Croeso 69 Blues Festival.

Grosmont Wood Barn

Grosmont

nr

Abergavenny.

May 23rd 1969.

Fleetwood Mac

Jethro Tull.

Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera

Dave Symmonds

Eyes Of Blue

Kimla Taz

Bob McClure

Incredible Sun Dog

Recollections

Hi,

I can remember going to this festival with a mate of mine Colin Thomas. We went on his scooter from Cardiff and can remember Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull playing a musical saw.

Was a great night and the place was heaving. Seeing the sun come up in the morning was quite something and driving back to Cardiff was an experience ,especially as we had not slept for many hours.

Regards

Bryan Warren

Hi,
Fleetwood Mac are visiting New Zealand later this year (2009) and it prompted memories of seeing them at the above event. I lived in Monmouthshire then and I remember catching a bus from Newport to Abergavenny with my mate Mike Chislett. We had intended to thumb a lift but we had little success and as it was getting late in the day we took the bus.

From Abergavenny we were given a lift to the event by two students from Oxford Uni who told us that while Fleetwood Mac were great, Jethro Tull were better when they had seen them recently. And so it proved.

Eyes of Blue were brilliant but the place was packed and it was difficult to get close to the acts. It was my first concert, the atmosphere was amazing. Back then I had an afro (not any more) and I remember getting straw in it, but then it was a farm. From memory everyone was having a great time.

After the concert and with dawn rising lots of us walked back to Abergavenny, some grabbing milk bottles from doorways as they went.

Philip Brown

I can remember going from Newport,hitch hiked to Abergavenny,met some friends and bummed a lift to Grosmont,waited ages to see the bands,what a night it was,Peter Green was the man on the night for me,my mate,Nigel Edmondson also played that night with his band incredible sun dog,a few years ago I was talking to Rob Barker,who runs the Angel Pub in Grosmont and he showed me an original poster advertising the gig,he very kindly made a photo copy which now hangs in pride of place in my home in Spain.It has caused people to inundate me with questions about that night,they couldn,t believe Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull actually played in a cow shed.

Karl

I was at this overnight festival. It was a huge barn, jammed to the rafters. I walked the 9 miles from Abergavenny to Grosmont with half a dozen mates. The support bands were all brilliant in their own right, although I'm sure Savoy Brown and the Climax Blues Band were there too - could be wrong - there was a lot of live music around Abergavenny at the time, the Town Hall had bands on as well as the Tithe Barn.

I managed to get right down the front and sat at the base of the stage for the main two bands. Jethro Tull came on and were very entertaining, you have to remember there weren't many people around who looked like Ian Anderson, standing on one leg and playing the flute, brilliant musicians. They'd just had a huge hit record with Living In The Past as well.

I vividly remember Fleetwood Mac coming on, all of them kept their duffle coats on as far as I can remember. They'd had Albatross at No.1 in the charts in January and had just released Man of the World. I also remember thinking it was the first time that I'd ever seen Orange amplifiers - Fleetwood Mac all had them, very new and clean looking. They played Albatross note perfect, they were so good, having a good time on stage, few drinks - a memorable night.

We all walked back into Abergavenny early on Saturday morning and have a vague memory of Greco's opening up for us for coffee and burgers.
Coincidentally, in Abergavenny there was a late night cafe called Denner's run by the mother of a friend of mine. Some months after the Grosmont Festival I went in there after the pubs had shut and Peter Green was in there putting loads of tunes on the juke box - very quiet and subdued. Less than a year after Grosmont he'd left Fleetwood Mac - and the rest is history!

Chris Davies