For
information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk
The Archive.
|
|
For
information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk |
Updated Jan 2012.
Jesus sighted in Hyde Park Speakers Corner around 2001 .....
Festival "celebs" : "Jesus Jellet ".
Jesus Clothed ! Reading Festival 1974 © Vin Miles |
"Jesus" was a well known character at most UK festivals in the 1970s, always seeming to be on his own , often nude, he would dance for hours, off in his own little world .Rail thin , he was something of a mystery to most people, instantly recognisable, but not known for anything by the vast majority of concert goers other than for his perpetual dancing , which was freeform , and generally known as ' idiot dancing' by the press, who did not 'do'dancing , seeing it as being terminally uncool.
What happened to Jesus is a mystery, but I suspect he was probably carried off to hospital with severe brain injury after being hit by on the back of the head by a full party four can ....... standing when everyone else was sitting was a dangerous pastime at commercial rock festivals and this became more dangerous as the decade progressed. .... I would hope this was NOT so, as he seemed to be a gentle soul who did no one any obvious harm...
Apparently Jesus did occasionally appear at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park talking about the advantages of Vegetarianism over meat eating , photos of him there on three separate occasions are now housed here further down this page. The picture on the right is not of Jesus afterundergoing a sex change, but is rather the cover of the issue of teen mag 19, which featured an interview with the man himself early in the 70s . This may have been because Jesus possibly had some contacts in the music business. The story relates that he acted as an adviser to Steve Hillage and the other band members of Egg on ways of surviving within the music business around this time period. It would be nice to have confirmation of this through more eyewitness accounts, preferably from Jesus himself if he is still with us .... Apart from attending almost every London gig of significance within the freak scene and a goodly few outside of the smoke as well, Jesus also used to drop in to the BIT offices and ' entertain " the denizens there with some of his beliefs. Mick Davis has provided us with one of these and you can read it here If you know what happened to Jesus or who he was , then drop us a line Contact us ! |
 |
Jesus sightings .
Knebworth 1974
i cant remember the trip home ! but i do remember "jesus" jellett
who always striped naked and got arrested at loads of gigs, well it takes all
sorts. I asked my brother about "jesus" and he agreed with me that
his name was jellet or gellet, i think he came from southampton, i went to school
in southampton also and went to a lot of the big gigs at the time,genesis,deep
purple, status quo,etc and he must of been at some, there would be a huge shout
if he was spotted! apart from that ,i cant recall if that was his real name
but it was shouted out at various gigs.
andy wild
Hyde Park 6-29-74
I
travelled up to this concert from South Wales on my own, just 4 weeks after
a few of us had travelled up for the June 1st 1974 ACNE concert.
I arrived early but the stage had been set up and they had some records being
played for the then sparse crowd. I saw Jesus down at the front already boogieing
away. Jesus was an idiot dancer who attended all the festivals and had been
pictured in the MM or NME at various festivals.
Bill Tasker
I was at the infamous Windsor free festival...in fact,i am the poor lil child (only 14!) who is picturedfreaking out (on acid lol) next to festival freakie,'Jesus' in one of the photos...lol! what a gas to see that.
Dolores
we spoke
to him a few times, reckon he kept us awake one night at windsor 73. he seemed
a nice guy, pretty sure we saw him cop off at windsor 73 too, seriously. At
least he turned up...everywhere!
peace.
PC support
In
case you hadn't noticed, the dancer in the top Darting Tongues picture
at Stonehenge 81 is Jesus Jellett. |
The Who at Charlton 1974
I
also remember 'the Who on ice' and I think I remember Bongo Jesus being there
(he was everywhere in those days)
Peter Gill
Non Festival sightings
Greetings. I knew Jesus, as it were. I used to clean houses in London ca. 1975-1980. I think this was towards the latter end of the period. Anyway, I was working for a boss who had a lot of cleaning gigs in Golders Green. I was working with a couple other lads and the boss who noted that we were cleaning the walls of a house that had smoke damage. When we went to put our jackets away in the closet, I noted the coat of many colors that I had seen Jesus wearing at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park on several Sundays (I had also seen him dancing at the front of a Lene Lovich concert; he could dance, usually with very little clothes on). He was there in the house cleaning the silverware.
I told
the lads I was with that he was Jesus. They were fascinated when I told them
about him and we had tea with him. The lady of the house was charmed by his
insistence on herbal tea and honey (this was the late 1970s). So they asked
him: "You don't have caffeine?" "No," he answered. "You
don't have sugar?" "No." "You don't drink alcohol."
"No." "You don't have sex?" "I never said I don't have
sex." True story.
yours,
Newton
Hiya
Jesus was Clive thats all i know!! honest!!
Twink
As
a teenager in the mid 1970s, I spent a lot of Sundays at gigs in the London
Roundhouse - featuring the likes of Curved Air, Principal Edwards, Van der Graaf,
Hawkwind, Edgar Broughton Band, Pink Fairies and so on.
