This film is part of Free

Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music

Progressive gathering of festival goers hits the blues.

News 1970 2 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

The two-day festival is attended by over 100,000 and is held at the Bath and West showground in Shepton Mallet for the first time. It opened with this set from Joe Jammer and his new band featuring Joe on vocals and guitar, Frank Farrell (Breakthru, Supertramp) on bass guitar, Steve Hoard (White Pepper, Cock Robin) on vocals and guitar and Richard ‘Plug’ Thomas (Breakthru) on drums. Peter Grant (The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and Bad Company) was their manager.

They played another set on the Sunday. Joe Jammer was just 18 and he returned to America where he continued to tour. Music promoter Freddy Bannister upscaled the Bath Festival of Blues from the previous year when it was an unexpected success and moved it out of the town to cope with demand. Bannister went on to found the Knebworth Festival in 1974. It is hard to tell who are the groundlings at the side of the stage for this performance but among the acts are Led Zeppelin, Santana, Frank Zappa, Donovan, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Hot Tuna, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Steppenwolf and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Huge crowds caused logistical difficulties accessing the showground.