Dancers in the park 18th July -1970 © R Ransom

    A host of Blackhill artists were on this bill . Roy Harper was by this time practically a Hyde Park resident . Harper played an unscheduled set that lasted nearly an hour replacing the Third Ear Band who cancelled . In his opening number " I hate the white man' he alluded to the nastiness that was happening by commenting that the boorish behavior was' typical of the white man ', he finished off with "Kangaroo Blues" , which went down well with the crowd.

   The Edgar Broughton Band were often a hoot, with lots of onstage political ranting and this time round was no exception as the lead guitarist gave a spirited rendition of "Out Demons Out ! "Their set also included "Silver Needle" and "Refugee"

Edgar Broughton © R Ransom

Kevin Ayers © R Ransom

Disc and Music Echo quoth thus:

    Over five hours of varied and contrasting music was topped by a performance by the Pink Floyd, who treated the gathering to a preview of their forthcoming album. They gave an hour of beautifully mature music , soothing and inspiring to listen to. They kept the numbers short- apart from the finale -and carefully restrained. With the sun glinting on Nick Mason's drums and the clouds breaking up overhead, it seemed as if the sounds were dropping from the sky itself.

   After a quiet and lazy bluesy introduction, they went gently into Green Is The Colour and Careful With that Axe Eugene.  Even in the latter the volume was down and the mood reflective. Set the Controls was at its most ethereal , the smooth crescendos flying away over the heads of the captivated audience. To end, a brass section and choir were brought on for the final 25 minute finale.

   The piece began with an arrangement for the brass and then switched to a lengthy choir pattern , followed by a dash of marvelous Floyd rock -jazz , in came the brass again , pursued by incantations from the choir and swirling special effects in two channel stereo. A reprise took up the original theme, based on a simple chord progression akin to the finale of The Man  and group, choir and orchestra projected it together in fine combination .

Nick Mason: By the second Hyde Park show we had begun real work, consolidating our position. It led on from there to our current global scorched-earth policy. Though I think we were underground until Dark Side Of The Moon put the nail in that coffin.

David Bedford : There was a really nice one in Hyde Park when Pink Floyd premiered 'Atom Heart Mother' with orchestra and choir, and the chap conducting that had just commissioned me to write a piece for his choir, so it was my two worlds sort of mixing up. It was a really hot day and really nice, it was a good piece 'Atom Heart Mother'.

I went to many festivals that you feature. The above being one of my favorites. I jumped the stage barrier and stood behind Edger Broughton's amplifiers as he smashed his guitar around. Stayed backstage all day and strolled onstage when Pink Floyd played. Later that year(?), I by chance saw a documentary feature in a cinema that showed some of this on film, including me behind Edgar!

Do you know where I can get a copy of this film?
Jim.

The whole concert was filmed by TVX , 280 mins. This probably is the footage that Jim saw, whether it is still in existence is unknown, perhaps Hoppy has it in his vault.

"I was there with John 'Hoppy' Hopkins of TVX. I worked at The New London Arts Lab in Robert Street and Hoppy said why not come down to Hyde Park and help video the gig. So what’s a chap supposed to do? Off we trooped for a lovely day of free music and a lot of spliff. Anyway we were on top of the stage left PA tower for the whole thing. That may be me looking over the top of the cabs in your first photo.

I don’t remember much about it other than getting cramp from gripping the camera trigger for some of the longer numbers - and thinking the Floyd a little pretentious, what with the choir and brass section as I was not used to that level of musical sophistication - but little did any of us know then what the rest of the 70s had in store....

As I remember we were using an early Sony reel to reel portable. This is portable in the same way that an office photocopier is portable, but at the time it was a revelation, though I have never seen the footage.

So, Hoppy, if you are out there and have access to all that stuff, it would be great to see it (and you of course)."

RPJ

Many thanks to John Baxter for permission to use his photos - John wrote

Hi,
Here are four of the photos I took of 'The Floyd' at Hyde Park in 1970. I arrived at the site at about 8.30am and we were able to get right through to the front as you can see. They actually began with The Embryo. As far as I remember the rest of the set comprised: Careful With That Axe Eugene, Set The Controls and then Atom heart Mother. It was a beautiful day - warm and sunny. The four slides I've sent you are: Roger fading himself out at the conclusion of 'Set The Controls', Nick in full flight, a slim Dave Gilmour and Roger in the middle of 'Set the Controls'. He always sang this with his finger in his ear to help him pitch it right. Roger Waters is notoriously tone deaf and used to have his guitar tuned for him by Rick Wright. There are some more showing the choir and brass band used in Atom Heart Mother and I have some from Wembley, November 1974.
Best wishes,
John Baxter

Hyde Park - Pink Floyd, Roy Harper.

I was used to hearing the ambient sounds of Pink Floyd, as I attended many college gigs with friends, so the chance to see them for free at Hyde Park was a very attractive prospect. I recall sitting in the arena on a nice but cool summer day, drifting off to the first airing of Atom Heart Mother. The first 'Chill-out' album?

My only other recollection from the day was a disgusting song about foreskins and such by Roy Harper! I must have been a rather delicate soul, because I remember feeling genuinely shocked at such a rude display ...... and SO LOUD too !!! I am rather more hardened now. (heheheh .... snigger)

THE WHOLE WORLD AT HYDE PARK 1970

Kevin Ayers and The Whole World's 'Hyde Park Free Concert 1970' finally sees release Feb 4.

The Band:

Kevin Ayers, David Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Mike Oldfield, and on this occasion, drummer Robert Wyatt.

"This summer 1970 Hyde Park Free Concert recording brings to life a deliriously heavy, heady rock experience in overdrive. How else to handle Kevin's Soft Machine classics Did It Again and Why Are We Sleeping. Restored as fully as possible from a two track copy".

Buy and listen to this release here