Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 on PAL Laserdisc

• Cat.no: CMPL 6111
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 137 mins
• Sides 3 (CLV/CLV/CAV)
• Year: 1995
• Pressing: UK, 1996
• Chapters: 20 (9/7/4)
• Sound: Stereo
• Fullscreen
• Price: £34.99
  

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  Director and Producer:

  Murray Lerner

Firstly For anyone like me in their mid-twenties, the 1970’s are probably a bit of a haze. For anyone who was there at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970 from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th, the feeling was probably more so…

Half a million flower children made their way to the Isle of Wight looking for peace, love and understanding. For those who set sail for “Britain’s Woodstock”, they witnessed one of the greatest rock festivals.

The artists featured in the gig included The Doors, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Free, The Moody Blues, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, and Jimi Hendrix in what turned out to be his final UK gig.

The picture quality is very good considering it was filmed 26 years ago, and as for the sound quality, the sound is as good as the artists performing, and you only have to take a look at the excellent line-up to see how good that is…

The disc is quite well-chaptered with 20 chapters spread over its 137-minute running time, each one containing either 1, 2 or 3 songs. Two of the chapters contain no songs, “Desolation Row” and “The Last Great Event”, instead opting to provide an insight into the festival.

Of course, there’s really only one way to best describe this film, and that’s to give you the track listing…

Side One

Jimi Hendrix – Message To Love
The Who – Young Man Blues
Free – All Right Now
Taste – Sinner Boy
Tiny Tim – There’ll Always Be An England
John Sebastian – Red Eye Express
Ten Years After – Can’t Keep From Cryin’
The Doors – When The Music’s Over
Moody Blues – Nights in White Satin
Kris Kristofferson – Me and Bobby McGee
Joni Mitchell – Woodstock
Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

Side Two

Miles Davis – Call It Anything
Leonard Cohen – Suzanne
Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Pictures At An Exhibition
Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun
Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Joan Baex – Let It Be
Jethro Tull – My Sunday Feeling
The Doors – The End
Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady
The Who – Naked Eye

Side Three

Family – Weaver’s Answer
Taste – Gambling Blues
Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Blue Rondo A La Turk
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1996.