The humberside pop festival 1969_ Humberside free concerts 1969- barclay james harvest, Edgar Broughton. 1970- freee and soft machine

The Humberside Pop Festival.

Burton Constable Hall 22-23rd August 1969.

Deviants, Pretty Things, Rats, Madrakes, Chicken Shack, Third Ear Band

The Nice. Hutch, Clouds, Calmen Waters , Jody Grind.

A virtually forgotten festival, stricken by some last minute withdrawals . Whether the free concert with Barclay James Harvest went ahead is not confirmed at this point in time although we have seen it listed . Apparently 2000 attended and the event ran smoothly accordeing to press accounts.

The Rats are more than just an obscure band, as they contained Woody Woodmansey and Mick Ronson , who went on to be members of David Bowies Band, if you clikc on the link you can see some excellent photos of the Rats onstage at Burton Constable Hall and West Park . There probably was another show at Burton Constable Hall in 1970. Anthony recently send us this missive.....

Now the reason I'm writing is this. When I was fifteen I went to many concerts at Bridlington Spa and around the area (Humberside Yorkshire. I have very vague memories of a concert somewhere near Hull that was an allnighter and the first of it's kind for me.I discovered your site while searching for this. Looking through I found the info about gigs in Burton Constable Hall near Hull . The Humberside Pop Festival and the Midsummer nights Dream festivals are mentioned with very little info. Now the gig I went to in the same place when I was 15 was neither of these and was or in 1969 or 1970.

I have no idea what they called the festival but I do remember mostly who played. The gig was not outside but in a large,long room with one stage facing the audience and a second stage to the left of the main stage for changeovers. I had gone with some friends but don't remember who!!!! We went mainly to see the headliners who were Free ( a nightmare search word on google!) and were massive on the underground scene and had just hit the big time with "Alright Now" . They did a brilliant set and I was right down the front . In those days everybody sat down so no crushes at the front like at Charlton for The Who( or the The Sex Pistols at the 100 Club!!) The other main bands were Soft Machine, who I didn't care about at the time and left halfway through and went to the bar. It was the classic line up of Soft Machine 8 with Robert Wyatt on drums, but I was too young and stupid to care as I was a rocker and hated prog.Also on the bill were Amazing Blondel and local heroes (from Bridlington my hometown) Nothingever'appens with Snips on vocals who went on to join Sharks with Chris Spedding and later Baker Gurvitz Army (as Mr. Snips) who I thought were crap. He then disappeared up his own arse, never to be heard of again!!

The only thing which gives me any kind of exact timeline is the fact that Free just made it to number one so whenever that was is the time of this concert. ....Just checked. "Alright Now" went to #2 in mid-1970, so this must be The Humberside Pop Festival then, but the acts/year(1969) are different on your page.So their must have been a HPF in 1970, or I drank too much!!!!!!
I can't remember any of the other bands as I was pretty pissed/stoned and staying up allnight for a gig was not something I did that often.....

Confirmation that a show did take place in 1970 is made by "deefa", who quoth thus on another forum

Next I saw Free at an 'all night rave in'(early predecessor to a rave)at the Burton Constable Hall near Hull where I live. Paul Kossoff was amazing on guitar. I use his image as my avatar with pride!