Updated July 2010 , new Band and site photos, photos of the Pye Recording crew
Best viewed at 1280 x 1024 res .
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Availability
of recordings
Practically
the entire festival was recorded from the audience , as I know of several people
who did this . One of them sold copies of the masters to a guy in the states
, these have presumably never been widely traded as few people seem to have
the recordings . The other person did limited recordings , just a few
tracks here and there of Family and Joni, with a few complete sets , such as
the Who, Hendrix , Leonard Cohen and the Doors. There are bound to be other
recordings around as well from other sources.
The Pye Recording crew
The Pye recording crew, L to R : Alan Perkins, Neville Crozier, the late Vic Maile and Kenny Denton © Alan Perkins |
However,
if you can't get the aud tapes, almost all the performances exist on film and
soundboard, through the Message To Love filming
activities and it seems that amost all of the Wednesday or Thursday
" free concerts " were recorded, as soundboards of these sets are now emerging
as well as this e-mail attests
With reference to the above I was one of the five crew that worked for the pye mobile, we recorded every single note except for the first two hours on 1inch 8 track . Vic Maile (in my opinion the best live recording engineer of all time) was in charge and one week after returning Vic and I remixed many of our favourite acts which over the years I have managed to pass on to the artist many of their recordings.
Some years ago I was contacted by the director of the movie to answer some questions which I gladly did as Vic was now longer with us.
I requested that Vic be credited on the movie, can you imagine when I saw a list a mile long of sound engineers not one that any of our gang of 5 had ever heard of were credited. The names of the crew are as follows Vic Maile, Alan Perkins, Nevil Crozie, Len Foster and myself ,Kenny Denton .Kenny D
© Alan Perkins
Hi
A few pictures you may like from the “Isle of Wight” festival 1970. I was one of the PYE engineers who recorded the whole event, now known as "Message to Love" The first picture shows three of us backstage, with a rare shot of one of the two "Pye Studios Mobile Recording Unit" vans that we had there. From left to right we have Alan Perkins, then myself Neville Crozier and then Tony Carey our maintenance man. The second picture shows four of us on the ferry over to the Island L to R Alan Perkins, Neville Crozier, the late Vic Maile and Kenny Denton. The last picture is on stage with Ricky Farr on the mike and myself, Neville Crozier putting up mics with another P.A guy.
© Alan Perkins
Alan Perkins had the camera and has only recently sent these to me. My job for the whole festival was looking after and setting the recording mics on stage for all the acts, I was only 20 years old and must have had one of the best jobs in the world!
Please contact me if you need any more info, as the PYE recorders, and the great sound we achieved, seem to have been greatly overlooked in the history of the Festival.
Neville Crozier.
However, its highly unlikely anyone recorded Hawkwind or the Pink Fairies at Canvas City, but I'd like some one to surprise me and say that they did ........ and someone HAS....
"I was interested to read in your piece on the Isle of Wight film that footage of Hawkwind might not exist but the BBC2 documentary of a few months ago had a very short snippet of Terry Ollis hammering away with what sounded like a bit of a Hawk jam going on. The quality was quite good and suggests that there's probably a bit more lurking around somewhere."
Mike Barnes
Commercial recordings of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival
Compilations
Video Disc: Isle Of Wight Festival 1970Length:137 minutes: Released :1995
Director and Producer: Murray Lerner
Side One * Jimi Hendrix - Message To Love * The Who - Young Man Blues * Free - All Right Now * Taste - Sinner Boy * Tiny Tim - There'll Always Be An England * John Sebastian - Red Eye Express * Ten Years After - Can't Keep From Cryin' * The Doors - When The Music's Over * Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin * Kris Kristofferson - Me and Bobby McGee * Joni Mitchell - Woodstock , Big Yellow Taxi
Side Two * Miles Davis - Call It Anything * Leonard Cohen - Suzanne * Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Pictures At An Exhibition * Jimi Hendrix - Machine Gun ,Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) * Joan Baez - Let It Be * Jethro Tull - My Sunday Feeling * The Doors - The End * Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady * The Who - Naked Eye
Side Three * Family - Weaver's Answer * Taste - Gambling Blues * Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Blue Rondo A La Turk * Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Message to Love : A Film by Murray Lerner
Artists appearing on Wednesday 26th August 1970
Judas Jump, Kathy Smith, Rosalie Sorrels, David Bromberg, Redbone, Kris Kristofferson, Mighty Baby.
