To say “here’s another ‘lost’ festival of the summer of 1969” gets old, but, yes, the Toronto Pop Festival (as opposed to the Toronto Rock and Roll Festival later the same year) is another of the 1969 festivals few have heard of.
The line-up was a good one. How Johnny Winter had the energy to play in Toronto on Friday and then in California on Sunday, I don’t know. I have underlined those who would appear at Woodstock:
(See Roland Stone comment below for a more accurate listing as not all bands on the promo played and others not on the promo did)
Toronto Pop Festival 69
Diverse line-up
A legitimate criticism of Woodstock’s lineup was a lack of black performers. Yes, there was Richie Havens, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix, but those three were already an accepted part of many white listeners’ collection. For Toronto, Carla Thomas, Edwin Starr, Slim Harpo, and Chuck Berry added styles that Woodstock lacked.
Tickets were $6 a day or $10 for both days.
Toronto Pop Festival 69
Jeanne Beker
Woodstock had Abbie Hoffman infamously inserting himself in the middle of The Who’s performance. In Toronto a young girl joined Ronnie Hawkins during his performance of “Bo Diddly.”
While Pete Townshend threatened Hoffman, the more genial Hawkins welcomed the yellow-bikinied Jeanne Beker. Her presence was caught on camera by a photographer for The Telegram. Hawkins is in the purple suit.
Beker on stage with Hawkins
Jeanne Beker is now a well-known Canadian television personality, fashion designer, author and newspaper columnist.
The audience recording of the Velvet Underground is the only recording of the festival I could find.
Here is a link to images from Norm Horner taken on Saturday afternoon. And another link to images from http://theband.hiof.no/
The Newport 69 Pop Festival was held on the Devonshire Downs fairgrounds and racetrack in Northridge, California. 24-year-old Mark Robinson organized it . Headlined by Jimi Hendrix, the line-up for the three-day event was impressive. One could easily argue that the line-up was as good as the famed Woodstock would be in less than two months. I have underlined those who would be there as well.
And as I have frequently mentioned, Johnny Winter played at yet another summer 69 festival. Jimi Hendrix appeared twice because of a disappointing Friday performance.
According to an article from laobserved.com, Robinson, “had so many commitments, he had to turn some down, including a legendary band. ‘Grateful Dead wanted to get in, but I didn’t have room. They called several times. I felt bad. I just couldn’t squeeze them in. They made it big after that.'”
Why isn’t this festival as well-known then? Again Robinson, ““Woodstock was a free music festival where people camped out on a New York farm for days. It rained, and people stayed, and that aspect of it became a national news story,”
Newport 69 Pop Festival
Crashes and Cops
Rolling Stone magazine told a different story a week after the event. The headline read:Crashers, Cops, Producers Spoil Newport 69. Part of it’s review read: Because of this violence, and perhaps as much as $50,000 in damage done to neighborhood homes and businesses, the Los Angeles police commission has launched a full investigation. It could result in new city policies on the granting of concert permits and certainly means there will never be another rock festival held here.
The violence referred to was what happened outside the enclosed concert area on the event’s third day. Here’s the article’s description:
The kids threw bottles and rocks and the police randomly slashed out with batons, causing blood to stream freely. (Those injured were as young as 14.) Teenagers swarmed across a nearby shopping center, causing nearly $10,000 in damage to two gas stations, an equal amount of damage to apartment houses, another $1,500 worth of vandalism at a grocery store. While police demonstrated a sure-fire way of halting a kid – approach him at a dead run, grabbing him by the back of the neck, slamming him head first into a parked car; then club him when he’s down.
Inside on site, things were too tight. Rolling Stone describe those inside: They were not aware of the bloody violence erupting outside the gates. For them there was only the last logjam of humanity that made the festival like attending a high school reunion in a closet.
Newport 69 Pop Festival
More Bad Press
The New York Times had a similar take on the event:
On June 19, Woodstock Ventures had met with Wallkill, NY officials regarding the upcoming festival. The officials laid out their three main concerns: 1. traffic control, 2. sanitation, and 3. water supply.
One imagines that security was added after reading about Newport 69.
Newport 69 Pop Festival
Glenn Archambault sent these observations to me: There was a huge number of cameras and press at Devonshire downs, but little got saved of pictures and the music. What were we thinking! Janis Joplin was on stage, but wasn’t on the list to play. She said Hi to the crowd but no one snapped a picture?
Woodstock and Devonshire Downs had a lot in common, many of the same bands. Some of the people on the stage at Devonshire went to Woodstock. Most of the crowd was well behaved, not nearly as bad as the press said.
A big memory, I had worked on stage for other companies, Pinnacle Productions Shrine auditorium downtown LA, but when we got going first up Ike and Tina Turner revue, I looked out at the vast crowd, never seen so many people, and no one had ever tried to play something this big, sound system was short of tens of thousands of people in the back.
All the bands, management, stage crew, we worked like mad to pull that off, still can’t believe we did it!
from Monterey movie trailer: Mike Bloomfield followed by Eric Burdon’s song.
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
Day 3
June 18, 1967. It was day 3 of The Monterey International Pop Festival. The first day had included Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Burdon and the Animals. The second day included future Woodstock performers Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Butterfield Blues Band (I wonder how much those bands being part of Monterey influenced Woodstock Ventures to include them two years later?).
The third and final day’s lineup included Big Brother again because the organizers really wanted Janis in the film they were making and had finally convinced the band to let them film their performance. Other future Woodstockers were The Who, Ravi Shankar, the Grateful Dead.
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
No bells
Few if anyone realized what they would witness that evening. The crowd may have seen the name Jimi Hendrix Experience listed, but like someone today seeing the name The Paupers, the name rang no bells.
Hendrix’s stateside story had been one as a sessions musician and briefly in Greenwich Village fronting his own group. His fortuitous move to England under the wing of Chas Chandler unlocked the door to success. The Beatles were also instrumental: Jimi Hendrix Plays Sgt Pepper.
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
9 song set
Hendrix played nine songs that night. Four his own, five (*) covers:
Killing Floor*
Foxy Lady
Like a Rolling Stone*
Rock Me Baby*
Hey Joe*
Can You See Me
The Wind Cries Mary
Purple Haze
Wild Thing*
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
Hey Joe
Selecting one of those songs, “Hey Joe,” one sees encapsulated what left the crowd lost in amazement. Had they ever witnessed another performance anything like this?
The outfit, the hair, the upside down guitar, gum-chewing, the swagger, how those fingers moved, how that tongue stuck out and wiggled, those teeth played the guitar, behind the back, how that guitar became a phallus, and by the way, the Mitch Mitchell‘s demonic drumming and Noel Redding’s bass playing pulling us into this maelstrom.
Here is the video of “Hey Joe.”
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
Climax
And if that weren’t enough, the set closes with destruction. We’d seen The Who smash things up. Some of us already knew about that so it was cool, but no surprise, but setting a guitar of fire? Who is this and where am I?
Pictures
While Hendrix was lucky enough (as were the other performers) to have his performance well-filmed and recorded, there were other still photographers there, too.
Ed Caraeff was only 17 when he took his iconic photo of Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival.
In Caraeff’s book, “Burning Desire: The Jimi Hendrix Experience Through the Lens of Ed Caraeff,” the he brought together never-before-seen images from the two years he spent shooting Hendrix’s performances.
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
