1970 Atlanta Pop Festival, new documentary coming.

Last night my wife and I attended a " Members Only" screening of a new Documentary "The Lost Festival: Atlanta International Pop Festival 1970" by Steve Rash.

It was quite an interesting evening as the documentary is not finished. The director Steve Rash was on hand and after the screening, he came on stage and told the audience that it is still a work in progress and asked us to fill out a questionnaire about the film to help him finish it. He then took questions from the audience and then showed a couple of more clips that were not shown earlier.

The video and audio are not pristine. Much of the video is very grainy and still in need of restoration, which they don't have the funds for. The audio is from the mixing board and not the multi track recorders that were originally used. Apparently Sony has the master tapes in their vault and won't go looking for them. But the sound was not bad at all.

He is hoping to get this released within a year and may have several different versions, a basic 90 minute documentary, and then longer versions up to 5 hours. We were told that they only have about 6 hours of useable footage from the 2 day festival. They also may make single group performances available separately. They have 20-30 minutes of useable footage from most bands that performed that weekend. And that list was impressive!

Bands that we saw performances of include:
Allman Brothers Band
Johnny Winter And with Rick Derringer
Its A Beautiful Day
Spirit
Jimi Hendrix
Ten Years After
Chambers Brothers
Terry Reid
Mountain

A fun fact learned from the movie. Duane Allman on the way to the venue for their 2nd performance on Sunday, had to ditch his car on the way due to the massive traffic jam and hitch a ride to the festival. When he got there, he realized he left his Coricidine bottle that he used as his slide. So brother Greg broke the neck off a bottle of wine for him to use. You can clearly see the broken end of the neck while he plays. Pretty cool!

Another fun fact. Johhny Winter's drummer came down with the Flu and brother Edgar filled in on drums, not missing a beat. What a talented family!

A Comparison to Woodstock: Ten Years After's performance of Coming Home is better than Woodstock. Another Star Bangle Banner from Jimi that did not add to the film. It was recommended by the audience to axe it and to use other Jimi material instead.

I can not wait for this to be released. It will be a must have for some awesome vintage footage of many of my favorite bands.

In spite of its short comings, the Rock Hall does put on some pretty cool Members Only events that makes it worth being a member of.

Rick G

 

I know a few folks that attended the festival and have fond memories of the event. The promoter Alex Cooley still lives in Atlanta.

 

Isn't this the festival that Grand Funk played?

 

they did it the year before too just a few weeks before Woodstock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_(1969)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_(1970)

 

Yes, I forgot to mention GFR. A fun fact from last night was that GFR was the Headliner over Jimi Hendrix! Hendrix was the 2nd billed act and Johnny Winter was 3rd.

Rick G

 

Yes that was mentioned as well. 1970 was the 2nd of the Atlanta Pop Festivals.

Rick G

 

The legendary Hampton Grease Band also played the Atlanta Pop Festival.

 

I saw them at the fillmore east in 1971 as support for zappa. they were great.

 

Ooh, now you've got my interest! Did any of that footage survive to be included in this documentary?

Also, I love the story about Duane Allman being stuck in a traffic jam - yes, that sure sounds like the Atlanta I remember... And sad that they had such serious traffic problems as far back as the year I was born (and they have done so little in the last 44 years to address the increasing congestion...

Anyway, back on topic: I would love to see this documentary. Hopefully it will get completed and make it to Blu-Ray or at least DVD for purchase.

Craig.

 

No Hampton Grease Band footage was show IIRC.

Rick G

 

I was at a similar confab a couple years ago in Atlanta. I'm glad to hear they're further along now upon a release.

The best part of the footage to me, aside from the Allman Brothers and a select few other performers, was the local color of attendees, traffic jams, townspeople, etc. A really nice window into that time and place that, to me, is priceless.

The Allman Brothers video was taken from Piedmont Park in Atlanta, though, unless my memory has completely devoured itself in my brain. My recollection is that the filmmakers only had a precious amount of film stock to shoot with, and after doing a dry run of a Brothers show in Atlanta, which they filmed, they decided they'd devote the rest of their attention to all the other bands, as many as they could. They didn't film any full sets, for instance. And that's also how Hampton Grease Band, which would be worth the price of any admission for me, weren't filmed at all.

Any of the above details could be wrong due to my horrible memory, so I wait to stand to be corrected on any of those points. Anyone?

PS: The Atlanta Pop Festival that year was performed in Byron, GA, which is about 20 miles south of Macon, on an old race car track that is now overgrown with weeds.

 

Ah, that brings me back to the "First Great Rock Festivals of the 70s" triple album on Columbia-- One disc from Atlanta and two from the Isle of Wight. Includes 20 minutes of Mountain doing Syormy Monday.

 

The first festival the year before was held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, about 30 miles south of Atlanta, over the July 4th weekend in 1969. I attended the first one and ran into Duane and Berry Oakley in the crowd, as the Allman Brothers were there but for some reason or another weren't booked to play. Didn't go the next year in Byron -- even passed up free ticket -- because I'd had enough of the intense heat and poor facilities the year before and didn't want to camp out down there.

The Hampton Grease Band were favorites of Duane and the Allman Bros., having played with them numerous times in Piedmont Park and elsewhere. In May 1970 they opened for the Grateful Dead at the Sports Arena in Atlanta for a legendary concert that featured a surprise appearance by the Allman Bros., who jammed with the Dead for an entire closing set.

 

If I'm not mistaking, wasn't Grand Funk Railroad Live album recorded at this Festival? That would be great to see live footage of them playing at this show.

 

Would love to see this when completed! You had me at "Mountain" and "Terry Reid" !!

 

yeah really, Terry Reid footage is rare and I cant wait to see it!!!

 

They did not show a complete song, but what they did show was awesome!

Rick G

 

I don't think so, but I believe the pic featured on the album was from this show.

 

from what i understand the hampton grease band is the band that sold the least amount of units on an album on a CBS release.
but the Colonel is a great guy.

 

Look forward to seeing this thread bumped with news of a DVD or Blu ray pre order. Thanks OP !

 

According to the director, Grand Funk Railroad played both Atlanta Pop Festivals, 69 & 70. They were the headliners for the 70 festival which this thread is all about.

Rick G

 

Hope this documentary eventually gets released, at least in some form or another, as I imagine clearance & licensing issues present a challenge.

 

Rick,

Did you see footage of Grand Funk last night ? If this project includes both GFR and The Allmans, I may just have a heart attack right now...

 

You better call 911 because Grand Funk was indeed included in the footage shown last night though the song is escaping me at the moment. It was familiar to me when we saw the film. Again it was noted that GFR was considered the headliner. The ABB had one complete song and also played 2 others during festival shots.

The film brought back many memories as I had seen many of these bands back in the day. In recent years I have been trying to find DVD concerts from the same era that I saw them back in the day. I will get this for sure!

Rick G