The Archive .
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Last update Dec2012 -details of the radio broadcast and plug for the excellent T shirt .
Best viewed at above 1280x 1024 res
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Bickershaw
. Lancashire .U.K.
Friday May 5th to Sunday May 7th 1972.
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Definitely
one of the WETTEST
rock festivals of all time. The Bickershaw
Festival was
, nevertheless, a LOT of fun. I know the crowd here doesn't LOOK happy,
but I can assure you they had a ball when the bands were on-stage .
This site
is a homage to the festival and those who attended. If you were there
and want to share your experiences or have photos, tapes then Contact
us |
Bickershaw Documentary and existing film .
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See some festival footage and coverage of the recent launch of the book and new box set on the ( still muddy ) field 40 years on . When we get a review copy we will let you know what we think. Contact OZIT for details. |
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Well folks, its happened again , and we have to thank Chris Hewitt of OZIT records for sweating it all out and assembling whatever footage he could find of Bickershaw. His company has brought out a new extended version of the Bickershaw DVD that they released a few years back. It runs for about 4 hours and it contains much of the footage shot by the TV companies who covered the festival at the time, as well as footage from Jeremy Beadle that he intended to use to make a documentary of the festival. There is a little bit of new undiscovered footage of bands onstage, including the Grateful Dead, but overall theres not a lot of it . Regretably, there wasn't a film company recruited to film the festival as such, what we have here is little snippets of bands onstage, almost no complete songs from the festival itself which is a real shame . As usual with these festival related OZIT Dvd's , its a mixed bag, warts and all. Probably the best aspect of this release is that theres nearly an hour of Festival Site footage, which is mostly fun to watch to see if you can glimpse yourself walking around the site and the village . This extended version contains all the material that OZIT could find and attempts have been made to provide visuals to accompany audio ( mostly audience sourced ) that exists of the various acts . This is a bit repetitive as the available footage and images are not always sufficient to provide an interesting visual experience . However, for those who don't have the recordings, you do at least acquire the sound which you can just listen to if you get bored with the visuals . That said,be aware that theres some footage that is from all over the place in this production, if theres not enough from the actual festival the producers have chucked in stuff they happened to have found from the same era , such as The Dead from Copenhagen 1972 , some shots taken at Desolation Hill from the 1970 Isle of Wight festival and some audio that sounds like its studio stuff. However, theres a lot of new audience and site footage which is interesting and it certainly brings back the memories.If you were expecting something like the Isle of Wight movie- you will be disappointed. However, we should be glad that OZIT are making an effort to get this stuff out into the public eye, its better then it mouldering away in a vault at a TV studio even if its not perfect quaility Ozit assure me that they don't make much from these productions and I think they should be supported as they at least are making rare items available to the public, just don't expect Hollywood , cos you ain't gonna get it ...... Read our review of Volume one here Have a butchers at the Bickershaw Festival T-Shirt A book about Bickershaw is in the writing, when it surfaces we will try and review it here. |
Volume 1 click on the image to read the review and see a larger version
Volume 2 |
The DVD also comes with a selection of printed postcards from the festival. |
Jan 2008 : Jeremy Beadle , Bickershaw organiser dies of pneumonia
As you may know Jeremy Beadle died of pneumonia last week and had been fighting cancer for a couple of years- he was due early in 2008 to give me a film interview looking back at Bickershaw his memories of the fesival and looking at it from todays perspective- sadly now his thoughts will never make it onto the proposed interview film....
He
loved the dvd- he loved the Archive website and he loved the pictorial book
on Bickershaw I am working on- he did endless work for charities and he always
believed in backing the mavericks and the outsiders because he was one himself
owing to his illness as a child
He told me he worked on the Wembley Rock N Roll festival as well as Bickershaw-
but Bickershaw was his real favourite and we spent a morning together in October
him trawling through our paper archives and recalling how I had done promotion
work for the festival for him in 1972
RIP Jeremy beadle you gave 40,000 muddy fans a life changing experience at
Bickershaw
Chris Hewitt - Ozit records
The Bickershaw Menu
If you have any info regarding the festival please get in touch Contact us
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