Saturday 10th August: Evening session.
Just a few weeks after attending the Woburn Festival was off again to a major festival, the Eighth National Jazz and Blues Festival , held at the Kempton Park Racecourse at Sunbury. This time I managed to attend two days out of three and I was able to persuade a couple of my school mates to go with me. I'm a bit hazy as to just who came along, but I know for definite that Allan Jones- future editor of the Melody Maker /Uncut and author of various Pearl Jam tomes - was there was there too and who has now confirmed that our companions were the long lost Brian Griffiths and Alun Jones.
This time round it was my turn to be spurned (see my Woburn Festival pages for the story of my jilting Gunter the German) , I'd regaled my mates with my stories of the two hippies I hung out with at Woburn and who should I see as we made our way to the gates but the guy with the cut off Afghan coat who I'd shared a fence with through the Hendrix show. All hail fellow well met , I approached him with profuse greetings ,only to be completely ignored ! I expect he did not want to be seen with such a young , callow sprog such as myself and I guess it served me right after I'd treated Gunter the German the same way. The big sting was of course that I was completely embarrassed in front of my mates, but them's the breaks . As some obscure rock artist called Lennon once said "Instant Karma's gonna get you" and it sure got me on this occasion . Above. Jerry Lee Lewis does a whole lot of shaking on Friday night at the Nat Jazz fest 1968. The only other band of note that I missed on Friday night was Taste- I could do without Marmalade and the Herd.
The Nat Jazz and Blues Fests were pretty civilized , if rather tightly run affairs. There were of all things, rows of canvas bottomed seats , which rather put the damper on any audience gyrations, although we all stood on them when things heated up. The size of the audience was not huge, so you could get a decent view of the bands from almost anywhere .The line up for both days was superb, with very few dud acts. The weather also was good, although it got a bit cold in the night.
We did not attend the Saturday afternoon session , which was devoted to quality British Jazz bands such as Ronnie Scott and Mike Westbrook, generally good stuff, but at the time I wasn't all that into British jazz, preferring Miles and Roland Kirk to the local stuff . We queued up dutifully as good Brits should and scored ourselves good seats near the front in time to see the first band I remember of the afternoon, which was ......(drum Roll ) ......Deep Purple .
I have never been a huge Purple fan , but I've always had a grudging respect for them . They have always been really lucky in having some good instrumentalists in their line up , such as superb drummer Ian Paice and the versatile Jon Lord on keys. Regardless of whether one likes the personality of monsieur Blackmore, he can do good things with his axe on occasions . Singers have come and gone through their ranks , but I can't think of any that have surpassed Ian Gillan . This line up however, was minus Gillan, featuring Rod Evans on vocals, Lord ,Blackmore , with Paice and Nicky Simper on bass.
© Franz Murer
This is a VERY early and nascent color of Purple, a far cry from the heavy demon of later years, in fact, they're more of a pop band than anything else, their group is mostly composed of cover version. What intrigued us was their stage gown, - ruffled purple satin shirt for musicians and black satin for singers - (apart from Lord, who had to wear a psychedelic jacket) - very luxury!. They're playing numbers like Hush, the only song that really stands out in my memory - and most likely Hey Joe, I'm so Glad, River Deep Mountain High and Kentucky Woman by Neil Diamond - all are all featured in their orchestral list of times. Pretty much a band included. They have yet to find their own voice.
The picture above shows Deep Purple on stage at the Sunbury Festival
(the guy in the front between the two blondes is Ric Lee - drummer for Ten Years After - identified by Jethro Tull's Glenn Cornick)
Joe Cocker and the Grease Band onstage Sunbury 1968
After a fairly luke warm reception for Purple from the crowd, next to step on-stage was an as yet fairly unknown force- Joe Cocker and the Grease band . This was a revelation. I had no exposure to the Sheffield dynamo -( although within a year I was to meet Nev Mayer, who used to play with Cocker in Sheffield clubs before he became well known) and did not know what to expect. I don't know whether his first single- Marjorine - had come out yet or not, but even if I had heard it, nothing could prepare one for the Cocker live act, which was just so full on dynamic, that you had to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the energy and force of his vocals.
A year before the Woodstock debut, Joe was just as impressive as he was on the film , belting out many of the songs to be featured on his first album, which came out in 69. Amongst these were Traffic's Feeling Alright - a version to rival the original -he may have played Hitchcock Railway- although this may just be fantasy on my part- - and even an old chestnut like Bye Bye Blackbird was given new life by Cocker.
Just what was Joe's appeal ?- he did not write much of his own material, he was paunchy and had the sex appeal of a newt. Well , he also had one of the best voices this side of the Pecos , a gravelly idiosyncratic growl with an Yorkshire edge that made it uniquely his own .
Then there were his movements. He was , when singing , forced to remain close to the mic, but that didn't stop him from moving almost every other part of his body -apart from his head , which had to stay reasonably still on order for him to sing into the mic - in a sustained idiot dance of wondrous proportions. The hands would flail and flutter in an almost spastic, uncontrolled way, the legs and torso would be moving constantly in an ungainly , yet somehow exhilarating , heaving, rotating manner.
Whenever there was a break in the vocals the Cocker head would join in the dance, long scraggly hair frizzing out in all directions, until the next vocal and then Joe would dive towards the mic and slay us all with the voice again. In those days he was - to put it in his own vernacular- Champion - and to catch him then was to see him on top form , before the booze and the business had taken its toll and he descended into churning out mawkish ballads and M.O.R. crap.
Of course, the Grease Band were also part of the picture and they supported him beautifully , in particular Chris Stainton, his long term musical partner, was sterling on keyboards, but the whole band were a tight little unit and they had their own sound which was integral to Joe's early success. Anyway, this show was greeted with a huge ovation by the crowd , I think they finished the set with the show stopper- A Little help from my friends, which as usual was full tilt intensity and passion on a grand scale and just built and built until it was unstoppable. Some of Joe's facial expressions could have matched Ian Anderson in weirdness- although he did not stoop to singing balanced on one leg. At the end of the set he looked drained and so were most of the audience.
T Rex set up their minimalistic equipment onstage at Sunbury 1968 © Klaus Wachtarz
According To Mike Godwin , Tyrannosaurus Rex also played on Saturday, but I have only faint recollections of them , I guess because I wasn't a big fan..
According to Mike -
Another act who were at the festival was Tyrannosaurus Rex, who performed an interesting set including as I recollect, 'Travelling Tragition' and possibly 'Juniper Suction'.
At the timeTyrannosaurus Rex were a staple of almost any underground or hippie orientated gathering , I saw them at every festival I went to in 68 and most of the ones in 69 as well .
One half of Tyrannosaurus Rex -Steve "Peregrine "Took at Sunbury 68.
Marc Bolan- Sunbury 1968
Mike's memory proved to be correct as the program confirms their presence down the bill , after Joe Cocker but before the Nice, also we now have photos of the lads onstage at the festival courtesy of Tony Steen and Klaus Wachtarz.
The Rex of this era tended to play seated, crossed legged and their songs appealed to the more fey and deeply trippy sector of the hippie populace , as such they did not really appeal to me , but they were a unique act who definitely had their own voice and appeal .
After the ruminations of master Bolan and his compadre Steve Took. came an altogether more heavy band, Ten Years After .
