Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music
The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was a counterculture era music festival held at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England on 27–29 June 1970. Bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin performed, and the festival was widely bootlegged. An 'alternative festival' was staged in an adjoining field where the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind played on the back of a flatbed truck.[1]
Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music
Michael Eavis was attendant at the festival and was inspired to hold later that year the first event of what would become the Glastonbury festival of contemporary performing arts.
The festival also suffered from inclement weather on the Sunday night, with Jefferson Airplane being rained off halfway through their set and The Moody Blues not playing at all due to the wet stage.
Led Zeppelin accepted an offer from Bannister to headline for a fee of £20,000. They took to the stage at about 8:30 pm, as the sun was setting. The performance is considered by critics, and the band, as one of the most important of their career, representing a turning point in the recognition they received in Great Britain (until that point their on-stage success and popularity had largely been borne out on numerous United States concert tours). It was also one of the largest crowds the band performed to; well over 200,000 people were estimated at the time they took the stage. "Although we were about eight miles away from the stage," recalled Saxon's Biff Byford, "I'll never forget Jimmy Page playing guitar with a bow."[5]
Led Zeppelin played for three hours.[6][7] The setlist was:[8]
At the concert, Pink Floyd premiered their new suite, "Atom Heart Mother", which at that time was announced as "The Amazing Pudding". The performance featured a complete brass band and 12 strong choir, and took place at 3 am, due to major delays. As well as the Atom Heart Mother suite, the band also played tracks from More, A Saucerful of Secrets as well as "Careful with That Axe, Eugene". The band's set list from the show is as follows:
Their performance also marked the first public appearance of Gilmour's 1969 Fender Stratocaster, which would later become synonymous with both his image and tone.[9]