Trivial Pursuits

So.
1970.
 I was 18.
And working as a nursing assistant/'Cadet Nurse' at Stansfield View Hospital in Todmorden.

Then,one weekend ,I was off
so.....

I wanted to go to " A  Festival"...........

......which  all started so well for me! 
having  grown my hair: got meself all the 'right'clothes:had watched "Easy Rider" a couple of times:and was in the middle of my first Herman Hesse novel.
So I felt like a
Debutant,entering 'Society'  for the first time.
The first thing that happened to me was a young 'hippy'with a London accent walk up to me   to ask
"Where are the toilets ,Man"?
 I had arrived.I  had been recognised as one of the tribe........

"When the Humblebums appeared on Saturday evening it started to rain even harder and because the stage roof was flat , water quickly collected and poured through onto the musicians . During the course of their performance the drummer played with an umbrella up and there were constant interruptions due to workmen coming on stage to drill holes in the floor to let the rain out. ..."

The above photo is from 1970.In Barkisland ,near Halifax.It is during the  Krumlin Festival
It was billed to be "England's Woodstock" .
A bonkers Idea!  High up in moorland...A torrential storm......Horrible Weather.By the second  night ,the police were handing  out waterproof -sheeting to us baby hippies.......One band ( John Mayall?) had to abandon their set for fear of being electricuted.
One person died overnight from exposure...
Krumlin was abandoned halfway through this 2 day  storm.
Between making drug -arrests,the police helped us evacuate.....

The promoter , a  Local   Halifax Lad   called  Brian Highley

vanished alone on foot into the stormy misty moorland.He was 
.".....owing large sums of money to all and sundry or to have wandered off in a fugue-like state , tramping the moors for several days before being rescued in the nick of time before he expired from exposure and dehydration......."[read more:]
  It wasnt all bad though!
For example,it was  the first time I heard & saw live rock music (other than seeing The Troggs a few years earlier at Halifax's Victoria Theatre)
On Krumlin's   first night (before this freak weather came ) I heard Sandy Denny sing :England's finest ever folk voice......It was worth it ,for me,for this alone.
+The Pentangle played live too !
.And a young Elton John made his 'big audience' debut ( handing out bottles of brandy to some in the crowd to keep them warm)
Brian Highley   later went on to invent 'Trivial Persuits ' and script write on British t.v.'s 'Spitting Image'.

Such is life..............

This week's  sepia saturday is around the themes of :

• RAIN ✔,

• CHILDREN  unless you count us "children trying to get back to the garden...."? 

• POLICEMEN ✔,

• NIGHT:

a section of the 25,000 crowd.Maybe I am one of them?

*vibes=MICHAEL NESMITH & THE FIRST NATIONAL BAND

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Trivia-Brian-Highley/dp/1494723530 

Krumlin 1970

You can even buy this new book with a foreword from Brian Highley :https://bleedingcheekpress.bigcartel.com/product/pink-floyd-are-fogbound-in-paris-the-story-of-the-1970-krumlin-festival

Brian Highley Bio. (Festival Organiser & interviewed in this clip)

 

I went to this! Aged 18. I was working as a Student Nurse at Stansfield View Hospital in Todmorden..(must have had the weekend off). Still living with my Mum & Dad in Halifax. £3 for a weekend ticket. A bit of a shambles, but I had nothing to compare it with, so I was happy as a pig in shit!

My head was full of Friendz & OZ Magazines. Timothy Leary & Co. 8 months later I had jacked in my nurse training and gone to live & work in London (St Pauls Youth Hostel)

Highlights for me was listening to Sandy Denny singing and (god help me ) Elton John.

https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2020-08-13/50th-anniversary-of-yorkshires-first-ever-major-music-festival

 

That handbill wasn't 'who' actually appeared here is a list of who finally took the stage....

Love To Mothers

 

 

We Saw & heard live music this week!

ßénchplayer · sandy

audio:Sandy Denny live :

 I saw heard her live once at Krumlin

England's finest singer!