Judas Jump
Jumping Jack Flash
Kris Kristofferson
Blame It On The Stones
Mighty Baby
India
Incomplete tapes are in circulation of the sets by David Bromburg and Kris Kristofferson
Artists appearing on Thursday 27th August 1970
Gary Farr, Supertramp, Andy Roberts Everyone, Howl, Black Widow,Groundhogs, Terry Reid, Gilberto Gil.
Supertramp
All Along The Watchtower
Black Widow
Come to the Sabbat
Terry Reid Terry Reid :guitar , vocal David Lindley :guitar, slide, banjo and violin Lee Miles: bass Mike Giles: drums. To Be Alone With You Soundboard recording exists of Terry's set. 50 minutes A quality. |
Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs, Isle of Wight 1970 |
Gilberto Gill |
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Fairfield Parlour, Arrival, Lighthouse, Taste, Tony Joe White, Chicago, Family, Procul Harum, The Voices of East Harlem, Cactus.
Fairfield Parlour
Formerly known as Kaleidoscope- opened
the concert on Friday .
" All I remember is
the view from the stage: the endless blue sky , the endless audience , the thousands
camped for free on the rolling hills to the right, the heat, the clouds of red
dust, Joan Baez wandering
by looking stunning, the movie camera thrust in my face as I was told our set
was to be cut in half , the terror, the sublime lift after the first wave of
applause , the evenings in the Red Indian camp with the fires burning, the thump
of distant music , crouching below the stage waiting for the nod so Ed and I
could leap up and be allowed to play an acoustic ."`Let
the world wash in"` to half a million hippies ,
the leaden realisation that we'`d been conned and ripped off and stuffed and
abused by the brothers Farr, the sleepless nights of total physical and mental
exhaustion, breakfast at Herbie Snowball's hotel in Shanklin -- and returning
there thirty years later on a family holiday and standing across the road and
looking up at the window where three decades earlier a young man once stared
at the orange moon... No, don't recall much."
Arrival
*Hard Road *Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye *Sit Down And Float *Not Right Now *See The Lord
Lighthouse
Hi!,
I was a member of Lighthouse, who performed at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival.
It was an amazing experience. Hendrix stayed at our hotel. I remember after
his performance, some of his roadies carried him in a half-conscious state through
the lobby.
Skip
Prokop :drums Larry Smith - trumpet,
trombone and vocals
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click to view larger photograph |
If my memory serves me (which considering my state of mind at the festival, is dubious!) I think we played at least
*One Fine Morning,* Eight Miles High,*Old Man,*Hey jude, *Give Peace A Chance , *Chest Fever
and I can't remember anything
else :-)
best wishes,
Larry Smith
You can find a lot of information about Lighthouse here
Taste
| CD : Taste Live at the Isle
Of Wight 1992 (originally released in 1971) Not known if this is the entire set. Personnel. Rory Gallagher: guitar, vocal Richard McCracken :bass John Wilson (drums * What's Going On (5:28) * Sugar Mama (9:43) * Morning Sun (4:19) * Sinner Boy (5:15) * I Feel So Good (9:04)*Gamblin' Blues * Catfish (13:55) Rory Gallagher
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Tony Joe White
*Boom Boom * Groupy Girl *Polk Salad Annie *Save Your Sugar For Me
tape is in circulation of Tony's set.
Chicago
Chicago, when they were still worth bothering with :Isle of Wight 1970 © Derek Halsall
* Only
The Beginning* In the country * Does Anybody Really Know What
Time It Is ? , Mother, * 25 or 6 to 4, * I'm a Man
audience tape exists of this set.
