The Film and video footage  

    We'd never realised that the video footage shown on the screens on either side of the stage had been preserved. Apparently a B&W ( and possibly colour ) feed had been taken from stage ( and the screen ) and at least some of the footage that TVX , Paradise Films and Gentle Ghost shot has been stored from 1970 until the present day .Various sources have emerged over the past few years, which have raised fans hopes , but at this point in time ( Jan 2012 ) none of them look as though they will get to public release in the immediate future . In fact the project looks dead in the water, unless there have been developments that we have not been informed of .

Although the film footage had been "lost " for 30 years, it only took the intrepid Steve Lyons ( r) 24 hours to track down the remaining colour footage that was located in the West country.    Steve was also a Bath vet and has been one of the main players in trying to get this footage out into the public arena over the past five years or so . An unsung hero, to whom we finally give credit !    Unfortunately Steve has not really been given the encouragement or credit that is his due for finding this footage and has retired from any involvement in getting this footage released - he is somewhat disillusioned and we cannot blame him . We more or less feel the same after busting our guts to help find this footage over the years . Now it HAS been found, intertia seems to have settled dully over the entire concept.

   At the moment , we have no idea as to which bands would feature in any future releases of material ( pardon us while we stifle peals of hysterical laughter at this most unlikely prospect ), but we can at least give an indication as to which bands were definitely filmed by TVX . By referring to photographs of the stage , one can often pick out the cameras - although this does not guarantee that this footage still exists.

Colin King, one of the backstage crew at the festival has this recollection of the set up .

"As to Bath festival along with John Peel and Mike Raven I handled the continuity at both the 69 and 70 festivals as far as I remember gentle ghost were filming onstage with tvx filming from the front and projecting their footage onto giant video screens . Charlie Watkins himself of WEM did the outfront mixing as did Jim Marshall at Weeley "

A discussion on the Fairport convention discussion list unearthed this information

the entry for FC refers to "tv cameras". i know a bit about that reference - the festival was recorded by Lindsey Clennell and Sheldon Rocklin, some on 1" video tape, most with Sony half-inch 'PortaPak' handheld gear (compared to todays video cams, this was *huge* and heavy). at the time I lived with Lindsey's family and that's how I got to be at Bath, i was a sort of video roadie. we had a big Transit, full of batteries and recording gear right down by the stage and all-areas passes - bliss. mind u, I was either asleep or out of my skull most of the time and i remember very little. i don't remember FC at all , but after the fest, the tapes were edited in London at a facilities house( I remember working with Sheldon on some solarisations) but i have no idea where the footage is now. I think some was put on to 16mm filmstock. Steve having rekindled my interest, I will find out ! who knows - maybe there is still some film or tape of FC playing Bath
andy f

And this from Gary regarding the Zeppelin footage

Regarding Led Zeppelin's performance I think the guy who shot the film lives in Gloucestershire or Wiltshire in the UK and he has the film I think. There was an article in the Record Collector magazine some years ago featuring an interview with him. I just wished I'd kept hold of the mag as I would defintely contact him now.

Channel 4 television in the UK issued a schools educational video about geography or something, last year. It is supposed to include a pan shot of Robert Plant on stage at the festival. I am told it is silent and lasts for just a few seconds. Again, details are sketchy.

Regards,

Gary

Thomas Geistler sent us this recently about the footage

I sent away for a compilation boot video in the early 90s - I did not notice this till seeing the whole lotta love promo on you tube and the pink floyd footage you offered through your website that I remembered I had this god awful vertical hold debacled sHot - my brother and Ilooked carefully at the footage and all of his zeppelin books (7) he got over 25 years and yes it is it ---- on the video it has plant in the correct shirt - and bonham in the muscle sleeveless shirt - it shows plant , close ups of his face and from the waist up mostly -there is no live sound but a very hard to hear were gonna groove from 'coda' on it. it is black and white footage. I would be astounded if it wasnt a small part of film footage from the bath 1970 festival. It resembles the floyd footage I saw so clearly from you. It was part of a collage of awful footage that included immigrant song live1, 0 seconds grant and plant interveiw (river thames) billy connelly & bonham interveiw 1980 and audience shot 8mm footage of zepp in 75 and 77. I know my zeppelin , i know what they looked like on every tour - I can tell by any picture what year led zeppelin was perfoming and my brother is an expert on them- we have the books - we waited for all the great dvds that the undergound had to offer but low and behold that god awful 10 generation video tape I have is proof it exists.

