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For information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk

Updated June 2021.


The Fourteenth National Jazz ,Blues and Rock Festival.

 

Richfield Avenue. 
Reading 
August 23rd-25th 1974.

 

After two years of miscounting the number of festivals there had been since 1961, the NJF finally twig that they have left out 1971 in their figures and they realise that this is the 14th festival, NOT the 13th as would be logical if 1973 was correct ......

Doubters need to look back to 1970 to see that the 10th festival took place in that year. Thus , 1971 was the eleventh , 1972 the Twelfth ,1973 the Thirteenth and 1974 was the 14th festival .

Thus any flyers, tickets and promo stuff from the 1972-73 festivals are wrongly numbered . Dates and year are correct.

 


1974 festival Line-up

There seems to have been a number of line up changes, as you can see from the documents below.

 

    •  HARVEY ANDREWS
    •  BARCLEY JAMES HARVEST
    •  BECKETT
    •  CAMEL
    •  CHAPMAN & WHITNEY
    •  CHILLI WILLI
    •  KEVIN COYNE
    •  ESPARANTO
    •  GARY FARR
    •  FOCUS
    •  FUMBLE
    •  GREENSLADE
    •  ALEX HARVEY
    •  HEAVY METAL KIDS
    •  HUSTLER
    • JACK THE LAD
    •  J.S.D. BAND
    •  LONG JOHN BALDRY
    •  JOHNNY MARS
    •  GEORGE MELLY
    •  G.T.MOORE
    •  NUTZ
    •  PRETTY THINGS
    •  PROCOL HARUM
    •  STRIDER
    •  SUNDERLAND BROTHERS AND QUIVER
    •  10cc
    •  TRAFFIC
    •  THIN LIZZY
    •  TRAPEZE
    •  WINKIES
    • also Baker Gurvitz Army are reported to ahev played, we have an eye witness account and also recording exists. Anyone else remember this ?

Chapman Whitney Reading 1974.

© Steve Austin.

Trapeze . © S.Austin

Steve Austin (left) and friend Glyn arrive at Reading 1974

Click to see a larger image of the flyer

     In addition to a nice but fairly ordinary  line up , Focus being the only overseas act of note - there was an epidemic of can throwing (unfortunately -the first of many ones to come ) - and a fish and chip shop was trashed by angry punters- annoyed at excessive prices. Eric Burdon and Ronnie Laine were no- shows, which considerably weakened the overall appeal of the weekend -although the addition of Procul Harum and 10CC went some way towards repairing the damage . There was the usual festival dampener..... RAIN...... but I expect the energetic acts of Alex Harvey , Traffic and Thin Lizzy would have warmed things up and made the weekend a worthy one .

Steve Harley © Vin Miles

Procol Harum onstage Reading 1974 © Vin Miles

Band photogalleries

courtesy Vin Miles, Phil Newson and Lindsay Young.

10cc Barclay James Harvest Camel Esperanto
Heavy Metal Kidz Hustler ? JSD Band John Peel
Nutz Procol Harum Steve Harley Strider
  Thin Lizzy Unknown  

Reading 74 pages.

If you have material that will help build these pages,memories, photos, recordings, setlists, anything, please-contact us


The early festivals.

You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
  1961
1962
1963
1964

Festivals 1965-1990

Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.
Richmond 1965
Windsor 1966
 Windsor 1967
Sunbury 1968
Plumpton 1969
Plumpton 1970
Reading 1971
Reading 1972
Reading 1973
Reading 1974

 

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