Family
Roger Chapman , looking fairly subdued for once onstage Isle of Wight 1970 © Derek Halsall |
Charlie Whitney :Guitar. Poli Palmer : Flute ,Violin, Keys. Rob Townsend : Drums. John Weider: Bass . Strange Band *Procession*A Song For Me*Drowned In Wine ,Good News Bad News *, Weavers Answer Audience recording of several songs exists. May be more elsewhere . Weavers Answer exists on film as pro shoot - great performance ! * Sbd |
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The group had enjoyed their set at the Isle of Wight, and Gary said they did not feel as cold as they looked on the stage. "Of course it was cold while we were waiting to go on, but once you are playing you soon get hot and sweaty.
" I really enjoyed playing
there, it was not a bit like an American festival. Their festivals are into
politics as much as the music and they tend to go on for a whole weekend without
a break because it does not get cold at night. It was nice to play to an audience
who had come solely for the music, in the most part."
Soundboard recording is in circulation of part of the set. A quality .
Cactus Carmen Appice.Drums Tim Bogart : Bass Rusty Day: Vocals. Jim McCarty: Guitar Audience recording is in circulation of part of the set . Sbd recording exists of "No Need to Worry "and "Parchment Farm " on compilation CD" Fully Unleashed " |
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John Sebastian, Shawn Phillips, Lighthouse, Joni Mitchell, Tiny Tim, Miles Davis, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Doors, The Who, Sly and the Family Stone.
John Sebastian Aud recording of the set is in limited circulation
Photo © Derek Halsall |
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*Woman* Breakthrough *Ballad of Casey Deiss.
Impromptu performance.
Joni Mitchell.
*The Gallery* That Song
About The Midway* Chelsea Morning* For Free* Woodstock (The Incident)* My Old
Man *Willie* A Case Of You* California* Big Yellow Taxi* Both Sides Now .
Soundboard recording is in circulation of part of the set. A quality .Poor quality aud tape exists of part of the set.
Tiny Tim
why should i give my love to you
There'll Always Be An England,
Tip Toe ThroughTthe Tulips
Bad Moon Rising >Blue Suede Shoes >Rock Around The Clock
Not known what source, but recording exists.
Miles Davis
Gary Bartz :(soprano.alto Chick Corea : electric piano Keith Jarrett (org); Dave Holland :bass, electric bass Jack DeJohnette :drums Airto Moreira : percussion Call it Anythin' A wonderful DVD with the entire show and extensive interviews is now commericlaly available |
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*Love Like A Man *Good Morning *Little School Girl *No Title *Hobbit *Classical Thing *Scat Thing *I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes*I'mGoing Home*Sweet Little 16.
Soundboard recording of most of the set is in limited circulation
Emerson Lake
and Palmer CD/DVD
: ELP live at the Isle of Wight.