In other news, I get my first Covid jab on Monday

The best of Sandy Denny's music inhabits the shore or the riverbank, or drifts upon the sea in the company of it's dislocated sailors

Read my latest Hebden Bridge post by clickin  here.

The Internet .She is taking over my life. [now that's a point .is the internet female or masculine?Is it "Le" or "La"?].Yesterday it was my mirror:today my reading companion..........................
"When I write songs,I often picture myself standing on a beach or standing on a rock or a promenade or something. I just put myself there sometimes and without realising it I find myself describing what I'm looking at and often it's the sea.I keep promising myself  I'll put myself somewhere else when I'm writing songs but I really can't imagine anywhere that's nicer than that........." Sandy Denny~ 1973

I'm busy reading my Folk Book (see previous post)
Sandy Denny:Wiki; 6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978:R.I.P. I saw her play at Krumlin in my yoof.
Anne Briggs :wiki

[n.b. This is a companion to my The Legendary Lost "Carry On Hippying" Movie Script! post.]

Linda Thompson:wiki

On the subject of Folk Music ,my thanks to Kimy for pointing me in the direction of the fine American  Smithsonian Folkways site.Free Downloads & much magic can be found!
I came across these two photo sites.Some striking Images of the London Riots.

blog.julesmattsson

www.dankitwood.com

Some Chants from Failed Cultures

 

The album was gloomy and perverse.the producers had visited diverse groups of indigenes around the world, remarkable only for their persistence in chanting to no avail. Here were the Ketchem of Belize with their muttering eructation 'Fall Out of the Water-Fish'.The I-Arana of Guinea ,disillusioned cargo cultists who moan gently,'Get Me Room Service', and many others too tedious and depressing to mention. ...... My son James didn't help.He'd picked up a couple of the failed chants and as I put him to bed that night he said,in passable Uraic 'Lo!The crops are withering'.Somehow, even among the cartoon stickers and the bright bendy limbs of bendy toys,this didn't sound as incongruous as it perhaps should have. ..........

 Will Self~The Quantity Theory of Insanity 

This is Sepia Saturday

Rain isnt "sexy" is it? Sun IS:Floods ARE...but nobody ever wanted to get their camera wet did they?Above is a photo taken on Sunday morning 1970 as Me & the Krumlin survivors left defeated........

Photos From My Hebden Bridge Fashion-Shoot on Thursday, [here]

 

 

{above.Sunday 14th July 2013:White Eagle Lodge:Rawden,Leeds} Don't Worry! I haven't "Found Religion"...I went to the White Eagle Lodge in Leeds today supporting someone's healing. I went there 9 years ago.....(that time i just had a cup of Tea then buggered off to Bramley Russian Baths while Cathy went to a Service.This time I stayed.It was good.A long meditation in the middle of the service.A Nice Touch)
 I also went to a White Eagle service once in Kensington ,London a few moons ago. It's Christian...with Spiritualism/Buddism /Chakras thrown into the mix:"1930's New Age".Pre-Hippy/Beatnick/World War 2.............
I gather times are hard & they are having to sell the Kensington Lodge.A lovely Building with a cracking & very eclectic library.A Shame,
They are actually nice people .Middle Class & elderley ..The physical Leeds Lodge is in  a beautiful setting,~albeit a former Council Mortuary building   in a (pun) previous life~ A Cheeky Thought did occur to me while I was there.....the building & setting would make a perfect location for a Turkish Bath......Maybe,if I win the Lottery,i could make those Eagles an offer they couldnt refuse?
The Church's Manners are   very low key,yet warm & friendly.......Imagine Jesus had been born in a stable in Surrey instead of Palestine..this is the sort of religion we have here.The whole religion reminds me of something created by William Morris and/or Eric Gill............ White Eagle:wiki
Eric Gill:wiki
Finally.Seriously. I was due to visit The Beautiful Madge from Sunderland in her home yesterday.But just before I arrived ,she had been rushed into Halifax Hospital (again).She is hanging on today,but it is serious.I said several prayers for her today.I hope & your Gods might do the same too?