View
of the festival site 1987. © Traveller Dave
Stoney Cross.
Visit Traveller
Dave's site to see many more photos of Free festival Vehicles
and sites from the late 80s .
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As
you can see the by the photos the 1987 festival was miniscule ,
the crowd increased exponentially in 88 and there were some unpleasant
incidents with a crowd of brewheads apparently setting onto Dice
George and trashing his bus .
We have very
little information about Ribblehead, we know that the stripped down
version of Hawkwind - Hawkdog, played on the 27th August in 1988
accompanied by fire displays from both the top of the viaduct and
around the stage , that there was some agro, but not much else.
Dave Brock had
this to say about Ribblehead
"I mean
Ribblehead was a real piss-off. People were getting stuff nicked
all over the joint. If you can't go to a festival where you can
leave your van unlocked or whatever... Years ago there never used
to be all the scenes of nicking that go on now. I mean you could
leave stuff laying around and you wouldn't get people pilfering
it or trying to get in the van... having a look in the window to
see if there's anybody in there so that they can go in and nick
stuff."
Brock elaborated
on his disillusionment with the scene as it was developing in the
late 80s
"The
whole idea of it is to have a nice time, to relax, meet up with
loads of friends and generally have a good time without f***ing
vehicles steaming round and knocking kids over.
"I mean there's not so many kids. People used to always take
their kids to festivals. There's not so much of that now. Except
certain ones, you know what I mean, there's certain festivals that
people think 'Oh yeah, let's take the kids there, 'cos it'll be
alright.'"
"Then you get a certain sort of people
who want to be associated as being the 'brew crew', if you see what
I mean. It's like... You get that. I noticed ... I can't remember
which festival it was... there was a load of them all fucking falling
around... And a load of bikers turned up and they all scuttled off.
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In
a way I look at it like an indian encampment where you get people riding
their horses through. You've got the braves and the warriors and different
tribal elders and all this whole pecking order. And you get loads of the
reckless and wild people who couldn't care a fuck getting involved in all
these scenes. But that's when the indians used to have their tribal members
who'd come round and knock a few heads together and they'd all stop. OK,
you go so far and that's it."
From this , circa
1987.....
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To
this in 1988- growing , but not in collective consciousness... Photos
© Traveller Dave
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Photos
© Janet Thompson
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Dave
Brock : "It's that difficult situation
of anarchy and law and order. A lot of people want anarchy but then
it's back to the same old syndrome of the haves and the have-nots.
Quite often anarchy's greed, isn't it. You've got to have some sort
of order no matter where you are... any sort of tribal meetings or
whatever... Even natives now, they have a sort of order inside the
tribe where, OK, you've always got to have somebody that's responsible
for something that's going on
FE: Why do you
think it changed? What happened?
"It's
the same as anything. It goes into sort of... corruption. People lose
respect for each other. And so a lot of people just couldn't give
a fuck what goes on. And then if they get hit over the head with an
iron bar that's their hard luck - but they run to the police. Can
you believe it? You get some people that are into anarchy and when
all of a sudden it gets out of hand they run to the opposite side.
Because you've got to have some sort of order, I reckon. So that people
can bring their kids and go about their business."
"In a way I look at it like an indian encampment where you get
people riding their horses through. You've got the braves and the
warriors and different tribal elders and all this whole pecking order.
And you get loads of the reckless and wild people who couldn't care
a fuck getting involved in all these scenes. But that's when the indians
used to have their tribal members who'd come round and knock a few
heads together and they'd all stop. OK, you go so far and that's it."
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Yer
get a damn good birds eye view from the viaduct !
©
Janet Thompson
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Kids
having fun at Ribblehead © Janet Thompson
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FE:
A lot of travellers do seem to identify with North American Indians, particularly
the Hopis and their prophecies..
Dave: "It’s
that sort of romantic sort of lifestyle... It's not really romantic living
in a van and getting hustled to move. I mean a lot of... I suppose teenagers
that don't actually live that lifestyle... look at it from the other side
as being romantic living in this van... must be wonderful to just drive
around... They don't think how you have to get your diesel or whatever.
And having to clean the thing out. And getting things breaking down. They
don't see all of that. It's like the indians, it's given that romantic idea
of riding horses and not having to live, and shit in holes, and hunt, and
have to skin animals, and dig roots, and... do all of that... and have lice...
That's what goes on isn't it really... They won't be able to go for their
bath every few days there!"
"You
look at some of them at a festival who are really fucking dirty because
they want to be looked at. They want to say 'look at me everybody'...I mean
you don't have to be like it at all. You can clean yourself with a saucepan
of water... have a shower... well, not a shower, you just pour it over your
head. And wash yourself."
Festival Eye 1989
The festival moved its site
by 1990 , as Bishbosh remembers
Ribble
Head 1990 (not Viaduct)
By now I had got a job working loading vans in a Bakery, usually nights,
good money and a good laugh after sussing the job out. Five Cov Poly graduates
ended up working in the loading bay.
We
went up North to this in Clives Leyland FG350, converted to a mobile kitchen.
He was tryin to make a business selling good veggie food in Coventry, For
this festie, Clive stocked up to sell veggie burgers..excellent quality
and cheap. I bought ten crates of Special Brew to sell and we had an ounce
of very cheap hash that was almost unsmokable…but still got ya stoned…cheap
hash cakes sold well and we gave loads away. The site was in beautiful countryside,
I can’t remember exactly where.
Quite
a few Scottish travellers were here, at least 1500 people or so. I don’t
recall a stage, but there were several small raves and a couple of café-bars
with a P.A playin music. A real good vibe on site and some excellent dutch
acid..purple ohms and strawberries…Clive stopped cookin when the acid
came on.
Bought more hash..nice pollen and smoked many a chillum.
Bishbosh
The
site at Mallerstang Common in 1991 © Janet Thompson
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