Interview with Keith Emerson in 1997 by Bob Harris Harris: You know, when I looked back over the ELP history, I did not realise that when you played the Isle of Wight in 1970, that was the debut of Pictures at an Exhibition? Emerson: Well, I guess you could call that the debut. We played a concert about two nights before that at Plymouth Guild Hall. Harris: But when you guys did this huge Isle of Wight festival, you had only been together for about four days, right? Emerson: Well, we'd been rehearsing for something like a month prior to that. Harris: How was that, to go out for one of your first couple of gigs and go out in front of a huge festival audience like that? Emerson: I felt that the concert we did before that, two days before that at the Plymouth Guild Hall went a lot better than that, mainly because the acoustics were contained. At the Isle of Wight, the sound went out and kind of kept on going. And I wasn't...when I came off stage I was kind of unhappy about how we had played. But now, I listen back to those recordings and it's not bad. In fact, we are releasing that concert and it's coming out this month. The whole concert, the Isle of Wight Festival, ELP live at the Isle of Wight. |
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Greg Lake backstage at the Isle of Wight 1970 © Derek Halsall |
The Doors
* Back Door Man, * Break On Through,* When The Music's Over, *Ship Of Fools, * Light My Fire, *The End/Across The Sea/Away In India/Crossroads/Wake Up,*The End. encore *Roadhouse Blues, Sbd recordings of this have been available for years, possibly the complete concert may be released on video in 2001. ( still waiting in 2009 !) |
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The Who
CD: Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 - The Who , also DVD Released 1996 Disc 1* Heaven And Hell * I Can't Explain *. Young Man Blues * I Don't Even Know Myself * Water *. Overture * It's A Boy * 1921 * Amazing Journey * Sparks * Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker) *. Christmas Disc
2 * The
Acid Queen * Pinball Wizard * Do You Think It's Alright? * Fiddle About
* Tommy Can You Hear Me? *. There's A Doctor * Go To The Mirror! * Smash
The Mirror *. Miracle Cure * I'm Free * Tommy's Holiday Camp * We're Not
Gonna Take It * Summertime Blues * Shakin' All Over
* Spoonful * Twist And Shout * Substitute * . My Generation * Naked Eye
* Magic Bus |
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Sly and the Family Stone
Thank You
For Letting Me Be Myself Again; M'Lady; Sing A Simple Song;
*Stand>*You Can Make It If You Try; Dance To The Music>Music Lover>Higher
(Complete soundboard in extremely limited circulation
*These two soundboard tracks by Sly are in limited circulation . Quality A
Melanie ,Good News, Kris
Kristofferson, Ralph McTell, Heaven, Free, Donovan, Pentangle, Moody Blues,
Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Richie Havens.
Melanie
"I
had to follow The Who's premiere performance of Tommy," she says. "Nobody wanted
to do it. Jim Morrison from The Doors turned it down. I don't know how I got
it. I was the path of least resistance, I guess. I was all by myself. Keith
Moon announced me. We had spent a lot of time together that day and had become
friends. He realised my
situation
and helped to break the ice. It was dawn. The Who had played throughout the
night. There was a friendly atmosphere but, they were finished. They had just
seen Tommy; Roger Daltrey in his prime. Here I was, with just my guitar and
my voice. I started to sing. The dawn was coming and the sun was rising. Little
by little, I see heads popping up. I woke everybody up! I played one of my best
concerts. After I did the Isle of Wight, I had two hit albums in England."
During the chaos and subsequent breakdown of the organisation, it was the ladies ... Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Melanie who suffered great and personal inconvenience,
While others flew in --- did their set - and immediately flew out again by helicopter, Melanie had to endure two uncomfortable days while she waited to perform, eventually taking the stage at an unearthly hour when most people had slipped into the sleep of the exhausted.
On the first day she
arrived early . . . fresh and bright, eager to sing, But as the turmoil accelerated
she was told to wait - and wait she did - the
anxiety and tension welling
up inside of her.
"At five in the morning I was so tensed up that I freaked," having to be rushed to an hotel to recover, As the brilliant sun filled her room the next morning, she was drained of all energy and enthusiasm, her lungs and nerves having given out through waiting for hours in the fume filled trailer she had been assigned n the back-stage enclosure.
After being persuaded to return once again to the site, Melanie encountered a smiling young man lounging in her trailer. Though his face was vaguely familiar she didn't give it a second thought, coming to the conclusion that he must he one of the stage crew.
As the hours slowly dragged by he took it upon himself to become her self-appointed valet and court jester.
Recalling that time, she began "All the time he kept on fussing over me, asking if I was all right and did I want any tea, milk . . . my wish being his command.
"Suddenly, the door burst open and in jumped Murray Roman and immediately they went into an hilarious comedy routine," Within minutes, she was in fits of hysterical laughter ... rolling around clutching her sides, "I can't begin to tell you how much that cheered me up, and then they were gone," As it tuned out Murray's Partner in crime andd mirth was none other than that amiable stick twiddler Keith Moon
"I nearly died when I found out," she admitted with a laugh, "but I didn't let on to the fact that I hadn't recognised him, You know he really extended his warmth to me, knowing that I'd had such a hard weekend."
