WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY! AUGUST 31, 1969 = WOOTTON, ISLE OF WIGHT, ENGLAND It attracted an audience of approximately 150,000 to see acts including Bob Dylan, The Band, The Who, Free, Joe Cocker and The Moody Blues. It was the second of three music festivals held on the Isle of Wight between 1968 and 1970. Organised by Fiery Creations, aka brothers Ronnie and Ray Foulk, it became a legendary event, largely owing to the participation of Bob Dylan, after the minstrel to a generation had spent the previous three years in semi-retirement. The event was well managed, in comparison to the recent Woodstock Festival, and trouble-free. The 1969 festival was considerably larger and more popular than the year before due to Dylans inclusion on the bill. He had been little heard of since his allegedly near-fatal motorcycle accident in July 1966. Shunning the Woodstock Festival, held practically on his doorstep in upstate New York, Dylan was initially reluctant to perform his comeback show on this little-known island. After weeks of negotiations, the promoters showed him a short film of the Islands cultural and literary heritage; this appealed to Dylans artistic sensibilities, as he was enthusiastic about combining a family holiday with a live performance in Tennyson country. Prior to the festival, Bob Dylan and The Band rehearsed at Forelands Farm in Bembridge, and were joined there by George Harrison, the only outsider to have been permitted into his enclave in the Catskill Mountains. On Saturday, 30 August, the day before Dylan was to take the stage, fellow Beatles John Lennon and Ringo Starr arrived on the island, along with Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton. Also seated in a sealed-off VIP area in front of the stage would be Beatle wives Pattie Harrison, Yoko Ono and Maureen Starkey, together with Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, Jane Fonda, Françoise Hardy, Roger Vadim, Donald Cammell, Syd Barrett, Elton John and others. Setlist: She Belongs to Me (Recorded for the album Self Portrait) I Threw It All Away Maggies Farm Wild Mountain Thyme (Francis McPeake cover) It Aint Me, Babe To Ramona Mr. Tambourine Man I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine Lay Lady Lay Highway 61 Revisited One Too Many Mornings I Pity the Poor Immigrant Like a Rolling Stone (Recorded for the album Self Portrait) Ill Be Your Baby Tonight Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) (Recorded for the album Self Portrait) Minstrel Boy (Recorded for the album Self Portrait) Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 12:48:31 +0000
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