Thanks so much to Shindig! magazine and their reviewer Greg Healey for this terrific write up of Festivalized in their latest issue:
Festivalized: Music, Politics and Alternative
Culture
Ian Abrahams & Bridget Wishart
*****
Gonzo Multimedia
Taking the performances made by Hawkwind and The
Pink Fairies outside the gates of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival as its
starting point, and ending with the ’92 event at Castlemorton Common, the ambition
and scope of this book is admirable.
Drawing on over 50 interviews with those who were
there, including Nik Turner, Mick Farren and Penny Rimbaud, there are
contributions from musicians, festival-goers, landowners, writers, and more, to
produce an honest, unflinching portrait of this key period of social history.
Talking head source material is confidently and
expertly marshalled into a coherent and powerful narrative that, despite its
fragmented nature, vividly portrays and delineates the highs, lows, conflicts
and achievements of this unique countercultural movement. Personal
reminiscences and anecdotes, mixed with incisive opinions and perspectives on
the political and sociological drivers that sustained and ultimately destroyed
the movement, combine to paint a picture of its multifaceted nature.
Watchfield, Windsor, Deeply Vale, Greenham Common, Stonehenge – all with their
different purposes, intentions and outcomes – are explored, along with squat
living, life on the road with The Peace Convoy and much more. The freedom and
fears, the communal living and self-reliance, the love, peace, drugs, foods,
violence and vehicles all feature in the kind of detail that only comes from
actual experience.
A history of underground music is threaded through
the book, an ever changing landscape in itself, and contributions from members
of Hawkwind, The Levellers, Here & Now and many others add an important
dimension to the story.
Greg Healey
No comments:
Post a Comment