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Last updated June 2021 :new photos Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Steppenwolf, Flock and Santana .
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© Marcel Just , RM and Pavel"detritus " B. |
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention June 28th 1970
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The late great FZ . Photos © Marcel Just , RM and Pavel"detritus " B. |
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The
Mothers went on stage at
2:45pm on Sunday.The afternoon was a windy and at times , overcast one .As
the band sets up, Frank remarks
So
it was hardly ideal weather for playing, or for taping . The quality is not very good, there are distortions pretty much throughout the tape, but it is mostly listenable, and at least it allows us to know what was played. Flo and Eddie give this band a definite crazy edge and they are clearly to the fore , with their weird falsettos splitting the air and perfectly counterparting the cheesy do wah doos that feature on a number of these songs. Theres a pretty powerful version of King Kong to close out the show. |
Still taken from a few short seconds of 8mm footage of Zappa onstage shot by Jochen Laschinsky © Rolling Stone declared the band finished off pelting the crowd with oranges, but this happened during Call any Vegetable , as Frank says, enjoy your oranges -and immediately afterwards he adds -
which gives
an indication of how nice a day it was. Melody
Maker mentioned fireworks ( fairly useless during the
day I would have thought and I can't remember seeing any , although
there are noises on the tape that sound like fireworks exploding at
one point. ). Unfortunately I was at the middle of the field selling
posters at the time, so I have few recollections of the set. although
I enjoyed the lengthy jams and general sillyness.
Now of course I wish I'd ventured down the front, as I never did get to see Frank close up. |
Zappa and band onstage at Bath © Derek Halsall. |
©Jake Matchett |
©Jake Matchett |
©Jake Matchett |
© Jake Matchett |
More
Zappa band pix here.
Heres the setlist as far as I can make it out , very similar to others
of the era. .
Hi
I was at the Festival & my recollection of the Mothers set is much the
same as yours. One thing that I do remember is the oranges being thrown
into the crowd. I remember someone throwing one back (from about 150 yards
way) shouting "we're the inventors now Zappa" !.
Dave Catchpole
Anyone with more photos/memories of this set, Contact me
ZAPPA: Yesterday's big draw for 150,000 pop fans.
FRANK Zappa's greatest claim to fame in Britain has been a poster portraying
him perched on the loo in the nude.
It costs fifteen shillings and has sold 3,000,000 copies.
Zappa is leader of the underground group Mothers of Invention, whose records don't usually sell so well. But this weekend 150,000 fans made the trip to the Bath Pop festival at Shepton Mallet to hear him and other top groups
such as Jefferson Airplane and Led Zeppelin.
And the fans had an unexpected bonus yesterday - an impromptu concert from British star Donovan.
Zappa is twenty-nine. He was last in Britain to give a lecture to the London School of Economics - not on revolution but evolution. He wants to be remembered for his music more than his poster.
Yet he is more likely to succeed through his ideologies, to which more of the new generation listen, than to his music.
"Politics," he says, "is an old man's game. Governments should be abandoned and people should live as they wish.
"Lets tolerate politicians with their plastic smiles only until the time
when people can take care of themselves."
Babies
Zappa originates from California, where he lives with his 24-year-old wife, Gail Adelaide Sloatman, and their two youngsters - three-year-old Moon Unit and nine-month-old Dweazil.
"Gail was a groupie," reveals Zappa. "And an excellent groupie too. It didn't matter to me that she had slept around with other beat men. We got married in New York when Gail was nine months pregnant. It's not because I believe in having a certificate to prove you're married; it's just
that in America it's difficult to get into hospital if you're an unwed mother-to-be."
It was Zappa's second marriage.
Eleven days in jail got Zappa out of conscription and Vietnam, where he had no plans to go in any event.
"I got a six month jail sentence reduced to probation after eleven days inside on a charge of publishing a pornographic record of a couple making love.
"Today you'll find more freakish tracks on one or two of my albums and no one has battered an eyelid."
Zappa's mode of living, its brutal honesty and contention, is hailed by hippies as an example for tomorrow. There's no aggro, no bovver in his life. He has a comfortable, modest house in Los Angeles, its most ostentatious feature is its swimming pool.
Helping
He has a bunch of poor friends who kip down whenever they are wandering past the door.
Zappa said:
"Sometimes the grocery bill is 200 bucks a week and if I'm away from home it can be double. That's Gail, she's too charitable."
I half expect to see beads around his neck but Zappa condems them as a symbol of the flower power era which he dismisses as insincere and highly commercialised. Zappa is one of the few American beat musicians who has openly expressed himself against drugs.
"They mean destruction," he says "I smoked twelve joints on one occasion and it left me with a fuzzy head and a sore throat. I've seen what drugs can do and no one should walk around with a retarded mind."
But he firmly believes that drugs should be legalised which, he says, would help the addicts and would give the curious a chance to reject them.
As always, Zappa's case in all arguments, censorship and the rest, is to give people free choice.
On language and four letter words he holds views to shock the last of the Victorians.Children using four letter words never grow to see any meaning in them, he contends. His children, well the three-year-old at least, are picking them up, and he isn't worried.Hope
His father, a history teacher, wanted him to be a chemist and he thought hewould achieve this until he nearly blew himself up in one experiment and then set fire to his school on Speech Day on another occasion.
If there is any judgement on Zappa - and after Bath the tales of the pilgrims will be many and legendary - he hopes he will not be discarded as a drop-out.
"A drop-out is someone who wants to go and live in a tent and do nothing more than grow beans. I live my life looking for action."
Zappa, the underground leader; Zappa in leather jacket, purple pants and gold neck chain, has found the action.
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| 8 mm Film Archive 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.
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 : Led Zeppelin at Bath photogallery Visit the 1969 Bath Festival pages. |
