It was a year after the legendary 1969 Woodstock rock festival; across the Atlantic: the Isle of Wight Festival of 1970. The official count of attendees topped 600,000 souls. The festival had its share of gate-crashing and interruptions. One festival-goer was allowed to take the stage at one point to make a statement, in which he denounced the festival as a "psychedelic concentration camp." In fact, the audience was so rowdy during performances, Joni Mitchell later called festival the "Hate the Performers Festival." After being interrupted singing "Woodstock," Joni Mitchell chided the audience saying they were acting "like a bunch of tourists."So, it was no hippie love-in among the 600,000 when "a nice band from Shepherd's Bush" - as the stage announcer introduced The Who - took the stage at 2 a.m. Sunday August 30th, 1970. Whatever had gone on during the other performances was suddenly rendered irrelevant: The Who was not there for the audience, the audience was there for The Who. After some quick banter between Pete Townshend and Keith Moon, in which they alternately instructed the massive sea of humanity to "Sit down" and "Stand up," a few times, the band launched into a pounding rendition of "Heaven and Hell" sung by John Entwistle (who came to the event dressed in a skeleton Hallowe'en suit).
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2 comments:
Hey,
Nice review. The Who were absolutely mega. A great band. Keith Moon was the man on drums too!
Thanks.
Yes, I agree. Very nice review. I especially liked the introduction regarding Woodstock. Not many people are aware of this.
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