The Archive. 

Last update June 1st 2002

The Weeley Festival. Clacton On Sea . Essex. August 27th-29th 1971.

Lindesfarne on-stage at Weeley.

There should be professional film and audio of Weeley knocking around somewhere as I believe snippets of film have been used for various documentaries over the years . It will be interesting to see what is used in the short (8 mins only ) doco due to be broadcast by the BBC in 2003 .Meanwhile we have to rely on what was recorded from the audience by tapers .

       Just recently a number of recordings of the festival have come into circulation - that may stem from this post we received a year or so ago .

I've just discovered your rock festivals web site(s) and the memories came flooding (well trickling back actually, due to the copious amounts of cannabis smoked at the time). Well done.
You might be interested to know that I have some recordings I made at Weeley.
They are on quarter inch tape and the quality is not great. To my recollection I have Barclay James Harvest (with full orchestra), the beginning of the T. Rex set, Groundhogs, Faces, Mott the Hoople and some others.

As I say the recordings are poor quality and i haven't heard them for years but they may be the only recordings of the event.
Roland McLellan

Whatever, the recordings are now out there and can be traded for if you have something to give in return ( please don't ask us for them as we do NOT have copies ) .

Status Quo

8-28-71 . 65 mins AUD
Juniors wailing, Someones learning, Umleitung, In my chair, Is it really me, Gotta go
home, Mean girl, Bye bye Johnny

Van Der Graaf Generator

8-29-71 .50 mins . Aud
Darkness , Lost ,Man-erg ,W Killer . After The Flood , I Once Wrote Some poems , Theme One

PINK FARIES-LIVE AT THE WEELEY FESTIVAL

-LP 180 gram - GET 527
A legitimate release -this album is being released for avid Pink Fairies fans. The master quality was low, and the studio engineer did his best to bring it up. These are actually the best quality recordings found from the Weeley Festival. It was with the band as a four piece and has never-been released! “Riders In the Sky”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “The Snake”, “Uncle Harry’s Last Freakout”
and more!

Personnel : Twink, Paul Rudolph, Duncan Sanderson, and Russel Hunter

King Crimson

Aud recording , may only be part of the set.

The Letter ,The Devil's Triangle. Pictures of a City ,Formentera

This recording has been around for some time, so may not be the one of the ones referred to in the post regarding recordings made by Roland.

Updated Sept 2005

Please contact us if you have any info to add Contact email

Weeley Menu.

• Friendz coverage
• International Times article
• Marshall PA system - Updated April 2004
• Recollections of festival attendees -read what they remember and add your own memories to the list -now with many new photos of the bands onstage ! Updated Sept 2005.
• Dick Wolff's diary : New May 2004! Another brilliantly detailed account of life backstage at the festival. Includes site map and Groundhogs photo..
• Lin Bensley's recollections - check this out, most extensive personal account of the festival so far.
• Bill Greenwells Recollections - The highly entertaining account of how a student in an Afghan coat became a key member of the 'security' team
• Crowd,Site and Hells Angels Photos - new , Oct 2003
• Crowd photos
• Weeley Recordings -Known recordings of the festival
• Where's Wally ?-click to find out the origins of this silly chant .
• Festival program- photos and text from the original program .
• Festival site map
• Weeley press
• Weeley home

Thanks to Celia Bouquet , Rich Deakin , Garry Bodenham , Redrich, Bill Greenwell ,Lin Bensley ,Brian Nugent, Steve Cook , Bill Greenwell and Phil Jones for the donation of articles and pix that have enabled the construction of this site.