UK Free festivals . -Torpedo Town free festival

Ozric Tentacles at Torpedo Town 86 on the Bramdean Common stage .All Ozrics photos on this page © Baz

1985-6.
Rather like Greenham Common , Torpedo Town sprung into existence on the back of a Peace Encampment, in this case the peace camp was in protest at the construction of the Stingray anti submarine torpedo factory at Waterlooville - hence the unusual "Torpedo Town " moniker the festival acquired . According to one report the camp was established in 1982, but 1985 is the first documented festival held at Waterlooville, when The Poison Girls, Kanall Synikatet (Norway ),ACT , Roy Harper , David Eggleton, Red Flag, The Red, Wedding Present, General Belgrano, Anti -Sect, D.I.R.T, Dog On Dogma, Alibi, Fools Of Nature , The Starlings, The Probes ,Hawkwind and Ozric Tentacles were scheduled to play the event from the 9-11th of August .Camping was due tpo start on the 6th of August. One report says 7,000 people attended the 85 bash.

It appears that there was the main stage at Brambles Farm and then a lower smaller stage on the common , free festivals often had a number of stages . The photos of Roy Harper at the 86 festival show a different set up completely . In 1985 Harper actually donated the PA that was used, arriving and seeing totally inadequate sound reinforcement, he went back to London, loaded up his own rig and returned to perform his set.

1985.

My main reason for this mail is to give you my thoughts on the "Torpedo Town" Festival held at Brambles Farm, Waterlooville in 1985. I was there!

In fact, I was one of the early arrivals, having come up from Sidmouth Folk Festival to meet up with Alan Rundle having seen a flyer for the event ( Possibly at Elephant Fayre?). I remember the original plan was to use the land right next to the existing Marconi factory, but the local council had got wind of it and put a trench round the whole site. So it was decided to use the (disused) farmland next to the original site - Brambles Farm. A few of us descended on the farm via a hole in the hedge next to the main road and quickly set up camp - a few tents and a camp fire was all that was needed. I remember the police coming round and a few words from the "squatters handbook" were all that was needed to see them off. I cant remember what day this was, quite a few days before the festival, though, and it quickly grew as more people were able to come and lend support. At one point, the council came and tried to lower a skip (full of grit or sand?) on the farm side of the main gates to the field we were in, but a couple of us sat underneath it ( me included!), so they left it outside the gate, (blocking the public footpath). I went along to see the Citizens Advice Bureau ( in bare feet and stinking of smoke!) to ask about removing obstacles from footpaths and they advised me I was in my rights to do so! So, with the Police looking on, we donned shovels and emptied the skip into the ditch next to it! "we aren't stealing anything from the skip", I told the police," just moving it." When it was empty we managed to roll the skip over and out of the way.

The council made no other attempts to block the gate, but their attempts had backfired on them, because it alerted the local press to what was going on. This in turn led to the local radio and TV stations taking an interest, and I remember giving a tradio interview in which I asked for supplies of water and wood to be brought to us. The next day someone turned up with an inflateable dinghy full of water! I also remember it had beed an incredibly wet summer, the land was saturated, and any vehicles trying to get onto the site often got bogged down. When the "Convoy" arrived it was mayhem, Busses and trucks getting stuck allover the place. We had a whip round to get a local firm to come on site with JCB's and pull the vehicles out of the mud, but they ended up getting stuck as well! Eventually they got most (not all) vehicles moved, and the resulting huge ditches that were left became the (unofficial) latrines!!! When it came to the organisation of the festival itself, that too was mayhem. The PA hire company refused to do the gig having seen the publicity surrounding it, so we had to have another whip round to hire one from a local hire centre. I think it was the cheapest rig they had and was probably only 1 gig! (more on this later).

I must admit I dont remember too much about the event itself, (who does!), but I do know that the Ozrics turned up (friday or saturday?), and played an unofficial set from the back of their transit, which seemed to go on all night! The next day I spoke to Ed and asked him if they could do a stage set that afternoon, as everyone had been saying how good they were. I remember him saying they had never played on a "proper" stage before, and they didnt "do" numbers, they just jammed... Fine I said, it doesn't matter, just get up there and do your stuff!! I actually was doing the mixing for them when they played, (as i did for most of the bands that played).

When Roy Harper turned up, he took one look at the rig we were using and nearly fainted...and promptly got back in his car and left. I thought he had decided he couldn't do it, but someone said he had gone to get his own equipment! Sure enough, a couple of hours later, he returned with his own PA and his own technician, and I had the pleasure of being his technicians "assistance" for the gig. He went down a storm, and I certainly dont remember any bad feelings towards him. The pictures you have posted are NOT the 1985 gig, so I can only assume they must be 1986. But I can confirm that Roy Harper was definately at the 1985 festival.