But Mr. Moon's hospitality", didn't end there, Melanie finally appeared and it was again in the wee small hours on a stage cluttered up with Sly Stone's equipment and bathed in sickly yellow light, Keith then tried everything in his power to arrange the desired subtle lighting effects. But to no avail . . the lighting . . . crews having fallen asleep and then split following the Who's set.
"So there I was In this pucky yellow, with all that equipment lit up behind me, It was so late that even the guy who was filming me was keeling over with sleep in his eyes."
There comes a time when night quickly turns into day before you have time to realise.
One moment Melanie had a canopy of twinkling stars, then as she looked up from her fret board during the second verse of "Tambourine Man" the sky was yellow, the sun was rising and after all the many tribulations everything turned out all right
Kris Kristofferson
Partial soundboard recording of this set is in limited circulation .
Ride on Pony, Woman,The Stealer, Be my Friend ,Mr Big, Fire and Water, I'm a Mover, The Hunter, All Right Now, Crossroads
Soundboard recording of most of the set is in circulation 58 mins
Moody Blues. Gypsy,
The Sunset, Tuesday Afternoon, Minstrel Song, Never Comes The Day,The
Tortoise And The Hare, Question, Melancholy Man, Are You Sitting Comfortably,
Knights In White Satin, Legend Of A Mind ,Timothy Leary Is Dead *, The
Dream * Have You Heard * Soundboard recording of most of the set is in unofficial circulation , missing these tracks * |
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Donovan and
the Open Road
Catch the wind, Henry
Martin, Sailing homeward ,Pee song, Hurdy gurdy man
Slow down world, There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, The Garden
How Silly, Get myself together, Atlantis ,Ice Queen.
electric set with Open Road
Sand and foam, There is a mountain, Train whistle blues, There must have been
a mistake here/Season of the witch ,Poke at the Pope, Riki Tiki Tavi, Sleeping
on Someones Floor again .Mellow yellow
list suppiled by "Mike
Zarro" <hurdygurdyman@cox.net>
Audience recording is in circulation.
Pentangle
Light Flight
(take three girls theme)
Rain and Snow
Not known what source, but recording exists.
Jethro Tull
total 46:58 There appear to be several versions of this show circulating . The figure of 46:58 is taken from the shorter of the two . The official version is supposed to be the complete set which includes Nothing Is Easy. Some versions also have the end of Dharma For One cut . A fairly widely indicated length of the whole set is 55 min , but this may be also be inaccurate.
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* Bird On The Wire *So
Long, Marianne *You Know Who I Am* Dead Song (poem)* Lady Midnight
* They Locked Up A Man
(poem) * A Person Who Eats Meat (poem)* One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong*The Stranger
Song * Tonight Will Be Fine* Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye* Diamonds In
The Mine *Suzanne*
Sing Another Song, Boys* The Partisan* Famous Blue Raincoat* Seems So Long Ago,
Nancy.
Complete recording details can be found here
Richie Havens
•Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child • Freedom • Hare Krishna • Here Comes the Sun • Run Shaker Life
Hawkwind played outside the festival grounds from the Thursday to the Monday.The Pink Fairies played Friday and Saturday when they had to split to get to another gig. Most of these shows were either free or the bands fees were donated to feed festival goers who had no cash. Numerous jams and freak outs took place to numerable to count, but you can get more details by going to this page
Hawkwind
Personnel
Dave Brock, Terry Ollis,
Nick Turner, Dik Mik , Huw Lloyd Langton, Thomas Crimble.
More info to add ? -then
Contact
us
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press- NB: opinions
expressed in these articles do not represent our opinions of the organisers
or any other people involved in the running of the festival, it is possible
that they may be innaccurate in some details or facts.
International Times.
Reports from the "Straight "press
External links
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If you have any info you can contribute to the site, especially regarding the 1968 and 1969 festivals, such as details of recordings. recollections, programmes, tickets, pix or articles don't just sit there , Contact us1968 Isle of Wight festival 1969 Isle of Wight festival
