I have limited my list of 1969 festivals to rock festivals. Why include a jazz festival?
The Newport Jazz Festival began in 1954 and, not surprisingly, was simply that: a jazz festival. Of course, the variety of styles within jazz are wide and varied. Any jazz festival can simply showcase one genre, or several.
1969 Newport Jazz Festival
Blurred borders
By 1969, the borders between both styles had blurred: some jazz artists crossed over to rock and visa versa. It made sense for a jazz festival, even one as established as Newport, to expand its lineup and include rock. In 1969, that is exactly what it did.
Looking at the lineup below, one of the first things to note is the inclusion of the Joshua Light Show. The Joshua Light Show formed in 1967 and is associated mainly with enhancing the concert atmosphere at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East. Including the Joshua Light Show definitely brought a new vibe to a jazz festival.
1969 Newport Jazz Festival
Thursday all jazz
Thursday was all jazz, but reflected the jazz’s aforementioned variety . Simply looking at the opening act, George Benson, and the closing act, Sun Ra, demonstrates that range.
1969 Newport Jazz Festival
Friday changes
Even Friday afternoon is jazz, but things change for Friday night: Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Jeff Beck loudly reminded the crowd that this wasn’t your ordinary jazz festival.
The unexpected
The idea of enhancing a jazz festival with rock was a great idea on paper and likely looked toward the ledger as well, but as Woodstock Ventures found out a month later, locals may not be as receptive to large numbers of youth excited and anxious to hear their music.
Friday night’s overflow created such tensions and fears that event organizer George Wein “cancelled” Led Zeppelin for Sunday in an attempt to dissuade the rock fans from staying. It worked to a degree. Zeppelin performed despite the announced cancellation.
“Mayhem“
A Newport newspaper article describes the mayhem:
In August, Johnny Winter, Ten Years After, Sly Stone, and Blood, Sweat and Tears experienced something even bigger but more peaceful in Bethel, New York.
The far more serene Newport Folk Festival and a moon walk awaited in the wings.
Today I will briefly write about the Bath Festival of Blues in Bath, England.
UK Bath Festival Blues
Freddie Bannisters
Surprisingly, England had not yet had a rock festival. Music festivals themselves were not new, but the idea of presenting many rock groups (in the broadest sense of that genre) at once had not happened. Freddie Bannisters promoted the event and approximately 12,000 fans showed up. That number seems small by many other festival numbers, but unlike many other festivals, Bannisters did not lose money and was able to promote another much larger festival the following year.
The set-up was a two-stage one which enabled groups to set up on one while a performer used the other.
The advertised line-up was a nice blues mix including the elder statesmen, Champion Jack Dupree. Ten Years after and Keef Hartley would make the trip to Bethel, NY in August, Those asterisked may not have played:
John Bonham’s brother Mick recalls the event in his book, “My Brother John”:
“On previous occasions I had traveled to gigs on my scooter or on the bus, but this time it would be in style to what had been advertised as ‘the Big One’. We drove down during the morning meeting up with Jimmy, Robert, and John Paul in the backstage bar. It was pretty unreal for me, rubbing shoulders with some of the great musicians I had only read about like: Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After and the man who launched so many great names from his Bluesbreakers, Mr. John Mayall.
“The Recreation Ground and Pavilion was in a lovely setting in the centre of Bath and on a warm summer’s afternoon I couldn’t think of anywhere I would rather be, along with 12,000 other people. I had taken a camera with me, so well before Zeppelin was to go on I made my way out into the crowd and towards the front of the stage. Finding a nice patch of grass, I waited patiently for the emergence of Led Zeppelin. When the band took to the stage, the audience surged past me, leaving me only enough time to take three photos before I was swallowed up by ‘the ocean’. As the show finished and the crowd moved back, I was still on the floor, looking like one of those hedgehogs you see squashed on the road.
“After the show, it was a few beers in the bar and then back home, via the local fish and chip shop of course. Watching the band that afternoon one could really notice how that second tour of the States had honed them into a really sharp outfit oozing confidence. The press saw it too, declaring ‘Zeppelin’s fiery set in which they played their own individual form of progressive blues devastated most and proved on of the most enjoyable sets of the festival’.”
