The psychedelic concentration camp!

From the USA to Canada and now to England. In 1970, hundreds of thousands of people turned up for what could have been Britain's Woodstock, an incredible achievement given that it was held in the relative isolation of the Isle of Wight.

The line-up of performers was incredible but the hippie ideals were trodden into the sodden British mud as back-stage arguments and chaos outside the venue saw the love generation's dream once more turn sour.

The spectacle is captured warts and all in the enthralling film A MESSAGE TO LOVE. Taking its cue from WOODSTOCK, the movie documents the festival with a combination of footage of the build up to the event, the happenings on stage, off stage and behind the scenes and the views of the locals who had to put up with the youth descending on their home for a weekend of free love, loud music and a fair amount of drugs too.

The mood of the festival and its surroundings is captured in everything from the gonzo rendition of "There'll Always be an England" by Tiny Tim to the pleas of the organisers regarding a drugs amnesty for minors to the contrasting views of the locals. There are no fancy split-screen effects like WOODSTOCK, but the opinions are certainly more entertaining - on one side of the fence there is the local woman (who I confess I thought may have been a man in drag, but I think she's a woman) who is delighted to have them here, while taking the contrary stance is the digruntled toff who accuses them of being communists. Interesting view point, though some might say completely nuts.

The film sticks in the minds for two reasons though - one is the terrific music (more on that later) while the other is the sight of the festival going wrong as, just as in Canada (see yesterday's blog), trouble erupts due to a group of deluded attendees who think the festival should be free. The sight of one of the main organisers getting up on stage and telling them exactly what he thinks of them is one that makes for an interesting contrast with the whole peace and love ethic.

As for the music... well, there's Jimi Hendrix, making his last UK appearance less than three weeks before his death; The Doors, featuring Jim Morrison also making his last UK appearance; The Who, wreaking havok as usual; John Sebastian, looking as stoned as he did at Woodstock; Emerson, Lake and Palmer kickstarting the Prog Rock movement with their wild stage show; The Moody Blues, Miles Davis, Ten Years After, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez and a whole lot more. An eclectic and talented selection of musicians for sure.

But it was the dark side of the event that dominates my memories of the movie, particularly since on this occasion it spilled over into the music as well. Witness, for example, Kris Kristofferson's obvious displeasure at the negative attitude of certain sections of the crowd (he was heard to remark about this incident on stage when he played the Big Sur Folk Festival in California a short while later). On top of that, there is Joni Mitchell having her set gatecrashed by a pathetic member of the crowd who wanted to hijack the microphone after her performance of "Woodstock". The idiot was dragged off by security but left Mitchell visibly upset; she recovered however to pick up her guitar and belt out a cracking performance of "Big Yellow Taxi".

That, to me, sums up the film. It's a film showcasing many wonderful musical performances but is shot through with anger, unrest and disillusionment and marks another nail in the coffin for the hippie movement.

The unrest recorded in FESTIVAL EXPRESS and A MESSAGE TO LOVE was not completely new however. There are some who would argue that in order to pinpoint one single moment when the peace and love ideals of a generation collapsed, you need only point to one particular concert that had taken place the previous year, a concert held by the Rolling Stones that would be forever associated with one shocking and tragic outburst of violence.

...which of course seems like a suitable subject for my next blog entry. Join me tomorrow when my concert movie marathon concludes with that infamous day at Altamont.