Big thank you to Robert Ellis of Repfoto for use of his great photos of Buxton 72-74, he has many more on his site, as well as many other classic photos of other rock festivals and bands - his site is a MUST visit .

1974 The Faces , Humble Pie, Mott The Hoople, Captain Beefheart *, Horslips , Chapman/Whitney , Trapeze , Chopper, Badger, Greenslade*, Strider , New York Dolls* ,Lindisfarne, Man, JSD Band. Humble Pie's performance included: Watcha Gonna Do About It, 30 Days In The Hole C'mon Everybody, Doctor, Thunderbox, Let Me Be Your Lovemaker The Faces played with special guests The Memphis Horns on brass. * US Dolls , Greenslade and Captain Beefheart did not play .

Tony Wawryk has fond memories of the Faces set

   Things looked up when Humble Pie played a blinder, and for me that wasn't going to be bettered that night - I wasn't that big a fan of the top-of-the-bill Faces anyway. Well, I was completely wrong. They made me a fan, so much so that I went to see them again three months later on their Christmas tour - it really was just one big party. They made the prospect of a second cold, damp night in our rudimentary tent bearable by playing to 10,000 people as if they were all their mates.You never knew for sure what you were going to get with the Faces - they could be great and terrible within 10 minutes - but they were always fun.

    I went with 2 friends, and we had the crummiest tent you could imagine -sleep was only possible after several beers. I have to say that I have no recollection of the fighting referred to by other people on the website, although I do recall the singer in Strider getting pretty vocal with the sound tower - "Cuntie on the mixing desk", or words to such effect!
Incidentally, Greenslade, much to my disappointment, were among the no-shows - apparently their van broke down or something similar. Still got the programme - it was a memorable 3 days but I'd never do it now!

Tony Wawryk

Terry Battersby writes I was there in '73. One of the highlights of my life. I managed Buxton '72, '73 and '74. There should be campaign medals issued.

J Bayliss had this to say

    I note the comments of your reviewers of the '73 and '74 Buxton festivals, concurr with a great deal of what they had to say, but first must offer a few corrections to facts recorded. Firstly, Strider were absolutely dreadful; the high point of their set was the end, when they threw their guitars into the crowd and walked offstage.
    From the 1974 bill listed on the site, Captain Beefheart, Badger, JSD Band and the New York Dolls all failed to show. I don't think that Greenslade appeared either, but I probably wouldn't have noticed them any way. The weather in '74 was even worse that that of the previous year and the first aid facilities were overrun with exposure cases. Mott The Hoople were the definite high point of the festival; to date , their performance at Buxton still ranks as one of the best I've ever seen.

If 1973 was the year of the Hells Angel, 1974 was the year of the football hoolie, attracted in their thousands by the presence of Rod Stewart and the Faces.      Running battles went on all day between different factions of Rod's Mods and the stage was liberally bottled. My mate was hit over the head by a bottle flung from the stage in retaliation by one of Lindisfarne's roadies.     The Faces refused to play an encore and the stage was wrecked by bottles thrown by angry "fans." I remember seeing chunks of wood flying off Ian McClagen's Steinway piano.     Pauline Cooper is absolutely right. We deserved campaign medals. J Bayliss

Buxton, hitched up from Bournemouth on my own, small crowd, Humble Pie ,Faces and Mott great sets, talked to Ronnie Wood through the backstage fence waiting for Rod to arrive by helicopter, we were eating from the Hare Krishna's and soaked to the skin. Met Woody in 84 and he said he loved Buxton.

Tony Raine

    I remember dozens of Rod Stewart lookalikes garbed in tartan,drinking all day in the beer tent. By the time Rod and the faces came on stage most of them had passed out and missed a great set.

John Morrissey .Oldham Lancs.

    Was at Buxton 74. Weather terrible but do remember the opening act that hasn't been mentioned. It was a local band called Chopper. A three piece band and from what I remember played a really good set. Ido remember that they had Orange Amps which really impressed me at my tender young age.
Didn't stay for Chuck Berry-the sight of roaming Hells Angels was enough for me!
Keep up the good work!
Andy

Steve Hambleton

    In 73 remember the sun breaking through for Edgar Broughton at an appropriate point in one of the songs, although I don't remember at what point. The same thing happened in 74 for Streetwalkers during "My Friend the Sun" during the line " He's there in the distance if you care to see..."

