The Isle of Wight Festival poster 1970
The Isle of Wight Festival is one of the most famous music festivals in UK music history. Its origins stretch back to three concerts at the end of the sixties and the start of the seventies.
The poster is striking in its appearance! It was originally created by the artist David Roe who had also created the poster for the previous year’s festival. The 1969 version of the poster featured a black and white drawing of a gorilla with butterfly wings holding a magic wand (those were the days!). There are obvious comparisons between the 1969 and 1970 concert posters, the ’69 now looks like a rough sketch compared to the 1970 poster. The growth in the artist in just twelve months is remarkable.
The 1970 concert poster features a drummer wearing a polka dot shirt, corduroy flares and stacked shoes. Essential fashion wear at the time! The budding Ian Paice, Ginger Baker or Buddy Rich is sitting behind his kit in preparation for the start of the event to come.
The Psychedelic Drummer (as the poster is known) is sitting above a list of the acts due to perform at the show. And what a stellar line-up it was.
Who played at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970?
Well! The line-up was one of the largest and most ambitious ever put on in Britain. The poster lists thirty three acts from both sides of the Atlantic, including The Doors, The Who, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Donovan, Chicago, Joan Baez and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
In actual fact, almost fifty acts performed over the five days between the 26th and 30th August. The full line-up was:
Wednesday 26th: Judas Jump, Kathy Smith, Rosalie Sorrells, David Bromberg, Kris Kristofferson, Mighty Baby
Thursday 27th: Gary Farr, Supertramp, Ray Owen, Howl, Black Widow, Groundhogs, Terry Reid, Gracious!
Friday 28th: Fairfield Parlour, Arrival, Lighthouse, Taste, Tony Joe White, Chicago, Family, Procol Harum, The Voices of East Harlem, Cactus
Saturday 29th: John Sebastian, Shawn Phillips, Joni Mitchell, Tiny Tim, Miles Davis, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Doors, The Who, Sly and the Family Stone, Melanie
Sunday 30th: Good News, Kris Kristofferson, Ralph McTell, Donovan, Heaven, Free, Donovan and Open Road., Pentangle, The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Richie Havens
According to the poster tickets for the five day event were £3 each!
Jimi Hendrix Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
At the time of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, the Jimi Hendrix Experience were at the top of their game and one of the main draws at the festival. Two weeks before, the band had played what is widely regarded as one of the best rock performances of all time. The band’s performance at the Isle of Wight would be just as memorable.
Before going on, Jeff Dexter a British DJ who was to announce the band on stage, asked Hendrix if there was anything in particular he would like to be introduced with. In his book, Hendrix, The Final Days, Tony Brown recalled Hendrix’s reply. ‘Just say Billy Cox on bass, Mitch Mitchell on drums and, er, you know, whoever’s going to be playing guitar, you know, Okay? We’re called The Blue Wild Angels.” ‘The what?’ Dexter replied. “The Blue Wild Angels music, yeah. Right hit it”
The band hit the stage shortly before midnight to a crowd estimated by the Guinness World Records to be in the region of 600,000 to 700,000 people. At Woodstock Hendrix had played a blistering version of, the American National anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. At the Isle of Wight, the crowd were treated to the English national anthem God Save the Queen that segued into a rock version of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Whilst an edited version of the show was released on vinyl on the previously available Isle of Wight (1971) and Live Isle of Wight ’70 (1991). It wasn’t until 2002, thirty two years after the event that the full show was released. The live album is titled Blue Wild Angel, Live at the Isle of Wight. The release captures the band performing the following setlist:
God Save the Queen, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Spanish Castle Magic, ll Along the Watchtower, Machine Gun, Lover Man, Freedom, Red House, Dolly Dagger, Foxey Lady, Message to Love, Hey Baby (New Rising Sun), Ezy Ryder, Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) In from the Storm.
The band walked off stage at two in the morning after a two hour show. The performance is widely considered to be one of Hendrix’s best performances and, like the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival itself, has gone down in legendary status.
As it turned out the performance from Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox would be Hendrix’s final show on British soil before his untimely death just three weeks later on September 18th.
Original copies of this poster appear quite regularly and, in great condition, sell for more than £1,000.
