The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was a music festival held at the Bath and Wells Showground on the 27-28th June 1970. It featured an lineup of the top American west coast and British bands of the day, including Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Hot Tuna, Santana, Frank Zappa, Canned Heat, It's A Beautiful Day, Steppenwolf, The Flock, Johnny Winter, John Mayall, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Donovan, Led Zeppelin, Country Joe McDonald, Dr. John, and Keef Hartley. This lineup eclipsed the more famous Isle Of Wight festival held in August of the same year, but as it attracted less press coverage at the time and was a smaller affair, it has generally received less attention in the years since. A music festival is a festival that presents a number of musical performances usually tied together through a theme or genre. ... The Diocese of Bath and Wells is an administrative division of the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement. ... The Byrds (formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964) were an American rock band. ... Hot Tuna at Merlefest, 2006. ... Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947 in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico) is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican American musician and Latin-rock guitarist. ... Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, guitarist, singer, film director, and satirist. ... Canned Heat album cover Canned Heat is a blues-rock/ boogie band that formed in Los Angeles in 1965. ... Its A Beautiful Day (1969) Its A Beautiful Day was the brainchild of violinist and vocalist David LaFlamme, a band formed on a beautiful day in San Francisco in 1967. ... Steppenwolf Gold album cover Steppenwolf was a 1960s and 1970s rock n roll band, best known for the hits Born to Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride. Due to the German background of the bands leader John Kay, they were named after the novel Steppenwolf by author Hermann Hesse. ... Members of The Flock The Flock was Ravens faction of professional wrestlers that was founded soon after his debut in WCW. Raven also had The Flock in ECW, but they were called Ravens Nest. ... Johnny Winter (born John Dawson Winter III on 23 February 1944 in Beaumont, Texas) is an American blues guitarist and singer, well known for his albinism, as well as his musical skills. ... John Mayall, OBE, (born 29 November 1933) is a pioneering British blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band noted for philosophical lyrics, classical rock compositions, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. ... Cover of Heyday: BBC Radio Sessions 1968-1969. ... Donovan Philips Leitch (usually known simply as Donovan) (born May 10, 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow) is a Scottish musician. ... Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, and are one of the most successful and influential groups in popular music history. ... Country Joe McDonald Country Joe McDonald (born Joseph McDonald, on January 1, 1942 in El Monte, California) was the leader and lead singer of the 1960s rock & roll group Country Joe and the Fish. ... Dr. John album cover Dr. John, (born Malcolm John Rebennack Jr on November 21, 1940, in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a colourful pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

Bath was the brainchild of promoter Freddy Bannister, who had held a smaller Blues festival within Bath itself in 1969. The 1970 show attracted a significantly larger crowd of 150,000, but, like the Isle of Wight festival, an audience of such magnitude created some serious on-ground difficulties. The logistics proved to be too vast for Bannister's small team to adequately cope with, and his security staff stole large amounts of gate receipts, resulting in in a far smaller profit than expected. The festival also suffered from inclement weather on the Sunday night, with Jefferson Airplane being rained off half way through their set and The Moody Blues not playing at all due to the wet stage. 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... The Moody Blues were best known for fusing an orchestral sound with rock and roll, as seen in one of their most popular songs, Nights in White Satin. ...

Actually getting to the festival itself was another problem for many of the throng of fans. The country lanes leading to the site were swiftly blocked by cars, also meaning that many of the bands' equipment trucks could not get to the site. As a consequence the festival ran behind schedule and many bands had to play to diminished crowds in the small hours of Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings. The last act, Dr John, hit the stage at dawn on the Monday

The festival featured many innovations, including projections of the bands on screens on the side of the stage, a good quality PA system, on-site tents for the patrons to sleep in and larger tents which projected films such as King Kong throughout the night . The expenditure on these items ate into the profits, and many people decamped with the tents, which were hired. This was another expense that had to borne by the promoters. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Sound reinforcement system. ... This is about the original movie and novel. ...

The festival was captured on both film and on video, in varying quality, but a lack of post-festival organisation led to the footage being lost for many years. Much of it has now been recovered, but the black and white footage is of poor quality and is in many different hands. It is considered unlikely that it will ever see the light of day as a legitimate release since no one can agree on who owns the copyright. This situation could be contrasted to the Isle of Wight Festival, which was professionally recorded and filmed in colour. This articles section called History of Copyright does not cite its references or sources. ...

The festival was widely bootleged, and several audience tapes are now in circulation. It is rumoured that excellent soundboard tapes also exist, though to this point they have not publicly surfaced. A bootleg recording is a audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. ...

Pink Floyd Peformance

At the concert, Pink Floyd premiered their new suite, Atom Heart Mother, which at that time was announced as the "Amazing pudding". The performance featured a complete brass band and 12 string choir, and took place at precisely 3am, due to major delays. As well as the Atom Heart Mother suite, the band also played tracks Ummagumma, Music From the Film More and A Saucerful Of Secrets. Pink Floyd are an English rock band noted for philosophical lyrics, classical rock compositions, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. ... Atom Heart Mother is a 1970 progressive rock album by Pink Floyd. ... Atom Heart Mother is a 1970 progressive rock album by Pink Floyd. ... Ummagumma is a progressive and psychedelic double album by Pink Floyd released in 1969. ... Music from the Film More (often referred to simply as More) is Pink Floyds first full-length film soundtrack. ... A Saucerful of Secrets is the second album by rock band Pink Floyd, and arguably one of the first progressive rock albums. ...

Setlist

• Green Is The Colour (Waters)
• Careful With That Axe, Eugene (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
• A Saucerful Of Secrets (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
• Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Waters)
• Atom Heart Mother (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason. Geesin)

External Links Careful With That Axe, Eugene is a Pink Floyd song. ... A Saucerful of Secrets is the second album by rock band Pink Floyd, and arguably one of the first progressive rock albums. ... Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun is a song by art rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). ... Atom Heart Mother is a 1970 progressive rock album by Pink Floyd. ...

• History of Bath Festival
• British Seventies Rock Festivals
• Replica posters and Memorabilia

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