Best wishes and keep up the excellent work!!!
Pete the Bus
(Peter Woodland)
Kent

We are suffering from a paucity of information about most years of this festival. By the 90s it had mutated into a Rave with Spiral Tribe and other sound systems attending . Wango Rileys was reputed to have been the resident stage and Jah Free was amongst those who helped perform at the festival, but we do not know in which years this took place.

Roy Harper at Torpedo Town .

Bit of a mystery here , everyone has Roy as playing at this festival in 1985 , but the newsletter we have been given that list him as playing is dated 1986 ! Did Roy play here two years running or are all the memories wrong ?

Harper played in 1986, and had a huge row with people in the crowd, 'cause he had just signed to EMI. There is an audio recording of this set. The Ozric pics are also from 86, that's the Bramdean Common site.

Kev Ellis

All Roy Harper 1986, photos © Steve Tomalin

Roy pokes hisself in the eye !

According to Kev Elllis from the rather spiffing dub-electronika band Bubbledubble , Roy had a bit of a verbal dust up with sections of the crowd as he had just signed a recording deal with EMI , who we seem to remember had some connections with the munitions industry. This fired up Roy no end and he delivered a very fiery set which apparently was recorded on tape ( can anyone provide a copy for review ? ).

Roy Harper onstage 1986 at Torpedo Town Free Festival - Brambles Farm stage

Roy's pissed off audience © Steve Tomalin

Newsletter and press cutting courtesy Steve Tomalin

Information on the 85s event is thin on the ground , we know Ozrics attended as there is an 80 minute tape recorded on 10th August as evidence.

When I was 17, I played in a band called ACT. We gigged around the south coast and could draw a crowd of a few hundred people, sometimes more in Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth.
During the summer of 1985 we were invited to play a festival called 'Torpedo Town' on the outskirts of Portsmouth. So called 'Torpedo Town' because at the edge of the festival site there was a Marconi factory which made guidance systems for cruise missiles.
The headline band were Hawkwind on Saturday night. Onstage at midnight. Rock n' roll!. We played on Saturday evening (around 8pm) and again on Sunday afternoon. There were maybe 7 or 8,000 people there. We rocked. Large.Most of the crowd were travellers ( or 'crusties', or 'new age travellers' or cyber-hippies). They had dropped out of society and travelled the UK and Europe in beaten-up vans and minibuses and the like.

My very first introduction to Roy was at a peace festival, in the '80s - nicknamed the "Torpedo Town" festival, it was held at Brambles Farm, near Waterlooville, Hants, in protest against a weapons factory being built on the site. One of the organisers, Alan Rundle (though back then we were acutely aware of avoiding hierarchy - no one person was ever identified as a main organiser) arranged for Roy to play - this was the era of Ozric Tentacles and the Poison Girls, if memory serves me right - and of course, for many of us young 'uns, we had no idea who Roy was. "Who's Roy Harper?", we'd ask. "Just wait and see" was all Alan would say.
The rest, as they say, is history.
As a footnote, I recall Roy turning up and taking a look at the PA, he immediately turned his car around and left the festival. He drove all the way home, which was in Clapham, London, I think, and returned with his own PA, which he lent for the duration.

Hawkwind appeared in 1987 , perfoming at least twice on the 8th August .

The festival appears to have lapsed in 1988- but returned again in 1989 as evidenced on the Festivals list

3rd – 6th August 1990 – Bramdean Common, Torpedo Town Festival

1991's incarnation moved locations, but still kept the Torpedo Town name-

9-12 August 1991 Liphook, Hampshire

Crowd estimates ranging from 10,000 -to 25,000 attend the festival on MOD land .More details at the Spiral Tribe archives link above .

7-10 August 92. Romsey and Poles Lane, Otterbourne Hampshire .

Hampshire police attempt to prevent another large festival taking place - 200 police confront travellers and Sound System People , the gatherings taking place on two separate sites due to the police preventing them from joining up . The Poles Lane event is soured by a council incinerator building being torched -although it is never proven that the damage was caused by festival goers .Interestingly, there was no trouble the year before when the police did NOT intervene, indicating that it was probably better to simply leave the festival goers to their own devices and to tolerantly police the events .

The main action moves to Castlemorton which exceeds 25,000 in number .

Report on Torpedo Town 1992 from a Christian group advises tolerance