Nobody could have seriously expected Messrs Clapton , Townshend , Page, Jones and Plant to play together , so it wasn't that much of a shock when they didn't . America's over rated Grateful Dead had to make do without the benefit of Britain's best and accordingly suffered.

         The Dead have been together in one form or another for six years and I would have expected something better after all this time . They played for too long and became tedious with only occasional bursts of energy and little inventiveness  . Various numbers from their Live Dead album were played but this didn't prevent a string of people leaving the concert area for the village during their act.

    On the other hand , Screaming Lord Sutch and Heavy friends were a surprise hit . They had the job of opening the festival- not counting the Krishna team who went on earlier but they did not really count as a an act. Sutch began with Chuck Berry's  Roll Over Beethoven and then Don't You Just Know  It, during which two birds dressed as outcasts from St Trinians cavorted about the large and high stage.
His friends who couldn't really get into anything musically satisfying because of the nature of the act , kept up a  succession of rock numbers like Great Balls of Fire . For Jerry Lee Lewis's number Sutch lit a fire on-stage and almost ignited a giant structure which had been inflated in front of the stage . He also had smoke bombs set off in the audience which caused a minor stampede.

    Backstage all was orderly and peaceful . The omnipresent Jack Barrie did his usual stirling job of organizing the catering 15 hours a day , the stage managers kept everything going and Bill Hough looked after the sound expertly . The stewards were the epitome of cool and provoked no bad scenes which usually  mar festivals.

    Family went on stage to a fantastic ovation that had even the hardened journalists  climbing over scaffolding to see what was going on. Its about time this fine group got the recognition they so rightly deserve and Hollywood could be just what they needed. Family's Roger Chapman really does freak out on stage , waving his sweater round and round his head , rolling and rocking about  the stage , knocking the mike stand for six and shaking his bands about in such the manner of Joe Cocker . Strangely , none of this detracts from the music and if anything , makes it all the more exciting and original.

    The act consisted mostly of album tracks , A song For me being particularly good . The title song from the third LP , it raced along and included a nice section of violin playing by Johnny Weider and Rob Townshend excelling  on drums A first rate performance.

    The night got a bit cold and after a gloriously sunny day , people begin to really feel shivery . Lots of little campfires sprang up all over the place , with fans cooking bangers and things.
The police were wonderful, keeping themselves to themselves and being helpful rather than restrictive.

    One hell of a commotion broke out during Mungo Jerry's set . A group that I'd never encountered previously , they did a storm and had to be booked for the following day . They started off starting just like a skiffle group , but got into jug band music and country blues things , tearing the place apart. Rock Island Line and Midnight Special were both very good as was Dust Pneumonia Blues. The crowd kept yelling for in the summertime, the new single that singer and lead guitarist Ray Dorset wrote but things were going so well on the Sunday that the groups didn't want to slow the action  down and it was left to the disc Jockey to play it at the end of the proceedings.

    Substitute for the James Gang, Tony Joe White should have preceded Ginger Bakers Air force , but he followed them after all. When he went into John Lee Hookers Boom Boom , all seemed well, but after a time all his numbers began to sound the same and boredom set in. . He generated quite a bit of enthusiasm in the crowd but he appeared so, late that most people were very tired.

    Ginger Bakers Air Force played for about two hours and were phenomenal
Ginger is obviously the driving force and with his superb command of the drums, but the massive squadron on-stage with him generate a powerhouse of noise that really gets a the audience going .It took a little time to really get together but when it did it was tremendous.
Denny Laine recaptured a lot of the Moody Blues feel on I just Don't Want To Go On Without You and got a lot of loud applause- obviously a lot of Moodies fans about there. Bob Dylan's Million Dollar Bash had a new t treatment  that had Ginger going berserk and the newly married Graham Bond producing some fine sounds from his organ . Three girl singers provided excellent vocals that were too good to be called backings.
Rick Grech's You Look like you could use some rest. from the new album, had Graham on alto sax contrasting nicely with the brass. After the tepid reviews I've been seeing about the group , I was happy to see them all proved wrong .

Sunday

     Sunday dawned bright , clear and hot . About 20, 00 fans were in front of the stage at 7;30 am to listen to the discotheque . I must point out that I wasn't up at that time but our insomniac photographer Stuart Richman was and he told me . John Robson who used to be one of the Nice's roadies and now works with Emmo's new group , was a smiling tower of strength backstage and peaceful publicist BP Fallon spread good feelings with his sincere happiness.

     Black Sabbath are basically a rock act but there's more than I hint of progression and all went well for them Tony Iommi is an amazing lead guitarist and proved his worth many times . None more than on Wicked World which was done as a deserved encore.

     What Ginger Baker did for air force so John Hiseman did for Colosseum . As with Ginger's band they took a little while to get going,. with  Jon and Dick Heckstall Smith doing stirling work. Things began to swing later on and it wasn't long before the musical fireworks began to fly.

     My Old mates Traffic were wandering around backstage during the afternoon and people were wondering what to expect now that Dave Mason seems to have permanently departed the ranks.

We were soon to find out .

    There were the familiar Traffic numbers like Medicated Goo and Forty Thousand Headmen , but a lot of new stuff that shows the groups present direction . Steve had obviously had some thoughts about folk and he introduced one number thus. we're going to try a folk song , its called John Barleycorn .
Jim Capaldi left his drums to join Steve at the centre mic . He  banged an tambourine and sang with Steve who was on acoustic guitar and it turned out to be a good song. A number called Every Mothers Son which is from the next album and one title called Who Knows what tomorrow may bring went down well.