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Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

1969 Newport Jazz Festival

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1969 Newport Jazz Festival

1969 festival #19
July 3 – 6

Newport, Rhode Island

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.

1969 Newport 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.

1969 Newport Jazz Festival

“Mayhem“

A Newport newspaper article describes the mayhem:

1969 Newport Jazz Festival

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.

1969 Newport Jazz Festival

Next 1969 festival: Saugatuck Pop Festival

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Bath Festival Blues

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1969 Bath Festival Blues

June 28, 1969

1969 Bath Festival Blues

1969 Bath Festival Blues
1969 Festival #17

UK Makes Festival List

By 1969 the US had had several major rock festivals. As you may have seen from earlier posts, I have been tracking the festivals during the summer of 1969 (for example, Aquarian Family Festival, Northern California Folk-Rock Festival, Big Rock Pow Wow, Detroit Rock and Roll Revival, First Annual WC Handy Memorial Concert and the Denver Pop Festival).

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.

Difficult to see, but Zeppelin playing on right hand stage © Mike Bird
1969 Bath Festival Blues

Line-up

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:

  • Fleetwood Mac
  • John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
  • Ten Years After
  • Led Zeppelin
  • The Nice
  • Chicken Shack
  • Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum
  • Mick Abrahams’ Blodwyn Pig
  • Keef Hartley
  • Group Therapy*
  • Liverpool Scene
  • Taste
  • Savoy Brown Blues Band
  • Champion Jack Dupree
  • Clouds*
  • Babylon*
  • Principal Edwards Magic Theatre
  • Deep Blues Band
  • Just Before Dawn
1969 Bath Festival Blues

My Brother John

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’.”

Related link >>> Bath Festival site

1969 Bath Festival Blues

Next 1969 festival: Harlem Cultural Festival

Music et al, Music of the 60s

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

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Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

June 24 & 25, 1966
Not from June 1966: Beach Boys live, “God Only Knows”
Beach Boys Summer Spectacular Beach Boys Summer Spectacular
Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Likely 2 Days

Today’s blog confused me a bit as I thought this “festival” was a one-day event, yet sources suggest it was two days in two different places with nearly the same line-up. I am going to treat it as a two-day event, but with a grain of salt. The second poster with the “KRLA Presents” (as opposed to the first day’s “KFRC Presents”) suggests the two-day two-venue possibility. And I can find no information to distinguish things.

Here we go!

Friday 24 June (San Francisco)

  • Beach Boys
  • The Lovin’ Spoonful
  • Chad & Jeremy
  • Percy Sledge,
  • The Outsiders
  • The Leaves
  • Sir Douglas Quintet
  • Jefferson Airplane,
  • The Byrds
  • The Sunrays
  • Neil Diamond
 Saturday 25 June (Los Angeles)

  • Beach Boys
  • The Lovin’ Spoonful
  • Chad & Jeremy
  • Percy Sledge
  • The Outsiders
  • The Leaves
  • Sir Douglas Quintet
  • Love
  • The Byrds
  • Captain Beefheart
Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Station-sponsored

First of all, this was not a 1969 festival and perhaps was not even a festival, but it was a rock music event that was held by an FM-rock radio station in San Francisco that featured some groups that were emerging on the new FM-rock scene.

The sponsor of the event, KFRC-FM (and RKO-owned station) had joined the growing number of FM stations that saw rock music as a profitable format. Bill Drake, the RKO General’s national program director, created a system that meant a fewer records, but heavier rotation of the biggest hits, very short jingles, and less DJ talk.

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Seeds of future outdoor festivals

One can see the seeds of the “underground” style and album-oriented selection in Drake’s so-called “Boss Radio” style.

The selection of groups that perform is an interesting mix of styles: the jug band bent of the Lovin’ Spoonful, the soul of Percy Sledge, the San Francisco Jefferson Airplane, the LA folk-rock of the Byrds, some British Invasion with Chad and Jeremy, Cleveland rock with the Outsiders (their big hit, “Time Won’t Let Me,” a bit of Texas/San Francisco mix with the Sir Douglas Quintet,  and of course the surfin’ Beach Boys.

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Hey Joe 

The Leaves are historically interesting as they were the first rock group to release what would in a year become Jimi Hendrix’s signature song, “Hey Joe.”

I am surprised to see Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (and you should be, too), and Love.

With so many bands (either way), the sets must have been short to accommodate so many groups in what was likely a 3 or 4 hour window.

The ticket prices were $2, $3, $4, and $5 for the first night; $2.75, $3.75, $4.75,  and $5.75 for the second night. The more expensive tickets seem too expensive for 1969. I assume there was no meet-and-greet with the highest priced tickets.

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars