Deeply Vale free festival

The Archive

created Jan 2002. Updates July 2021

Deeply Vale Free Festival . 1976-1979.

Music.

The festival featured a wide variety of bands , it being towards the end of the decade , the hippie bands were tending to go into a decline. As many had split up or mutated into other styles , there simply weren't enough of them to keep a free festival supplied with music for a week. Apart from that tastes had changed and many free festival devotees were prepared to listen to other forms of music such as reggae and punk. However , punk bands did not always go down well and one was bottled by the " peace loving " freaks who were not prepared for change.

Amongst the bands featured at the festival were Nik Turner, who provided one of the side stages for the event , Misty In Roots, Crispy Ambulances ( 7-25-78), Steve Hillage , Here and Now, The Fall and Tractor, (who resurrected their career with performances at the earliest festivals).

Nik Turner even released a live album recorded at the festival in 1978 .

Ozit records has retrieved film footage from the 77 ,78 and 79 festivals and the first DVD to feature some of this footage is now available. A further in depth release will come soon .

Here and Now also released the album Gospel Of Free featuring two tracks recorded live at Deeply Vale in 1978.

Those tracks were "Hairy Barber" and "Strawberry", recorded 23rd July, 1978 and 24th July, 1978 .
The album has a great 32-page booklet about the free festivals of the late seventies and some pictures of Deeply Vale and of Glastonbury 1977, as well as the detailed story of British free festivals through the eyes of the Here And Now band and family.

You can order the album by visiting this link.

Last but no means least , we have probably the cream of the crop, recently issued by OZIT records ,Steve Hillage's entire performance at the 1978 Deeply Vale Festival. This as Hillage at his most psychedelic and trippiest .The playing here is really unique, Hillage experiments with the structure of the songs and the music visits some strange and exotic places that are rarely explored on his studio albums .Although there are a few minor rough spots sound wise, this soundboard recording is a treasure . The music alternately swirls, explodes and oozes from the speakers from the word go . A real cracker of a set and the accompanying booklet about the festival is also a joy to behold.

Buy it NOW

Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy ,Andy Anderson ,John Mackenzie and Christian Boule.

Images of You.

Tears are over

What Can I Do ?

Things You Do

Teenage Art

Why ?

The Kids Just Wanna Dance

Youre So Funny,

Who Loves Jimmy Anderson

Tameside Girls

I'm Alright

Fast Cars live at Deeply Vale 1979

Who Loves Jimmy Anderton?, a barb at the controversial Mancunian Chief of Police, is the best song the Buzzcocks never wrote, but it's The Kids Just Wanna Dance, a number the group debuted here and later recorded as a single, that best encapsulates their style. Fast and furious, wildly anthemic, and lashed with flashing and flaming lead guitar, the band slammed pop-punk into street punk with mighty abandon. With their tough sound, blazing delivery, and madly melodic music, the Fast Cars were cruising straight into the modern age, creating a sound more in keeping with modern hardcore than second-wave punk rock. So here they are, revved up and ready to go -- the Fast Cars in all their original glory.
~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide

As usual OZIT have cornered the market in recordings, the Cds above are certainly worth purchasing, but they have also released a book on the Festival ( and others ) included in a cd box set. There are 6cds of audio and included are Steve Hillage, Nik Turner’s Sphynx, The Fall (unreleased tracks live at Deeply Vale), Visitor 2035, Danny and The Dressmakers (full sets from the festival) , Aqua, Here and Now, Wilful Damage, The Ruts, SFW, Salford Jets, Victim, Free Ride, Durutti Column, Brenda and The Hot Dicks, Red Eyes, Aspell, Andy T, Blue Midnight feat Grant Showbiz, George Borowski, Tony Crabtree, Accident on The East Lancs, Victor Brox Blues Train, Howard The Duck, Rockslide (forerunner of the Drones) Movement Banned, Elti Fits, The Tunes, Trevor Hyett , Whitefire, Victor Drago, The Trend, Drive by Night, The Out, Fast Cars, Mudanzas, Vibrant Thigh, NotSensibles, Stuffed Badgers, Rivington Spyke, No Change, No Mystery, Murmo Schultz, Bill Pod and The Stocks, Trevor Hyett, Alchemist, The Joint Rolling Contest, & John Keegan. There's also a book and a pack of incense, which will cost you 87 quid.

If you are considering purchasing primarily for the music content , it may well be advisable to check the track listing first as a only a few of the band contributions are on the same CD, for instance Steve Hillages tracks are spread out over the cds, as are Nik Turners and together they consist of only a portion of the two CDS released with their full sets. Also it doesn't state whether all the tracks are live performances taken from the actual festival......... what it does say is

"The box set contains 6 CDs of bands who performed at or were connected with Deeply Vale, a 272 page A4 book, filled with reminiscences and images of the Deeply Vale Festivals 1976-1979, the Pickup Bank Festivals of 1980-1981, Rivington Pike 1976-1977 and Rock Against Racism 1978"

Deeply Vale photographs- The Archive.

These pages contain photographs of bands who performed at the festival from the Deeply Vale Archive, kindly provided by Chris Hewitt of OZIT records , who was one of the founders of the festival. The photos can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail.

Band info we have comes courtesy of Chris- can anyone identify the other bands ?

Liverpool space rockers CD/Vinyl album ' Body-the body album'. If you can find a vinyl LP mint you'll pay £250!!!!	Tractor Rear shot of Tractor bass player Dave Addison with guitarist Jim Milne faintly in background of photo. Albums too numerous to list visit www.tractor-ozit.com
Pete Farrow Pete was also a compatriot of John Cooper Clarke,Trevor Hyett and Anna Ford when she was a folk singer. CD album Pete Farrow " Who says there's no beach in Stockport? "	The Fall The Fall got into the hippie scene by touring with Here and Now and Wilful Damage on free tours. Here and Now set up free tours and they always brought new talent such as The Fall ." It was just an extension of the Deeply Vale ethos".
The Fast Cars. These guys were pretty good ! You can listen to a track by the Fast Cars at Deeply Vale more photos at Deeply Vale here	Misty In roots!

The Ruts

The Ruts were formed at Deeply Vale in a tent in 1977 from a band that was playing there that year called Hit and Run. By 1978s deeply vale they were The Ruts and they have said that the Deeply Vales were some of the best gigs they ever did.

Accident on the East Lancs

Featuring Andy Sharrocks vocals plus in the background of the picture (with beard ) Dave Addison of Tractor on bass guitar- Accident on the East Lancs had two singles on Roach Records - the first one being 'We Want It Legalised'- (they were strong supporters of the Legalise Cannabis Campaign)

Short for SO FUCKING WHAT .

info here

Short lived band much influenced by Brand X

more info here listen here

Unknown Bands

This site contains a goodly part of the Deeply Vale Archive , graciously provided by Chris Hewitt , but we are always interested in contributions from attendees. I

Any info to add ?-well don't just sit there , Contact us

For more Deeply Vale content visit -

OZIT records Chris Hewitt's record label- one of the original organisers of the festival , features recordings of festival artists, home of Tractor and the Deeply Vale Archive .

Deeply Vale menu

Documents	Crowd and stage from Deeply archives	Memories	Music	History-76-77
History-78-79	Press	Aqua photos 1978	Here and Now Photos 1978	Sphynx photos 1978

Free rock festivals of the 70s and 80s

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