The Archive .

For information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk

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Last updated Sept 2007 :New info on Hawkwind and Pink Fairies - many new photos.

 

   

Photo © Terry Farebrother .

   The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was the first REALLY BIG Festival we attended. It dwarfed  the other festivals we'd been to (apart from the Stones in the Park  show and that wasn't really a festival , just a one day concert.). 

     It also was the first time that we'd seen a LOT of the American bands that were to increasingly dominate our musical interests in the next decade or so all in one hit.

    The line up of top quality American and UK bands was awesome and has probably never been bettered in a UK Festival - and certainly not in the 1970s.  150,000 people attended, yet the festival still seemed intimate and friendly.
 Yet , once again, being held in a British summer, it bloody well  RAINED, this however ,did not prevent the crowd from having fun.

    Like the other Archive festival pages, this site contains articles ,personal accounts from festival goers /musicians ,setlists and other information regarding the bands and people who attended.This is an ongoing project which will grow as people add their experiences to the site. 

If you would like to add your details or links 

email us

Cover of the Bath programme, now worth a tidy sum if you have one stashed away somewhere...

( and no,we don't know how much your copy will fetch .....)

 

Visit the 1969 Bath Festival pages.

    All Bath festival fans will want to read the book by Bath promoter Freddie Bannister about the 69 and 70 festivals. Its called " JUST BROKEN EVEN " -click on the photo to view more details .

(Please note we have no commercial links with the Bannisters and we are not responsible for the content of the box set or delivery of their merchandise. We merely provide this link so you are aware of the mechandise that is out there about the Bath Festivals.)

Film of Bath

    For years we've been wondering if there was any footage taken of the festival. Finally Henrietta Bannister cleared up the matter.

she wrote

"I regret we do not have any film of the Bath Festivals. There was a professional film made of the 1970 festival by a company called Gentle Ghost and Paradise Films ( for which we still own the rights) but goodness knows what has happened to it. If you hear anything your end I should be really grateful if you would let me know."

  However, thanks to the intrepid Steven Lyons , who dug up its resting place in a record 24 hours , several thousand feet of colour 16mm film footage surfaced in 2004 . The only problem was that the film footage had only a few performances, mostly interviews . This wasn't a lot of good on its own as far as a commercial release was concerned (although there are many out there who would pay good money to see it ). However , when a large chunk of black and white video footage emerged , the possibility of a documentary being made raised its head once more .

  The problem was, it gradually became clear that the video footage was in possession of at least three separate parties, spread widely around the globe .The Bannisters were not one of these parties, so there was a split- would the forces combine their efforts to make one definitive project that we the public would get an eyfull of before we were all wheelchair bound ?

  Well, you can hope, but don't hold your breath , since we found the footage (now over three years ago) , nothing much has happened. Theres a classic impasse , with all parties involved claiming that they own the rights to the footage. The black and white footage varies in quality. Much of it was shot by people who were dosed, the technology was in its infancy and now its deteriorated over the years. Apparently there is good quality audio out there, but those who are in possession of those items have put them onto the back burner for now.

 

The festival at night © Terry Farebrother

    Apparently the festival was the first in the UK to be videotaped. Given that 37 years have now passed and that if we wait much longer a goodly portion of those who attended will have snuffed it, we would have thought that it was high time that everyone just got together and made some sort of commercial release before someone DOES get hold of the footage and puts it up on YouTube . So far the only footage out there for people to buy is the Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother stuff. For details of the video company that was at Bath and which acts were filmed , visit the Festival video link below .

 

Down front at the Bath Festival 1970 © Thomas Henry

Audio recordings of Bath festival .

    Yes, we do have copies of audio recordings of most of the acts who performed at the festival . No we won't sell you copies and we will only trade for new versions or for recordings we do not have. Please don't pester us to sell or to let you know where you can get recordings because we just won't reply to your mails. Its out there, so go and trade for it ,or buy Freddy Bannister's boxed sets, which contain about half of the available audio .You can also look for the bit torrents that are now around on the net . As for us, well, we would love to help, BUT the overall day to day website maintainance and adding to the information online takes up most of our time , theres just not enough to provide help to all of the 150,000 who attended and who want to hear the music.

Contents

   Each of the band pages contains ( if available), setlists,band lineups , photo's , reviews and links .Where photos and setlists from Bath are not available, we have used examples from the year 1970 ,  most particularly  from the Kralingen festival which took place the same weekend .

   Also, a short film , taken by Ross Mortimore, of Saturday afternoon at Bath has surfaced ,Ross has kindly donated a copy to the site and stills of this are now featured in the film archive section .

We are still seeking the following tapes of the festival for review purposes,

Audio- visual Records
 

The artists

Reviews, photo collections and general information

The Farebrother Collection

New July 2007
 
 

8 mm Film Archive

Ross Mortimore's streaming Quicktime movie of the crowd will return sometime in 2007, this features clear images of the stage PA , Colosseum onstage and bikers with Canned Heat at Bath as a soundtrack provided courtesy of Bob C . Bandwidth restrictions mean we can only host so much streaming content at one time, so we are rotating audio and video clips around the site.

Led Zeppelin onstage Bath 1970 Jochen Laschinsky ©

Jochen Laschinsky has also unearthed a minute or so of 8mm footage which contains several short clips of Canned heat, Zappa, Santana and Zeppelin. Unfortunatley , as he was shooting into the sun, the footage is extremely dark , we have included stills taken from the footage on the relevant pages of the site and the example above is what its like at its best .

   
 
General information:
links menu to site map, ticket. pass out, transport, drug bust, films and festival arrangements.

External Links

A limited edition of reprints of the 1969 and 1970 Bath festival posters and Freddie Bannisters books on the Bath ,Lincoln 71 and Knebworth festivals can be bought online from the link below :
Rock festival memorabilia from various festivals can be viewed at the main Rock memorabilia page ,

Led Zeppelin at Bath photogallery

Santana At Bath photogallery  ( warning huge download)

Audience and Hells Angels       ( warning ,huge download)

Visit the 1969 Bath Festival pages.

Contact email

Bath Menu

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