The camden festivals

Fleetwood Mac. Taste. Edgar Broughton Band, Duster Bennett.

An all nighter,with a sizeable crowd of 25,000 -this show was disrupted towards the end by skinheads , who bottled and heckled Fleetwood Mac when they came onstage .

This incident annoyed Peter Green's father so much that he wrote to the music papers .

" My son travels all over the country playing to different audiences practically every night and last Friday was one of his nights off. But instead of taking advantage and resting, he offered his services to play for free at an open air concert along with other artists. Everything would have gone off fine , when along came a small group of hoodlums - not I may add , long haitred freaks , as is their usual description -but a gang of crew-cut young thugs who seemed to delight in spoiling a night out for the vast majority of people who were there to enjoy themselves.

After many nasty incidents the concert had to be abandoned , much to the disgust of the organizers who went to a great deal of trouble to arrange it . It is time sterner measures were taken by the law and stiffer sentences imposed on these so called citizens of the future. "

J Green

Euge Gannon was there and has this recollection :

The Fleetwood Mac evening was an English version of Altamont. Skinhead culture was on the rise and they were there enmasse looking for trouble. Edgar Broughton was singing Out Demons Out with real passion and fear. Fleetwood Mac abandoned the show but I had already decided to clear out after just missing a left hook.Because this show was at night it was easier for violence to happen. There was never much security at shows back then, either police or provided by the promoters. The main organized presence would have been the roadies that would have protected the equipment. But then crowd violence wasn't expected so any police would have been heckled as pigs, even from the stage.
Skinhead culture and uniform was getting more popular and they were attracted to the pubs of Hampstead Heath for the opportunity to go 'queer or paki' bashing. I would like to know how the word went out to the skinhead community.
I don't remember details of the performances. I was too concerned getting out of there without getting duffed. The atmosphere was extremely tense, Edgar Broughton did his usual routine and may have been provoking the mob. The audience and bands were afraid. I just avoided getting punched out by a passing skinhead mob. It was not one of the great shows of that era.