands in Britain ( and a few from overseas on occasions) and do it relatively hassle free. Nowadays this is such a rare event that its big news if it happens , but in those days, free concerts were a regular event .

    It is worth remembering though, that the events in the park had to be fought for and authorities were often obstructive when it came to allowing hippie related events in public places . The following incident that took place in Regents Park in 1967, shows how things stood just twelve months earlier.

From the International Times online archive

Of course events such as the 1967/8 "Smoke in's" might be considered to be a bit provocative as well. This was merely the first of a number of "legalise it " gatherings held right into the 70s . We still ain't got there 30 odd years on .......

                

Colin Purves has a recollection of another Hyde Park free concert that took place before the first documented concert with Pink Floyd in 1968, he writes :

    The very first was not announced or publicised, it just happened, with a small flat bed truck parked on the walkway in the "cockpit" and with the amps and PA running from a flying lead plugged into one of the pathway lamps, which were not very high luckily!

    I cannot in truth remember who played, but I have a "feeling" it may have been Mick Farren, Pete Brown, and so on; It was "organised" by Blackhill Enterprises, so would have been people they represented at the time. There was a brief write up of sorts in a musical paper, maybe NME or MM or more likely OZ or IT - I suppose I will have to plough through those I have left!.
 

    We all knew of it by word of mouth and there were really only about a couple of hundred there, the Floyd one had thousands as the whole cockpit was pretty full.

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    These pages are a celebration of the Hyde park concerts. The highs , the lows, the good uns and the bad uns . We will try to provide whatever info there is available on each event , recordings availability, photos, reviews, etc. and hopefully , you will want to add your memories here too.
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 (These pages include large photogalleries of the concert, most especially King Crimson and Jack Bruce. )

Concert reviews and info -1974-76( all updated Nov 2018)