    I remember Steve Robinson (the organiser) giving us leaflets to hand out in Sheffield for the 74 gig. My own personal recollection (from a distant conversation with the Captain himself in 1975) is that he was never even approached to attend. I believe that it was a matter of contractural differences that the NY Dolls did not appear. I have been led to believe that, to this day, Rod Stewart has not been paid for his performance.
Hi-light of 74 for me was between Man (of which I do have a recording) and Humble Pie.
Steve

    I went to Buxton in 1974 from Salford with my mate from school. I was 16. We slept in a round army supply tent we couldn't stretch out in. It was like a wigwam.
It pissed down all day until, as others have mentioned, the sun came out in the middle of "My Friend The Sun", to a big roar from the crowd.

    I was a big Faces fan, but my only abiding memory of the set that day was of Rod's bird. Everyone in the crowd was wet and muddy, but there stage left, in a shimmering white sleeveless cocktail dress, was an immaculate blonde.
Probably Dee Harrington.
I remember thinking: Rod, I want your job.
And then he fucked off to LA and it all went wrong.

Jon Matthews

Me, Logie @ Gonzo walked through the gates tripped out, bought 8ft long plastic bag to sleep in as we had no tent. We travelled up from London with just a sleeping bag each, then used the comunal toilets ( scaffold tubes over open trench ). Blagged couple of northerners to put our gear in their tent for w/end, we went to see Humble Pie @ Rod Stewart an old hippie kept shouting "we want Jeff Beck man". Remember weather was like January, Marriot kept abusing a black roadie, @ Stewart was paraletic drunk swinging on stage scaffold. Had to bunk the fare back to London due to lack of funds," we rearly had a gas" as Steve would have said.

Lefty of London.

    On my first trip abroad without parents me and my friend Jan trevelled from Stockholm,Sweden to London by train.On the ferry across the channel we met Maggie Allison, a wonderful girl who lived in High Barnet, north of London.We stayed at her house for a week and had a great time. She worked for Corbett Publications, who sold programmes for the Buxton Festival. She gave us a letter from her boss saying:"The bearer of this note is helping me sell programmes, and I would be grateful if you could let her(!) in with one other",signed W.S Corbett.

    Three or four hours before the festival started it was just me and my friend inside the arena area, together with the guards and people working there of course.We just sat in the grass, drank from huge cans of beer and watched all the people gathering outside the gates.This small note opened a wonderful and free box for us, and we had two great days there despite the bad weather.I remembered that it was hard to get back to Buxton, where we stayed at The Old Hall hotel,cause the only buses which came were filled to the last place, but somehow we managed to get away from there.
Cheers!
Jan Hedberg

After the ordeal of 1973, glutton for punishment that I am, I returned the following year, this time with my girlfriend and a few friends. Camping was definitely off site, up in the surrounding hilly moorlands where I recall some twat playing a saxophone all through the Saturday night! Someone we knew turned up at the site on his way back from Amsterdam and his beard and hair (really!) were full of numerous carefully hidden lumps of dope. This probably accounts for why I can't remember much about the specific bands, although the Faces were fantastic. At both Buxton 73 and 74 I saw a lot of very unhappy people who hadn't taken enough clothes etc with them and too many stupid drunk idiots. This almost put me off festivals for life and the many people who have said it are right - we should have been issued with campaign medals!

Andy

Hi.

I have just stumbled onto your festival site and I just want to say how wonderful this site is. I would like to say that it has brought back a flood of memories about festivals I went to in the 70’s. But alas, they are very hazy indeed, due in part that I was most definitely under the influence of substances, and the passing of time.

The few things I can remember, as it was my first festival was on the Friday night a band playing Silver machine. I thought it was Hawkwind, but Hawkwind is not in the line up according to the info on the festival programme. Maybe it was another band doing a cover version? Or was that a different festival altogether?

Again, I can’t remember much about the weather, or what I slept in (as I didn’t posses a tent), not even how I got there. But I do remember the band called Strider. They were one of the first bands on the following morning / midday. They were happily playing away to an almost deserted arena, (as most people had not surfaced from their pits & holes). In the middle of their first or second number, (even I wasn’t paying much attention) they just stopped playing and then ripped into everybody, with the words to the effect of “We’re up here playing our F***ing hearts out and you can’t even be bothered to F***ing get out of your pits to watch. I want you all to get out of your pits and get to the front of the stage right now.” That’s the gist of it, even if it’s not exactly what was said.

Well it got my attention anyway, and actually enjoyed the set, but I was one of a few who could be bothered. Shame really as their rendition of “Get Ready” is still one of the best I have heard. Another track I remember is called “Flyin’”.

Strider released 2 albums that I know of, “Strider” & “Exposed”.

The only other thing I can remember is Rod & the Faces, just.

Yours.

RJ Whalley