The Denver Pop Festival was the sixteenth rock festival of 1969. It was held at at Mile High Stadium [insert joke here].
Holding such an event inside a big stadium seemed like a perfect match. Bathrooms, food services, seating, controlled exit and entry are already present and do not have to be independently set up.
Unfortunately for the Denver festival, that amount of control was part of its problem.
1969 Denver Pop Festival
Hendrix/Star Spangled Banner
Another little known part of its history was that the Denver Pop Festival was the last performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, less than three years after its formation in the UK in September 1966. And Woodstock fans may be disappointed to hear that Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner, that the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was not his first public performance of that cover.
1969 Denver Pop Festival
Bill Hanley & Chip Monck
Barry Fey promoted the concert. While his name may not be recognized by many as a Bill Graham is, Fey had a long illustrious history of rock concert promotion. In fact, he promoted the first Led Zeppelin concert in the US: December 26, 1968 at the Denver Auditorium Area.
The Denver festival, unlike Woodstock’s legal challenges and trying to find a home accepted by the locals, had the support of the city government. Denver provided a campground, services there, as well as a shuttle service to and from the festival.
Like Woodstock’s impeccable sound system, Bill Hanley was the sound man. Like Woodstock, Chip Monck was an MC.
1969 Denver Pop Festival
Not a Woodstock
So why wasn’t the Denver Pop Festival another Woodstock? Looking at its line up it certainly had that potential.
Once again it is a combination of factors. The number of attendees plays a part. The Mile High Stadium accommodated approximately 50,000 people. Certainly an acceptably large amount, but no comparison to a 40-acre Max Yasgur field with 400,000.
Not filming or recording the event is another factor. The only recording I could find on YouTube was an audience one of Big Mama Thorton. She wrote “Ball and Chain” and as good as the famous Janis Joplin cover is, it’s nice to hear Thorton herself.
1969 Denver Pop Festival
Law enforcement
Part of Woodstock’s mission was to keep law enforcement away from the festival site. NYC cops were hired to moonlight, but only those who had a conciliatory attitude toward the Woodstock generation youth were hired. NY State Police were present on the periphery.
In Denver the local police were outside and around the stadium. Their presence, though not intentionally there to intimidate and harass, represented the authority that so many young people were rebelling against.
First Day
Inside the stadium was mostly OK. One minor incident was that a fan undressed, but was taken away by security. No such qualms would exist in Bethel, NY.
Outside some gatecrashers unsuccessfully tried to get past the security guards. Keep in mind, that the view of some fans and musicians was that music should be free. Tying a price to listen made the event corporate, the antithesis of to the counter culture’s ideals.
Members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the American Liberation Front were there to protest, not for the music.
At a point the first day, a bottle was thrown and hit the helmet of an officer. The thrower was arrested without any additional incidents.
1969 Denver Pop Festival
Gatecrashers
The second day again found gatecrashers unsuccessfully attempting entry. This time additional police were called in and they used time tear-gas to disperse the crowd. Some of the gas wafted into the stadium where Chip Monck advised the crowd to cover and protect their faces. Promoter Barry Fey subsequently handed out free tickets to avoid any further confrontations.
The free tickets were limited and the next day tear gas was again used to force gatecrashers away.
1969 Denver Pop Festival
Yes Butterfly, but last Experience
The Iron Butterfly did play in Denver, but though scheduled to play at Woodstock, they’d be left at the airport waiting for a ride after hearing a coded FU.
As mentioned above, this event was the last performance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The next time Hendrix would play in public would be that famous muddy morning in Bethel, NY at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Drummer Mitch Mitchell would remain part of Hendrix’s larger ensemble there, but Noel Redding was no longer a member.
Click below to hear a small slice of Jimi Hendrix’s intro at Denver.
According to John Kane’s excellent book, The Last Seat in the House, The Story of Hanley Sound, Fey only made $50,000 in profit. In two months, Woodstock Ventures would have considered such a “small” profit a complete success.