Jesus was always in the audience, dancing away. Everyone knew who he was - and
everyone called him Jesus!
I noticed a picture of him in "London Through A Lens" - at Hyde Park
1974, I think.
I have wondered what became of him or who he became!
Thanks for the pages - really interesting!
--
Patrick Hadfield
I
spotted him at Speakers corner in 2000 or 2001.
He was sitting against the fence with a couple of the hand written posters like
in the pictures and also had some random Queen album covers on display.
He had a single knitted glove on, which he told us was a ‘sign’
of something or other, also he made a lot of references to his friend Marco.
He told us had informed Scotland yard and the bbc about his deity status.
Had no idea he was so well known!
Regards
Peter Dickinson
This
guy was called Jesus Jellett I think his first name was Andrew ( not sure about
that)
I spoke to him at a Reading Festival once . He seemed to know a lot about the
music business
I think he managed some bands ( again not sure) I saw him last at a Punk Concert
in about 1979 in London
@DiamondBoyz99
Yeah, I remember Jesus, he lived a couple of houses away from my girlfriend in Shepherd's Bush. I used to see him at every gathering I went to, giving out his nuts and raisins and pulling the chicks. There was a Weeley album out and the picture on the front was a vast crowd scene, all seated except for one naked guy standing with his arms outstretched, Christlike. Jesus again. Heh!
I
came across this website by accident and it instantly brought back memories
of the fun times of the early seventies, that hairstyle of his was very distinctive
and seeing the photos on the website I instantly recognized him even after all
these years.
He lived opposite myself in Sinclair Road West London around 1970, I was in
my early teens and my friend Jimmy and myself used to hang around with him as
we thought he was a really cool hippy guy who got us into many concerts for
free like the Quintessense gig at the Albert Hall circa 1970? And the Saturday
Morning Pictures album promotion gig by Stray at the Rainbow around 1971?
One memory that stuck was we were always knocking on his flat door to see him and one time he eventually answered the door to say he was a bit busy and we couldn’t stop that evening, at that his door swung open to reveal two naked women lying in his bed! Yep ,bad timing on our part( although being youngsters it gave us a lot to talk about for several days afterwards) , we went with him once to Speakers Corner but were rather shocked by the bad comments and ridicule he got from some of the spectators as I’m sure he truly believed himself to be the reincarnation of jesus.
I
remember he always had a bag of mixed nuts with him which he would share with
people and he used it many times as “money” along with his charm
with security people/doormen to get us into gigs free, we used to meet up with
several other hippies around the area with him as he seemed to know everyone
around and by the time we got to the gigs there usually was a big group of us
that got in.
Ken Dordi
I don't know what happened to him, but I used to talk to him often at Speaker's Corner in 1978. He invited me to tea, but I was too shy to go - but I have always remembered how appropriate it was when he told me he lived in Shepherd's Bush!!
Georgina
( in light of the post before this one, we think that young Georgina had a narrow escape - or missed out , you decide :-)
Been
reading your site via Captain Sensible's Twitter page and thought I'd share
info about Jesus; I remember him being at The Marquee Club often in 1985, particularly
at Solstice gigs. Also that year he was definitely at the Anti
Heroin gig at Crystal Palace Bowl, which was headlined by Hawkwind and Dame
Vera Lynn! Also, there was a rock music programme, ECT broadcast on Channel
4 in 1985 and Jesus can be seen in the crowd during Dumpy's Rusty Nuts set.
Cheers
Ric
I
love your website, which I’ve now stumbled twice almost by accident. I’m
working on a writing project (but I don’t have time for that now) and,
having attended the Reading Festival in 1977, first found you through Google.
Then again when looking for something about a guy known as ‘Jesus’
who was a recurring denizen at gigs of all sizes and apparently all venues in
the 1970s and 1980s (I lived in London then and had a tangential association
with the music industry). It was amazing to see his photos and realise he hadn’t
just been a figment of my imagination. I sadly know nothing more about ‘Jesus’
than I’ve discovered from reading your website, but thought you might
be interested in these snippets, pieced together from the information you provide:
http://calyx.perso.neuf.fr/bands/chrono/egg.html
[23] London, The Roebuck
Following Egg's début appearance at this Tottenham Court Road pub, the
band's unofficial manager Bill Jellett organises a weekly residency for them
there; Steve Hillage occasionally sits in; among the audience at one of these
gigs is Pat Boland, a DJ and headhunter for Decca Records; with Middle Earth's
plans to start a record label failing to materialise, Egg end up signing with
Decca
My note: I googled Steve Hillage Egg Jellett, thinking there might be a link
– could Clive or Andrew Jellett have been the brother (son? Father?) of
Bill Jellett, Egg’s unofficial manager or were they one and the same…?
