STEALING DYLAN from WOODSTOCK When the World Came to the Isle of Wight Volume One: Stealing Dylan from Woodstock
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When the World Came to the Isle of Wight VOLUME ONE STEALING DYLAN FROM WOODSTOCK When the World Came to the Isle of Wight Volume One: Stealing Dylan from Woodstock Published by Medina Publishing Ltd. 310 Ewell Road Surbiton Surrey KT6 7AL medinapublishing.com © Ray Foulk 2015 Designed by Kitty Carruthers ISBN Hardback: 978-1-909339-50-7 Paperback: 978-1-909339-49-1 Printed and bound by Toppan Leefung Printing Ltd CIP Data: A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Ray Foulk asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners. When the World Came to the Isle of Wight VOLUME ONE STEALING DYLAN FROM WOODSTOCK A personal account by Festival organiser RAY FOULK written & compiled with Caroline Foulk To Mother Dear CONTENTS Acknowledgements vi Dramatis Personæ x Prologue xiii 1 Alfred Lord Tennyson 1 2 Prospecting 11 3 I Whisper 21 4 To Hell and Back 39 5 How About Bob Dylan? 53 6 Bob Wants to Meet You 61 7 Seven-and-a-Half Years 91 8 Help Bob Dylan Sink the Isle of Wight 115 9 We Cannot Control the Morals of 100,000 People 151 10 Serving the Master Well 179 11 Great To Be Here, Sure Is 211 12 Self Portrait 247 13 The Backlash 265 Epilogue: Electric Ladyland 271 Book Quotations & Song Titles 277 Picture Credits 278 Bibliography 281 Index 283 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Just get me an electric lawnmower he great joy of compiling this personal and socio-cultural history has been in rekindling so many past associations and friendships. Too often in our transient modern life we lose Ttouch with friends on the way but I have been prompted to reconnect with those who were involved with the events of more than four decades ago. Memory plays as a strange and moving target and the many delightful interviews have allowed me to pin down a real, first- hand account of events that was in danger of being lost. Sadly, for some it proved too late, most notably my early inspirational colleague, Lauri Say, who died in 2010 at the age of 79. At the other extreme, the tragic loss of young Phil Davis, with whom I co-show produced the London Rock and Roll Show, died of a brain tumour as long ago as 1974. Also remembered among the young is Gary Farr, the only artist to play all three festivals. Other key players are, Harry Garrood, the indomitable electrician genius who powered up all of our outdoor events; Steve Ross 1926-93 (later MP and then Lord Ross of Newport) who with Turner Smith got us into the whole thing in the first place and supported us throughout; the marvellous Dr Douglas Quantrill, IW Rural District Council Medical Officer of Health, who famously defended our festivals to the press, “Talk of epidemics is a lot of tripe and nonsense. The only epidemic we have had was an outbreak of prejudice and intolerance.” Sadly, our dear and close family friend; Judy (Lewis) Gascoigne, housekeeper to Bob and Sara Dylan is departed – a most articulate supporter when the going got dangerously rough in the 1970 Memorial Hall meetings. A generous toast to Bert Block, who not only delivered Bob Dylan to us, but procured most of the North American acts for the 1970 festival; Ron Ledger MP, proprietor of the Halland Hotel, who became a backer in 1969 and was a life-saver with accommodation, seeing us through many a crisis and John Csaky, stage lighting designer and later founder of the Milton Keynes Bowl, over which I was drawn into working with the new city to plan its leisure content. I must acknowledge George Weeks, local builder and councillor, who magnificently helped create the large number of deep trench latrine toilet blocks for 1970 and provided building labour for all the festivals. Belatedly we received news of the passing of Dave Roe after many attempts to track him down. His loss is poignant, especially as it was his zany and brilliant graphic designs which captured a visual image for the festivals, giving the Isle of Wight its psychedelic credentials. Of our drivers we remember Dave Parr, who gladly recalled for us the momentous journey in his transit van bringing Dylan and the Beatles to the festival site. The flamboyant Suri Krishnamma, a more prominent presence in 1970 was in ‘69 chauffeur to the Band. Sadly, our former nemesis, Mick Farren passed away in 2013, before we had the opportunity to meet up. Last but by no means least is our dear departed patient mother, Ella who put up with international pop festivals being run Acknowledgements vii from her home. Without her enduring help and support we would surely have floundered. My first tribute