I wonder if we will ever see the whole thing, I hope so and Ihope this helps- great bath site , thankyou kindly, and sincerly -

tom g. from michigan

Jim Pickford Perry has more info regarding the technical set up and the people involved in the shoot

I'm almost certainly the lurking cameraman at Bath - didn't think that I'd turn-up after 34 years!
I was working with TVX at the reborn Arts Lab in London where we had been given Sony portapak equipment by the Beatles Apple company to do video arts etc. An envelope arrived at TVX with 2 return train tickets to Bath and 2 festival tickets attached to a note which just said "Go groove". So myself and another guy (John Kirk) went to Bath.
When we arrived at the site with our high-tech 405-line black and white camera system we were magically waved through all the security gates and ended up at the main security caravan backstage. It turned out that Lindsey Clennell had somehow managed to park a converted Volkswagen van in front of the stage stuffed with video equipment ... which he had no idea how to use. The quote you got on the FC site "mind u, I was either asleep or out of my skull most of the time and i remember very little" summed up the technical expertise of his crew! John Kirk and I introduced ourselves and before we knew it were running all the equipment for them. We called TVX back in London and a portable TV studio (in a converted Mini) was dispatched down to join us with a couple of our co-video workers.
Some surviving video is probably buried in the TVX archive.

Led Zepplin heavies physically removed us from the stage - even though we had no tape in the recorders! We were only allowed to shoot the crowd when Zappa was on.
The huge broadcast camera was I think from British Lion (who also were at Phun City) and TVX basically hijacked the credit for the system.
Oh those were the days..
Jim Pickford-Perry

John Hopgood of TVX contributed this info

In my recollection there were 2 interacting parties shooting video at Bath, ourselves (TVX & associates) with our open reel, half inch, black and white VTRs ("side screen" perhaps), and the 'big TV' contractor - I think it was British Lion - they also supplied the Eidophor, giant TV projector and I think recorded in colour on 2 inch tape.. So when you say "original video" it could mean either/both of these. Having looked at yr website (which is pretty impressive), It looks to me as if you've located just about all the existing footage already including lots that I knew nothing about or has dissolved into memorydust.
Leaving aside Lion for the moment, TVX may have shot on up to 3 different half inch formats, these were:
- 405line, using the first Sony portapaks and playback decks, standard
CV2000
- 625 line, standard CV2100, Sony's worst ever tape format, current 1970-73
- 525 line, american standard. Lindsey Clennell & Sheldon Rochlin had this at the time with their fitted-out camper van.
I consulted our archive catalogue and see that there is apparently one 20 minute tape on CV2100 standard labeled Hot Tuna at Bath.

( also according to the list Hoppy has on the net, he has footage of Fairport as well - 20 minutes all told )

Now for the bad news.
Tapes on this format are notoriously difficult to play though theoretically not impossible. Reason: no two VTRs of this type were exactly compatible and there are almost no adjustments on the machines themselves. Also, tapes this old may require special (heat) treatment before they can play.
Finally, finding a VTR of this type is pretty difficult and likely to cost something to use.

Hoppy

John Kirk was also part of the TVX team

I was using a 1" Ampex "home video recorder" with a camera with no viewfinder. I think it was "donated" to TVX by one or some of the members of a major band and filled the backseat of Hoppy's Mini.
I had no viewfinder so there was a monitor hooked up on stage to the VCR. I shot a lot of footage including Pink Floyd and I can remember the keyboard player putting a brick on the keyboard for the lower register whist he played the upper by hand.
I was on stage a fair bit of the time.

Paradise films probably shot most of the footage ,but that would have been on 1/2" tape and they had several portapacks operating ,I had some vague recollection that their system was yankee NTSC. The Eidaphore bunch would have been multi camera with a switcher and at the cost of its hiring they should have had a vision switcher and tape online.

Alzheimers has got me, I dont remember any larger camera on stage.
If there was I would have been hooked up to the Eidaphore projector.These were rare beasts and must have be rented or owned by some company.
I hovered around the Paradise Films van a bit. I can remember Led Zepp security taking cassette recorders out of peoples hands in the rows nearest the stage.Thier attitude was aggro , extremo, they were heavy- but not Metal.

I had to get back to work before it ended and I remember going back to the car ripped on acid and driving back to London
So much for the past- It was great
John

So once again we have the tantalising possibility of footage being in existence but which may be be impossible to transfer to DVD , and don't forget we still have the thorny problem of who owns the copyright to this footage !. So don't get your hopes up, but whatever we do discover will be posted here , so watch this space.

This news regarding the existence of the film footage was positive , but this was posted about five years ago, to date its still not surfaced.

There is a company in L.A. who has six hours of colour film of Bath, including 30 mins of Led Zeppelin and about a year ago they tried to sell it to Jimmy Page,but they were asking too much for it and he refused to buy it. They have no rights to the film ,whatsoever, so it was a bit cheeky trying to sell it to Jimmy Page. Jimmy Page's archives researcher, who knows all about this film, is ringing me next week with all the details, so hopefully we can track them down. As it is in colour it could be part of the Gentle Ghost film - if they took it off the screen it would be in black and white. The other film which was the one Led Zeppelin commissioned was filmed by someone named Paul Whitehead, who now works for the BBC and according to the researcher he used the wrong exposure and only 3 mins was of any use.

Wendy Bannister

Also , several thousand feet of colour film has been found of the festival ( Aug 2003 ) and negotiations as to what will be done with this footage are again taking place. If only a suitable deal to release the footage can be arrived between those who have it and the promoters, who apparently still own the rights to the film coverage then a documentary of the festival could be made. This should be done whislt those who organised the festival are still around. If anyone is interested in producing such a film - please Contact us

Latest news re this colour footage is that whilst a fascinating document of what the festival was like , it only contains a few performances, one by Flock and several by Santana , what is desperately needed is more of the footage of the bands . This was apparently stolen back in the 70s, who the fuck has it !

In addition to Gentle Ghost a company called Paradise Films were also involved in filming , if their footage can be found , then it is likely that more performances will emerge . Can anyone help ?

October 2009

MORE VIDEO NEWS

So far I've been able to identify video cameras on-stage during the following sets, or to confirm that this act was filmed .

• Canned Heat - Camera left of stage , we can confirm it not being used to film the act asnew pics show that it was not operational . (Heat came on at a ridiculously early hour so its likely the operators were all asleep)
• Colosseum - Two cameras actively being used to film the act.
• Fairport Convention - One camera actively being used to film the act.
• Donovan -Two handheld cameras actively being used to film the act. Also 16mm cameras in evidence.(Interview footage of Donovan after he comes off stage is in existance.)
• The Flock - 16mm camera and one video camera actively being used to film the act. Also evidence of sound recording from front of stage .Colour footage exists.
• Led Zeppelin - One camera actively being used to film the crowd . (Footage definitely exists of their act.)
• Frank Zappa- Camera on stage left but no operator.
• Santana. Colour footage exists, sound is only passable.
• Hot Tuna , B&W footage exists. TVX has a copy and there is another around as well.
• Pink Floyd . Footage was shot , but is awful as most of the footage was cross faded to create psychedelic effects . Footage has been boolegged and sold online in DVD format and can be seen on youtube .
• Dr John . Footage was shot , probably still exists.
• Donovan .Footage was shot , probably still exists.
• Byrds . Footage was shot , probably still exists.

   In addition, the low quality video feed footage that came onto the market about five years ago had footage of Hot Tuna , Jefferson Airplane, Zappa, Fairport, The Byrds, Santana, Country Joe, Dr John ,It's a Beautiful Day and Pink Floyd . Its sad to think that this footage exists , in barely viewable condition , but viewable nevertheless. The most likely possibiltiy is that its never going to be released commercially as disputes about copyright will tie up any footage for the forseeable future even if the material is made available for editing and transfer . Also , the longer the footage is kept the harder it will be to transfer it and to preserve its quality .

If anyone has any more photos or recollections of when filming took place , please let me know

Contact us

Please,don't contact us to ask if the film is being released, as soon as we know anything definite it will be posted here .

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Audio- visual Records

Festival Video

Known recordings of Bath

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The artists

Byrds.	Its A Beautiful Day.	Johnny Winter.
Colosseum .	Jefferson Airplane	Frank Zappa.
Country Joe.	JoeJammer	Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies
Canned Heat	Led Zeppelin	John Peel.
Donovan	John Mayall	Moody Blues
Dr John	Pink Floyd	Fairport Convention
Flock.	Santana.	Keef Hartley.
Hot Tuna	Steppenwolf.	Maynard Ferguson
	Formerly Fat Harry

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Reviews, photo collections and general information

Articles	Recollections	Photo Collections
Time Line Friends magazine links /photos Friends article on Bath  Freddie Bannisters Bath box set Festival Adverts	John Peel. The Sharks saga Ianto's Saga. Reviews Hells Angels The View From The Mud pt 1 The View From The Mud pt 2 (recollections of attendees)	Crowd Pix  Crowd photo gallery 2. Crowd photos 3 The Farebrother Collection - July 2007 Site Pix New crowd photos Nov 2002 Photo archive of festival site /crowd More Crowd photos- June 2005 New crowd photos - June 2006 Frank Zappa Gallery - Sept 2008 Ainsley Dunbar/Peter Grant backstage Sept 2008 The Lost Roll of Film Jan 2013 - many new colour pics !!!!

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8 mm Film Archive Stills:Colosseum, stage, bikers, crowd & camp Ross Mortimore's streaming Quicktime movie of the crowd features clear images of the stage PA , Colosseum onstage and bikers with Canned Heat at Bath as a soundtrack provided courtesy of Bob C . Bandwidth and copyright restrictions mean we cant host audio/video so you will have to do with stills at the moment until we can do an alternative stream elsewhere. Please don't bug us to add it , we will do it when we have the time. General information: links menu to site map, ticket. pass out, transport, drug bust, films and festival arrangements. External Links to Bath related merchandise ( with which we have NO commerical links whatsoever ) To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1970 Bath Festival we have brought out a special commemorative set. Anyone interested can view it on http://www.rockmusic-offer.co.uk/ A limited edition of reprints of the 1969 and 1970 Bath festival posters and Freddie Bannisters books on the Bath ,Lincoln 71 and Knebworth festivals can be bought online from the link below : Rock festival memorabilia from various festivals can be viewed at the main Rock memorabilia page , Led Zeppelin at Bath photogallery Visit the 1969 Bath Festival pages.

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