[Googling “Bill Jellett The Roebuck Tottenham Court Road”, I find
John Paul Jones of Led Zep once auditioned upstairs at this same pub: http://ledzeppelin.alexreisner.com/jones.html
‘Tony Meehan vividly recalls that particular audition. "It was held
above the Roebuck Pub in Tottenham Court Road in London. We had a single called
"Diamonds" at number one on the charts and we were putting together
a band. John Paul heard about is and showed up. He was just out of school, very
young and a bit nervous. Despite the nerves, he was a good musician and he knew
his shit. He was cocky too in a certain way and I liked that. So we hired him.
"He toured with us for a year or so until the band broke up."’]
A Pink Floyd fan site http://www.pinkfloydz.com/another_hippy_remembers_p3.htm
has this:
“Jesus Jellet took his clothes off and danced as usual, and Tim Blake,
the Gong synthesiser player, threw bananas out into the audience during the
climactic closing number. Merde! Culturally this was the business, it seemed
like people had emerged from hiding in their most exotic finery just for this
event. “
This apparently Russian blog has some not-safe-for-work images on its Steve
Hillage page: http://nnm.ru/blogs/frozenorb/steve_hillage_l/
“They fell in with a guy called Jesus Jellett who introduced them to venues,
audiences and management that did want the 'acidy' stuff. The only catch was
that they had to change their name to Egg on the grounds that Uriel sounded
too much like urinal.”
Same content replicated here: https://laesferamusical.wordpress.com/category/70s/page/17/
And that’s where the trail dries up… I’d love to see a copy
of the magazine interview he did if you ever get a copy!
Keep up the great work,
Chris Bell
Hello
There
I stumbled on your site's Jesus Jellet page. I used to know him in 1968. We
met when I played a gig at Middle Earth in Covent Garden. He was Bill Jellet
then and had a French wife who's name was, I think Marie, or at least something
beginning with M. They lived in Kensington and I used to go around their flat
regularly to socialise and play music. Other regulars at the flat were Egg,
who I supported at a gig Bill put on at the Roebuck in Tottenham Court Rd. I
think he used to work in the BBC record library. I don't think the "Jesus"
name was used then, I think it was the press that came up with it. He can also
be seen dancing in the film of Cream's farewell concert at The Royal Albert
Hall and The Rolling Stone's Rock and Roll Circus film.
I
am afraid I don't know his origins but if I recall rightly he did come to London
from somewhere. I don't recall a regional accent or a London accent so Southampton
could be the place. I am emailing Alan Clayson to ask if he knows anything.
Others who might know include Dirk Campbell [previously Mont Campbell of EGG].
I must say this whole quest for information has the makings of a good television
documentary.
A copy of the 19 magazine with the Jesus Jellet interview is on ebay for a ridiculous
price.
Cheers
On a personal note, well self-promotion actually, feel free to check-out my
current music on my website.
Philip
Philip
G Martin aka Drohne
Hi
,
I remember him from a few festivals I went to one particular one in Hyde Park.
His name was William Jellet, a bit freaky but cool, I spoke to him a couple
of times. He was at most festivals I went to or read about in the music papers.
I remember one article where he was interviewed by a reporter and harping on
the Jesus thing he was asked if he had ever performed any miracles, his reply
was ‘yes,I once gave someone a piece of orange !’
Derick Bhupsingh.
I
was in a London band called 'Quadrille' in the early to mid '70s. We played
all over London and had a residency at the Marquee Club
in '73-'74. It didn't matter where we played, Jesus was always there. I always
wondered how he knew where we were playing and,
of course, who he was/is. We enjoyed his dancing tremendously and I'd love to
know what happened to him. I live in California now.
Michael Ashcroft
Jesus at Reading 1974
"Jesus" dancing - Reading 1974© Vin Miles |
|
Jesus at Hyde Park speakers corner 1974
Jesus at Speakers Corner Hyde Park, preaching © Vin Miles |
|
 |
 |
 |
Images gratefully used under creative commons license : left WillemGT . right : Daniel Gulp
Last known photo of Jesus at a Here and Now show , possibly 1981, note change of clobber © Janet Thompson |
Reading 74 pages.
The early festivals.
You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
| |
|
|
|
Festivals 1965-1990
Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
This site is non profit making , its
a site for die-hard fans- and run as a source of information for those interested
in Rock music of the past .We are completely against the sale of bootlegged
artefacts , especially musical ones .We attempt to obtain permission to use
articles and photos wherever possible, but on occasions , due to the age and
obscure origin of some items , we have not been able to ascertain the owner
of the copyright .It is also possible that occasionally we are sent material
from sources that assert that they own the copyright of material, but their
claims are spurious - If you see any material on the site that you believe you
own the copyright of - please send us an e-mail with proof that you have ownership
of the image and we will remove the offending item from the site immediately.
Contact
us
