Photos courtesy © Steve Austin unless otherwise indicated

    The second year at the Reading site and the 1972 festival was once again marred by police arrests of festival goers. 130 people were arrested over the weekend, mostly for drug offences but some for offensive behaviour (many instances of which were debatable ) , or petty vandalism . Once again a very large sum of money was spent on policing what was a largely inoffensive crowd. The police presence was way over what was needed for an event of this nature, with police choppers circling the site and special courts busy processing those rounded up by the police as they once again continually stopped festival goers and randomly searched both them and their baggage.

    For some strange reason ( pressure from the police , or politicking between relief organizations ? ) Release were not invited to attend but BIT and ADE were there ministering to those who had OD 'd , been incarcerated or simply fallen ill through eating out of date burgers.

    There is little doubt that the threatening level of paranoia shown by the Thames Valley police towards festival goers during the early 1970s is almost unprecedented in the history of the British police forces. This was to culminate in the nasty scenes at the Windsor Free Festival in 1974.It is perhaps fortunate that the more of middle of the road crowds who attended the Reading festivals were so passive. If they had shown any sort of resistance towards the oppressive tactics that were utilised by the police during this period they would no doubt have been met with considerable force .

     It is ironic that so much effort was put into policing the non violent hippie crowds of the day who smoked dope and so much tolerance was shown to the violent drunken football crowds that regularly terrorised unfortunate British towns throughout the decade and beyond . Its ironic that this violence pretty much only became less virulent when large numbers of soccer fans began to take ecstasy in the 90s .Its also not coincidence that the level of violence at Reading increased when the crowd began to be more interested in hard drinking or combined their drugs of choice with booze. It was then that the beer cans began to rain down on the heads of luckless attendees ......

    But drug related rock festival paranoia always seems to take priority over beer fuelled sport related violence doesn't it ? I wonder if the revenue the government derives from booze has anything to do with it ?

© Steve Austin

Intrepid TV police take to the water to help stamp out the scourge of water bourne drugs !

    Genesis were the stars of an otherwise fairly lacklustre bill on Friday . The weather was fine , but most bands failed to move the crowd to their feet. By contrast Genesis had the crowd screaming for a full five minutes after they had left the stage .

   Even former crowd pleasers Mungo Jerry ( a brit rock festival hit of 1970 ) could not make much of an impact , perhaps the novelty of their act had by now worn off. Nazareth did not play despite being present. Their late arrival meant they were not allowed to play and the other acts sets were extended to cover the gap.

   Curved Air came on around midnight and eventually built up a good head of steam, despite the cold conditions at that hour , but despite their headliner status it was Genesis who made the most impact with the crowd.

By 1972 the festival featured two stages enabling a quick turn around between acts.

   Saturday 

   Saturday was mostly dull, both weather wise and in the response of the audience to the majority of the acts. The PA acted up during some sets and Solid Gold Cadillac did not play due to their transport packing in and a consequent late arrival , it appears that late arrivals were not slotted in whenever possible, they just were factored out of the lineup.

   The Johnny Otis R & B show , featuring the Three Tons of Joy , Mighty Flea and Big Daddy Rucker were notable for stirring up the crowd , along with the Edgar Broughton Band who actually got the crowd to their feet for the first time during the day. Focus were the hit of the afternoon , by 1974 they were back as one of the headliners.

   The Faces were often noted for their slackness in those days, but this time they delivered . They performed a fairly tight set, with a minimum of stuffing up and no overt drunkenness on their part .

 Sunday  

    The weather brightened up considerably on Sunday , which helped to produce a better vibe than the day before although once again it did not make up for the lack of musical highs .

   Wizzard kicked off proceedings to a lacklustre reception, and it was left to Stackridge to get the first good response from the audience , although their set was spoilt to some extent by sound problems . Ten Years After put on a good show to finish off the festival to warm applause from the appreciative crowd .

   Overall it was a "nice " festival, nothing to really complain about apart from the police presence outside the arena and the overall lack of really talented acts who could raise the collective audience consciousness into the heights that the really top notch festival acts are capable of achieving.

Stackridge

•  BREWERS DROOP
•  EDGAR BROUGHTON
•  COTTONWOOD
•  CURVED AIR
•  ELO
•  THE FACES
•  FOCUS
•  GOOD HABIT -
•  GENESIS
•  IF
•  JO' BURG HAWK
•  JERICHO
•  JOHNATHAN KELLY
•  LINDA LEWIS
•  MAGMA
•  MAHATMA KANE JEEVES
•  MAN
•  MATCHING MOLE

• N/A
• N/A
• £ 20
• £1000
• £400
• £4000
• £300
• £15
• £175
• £200
• N/A
• £25
• £50
• £150
• N/A
• N/A
• £75
• £125

•  GILLIAN McPHERSON
•  MUNGO JERRY
•  NAZARETH
•  JOHNNY OTIS R&B SHOW
•  QUINTESSENCE
•  SHUGGIE OTIS & THE THREE TONS OF JOY
•  SOLID GOLD CADILLAC
•  STACKRIDGE
•  STATUS QUO
•  STEAMHAMMER
•  ALAN STIVELL
•  STRING DRIVEN THING
•  STRAY
•  SUNDERLAND BROTHERS AND QUIVER
•  TEN YEARS AFTER
•  VINEGAR JOE
•  ROY WOODS WIZARD

• £ 30
• £ 350
• £ 20
• N/A
• £400
• N/A
• £125
• £25
• £350
• £75
• N/A
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• £50
• £75
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• £100
• £325