Keele Icons – The Hollywood Festival
Take some huge rock acts, and pitch them all in a farmer’s field in Finney Green. What have you got? One of the greatest live music events of all time, the Hollywood Music Festival
It’s difficult to comprehend these days, with so many festivals taking place each summer, that an event as massive as the Hollywood Music Festival would come to little old Keele. But back in 1970, on May 23rd and 24th, in farmer Ted Askey’s (pig) farm just off Hollywood Lane, some of rock music’s biggest names played their hearts out! The sizzling Whitsun weather made it a huge success
The festival was supposed to combine a real mix of British and US bands. Sadly a couple of the US bands, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the James Gang, didn’t show, which diluted the overseas offerings. Another notable absentee was ex-Tyrannosaurus Rex drummer Steve Peregrin Took and his new band, Shagrat
That didn’t stop the fun as the festival rocked to the heavy metal sounds of Black Sabbath (featuring Ozzy Osbourne of course), the bluesy vibe of Free and Traffic, the acoustic genius of Jose Feliciano and the psychedelic sounds of Family, Quintessence and the Radha Krishna Temple – to name but a few
The festival also marked the first British appearance of Jerry Garcia’s band, The Grateful Dead
But undoubtedly the big hit of the festival was Mungo Jerry. They had just released ‘In the Summertime’, and the exposure they got at Hollywood (John Peel was one of the DJs there) went a long way to getting the single to number 1 in June 1970
The company responsible for the festival was Onista Ltd, who promptly went bankrupt unable to pay festival staff. Onista was an offshoot of Eliot Cohen’s Red Bus company, with Ellis Elias and Elliot Cohen as the promoters
Across the road from the festival site is Highway Farm, where the bands waited until they were required. In December 1970, Free released an album called Highway the title track of which (Highway Song) is about being on a farm, carrying out tasks and being involved with the farmer’s daughter…
The festival was not without its strange and wonderful hippie happenings either… Screaming Lord Sutch upped the temperature with some scantily-clad assistants on stage, and Titus Groan were as strange as ever
In fact the Sunday Mirror reported that “…an inflatable red and gold phallic symbol flanked the stage…” Whatever next…
I was at Keele 67-71 and did indeed attend the totally amazing and unfeasible Hollywood Music Festival. How they persuaded the various performers to attend is difficult to imagine unless the sums promised contributed more than a little to the promoters’ subsequent bankruptcy. I have never enjoyed a concert or festival as much. To be honest there was some chemical assistance involved…