among the living is to my co-author, Caroline, my second daughter who has participated in many of my endeavours throughout most of her adult life. Together, we have tackled the mountainous task of research and writing, putting the Isle of Wight Festival jigsaw back together again. Caroline was just four in 1970 and so viewed the festivals through the prism of childhood relying largely upon the memories of others and the written and audio/visual records, coloured by a vivid recollection of many of the cast of characters. Her flair and punctilious research shines through in every chapter, adding indispensably to my own chronicle of events. Other family members have provided an invaluable resource, not least of all my brothers Ronnie, his wife Lynne, Bill, and sister Jo. Ronnie is the only person to have experienced matters right at the nexus of the organisation, and in many cases more directly than myself. He has been as keen as me to see the true story told and while he has left the main tasks to Caroline and me he has made a huge contribution in re-living our exploits, checking and re-checking manuscripts and helping fathom some of the complexities of reaching an accurate account of what really happened. Likewise, Bill has been generous with his time talking through issues, checking material and scrutinising the manuscript. Of the original teams we have had the benefit of lengthy conversations and correspondence with Peter Bull, now a long established resident of Australia, who safeguarded and shared his precious cache of photographs – and for the purpose of this book scanned and restored them with his usual care and precision. Likewise we are indebted to Hollywood cinematographer, Stephen Goldblatt who in his youth took photographs at Woodside Bay as our official stage and backstage photographer, stored them safely and generously gave us easy access after painstakingly scanning his photographs at a high resolution. My thanks to Jason Purvor and his father Colin Purvor, photographer of Jimi Hendrix studying Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde songbook for the rights to reproduce this historic image appearing towards the end of this volume. Thanks also to Alain le Garsmeur for generously providing the photograph of my brothers and me at Farringford appearing in Plate 1. Dick-C (Clifton) produced many amusing anecdotes and recollections, as did Tony Harms, Bobby Condon, David Hill and Michael Baxter. The latter, an Oxfordshire neighbour these days, has amusingly reminisced and carefully studied the manuscript. Caroline Coon, of Release, was extremely generous with her time, providing a unique insight into the carryings-on of some of the more radical elements of the counterculture. Ron ‘Turner’ Smith had good tales to tell and reminded me, for instance, of his modest request of remuneration for building the site for the first festival: ‘Just get me an electric lawnmower.” It was delightful to meet Daisy (Krishnamma) Hodges again and glean from her crucial nuggets of information otherwise lost. We had the pleasure of meeting up with Pretty Things former drummer, Twink (Mohamed Abdulla, John Alder), but in general we have avoided pestering artists since much of what they recall is already publicised. Two exceptions, local musicians Paul Athey and Mick Wood, gave their valuable recollections. viii Stealing Dylan from Woodstock Both have been life-long family friends and significantly were members of the first group to blast off the Isle of Wight festival tradition, with group ‘Halcyon Order’ on 31 August 1968. Of all the artists we would have liked to have talked to, Bob Dylan himself would have been indispensable to ascertain certain facts and suppositions, but alas, it was not to be. We did, however consult Jeff Rosen on his behalf at Blue Rider Music and must thank him for pointing up potentially erroneous content in the manuscript. I also thank Jeff and his colleague Callie Gladman for organising permission to reproduce the many lines from Bob Dylan lyrics and quotations from Bob Dylan Chronicles Vol.I . We talked at length with Bob Dylan’s worldwide agent, Barry Dickens of ITB, the same agent who delivered the Doors to us for the 1970 festival. I am most grateful to Marian Stradling and Harrisongs Ltd for permission to reproduce the complete Lyric of ‘Behind That Locked Door’, written by the late and dearly missed George Harrison on the occasion of the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, addressed to Bob Dylan. We were delighted to meet with Pattie Boyd in her studio and discuss her stay with George at Dylan’s hideaway farmhouse in Bembridge. Thanks to Carinthia West for putting us in touch with Pattie.