Bénch

Friday, March 16, 2018

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 :