Plumpton Race Track.
Streat.
East Sussex.
The Archive.
updated June 2021
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Plumpton Race Track. Streat. East Sussex. |
The Softs were a bit unlucky , as they bore the brunt of the technical problems on the opening night . Power failures led to much of this set being dogged with problems. Just how long they performed for is debatable. However, an audience tape exists of 10 minutes of their set and If I can find it I'll review it . Soft Machine were a fairly impenetrable band, you either loved them or loathed them .Originally the Softs featured the well known 60s rock eccentrics Daevid Allen and Kevin Ayers, but they left fairly early on in the piece . I used to like them quite a bit and I saw them once at the Top Rank in Swansea in either late 1969 or early 1970. Now I fnd their music a bit mechanical, but they had great chops and were masters of the extended prog rock number. Their third album, titled, strangely enough - Third , is a very good example of this and is generally considered the best of their efforts. After this they became progressively more jazz orientated, Wyatt left soon after and after a few years none of the orgiinal members were left in the line-up.This show would be in their middle period, where Wyatt took the vocals. Most of their set would have been instrumental with Wyatt ( who has a very strange, but somehow lovely voice) occasionally chiming in with brief vocal interludes. |
Soft Machine © Random Punter. |
To view a huge number of
top quality photos of almost all the bands at the 1969 festival ( including
Soft Machine ), visit Repfoto(
note : you shouldn't copy Roberts photos -support his efforts to give us a record
of the festival by buying his prints)
The early festivals.
You can find out the complete
line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below.
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Festivals 65-83
Most of these have fairly complete documentation .
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