Hiding from Hendrix
June 21st, 2007
There were no helicopters to drop stars from the sky. Hendrix arrived in a Vauxhall Velux driven by the lead guitarist of a local band – the promoter had booked them to be sure of a crowd.
A letter from an old friend brings the past flooding back. Not the past as I like to remember it, but the past as it really was – or at least as it was reported in the newspaper we both worked for.
Sheila reminds me this is the 40th anniversary of Barbecue ‘67 in the Summer of Love when a bulb auction shed in Spalding, Lincs rocked to some of the best sounds of the sixties. It was also the day I turned down the chance to interview Jimi Hendrix.
I know, it’s crazy. I cannot explain why – especially to my bolder sons – except that
even then Hendrix was a legend and I was a very young trainee reporter on the weekly Spalding Guardian. Instead my mates Pat Prentice (one of his other scoops was the three-legged chicken of Gedney Drove End) and John Thorne (now semi-retired from BBC radio) went backstage while I stood at the end of the auction shed, in a home-made pink and purple kaftan, to take note of the behaviour of the crowd.(No voodoo child in this picture.)
We were all expecting more to happen than the music. Spalding had never coped with anything more challenging than the annual tulip parade before. The police sent for the cavalry and the entire staff of the Spalding Guardian and Lincs Free Press were out in force including Hugh the agricultural correspondant. And both photographers.
In some ways it wasn’t any more peculiar to stage a rock spectacle in Spalding than it is to plonk T in the Park in a field near Kinross. Rock festivals haven’t changed that much – not least because some of the old codgers still persist in playing: The Who were headlining T in the Park last year, for goodness sake.
There were screaming fans but the artificial fever of celebrity culture was unknown back in 1967. Jimi Hendrix was put up at the Red Lion pub – just imagine the Arctic Monkeys booking into the Jolly Beggars at Milnathort to be handy for the main stage at Balado. And there were no helicopters to drop stars from the sky. Hendrix arrived in a Vauxhall Velux driven by the lead guitarist of a local band – the promoter had booked them to be sure of a crowd.
All this detail comes from the souvenir issue of the paper Sheila sent me. To be honest, I don’t remember much beyond the sweaty excitement and the overwhelming sound. But it is one of those ‘I was there’ experiences that have become family legend and I like to picture myself as the cool (if timid) commentator on social trends. So what did this perceptive ‘Young Idea’ columnist have to say about the great rock event of the decade? She thought (and I quote):
“From the music angle, Barbecue ‘67 was a mixed success. Geno has a football match effect. Jimi Hendrix (chief crowd puller) fits music to sensationalism; the Cream are good, to see the Move is to forget, to see Zoot Money is to see everything and to see Pink Floyd is to laugh.”
Dougal is incredulous when I show my cutting to him. ‘What were you dissing all these great bands for?’ After all, the only band he hasn’t heard of is Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band (a soul band who used to fill the Starlight Room at the Gliderdrome Boston of a Saturday night – and apparently reformed for the special 40th anniversary gig). Sheila and John turned in beautiful descriptive pieces; I guess I was determined not to be too impressed, way back there at the end of the hall.
But I wasn’t the only one who missed a trick. At the end of his set Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar and left it to fizzle out on the stage. From there (according to Colin Ward, the driver of the Vauxhall Velux) it was picked up with the rubbish and thrown into the council dump.
Or did someone save it for eBay?
[pssst: thanks for dropping in, readers who got this far might also enjoy Hendrix at Barbecue 67 and an exciting new installment How I missed Hendrix and Benjamin Zephaniah will follow as soon as I have caught up with the day job! xx Ed]
Entry Filed under: Happy Birthday, Hendrix at Barbecue 67
10 Comments Add your own
1. Paula Scott | October 11th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Brilliant! What a great description! I have been searching for information on the event as I am putting together a scrap book of memories for my brother-in-law, who was the promoter of the event, as he is 70 (!) next Sunday! Amazingly he kept very little from the concert – no posters or cuttings – is there any chance of getting hold of the commemorative issue you talk about, and if so, who do I approach for it?
2. Administrator | October 13th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I am so intrigued to get this comment. I have just emailed Paula direct to suggest getting in touch with the news desk at the Spalding Guardian. Unless things have changed greatly in the news room, this is a story they should be interested in covering.
Meanwhile, many happy returns to the promoter. I hope he has a great birthday full of fantastic music. [though, I must admit, I do find it hard to get my head round the reality that someone who organised such a fantastic event is pushing 70. But then most of the audience must be claiming their bus passes.
3. Pete Barraclough | October 16th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi,
Any chance of passing my email on to Paula. My name is Pete Barraclough.Me and my mate Mick Barnes compered the event in 67 and also came up with the line-up.We were amazed when the promoter Brian Thompson booked them all -resulting in a festival that was years ahead ot its time.How I wished we had filmed it.Happy birthday Checky! (Brian’s nickname!)
p.s.Paula, you can get a copy of the poster on ebay.Nice present.
4. Administrator | October 17th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Done!
Delighted to meet you, the festival was indeed ahead of its time. What are you cooking up these days?
5. Fay Young » Hendrix&hellip | October 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
[...] nostalgia because two comments have suddenly arrived on a blog I posted last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Barbecue 67. It is hard to believe that the likes of Hendrix, the Cream and Pink Floyd all came to rock [...]
6. Emma Blackburn | October 31st, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hi Faye,
I enjoyed reading your articles. I am researching about the Barbeque 67 festival for BBC 1’s Inside Out, broadcast to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. I was wondering if I could have a conversation with you about the festival and your memories of it? I am currently looking for contributors for the programme. If anyone who reads this attended the festival and is interested in taking part in the programme, I would love to hear from you. It is a fantastic story and I’m sure everyone has their own tales to tell. I want to find out if anyone objected to the festival as it was such a huge event for a small place.
My email is emma.blackburn@bbc.co.uk
Many thanks,
Emma
7. Anna McKane | November 24th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
hi Fay
greetings from another Spalding reporter – though i was not there in 67. pat prentice randomly sent this link to Christopher!
we were in the catskills a couple of weeks ago and went to the site of Woodstock – great museum of the sixties with loads of archive film etc..
hope all good with you
x
8. stewart thompson | February 8th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
RE; Hiding from Hendrix June 21st 2007
I found this article & would like to be in contact with Pete Barraclough; we played in a band together in the late 60s & I haven’t seen him since!
I would be grateful for any contact details you may have for him, or maybe you could forward this to him or give him my phone number; 01507 450624.(I live near Louth, Lincs.)
Hope you can help, we’ve a lot to catch up on!
Thanks Stewart
9. john | February 14th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I think you should start charging a fee for reuniting old rockers!
xJ
10. glynn | February 19th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Fay – It was so long ago, I can’t remember anything about the event. Only that I was on the cusp of mod to hippy and, whilst riding past the hall on my Lambretta, dressed in grey, single vent, slash pocket herringbone suit, yellow shirt and multi spotted tie, I realisied that I was not suitably dressed for the occasion. You were riding on the pillion seat and made this observation for me.
Wishes from Wales, G.
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