From Glastonbury to Reading, the English rock festival – with its huge stages, lavish production and crowds numbering in the tens of thousands – is now part of mainstream life.
But not so in 1967, when arguably the first ever festival of its kind – modestly called Barbecue ’67 – was hosted in a tulip auction house in the small market town of Spalding.
The stage looked like it belonged in a pub, wires and lights were haphazardly tied to rafters overhead, the crowd was hard up against the stage and entry cost just £1.
But the bill featured some of the greatest rock acts of all time – Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Pink Floyd – all on the cusp of super-stardom.
Few photos survive from this obscure slice of rock history. The ones below were captured by fan George Elderton on his Kodak Instamatic camera and held in a private collection before being acquired by FOTO, which has now published them for the first time.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience play the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall in Spalding, England, at what was arguably the first ever rock festival, Barbecue ’67. Hendrix had released his first album, Are You Experienced, just two weeks before playing this show
Hendrix was a relative unknown when he took to the stage in Spalding, but was already perfecting the stage tricks that would make him famous. Here (pictured far right) he plays his guitar with his teeth
Eric Clapton (right), Ginger Baker (centre) and Jack Bruce (left), also known as Cream, had not yet released Disraeli Gears or the groundbreaking Wheels of Fire when they played this show, just inches away from the crowd at their feet
The raw, gritty images show Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Ginger Barker, Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason playing the ramshackle venue just a few months before they made history.
Hendrix had released his first album, Are You Experienced, two weeks before playing this show. Floyd would release their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, just a few months later.
Cream released Fresh Cream the previous year, but still had not finished Disraeli Gears. The groundbreaking Wheels of Fire would not come out until a year afterward.
All of them were billed behind Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band, who were one of Britain’s biggest soul acts at the time, and far more experienced at live shows.
While the crowd appears tiny compared to today’s festivals, Barbecue 67 took place a year before Woodstock proved what was possible, and Washington had never seen anything like it.
In BBC interviews afterward, he recalled ‘thousands and thousands’ of people, some of whom were hanging from the ceiling, and guards with pockets stuffed full of bribes from those who didn’t have tickets.
‘The atmosphere was electric, he said. ‘Anyone who was there will never forget it.’
The posters for Barbecue ’67 promised ‘ultraviolet lighting’, ‘non-stop dancing’, and ‘hot dogs’. But at these images show, it delivered so much more.
To see the rest of the images, go to FOTO
Pink Floyd (pictured here from left, Rick Wright, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters) were just months away from releasing their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn when this picture was taken by fan George Elderton
Elderton took these images, some of the few to survive from the festival, on a Kodak Instamatic camera. They show just how rudimentary the setup was, with wires trailing across the stage and lights haphazardly tied to the rafters
Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band took top billing at the event, and in subsequent interviews Washington recalled there being ‘thousands and thousands’ of people, some hanging from the ceiling, saying he had never seen anything like it