1968 Miami Pop Festival

1968 Miami Pop Festival

Before 1969

While my aim is to have pieces describing each of 1969’s many festivals, mentioning a pre-1969 one is often useful as the several that preceded 1969’s memorable year (capped by the Woodstock Music and Art Fair) helped encourage promoters to expand the number.

1968 Miami Pop Festival
Miami Pop Festival

There were two Miami Pop Festivals in 1968. The first one was in May and Woodstock organizer Michael Lang  played a minor role in that festival’s promotion.

1968 Miami Pop Festival
cover for Miami Pop Festival program

The second Miami Pop Festival began on December 28. An estimated 100,000 attended the three-day concert.  It was produced by Tom Rounds and Mel Lawrence, who had previously produced the seminal KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in California. [A side note, the Fantasy Fair occurred before the Monterrey Pop Festival and so is actually considered the first rock festival.]

According to Rolling Stone (February 1, 1969), the Miami festival was “a monumental success in almost every aspect, the first significant — and truly festive — international pop festival held on the East Coast.” Hallandale city officials, horrified by visions of stoned hippies dancing naked at Gulfstream, nixed plans for a second Miami Pop Festival.

1968 Miami Pop Festival

1968

Among the performers, were future Woodstock stars, the Grateful Dead, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Richie Havens, Sweetwater, Canned Heat, and Country Joe and the Fish.

Of course it’s difficult to find recordings or film of the event, but we are twice lucky. There is a film/still shot combination video of Jimi Hendrix doing “Foxy Lady.”

1968 Miami Pop Festival

The Dead

And of course the Grateful Dead did record their performance. You can listen to it through the AMAZING collection at the Internet Archive site: Dead in Miami

According to Wikipedia’s entry, some unique stories of the event were that:

  • Joni Mitchell invited Graham Nash and Richie Havens  to join her onstage to sing Dino Valenti’s “Let’s Get Together
  • Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady played bass guitar with Country Joe & the Fish
  • it was the first rock festival to have separate ‘main’ stages several hundred yards apart (the Flower Stage and the Flying Stage).

There is also some additional information from Miami.com which includes several pictures

1968 Miami Pop Festival

Multi instrumentalist Edgar Winter

Multi instrumentalist Edgar Winter

Happy birthday Edgar
born December 28, 1946
Multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter
Edgar with Johnny and mother

Edgar Winter the multi-instrumentalist: keyboard, guitar, saxophone, and percussion — as well as a singer.

Multi instrumentalist Edgar Winter

Woodstock

He played both with his brother, Johnny (famously at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair) as well as a solo artist with his own bands. He described the Woodstock event as something that changed his life. He had not written music much to that point, but afterwards “realized the great spiritual dimension of music…”

Multi instrumentalist Edgar Winter

White Trash/Edgar Winter Group

His powerful “Tobacco Road”brought him into the national spotlight. Edgar formed White Trash, a group originally comprised of musicians from Texas and Louisiana. White Trash enjoyed  success with the 1971 release of the studio album, Edgar Winter’s White Trash, and with 1972’s follow-up live gold album, Roadwork.

Johnny and Edgar playing at the Olympic Auditorium LA.
March 7, 1970: Tobacco Road

In 1972 Winter formed The Edgar Winter Group, the  band that created  the number one Frankenstein and Free Ride.  Edgar invented the keyboard body strap early in his career, an innovation that allowed him the freedom to move around on stage.

Multi instrumentalist Edgar Winter

Film, TV

He has released over 20 albums and numerous collaborative efforts He  appeared in the film “Netherworld”, and the TV shows “The Cape”, “Mysterious Ways”, “Dave Letterman”, and “Jimmy Kimmel”.

Edgar’s music can also be heard film and television projects, including Netherworld, Air America, My Cousin Vinny, Encino Man, Son In Law, What’s Love Got to do With It, Wayne’s World 2, Starkid, Wag the Dog, Knockabout Guys, Duets, Radio, The Simpsons, Queer as Folk, and Tupac Resurrection.

Edgar and his wife, Monique, live in Beverly Hills with their little dog Mimi.

On the road

Edgar is constantly on the road touring,  His site has the latest dates.

Happy Birthday.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Mike Heron

James Michael “Mike” Heron was  born on December 27, 1942. Heron, with Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer, founded The Incredible String Band in 1965 as a folk-song group which evolved to produce an emerging “world music” sound.

From a 2017 The List piece about the band, Heron said, “When they asked me to join the band I was really thrilled…. I joined very much as an apprentice in my mind; I’d been admiring them for ages. I was trying to be accepted by the alien beatniks. It took a little while!’

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Incredible String Band

The Incredible String Band produced over 10 albums including “Five Thousand Spirits or the Layers of the Onion”, the Grammy nominated “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter”, and “Wee Tam and The Big Huge”.

Their sound and success and “underground” radio’s fondness for their songs led to an invitation to perform at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. After a Friday night postponement, the band appeared on Saturday inconveniently placed between the blues-oriented Keef Hartly Band and Canned Heat.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Solo

In 1971 Heron released his first solo album, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations.  Sitting in were such luminary musicians as John Cale, Pete Townshend, Richard Thompson, Elton John, Jimmy Page, Steve Winwood, Keith Moon, and Ronnie Lane.  It featured a much more rock sound very different than Incredible String Band.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Mike and daughter Georgia

More recently Mike has been performing with his daughter, Georgia Seddon.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

In 2008 Mike and Georgia were invited to perform at The Hollywood Bowl, collaborating with American band The Album Leaf for an evening of World music.

His site lists the nine solo albums Mike has released.

Mike and Georgia are now performing with Mike Hastings, and the multi instrumentalist Nick Pynn. Here is a video of Mike Heron & Georgia Seddon playing Mike’s “Feast of Stephen” accompanied by Trembling Bells at The Glad Cafe, Glasgow. October 2013.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron