DJTees Blog — Johnny's History Of Rock

This is where I indulge in my passions - VINYL & ROCK 'n' ROLL

Atlanta Pop Festival July 1969

Atlanta Pop Festival July 1969

Authored By John Nicholson

The Atlanta Pop Festival was held on the 4th and 5th of July 1969 and pulled in anything from 80,000 - 150,000 people to the Atlanta International Speedway in Georgia. Despite riots at recent festivals in Denver and Northridge, California the local authorities gave the event their blessing. Wow. That was very unusual. Local newspaper The Atlanta Journal ran an editorial praising the variety and quality of performers and saying "a full music diet is good for a city. Pop music is important and expressive of our times." Right on, baby! Far out. Dude got their freak on. How enlightened...

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Sound Festival 71, Roskilde, Denmark 1971

Sound Festival 71, Roskilde, Denmark 1971

Authored By John Nicholson

Held on Sat Aug 28, 1971 - Sun Aug 29, 1971 this was an important European festival, not so much because it pulled a lot of big name bands to play to the 10,000 people who attended each day, the biggest name was probably The Grease Band who had backed Joe Cocker at Woodstock and The Strawbs who had an album on the UK charts at the time, but more because it was to establish Roskilde as an important festival venue. Ever since, the Roskilde Festival has put on a festival in late June/early July and pulled some huge headlining...

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Newport Jazz Festival July 1969

Newport Jazz Festival July 1969

Authored By John Nicholson

Newport Jazz Festival was a long running jazz fest but in July 1969 it opened its doors to hip n groovy rock acts. It became an experiment in fusing jazz, soul and rock music. Its lineup included, besides jazz, Friday evening appearances by rock groups Jeff Beck, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Ten Years After and Jethro Tull as well as Roland Kirk and Steve Marcus. Saturday's schedule mixed jazz acts such as Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck with others including The Mothers Of Invention, John Mayall and Sly and the Family Stone. James Brown was among those who appeared Sunday...

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Mantra-Rock Dance, Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco. January 29, 1967

Mantra-Rock Dance, Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco. January 29, 1967

Authored By John Nicholson

What was soon known as a rock festival, didn’t really exist until 1967. There were plenty of jazz and folk gatherings but rock n roll freak-outs really only started happening in early 1967 starting in San Francisco with the Human Be-In and also the Mantra-Rock Dance which was what was known as ‘a counterculture music event’ held on January 29, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. It was organized by followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) as an opportunity for its founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to address a wider public. It was also...

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California Jam, Ontario, California 1978

California Jam, Ontario, California 1978

Authored By John Nicholson

In 1974, the first California Jam attracted a quarter of a million people and was broadcast on network TV. You still see a lot of footage from that gig - especially of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. It was a huge success and made everyone serious money. So it was inevitable a second would be held, but surprising that it took four years to happen. By now, the one-day festival was firmly entrenched as the preferred mode for making a festival happen. The counterculture was, by 1978, a distant memory; a tie-dye t-shirt in the wardrobe of life.  Less well-known...

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Mississippi River Festival 1969 -1980

Mississippi River Festival 1969 -1980

Authored By John Nicholson

The Mississippi River Festival was a summer outdoor concert series held from 1969-1980 on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois. The Festival was notable due to its central midwest location, the natural ambience of its outdoor venue and some of the biggest bands of the day. It wasn’t a festival in the traditional sense, more a headliner and maybe a support act. It began as a partnership promoting regional cooperation in the performing arts. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville invited the St. Louis Symphony to establish residence on campus and to offer a summer season of concerts. To...

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Aachen Open Air Pop Festival, West Germany, July 1970

Aachen Open Air Pop Festival, West Germany, July 1970

Authored By John Nicholson

The Aachen Open Air Pop Festival was a rock festival held at Hauptstadion in Aachen, West Germany, on 10–12 July 1970. The Hauptstadion is located in the Sport Park Soers in Aachen. It was more usually used for equestrian and show jumping and had a capacity of 40,000. This was an early German rock festival and like many of the era, it drew heavily on the emerging British progressive bands for its line-up of performers. The "Soersfestival", as it is commonly called, was the initiative of three local students: Golo Goldschmitt, Walter Reiff, and Karl-August Hohmann. The gig faced the...

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Lyceum Easter Festival, London, April 1971

Lyceum Easter Festival, London, April 1971

Authored By John Nicholson

One of the UK music scene’s drivers was Tony Stratton-Smith who was both the owner of Charisma Records and until 1973 Genesis’ manager as well. Charisma was an incredibly eclectic label, and wilfully so under the guiding hand of Strat, who wanted one of everything on the label. A jazz band, a poet, a prog band, a folk band etc.  It was ironic that just as Genesis broke through and were heading for the big time in 1973, he stopped being their manager to concentrate on running the label. But back in 1971 he put on this two-day weekend festival...

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Reading Festival 1971

Reading Festival 1971

Authored By John Nicholson

Reading Festival became the major yearly gathering of the UK's hairy hoards all the way through the 1970s and into the mid-80s. It’s tradition of throwing cans of piss at the stage was one of the less savoury things about it, and the weather was often wet and muddy. But we lived tougher lives in the 1970s and such deprivations troubled us far less.  Held across the August Bank Holiday 3-day weekend, the festival's origins date to the Beaulieu Jazz Festival (1956–1961) which became the National Jazz Festival in 1961 (The National Jazz and Blues Festival in 1963) and settled...

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New York Pop - Randall's Island's July 1970

New York Pop - Randall's Island's July 1970

Authored By Johnny Blogger
In July 1970 on New York's Randall's Island, an event billed as "New York's Pop Festival" was held.It was nothing to do with pop music, of course. This was to be different to a 'normal' festival. For a start it was to be held in Downing Stadium and there'd be no camping. It was billed [...]
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1969 - The Year Of The Festival

1969 - The Year Of The Festival

Authored By John Nicholson

1969 was The Year. More rock festivals were staged in 1969 than in any other. From humble alternative community beginnings, 1969 saw the emerging Rock Biz decide to pour it's collective money, energy and belief into Big Events. The trouble was, it was a new industry and so the people who wanted to be promoters hadn't the first clue about how to organise, let alone look after, 150,000 people for 3 days. On top of that, some promoters were major stoners and that doesn't help with organisation, exactly. It was a period of extraordinary naivety but also huge ambition. There...

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Denver Pop Festival, Mile High Stadium, June 1969

Denver Pop Festival, Mile High Stadium, June 1969

Authored By John Nicholson

Held between 27 - 29 June 1969, this festival went down in festival history as one of the most brutal with pitched battles between cops and kids. The ALF leaders wanted to get festival-goers to join their ranks, one of the first instances of outright politicisation of the counter culture. City leaders didn't like the idea of this at all, and drew up plans to prevent it happening by enticing festival campers to pitch up at the local baseball ground rather than in the park where the demos were to be held. Free transport would take them to the gig.Ticket...

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The First Isle Of Wight Festival 1968

The First Isle Of Wight Festival 1968

Authored By John Nicholson

There were three Isle of Wight festivals before it was revived in recent years. 1969 was famous for Bob Dylan's appearance, and 1970 for Jimi Hendrix, et al, but the first one in 1968 is largely forgotten. It was on a far smaller scale, with only around 15,000 at most, in attendance. Held on 31 August and 1 September 1968 on Ford Farm, near Godshill, it was nonetheless an important staging post in the development of the rock scene in Britain. It cost £1.25 to get in and was promoted and organised by the Foulk brothers (Ron, Ray and Bill...

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Laurel Pop Festival, Baltimore, Maryland, July 1969

Laurel Pop Festival, Baltimore, Maryland, July 1969

Authored By John Nicholson

The summer of 69 was dominated in festival history by Woodstock. It casts a long shadow and virtually defines that period of time in rock history. However, while Woodstock became a global event of cultural importance, lots of other festivals happened in USA that summer which, while never registering on the cultural richter scale, were nonetheless superb musical events. Laurel Pop Festival was one such. Held in Maryland in July 1969, it was attended by 15,000 fans and offered two days of music from some of the biggest bands around at that time. The event ended in controversy as rain-soaked...

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Toronto Rock n Roll Revival, Varsity Stadium 1969

Toronto Rock n Roll Revival, Varsity Stadium 1969

Authored By John Nicholson

The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was a one-day fest held on September 13, 1969 at Varsity Stadium, at the University of Toronto, to an audience of over 20,000. The originally listed performers for the festival were local band Whiskey Howl, Bo Diddley, Chicago, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Tony Joe White, Alice Cooper, Chuck Berry, Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Doug Kershaw and The Doors. Kim Fowley was listed as the Master of Ceremonies. Screaming Lord Sutch was later added to the bill, as was the Toronto area...

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