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Knebworth
July,1974
On
20 July 1974, an estimated 60,000 people attended a festival
held on the grounds of Knebworth House near the village of
Knebworth, 25 miles north of London
Billed
as 'The Bucolic Frolic', the bill included The Allman Brothers
Band, The Doobie Brothers, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Sensational
Alex Harvey Band and The Van Morrison Show. Tim Buckley opened
the days entertainment.
This
article comes from ukrockfestivals.com,
where fans who attended UK festivals recall their experiences.
Many
thanks to Steve Brown for the heads up... Pictures of Tim at
Knebworth can be seen here...
Clips from the concert can be heard below...
This
show was apparently released as a bootleg called Return of
the Starsailor. which is very good indeed , surprisingly
it is mostly free of audience chatter. Why surprisingly? Well
, unfortunately, hardly anyone was taking much notice of the
band on-stage.
At
this time Buckley was attempting to resurrect his career,
with an new electric band but this performance was largely
received with some indifference by the audience who were busy
settling themselves in for the day or entering the arena.
As
the first act Buckley was perceived as a warm up artist rather
than a major league act. A great pity, as he once was a force
to be reckoned with and very well known in the UK.
However,
since this was his first UK show since 1968, it is perhaps
not surprising that he was greeted as an unknown entity. This
was also his last UK performance, within a year he was dead
of a heroin overdose - another casualty to add to the Rock
industry's prestigious and still growing list of OD's
Set
list taken from the bootleg Return of the Starsailor
Intro/vocal warm-up (2:02)
Nighthawkin' (6:17)
Dolphins (4:16)
Get On Top (4:26)
Devil Eyes (6:34)
Buzzin' Fly (5:43)
Sweet Surrender (7:38)
Honey Man (12:17)
Improvisation (N/A)
Buckley
was on good form, the improv track is particularly interesting,
its part of a track, mostly scat singing and this portion
of the song lasts four minutes or so. The tape - like most
of the ones from Knebworth - is of good quality, but marred
by the wind , which causes mic noise or fluctuations in sound
levels.
Most of the songs played were from the Greetings from LA
album.
Personnel
Tim Buckley: Vocal, guitar
Artie Johnson: Guitar; Jim Fielder: Bass; Mark Tiernan: Keyboards;
Buddy Helm: Drums
Just
picked up on the site...an amazing performance by Tim at an
unearthly hour. We were aware of Tim as a 60s folk artist,
so it came as a big suprise when Tim arrived with this eletric
band to play some white hot sexed-up soul music!! Certainly
blew most of us away...I can remember the rest of the acts
were pale in comparison. About five years ago I finally picked
up a boot of the gig...not a bad recording, but to be there
was the thing!
Pete
Creekelly
Massive, intense hangovers were the order of the day and it
was a sorry band of longhairs who finally dragged their aching
bodies in through the gates in time to see proceedings.
Most
people seemed to take little notice of Buckley and apart from
the fact that he performed well - but to little effect- I
have no recollections of what he actually played. This is
probably due to the fact that we were busy eating breakfast,
as we found had found master Nick Ellis squatting over a pot
full of potatoes and other veggies in the middle of the crowd
and this helped to assuage the hangovers and provide an energy
hit, so Buckley was missed due to our hunger pangs.
Unknown
I vividly remember John Peel chucking frisbees into the crowd
before introducing Tim Buckley who gave a fantastic performance....the
sun was beating down by now...it was going to be a hot day in
more ways than one. The atmosphere was wonderful and people
were there to simply enjoy the music...there was a lot of peace
and love around.
Mickey O'Connor |
